Peter Hallock composed this short anthem for The Compline Choir in 1981, after the well-known mixed voice anthems The Lord is my light and The Baptism of Jesus. However, the harmonic language used is more closely related to another work for The Compline Choir—Come, Holy Spirit, composed in 1979. Christus est Stella Matutina was hand-engraved and typeset by Carl C. Crosier in 1986, and his edition forms the basis for this one. The original manuscript is lost.
The text of the anthem is by the Venerable Bede and is contained in his Explanatio Apocalypsis II:28. The Latin text and its English translation adorn the Galilee Chapel wall at Durham Cathedral, above Bede’s tomb, and was designed by Frank Roper and George Pace and installed in 1971. The text as found there is the most often used in musical settings for the Anglican Church. While we know Hallock spent time at Durham Cathedral and gave a voice recital at Durham University sometime during his studies at the Royal School of Church Music from 1949 to 1951, we cannot say if an encounter with Bede’s tomb or a later encounter with the art installation on the Galilee Chapel wall inspired the composition of this anthem.
Lyrics
Christus est Stella Matutina,
qui nocte saeculi transacta,
lucem vitae sanctis promittit
et pandit aeternam.
Christ is the Morning Star,
who, when the night of this world is past,
brings to his saints the promise of the light of life
and opens everlasting day.
