On this Third Sunday of Advent our series of organ preludes based upon ‘Veni redemptor gentium’ (Hymn 54/55, the basis of our 11:15 service music) continues with three settings by modern Swiss composer Gaël Liardon. The first two are in the style of two genres typical of late 17th-century French organ music, the first featuring the chant melody, in the tenor voice, played on a strong reed stop in the pedal, surrounded by slow-moving harmony on the full chorus of the organ; the second a fugue in five voices, two played by each hand on contrasting combinations of stops, with the bass in the pedal, all based on the first (which is also the last) phrase of the melody. The rich, sometimes yearning, harmonies found in these pieces are typical of this musical language and in this case could be said to reflect Advent’s theme of longing.
Two classic Advent texts are set in the choir’s two anthems. The Communion anthem, written by living composer Ross Jallo though in the harmonically rich style of an early-17th-century English anthem, sets the Collect of the Day, ‘Stir up thy power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us...’. This collect ultimately dates back to the 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary; it was one of several ‘Stir up’ collects (cf. Psalm 80.2b) historically appointed in Advent.
The Offertory anthem is Henry Purcell’s famous trio-and-chorus setting of Philippians 4.4–9, the Epistle appointed for this day. Both this and a similar passage (I Thessalonians 5.12–24) appointed on this day in another year make a link between rejoicing, giving thanks, trusting in God’s providence, cultivating the virtues (‘on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ’, says Philippians 1.11), being prepared, and the Lord’s coming. That is, Christ, who is always near, will come to us – or we will be able to see him in his nearness – when we are prepared by repentance, acts of mercy, trust in God’s purposes, gratitude, and so on. Thus we learn that the coming of the Kingdom in our hearts via the cultivation of virtue cannot be separated from its coming in our societies via the cultivation of justice (including the responsible cultivation of the earth), nor can its painful, slow, incremental ripening be separated from its final, swift, and decisive harvest.
A fine Advent hymn (mined from among several more, much less good, stanzas) by Philip Doddridge, ‘Hark! the glad sound! the Savior comes’ [71/72], concludes the service. Originally headed ‘Christ’s Message, from Luke iv.18,19’, the text in fact draws upon several passages of scripture (the ‘gates of brass’ and ‘iron fetters’ are found in Isaiah 45.2, for example). The inner stanzas of the present text speak of Christ’s mission to free, to heal, and to uplift, while the outer ones convey our proper response: preparation, welcome, proclamation, and resounding song: an appropriate way to end the liturgy! The text is paired in the Hymnal with two different tunes, neither particularly known in this parish; we sing it instead to a joyful tune by the important hymn-tune composer Johann Crüger, ‘Nun danket all’ und bringet Ehr’, which is usefully paired with three other texts in the Hymnal 1982.
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