Hyperion Records

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem, an anthem for Eastertide, was completed in December 1910 and published by Stainer & Bell the following year. The text is taken from the hymn by St Fulbert of Chartres translated by Robert Campbell and made famous through H J Gauntlett’s hymn tune ‘St Fulbert’ in Hymns Ancient and Modern. Stanford’s anthem is based entirely on original material which alternates between two contrasting thematic ideas, one in the major mode in a lilting triple metre (‘Ye choirs of New Jerusalem’), the other in the minor and in quadruple metre (‘Devouring depths of hell their prey’).

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 1998