| Sunday’s prelude, anthem and postlude were all composed by 19th- and 20th-century English women. Elizabeth Poston’s Jesus Christ, the apple tree is a classic anthem, often heard in December as a Christmas carol but especially relevant in highlighting the gospel on bearing fruit. Elisabeth Stirling, whose prelude you’ll hear this morning, earned a music degree from Oxford University in 1856, but it could not be granted as she was a woman. Adela Douglas-Pennant, the composer of the postlude, was born into an aristocratic English family, but little is known about her life other than the fact that she never married in her 97 years. To watch the anthem from April 25, Brother James’s Air, arranged by Gordon Jacob and with text adapted from Psalm 23, check out our YouTube channel, STMAA Connection. |
