Lord, thou hast been our refuge was commissioned for the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy in 1916. Imparting a sentiment generated by the turbulence of war, this anthem, one of Bairstow’s most substantial and ingenious, takes its text from Psalms 90, 102 and 144. The first part assumes the form of a sonata rondo in which the opening choral statement (‘Lord, thou hast been our refuge’), in A major, contrasts with secondary material in F major based on the text ‘Before the mountains’, and a further episode in F minor (‘Lord, what is man’). This generous paragraph culminates in a recomposed restatement of both ideas in the tonic key before yielding to a second sonata structure, which commences with a fugue (‘Thou shalt arise’) based in A major, and a celestial contrasting statement (‘Comfort us again’) in a radiant F sharp major. This ethereal departure incorporates strains of the earlier rondo theme which continues as a more tonally fluid development, out of which A major is restored, marked by allusions to the fugue and ‘Comfort us again’, which brings the anthem to an otherworldly conclusion.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2025