Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened. And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit unto God who gave it.
“Vanity of vanities” saith the preacher; “all is vanity.”
Remember Now Thy Creator
Dr Charles Steggal
The words of this opening anthem are taken from the opening verses of Chapter 12 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, one of the Old Testament books often ascribed to Solomon.
The music is by the Victorian composer Dr Charles Steggall (1825 – 1905), who was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and then studied under William Sterndale Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, where he subsequently became Professor of Organ and Harmony from 1851 – 1903. Steggall also worked as an organist for a number of London parishes, including Christ Chapel Maida Vale, Christ Church Lancaster Gate, and the chapel at Lincoln's Inn. He was also well known as a composer of hymn tunes and worked as the musical editor on two early hymn books, Church Psalmody of 1849 and Hymns for the Church of England of 1865. In 1889 Steggall succeeded William H. Monk as musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Unlike many of his Victorian age counterparts in church music, who wrote a number of tunes that we still sing today, Steggall's many original tunes have not survived well. Christchurch, St Edmund and Waltham are the only three to be found in modern editions of hymn books.
The anthem opens with a very simple SATB passage which is followed by a dark section where most of the music is in unison and is almost “chanted” by the choir in a homophonic and sinister way. A short semi-recitative passage leads into a much more vibrant final chorus, which is fugal in style. The music and words of the very simple opening are repeated in a much-truncated form at the end.
