ABSTRACT
For a composer and musician steeped in the choral tradition of the church from his youth, the relatively tiny output of major sacred choral works is noteworthy, although hardly surprising given the pressures of extensive commissions for theatre and orchestral works after Corroboree. The genesis of Cantate Domino, a commission from the Australian Council of Churches, once more illustrates graphically John Henry Antill's situation during so much of his post-Corroboree career. Antill's Festival Te Deum and Cantate Domino are two rare extended examples among his output of church choral music, being settings of texts from the Anglican Matins and Evensong services respectively. Antill's Festival Te Deum is scored for choir, trumpets, horns, trombones and organ, although the two performances of the late 1960s appear to have been given by choir and organ only.
