Sometime during Eastertide 1920, the Revd Dr Eric Milner-White, recovering in the Cambridge Nursing Home after an appendicitis operation, wrote a letter to Charles Wood, asking for him to consider a possible collaboration on a new piece of service music.
John Stainer's The Crucifixion (1887) had been regularly performed during Passiontide in Anglican Churches in England, and Milner-White was anxious to provide an alternative to the popular work.
The St Mark Passion begins with an organ introduction, followed by the four stanzas of the tune Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle.
The organ and male voices return with the musical material of the third stanza of Sing, my tongue from the opening set to another verse ("Bend thy bough, O Tree of Glory!").
At the close of the fifth Gospel all present should kneel, and keep silence for a space, and then repeat together in the natural voice the form of the general confession provided.
After the last Hymn the Priests, choir and people should go out as quietly as possible.Editions by the most recent publisher, Royal School of Church Music, include the liturgical instructions in the score itself.