Handel's Peace Anthem

Author(s): Donald J. Burrows

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 114, No. 1570 (Dec., 1973), pp. 1230-1232
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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Handel'sPeaceAnthem
Donald J. Burrows
On Saturday 27 May 1749 Handel gave the firstof
his concertsin aid of the Foundling Hospital. The
programme consisted of items from his 1749
repertory:the Music for the Royal Fireworks,a
section fromSolomon,and the firstperformanceof
the Foundling Hospital Anthem. The Royal
Fireworkshad been part of the officialcelebrations,
held a monthbefore,ofthePeace of Aix-la-Chapelle;
in the advertisementfor the Foundling Hospital
concert1 the repeat performanceof the fireworks
music is coupled with another item which seems
to have been connected with the celebrations-an
'Anthem on the Peace'. Referencesto this anthem
can be found in the newspapers for the end of
April. The Peace itself had been signed in October
1748, and was proclaimedin London on 2 February
1749: a grand thanksgivingservice on similarlines
to thatwhichfollowed the victoryof Dettingenwas
expected, especially since a period of wholehearted celebration would distractattention from
too close an inspection of the Peace agreement.
The WhitehallEveningPost or London Intelligencer
(February 28-March 7) gives details of preparations
for such a service: the king was expected to dine
withthe Lord Mayor at Guildhall aftera servicein
St Paul's; the Mayor and the greaterpart of the
Aldermen were to ride on horseback before the
king fromTemple Bar to St Paul's and theHouses
of Lords and Commons would attend his Majesty.
Trappings were made ready for the horses: 'city
workmen' measured up around and inside the
cathedral for scaffolding.On March 1 the General
Advertiser
said:
We are now crediblyinformedthat Thursdaythe
6th of April is fix'd for the Thanksgivingon
account of the Peace: when his Majesty will go
to St Paul's with the usual State. And that the
Fireworks in the Green Park will be play'd
offthe Day following.
Suddenly, thingsseem to have gone wrong. On
March 4 the General Advertiserannounced: 'We
are informedthat his Majesty will not come to
St Paul's on the ThanksgivingDay, as has been so
confidentlyasserted'. The date for the celebrations
was put back:
His Majestyhas been graciouslypleased to publish
his Royal Proclamation,for appointingTuesday
the 25th Day of April next,to be solemnizedas a
publick Thanksgivingfor the Conclusion of the
Peace. ( WhitehallEveningPost, March 18-21)
In theevent,the kingwentto the Chapel Royal with
his family,the Lord Mayor to St Paul's, the House
of Lords to WestminsterAbbey and the House of
Commons to St Margaret's, Westminster! The
WhitehallEveningPost for April 20-22 records a
rehearsal:
This Day [SaturdayApril22] therewas a Practice
of a new Anthem and Te Deum in St James's
1General Advertiser, 19 May 1749

1230

Chapel, whichis to be performedon the Thanksgiving Day before his Majesty and the Royal
Family.
The serviceitselfwas well reportedin the press,the
fullest account appearing in the same newspaper
(April 25-7):
Tuesday [April 25] being the Day appointed by
Royal Proclamation,for a General Thanksgiving
on Account of the late Peace, his Majestyand the
Royal Family wentto the Chapel Royal, wherea
new Te Deum and Anthem,the Musick whereof
was composed by Mr Handel, was performed,
and also heard a Sermon preached by the Rev.
Dr Denne, one of his Chaplains, and Archdeacon
of Rochester,fromthe 29th Psalm, and the 10th
Verse.
These accounts, however,tell us nothingdirectly
about whatconstitutedthe'Peace Anthem'.Deutsch2
identifiesit as the Dettingen Anthem with new
words. However, the wordbook produced for the
Foundling Hospital performance3gives the text as
follows:
The ANTHEMcomposed on the Occasion of the
PEACE

How beautifulare the Feet of

them that bringgood Tidings
of Peace! that say unto Sion,
Thy God reigneth!
Break forthinto Joy,thyGod
CHORUS
reigneth.
CHORUS
Gloryand Worshipare before
Him, Power and Honour are
in his Sanctuary.
VERSEANDCHORUSThe Lord hath givenStrength
unto his People: The Lord
hath given his People the
Blessing of Peace.
FULLCHORUS
Blessing and Glory, Power
and Honour be unto God for
ever and ever. Amen.
to fitthese words to
It would be extremelydifficult
the music of the DettingenAnthem.A more fruitful
line of inquiryis to seek Handelian settingsof the
texts of the Peace Anthem as they appear in the
wordbook. The words of the opening movements
are of course familiar from their use in Messiah.
Handel made a number of settings,including a
duet-and-chorusversion which was used at the
firstperformanceof the oratorio at Dublin in 1742.
The words of this versiondo not quite correspond
to the textgivenforthe Peace Anthemin the wordbook, however. There is another duet-and-chorus
settingof 'How beautiful',the autograph of which
appears in a volume of sketches in the British
Museum (RM 20.g.6, ff.25-31r) and which was
published by Chrysander in facsimile.4 Though
VERSEDUET

20. E. Deutsch: Handel: a Documentary Biography (London,

1955), 671
3'A Performance of Musick . . .', Mann Collection, King's
College, Cambridge, Mn 20.49
4Das Autograph des Oratoriums 'Messias' (Hamburg, 1892),
285-97

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Ex.0 ViolinI

-A--

1r--

M-

--

---

-- -A

--

---etc.

How

ThyGod reign

beau-

..-eth
glad

Chorus

A = As Pants theHart
M = Messiah
*alterededitoriallyfromgg

glad

Tidings. glad

ti - dings.

glad

ti -digs

on Messiah,5this
to inliterature
referred
frequently
withthe
identified
settinghas neverbeencertainly
oratorioand theoccasionforwhichit was written
wasnotknown.Therecan be no doubtthatitis the
ofthePeaceAnthem:thewords
openingmovement
of the autographare the same as those in the
substituwordbook,exceptfortheungrammatical
for'bring'.6Moreover,theautotionof 'bringeth'
and drum
graphcontinueson f.31vwithtrumpet
partsheaded 'NB Gloryand Worshipare before
settingof
Him', and therefollowsan incomplete
fortreblesolo and
'The Lord hathgivenStrength'
chorus(ff.32-3).The associationof thisautograph
withthe Peace Anthemis thusquite explicit.In
the duetsectionof 'How beautiful'Handelnames
'Mr Bayly'and 'Mr Menz' as the soloists.Both
could easilyhave sung in the Anthemin 1749:
BenjaminMenceappears(as'MrMints')inChamberof the Chapel Royal for
layne'slistof Gentlemen
1748,7 and Anselm Bayly's translationfrom
him
to Priestwouldnothaveprevented
Gentleman
from singingsolo parts on special occasions.8
forDecember2, 1748names
The GeneralAdvertiser
'Mr Bailey'and 'Mr Mence' as soloists(together
withWass,Savageand Beard)fortheperformance
vows
Ode Couldfervent
of Greene'sRoyal Birthday
on thatday; thepresenceofthenamesofbothmen
on theautographof theearlyTe Deumin D (RM
thatthiswasthe'new'
20.g.4;HG xxxvii,1) suggests
withthe Peace
Te Deum revivedforperformance
Anthem.
On 23 March1749Handelrevived
Messiah,using
the aria-and-chorus
settingof the 'How beautiful'
was
movement
(Romans)text:the duet-and-chorus
now 'spare'and Handelcouldeasilyhaveusedthe
forthePeaceAnthemalmostas itstood,
movement
changingonlythefinalcadence.Insteadhe rewrote
based on materialthat
it, addingan introduction
had alreadyseen servicein two settingsof the

beau -

How

Tidings

ti - ful

the

are

Feet

wind soloistsextra material,and eventuallyto

of the Messiah
producean ingeniouscombination
chorusmusicwitha figurefromthe introduction
(ex.1).
oftheanthema setting
of
For thenextmovement
thewords'Gloryand Worshipare beforeHim' is
and drumpartscan
to whichthetrumpet
required,
is a
be added:thewordbook
saysthatthemovement
of these
chorus.Handel made two choralsettings
words:in a ChandosAnthem
(HG, no.8)and in the
Thee
laterChapel Royal versionof I willmagnify
and drumpartsfitonly
(HG, no.5b).The trumpet
forfoursoloists
a finemovement
thelatterversion,
and ripienochorus.The surviving
partof theautograph(RM 20.g.8)containspencilmarksforthe
of theanthemfor
adaptationof othermovements
use in Belshazzar(1744): the anthemas a whole
havefallenout of use by then,and
musttherefore
one can wellimaginethatHandelwas pleasedthat
to
the Peace Anthemgave him an opportunity
revivethismovement.
'TheLordhath
oftheanthem,
Thenextmovement
is basedon thesolo and chorus'Be
givenStrength',
wise at length,ye kingsaverse'in the Occasional
whichwasitselfa reworking
byHandelof
Oratorio,
musical ideas from a serenata movementby
Stradella.9For thesolo section,Handel improved
the Occasional Oratorio version only in points of

detail,but he wrotea new extendedintroductory

sectionforhisfluteand oboe soloistswithcontinuo.
for'The Boy'-perhaps
The solo (ex.2)is indicated
Ex. 2 "The Boy"
30
Larghetto
4
The Lord

_
",-"
-44

rv

his
hathgi -ven Strengthun- to his People,andhathgi-ven

Peo-plethe Bles-singof Peace, the Bles

singof

Peace.

anthem As pants the Hart and in an op.5 Trio

thetreblesoloistwho was partof the 1749cast of

Sonata. This leads into a solo sectionfor-flute Susanna.It is interesting,
and doubtlessnotpurely
fortheplayersRichter accidental,
thatthesermonat theThanksgiving
(Traverso)and oboe(possibly
Day
and Teede,whosenamesappearintheTe DeumMs),
servicewas based on the textof thismovement,
moreextendedin scope thanthe parallelMessiah
whichis a revisedversionof Psalm29, verse10.10
is thenrewritten Followingthe treblesolo, the anthemautograph
passage:therestof themovement
sometimesto accomwithminorimprovements,
givesthefirst14 barsof a choruson thesametext
to givethe
in words,sometimes
modatevariations
and based on the same music,but the autograph
stops at an 'NB' cue, indicatinga continuation
elsewhere.
5see, for example, J. Tobin: Handel's 'Messiah' (London,
1969), 48ff,and Handel at Work (London, 1964), 34, 37, 39;
is to be foundin theautograph
The continuation
also J. P. Larsen: Handel's 'Messiah' (London, 1957), 230-32
of theOccasionalOratorio(RM 20.f.3,f.45),in the
6The text is an amalgam of Isaiah, lii.7, 9 and Romans x. 15;
is derived.
chorusfromwhichtheanthemmovement
Handel's minor inconsistencies in the text and deviations from
the wordbook are probably the result of using the Messiah duet
Handel indicated'NB' at the appropriatepoint
as a copy-text.
7Magnae britanniae notitia (1748), 115
8As sub-dean of the Chapel Royal, Bayly later (1769) published
a wordbook of anthems as sung in the chapel.

9published by Chrysander, HG Supp. iii, 28-31

lov.10 in the Prayer Book numbering, v.11 in the Authorized
Version

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1231

(HG, xliii,72, bar 6) and addedtheanthemwords

indications
neartheendshow
fora fewbars;further
howtheconcluding
barsofthechoralpartsareto be
treated.He could thenhave leftthe restof the
adaptationto thecopyist,who wouldsimplyhave
had to fitthenewwordson to themusic.Thereis
evidencethat this is not the end of the story,
however. Handel included the anthem chorus
theopeningsolo) inthecomposite
creation
(without
whichformedPartI of Israelin Egyptin the 1756
revival.Handel's conductingscore of Israel no
the
longercontainsa firstpart, but fortunately
anthemchoruswas used again whenJ. C. Smith
junior rearrangedthe oratorioin the 1760s.11
Smith's conductingscore survivesl2and begins
firsttwo
with'The Lord hathgivenStrength'-the
barsin thehandofSmithjuniorand therestcopied
S5 by Larsen.This copy
by the scribedesignated
contains three sections not in the Occasional
Oratoriooriginal:two interpolations
givingadditional solos to the fluteand oboe, and a more
extensiveepilogueforthe strings.The use of the
wind instruments
stronglysuggeststhat Handel
himself
addedthenewmusicforthePeace Anthem
(ratherthan for Israel in 1756), no doubt in a
scorewhichhas not survived.
conducting
of 'The Lord
Followingtheautographfragment
RM 20.g.6containsanother
hathgivenStrength',
are thefeet',13
also using
of 'How beautiful
setting

f.132v;facsimile
thatHandel
p.260)carryindications
intendedthisto be done: thereare some of his
cue markings
characteristic
belowthesetwo bars,
includingan 'NB' hithertomistakenfor a 4-3
and inadditionthereis an 'adag[io]'above
figuring,
the sopranopartwhichis redundant
forMessiah
but whichmakessense as part of a cue forthe
anthem.If indeedthe autographas well as the
a copyist'stextforthePeace
Tenburyscoreformed
it seemspossiblethatthecutindicatedin
Anthem,
theautographof the'Blessingand Honour'chorus
refers
to theanthemratherthanto Messiah.
In 1892Chrysander
wroteof thePeace Anthem
autographthat it was 'withoutany evidence
to showwhether
it formed
partof a largeAnthem,
or whetherthe lattereverwas completed'.16
His
pessimism
mayhavebeendue to thestateoftheMS,
forRockstrowroteofit in 1883:'thepagesofthese
MSShave been so cruellymisplacedby the book-

have to turn to the Messiah Mss. In the 'Tenbury'

Abingdonand DistrictMusical Society conductedby

binder, that the pieces . . . are constantlyrunning

into one another'.17Having reconstructed

the
whatcan onesayofitsvalue? It is Handel's
anthem,
essay in the Englishanthemform,
penultimate
succeededonlybytheFoundlingHospitalAnthem
a monthlater,and likethelatterpieceit contains
a largeamountof reworkedor transferred
music.
factis thetroubleHandel
However,theoutstanding
took,whenhe could easilyhave thrownthework
togetherwithoutrevisingany of its constituent
has something
new added
the music of the Occasional Oratoriomovement'Be
parts.Everymovement
thechanceto
wise'. Like its original,it is forsoprano(treble?) to it; Handelseemsto havewelcomed
even if he had
soloandchorus,butthekeyisD major,a tonelower, rethinkand improvemovements,
the music is extensively
reworked,and trumpets alreadyworkedthemseveraltimes.Listenedto
whensomeofthemusicis
and drumsenterin thechoralsection.It was never witha freshear (difficult
in othercontexts)
even
familiar
theAnthemon thePeace
thelast 17 barsare notorchestrated,
finished:
showsignsof
formsan impressiveaddition to the canon of
thoughearlierpartsofthemovement
Handel'santhems.Handelhimself
valuedit highly
revision.Probablythe movementwas Handel's
it deserves
at setting
theopeningverseofthePeace
first
enoughto give a repeatperformance:
attempt
of the
at leastan occasionalhearingtoday.
butin anycase theincompleteness
Anthem,
musicshowsthatitcannothaveformed
partofthe
Handel's Peace Anthemhas whatis thoughtto be its
anthemas sungin 1749.
firstperformancesince 1749, at St Helen's Church,
of thePeace Anthemwe
For thelast movement
Abingdon; it will be given on December 1 by the
Donald J. Burrows.
score (Ms 347) Handel added cues to
conducting
16facsimile preface, p.xiv
the openingwordsof the 'Blessingand Honour'
17 The Life of George Frederick Handel, 255
to
choruswhichadaptthemusicof thismovement
These alterations
thesimilartextof the anthem.14
the
bring'Amen'withinthetextof themovement:
the title of an illustrated booklet
'Amen' chorus itselfbecomes unnecessary-and Partnership inthePractice isConference
of Regional Arts AssociaStanding
published by
to the smaller tions
indeedit would be inappropriate
which includes the history,origin and activities of regional
arts associations and their relationship with local authorities.
the
At
end
of
the
anthem.
the
of
proportions
Details fromthe Hon Secretary,Standing Conference of Regional
Handel
'Blessingand Honour' chorus,therefore,
Arts Associations, 31 New Bridge Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE1 8JY.
cues in the vocal bass
also providedrudimentary
partfora conclusionbeforethe 'Amen'chorus.15 Artsmail Merseyside and Artsmail North West, sponsored by
Artsmail Ltd with the Merseyside Arts Association and the
Thisleavestheupperpartsofthe'new'finalbarsto
North West Arts Association are two new information services
be filledin,and thisseemsto havebeendonefrom for local subscribers. Details from David Pratley, Merseyside
Arts
Association, 6 Bluecoat Chambers, School Lane, Liverpool
The
final
'Amen'
itself.
chorus
thelast barsof the
L1 3BX and David Pease, North West Arts Association, 52
two bars of the Messiah autograph(RM 20.f.2 King Street, Manchester M2 4LY.
11The earliest dated wordbook for the 'Smith' performance of
Israel seems to be for the year 1765 (BM).
12Hamburg, Staats- und Universitiitsbibliothek M:C/262a
13ff.34-9; facsimile, 298-309
14The Messiah text is based on Revelation v. 13; the anthem text
is based on Revelation vii.12
15The various cues are quoted by Watkins Shaw: A Textual
and Historical Companion to Handel's 'Messiah' (London,
1965), 185f and by Tobin (1969), 248 (with a misprint in the
second music example).

1232

Yorkshire Arts Association has published its annual report for

1972-3 and a booklet outlining its policy for the next five years;
among the proposed music schemes is the establishment of an
annual competition for young musicians. Both publications are
available from Yorkshire Arts Association, Glyde House,
Glydegate, Bradford BD5 OBQ.
Eastern Arts Association grants and guarantees include awards
to Tring Arts Society, Chelmsford Singers, Spiral Arts Promotion, Bedford Music Club, East Anglia New Music Society,
Ipswich Bach Choir, Ipswich Chamber Music Society, Suffolk
Singers and Wangford Festival.

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