And I saw a New Heaven

That's a very sad story.

Beautiful anthem.

Bainton was director of the conservatorium here in Sydney. One day in 1956 he went to the beach (Bondi, I think) and walked out into the sea, and that was that. It is sad to consider that this sensitive composer apparently did not find happiness in his own life. Thank you for your lovely music, Mr Bainton.
Requiescat in pace.

we used to sing this anthem as intro at concerts with my choir.

I think this is a church or cathedral choir, all male, and that both the 'soprano' and 'alto' parts are boy singers.

I am singing this right now in my choir and I'm curious.. what choir is in the recording? The altos sound like counter tenors! Is that correct? :)

King's College Cambridge

doing this with my college choir.  Majestic, beautiful.

magnificent!

好曲子，謝謝！

The progression G minor6 - G minor7 (in inversion)- D major is so much more effective BECAUSE of the slight dissonance created by the addition of the 6ths to each chord - it's effectively a drawn out plagal cadence to the major. He does a similar sort of thing at the end of the phrase 'and be their God', to add emphasis to the resolution to A major.

Hope this helps! Had to do the response in two hits by the way, owing to the character counter.