The Composition
'Rejoice in the Lord Alway,' known as the 'Bell Anthem,' was composed by Henry Purcell for the Chapel Royal around 1682, during the reign of Charles II. The anthem is scored for three soloists (alto, tenor, bass), four-part chorus, and strings with continuo, running approximately eight minutes in performance. It is among the most frequently performed and recorded of Purcell's anthems and occupies a permanent place in the English cathedral music tradition.
The work is structured in two parts: an instrumental introduction (the 'Sinfonia') followed by the vocal setting of the text. The Sinfonia is the source of the nickname: the violins introduce a repeated melodic figure built on descending thirds that creates a bell-like ringing effect - hence 'Bell Anthem.' This opening is instantly recognizable and has made the anthem a concert favorite beyond its original liturgical context.
The exact date of composition is uncertain; the traditional attribution to 1682 is based on stylistic analysis and circumstantial evidence. The anthem may have been written for a specific occasion at the Chapel Royal, though the precise occasion has not been identified. It was published posthumously and has been in continuous performance since the nineteenth-century revival of English cathedral music.
Biblical Text
The text is Philippians 4:4-7 in the King James Version: 'Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.'
Philippians 4:4 is one of the most frequently quoted verses in the New Testament. Paul wrote the letter from prison in Rome (probably Caesarea or Rome, c. 60-62 AD) to the church at Philippi in Macedonia - the first European church, founded during Paul's second missionary journey when he crossed from Asia to Greece following a vision (Acts 16:9). The letter's tone of joy in the face of imprisonment and possible execution is the most sustained example in the New Testament of the theological claim that Christian joy is not dependent on outward circumstances.
The command 'Rejoice in the Lord always' - with the immediate repetition 'I will say it again: Rejoice!' - is addressed to a community experiencing persecution, anxiety about Paul's fate, and internal conflicts (Euodia and Syntyche are specifically named as being at odds, Philippians 4:2-3). The joy commanded is therefore not a denial of suffering but a theological conviction that the Lord's nearness ('The Lord is at hand,' Philippians 4:5 - which may mean 'near in time' or 'near in presence') transforms the meaning of all circumstances.
The Pauline background of Psalm 32:11 - 'Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!' - connects Paul's New Testament command to the Psalter's tradition of commanded praise: joy is not a spontaneous feeling but a posture toward God chosen and maintained in the face of reality.
The Composer
Henry Purcell (c. 1659-1695) was the foremost English composer of the Baroque era, active during the reigns of Charles II, James II, and William and Mary. His chamber music, theatre music, court odes, and sacred works together constitute one of the most varied and accomplished bodies of composition in English musical history. As organist of the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey simultaneously from 1682, he was the central musical figure of the English royal court during the Restoration period, and his anthem output reflects both the sophisticated taste of the Chapel Royal patrons and his own extraordinary capacity for wedding the Italian Baroque concertato style to the idioms of English speech and song.
Purcell's Chapel Royal anthems occupy a particular place in English musical history: written for a professional ensemble of high quality in a liturgical setting, they demonstrate Purcell's ability to combine the Italian techniques he learned from the imported style of Charles II's court with the specifically English qualities of his melodic invention and his sensitivity to the rhythms and inflections of the English language. The 'Bell Anthem' is a supreme example of this synthesis.
Musical Analysis
The Sinfonia opens with the celebrated bell-like figure in the violins: a melody built on simple intervallic patterns that creates the impression of harmonically ringing bells without literalistic imitation. This is Purcell's characteristic approach to text-painting: he does not illustrate the word 'rejoice' with an inappropriately joyful tune before the text has been stated, but creates a musical atmosphere - brightness, rhythmic energy, bell-like clarity - that prepares the listener for the joy of the text.
The vocal entries, divided between alto, tenor, and bass soloists in a concertato style typical of Restoration anthems, set the text syllabically and with careful attention to the natural speech rhythms of Jacobean English. The repeated command 'Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice' is set with a musical repetition that enacts the rhetorical insistence of Paul's text: the repetition is not a musical formality but a semantic one - the repetition belongs to the meaning.
The central section, setting 'Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication,' shifts to a more homophonic choral texture, the voices moving together in a way that emphasizes the communal character of the petition described. The final section, 'And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,' is set with a harmonic expansion - wider intervals, more complex voice-leading - that reaches for the superlative quality of Paul's phrase: a peace that exceeds comprehension is set to music that reaches slightly beyond the harmonic comfort zone before resolving to a serene close.
Theological Content
The anthem embodies a theology of commanded joy - the conviction that joy is not simply a feeling that arises spontaneously but a posture toward God that can be commanded, cultivated, and practiced. This theology distinguishes Pauline Christianity from both Stoicism (which aims at indifference to circumstances) and from sentimentalism (which equates faith with positive feelings). The joy Paul commands is grounded in specific theological convictions: the Lord is near; prayer is heard; the peace of God is given. The anthem's music enacts this grounded joy: it is not frenetic happiness but a settled, luminous confidence.
Performance History
The anthem has been performed in English cathedrals and collegiate chapels since the late seventeenth century. It was among the works that the nineteenth-century cathedral music revival rediscovered and returned to regular use. It is now a standard of the English cathedral music tradition and is performed regularly at choral evensong and festival services. It has also become a concert favorite, programmed frequently by professional choral ensembles outside the liturgical context.
Legacy
The 'Bell Anthem' is aone of the finest examples of the Restoration anthem tradition and a permanent achievement of the English sacred music repertoire. Its combination of the Italian concertato style with the English choral tradition, its perfect setting of one of Paul's most important theological passages, and its immediate accessibility - the bell-like opening that announces its character before a word has been sung - have given it a longevity that more ambitious works have not always achieved. It is the anthem that most completely realizes what the Chapel Royal tradition at its best was capable of: music that serves the Word, delights the senses, and elevates the spirit simultaneously.