Write, if you have any answers to the questions
listed at the end of this section, or would like to add to the
answers below.
Your answers
At my local cathedral, at choral evensong, an anthem is
sung, while, at the sung mass, it is a motet. From recent services,
I realise that I have been wrong to assume that the length of the
piece determined its description. What is the difference - or is it
on the Precentor's whim?
In origin, an anthem was written especially for a choir to sing
during Anglican services, usually matins or evensong, when, after
the third collect, the rubric states: "In Quires and Places where
they sing here followeth the Anthem." It was normally sung in
English. A motet is a piece that was sung at mass and was usually
in Latin.
At various times, anthems have also been composed with Latin
words, and motets have similarly been composed with English words.
These days, they seem to be interchangeable.
John Ewington (General Secretary,
Guild of Church Musicians)
Bletchingley, Surrey
What is the likely provenance of
this wartime prayer card [Questions, 15 February], and the
"Air Raid Chorus" it contains? Have your readers ever seen anything
similar?
Seeing the "Safe but Sheltered" card, I remembered the card,
published by Mowbrays, which hung above my bed during and after the
war (right).
As a child, I liked the idea of saying a prayer for safety, as
Big Ben struck, though I must have been very young, having been
born just after the war started.
(Mrs) Sylvia A. Graham
Crook, Co. Durham
Your questions
I have noticed recently that some Anglican and Roman
Catholic bishops and priests are wearing their stole on top of
their chasuble rather than under it. What is the significance of
this?
I have participated in many services with an ecumenical
dimension, and have often seen Methodist and United Reformed Church
ministers wearing cassocks, stoles, cassock-albs, and even copes,
but never once have I seen any wearing a surplice or cotta. Is
there some reason for this? G. S.
This year the Feast of the Annunciation is transferred
from 25 March to 8 April; should we therefore transfer Christmas
Day to 8 January? R. P.
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