Stanford composed ‘Blessed are the dead’ for the funeral of his friend, Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886) and bears the dedication ‘In piam memoriam dilectissimi amici H. B., Feb. 10, 1886.’ [‘In devoted memory of my beloved friend H. B., Feb. 10, 1886.’] Bradshaw became a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge in 1853 and, after a few years teaching at St Columba’s College in Dublin, he accepted a position as an assistant librarian at Cambridge University Library. His interests in manuscripts and early printed material led him to give up his library work and he became widely known for his discovery of unknown and unexplored material in the university archives, particularly of its medieval holdings. In 1867 Bradshaw was elected university librarian and held senior positions at King’s. A much-loved figure and an admired Chaucer scholar, he died suddenly on 10 February 1886 and at his funeral in the chapel on 15 February, well attended by friends and colleagues, Stanford’s anthem was sung under the direction of Arthur Henry Mann. Arthur Coleridge, a mutual friend and former student at the college, recalled the service: ‘I was present at the funeral; one of the most impressive I have ever seen; for the mourners, from the Provost to the chorister boys, were real mourners and every one wept real tears…. Stanford’s Anthem, written expressly for the occasion, was beautifully sung.’ It was sung in Trinity College Chapel at evensong on 2 November 1889. Later, in or around 1899, the anthem was reworked and slightly extended as ‘I heard a voice from heaven’ and sung at a memorial service in St Paul’s Cathedral on 19 December 1899 for those who had fallen in the Boer War. It was published by Novello in 1910. 

Stanford and Bradshaw cultivated a close friendship after the former established himself in Cambridge as organist of Trinity College. In a footnote to the original published version by Novello, Stanford remarked: ‘Part of the melody of ‘Angelus ad virginem’ is included in this Anthem. The tune, which dates at least from the fourteenth century, and which is mentioned in Chaucer as sung by the ‘Clerk of Oxenford’, was given to me by Mr Henry Bradshaw in 1882.’ Bradshaw had noted the tune in the Dublin Troper held in the university library, an unusual example of the Sarum rite in Ireland introduced by the Normans, and which contained rare surviving instances of notated music. Stanford used this melody as a chant for the Dominican friars in his second opera, Savonarola, first performed in Hamburg in 1884. In the vocal score of the opera, he acknowledged Bradshaw’s assistance in drawing his attention to the medieval melody.