Freda Swain: Faith Without Works is Dead: Anthem for SATB choir and organ

This critical edition of ‘Faith Without Works is Dead’ by Freda Swain (1902-1985) makes the work available in print for performance for the first time. It is a setting of words from the Epistle of James in the version featured in the King James Bible. Swain set the words of James 2: 14-21 but later decided to change the opening bars of the choral parts and pencilled in different words taken from James 1: 22. This change was probably made to avoid too much textual repetition and necessitated rhythmic adjustments in all the voice parts. Swain’s manuscript, however, is not always very clear about the new rhythmic setting. It has been the job of the editor to settle that matter and address other issues of consistency in phrasing, articulation and dynamics. This work was made all the easier thanks to the efforts of my PhD student, Mohan-Mohan Xie, who supporting the music processing for this edition.

It was probably because of the confusion of words and rhythms at the opening that the piece was never performed in Swain’s lifetime, but it deserves to be heard because it is a great example of Swain’s Anglican church music, featuring great textural variety, some highly effective word setting and relatively adventurous harmonic writing. At times Swain is a bit too adventurous, such as in the alto part in bar 40, which is set a little too high in the register to be comfortable for most altos to sing. Swain seems to have noticed this because she marked the bar with a pencilled X in her manuscript. She did not, however, provide a solution. One fix is to drop the alto line by an octave from the D in bar 40, returning to Swain’s notated pitches from the first A in the next bar. This is offered as an alternative (in small notes) but it is not ideal because of crossovers with the tenor line and the gap it creates between the alto and soprano parts. It is better to encourage the altos to pretend to be sopranos for that one bar!