As Pants the Hart (Handel)

As pants the hart (HWV 251) is an anthem composed by George Frideric Handel for the Chapel Royal of Queen Anne and subsequently revised. There are five versions of the work (indicated by the letters a to e), the first being completed in 1713, and the final in 1738. HWV 251a was the first anthem Handel composed for the Chapel Royal.

The 1713 version is an early example of Handel setting words in English, which was his third language. The anthem takes its title from the first line, the incipit, of Psalm 42. The rest of the text - it is the same for all of Handel’s versions of the anthem - is also taken from the psalm, and has been attributed to John Arbuthnot. Arbuthnot clearly based his work on earlier translations, as the text opens with lines from Tate and Brady’s metrical version, but reverts at verse two to the Prayer Book version.

Handel met with royal favour in 1713 and received a major commission, the Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate to commemorate the Peace of Utrecht. Soon after the introduction of HWV 251a to the Chapel Royal repertoire, Handel was awarded a pension from Queen Anne of ₤200 per annum. The royal patronage continued under the Hanoverians. In 1723 (soon after the composition of HWV 251d), Handel received a second pension, granted to him as "Composer to the Chapel Royal". This second pension brought Handel’s total annual income from court pensions and his position as "Music Master to the Royal Princesses" to ₤600—a considerable sum for the time.

In Handel’s day, all parts were sung by male voices—typically twelve boys and twelve men.

HWV 251a was probably written between December 1712 and May 1713. Along with its partner HWV 251d, it is the only anthem Handel wrote that is scored for organ and basso continuo alone. It was not written for a grand public occasion (typical of Handel’s other anthems), but rather for use in the routine services of the Chapel Royal.

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