The ‘Verse Anthem’, a type of choral composition peculiar to the Church of England and mostly intended for Matins and Evensong, involved solo voice(s) with instrumental accompaniment alternating with passages for full choir.

In Elizabethan and Jacobean times much of the most forward-looking music was cast in this form: indeed, it was the preferred type of religious composition for some of the leading composers, and it had the advantage that the solo lines could deliver the texts in a manner that was more easily grasped by an illiterate congregation than was music for full choir singing in counterpoint.

It is strange, then, that no full-scale study of the form has been published until now. This book traces the development of the form from its beginnings during the final years of Elizabeth I to the point where the Commonwealth put an end to English Cathedral Music. The output of that half century is of a fascinating kind, and includes music of the very highest quality, some of it still unknown today.