Freda Swain: On This Bright Day: Wedding Anthem for SATB Choir and Organ

‘On This Bright Day’ is a Wedding Anthem by Freda Swain (1902-1985) scored for choir and organ. A note at the end of the manuscript score indicates it was composed in March 1960. A further note jotted on the cover of the score by Swain reads, ‘Composed in honour of the occasion of the marriage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Margaret, May 1960.’ There is also some surviving correspondence between Swain and Buckingham Palace which shows that Swain sought approval for a dedication of the anthem to Princess Margaret. The text of the anthem was also written by the composer, although she uses her penname of Mary Brandon in referencing the poet in her manuscript.

This edition of ‘On This Bright Day’ is based on a manuscript vocal score in the collection of Swain manuscripts that are in the possession of the Swiss pianist Timon Altwegg.

The manuscript which informed this first published edition is a neat presentation copy in ink, which Swain no doubt prepared so that the piece could be copied and performed. The score shows a few minor amendments but is nevertheless a very clear and easily readable source. It required little editing. save for the adjusting of a few minor details (hairpins, phrasing, etc.) for reasons of consistency. It is worth noting that the piece has a few bars in which the altos divide but is otherwise a straight-forward work for SATB choir. It is similar in its joyful-syllabic style of choral writing to Swain’s ‘Rejoice in the Lord’, a setting of words from Psalm 33 written just a few months later, in 1961. While it is perhaps less adventurous in harmonic terms, it makes greater use of contrasting passages of counterpoint and melisma than that later piece does. The music of the anthem has a fanfare-like quality and is set in two stanzas, separated by an organ interlude. The second stanza proceeds to a coda which closes the piece with majestic repetitions of ‘Amen’.