Discovered: Earliest Known English Church Anthem Composed By A Woman

This setting of the Christmas hymn “Whilst Shepherds watch’d their flocks by night” for unison girls’ voices and organ was written ca. 1785 by Jane Savage, a composer and the daughter of one of Handel’s bass soloists, himself a composer and church musician. She created the piece for the choir of London’s Asylum for Female Orphans; as in Venice at the same time, the English capital in the 18th century had a number of institutions for abandoned or orphaned girls which became fashionable places to worship because the young ladies sang so well. – The Guardian