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Description
In its original and most precise musical sense, an anthem is a short sacred choral composition in the English language, created for use in the liturgy of the Church of England during and after the Reformation. Functionally akin to the Latin motet but texted in English, early anthems are typically polyphonic, devotional settings drawn from Scripture or the Book of Common Prayer.
Over time, the term broadened beyond church use to mean an elevated song of celebration and collective identity. In the modern sense, “anthem” often refers to national or civic songs used as symbols of states, institutions, and teams—works designed for public ritual, commemoration, and ceremonial display.
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History
With the shift from Latin to vernacular worship in mid‑16th‑century England, composers adapted the Latin motet into English. The resulting genre—the anthem—emerged around the 1550s for Anglican liturgy, setting biblical or prayer‑book texts in clear, intelligible English. Early exponents such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd cultivated polyphonic textures that balanced devotional gravity with textual clarity.
Two principal types crystallized:
• Full anthem: for choir throughout, often a cappella or with minimal accompaniment, sustaining an imitative, motet‑like polyphony. • Verse anthem: alternating solo passages (or small ensembles) with full choir (tutti), typically with organ accompaniment; this form emphasizes rhetorical contrast and textual declamation.Composers including Orlando Gibbons, John Blow, and Henry Purcell expanded the verse anthem’s expressive palette, aligning it with the rhetorical ideals of the early Baroque and Restoration courts.
In the Georgian era, the anthem took on heightened ceremonial grandeur. George Frideric Handel’s Coronation Anthems (1727) fused continental ceremonial style with Anglican choral tradition, projecting the genre’s public, festive dimension in royal and civic contexts. This period cemented the anthem as a vehicle for national and dynastic spectacle.
Victorian and Edwardian composers (e.g., S. S. Wesley, C. V. Stanford, H. Parry) revitalized the church anthem with richer harmony and organ writing, while 20th‑century figures (e.g., Herbert Howells) deepened its harmonic language and atmospheric color. Concurrently, “anthem” acquired a broader public meaning: songs of national and institutional identity used in civic rituals, sport, and state occasions.
Today, “anthem” signifies both the Anglican sacred choral form and the larger category of ceremonial identity songs (notably national anthems). The church anthem remains active in Anglican and related traditions, while public anthems function worldwide as emblems of communal belonging and statehood.
