Music for Advent IV and Christmas Services

Since we have three consecutive days of holiday services, here is the list for all of them!

December 23, 2018 + Advent VI

Only One Service at 10:15 AM

Vocal Music

The Provençal Carol – Donald Busarow (b. 1934)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come BWV 599, 699– J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• The Angel Gabriel – Robert Lau (b. 1943)
• Savior of the Nations, Come – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 74 - Blest be the King whose coming (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn R129 - Sing, my soul, sing out (PLEADING SAVIOR)
• Hymn 54 - Savior of the nations, come (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 60, st 6 - Creator of the stars of night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM)
• Hymn 56 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 66 - Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART)

December 24, 2018 + Christmas Eve 

4 PM  Family Service with the Coventry Choir, Good Shepherd Handbells and Flute

Vocal Music

• What Can I Give Him? – Terry Barham (b. 1940)
• Twas in the Moon of Wintertime – arr. Robert Hobby (b. 1962)
• Do You Hear What I Hear? – Gloria Shayne Baker (1923-2008)

Instrumental Music

• Noel Suisse - Louis Claude D'Aquin (1694-1772)
• Christmas Carols for Bells:– arr. Jason W. Krug (b. 1978)
• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice 
• Away in a Manger
• In the Bleak Midwinter
• Infant Holy, Infant Lowly 
• Flourish on “Joy to the World” – Michael G. Dell (b. 1959)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O Come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the World (ANTIOCH)

6:30 Service with Choir, organ and oboe

Vocal Music

• Mass For the Nativity – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)
• Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day – John Gardner (1917-2011)
• What Sweeter Musick – William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)
• The Provençal Carol – Donald Busarow (b. 1934)

Instrumental Music

• Noel Suisse - Louis Claude D'Aquin (1694-1772)
• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• In the Bleak Midwinter – Jerry Westenkuehler (Contemporary)
• Flourish on “Joy to the World” – Michael G. Dell (b. 1959)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 87  - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 115  - What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 79  - O little town of Bethlehem (ST. LOUIS)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! the Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

10 PM Service with Christine Marx, soprano

Vocal Music

• O Holy Night – Adolphe Adam
• Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head – arr. John Edmunds

Instrumental Music

• Noel Suisse - Louis Claude D'Aquin  (1694-1772)
• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Flourish on “Joy to the World” – Michael G. Dell (b. 1959)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! the Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

December 25, 2018 + Christmas Day

10 AM with organ and hymns

Instrumental Music

• The Angel Gabriel – Robert Lau (b. 1943)
• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Flourish on “Joy to the World” – Michael G. Dell (b. 1959)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 89 - It came upon a midnight clear (CAROL)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! the Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

Music for December 16, 2018 +The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music 

• Rejoice in the Lord Alway – 16th C. Anon. 

Instrumental Music 

• Veni Emmanuel -  Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
• Savior of the Nations, Come – Gerald Near 
• Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding – Gerald Near 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.) 

• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON) 
• Hymn R122 - Canticle 9 - The First Song of Isaiah (Jack Noble White) 
• Hymn R276 - Soon and very soon (Andrae Crouch) 
• Hymn 60 - Creator of the stars of night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM) 
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY) 
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé Community) 
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice, rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFLAN) 

The choir sings a setting of the words from today's Epistle reading, the fourth chapter of St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is the anonymous sixteenth-century anthem Rejoice in the Lord alway which was formerly attributed to John Redford. The only known source of this anthem is in the Mulliner Book which is held in the British Library. The Mulliner Book is a historically important musical book compiled, probably between about 1545 and 1570, by Thomas Mulliner, about whom practically nothing is known, except that he is listed as modulator organorum of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1563.

The music—a careful setting of the words—varies between imitative passages and homophonic sections as, for example, at the words ‘Let your softness be known unto all men," where the entire choir sings the same words at the same time.

The text is appropriate for the third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudete Sunday. Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Catholic Mass, which is the same as our Epistle reading.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

The color for the"Rejoice" Sunday is rose, a deviation from the blue we use on the other three Sundays of Advent.

My opening voluntary is the great Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel, as set by the early 20th century English composer Edward Bairstow. Better known in his time as an organist, Bairstow is best remembered today for his Choral music, particularly for "Save Us, O Lord," "Blessed City," and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence." He also wrote much other sacred music and a handful of organ and piano compositions.

Edward Bairstow

Bairstow received his education at the University of Durham, where he studied organ and music theory, graduating in 1894. He obtained a doctorate degree in music from that university in 1901. He was organist at several parish churches until 1913, when he became organist at York Minster, a position he would retain for the rest of his life.

Bairstow accepted a professorship at Durham University in 1929, but remained a resident in York owing to the light teaching demands at his alma mater. Bairstow received knighthood in 1932.

Music for December 9, 2018 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There’s a Voice in the Wilderness  – Craig Phillips (b. 1961)

Instrumental Music

• Benedictus – Alec Rowley (1892-1958)
• Partita on Comfort, comfort, ye my people (PSALM 42) – Johann Pachelbel (1661–1733)
• Prepare the Way, O Zion – Paul Manz  (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn R128 - Canticle 16 – The Song of Zechariah: Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 67 - Comfort, comfort, ye my people (PSALM 42)
• Hymn 60, st 6 - Creator of the stars of night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM)
• Hymn R152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R92 - Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé Community)
• Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion (BEREDEN VAG FOR HERRAN)

The offertory is an anthem setting of a hymn that is in our hymnal, but has probably never been sung in our church. Here's the story behind it.

In 1925, the Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches in Canada united as the United Church of Canada. To celebration this union, the journalist and poet James Lewis Milligan wrote the hymn, There's a voice in the wilderness crying. It's a paraphrase of the passage from Isaiah 40. In 1938, the committee for the Hymnal for the Anglican Church in Canada wanted to use this text, but could not come up with a suitable tune. Hugh Bancroft, then organist and choir master at All Saints Church, Winnipeg, was hosting the group in his home, and he told about the struggle to find a fitting melody.

Each one they tried was poor indeed. I suggested that I should go down to the basement, where there was a piano, and see if I could evolve something better. I came up about a half an hour later with a rough sketch of the tune, ASCENSION.

The resulting tune was folk-like in its form and simplicity, and its union with the poem by Milligan has been so successful that it has been included in ten different hymnals, including The Hymnal 1982.
Our choir sings an arrangement of this hymn by the California composer and church musician, Craig Phillips. Phillips preserves the rustic feel of the folkish melody.

As you know, each Sunday we sing a Psalm that is part of the lectionary readings for the day, but this year, three of the four Sundays in Advent designate a Canticle be sung instead of a Psalm. (A Canticle is a hymn or chant, typically with a biblical text, forming a regular part of a church service. The most common Canticle is Glory to God in the highest (Gloria in excelsis), which is Canticle 6 (Rite I) or 20 (Rite II). The canticle for Advent II is Canticle 4 or 16, The Song of Zechariah (Benedictus Dominus Deus). That's why I am playing a piece called Benedictus for the opening voluntary. However, it is not based on the canticle, but on two lines from a poem by Christina Rossetti, a litany of praise entitled: "All Thy Works Praise Thee, O Lord: A Processional Of Creation".  Those two lines are

I bring refreshment —  I bring ease and calm.

Because so much of Rossetti's poetry is Christian, one can assume that Rossetti is talking about Christ. But in this poem (very much like a canticle, actually), Rossetti has each individual piece of creation sing a three line hymn of praise, starting with seraphs, cherubs, angels, heavens, sun, moon, comets, winds, fire, heat, winter, spring, frost, night, light, thunder, clouds, until we finally get down to Medicinal Herbs, who sing:

I bring refreshment,—
                      I bring ease and calm,—
I lavish strength and healing,—
                                I am balm,—
We work His pitiful* Will and chant our psalm.

Alec Rowley was an English composer, organist, and pianist who taught composition at Trinity College in London. His name was known to many through his writing and through the many educational pieces that he wrote, staple fare for many a beginner or amateur player. His more demanding work as a composer has been unfairly neglected, save for the music he wrote for choirs and organ.

Alec Rowley

* at Rossetti's time, 'pitiful' still had the alternate meaning of 'compassionate.'

Music for December 2, 2018 + Advent I

Vocal Music

• Christ Hath a Garden – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Missa Oecumenica in Byzantine Style - Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott (BWV 602) – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Creator of the stars of night – Gerald Near
• Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes-Sohn (BWV 601) – Johann Sebastian Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 616 - Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN)
• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 60, st 6 - Creator of the stars of night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM)
• Spiritual - Steal away to Jesus (STEAL AWAY)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé Community)
• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO)
• Psalm 25:1-9 – Tone Ig

This anthem by the American organist and composer Gerald Near was published in 1973. The tune is based on the Scottish folk song "O Waly, Waly," best known as "The Water Is Wide" or "The Gift of Love." The words are from a hymn by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), a Nonconformist minister and prolific hymnodist whose many well-known works include the words to the carol "Joy to the World" and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."

Watts's original verses ("We are a garden walled around / Chosen and made peculiar ground; / A little spot enclosed by grace / Out of the world’s wide wilderness") were adapted in the late 19th century by Robert Bridges – physician, future poet laureate of the UK and a selfless champion of the work of his friend Gerard Manley Hopkins, whom he knew to be a much better poet. I love the last two stanzas, which are appropriate for Advent:

Awake, O wind of heav'n and bear
Their sweetest perfume through the air:
Stir up, O south, the boughs that bloom,
Till the beloved Master come:

That he may come, and linger yet
Among the trees that he hath set;
That he may evermore be seen
To walk amid the springing green.

Near also wrote the communion organ voluntary based on the Gregorian hymn for Advent "Conditor alme siderum." (Hymn 60 - we'll be singing it each Sunday as the presentation hymn.) This same chant is the basis for the melody of the Advent chorale Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott. 

J. S. Bach included that chorale in his Orgelbuchlein, a collection of organ works based on hymns from the Lutheran church. Bach had planned 146 chorale preludes arranged according to the seasons of the church year, but only finished 46. Bach provided titles of two texts for this chorale. The first of these, Praise to the almighty God, an Advent hymn, is the likely basis for the prelude. The second, actually a table grace, bears no liturgical relationship to Advent or Christmas. It is the last of four Advent hymns in the collection.