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The Abbey has quietly begun a regular series of live video webcasts of various services.

The series began on September 8, 2024, with a Sung (Choral) Eucharist, and continued with a service of Choral Evensong on Holy Cross Day. Each of the service they have broadcast has stayed up on their YouTube channel for about a month.

The most recent service was a Service of Lessons and Carols for Christmas.

Today, the Feast of Epiphany, the Abbey will webcast a Sung Eucharist.

The Abbey began indexing these services on their “Streamed Services” page, which is now called “Watch Services”.

This kind of endeavor is of great interest to us at Sinden.org, as we suspect it is of all students of church music. The value in these kinds of regular, live webcasts is immeasureable. They allow us to hear a wide variety of liturgical music—sung at a very high standard—fully within a specific, contemporary liturgical context. Though any electronically mediated liturgical experience is, by definition, something other than being truly present, there is value in seeing and hearing liturgy and music as it is conducted in a place like this.

It is not lost on us that as the webcasts at St. John's College, Cambridge have sadly decreased in frequency (only four services were webcast in 2023/24), they have begun at Westminster Abbey. The common denominator here, we must speculate, is Andrew Nethsingha. Webcasts sprung up when he was directing the St. John's Choir, and now they seem to have done the same toward the beginning of his tenure at the Abbey.

Labels: Andrew Nethsingha, Epiphany, St John's (Cambridge), webcasting, Westminster Abbey

Today we noticed that The College of St. John's has been busy joining other Cambridge college choirs for Evensong recently.

All of these choirs sound fabulous on their own, but the result of cramming the stalls of one of these chapels with the singers of two choirs is a yet more thrilling sound.

Most recently, King's College for a Thursday, July 6 service that can be heard from the King's College webcast page.

About a month ago, the St. John's Choir was at Trinity, Cambridge, for a Thursday, June 8 Evensong

Labels: Evensong, King's College (Cambridge), St John's (Cambridge), Trinity College (Cambridge)

I am delighted to invite you to a new offering at St. Peter’s, St. Louis this year. As part of our Evensong series on the second Sunday of every month, the St. Peter’s Singers will lead A Meditation on the Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday, April 9 at 5:30 p.m.

What is this service? It is a compelling synthesis of ancient and modern. And, like Evensong, I hope that it can be a space for real contemplation and prayer, especially at the start of the holiest week of the liturgical year.

A couple weeks ago St. Louisans had the good fortune to be able to hear a performance of The Gospel According to the Other Mary by American composer John Adams, which is a rare modern setting of the Passion. In the program notes Paul Schiavo notes “because its inherent pain was at odds with Western culture’s increasingly determined pursuit of happiness, the Passion story lost popular standing among Christian chronicles to the more comforting Nativity tale during the 19th century and beyond.”

One of the benefits of this cultural affinity toward the Christmas story has been renewed attention to the musical form of the carol, largely music with a focus on the Nativity, but not exclusively. The popularity of carols was so great that it prompted the editors of the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols to call upon churches to hold “carol services” not only at Christmas time, but also Advent, Epiphany, Eastertide, and – why not? – Lent too! Indeed, within the Oxford Book of Carols a number of pieces of music marked for Lent and Holy Week can be found.

This impulse to use the carol to draw Christians deeper into their faith arose at an academic community where there was no liturgical observance of Holy Week. This place is St. John’s College, Cambridge (which also served as the source of the liturgy for our Advent Carol Service). The students of Cambridge University are not present during Holy Week, so a service was designed for the St. John’s College community to reflect on the mysteries of this key part of the Christian story beforehand. The service was designed in 1985 by the Dean of Chapel, the Rev. Andrew Macintosh, and the Organist, George Guest.

The original name of this service was “A Meditation on the Passion of Christ, with Carols,” though it should be noted that at St. John’s, and many other places where this service is offered, the designation “with Carols” has been dropped, and now many different types of music are used.

Read more on the on the St. Peter's, St. Louis website: Carols and the Passion: Drawing on Many Traditions for a Modern Meditation

Labels: Guest, Holy Week, Lent, Lessons and Carols, liturgy, Palm Sunday, St John's (Cambridge)

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.""

source

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:

1. The Message of Advent
2. The Word of God (which includes the wonderful passage from Luke of Jesus reading from Isaiah in the synagogue)
3. The Prophetic Call (which features a hefty dose of John the Baptist)
4. 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.

source: see No. 588

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

"Have you done this service before?" someone asked me at coffee hour on Sunday. We were talking about our upcoming Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent on Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 5:30 p.m..

Of course I had, hadn't I?

But really the answer is no, I haven't. Not exactly.

So I explained that while I had done similar services, I have never actually done the specific liturgy that we will use this Advent.

But I couldn't give her the longer answer. So, here it is.

I'm sort of obsessed with Carol Services (can you tell?). Why? Well, if it came right down to it I'd have to say that the innovation of Lessons and Carols is the apotheosis of the "low church" tradition.

“Lessons and Carols is the apotheosis of the ‘low church’ tradition”

Let's define the terms. Here "Lesson" means a short reading of scripture, though "Short" is relative. A "Carol" can be many things, but historically these are strophic songs (often with a refrain) of a popular or "dance" character on subjects related to Christmas (or Easter, or some other sesason). We will consider the development of carols in relation to these services in part 2.

There's something about the juxtaposition of the familiar and the new that speaks to our spiritual selves. This is especially true if the tradition truly takes hold and you get to hear the same lessons year after year the music offers new commentary, new insight alongside the biblical text. The carols and hymns themselves serve a homiletical function and reinforce each other. Without Sermon or Eucharist, the congregation is allowed to hear in word and music the message of the season and respond with vigorous hymn singing.

I suppose my very first memory of a Carol Service for Advent would have been an order from the Episcopal Church's official Book of Occasional Services (BOS).

There are plenty of lessons to choose from. But if you follow that order literally you have to include the lesson from Gen. 3 about Adam and Eve. And isn't that same lesson typically used at a Christmas Lessons and Carols service? Kind of an odd choice, but okay.

And the Bidding Prayer in that book is ... well ... it's really lousy. It's just the Christmas Bidding Prayer slightly warmed over. It really misses the mark and doesn't speak to Advent at all.

Don't get me wrong, I think I was involved in some lovely services that used the BOS scheme, but I wanted to look elsewhere.

Anyone who has spent any time planning carols for Christmas has stumbled upon the Advent Lessons and Carols information in the back of Carols for Choirs 2 (CfC2) from Oxford University Press.

I've always assumed that the order in CfC2 to be somehow connected to the service in use at King's College, Cambridge. After all, one of the editors of CfC2 was David Willcocks. But information about any of the "Procession for Advent" services, past or present, in that place have not been forthcoming online. (Add to the list of things to research when I take a sabbatical to Cambridge in 2022).

The Bidding Prayer of the CfC2 Advent Carol Service, at least, is substantially better than the one found in BOS. It actually speaks to Advent itself, and is not just a warmed-over Christmas prayer.

Beloved in Christ, as we await the great festival of Christmas let us prepare ourselves so that we may be shown its true meaning. Let us hear, in lessons from Holy Scripture, how the prophets of Israel foretold that God would visit and redeem his waiting people. Let us rejoice, in our carols and hymns, that the good purpose of God is being mightily fulfilled. Let us celebrate the promise that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will bring all people and all things into the glory of God's eternal kingdom. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.

But first, let us pray for the world which God so loves, for those who have not heard the good news of God, or who do not believe it; for those who walk in darkness and the shadow of death; and for the Church in this place and everywhere, that it may be freed from all evil and fear, and may in pure joy lift up the light and love of God. These prayers and praises let us humbly offer to God, in the words which Christ himself taught us:

Our Father...

And at this point I thought that I had found a Bidding Prayer and lessons that worked well for the season of Advent.

And then, stupidly, I got in the car at the end of Thanksgiving weekend (the trip from Richmond took about four hours) and attended the Procession with Advent Lessons and Carols at St. Paul's, K Street in Washington, D.C.

This service was transformative. It was exquisite. And it didn't come from BOS or CfC2. It spoke authentically to the season and left nothing out. Furthermore, it incorporated the idea of a Procession (note that the service at King's to this day is called a "Procession for Advent").

Video: The national Episcopal Church very wisely decided to record a video of this service last year which provides a very good documentation of that service, but, like any recording of liturgy, it is truly no substitute for being present and taking part. If you ever have the opportunity to attend, I strongly encourage you to do so!

So I had to go back to the drawing board. I went through every single resource I could find and lay everything out on the table at once. Every possible lesson was examined and considered. Different structures were weighed.

Ultimately I thought that the notion of a Procession was too compelling to discard. If the Lessons and Carols is a "low church" idea (reading, music, repeat) adding the teleology of a liturgical Procession into the proceedings seemed to incorporate some "high church" gravitas without otherwise compromising what is compelling about Lessons and Carols.

It was about this same time that I attended the American Sarum conference in Bronxville, N.Y. which helped clarify my thinking about liturgical processions. Naturally, Salisbury Cathedral figured prominently into the conversation, and that place has their own wonderful Advent Carol Service.

For the new "Advent Procession" service at St. Paul's, Richmond the following year, I wrote the following:

For hundreds of years liturgical processions have marked boundaries – the physical boundaries of the parish, the church – and in so doing invoke the very boundaries between heaven and earth. Such a procession is particularly resonant in the Advent season when we look expectantly toward the celebration of God’s crossing of this very boundary through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

For the pattern of the service I tried to read the Greek Revival architecture of St. Paul's, Richmond and determine what route in the building would best tell the Advent story. The service at the English Gothic St. Paul's, K Street with it's divided choir stalls simply wouldn't work in the spacious, 800-seat church in Richmond, with it's Gallery Organ.

Here was the order of service at St. Paul's, Richmond in 2011:

1. Matin Responsory - Palestrina (sung from the Narthex)
2. Hymn: "Come, thou redeemer of the earth" (during this hymn the Choir moved into the back pews of the Nave, while the rest of the procession proceeded to their places in the Chancel)
3. Bidding Prayer
4. Carol: "Come, thou long-expected Jesus" - Steven Rickards
5. Isa. 25:6-9 (read by a Chorister)
6. Motet: E'en so, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come - Paul Manz
7. Hymn: "O come, O come, Emmanuel" (during this hymn the Choir moved to the Chancel steps)
8. Isaiah 35:1-10 (read by a parishioner)
9. Anthem: A New Song - James MacMillan (during the thrilling conclusion to this anthem, the Choir moved to the Baptismal Font at the head of the Liturgical North aisle)
10. Malachi 3:1-6 (read by a warden)
11. Choral Hymn: "On Jordan's bank" - arr. Malcolm Archer sung near the Baptismal Font
12. Hymn: "Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding" (during this hymn the Choir moved in procession to the Gallery to their customary place near the organ)
13. I Corinthians 15:42-50 (read by a church musician from the Diocese)
14. Carol: "Remember, O thou man" - Thomas Ravenscroft
15. Hag. 2:6-9 (read by the director of a local ministry)
16. Carol: "Zion at thy shining gates" - George Guest
17. Hymn: "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth" (words by a former rector of the parish sung to the Herbert Howells tune NEWNHAM)
18. Luke 1:26-38 (read by the Very Rev. the Dean of the Region in the Diocese)
19. Carol: Nova! Nova! Ave fit ex eva (Hymn 266, with congregation joining on the burden) sung, with handbells and percussion, from the Annunciation window by Louis Comfort Tiffany
20. Revelation 21:5-7, 22:12-13, 20 (read by the Rev. the Rector)
21. Hymn 61: "'Sleepers, wake!' a voice astounds us" (with the Choir behind the pews at the back of the Nave)
22. Collect
23. Vesper Responsory
24. Blessing
25. Hymn 57: "Lo! he comes with clouds descending" (with the Choir surrounding the congregation in the side aisles)

I liked this service, and I think it was the right fit for St. Paul's at the right time. St. Paul's seemed to be a place on the cusp. It had been steadily moving away from it's "low church" heritage and more in line with the liturgical practice put forth in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Eucharistic vestments had appeared a decade or so before, Morning Prayer had greatly lessened in prominence, and I understand at the present time incense and a sung Sursum Corda (both rarities in the Diocese of Virginia!) are regular features.

For the next few years the St. Paul's Choir and I were able to explore this order a bit and make it our own.

Now I find myself in a different parish, and I feel the need to "crack this nut" once again. For reasons of space and churchmanship I do not think that another "Procession" is the right answer. So it was back to the drawing board – again.

Continued in "Carol Service - exploring the Advent, part 2"

Labels: Advent, American Sarum, King's College (Cambridge), Lessons and Carols, Salisbury Cathedral, St John's (Cambridge), St Paul's (Richmond), Willcocks

This evening I had the good fortune to be able to attend the "Passion Vespers: Meditations on the Passion of Christ" at the Church of St. Michael & St. George, St. Louis. It was billed as "service of the spoken word and music featuring readings selected from Scripture, the ancient Church Fathers, and modern-day poets interspersed with seasonal music, sung by the Choir, to illuminate the texts."

There is something compelling about the idea of worship on the Evening of Palm Sunday. The festivity of the morning being ended, Holy Week has entered its dark, preparatory intensity. A service on this day, or early in Holy Week, can draw is further in to the mystery and simply allow us a place to reflect, pray, and praise.

The service at St. Michael's was splendid and well appointed. It followed a pattern of non-biblical reading, anthem, versicle and response, collect. Two hymns were included.

The only comparison I have for this type of liturgy is the "Meditation on the Passion of Christ" service at St. John's, Cambridge. By comparison, I found this service to be much less noisy (the John's service begins with "All glory, laud, and honor" in procession) and more focused. The procession in and out of the church was done in silence.

I was concerned about the readings being entirely non-biblical, but they were so well chosen, and so compelling, I have to say I didn't mind at all.

Having been to the service, and with my leaflet still in hand, I can amend the published music list with a few more details. Most of the music was new to me, and all of it perfectly chosen for this liturgy. The cumulative effect was one of true meditation.

• Opening Devotions, including the said Kyrie and Lord's Prayer, collect
• Choral orison: "The Cross" by A. Fairbairn Barnes (a new name to me, some biographical info here)
• Meditation I, from John Chrysostom
• It is a thing most wonderful — Philip Moore
• Meditation II, from Julian of Norwich
• Lamb of God, most holy — Robert Lehman, the Organist & Choirmaster (a lovely piece, listen here)
• Hymn, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed!", sung to a haunting American hymn tune, LIBERTY HALL (a version here)
• Meditation III, from St. Bonaventure
• Drop, drop slow tears — Kenneth Leighton
• Meditation IV, from George Herbert
• Author of life divine — Peter Aston, another gorgeous miniature which would serve well as a communion anthem at any time of the year
• Meditation V, from the Orthodox Liturgy of Holy Saturday ("Today a tomb holds him who holds the creation in the hollow of his hand...")
• Give me that stranger — Michael McCarthy (a piece so compelling it has appeared on this blog previously)
• Meditation VI, from Thomas Traherne
• Ubi caritas et amor — Ola Gjeilo
• Hymn, "My song is love unknown"
• Ride on, ride on in majesty — Grayston Ives (a piece that I've only read through and never heard sung. I was glad that the effect of this piece in performance is as rich as it appears on the page. I think I need to order copies of this now.)
• Concluding Prayers

It was interesting that the mention of Jesus' triumphal entry appeared at the end of this liturgy, but in the words of Henry Millman, it is not Jesus' entry into Jerusalem that is ultimately the focus of Passiontide, but his entry into battle–"Thy last and fiercest strife"–which causes us to plead "Then take, O God, thy power and reign."

It's easy to see a service like this abbreviated on a music list and think that it must be a slapdash "Lenten Lessons and Carols". This service was nothing of the sort. This year the start of my Holy Week has been immeasurably enriched by the very thoughtful, carefully prepared liturgy held at St. Michael's.

O Lord, Christ, Lamb of God, Lord of Lords, 
  call us, who are called to be saints, 
    along the way of Thy cross: 
Draw us, who would draw nearer our King 
  to the foot of Thy cross:
Cleanse us, who are not worthy of approach, 
  with the pardon of Thy cross:
Instruct us, the ignorant and blind, 
  in the school of Thy cross: 
Arm us, for the battles of holiness 
  by the might of Thy cross: 
Bring us, in fellowship of Thy sufferings 
  to the victory of Thy cross: 
And seal us in the Kingdom of Thy glory 
  among the servants of Thy cross, 
    O crucified Lord; 
who with the Father and Holy Ghost 
  livest and reignest one God 
    almighty, eternal, 
      world without end. Amen.

            –Eric Milner-White

Labels: Robert Lehman, St John's (Cambridge), St Michael & St George (St Louis)

It's webcasting season. In case you didn't already know it, we at Sinden.org are huge fans of listening to liturgy, church music, and organ music online.

Trinity College, Cambridge has just released a new tool to search all of their archival webcasts. All of this is free.

St. John's, Cambridge, perhaps our favorite webcast destination, has just started their choral year, and new music is appearing there. Creating an account allows free access to their archival material (very worthwhile).

The BBC has a very long-running weekly Evensong broadcast which you can hear online. Each broadcast is up for about a week, so time is of the essence!

And a welcome newcomer to the webcasting game is King's College, Cambridge. These webcasts are gussied up with spoken introductions by choristers, the chaplian, or sometimes Stephen Cleobury himself. Organ recitals are also mixed in.

We also eagerly anticipate the return of webcast Evensongs by New College, Oxford.

And if these aren't enough for you or you're not feeling quite so liturgical at the moment, don't forget the pure church music webcast of the fine radio program With Heart and Voice and the wonderful radio program dedicated to the music of the organ, Pipedreams.

And last, but most assuredly not least, you can hear no fewer than five services webcast weekly (Tuesday Evensong, Wednesday Evensong, Thursday Evensong, Sunday Eucharist, Sunday Evensong) by St. Thomas, New York. A truly outstanding gift of prayer and praise available online.

Happy listening!

Labels: church music, King's College (Cambridge), liturgy, New College (Oxford), organ music, St John's (Cambridge), St Thomas (New York), Trinity College (Cambridge), web, webcasting

Poor John. Always gets overlooked in the days following Christmas.

Here is the Choir of the Chapel of the College in Cambridge named after the disciple whom Jesus loved singing "Benedicamus Domino" by Peter Warlock.

Labels: 12 Days of YouTube, Christmas, St John's (Cambridge), Warlock

It's time once again for the annual broadcast of A Service for Advent with Carols, sung by the very fine Choir of St. John's, Cambridge.

You can listen the service for the next six days at the BBC, and we at Sinden.org highly recommend that you avail yourself of this opportunity.

You can download a PDF of the service at the College website.

This service is famed for many reasons. The singing is of the highest standard, and the liturgy is very thoughtfully conceived. The service is divided into four sections (The Message of Advent, The Word of God, The Prophetic Call, and The Christ-Bearer) mirroring the four weeks of Advent. In fact, the collects at the head of each of the first three sections is the Prayer Book collect for the respective Sunday of Advent. The fourth collect, however, either must come from a different source or was specifically composed for the service.

The seven Advent "O Antiphons" are evenly distributed throughout the four sections.

Highlights this year include:

• "There is a flower" by John Rutter. This a capella carol was composed specifically for John's as a sort of counterpart to his beter-known "What sweeter music", written for King's College.
  
  
• The energetic "Vigilate" by James Long (b. 1987), a new carol commissioned for the service.
  
  
• "A Spotless Rose" by Philip Ledger, who died just a few weeks ago.
  
  
• The return of Matthew Martin's Magnificat, which I thoroughly enjoyed when I first heard it on an Evensong webcast from May.
  
  
• "The Seven Joys of Mary" by William Whitehead which is just plain good fun.
  
  

Labels: Advent, James Long, John Rutter, Matthew Martin, Philip Ledger, St John's (Cambridge), William Whitehead

Labels: Anglican chant, Evensong, music theory, Psalms, St John's (Cambridge), William H Harris

This week on the webcast of a Eucharist from St. John's, Cambridge, there is a hymn that I didn't know. I do know and love the tune UNSER HERRSCHER as it is called in the Hymnal 1982, or NEANDER as it is sometimes called, with it's valiant upward rise to the interval of a tenth above where it starts.

But the words I know for this tune are "He is risen, he is risen" by Mrs. C. F. Alexander.

I did not know the hymn "Come, ye faithful, raise the anthem" by Job Hupton and John Mason Neale (not to be confused with "Come, ye faithful, raise the strain" a J. M. Neale translation of a John of Damascus hymn, or the Christmas hymn "O come, all ye faithful" by John F. Wade).

It's nice to have another set of words to sing to this splendid tune outside of Eastertide.

You can hear the hymn, No. 531 in the New English Hymnal for the next couple months on the webcast of the Sung Eucharist with Strings from 1 July.

The words as they appear in the (old) English Hymnal below.

Labels: hymns, less familiar hymns, Neale, St John's (Cambridge)

IN SOME ways, the Anglican choral tradition may well be entering a golden age — not necessarily a fresh, but certainly a refreshed and refresh­ing expression of Christian worship, fit for purpose in the 21st century.

. . . recent research from the United States, which seeks to identify characteristic types of reli­gious engagement among the young, suggests that a significant proportion of those becoming involved in Chris­tian worship can be described as “Reclaimers”. Like many others, they seek religious experience rather than instruction or dogma, but, unlike some, they reject most of the elements of contemporary worship, seeking instead to reclaim established traditions, finding within them a refuge from the super­ficial-ity of much popular culture, and the onslaught of the commercial world.

Dormor, Duncan. "Where students can reconnect". Church Times 2 December 2011

Labels: Anglicanism, St John's (Cambridge)

I have searched every year for the past several years for the following information: what carol does the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge sing from the Chapel Tower on Ascension Day?

Today, via the Choir's Facebook page, I found a definitive answer:

Every year since 1903 the Choir has ascended the Chapel Tower to sing the Ascensiontide Carol.

At 163 feet the Tower is the highest point in Cambridge and, once the bells have struck midday, the Choir sings each year to a massed crowd down below in First Court.

Praetorius - The Lord Ascendeth up on High
Marenzio - O Rex Gloriae

"The Lord ascendeth up on high" is found in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 at hymn 219, Words by Arthur T. Russell (1806-1874), altered, and music by Michael Praetorius (1571-1621).

The answer to this puzzle has been within easy reach lo these many years!

There are, of course, other carols for this major feast -- the American Prayer Book calls it a "Principal Feast" -- of the church.

You can find a few more in the Cowley Carol Book (1922), compiled by G. R. Woodward

The second anthem (not a carol) seems to change, as a YouTube video shows the choir singing Stanford's "Coelos Ascendit Hodie" in a previous year.

Labels: Ascension, Praetorius, St John's (Cambridge)

I think this might be the prettiest Anglican chant I have heard in a long while.

Hear it yourself at this week's webcast from St. John's, Cambridge.

Labels: Anglican chant, Hylton Stewart, St John's (Cambridge)

Gramaphone highlights a new weekly webcast of Evensong from New College, Oxford.

This is great news for Evensong webcast fans. Thus far, I have listened fairly regularly to St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue; St. John's, Cambridge; and wherever the BBC records.

Logging on for E-vensong in Gramaphone by Andrew Mellor.

Labels: Evensong, New College (Oxford), St John's (Cambridge), St Thomas (New York), webcasting

I'm just going to put this out there: the Bidding Prayer in the Book of Occasional Services leaves a lot to be desired.

The one read at St. John's College, Cambridge, however, is spot on. You can listen to the service this week from the BBC.

Labels: Advent, Book of Occasional Services, prayer, St John's (Cambridge)

Howells is perhaps the quintessential Anglican Church music composer, having composed some twenty-odd settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis.

Interestingly, he wrote only one set of Preces and Responses. And I've never heard them sung.

Howells Preces and Responses were written in 1967, the same year he wrote Evening Services for Winchester, Chichester and St. Augustine, Birmingham.

They are included on the evensong webcast from St. John's College, Cambridge this week.

From the St. John's Choir, Decani Bass III writes:

Although we vary the canticles and anthem every day, there are, I suppose, about 6 or 7 settings of the Preces and Responses that get used in rotation. It is therefore always pretty refreshing to sing a new setting, and I had long wanted to sing this setting by Herbert Howells. We sing so much of his music and it had always seemed an omission that we had not tackled them before. Howells integrates the cantoring with the choral parts and they seem more organic and cohesive than many of the more conventional sets.

Check it out, especially that concluding Amen.

Labels: church music, Howells, St John's (Cambridge)

If you're just joining us, we're twittering a rehearsal of St. John's College, Cambridge at Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut. They'll be rehearsing until 6:00 p.m.

Edit: This space held the most recent tweets as we posted them. Here is the stream in its entirety:

# Settling in for the concert. The Choir of St John's, Cambridge singing at Christ Church, New Haven.
7:55 PM Mar 23rd

# Now the encore. I'll keep this one a secret from you.
6:00 PM Mar 23rd

# RVW Let All the World. Some boys sing without scores. Handel Zadok the Priest. Beautiful and bouncy.
5:55 PM Mar 23rd

# Howells Gloucester Magnificat. Bad sightlines coming into play.
5:40 PM Mar 23rd

# Amazing, orchestral Howells singing.
5:25 PM Mar 23rd

# Byrd Mass for four voices.
5:12 PM Mar 23rd

# A Humfrey Verse Anthem. Great solos.
5:07 PM Mar 23rd

# MacMillan: A New Song. Stunning.
4:55 PM Mar 23rd

# Boys warmed up in the choir room. Now back in church.
4:48 PM Mar 23rd

# The choir is here.
4:28 PM Mar 23rd

# The whole floor of Christ Church, New Haven shakes from time to time. This seems odd.
4:24 PM Mar 23rd

# Chatted briefly with Mr. Nethsingha. Bad organ sightlines. Choir yet to arrive.
4:17 PM Mar 23rd

# The organist has moved on to Howells Gloucester Service.
4:00 PM Mar 23rd

# At Christ Church, New Haven. Reeks deliciously: incense and Vierne.
3:56 PM Mar 23rd

this is just the latest tweet from twitter.com / sinden

Labels: church music, St John's (Cambridge)

Today is a travel day.

We're headed to New Haven, Connecticut to take in an afternoon rehearsal of the Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge, England. They'll also be performing a concert in New Haven at 8:00 p.m. tonight.

Join us at 4:00 p.m. for some intensive Twittering of that rehearsal. You can follow the Twitter stream here by periodically refreshing sinden.org/blog, or you can follow us at twitter / sinden.

We are excited about hearing St. John's in person because they are one of the greatest choirs in the world. But we've also been excited to follow them online this academic year. The choir's website offers new service to listen to every week. These weekly webcasts (presented in a very useful interface, by the way) are accompanied by reflections by members of the choir on the music and the experience of singing it.

The whole thing is brilliant and a model how to make the heritage of Anglican choral music freely available.

More choirs should do this.

Labels: church music, St John's (Cambridge), transportation, web

The Choir of St. John's College Cambridge is webcasting one evensong each week from their new, freestanding website. The inaugural webcast debuts today.

Their audio player makes it ridiculously easy to skip the sermon.

One can hope that King's and other English collegiate chapels are not far behind in this endeavor.

Now, a non-musical web tangent:

The arrangements of the webcast do make one wonder a little bit about the politics behind the St. John's enterprise. The choir has recently launched this new website which is separate from the college's domain. It is also a bit heavy in the self-promotion department, but that's another story.

Perhaps one of the primary reasons for the creation of this site is the choir's desire webcast evensong services. This initiative does seem to have the blessing of the college (see this press release) but I think it loses some of its prestige by not being hosted by the college.

Now, maybe there's some technical or theological reason that ac.uk addresses cannot stream audio, but I'm not privy to that kind of "Bob's your uncle" or "Heath Robinson" or whatever you want to call it.

And this separation of a music program from its umbrella institution is not an isolated incident. I run across this from time to time in parish churches and cathedrals on this side of the Atlantic. It seems to me that in the interest of the web presence of both parties this kind of separation should be discouraged and regarded as insubordination on the part of the musicians. Of course this is only valid if the umbrella institution has a responsive site and adequate technical support.

Labels: Evensong, St John's (Cambridge), web