A short 2-minute anthem suitable as a gradual, tract, or offertory anthem for SATB mixed voices and organ. I will magnify your Name, O God was intended for use as a tract. The tract is sung before the proclamation of the Gospel during services of Holy Eucharist in place of the Alleluia during Lent and for other penitential occasions. Tracts are a comprised of a series of Psalm verses—rarely an entire Psalm, but all verses are drawn from the same Psalm.
Peter R. Hallock composed I will magnify your Name, O God from November 9 to 11, 1989. It is dedicated to The Rev. Ralph Carskadden (1940-2011) and bears the following inscription:
This is but a small thing to express mine and the choir’s appreciation and gratitude for the glimpses you have given us of how the ordinariness of our worship has had the potential to be transformed, as it is the unique capacity of great art and great artists to transform the ordinary into something of transcendent value and meaning. It is also to share the pain of recognizing that the opportunity for such transformation and transcendent experience is considered by so many to be an expendable luxury.
—prh
Sung by the Saint Mark’s Cathedral Choir under the direction of Mel Butler with Roger Sherman at the organ at Peter Hallock’s burial rite on May 18, 2014.
Lyrics
I will magnify your Name, O God.
While I live, I will sing your praise.
You have delivered my soul from the power of the grave;
you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.
Proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
Sing the wonders of his love.
—Adapted from varied Psalm verses
