God the Holy Trinity by Joanna Forbes L'Estrange is the anthem commissioned for Music Sunday 2019.

Composer's Note

My intention with this setting of God the Holy Trinity is to create a still and prayerful moment within the service, whether the piece is used as an introit, as the anthem or as a sung prayer. The homophonic texture intentionally draws attention to the text, the descant highlighting the most important words: peace, love and the blessing. I chose to describe in music the three-in-one nature of the Trinity by restricting myself largely to three-part harmony, sung by S/A/Men, and by employing D# within the harmonic framework of A major, which creates a tritone. 

Ideally, the piece would be sung unaccompanied but, if you don’t have the necessary resources available, of course you should feel free to support the voices with piano/organ. Similarly, the descant would ideally be sung by a solo voice but it could just as well be sung by a small group of singers, as long as it never detracts attention from the main body of the choir. Above all, when singing the piece, please form the words as one would when reading the prayer aloud; that is to say, with plenty of attention to consonants and diphthongs (e.g. holy, faith, side, guide etc) and please no rolled “r” Trinity or truth! 

Joanna Forbes L’Estrange 
February 2019