We Adore You, O Christ

The text of this anthem is from the Orthodox Good Friday service and makes a great choral piece for Holy Week, or even a second or third anthem for Easter Sunday. It is given unusual treatment with tenor and bass singing “Oh” in open fifths, while the women sing the text with the reverse happening later, and both parts coming together. There is a partial whole-tone scale in the melodic line, which gives the work an ethereal and beautiful feeling. The text is: We adore you, O Christ, and we bless You, because by your Cross You have redeemed the world. We glory in your Cross, O Lord God; We praise and glorify your holy Resurrection; by virtue of your Cross joy has come. Save us and help us, O Lord. By your holy Cross You have redeemed us all. — Leon Nelson, The Diapason, February 2017

Another mysterious, evocative choral incantation comes from the late Richard Proulx, also with a dose of Middle Eastern spice. Drones, sinewy lines that feature raised-fourth and lowered-seventh scale degrees and accented grace notes, and a nebulous pacing all evoke a chant more than a traditional motet, and the words drawn from the Orthodox Good Friday service reinforce this impression. Drones come in the form of unisons and open fifths, and the melody that winds around them is usually monody. Moments of harmony are spare, heightening their effectiveness when they appear. As with the previous work, this piece would best serve as a prayer or response rather than in traditional anthem usage during a service.
— Jason Overall, The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, January 2018