Ye Servants of God

Paraclete Press has inaugurated a new series of anthems based on hymns, whose entries will likely be useful in a variety of contexts, perhaps especially where resources are a bit limited but also where a hint of something familiar might occasionally be welcome. Here are two of them; each stands deliberately at the easier end of the spectrum, but neither is without interest in its development of material from the hymn tune.

David Halls, Ye Servants of God
The Hymnal’s four stanzas—the first and last for congregation, and the interior pair for choir (in harmony and unison, respectively)—are framed and set off by nicely-crafted instrumental material and enhanced by descants. I don’t see any reason this wouldn’t work as a regular hymn—tat is, it need not be programmed as an anthem, but could simply function as a nicely-wrought hymn, with the congregation singing along right out of the hymnal throughout.

Daniel Nelson, Creating God
Though also based on a Hymnal text, this setting is choral, and not tied to any pre-existent tune. The “keyboard” designation on the cover becomes “piano” in the music, but it could accommodate itself well enough to the organ. Bishop Rowthorn’s four stanzas are set syllabically and homophonically, wrapped in rather atmospheric harmonic garb and with some nice flashes of text-painting (I especially like the running passage accompanying the reference to water in stanza two). Though there’s a good bit of unison singing here, there are also some lovely harmonies that will take a little more work (especially if your choir finds it hard to tune parallel fourths), but I think it’s well worth the effort.
THE JOURNAL of the ASSOCIATION OF ANGLICAN MUSICIANS
Volume 20, Number 8, October, 2011