This Christmas Eve we continue our recent tradition of an extended choral prelude to the 7 and 10 pm celebrations of the Midnight Mass of Christmas.
The prelude begins with two well-known songs, ‘Personent hodie’ and ‘Gaudete’, from the late-16th-century collection Piae Cantiones. This book was compiled by a schoolmaster in Swedish-controlled Finland, drawing upon a late-medieval repertory of religious song somewhat brought into line with Protestant theology. ‘Personent hodie’ calls upon schoolboys, along with the clerics in their scholastic–ecclesiastical community, to sing praise to Christ, also telling the story of the nativity and visit of the Magi. One can imagine it being used in a procession or pageant, much as we will present it.
Piae Cantiones was ‘rediscovered’ in 19th-century England, and several of its contents entered the stream of English hymnody, where they have remained to this day. Not only ‘Personent hodie’ [92], but several other tunes from Piae Cantiones, appear in our Hymnal, some supporting modern texts or translations of texts other than those appearing in that collection: ‘Divinum mysterium’ (used for the unrelated ‘Of the Father’s love begotten’ [82]), ‘Dies est laetitiae’ (translated as ‘Dost thou in a manger lie’ [97]), ‘Puer nobis nascitur’ (‘Unto us a boy is born’ [98]), ‘In dulci jubilo’ (with the modern text ‘Good Christian friends, rejoice’ [107]), and ‘Angelus emittitur’ (translated as ‘Gabriel’s message does away’ [270]). Another well-known tune from this collection, ‘Tempus adest floridum’, is used for the modern text ‘Good King Wenceslas’. Several of these texts, and the use of this collection as a source, are the work of John Mason Neale, a brilliant Church of England priest, scholar, writer, and translator, many of whose translations are found in our Hymnal.
The Choral Scholars sing a Spanish carol, or villancico, ‘Dadme albricias, hijos de Eva’, in which a messenger brings tidings of the birth of Christ. (This piece comes from the same collection as the well-known ‘Ríu, ríu, chíu’.) A traditional English carol, ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night’, is then presented (with the congregation’s help!) with both its original tune (both text and tune coming from the 16th–17th-century English tradition of metrical psalms) and a modern one in a ‘pastorale’ style [Hymn 94/95]. A modern motet based on the medieval German carol ‘Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming’ follows, and the prelude concludes with a stirring setting of the French carol ‘O leave your sheep’ (‘Quittez, pasteurs’) by the modern English composer Kenneth Leighton that is much more than the sum of its seemingly simple parts.
At the Offertory the choir sings a motet by William Byrd, one of the greatest Renaissance composers, setting Isaiah’s message ‘Arise, shine, O Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you’. The first word is set especially strikingly with a motif rising six notes in two of the voices, and a whole octave in the other two voices. Overlapping Alleluias bring the piece to a very fitting close. The Communion anthem is a haunting modern setting of a medieval English carol, ‘A babe is born all of a may [maiden]’. The text is notable in that the last line of each stanza is the first line of a Latin hymn: ‘Veni creator spiritus’, ‘O lux beata Trinitas’, and so on.
Login To Leave Comment