Music Notes for 9:00
Two of today’s hymns are close paraphrases of particular passages of Scripture associated with this day, and another follows similar themes. Isaiah 40, which today’s Gospel associates with John the Baptist, is reflected in its well-known hymn-paraphrase by Johann Olearius, translated by Catherine Winkworth, the major 19th-century English translator of German hymns as ‘Comfort, comfort ye my people’ [67]. This hymn’s associated tune, stemming from the Reformation-era Genevan (Calvinist) Psalter but also sung in the German Lutheran tradition and, today, in many others, forms the basis of the organ prelude, which combines an introduction in the Classical style of Mozart or Haydn with a setting of the tune itself more in the manner of Bach. ‘Hail to the Lord’s anointed’ [616], written by the Scottish Moravian poet, journalist, and abolitionist James Montgomery, paraphrases today’s appointed Psalm 72, which has much to say about God’s concern for justice and righteousness, and for the poor and needy. This text is set to a buoyant German folk tune.
‘Prepare the way, O Zion’ [65] comes to us from the Church of Sweden, though it too is sung to a folk tune of German origin. The original text brought together verses from Isaiah 40 and the account of Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21, with resonances in Psalms 24 and 118), with a refrain exactly quoting the Benedictus qui venit. The first three stanzas of the original focus on the majesty of the divine King and fulfillment of his promises, while the next three subvert worldly expectations of such a king – all in keeping with the themes of Psalm 72. The effect of the original is in some ways close to our Hymn 74, ‘Blest be the King whose coming’, which also connects the Triumphal Entry with Advent. The Hymnal version is much less specific in its content and in its Scriptural references, but we can nonetheless gladly proclaim its Advent message and rejoice that ‘his rule [i.e. kingdom or reign] is peace and freedom, and justice, truth, and love’.
Music Notes for 11:15
Advent Lessons & Carols tells the story of our faith through accounts of the Creation and Fall, the prophetic witness to God’s plan for salvation, and the annunciation of the birth of Christ. Today we begin with a hymn new to us, a paraphrase of the ‘Song of Creation’ (Benedicite, BCP 88). Episcopal priest-poet Carl Daw has here written one of his most engaging texts, at once formal and approachable, simple and profound, and richly evocative of the creation of which we are a part and for which we have a duty of care which we have largely abrocated. Every bit the equal of Daw’s hymn is the infectious tune by priest-musician William Bradley Roberts.
‘Adam lay ybounden’ is often sung after the account of the Fall. Problematic if taken literally, this late medieval expression of tradition and piety can nevertheless lead us to consider that despite our original residence in innocent Paradise, God has always had even greater things in store for humanity: the heavenly kingdom, the place ‘prepared...from the foundation of the world’. Our setting for treble voices, though written in twentieth-century New England, is more than a little reminiscent of music contemporary with the text.
The Advent Prose is a chant whose text consists of verses from a number of passages in Isaiah setting forth humanity’s sense of alienation, asking God to see our affliction and save us, and ending with the divine promise of redemption. The familiar ‘People, look East’ – a fine text by twentieth-century poet and children’s author Eleanor Farjeon speaking of hope at the bleakest time of year – is given a new spin in an anthem arrangement by Phillip Dietterich, which departs from the familiar, rollicking French carol tune for the middle stanza before taking it up again in canon.
We might not expect to run into dragons at Lessons & Carols, but the King James Bible uses the word for various creatures now translated otherwise, and poet and arranger Carol McClure returned to the older translation for her paraphrase of Isaiah 35 which the Children’s Choir sings. Another text by McClure ends our Lessons & Carols, the verses surely inspired by the medieval carol ‘The Seven Joys of Mary’. Here there are three ‘rejoices’ corresponding to the Persons of the Trinity. Young composer Parker Ramsay wrote the musical setting, notable for its lively rhythm and the use of a slightly ‘magical’-sounding musical scale common in chant and other medieval music as well as in some modern TV and film scores.
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