Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Anthem

ANTHEM is derived from the Greek avrtyuva, through the Saxon Antefn, and originally had the same meaning as antiphony. (See Antiphony.) It is now, however, generally restricted to a form of musical composition peculiar to the service of the Church of England, and appointed by the rubrics to follow the third collect at both morning and evening prayer, " in choirs and places where they sing." Several anthems are included in the English coronation service. The words are selected from Holy Scripture, or in some cases from the Liturgy, and the music is generally more elaborate and varied than that of psalm or hymn tunes. Anthems may be written for soli voices only, for the full choir, or for both, and according to this distinction are called respectively Verse, Full, and Full ivith Verse. Though the anthem of the Church of England is analogous to the motett of the Roman Catholic and Lu theran Churches, both being written for a trained choir, and not for the congregation, it is as a musical form essentially English in its origin and development. The English school of musi cians has from the first devoted its chief attention to this form, and scarcely a composer of any note can be named who has not written several good anthems. Tallis, Tye, Bird, and Farrant, in the 16th century; Orlando Gibbons, Blow, and Purcell, in the 1 7th ; and Croft, Boyce, Kent, Nares, Cooke, and Samuel Arnold, in the 18th, have composed anthems which are still to be regularly heard in cathedral services.