A Temple to the Lord (An Anthem for SATB Chorus and Piano) was commissioned in 2023 by Clemmons United Methodist Church, Clemmons, North Carolina, “to the glory of God and in celebration of the Church’s Sesquicentennial Year (2024).” The impetus for this commission came from church member, Roger Bear. A Temple to the Lord was premiered during the 2024 Sesquicentennial Year celebration by the choirs of Clemmons United Methodist Church (Dr. Bryon Grohman, Director of Music and Worship Arts).
The text for A Temple to the Lord is by the British poet, Agnes Bulmer (1775 – 1836) and is titled, Laying the Foundation. Born Agnus Collinson, she was raised a Methodist in a family who were close friends with John Wesley, the Anglican clergyman who, along with his brother, Charles, founded the revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. Miss Collinson’s poem, On the Death of Charles Wesley, was published when she was but 14 years of age. Baptized by John Wesley, Agnus Collinson remained a life-long Methodist, even as she continued to embrace the Church of England. In 1793 she married fellow Methodist, Joseph Bulmer. Throughout her adult life Agnus Bulmer was involved in numerous social and humanitarian activities. As a prolific poet of religious poetry and biographies, her poetry was often published in Methodist publications. Her poem, Messiah’s Kingdom, was published in 1833 and took nine years to complete. The poem has the reputation of being the longest epic poem created by a woman.
Agnes Bulmer’s four stanza hymn text, Laying the Foundation, was written in 1825 and was introduced that year at the laying of the foundation-stone of the Methodist chapel in Oxford-road and Ancoats-lane in Manchester. It was first published in the Supplement to the Wesleyan Hymn-book (1830). Since that time, it has appeared in over 28 hymnals, often set to the tune, NUREMBURG.
My anthem, A Temple to the Lord, utilizing Agnes Bulmer’s Laying the Foundation hymn text, was completed in the autumn of 2023. The Lydian church mode (F – F on the piano keys) is at the heart of the musical materials used in A Temple to the Lord. However, here the Lydian mode is transposed to be based on the pitch Eb. As a way of symbolizing the laying of the “Foundation-Stone,” throughout the composition all of the anthem’s key centers move downward as they make their way through the pitches of the transposed Eb Lydian mode. The piano is an equal partner to the choir in the piece, providing both vibrancy in the joyous sections of the poem and delicate mystical expression in the reflective parts of the piece, especially in the contrapuntal section where Christ’s suffering and sacrifice to the world is recalled. A Temple to the Lord concludes jubilantly as the words “Our temple make Thy throne” are proclaimed.
Duration: ca. 5’ 30”
Dan Locklair
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
1 Thou, who hast in Zion laid
The true Foundation-Stone,
And with those a covenant made
Who build on that alone:
Hear us, Architect divine!
Great Builder of Thy Church below!
Now upon Thy servants shine,
Who seek Thy praise to show.
2 Earth is Thine; her thousand hills
Thy mighty hand sustains;
Heaven Thy awful presence fills;
O’er all Thy glory reigns:
Yet the place of all prepared
By regal David’s favored son,
Thy peculiar blessing shared,
And stood Thy chosen throne.
3 We, like Jesse’s son, would raise
A temple to the Lord;
Sound throughout its courts His praise,
His saving Name record;
Dedicate a house to Him
Who once, in mortal weakness shrined,
Sorrowed, suffered, to redeem,
To rescue all mankind.
4 Father, Son, and Spirit, send
The consecrating flame;
Now in majesty descend,
Inscribe the living Name:
That great Name by which we live,
Now write on this accepted stone;
Us into Thy hands receive;
Our temple make Thy throne.
Agnus Bulmer (1825)