Anthem 47 - There is a flow'r

Welcome to Anthem 47 in my attempt to write a new choir anthem every week for a year. I’m Kevin Mulryne and I hope you will enjoy listening to my progress throughout 2024. Please do visit the website Anthem52.com, follow along on x.com - @realanthem52 or Instagram - @realanthem52 and send me a message to show@anthem52.com.

I went back to Advent this week - or at least I looked for some more Advent lyrics. It occurred to me that I could find some lyrics in service booklets for Advent Carol Services so I tried to search for those. The second one I found was from The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester's 2020 Advent Carol Service. They performed a carol with words by John Audelay (d. c. 1426). These seemed ideal for what I was trying to write.

Here are the words I chose:

There is a flow’r sprung of a tree, the root thereof is called Jesse, a flow’r of price there is none such in paradise.

This flow’r is fair and fresh of hue,
it fadeth ne’er, but e’er is new;
the blessèd branch this flow’r on grew
was Mary mild that bare Jesu;
a flow’r of grace;
against all sorrow it is solace.

When Gabriel this maid did meet,
with ‘Ave Maria’ he did her greet;
between them two this flow’r was set
and safe was kept, no man should wit,
till on a day
in Bethlehem it could spread and spray.