The Prayer Book Sung

Abstract

The Book of Common Prayer makes explicit provision for some of its words to be either “sung or said.” Vocal music, choral or congregational, has been a feature of Prayer Book services from the first. The original version of the text was set to music in 1550 by John Marbeck; since then, a tradition of “parochial music” has augmented Divine Service with metrical paraphrases of the Psalms, while “cathedral music” has developed a unique form of recitation known as Anglican chant, together with a genre of musical settings for choirs of the canticles at Morning and Evening Prayer.