This Is the Record of John
{{short description|Verse anthem by Orlando Gibbons}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = "This Is the Record of John"
| image = File:Orlando Gibbons.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Portrait of Orlando Gibbons
| type = Verse anthem
| composer = Orlando Gibbons
| form = Motet
| period = Tudor
| genre = Anglican church music
| language = Early Modern English
| style =
| text = {{Bible|John|1:19-23|KJV}}
| based_on = Gospel of John
| written = 1600s: England
}}
"This Is the Record of John" is a verse anthem written by the English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625). It is based on a text from the Gospel of John in the Geneva Bible and is a characteristic Anglican-style composition of its time. "John" (whose record is being told) refers to John the Baptist.
Structure and scoring
The piece is divided into three sections, each beginning with a verse for solo contratenor (more like a modern tenor, but often now sung by a countertenor{{Cite magazine |last=Smith |date=2013 |title=Obituary: John Whitworth, countertenor |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/obituary-john-whitworth-countertenor |magazine=Gramophone |access-date=2019-02-22}}) followed by a full section (consort of voices), echoing words of the verse.
The singers are often accompanied by an organ, but as well as a 17th-century organ part there are viol parts, so accompaniment by a viol consort is another possibility. It is debatable how frequently viols would have been used in Jacobean services,{{Cite journal |last=Morehen |date=1978 |title=The English Consort and Verse Anthems |journal=Early Music |volume=6|issue=3 |pages=381–385 |jstor=3125808 |doi=10.1093/earlyj/6.3.381 }} {{subscription}} but some recordings take the option of performing This is the Record of John as a "consort anthem".For example, in the 1980s Martin Neary recorded the anthem with Winchester Cathedral Choir and the viols of the Consort of Musicke, more recently the Orlando Gibbons Project has recorded an album of Gibbons anthems with Fretwork and His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts ({{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Critics Choice - Gibbons ‘In Chains of Gold: The English Pre-Restoration Verse Anthem, Vol 1’ |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/critics-choice-2017-the-year-s-best-loved-classical-recordings |website=Gramophone}})
History
This 'verse-anthem' was written at the request of William Laud, who was president of St John's College, Oxford, from 1611 to 1621; the St John to whom college is dedicated is John the Baptist. It was written for the college chapel, and presumably received its first performance there.{{cite web|url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/about-college/chapel-and-choir/ |title=History |publisher=St John's College Oxford |accessdate=29 November 2016}} The text forms one of the readings for Advent.
File:St John's College Oxford Chapel.jpg
According to Morris, the earliest known extant manuscripts of the anthem date from the 1630s, a decade after Gibbons' death. They are located at major English cathedrals and chapels, as far from Oxford as Durham, suggesting that the anthem enjoyed wide use when first written. It is included in a number of modern publications, including The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems (OUP, 1978).{{cite book|last1=Morris|first1=Christopher|title=The Oxford book of Tudor anthems: 34 Anthems for Mixed Voices|date=1978|publisher=Music Department, Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0193533257}} This publication uses a broad definition of Tudor and includes music from the reign of James I.
Sources
The original text comes from John 1:19–23. Gibbons uses the text of the Geneva Bible; it is very similar to that found in the Authorized Version, but (for example) AV has "one crying" in the third stanza, where the Geneva Bible (and Gibbons) have "him that crieth". The text concerns the prophecy of John the Baptist foretelling the coming of Jesus.
=Verses=
{{quote|
- This is the record of John,
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
Who art thou?
And he confessed and denied not, and said plainly,
I am not the Christ.
Chorus - And they asked him, What art thou then? Art thou Elias?
And he said, I am not.
Art thou the prophet?
And he answered, No.
Chorus - Then said they unto him,
What art thou? that we may give an answer unto them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself?
And he said, I am the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord.
Chorus
|{{Bible|John|1:19-23|KJV}}}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{youtube|l6hRNmXnBbg|This is the Record of John by Orlando Gibbons}} - St Mary Magdalene's choir and viol consort
- {{CPDL|work=This is the record of John (Orlando Gibbons)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Orlando Gibbons}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Record of John, The}}