THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER .sx The Book of Common Prayer is a unique compilation .sx It is a book of modest proportions - physically smaller than either medieval Breviary or Missal , scarcely larger than a Book of Hours - yet it contains provision for the whole liturgy .sx Its contents absorb not only Breviary and Missal but also Processional , Manual ( with the rites of baptism , marriage , churching of women , commination , visitation of the sick , and burial ) , and Pontifical ( confirmation and ordination) .sx Its preface subsumes both Ordinal and Customary .sx There is no need for Choir Psalter , Antiphonal , or Gradual :sx the psalms are appended to the Book in numerical order , and all that is required to supplement the Book of Common Prayer is the Bible .sx This conciseness is the result of abbreviation , and above all by the excision of the greater part of the Proper .sx Much of this was achieved in the compilation of the 1549 book , but it was furthered in the 1552 version .sx Versions of the Book of Common Prayer .sx Between 1549 and 1662 the Book of Common Prayer was subject to change .sx From recent modern experience this should not surprise us :sx more exceptional is the stability of the Book between 1662 and 1965 .sx The most important changes came in 1552 but there were further significant amendments , especially in 1559 , 1561 , and 1604 .sx Apart from the addition of the introductory material in 1552 , the order of Mattins and Evensong remained largely unchanged , except for the position of the Apostles' Creed ( oddly placed between Kyrie and Lord's Prayer in 1549) .sx The Order of Holy Communion changed substantially in 1552 , but retained its basic form thereafter , though important rubrics were added in 1662 .sx The 1559 Book saw the insertion of some additional prayers after the Collects at Mattins and Evensong , and the introduction of the Grace at the end of Mattins , Evensong , and Litany .sx The Elizabethan Act of Uniformity was ( and continues to be ) printed at the beginning of the Book together with a revised and extended Preface .sx In 1561 the Calendar and Lectionary were significantly amended and revised .sx 1662 was the last revision .sx Here for the first time the Lord's Prayer was directed to be said by all on all occasions ( the old practice of priestly recitation with the people responding " But deliver us from evil " persisted in some instances , even in 1552) .sx The doxology was added to the Lord's Prayer at the second recitation in Mattins , Evensong , and Holy Communion .sx More additional prayers were provided ( e.g. the Prayer for All Sorts of Conditions of Men , and the General Thanksgiving) .sx There were two additions to the Calendar .sx Revisions in scriptural texts are not discussed here , nor are the 'parish' services ( baptism , confirmation , marriage , etc. ) , nor the ordination services ( first printed in 1550 ) ; however , the three distinct forms of the Burial Service are outlined below .sx No student of the formation of the Book of Common Prayer can ignore Brightman's The English Rite ( London , 1915 ) , which sets out the sources and texts of the versions of the Book in parallel columns , along with a historical introduction and copious annotation .sx THE INFLUENCE OF THE 1549 BOOK .sx The history of the Book of Common Prayer is such that though the specific orders of the 1549 version were in use for so short a period , the influence of its ethos and ritual style has persisted far longer .sx Reference to the 1549 Book has been encouraged by the paragraph on ornaments and ceremonies incorporated in the Elizabethan Act of Uniformity ( 1559) .sx This has inevitably proved a contentious section in a denomination which embraces such wide traditions of theological outlook and liturgical practice .sx But it has proved a reference point for those who wish to stress the continuity of the Church of England with a liturgy extending from the pre-Reformation Use , and for those who perceive worship as an act that demands ceremony and ritual in the service of the Almighty .sx Along with other ambivalent or imprecise provisions , it has enabled a more elaborate practice than is implied in the 1552 Book and its successors , a practice which is therefore often undocumented .sx From the sixteenth century there has been constant and inevitable tension between the extreme wings of the Church of England .sx At certain times and in individual places one or other wing has gained ascendancy .sx The polarity was strongest in the seventeenth century with the sudden swing from the dominance of the 'high church' party led by Archbishop Laud in the reign of Charles I to the other extreme of 'puritan' Protestantism ( here extending beyond the Church of England to influential non-conformists ) during the Commonwealth .sx In this case the result was the suspension of the Book of Common Prayer , and with it the stripping of altars , dismantling of ornament ( including stained glass ) , vestment ( including surplices ) , and ceremonial , the suppression of choirs , dismantling of organs , and prohibition of church music in general .sx If the Commonwealth represented and exceptional period , the wide spread of religious outlook has always been part of the Church of England , and it continues to affect the presentation of the liturgy in different cathedrals , collegiate foundations , and parish churches .sx Between the extremes there is the larger body of middle ground ( which prevailed in the stabilization of the 1662 Book ) , a body coloured at any time by current influences and trends but avoiding extremes of theology and liturgical practice .sx MUSIC AND THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER .sx The establishment of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 not only instituted new liturgical orders ; for its forms and vernacular language also rendered instantly obsolete the chant of the medieval Church and the burgeoning repertory of Latin polyphony .sx This is not the place to bewail the loss but rather to underline the consequences .sx The Book of Common Prayer has always been published without music .sx This reflects the new circumstances of the Church .sx The dissolution of all religious houses and most collegiate foundations as well as smaller communities ( e.g. chantries and religious hospitals ) created a new balance .sx Corporate foundations able to sustain a sung liturgy were reduced in less than fifteen years from many hundreds to less than fifty :sx The Chapel Royal , the cathedrals , the colleges in Oxford , Cambridge , Eton , and Winchester , and no more than five other places .sx The new Book was intended for parish churches , their people ( especially on Sundays ) , and their priests ( often assisted by no more than a parish clerk) .sx Given the dismantling of liturgical communities and the overnight obsolescence of a musical heritage that had evolved over the preceding millennium , it is remarkable that in England rather than anywhere else in Europe the corporate singing of a daily Office has continued in choral foundations .sx Provision for singing the services of the 1549 Prayer Book was made in John Marbeck's Book of Common Prayer Noted ( 1550) .sx ( Though the only printed book of its kind , it represents what must have been a common practice of adaptation .sx ) It was rendered obsolete shortly afterwards by the requirements of the 1552 Book , but its methods give some indication of how the musical needs of the vernacular liturgy were met .sx Further evidence comes from the corpus of music that survives from the period c. 1550-1640 .sx A series of emerging practices can be discerned :sx ( a ) adaptation of the medieval chant ( especially the repeated formulas of the tones ) to the vernacular ( e.g. the Litany , Marbeck ) , and composition of new melodies in the idiom of simple chant ( e.g. Marbeck ) - albeit more rhythmic in idiom ; .sx ( b ) use of functional polyphony based on and decorating the chant ( this was a long-established practice , often improvised in the Middle Ages , and continued thereafter ; see the polyphonic form of the Litany , and Tallis's preces and festal psalms ) ; .sx ( c ) free polyphonic compositions derived from the principle of ( b ) and resulting in the 'short' style used for many English canticles ( largely syllabic , and found in the early vernacular repertory of the Wanley Partbooks , but also in the music of Tallis , Byrd , Gibbons , and their contemporaries ) ; .sx ( d ) compositions alternating ( accompanied ) solo sections and choral sections , the so-called 'verse' style , similar in principle to the alternation of soloists and choir in responsorial chant , and also to alternatim practice ( alternate use of chant and polyphony based on the chant ) ; .sx ( e ) free compositions alternating a larger group of soloists with the choir ( 'great' services ) , comparable with both the use of larger numbers of soloists on great feasts in the medieval Uses , and the elaborate polyphony for festal occasions in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries .sx Such music was not necessarily accompanied , and must have been limited to only a few large and able choirs .sx On the face of it the 1552 Book of Common Prayer makes little provision for music , let alone for the use of music to distinguish feast and feria .sx In practice choral foundations sang the liturgy , and this practice is codified in the Elizabethan Injunctions issued in 1559 .sx The injunctions permit the use of " a modest and distinct song " that may be " plainly understanded as if it were read without singing " .sx The implication is that the music of the daily Office derived mostly from ( a ) , ( b ) and ( c ) listed above , and - on the evidence of what survives - increasingly on ( c ) in the singing of canticles .sx The absence of surviving music for the psalms suggests that these were sung from the psalter to the old plainsong tones ( metrical psalms were not sung during the Office) .sx The few liturgical psalm settings that do survive are for the four festal cycles provided by the Book of Common Prayer ( listed in Appendix ) .sx They show that musical style distinguished liturgical observance in the later sixteenth and earlier seventeenth century .sx A number of the early seventeenth-century festal preces and psalms ( e.g. those of William Smith ) derive from Durham Cathedral , indicating their 'high church' associations .sx And it is not too fanciful to see a hierarchy of canticle settings :sx ( c ) 'short' settings , often with alternation between the two sides of the choir , for ordinary days ; ( d ) 'verse' settings with one or two soloists , for the equivalent of the old Feasts of Nine Lessons ; and ( e ) 'great' services with as many as eight choral parts and as many soloists for principal feasts .sx At most these sets of canticles consisted of Venite , Te Deum , Benedictus ( or Jubilate ) , Responses to the Commandments , Creed , Magnificat , and Nunc dimittis .sx As indicated above in the discussion of the Order of Holy Communion , even in those cathedrals and colleges where there was a celebration of the Communion each Sunday and on feasts , this was said rather than sung after the Creed .sx The ritual distinctions implied by the types of musical setting of services became more prominent during the reign of James I and especially Charles I. For the first time in England larger organs with two divisions ( Chair and Great ) were built .sx Some foundations bought wind instruments and engaged special players on feast-days .sx Though there was nothing on the scale of the continental celebrations with instruments and several choirs ( see Chapter 10 ) , the Laudian movement stands out as the most significant period of ritual and ceremonial in the Church of England until the Oxford Movement in the nineteenth century .sx ADDITIONAL MUSIC :sx THE ANTHEM AND THE METRICAL PSALM .sx The Elizabethan Injunctions allowed additional choral music before or after Mattins and Evensong " for the comforting of such that delight in music " .sx In choral foundations this provided for the anthem .sx Though formal provision for the anthem was not included until the Book of 1662 , it is plain that this confirms earlier practice rather than establishing a new precedent .sx The practice of singing an anthem ( or antiphon ) at the end of the Office dates back to the memorials and votive antiphons of the medieval liturgy ( see Chapter 8) .sx During the first half of the sixteenth century votive antiphons in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary shared popularity with antiphons in honour of our Lord ( so-called Jesus Antiphons) .sx Injunctions prescribed as early as 1548 by the Visitors to Lincoln Cathedral required that such an antiphon ( anthem ) be sung in English , and followed by " the collect for the preservation of the King's Majesty " .sx