Hymns are not concert music. Perhaps this should go without saying, but I’m starting here because one of the ways we increasingly evaluate hymns is by listening to them on recordings.
Hymn recordings have been made ever since the dawn of recording technology. Any complete recording or broadcast of a service would naturally include hymns too. But the balance has changed with the advent of online streaming of liturgies. More hymns are being recorded than ever before.
And I wonder if this reality is beginning to challenge our common sense about hymn singing and how it works. I suspect it has for me, and I need to guard against this.
In April, I had a chance to give a talk at Sewanee about the hymnody of Herbert Howells. One of his hymn tunes that I inadvertently neglected was the tune he wrote for Charles Wesley’s “Love divine, all loves excelling.”
This tune was unpublished during Howells’s lifetime (it was not published until 1999, when Oxford University Press included it in a collection of four 20th-century tunes called Love Divine), so I felt only a little guilty about ignoring it. The night before the lecture, I listened to the fine recording by the Choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, just so I could be prepared to say something intelligent about how the tune goes.
I wasn’t much impressed by that nocturnal listening, and I said as much the next day. But I also realized that, despite having copies of the Love Divine collection in our choir library, we had never performed the eponymous tune. I resolved to fix this, and this summer, with its need for simpler, more straightforward choral music, seemed the right time to sing it.
Returning to the tune just this week, I can see that I underestimated the effect it would have on me and, I hope, the singers who are preparing it now. And this is perhaps because I decided to judge the tune by how it sounded (a secondary theology) rather than by the experience of singing it (a primary theology).
When one hears “Howells hymn tune,” most people think of his blockbuster tune “Michael” for the hymn “All my hope on God is founded.” But many of Howells’s other tunes are quite different, more reserved. That’s true of “Love divine.” And this is a good thing; it offers a real alternative to more familiar tunes for this text. “Hyfrydol” peaks early at “joy;” Blaenwern peaks later at “unbounded love.”
Howells’s tune, though, seems to have a different physiognomy altogether. You could point to little peaks and valleys, but they’re more like ebbs and flows. The hymn has a quieter, gentler energy. At the outset, the melody is quasi-pentatonic until it decidedly is not. The alternative harmonization that Howells writes for the final stanza turns up the intensity and gets the tune to near-smoldering, but still with a heart full of “faithful mercies.”
Like all of Howells’s hymn tunes, “Love Divine” rewards study. But even more rewarding is to experience the tune as Howells or any composer actually intends: sing it.
Labels: Charles Wesley, Howells, Hymn 665, hymns
Sinden.org maintains two carol service spreadsheets, one for the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Christmas at King's College, Cambridge, and one for the slightly less famous Advent Carol Service at St. John's College, Cambridge.
The spreadsheet the St. John's Advent Carol Service has just been updated with the music and lessons for this year's service.
After a couple years with rather radical changes, it was nice to see the service settle back to a more familiar rhythm. In the last two years, the first and final hymns have been changed from their usual pattern ("O come, O come, Emmanuel" and "Lo! he comes with clouds descending").
The traditional four pairs of lessons (Hebrew Bible and New Testament in each section) were mostly changed in 2023, but were restored the following year and remain in place for this year's service.
Many of us will be familiar with "Zion, at thy shining gates" arranged by George Guest, as found in the Oxford Advent for Choirs book. It has not previously been sung at this service, but this year, it makes an appearance before the first lesson.
Also new to this service this year: "I waited for the Lord" by Felix Mendelssohn, and A hymn of St. Columba by Edward Picton-Turbervill (a former organ scholar at St. John's). The commissioned carol, sung at the end of the service, is Nolo mortem peccatoris by Errollyn Wallen.
Two pieces that have made a long-expected (see what I did there?) return to this service are Benjamin Britten's A hymn to the Virgin (last sung in 2004) and the Magnificat from the Herbert Howells "St. John's" Service (last sung in 2006).
Now, the only question is how to actually listen to the service. Listeners outside the UK will be very unhappy with this link from the BBC.
Labels: Advent, Britten, Guest, Howells, Picton-Turbervill, Wallen
You didn't think we had forgotten, did you?
October 12th next falls on a Sunday in 2031. And you better believe we will see you then!
Previous mentions of this movement from Herbert Howells Partita (1971) on this blog:
- in 2014: Howells, Herbert - Sarabande for the 12th of any October
- in 2008: October - Sarabande for the Twelfth of any
Labels: Howells, organ music, Vaughan Williams
Of the hundreds and hundreds of settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, one genuinely scares me. I am afraid to perform it, either as a conductor or as an organist.
And it’s not that this piece is overly technical. Indeed Herbert Howells has written more difficult settings of the Evening Canticles (the Dallas Service comes to mind).
But there is a unique difficulty in this music written for King’s College, Cambridge, in 1945. Like no other piece I can think of, the “Collegium Regale” Evening Canticles seem to demand perfection.
I recently pulled out my copy of the piece to accompany the canticles this past Sunday at Evensong. I found myself briefly second-guessing the composer at the slurring of the word “lowliness,” but quickly realized that Howells got it right (of course). It is also the first slur in the piece that somehow feels as if it was already full of them.
I can study the notes, I can sing them, I can play them, and yet, these pieces somehow remain a mystery. The kind of alchemic liquidity that Howells achieves is impressive. The culminating Gloria Patri seems to transcend time and space every time we encounter it, and blissfully, it comes up twice when these canticles are sung at Evensong.
I realize need to get over my fear which has resulted in a kind of reluctance to program these canticles. They must always remain special, but Howells has done that work for us. I relished the chance to accompany these on Sunday. They cry out to be performed, not kept under glass.
Labels: Howells, King's College (Cambridge)
So the work as we now have it and as it is now known and loved around the world is far from being the Miserere that Allegri would have recognised. The tragedy is not only is Allegri's original version long lost, but the manner of ornamented and embellished performance is also long lost.—Graham Abbott, https://www.grahamsmusic.net/post/miserere
[…] the medieval craftsman, who takes enormous pains to fashion in stone some angel right up in the triforium of a cathedral — where it will never be seen, but he did it just for the love of it. Sometimes I feel that Herbert Howells lavishes his love in his music by having some felicitous little counterpoint in some inner part which may never be heard — but he knows it’s there.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbXUz8FREas&t=1854s, h/t Some Definite Service: The Unbelief, yet Half-Religion, of Herbert Howells (I)
It is, all of it, food for thought. So much sacred music is profoundly "structural." In a divine creative sense, God's blessing bestows order (conversely, cursing bestows disorder), so the very forms of music can convey God's blessing to us. The various spaces in which we worship convey their own sense of God's grace and presence.
And in all of it, there is joy in the detail. One of my favorite features of Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis, are two tiny bronze frogs near the baptismal font–creatures so small that it would be possible not to notice them even if you attended the cathedral your whole life. Like Howells's own tiny joyous details, there is, amidst the waters of Baptism–the waters of chaos and then creation–a divine herpetological rejoicing included in the architecture just for the love of it.
Labels: Allegri, architecture, Christ Church Cathedral (Indianapolis), Howells, Tenebrae (Choir)
I'm thinking about the carol "Long, long ago" quite differently this year after hearing this wonderful, in-depth look at the piece with Robert Hollingworth and Paul Spicer.
It's like plainchant at the beginning, isn't it? What a wonderful way to evoke the "Long, long ago."
And this carol-anthem, perhaps, gets overlooked somewhat in comparison to the incredibly popular "A spotless rose" and the other two carol-anthems from that set of three: "Sing lullaby" and "Here is the little door".
Yes, indeed, "Long, long ago" stands alone, and it is worth a closer listen this Christmas.
Long, long ago, oh! so long ago Christ was born in Bethlehem To heal the world’s woe. His Mother in the stable Watched him where he lay And knew for all his frailty He was the world’s stay. While he lay there sleeping In the quiet night She listened to his breathing And oh! her heart was light. She tended him and nursed him, Giving him her breast, And knew that it was God’s son In her crook’d arm at rest. Shepherds at the sheepfolds Knew him for their King; And gold and myrrh and frankincense Three wise men did bring. For he should be the Saviour, Making wars to cease, Who gives his joy to all men, And brings to them peace. John Buxton
There must be something in the air, because Church of the Advent, Boston, has just posted this very fine live recording of Long, long ago today.
And don't miss this wonderful, in-depth look at the piece with the score for you to sing along at home:
Labels: 12 Carols for Christmas, Advent (Boston), Christmas, Howells
English composer Herbert Howells wrote his beloved carol-anthem in a single sitting on October 22, 1919.
Sinden.org published its traditional preview of the music list for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge late last month..
For the days leading up to the service, we have been offering a Kalendar of Carols: a more in-depth look at each piece of music to be sung.
So far, we've covered the opening hymn, Bidding Prayer, In the bleak mid-winter – Harold Darke, Adam's Fall – Richard Elfyn Jones, Love came down at Christmas – arr. Stephen Cleobury, How shall I fitly meet thee – Bach, I saw three ships – arr. Ledger, Illuminare Jerusalem – Judith Weir, and the hymn "O little town of Bethlehem".
It is well-known to choral aficionados and frequently sung at this service. (In fact, with the exception of "Here is the little door" in 2015, it is the only Howells ever sung at this service.
Patrick Hadley famously wrote to Herbert Howells about this piece in 1955.
O Herbert, that cadence to A Spotless Rose is not merely ‘one of those things’. Brainwave it certainly is, but it is much more than that. It is a stroke of genius. I should like, when my time comes, to pass away with that magical cadence. I expect you’ll say you hadn’t to think, it was already there
Labels: Christmas, Hadley, Howells, King's College (Cambridge), Lessons and Carols
This week's broadcast of Choral Evensong from the BBC is a service recorded at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas.
The canticles are, fittingly, Herbert Howells Dallas Service.
Don't delay! As with these BBC webcasts only four weeks to listen before it disappears.
Introit: King of glory, King of peace (Harold Friedell) Responses: Bruce Neswick Psalm 105 (Ritchie, Dettra, Fenstermaker) First Lesson: Song of Solomon 3 Office Hymn: Lift your voice rejoicing, Mary (Fisk of Gloucester) Canticles: Dallas Service (Howells) Second Lesson: Matthew 28 vv.16-20 Anthems: I was glad (Leo Sowerby) Light's Glittering Morn (Horatio Parker) Organ Voluntary: Toccata (Vincent Persichetti) Scott Dettra, Director of Music L. Graham Schultz, Assistant Organist.
Labels: Evensong, Friedell, Horatio Parker, Howells, Incarnation (Dallas), Neswick, Sowerby
The idea of Lessons and Carols really has its genesis with Christmas services at the end of the 19th century. Then in the early 20th century Eric Milner-White started the very famous Christmas service at King's College, Cambridge. And this annual service, more than any other, is what many people think of when they hear "Lessons and Carols".
But there's more to its origin than meets the eye.
Milner-White had become convinced "that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship", but I think it helps to remember the context in which he was working. At the centuries-old choral foundation of King's there was no lack of opportunity for worship. There was Choral Matins (Morning Prayer), Holy Communion, and Choral Evensong.
And Milner-White also sought "more imaginative worship" through new music. He used a friendly wager to entice Herbert Howells to write the Collegium Regale Morning Canticles (Te Deum & Jubilate). And if these pieces aren't "more imaginative" I don't know what qualifies.
But I think Milner-White saw something else that a few others (like Bishop Benson in Truro) did. The specific possibilities for liturgy suggested by the genre of music specific to the Advent-Christmas season.
Here the music (carols) must have suggested its own liturgy. Rather than music being the "hand-maid" of the liturgy, a dubious phrase one often hears in regard to Church Music, Milner-White saw it as the other way around. Here was a cleric who was perceptive enough to realize that the established liturgical forms didn't allow for this music speak well or speak fully.
At Matins or Evensong maybe you could do a carol or two, but carols are so short. You would have to do a number of them for them to really add up to something substantial. And in this case they would needed their own service. So Milner-White designed it.
Not just two or three lessons, but more. No need for a psalm or canticles. No need for much of anything, really, except hymns, lessons, and carols.
After inaugurating the Christmas Lessons and Carols service in 1918, Milner-White added an Advent Carol Service to King's liturgical life in 1934.
Most Advent Carol Services take place in the evening and are therefore often substitutes for Choral Evensong. But the traditional canticles at Evensong (the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis) also have value in a Carol Service.
One place to connect Evensong to Lessons and Carols is St. John's College, Cambridge, just a short boatride away from King's. St. John's began a tradition of an Advent Carol Service a couple decades after King's.
The first Advent Carol Service was held on 2 December 1956. From the outset it had been decided to make this an 'admission by ticket only' event, and close on 1100 people attended what has now become an annual service. Since 1981 it has been broadcast, and is now relayed to many radio stations in the United States and Canada, as well as to other countries throughout the world.Guest, George. (1998) A Guest at Cambridge. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press. p. 28.
At the traditional carol services at St. John's the two Evensong canticles take pride of place toward the end: the Magnificat at the Advent Carol Service; the Nunc dimittis at the Epiphany Carol Service. There's a wonderful logic to this. (There is no Christmas Carol Service at St. John's because 1) the college is not in session 2) there's a pretty famous one just down the road.)
St. John's has served as an inspiration for St. Peter's, St. Louis in the past: the installation of a Mander organ at St. Peter's was inspired by the very successful Mander installation in that college chapel.
And the Advent Carol Service from St. John's is not exactly a well-kept secret. It has been broadcast annually on the BBC since the 1980s. It's order has been printed in at least one past issue of The Episcopal Musicians Handbook. And another order of service from St. John's has been used at St. Peter's in the past.
Here's an explanatory note from the former Dean of St. John's.
"Introduction to the Advent Carol Service"
by The Rev. Andrew MacIntosh, Dean of St. John's College
In the past quarter of the century, the colleges of Cambridge, and St. John's in particular, have developed special forms of service to mark the beginning of Advent; and these are widely called Advent Carol Services. Since Christmas falls in University vacation, there was a natural desire to anticipate Christmas by singing carols. At the same time, the instinct for good liturgy meant that we wanted to keep the specifically Advent themes of solemn preparation for the coming of Christ. In St. John's College, since 1956, these two elements have been combined to effect a successful liturgical experiment. This success derives, perhaps, from the tension between the two elements. Thus the form of the service is essentially linked to Advent. The Collects for the four Sundays in Advent suggest the main themes which are explored and illuminated in the scriptural lessons. The plainsong settings of the Advent Prose and "O" Antiphons, dating from the eighth century, express most poignantly in words from the prophesies of Isaiah man's deep yearning for salvation and redemption. The carols, in a joyful and earthy way, look forward to the mode of that redemption in the circumstances of the incarnation and the person of Jesus. Finally, the service reaches its climax in the words of the Christmas collect and in the singing of "Adeste Fideles.""
The service is rich. You can view this year's service booklet for yourself. You can also listen to this year's service for the next 26 days after this article's publication.
There's so much to love about this liturgy beyond the lessons and the music: the sentences; the versicles and responses at the head of each section (my favorite being "Prepare ye the way of the Lord / Make his paths straight."); the collects.
The service is in four sections:
- The Message of Advent
- The Word of God (which includes the wonderful passage from Luke of Jesus reading from Isaiah in the synagogue)
- The Prophetic Call (which features a hefty dose of John the Baptist)
- The Christ-Bearer (including Mary and her Magnificat)
But one thing that I chose not to incorporate at St. Peter's for our service is the seven O Antiphons. Don't get me wrong; I love the O Antiphons. But their inclusion in this already rich service seems like an "everything but the kitchen sink approach". (Besides, St. Peter's has already offered a simple service focusing on the O Antiphons this year).
The collects in the service provide a nice bridge to the historic collects found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The collect for section two, the Word of God, is the collect for the Second Sunday in Advent (note that in the 1662 book the preposition is different than it is in the 1979 book). This prayer finds a place in the 1979 book as the collect for Proper 28 (the Sunday closest to November 16).
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The collect for section three, which does not appear in the 1979 book at all, is specific to John the Baptist.
O Lord Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The collect for section four, at least in the present service, is not the collect for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, but can be traced to an Anglican Altar Services (1941) collect for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15). Using a Marian collect here is congruent with the focus on Mary in the Gospel lessons for the Fourth Sunday of Advent in the Revised Common Lectionary.
Almighty and everlasting God, who didst stoop to raise our fallen race by the child-bearing of blessed Mary: Grant that we, who have seen thy glory manifested in our manhood [St. John's substitutes "flesh"], and thy love perfected in our weakness, may daily be renewed in thine image, and conformed to the likeness of thy Son; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Finally, a note about the music itself. It should be noted while the informal name of this service is the "Advent Carol Service", the title page actually reads "A Service for Advent with Carols". I believe that this name is deliberately chosen to not limit the music solely to "carols" but to allow for all kinds of liturgical music (including hymns and canticles, which were part of the original design).
As with the Christmas Lessons and Carols service at King's College, the Advent service at St. John's includes a heavy dose of new music, especially new music written for carol texts.
But with the doors thrown open to all types of music (assuming at least two carols, to stay true to the plural in the service's title) we see the full flowering of Lessons and Carols as one of the great liturgies of the Anglican church.
What started as music begetting it's own liturgy has now come full circle. This elegant liturgy is now inspiring new commissions and compositions.
I find Lessons and Carols so fascinating because the realm of creative possibilities within its fixed structure is so immense.
This is Church Music at it's finest: not as a hand-maid of the liturgy, but a full partner with it.
Of course there are always other Advent Carol Services to consider, too!
- New College, Oxford added 7 December 2016
- St. Thomas, New York
- Trinity College, Cambridge
Labels: Advent, Andrew MacIntosh, BCP, church music, Collect, Eric Milner-White, Guest, Howells, King's College (Cambridge), Lessons and Carols, St John's (Cambridge), St Peter's (St Louis), the Blessed Virgin Mary
The descant is a high line for the trebles of the choir that soars above the melody of a hymn – a melody that everyone has already sung three, four, five, or even seven times in a row already.
In writing a descant, sometimes you need to leave a word or two out for the music to flow. The work of the descant is done by the notes, and the words can be an unnecessary encumbrance. If you do use words, you might not necessarily use all of them. Or you might use just "alleluia", or even "ah".
So it is no surprise that the great composer Herbert Howells takes some liberties with texting his own descant to his glorious hymn tune MICHAEL.
Here is a spectacular recording of this hymn sung by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. It's an arrangement brass, percussion, and organ by Christopher Palmer, but the harmonization and descant are Howells's own. Hear the whole thing below, or just go straight to the final stanza to hear Howells's descant.
It's really lovely, I think. And not every church musician seems to be aware that this is out there!
A couple points: the descant seems especially strong because it begins as a modified canon at the fourth. It's a highly effective way to draw the ear, and it staggers the descant away from the beginning of the melody. It's almost a surprise when it comes in. As in, "Oh, a descant too!". This technique is probably not used often enough in our hymn singing.
Furthermore, Howells does something rather interesting with the words. The descant is initially texted with the first stanza of Robert Bridges poem:
All my hope on God is founded; he doth still my trust renew, me through change and chance he guideth, only good and only true. God unknown, he alone calls my heart to be his own.
While the choir and congregation have progressed to the final stanza:
Still from man to God eternal sacrifice of praise be done, high above all praises praising for the gift of Christ, his Son. Christ doth call one and all: ye who follow shall not fall.
But it should be said that the descanters sing only an abbreviated version of the first stanza. After the first two verses they skip to the fifth and then to the first part of the seventh for the peculiar turn of phrase: "God unknown calls my heart."
This really jumped out at me this last time I read it. I suppose it's not all that strange given that the only missing phrase here is "he alone". But it got me thinking about our unknown God.
What is it to say that God is "unknown"? We know him to a degree in the person of Jesus Christ. And so isn't it fascinating that these words about "God unknown" are paired with praise "for the gift of Christ his son"?
And the arrival of the descanters to the words of the final stanza pack a particular punch as they pivot on the word "call".
In the first stanza God "calls my heart to be his own". In the final, "Christ doth call" – and it should be noted that it is the same Christ for whom we praise the unknown God.
The cascading spirals of ascending praise are already rapturous at this point, and Howells's text setting makes them even more so.
But does it help us know God any better? Are we supposed to? Or is the person of God to be mysterious, and known, as his Christ, by his "call"?
We also often sing of "love unknown", as it is in the beginning of the anonymous 18th century hymn "Come, thou almighty king":
Come, thou almighty King, help us thy Name to sing, help us to praise. Father whose love unknown all things created own, build in our hearts thy throne, Ancient of Days.
And in the famous Samuel Crossman hymn that bears the phrase in the first line:
My song is love unknown, my Savior's love to me, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.
"Pop" Music Tangent: See also: Coldplay: "A Message" - relation to "My Song is Love Unknown"
And again in Charlotte Elliott's beautiful hymn "Just as I am, without one plea"
Just as I am, thy love unknown has broken every barrier down; now to be thine, yea, thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come.
But one of the most fascinating "unknowns" in Christian hymnody is that of the unknown Traveler. Charles Wesley's hymn picks up on the anonymity of Jacob's wrestling partner in the hymn he called "Wrestling Jacob".
Come, O thou Traveler unknown, whom still I hold, but cannot see; my company before is gone, and I am left alone with thee. With thee all night I mean to stay, and wrestle till the break of day.
And so it is that Jacob does engage in a prolonged stalemate with the Traveler, despite injury, and then the sun rises on the scene. It is the Traveler who asks to be let go in the story from Genesis, "for day is breaking". (I suppose that the rising sun would "shine too much light" on this conflict!)
And then there is the great ordeal of naming and identity. Jacob demands a blessing. The Traveler asks his name. Jacob gives it. The Traveler says, "now you shall be called Israel".
Then, in the Genesis story, remarkably, Jacob asks the Traveler's name. He seems to have forgotten for a moment that he really just wanted a blessing. Or, maybe he thinks knowing God in this way would be a greater blessing?
The Traveler responds, "why is it that you ask my name"?
In the story, we never get a name for the Traveler, but in Charles Wesley's hymn, there is a profound poetic resolution to all this wrestling.
... Speak, or thou never hence shalt move, and tell me if thy name is Love. 'Tis Love, 'tis Love! Thou diedst for me! I hear thy whisper in my heart: the morning breaks, the shadows flee. Pure Universal Love thou art; thy mercies never shall remove, thy nature and thy name is Love.
God may be "unknown", but we know enough.
"God is love", or even better, "Pure Universal Love".
And what about us, called by God? How are we known?
If the spiritual has it right, and we do too, "they'll know we are Christians by our love".
Labels: Charles Wesley, Charlotte Elliott, church music, Howells, hymns, Jacob, Robert Bridges, Samuel Crossman
Today marks one year since the death of John Scott, the organist and director of music of St. Thomas Church, New York City, and one of the very finest church musicians the world has ever known.
Gentle Jesus, grant him eternal rest.
Nunc dimittis from Howells "St Paul's Service" from St Paul's Cathedral, London 28 January 2004
John Scott, Director of Music; Huw Williams, Sub-Organist
Labels: Howells, John Scott, St Paul's (London), St Thomas (New York)
Stephen Cleobury writes:
"This year's selection has a very strong King's basis. The commissioned carol is from Richard Causton, a Fellow of King's College, and a university lecturer in composition. He has, in turn, commissioned a new text from George Szirtes, which has strong contemporary resonances.In September we heard the sad news of the death of one of my predecessors here at King's, the legendary Sir David Willcocks. His many carol arrangements and descants are known the world over, and we include a number of these. Near the beginning and the end are pieces by Vaughan Williams and Howells, both composers having been very closely associated with David Willcocks.
Also, during the summer, the world of church and organ music mourned the loss of John Scott, whose setting of Nova, Nova comes after the Annunciation lesson.
We mark the 70th birthday of John Rutter by including two of the carols he has written for King's over the years. Bob Chilcott, 60 this year, is a former chorister and choral scholar of King's, and his commission for the Choir is also programmed.
Carols by Boris Ord, Harold Darke and Philip Ledger also find a place. Ord and Ledger were, respectively, the predecessor and successor of Willcocks, while Darke looked after the Choir during WW2."
Labels: Christmas, Cleobury, Darke, Howells, King's College (Cambridge), Ord, Philip Ledger, Richard Causton, Rutter, Willcocks
As it is our care and delight to await the coming of the 2015 King's College Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols, we must in heart and mind review the music list for this, the most famous regularly occurring church service in the entire world.
- The service will begin with the hymn "Once in royal David's city" as it always does. The descant on the final stanza is by David Willcocks, the first of many carols and arrangements by Willcocks at this service. Willcocks, of course, is the famous former director of music of King's who died earlier this year.
- The invitatory carol is "What sweeter music" by John Rutter. Stephen Cleobury and King's College commission a composer to write a new carol every year. This carol was commissioned in 1987. We remarked last year that this carol seemed quite overdue. It has not been sung since 2008. It's been a full ten years since it was heard as the invitatory carol.
- After the First Lesson come two very familiar carols at this service.
- This is the truth sent from above - Vaughan Williams last sung in 2012
- Adam lay ybounden - Boris Ord, by the former director of music of King's, this is probably the most frequently sung carol after this lesson. It was last sung in 2011.
- After the Second Lesson
- Ding dong! merrily on high - David Willcocks, the first of three carols by Willcocks
- In dulci jubilo - Robert Lucas Pearsall, for a carol that is so closely associated with this service (at least in our minds) it is interesting to note that it hasn't been sung since 2010. Interestingly, these two carols were paired together after this lesson in 1999, though the order was reversed.
- After the Third Lesson
- Sussex Carol - David Willcocks
- Hymn: It came upon a midnight clear, this hymn was last sung in 2011 when it also followed Willcocks's "Sussex Carol" (though in that year there were three carols after the Third Lesson). The descant is that by Stephen Cleobury, which, with its opening parallel sixths, is one of our very favorites.
- After the Fourth Lesson
- A tender shoot - Otto Goldschmidt, last sung in 2010
- A spotless rose - Philip Ledger, last sung in 2012
- After the Fifth Lesson
- The angel Gabriel - David Willcocks, it is believed that this marks the first performance of this carol at this service, at least in recent memory. More often the Edgar Pettman arrangement is sung, as it was in last year's service.
- Nova, Nova - John Scott, a fitting tribute to a superb church musician who also died this year.
- After the Sixth Lesson
- In the bleak midwinter - Harold Darke, sometimes voted the "best" Christmas carol of all time, this was sung last year.
- Dormi Jesu - John Rutter, the second Rutter carol of the service. Note that Rutter celebrates his 70th birthday this year.
- After the Seventh Lesson
- The Shepherd's Carol - Bob Chilcott, this carol has been sung every other year since 2011. It occupies an unusual place as a "modern classic" that was not composed by John Rutter. It was originally written not for this service, but for the service recorded television broadcast "Carols for Kings".
- Hymn: God rest ye merry, gentlemen, this hymn is sung in the famous arrangement of David Willcocks
- After the Eighth Lesson
- This year's commissioned carol The Flight - Richard Causton
- Here is the little door - Herbert Howells, a splendid little carol that leans toward Epiphany. This will be the first time that this particular carol of Howells has been sung. Previously it was his "A spotless rose", which is sung frequently, including at last year's service. In fact, singing of this carol at this service goes back to at least 1936.
- After the Ninth Lesson the service concludes as it always does, with both hymns sung in their familiar David Willcocks arrangements.
- Hymn: O come, all ye faithful
- Hymn: Hark! the herald angels sing
The second organ voluntary is "Sortie on 'In dulci jubilo' " by David Briggs, a former organ scholar at King's. This organ piece was last performed in 2007.
The Sinden.org spreadsheet of carols at this service has been updated with this year's information.
This article was updated at 9 o'clock Central Time with descant information after an overwhelming response from our readers.
Labels: Christmas, David Briggs, Howells, John Scott, King's College (Cambridge), Ord, Philip Ledger, Richard Causton, Rutter, Willcocks
So last week, when we were all watching the consecration of Immanuel Chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary, there was a wonderful anthem by David Hurd.
Then this happened on Twitter
@nelsojl that really was lovely. I didn't know it.
— David Sinden (@sinden) October 13, 2015And then, this:
@nelsojl do we know you're top ten favorites? Because you need to blog that or something.
— David Sinden (@sinden) October 13, 2015So, today, we welcome Jessica Nelson, guest blogger, with a top ten list (in no particular order) of her favorite carols and anthems for Advent and Christmas.
- Philip Stopford, Lully, Lulla, Lullay (pub. Hal Leonard)
This makes me have all the feelings. Minimalism & some sexy suspensions, but not so long that it gets tedious.
- Jan Sandström, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (pub. Gehrmans, Stockholm)
It's like a modern choral chorale prelude. A post-modern take on Praetorius. Some really good prickly moments. I first heard this on a recording from Clare College that my fourth-favorite alto lent me. She has now been promoted to third-favorite alto.
- James MacMillan, O radiant dawn (pub. Boosey & Hawkes)
My favorite of the Strathclyde Motets. Furthermore, I could listen to James MacMillan read his grocery list all day long. He is also not terrible to look at. AND! You can follow him on the Twitter @jamesmacm.
- Richard Felciano, The Eyes of All Hope in Thee, O Lord, (pub. ECS)
(The title of this YouTube video reads, "...hope in Three, O Lord." I feel like that Means Something.)
The alleluias remind me of Rejoice in the Lamb, but only a little.
- Elizabeth Poston, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (pub. ECS)
Purely, purely sentimental reasons. Millsaps College Singers. Every single year.
- Herbert Howells, A spotless rose (pub. Galaxy, I think?)
Because it's Howells. And the magnificent text painting. And because it's charm lies in that it's absolutely no longer than it is. It's like a little perfect pearl.
- Cesar Carrillo, O magnum mysterium (pub. earthsongs)
The sonic equivalent of Scotch. It makes you feel warm from the inside out.
- Philip Ledger, Advent Calendar (pub. Encore)
I have been totally smitten with this text by Rowan Williams for a couple of years. This is the best setting of it I've encountered so far. I wish more folks would set it. I think the possibilities are endless.
- Abbie Betinis, arr., In the bleak midwinter (pub. Abbie Betinis)
This, like the Stopford setting of the Coventry Carol, is one of the few settings of either of those carols that isn't overly sentimental, but instead captures the gravitas that those texts really demand. It's just nice to hear someone (and a young female composer, especially!) writing music for Advent/Christmas that isn't like listening to a Thomas Kinkade painting.
- David Hurd, A stable lamp is lighted (pub. GIA)
I think Hurd's writing just so masterfully captures the text. And it's just as much a Palm Sunday text as a Christmas one.
[Editor's Note: This setting also appears at Hymn 104 in the Hymnal 1982]
Honorable mentions:
- Mark Schweizer, The Stars Looked Down (pub. St. James Music Press)
I love G.K. Chesterton almost as George Herbert. Almost. - Randall Thompson, Nowel from The Nativity According to St. Luke (pub. E.C. Schirmer)
Like his "Alleluia," only different. And really beautiful.
Jessica Nelson lives in Tupelo, Mississippi, where she is organist/choirmaster at All Saints' Episcopal Church. In her spare time, she composes a little and watches Netflix a lot. You can follow her on the Twittergram @nelsojl.
Labels: Abbie Betinis, Advent, Cesar Carillo, Christmas, church music, Felciano, Howells, Hurd, Jessica Nelson, MacMillan, Mark Schweizer, Philip Ledger, Poston, Randall Thompson, Sandström, Stopford
Really the word "hymn" refers to the words. But for most people the music comes to mind just as quickly, if not more so.
Of course, a congregation needs both words and music to sing a hymn. Otherwise I guess they could just mumble some poetry together, or, alternatively, hum something for a while.
Note to self: write some intentionally wordless hymns. Approach publishers.
But sometimes a melody is written for words that so encapsulates their sentiment that the result is stirring, compelling, and nothing short of miraculous: a triumph of the great symbiotic art of hymnody.
Words
Walter Russell Bowie's two hymn texts are provocative and "have been judged as among the finest by an American author written in the first half of this century" (Hymnal 1982 Companion). They are "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth", and "O holy city, seen of John".
Walter Russell Bowie was a Social Gospel progressive who was baptized at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1883 (just 21 years after Jefferson Davis was baptized there). He would serve as rector of the parish from 1911-1923. Just prior to assuming this rectorship, Bowie was asked for a hymn based on Revelation 21 by Henry Sloane Coffin for the collection Hymns of the Kingdom of God (1910). The result is "O holy city, seen of John".
One of Bowie's stanzas, however, seems not to have been handed down in most versions of the hymn. It appears in the original hymn text as stanza 2:
Hark, how from men whose lives are held more cheap than merchandise; from women struggling sore for bread, from little children's cries, there swells the sobbing human plaint that bids thy walls arise!
Music
I'm particularly fascinated with the connection between Howells and the marvelous words of Bowie because Howells is, quite simply, my favorite composer of twentieth century church music, and I was the organist of St. Paul's, Richmond for five years (2010-2015). It was a delight to relish this tune (and sing it often) in a parish so closely linked with Bowie.
I have written before about the two Herbert Howells hymn tunes for the both of the published hymn texts of Walter Russell Bowie (Bowie, Walter Russell - connection to Herbert Howells). Mostly, I wrote of my perplexity that the tune in the Hymnal 1982 for Bowie's "Lord Christ" is in a major key (Hymn 598)! But today, on Howells's birthday, no less, I want to turn to the other tune, SANCTA CIVITAS.
Howells's tune, written in 1962, is extraordinary. In fact, Erik Routley, the prolific church music scholar, names it one of "Six Great Moments in Twentieth-century Hymn Music"
- Vaughan Williams's KING'S WESTON, found at Hymn 435 (this article refers to hymns in the Hymnal 1982)
- Cyril Vincint Taylor's ABBOT'S LEIGH, found at Hymn 523
- A tune by Jean Langlais: DIEU NOUS AVONS VU TO GLOIRE (um, does anyone know this one?)
- Herbert Howells's SANCTA CIVITAS, found at Hymn 582 (but not completely)
- Michael Dawney's FELINFOEL (yeah, no idea about this one either)
- And Richard Dirksen's VINEYARD HAVEN, found at Hymns 392 and 557
Tangent: Routley's work on hymns is always provocative. Of the six he names three are "bestsellers", one is mostly hiding in plain sight (Howells), and two of them I've never heard, nor can I find. There's more here to research, as always!
Howells's name for the tune, SANCTA CIVITAS, is Latin for "Holy City," making the text-tune connection clear. But more than that, the name is surely a reference to the large choral work by Vaughan Williams with that name. It was, after all, a close encounter with Vaughan Williams himself at the 1910 Three Choirs Festival that set Howells firmly on the path of being a composer.
Howells manages the melodic modality masterfully, with the music meandering from D minor to an F Major finish. The intervening notes between stanzas (they are in the original hymn but, most unfortunately, edited out of the Hymnal 1982) raise the Tonic to the Mediant so that the successive stanza can fall into place without a hitch.
There is what I believe to be an intentional seamlessness to the hymn accompaniment that arises when these inter-stanza passing tones are used (as in the wonderful recording from St. Clement embedded above). This is up to interpretation, to some degree. I can find another recording that does not treat the accompaniment this way.
If the "seamless" approach is what Howells had in mind, this is by no means a new technique, though it is an innovation on it. Think of the hymn tune ENGELBERG, written by Stanford, Howells's mentor, in 1904. The single, solitary "thump" allows the hymn accompaniment to be continuous, which has the affect of somewhat blurring the line between the strophic hymn form and something through-composed. And this is, in fact, the common modern-day performance practice with this tune. Howells's innovation is to simply expand that pedal thump into a treble "doo-doo" — which, incidentally, builds more time into the "join" between the stanzas for a breath but without making the interlude needlessly fussy.
Still with me? Good, because we haven't even brought up the final stanza yet. Howells gives this text the full treatment with a slightly altered harmonization and supremely musical descant. Not a single note is wasted, and the sopranos' expertise is fully demanded — this is not a trivial sing! But the result, to my ear, is so completely and utterly thrilling.
A melody of great sweep and dignity, with a descant for the final verse [sic] which gives the impression of having been conceived along with the tune and of being a natural efflorescence of it.English Church Music, Royal School of Church Music, 1965
Consider the final stanza and the city that rises "in the mind of God". It is of divine imagination. And this inspired descant catches our souls and flings them heavenward where we chance to dream of things eschatological and that poorly-understood sentiment in the Lord's Prayer "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".
The unchurched Howells finds a way to join what we would call Bowie's Anglo-Catholic Socialism if he weren't in fact a Southern Churchman Social Gospelist.
Another thing that is lost in our modern hymnals is editorial direction. Howells, who never fails to give descriptive language, here gives "With warmth, but moving easily". I can't quibble at all with the St. Clement recording above, but I do want to note that it is a choral recording. I think that for a full congregation, the organ will want to provide a bit more "fire" for the warmth. The word "ardente" from the anthem "Like as the hart" comes to mind.
I suspect that, for many parishes, this tune is hiding in plain sight. If we did a survey I think we would find that the American tune on 583 is sung for these words more than 582. And there is precdent for a Howells tune having a slow start. MICHAEL first appeared in The Clarendon Hymnal in 1936 and was neglected for over thirty years. Though it doesn't appear in Routley's "Six Great Moments", it doesn't need to. It exploded in popularity, and it now has a Triple Platinum Hymnal hanging in its living room.
But perhaps SANCTA CIVITAS tends to be overlooked because the Hymnal 1982 doesn't present the hymn tune as Howells intended.
We can fix this.
I implore you in choirs and on organ benches: buy this hymn from Novello, or play it out of Hymns Ancient and Modern.
Your congregations will allow you two little extra notes, I promise.
And Howells wants it that way.
Labels: Dirksen, Engelberg, Henry Sloane Coffin, Howells, hymn, Hymn 392, Hymn 523, Hymn 557, Hymn 582, Hymn 598, Hymnal 1982, Langlais, Routley, St Paul's (Richmond), Stanford, Walter Russell Bowie
The 1982 hymnal is now 33 years old, and language, musical taste and theological emphasis has changed profoundly over those years.
So begins the "Explanation" section of resolution D060 of the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church which wrapped up in Salt Lake City this past weekend.
Judging books by their covers
When I was walking into Episcopal chapels and churches for the first time as a high schooler (occupational hazard for a young organist) I did notice the name of the hymnal, and I thought it was a bit odd -- it was strange and too specific.
I remembered well the lovely blue hymnals that the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) produced in 1990. The color, logo, gold embossing -- they were new, yet timeless. They were a welcome update to the dusty maroon The Hymnbook that had littered the pews since 1955. Thirty-five years seemed a decent time to wait for that nice, classic update. But unless you were there for that, you wouldn't really know from the cover of the hymnal when it came out.
In the Episcopal Church the date is stamped right there on the cover.
First there's the definite article, then there's a description of the what the book is, and then there's a year: 1982.
But here's the thing about that date on the cover: that's when General Convention approved the texts of the book, not it's publication date. Even before that 1982 gathering, the chair of the hymnal committee, Raymond F. Glover, knew that it would take more time to finalize and publish the book.
it will take the Commission another three years to prepare music editions. Clover [sic] said he foresees publication of pew and accompaniment editions by the Church Hymnal Corporation late in 1985.Proposed Texts for Revised Hymnal Submitted, Episcopal News Service, 23 July 1982
And wouldn't you know it, he was right! The book bears a copyright date of 1985.
Finding ourselves in the Hymnal
Less than a month after this report from the Episcopal News Service, I was born. So I guess you could say I've grown up with this hymnal, even though I didn't know it very well until I started working with it regularly at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lakewood, Ohio in 2002.
But boy do I love this hymnal. Let me count the ways.
There are beautiful Anglican hymns which I've also sung in other traditions. But in the context of Episcopal worship and use of the The Hymnal 1982 I understood them as the cornerstone of a great, living hymn culture. From the rising lines of "When morning guilds the skies," to the stately "Praise, my soul, the king of heaven," and the sublime "Come, labor on." Then I found the early American strands: "What wondrous love is this," the startlingly beautiful tune RESIGNATION ("My Shepherd will supply my need"), and the rustic, dry, pentatonic liquidity of BOURBON (found at hymns 147 and 675). There are twentieth century tunes, including those by Herbert Howells (MICHAEL and SANCTA CIVITAS) and Calvin Hampton (ST. HELENA, and DE TAR). There are really modern twentieth century tunes, like those of William Albright (PETRUS, ARBOR STREET, and the self referential ALBRIGHT). And some of the service music -- I'm looking at you Richard Felciano -- is almost post-modern.
But I digress. Which is easy to do. There's so much in this book -- 720 hymns, and that doesn't include the Service Music (or the Service Music Appendix, which is only in the accompaniment edition!). I know that we all have our favorites, and I suspect all of my church music colleagues have had great joy in discovering something new in this book.
We find ourselves in this hymnal while we lose ourselves in it. As Thomas Merton said, "art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
There's plenty of time to talk about this hymnal. It's not going anywhere.
My point is that the more I dove into this book and the more I learned about the Anglican tradition -- it's scriptures (both biblical and non-), traditions, and reasons -- the more this book made sense. And as I worked in the church, I found that I could make more and more sense with the resources of this hymnal within the liturgy.
A Revisionist's Rationale
So let's circle back around to the Explanation for resolution D060, the resolution to Establish a Process for the Revision of the Hymnal 1982 that just passed at General Convention 2015.
The 1982 hymnal is now 33 years old, and language, musical taste and theological emphasis has changed profoundly over those years.
Well, I am the same age as the hymnal.
- Language: I still speak the same language I always have, even though I didn't know how to speak it at first. I learned from my parents, my teachers -- I am still learning. This very hymnal has helped shape some of my language. And yet, we know that our language falls short
Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air; it shines in the light;Hymn 388, Robert Grant (1779-1838)
- Musical taste: I love music. Some of my earliest musical memories are singing hymns in church (a particularly vivid memory of "Fairest Lord Jesus" comes to mind). My tastes haven't changed "profoundly". Many people I know haven't changed their musical tastes profoundly either. I'm not sure what that means -- especially in regard to a hymnal(?). I don't think it's a question of taste.
Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness,
wake your noblest, sweetest strain,
with the praises of your Savior
let his house resound again;
him let all your music honor,
and your songs exalt his reign.
Hymn 492, John Ellerton (1826-1893)
- Theological emphasis: I'm not fully qualified to talk about this. But let me just ask, are we still emphasizing Jesus in the Episcopal Church? Because I think this hymnal does a pretty darn good job of that. What about God and the Holy Spirit? Are we still emphasizing them? The Trinity? The saints? What about the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist? It's all here.
I could quote the table of contents at this point, but I'll let you look that up yourselves. Try the front of the book.
I think this Explanation based on language, taste, and theology just begins way out in left field.
Couple this with the fact that a recent survey conducted by the Church Pension Group revealed that most people want hymnal revision.
I think the case for revision can be made, but I don't get it from the text of the resolution.
A Realistic Rationale
And yet, perhaps we just need to own up to the fact that the time has come to revise our hymnal. And one of the reasons may as plain as the light of the "day of radiant gladness". We stamped the date "1982" on the cover of this thing, so it was already "three years old" when it hit the pew racks in 1985. (The 1940 does not bear a date on it's cover.)
Let's look at all the dates for a moment, given that all Episcopal hymnals have an official "year".
| Year of Hymnal | Number of years since previous revision |
|---|---|
| 1789 | n/a |
| 1826 | 37 |
| 1871 | 45 |
| 1892 | 21 |
| 1916 | 24 |
| 1940 | 24 |
| 1982 | 42 |
| "2024" | 42 |
The average time that has elapsed between revisions is 32.167 years.
If we take the 42 years that elapsed between the 1940 and the 1982 as a modern model for revision, we would expect to see The Hymnal 2024.
The only time that the Episcopal Church has waited longer to revise was between the 1826 and 1871 hymnals.
One could look at these numbers, and the absence of an all out civil war at present, and suggest that it is high time we do this!
Since we're only coming up with a plan now, however, a plan that would be authorized at the General Convention of 2018 in Austin, Texas, and it may well be that we would take at least until 2027 to approve the book (and maybe publish it around 2030?).
Turning the Page
And so, even though we all have intensely strong feelings about this -- Lord knows I do! -- we press onward with our hymnal revision process.
This is a good thing. The benefit of hindsight lets us see the outliers in The Hymnal 1940, and with some conversation and discernment, I trust that the "Hymnal 2024" committee will also be able see those things that have not stood up well in the current book.
A note on music: I don't think that tastes have radically changed since 1982. I do think, as in the 1940 hymnal, some things made it in to the 1982 hymnal that were a bit more "fashionable" at the time than they are now. But there are some of these more "fashionable" things that, in my judgement, transcend their time period. This is called craftsmanship, and it's something to which all composers aspire.
Words: poetry must reign here. I think the Presbyterians, and to a greater extent the United Church of Christ, erred too much with their push toward "politically correct" hymnody.
I would have my suggestions for hymns in the new book. One might be the possibility that we include a little-known Howells tune for a well-known Advent hymn (and maybe even think about moving it to the Advent section of the book!). There are plenty of things we could borrow from Anglican currents and other more ecumenical eddies. A prime hope of mine is disseminating among the wider church the metaphysical text "How shall I sing that majesty" to the powerful COE FEN.
But the real joy in this revision process will be not what we leave behind, but what we discover. Just ask Bruce Neswick how old he was when he contributed his sweeping key-changer TOMTER to the 1982 collection. Will it be preserved in the new book? Perhaps, perhaps not. But we can be quite sure we will find something just as good that we've never sung before.
This post has been corrected because there is no P in TOMTER.
Labels: Albright, church music, Episcopal Church, Howells, Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, Hymnal 2024, Neswick, Ray Glover
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge is surely single most listened to regularly occurring church service in the world. Through live and delayed radio and web broadcasts, this service reaches millions of listeners annually.
It has reached that magical point of the year where it comes time to examine what we shall hear at this year's Festival.
We at sinden.org also made some predictions and we need to see how our crystal ball performed.
- The first carol will be "Once in Royal David's city" - Yes, it is. Obviously.
+1 Point; Score: 1 - Rutter's "What sweeter music" seems quite overdue - Well, it still is. We said it would be the Invitatory Carol, but that slot is occupied by "A Babe is Born" by William Mathias. This carol was last sung in 2007. Music by Rutter was last sung in 2012 ("All bells in paradise").
-1 Point; Score: 0 - We haven't heard the Warlock "Adam lay ybounden" in a long while - We hedged our bets in this instance, and said that if it wasn't the Warlock it would be the Ord. But, of course, it's neither. It's the setting by Philip Ledger, director of music at King's 1974-1982, who died in 2012.
-2 Points; Score: -2 - The second carol after the Third Lesson will be "God rest ye merry, gentlemen". - Wrong again! For the third year in a row, the hymn is "Unto us is born a Son". There have not been three consecutive years of the same hymn in this position (this same hymn was sung here in 2012 and 2013). HOWEVER, the hymn is sung later in the service.
-.5 Points; Score: -2.5 - Cleobury will put down his own "Joys Seven" after the Fifth Lesson - Yes, he did. This carol was last sung in 2009.
+7 Points, one for each joy; Score: 4.5 - "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" will be the second carol sung after the Seventh Lesson. It isn't. For the first time in the last six years, the carol has changed to God rest ye merry, Gentlemen.
-1 Point; Score: 3.5Final Score: 3.5 not a great showing this year.
A larger number of carols have not been addressed by our predictions. Here they are, in order.
After the first lesson we hear Remember, O thou man by Thomas Ravenscroft. This lovely, simple carol was last sung in 2011.
After the second lesson we hear the Peter Maxwell Davies carol "One Star, at Last". This carol, with words by George Mackay Brown was commissioned for this service in 1984. It was the second in the series of annually commissioned carols in Stephen Cleobury's tenure.
Sung much less often that the Pearsall setting, the older setting by Hieronymus Praetorius of In dulci jubilo follows. This eight part motet was last sung in 2008.
The unbeatable Sussex Carol arranged by David Willcocks follows the third lesson. It last appeared in 2011.
The immaculate A spotless rose of Herbert Howells follows fourth lesson. It is the only Howells carol to appear in the service (at least in recent memory*), and it has not been sung since 2008. As it's superb final cadence fades, the choir will take up the strains of the medieval "There is no rose", a carol that appears frequently in the service of the years, and was last sung in 2009.
The fifth lesson brings the simple Gabriel's Message by Edgar Pettman, last sung just a couple years ago.
Harrison Birtwistle's "Lullaby" comes up after the sixth lesson. Though it hasn't been sung before, Birtwistle's "The Gleam" was the commissioned carol in 2003. The Birtwistle is followed by the familiar Gustav Holst setting of In the bleak midwinter. This carol was last sung in . . . wait a minute. We think the choir has recorded this, but we can't find any indication that it has been sung in this service in recent memory*. The homophonic ease of this carol is probably need as a foil to (we presume) the polyphonic difficulty of the Birtwistle.
Similarly, Hector Berlioz's L'adieu des Bergers (The Shepherd's Farewell), has also been sung by the choir (see below) but never at this service -- note that Carols from Kings, pre-recorded for television broadcast, is not the same as the Christmas Eve service, which is broadcast live on the radio only.
Director Stephen Cleobury has commissioned a new carol every year since 1983. This year the commission goes to Swiss composer Carl Rütti. His setting of "I wonder as I wander" (see below) is familiar to listeners to this service. "I wonder" was last sung in 2011. We will update this paragraph with information about this year's commission De Maria Virgine as that information becomes available.
After the Rutti commission follows the rather saccharine setting of Ding! Dong! merrily on high by Mack Wilberg. Though previously sung in 2007, 2009, and 2010, many of us question whether this carol will really have a long tenure in this service.
The other traditional elements of the service are in place: the final two hymns are "O come, all ye faithful" and "Hark! the herald angels sing". The service concludes, as always with the Bach Organ Prelude on "In dulci jubilo," BWV 729. The final organ voluntary, which changes year to year, is the Final of the Sixth Organ Symphony by Charles-Marie Widor.
Our spreadsheet of all the carols since 1997 has been updated
*We have resorted to the phrase "in recent memory" when necessary because our records only go back to 1997. We very much wish to continue this research, in person, in Cambridge, in 2016/17. Surely a sabbatical is needed.
Labels: Bach, Berlioz, Birtwistle, Cleobury, Holst, Howells, Mackay Brown, Mathias, Maxwell Davies, Ord, Pearsall, Philip Ledger, Praetorius, Ravenscroft, Rutter, Rutti, Warlock, Widor, Wilberg, Willcocks
It's been a nearly six year wait. But the time draweth extremely nigh.
You didn't think we had forgotten, did you?
Previously on the blog in 2008: October - Sarabande for the Twelfth of any.
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Labels: Howells, organ music
I first heard Robert Glasper when we were both students at Houston's High School for Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) about ten years ago.
Since then, he's gone on to make a name for himself and was the subject of this article in the Washington Post in 2012: "Pianist finds the right notes between hip-hop and jazz".
This article is the source of the quotation that appeared in my post from yesterday ("Glasper, Robert - music in the present"). Here it is in full:
“I think everybody stopped trying to outdo each other and everybody started paying homage,” he says. “I love all my jazz masters and my elders that came before me, but I always say that people have killed the living to praise the dead. It’s like, ‘Yo, I’m here.’”
Reading it in full gave me more food for thought, especially about music in the church.
It's very easy to "pay homage" to all the great music of the past. And in fact I think many music lists of many churches fail to move past the expected and the very familiar.
While the "Yo, I'm here" sentiment has limited value in the liturgy, there is something to be said for forging a way ahead that pays homage to the past but also moves the conversation forward.
Music can't remain static. The repertoire should not remain the same. If the Holy Spirit is still in operation today then fresh voices must be given airtime.
Finding a balance between the established canon and new voices should be a struggle in jazz just as it should be in church music. The two should be held in creative tension.
We in the church can learn a lot from jazz, a form of music whose very being thrives on fast-paced real-time creativity, conversation, and improvisation.
The modern "symphonic" approach to church music, first found in the music of Charles Villiers Stanford and then redefined by Herbert Howells, continues to provide a foundation for much of the sacred music being written now.
So, the ultimate tension is that "paying homage" is itself a way forward.
Labels: Howells, HSPVA, improvisation, Jazz, Robert Glasper, Stanford
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