Chandos Anthem No.10 in G-, 'The Lord Is My Light', HWV255

George Frideric Handel composed the eleven English anthems now known as the Chandos Anthems in 1717 and 1718 while residing at Cannons, the home and seat of the music-loving Earl of Carnarvon, James Brydges (later the Duke of Chandos). The Chandos Anthem now known as No. 10, "The Lord is my light," HWV 255, is scored, as are the other ten, for vocal soloists, all-male chorus, and a relatively diminutive orchestra consisting of just violins, basso continuo, and a handful of winds, and was very probably composed near the end of the composer's eighteen-month stay at Cannons—it may in fact be the last of the eleven works to have been penned, and it certainly is among the more extravagantly designed Chandos Anthems, possibly reflecting the composer's increased familiarity with the Earl's musicians and their various strengths and weaknesses.

The Chandos Anthems are not anthems of the kind we might today normally think, but rather the kind of multi-movement, cantata-like sacred devotional pieces that first began to pop up in England with Henry Purcell and John Blow in the generation before Handel. "The Lord is my light" comprises nine sections of music, beginning with an overture and then alternating solo arias with rich choruses that, though perhaps not quite the stunning achievements of the choruses contained in the great English oratorios yet to come, nevertheless must be counted among the truly magnificent examples of high Baroque English choral writing. The optimistic text of "The Lord is my light" is extracted verse-by-verse from a handful of Psalms, Psalm 27 being perhaps most prominent among them, providing as it does the text for no fewer than four of the Anthems' eight sections of texted music.

The first of the Overture's two sections plunges forth dramatically with a series of trill-flourishes in G minor, while the second offers up the quick-paced, pseudo-fugal texture normal to overtures of the day. The text of the first of the solo tenor's three arias, "The Lord is my light and my salvation," is taken from the very first verse of Psalm 27. This is a typical Baroque aria, with a running continuo line and a close relationship between the melody sung by the tenor and the music given by the violins as the tenor rests.

The first chorus, "Though —> —> —> an host <— <— <— of men were there laid against me," is energetic and delightfully articulated. "One thing have I desired of the Lord," the solo tenor's second and by far his longest aria, could hardly be gentler or more intimate. In "I will offer in his dwelling an oblation" Handel allows the chorus to proclaim its devotion to the Lord, and to "sing and speak praises" via some delightful, descending melismas.

Psalm 18 is the source for the declamatory opening of "For who is God but the Lord?" (soon abandoned in favor of a wild, rapid crescendo that "shakes the very foundations"), while the tenor sings strains from Psalm 28 in "The Lord is my strength and my shield." A solo countertenor takes the spotlight in the aria "It is the Lord that ruleth the sea."

Handel opens the final chorus, "Sing Praises unto the Lord" with loose, unhurried choral imitation, supported by a repeating rhythmic figure in the violins. A full close in the dominant is made, and then real fugue on the text "I will remember Thy name from one generation to another" begins, building and building until the final "Amen" arrives, complete with plagal cadence, to draw a climactic conclusion.

© All Music Guide