Have to put one of these together in a few weeks. Any ideas for decent introits and anthems based on BCP texts? SATB preferred, but a bit of light doubling is allowed for the right pieces

Thanks

The obvious (and fairly straightforward) options are Mudd's Let thy merficul ears and Purcell's Thou knowest, Lord.

If it's on a Sunday, rather than midweek, how about a setting of the collect for the day? Other good 'collect anthems' include 'Almighty and everlasting God' (Gibbons) or 'O Lord give thy Holy Spirit' (Tallis)

Is that the setting by Ronnie Barker in his spoonerism sketch?


How about "Hide not thou thy face" by Farrant?

If your choir is good, there's always the anonymous Tudor anthem "Rejoice in the Lord always".

If you can run it to earth, there is a rather splendid setting by John Okeover (a contemporary of Gibbons) of the collect for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, "Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace". Quite contrapuntal, though, with lots of scrunchy false relations in the final bars.

There's a setting by Tye of the Offertory Sentence "Give alms of thy goods", but I don't know that I'd recommend it.

I'm sure you've already considered Goss's "O saviour of the world".

There are stacks of settings from Coverdale's psalter, of course.

What about a setting of 'Prevent us, O Lord"? PBS members are likely to appreciate the proper use of the word "prevent".

P4
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This one gets you two birds with one stone as it was sung at the coronation so you can get a bit more celebration of the 59th anniversary of that to go with the 463rd anniversary of the Prayer Book.

Perhaps the best place to start is with the psalms and lessons appointed for the evening of the service. A great many introits and anthems are based on psalm texts, and more than a few are based on quotes from scripture.

The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems is a useful resource and provides an index of music by liturgical seasons.

As an aside, the RSCM is currently running a competition for anthems based on BCP texts, but as they have deliberately excluded settings of the best texts, including the psalms, it is going to be a struggle!