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Sounds For the Sanctuary: The Sacred Choral Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Through a Creative Liturgical Lens

organ introduction, can serve as the refrain that is sung This anthem also includes prose from the popular
before beginning the reading, then again at the selah Christmas Carol O Come All Ye Faithful and would be
marking after stanza six, with a rendering of the com- fitting for a service of Lessons and Carols, a service in
plete anthem at the selah marking at the conclusion of which Coleridge-Taylor’s Magnificat from his Morning
the Psalm. One could also opt to sing the anthem from and Evening Service setting could also find a home. Con-
the beginning through beat three of measure 73 after sequently, other portions of Coleridge-Taylor’s service
the first selah marking, resuming with measure 74 to the settings, such as the Nunc Dimittis and Benedictus, can be
end after reading the final stanzas of Psalm 24, after used throughout the Christmas season. On the other
which the final selah indication appears. end of that spectrum, Now Late on the Sabbath Day fit-
In By the Rivers of Baylon, Coleridge-Taylor joins the tingly finds its home during the Easter Triduum, Easter
roster of composers who have provided settings of Sunday, or Eastertide, utilizing text from Matthew 28,
Psalm 137, commonly under the Latin title Super flumina which chronicles Christ’s resurrection, post-resurrec-
Babylonis. In this verse anthem, Coleridge-Taylor takes tion activity, and great commission(ing).
a few slight poetic liberties with the text, which is high- A soprano solo is deployed to serve as the angel’s an-
ly declamatory in style with rhythmic vitality aligning swer to the women gathered at the sepulchre as part of
nicely with the natural pronunciation of the prose. Of the Matthew 28 passage. But one might also consider
course, the Psalms naturally reveal the conditions out utilizing a soprano soloist for the beginning portion of
of which they are born and to which they might ap- this anthem, depending on the skill of the choir; and
ply. Since Psalm 137 is contextualized by Judah’s exilic even still, doing so despite the skill level of the choir of-
period in Babylon, this anthem pairs nicely with oth- fers another opportunity to engage the soloist and solo-
er Old/First Testament passages, not least of which is ists’ overall as an organic feature of church choral sing-
Jeremiah 29. Liturgically recalibrating and reconnect- ing. This anthem will be especially appropriate during
ing this psalm to Jeremiah 29, particularly as it relates services in which the music is mainly responsible for
to contextualizing a familiar promise and message of communicating the story of Christ’s passion and res-
comfort, will prove especially meaningful for worship urrection, perhaps without explication. Coleridge-Tay-
constituents. lor’s setting of this text underscores what this author
O Ye That Love The Lord may remind one of the hymn percieves as his concern about text intelligibility and
Come, We That Love the Lord, penned by Coleridge-Tay- storytelling, not unlike Coleridge-Taylor’s sacred music
lor’s earlier church music predecessor (broadly speak- mentioned before and hereafter.
ing) Isaac Watts (1674–1748). Content-wise, these piec- In Thee, O Lord can also find a place among Easter
es have little to do with each other directly, although Triduum services, particularly Good Friday or those
it might be a pleasant challenge to consider how each telling Christ’s passion, specifically his seven last say-
puts out a different kind of call to saints or “children of ings. Coleridge-Taylor uses the first stanza of Psalm 71
the heavenly king.” (Creative thinking could also be em- to begin this economical (in length and voices) anthem
ployed to consider uses of this Watts hymn in conjunc- before incorporating stanzas two and six from Psalm
tion with Psalm 137, particularly when using Watts’s 31. The latter Psalm employs the words that Jesus
hymn with the refrain affixed by Robert Lowry, which uttered in what church tradition regards as his final
is often used at its title—We’re Marching to Zion.) In this saying: “Into Thy hands, I commend my spirit.” It is
short four-voice anthem, however, Coleridge-Taylor worth noting that Psalm 31 and Psalm 71 begin the
uses the organ to primarily double choral parts as the same way. With this parallel to Christ, this anthem can
singers intone stanza ten of Psalm 97, which encourag- provide a contemplative choral reflection and response
es God’s people to hate what is evil, knowing that the to Christ’s final saying.
Lord preserves the souls of His saints. While certainly the least ontologically liturgical,
Break Forth Into Joy employs scriptural texts associated Coleridge-Taylor’s The Atonement can undoubtedly trace
with Christmas, setting verses from Isaiah and Luke. its roots to the church music tradition. Geoffrey Self

10 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2025 Volume 65 Number 9