Service (music)

Last updated February 21, 2019

In Anglican church music, a service is a musical setting of certain parts of the liturgy, generally for choir with or without organ accompaniment.

Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a capella or accompanied by an organ.

Liturgy is the customary public worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activity reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication or repentance. It forms a basis for establishing a relationship with a divine agency, as well as with other participants in the liturgy.

A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm and face gestures.

Liturgical services

Morning Prayer

Venite (Psalm 95 — rarely set after the Restoration)
Te Deum or Benedicite
Benedictus (Luke I, 68) or Jubilate (Psalm 100)

Psalm 95 is part of the biblical Book of Psalms. It is one of the Royal Psalms, Psalm 93-99, praising God as the King of His people. Psalm 95 identifies no author, but Hebrews 4:7 attributes it to David.

The Te Deum is a Latin Christian hymn composed in the 4th century. It is one of the core hymns of the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Church with the Milanese Rite in the 6th to 8th centuries, and is sometimes known as "the Ambrosian Hymn", even though authorship by Saint Ambrose is unlikely.

The Benedicite is a canticle that is used in the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, and is also used in Anglican and Lutheran worship. The text is either verses 35–65 or verses 35–66 of The Song of the Three Children. Newer versions often omit the final verse, and may reduce the number of occurrences of the refrain "sing his praise and exalt him for ever".

Evening Prayer

Magnificat or (rarely) Cantate Domino (Psalm 98)
Nunc dimittis or (rarely) Deus misereatur (Psalm 67)

The Magnificat is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos. It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical services of the Catholic Church and of the Eastern Orthodox churches. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn. Its name comes from the incipit of the Latin version of the canticle's text.

The Nunc dimittis is a canticle from the opening words from the Vulgate translation of the New Testament in the second chapter of Luke named after its incipit in Latin, meaning "Now you dismiss". Since the 4th century it has been used in such evening worship services as Compline, Vespers, and Evensong.

Psalm 67 is part of the biblical Book of Psalms.

Holy Communion

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. The commandments include instructions to worship only God, to honour one's parents, and to keep the sabbath day holy, as well as prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, dishonesty, and coveting. Different religious groups follow different traditions for interpreting and numbering them.

The Nicene Creed is a statement of belief widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because it was originally adopted in the city of Nicaea by the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople, and the amended form is referred to as the Nicene or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.

The Sanctus is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the epinikios hymnos when referring to the Greek rendition.

This follows the Book of Common Prayer . Modern Anglican liturgy has largely reverted to the order of the Roman Catholic Mass. Unlike masses written in the Catholic tradition, however, masses by Anglican composers may choose to omit the Credo, which, in Anglican churches, is often recited rather than sung. Also, rather than setting the traditional Latin and Greek liturgy, several Anglican-composed masses use an English translation, such as that contained within the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The work of 1549 was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contained Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion and also the occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also set out in full the "propers" : the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer were specified in tabular format as were the Psalms; and canticles, mostly biblical, that were provided to be said or sung between the readings.

The mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music. Most masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the liturgical sacred language of the Catholic Church's Roman liturgy, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship has long been the norm. For example, there are many masses written in English for the Church of England. Musical masses take their name from the Catholic liturgy called "the mass" as well.

Full service and other services

A "Full Service" includes all three of these groups. But with the demise of daily "Matins" (choral morning prayer) from the Anglican liturgy and the reduction of the choral element in communion services composers are now more likely only to set the evening service.

Matins is the canonical hour originally celebrated by monks in the nighttime and ending at latest at dawn, the time for the canonical hour of lauds. It was also called vigil and was divided into two or three nocturns. The name "matins" originally referred to the dawn office of lauds, which in the shorter summer nights followed with only a minimal break.

The "Burial Service" (see Requiem) is sometimes set separately.

History

In the Tudor and early Stuart periods, services were described as "Short", "Great" or "Verse" services:

Verse services incorporated sections for solo voices.
Short services were simple settings for four-part choir which could be sung a cappella.
Great Services (of which the most famous is the Great Service by William Byrd) were long and elaborate and presumably kept for special occasions.

Following the Restoration this classification gradually broke down and services became known by the key in which they were written; hence the common shorthand terminology "Purcell in G minor" or "Stanford in B flat".

From the twentieth century, compositions are often named after the college chapel or cathedral for which they were written: examples are the Collegium Magdalenae Oxoniense of Kenneth Leighton for Magdalen College, Oxford and the Gloucester Service of Herbert Howells for Gloucester Cathedral.

External links

Church music UK

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