Music for December 19, 2021 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Is No Rose of Such Virtue – Jessica Nelson (b. 1983)

Instrumental Music

• My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord, BWV 648 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Savior of the Nations, Come! BWV 659 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• Fuga sopra il Magnificat, BWV 733 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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

• Hymn 75 Blest be the King whose coming (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn R-129 Sing, my soul, sing out my praises (PLEADING SAVIOR)
• Hymn 54 Savior of the nations, come (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 56 O come, O come, Emmanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 66 Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART)

A new melody and enticing harmonic language bewitchingly transform the traditional 15th century text, "There Is No Rose," which is our offertory anthem this Sunday. It is by a good friend of mine, Mississippi native Jessica Nelson. Jessica currently serves as organist/choirmaster of St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, MS. (where Bill Richter first served as a priest). She also directs the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy, which many of you have heard me talk about as I attend almost every year. 

She holds degrees from Millsaps College and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, as well as the Colleague Certificate from the American Guild of Organists. In 2015, she was appointed to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music of the Episcopal Church in the United States and also serves on the board of the Leadership Program for Musicians. Jessica has taught on the music faculties of the University of North Alabama and Northeast MS Community College. She has a wicked sense of humor and a feisty fur-baby named Eloise.

The text for "There Is No Rose" is from the earliest collection of polyphonic music written in English, the Trinity Carol Roll, a collection of thirteen English carols held by the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge. The texts are all composed in Middle English, but several, such as "There Is No Rose," are macaronic, incorporating Latin phrases from the liturgy of the Catholic Church. You'll hear these Latin phrases at the end of each verse.

Mary's Song of Praise, the Magnificat, is the focus of  the service this Sunday. The Gospel reading relates the meeting of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, both great with child, when Mary comes forth with the words, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior." We'll sing a paraphrase of that great hymn, and hear organ works based on a German choral setting of the text. 

The closing voluntary is actually a fugue over the Gregorian Chant theme. With the title Fuga sopra il Magnificat (Fugue over the Magnificat), you would expect a more prominent placement of the melody in this compact organ prelude. But the Gregorian Magnificat melody that Bach uses here is persistent. It was written when Bach was still a young man, during his time in Weimar.