They are Zadok the Priest, Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, The King Shall Rejoice, and My Heart Is Inditing. Each was originally a separate work but they were later published together.
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Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) is a British anthem which was composed by George Frideric Handel for the coronation of King George II in 1727. Alongside The King Shall Rejoice, My Heart is Inditing and Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, Zadok the Priest is one of Handel's Coronation Anthems. One of Handel's best- known works, Zadok the Priest has been sung prior to the anointing of the sovereign at the coronation of every British monarch since its composition and has become recognised as a British patriotic anthem.sussexchorus.org, Coronation Anthems, HWV 258 - 261.
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Sweelinck's Keyboard Music: A Study of English Elements in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Composition, p.155. 1987 edition: . the device fell out of use in the early part of the seventeenth century, though we still find many examples of it in Purcell's anthems ("My heart is inditing" or "Rejoice in the Lord alway" for instance). This was due partly to a period of decline for music and composition in England, as well as to the development of generally accepted rules of harmony in which the false relation was no longer acceptable.
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My Heart is Inditing (HWV 261) is thought to have been composed between 9 September 1727 and 11 October 1727. This piece sets a text developed by Henry Purcell for the 1685 coronation, consisting of a shortened adaptation of verses from Psalm 45 (verses 1, 10, 12) and Book of Isaiah (chapter 49, verse 23). In 1727, it was sung at the end of the coronation of queen Caroline, with adaptations by Handel to make its words more appropriate for a queen. The music is in four sections and characterised by a more refined and distinguished air than the other anthems.
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The enkolpion may be worn at all times as part of the bishop's street dress or choir dress. When the bishop vests for Divine Services, he will wear also a pectoral cross. When a bishop is vested before the Divine Liturgy, if he has the dignity of wearing an enkolpion in addition to the Panagia, the Protodeacon chants the following prayer as the subdeacons place it on the bishop: "Thy heart is inditing of a good matter; thou shalt speak of the deeds unto the King, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of age. Amen". Some enkolpia are hollow, so they may be used as a reliquary.
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Although part of the traditional content of British coronations, the texts for all four anthems were picked by Handel—a personal selection from the most accessible account of an earlier coronation, that of James II of England in 1685. One of George I of Great Britain's last acts before his death in 1727 was to sign an "Act of naturalisation of George Frideric Händel and others". Handel's first commission as a newly naturalised British subject was to write the music for the coronation of George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline which took place on 11 October the same year. Within the coronation ceremonies Let thy hand be strengthened was played first, then Zadok, then The King shall rejoice, and finally My heart is inditing at the coronation of the Queen.
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The work was extremely popular and thus the form of the English oratorio was invented, almost by accident. Original playbill for Handel's oratorio "Esther" 1732 The coronation anthems Handel had written for the coronation of George II in 1727, with their large orchestra and massed choruses, had made a huge impact, and the playbills advertising the 1732 performances of Esther said "The music will be disposed after the manner of the Coronation Service". Handel's Italian operas laid overwhelming emphasis on solo arias for the star singers, with no extra choruses, while for the revision of Esther, the coronation anthems "My Heart is Inditing" and a version of "Zadok the Priest" were added. Their large choruses and grandiose orchestral effects with trumpets and drums were very different from what London audiences had experienced in Handel's Italian operas.
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Beside their signatures, Samuel and Katherine Chidley described themselves as "members of the Church of God in London." Edwards specifically mentioned the Suffolk mission in the third part of Gangraena: :There is one Katherine Chidly an old Brownist, and her sonne a young Brownist, a pragmaticall fellow, who not content with spreading their poyson in and about London, goe down into the Country to gather people to them, and among other places have been this Summer at Bury in Suffolke, to set up and gather a Church there, where (as I have it from good hands) they have gathered about seven persons, and kept their Conventicles togetherEdwards (1646), p. 170 Edwards alleged that the Chidleys worked together "one inditing, the other writing," and that they had issued a polemical pamphlet against him from Bury. He was certain that their work in Suffolk was part of a wider pattern of planting such congregations.
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