Psalm 127 (KJV)
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Choral level of difficulty: 2 (5 greatest)
One of MacMillan’s great skills is finding the right text for a given commission. In this case Psalm 127 was entirely appropriate in celebrating Sir Eric Anderson’s Headmastership of Eton College and his period, a few years later, as Provost. With part of that Psalm reading ‘Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth’. As with the Stabat Mater the Genesis Foundation provided the commission for Eton College Chapel Choir as a memorial to Anderson who died in 2020.
The anthem is scored for SATB (with divisions in all parts except basses) and organ. There is a feeling of dance in the way MacMillan divides his 9/8 bars into 2/2/2/3. Starting gently with sopranos or trebles singing a chant-like melody of simple sustained chords, the altos eventually join and then tenors. The basses wait until bar 50 before taking up the chanting with the tenors and the organist’s right hand flies up and down presaging a more substantial part. The full choir leads to the climax in the quotation above reaching fortissimo for ‘the fruit of the womb is his reward’. The sopranos take up the leading role over a repeated ATB phrase and draw this imaginative piece to a strong ending.
This anthem is eminently approachable and school or youth choirs would find it well within their grasp and to be a significant addition to their repertoire either in church or concert hall. Ranges are kept within the bounds for youth voices with basses needing a top E and tenors a top A on a couple of occasions but both well prepared for. All this also makes the piece extremely attractive of course to adult choirs.
Repertoire Note by Paul Spicer