This is the Record of John
"This is the Record of John" is a verse anthem written by the English composer Orlando Gibbons. It is based on a text from the Gospel of John in the Geneva Bible and is a characteristic Anglican-style composition of its time. "John" refers to John the Baptist.
Structure and scoring
The piece is divided into three sections, each beginning with a verse for solo contratenor followed by a full section, echoing words of the verse.The singers are often accompanied by an organ, as in David Hill's recording with the Winchester Cathedral Choir. However, as well as a 17th-century organ part there are viol parts, so accompaniment by a viol consort is another possibility. It is debatable how frequently viols would have been used in Jacobean services, but some recordings take the option of performing This is the Record of John as a "consort anthem".
History
This 'verse-anthem' was written at the request of William Laud, who was president of St John's College, Oxford, from 1611 to 1621; the St John to whom the college is dedicated is John the Baptist. It was written for the college chapel, and presumably received its first performance there. The text forms one of the readings for Advent.According to Morris, the earliest known extant manuscripts of the anthem date from the 1630s, a decade after Gibbons' death. They are located at major English cathedrals and chapels, as far from Oxford as Durham, suggesting that the anthem enjoyed wide use when first written. It is included in a number of modern publications, including The Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems.