Jane Savage’s carol from 1785 was unearthed during research into charity hospital music and will be performed at Ely Cathedral
Another jigsaw piece in the history of female composers has been slotted into place with the discovery of the earliest known Church of England anthem composed by a woman.
At their carol concert on 21 December the girl choristers of Ely Cathedral will sing Jane Savage’s Hymn for Christmas Day, a setting composed around 1785 of the familiar words: “While shepherds watched their flocks by night.” In doing so they will be following in the footsteps of the equally angelic choir of the Asylum for Female Orphans, one of the charity hospitals that offered a way out of destitution in 18th-century London.