Benedictus

Byartsyhonker May 24, 2014 0 Comments

Some of my favourite words in the New Testament are from the Benedictus: said or sung at Morning Prayer in the Anglican tradition, this canticle is the song of Zechariah at the birth of his son, John the Baptist. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel : for he hath visited, and redeemed his people; And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us : in the house of his servant David; As he spoke by the...

Anglican Chant from a metrical psalmody tune…

Byartsyhonker June 16, 2012 0 Comments

The choir will be singing the Benedictus at St Andrew's next week, and I've been looking for an appropriate setting. Common Worship has a few metrical settings of the text, one of which is Double Common Metre. This fits to a number of tunes, but perhaps my favourite DCM tune is number 373 in the New English Hymnal -- also known as "Third Mode Melody". This was made famous by Ralph Vaughan...