Sunday, January 27, 2019

Gibbons: Almighty and Everlasting God.


Orlando Gibbons is one of the greats in Anglican and Episcopalian composers; he wrote all his music only in English (at least according to what I have read).

The full anthem Almighty and everlasting God is in 4 parts (originally ATTB), and, appropriately enough, was written for the Third Sunday after Epiphany;
Gibbons took the text from the collects of the Anglican liturgy, rather than from the bible, which was the more typical way here.


Almighty and everlasting God,mercifully look upon our infirmities,
and in all our dangers and necessities
stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us,
through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The music is to be found in the First Book of Selected Church Musick, compiled by our friend John Barnard, in 1641.

Adrian Batten: O Sing Joyfully

The St. Matthew's Choir (Hillsborough, NC) will be performing this little ditty coming Sunday, so I thought I'd mention it here. ...