apocalypse art abstract with a clockface

Sunday, November 28
Rev. Douglas duCharme
Advent I
Title: Telling Time
Eleanor Daley, Director of Music
Music Offering: Double Quartet
Soprano – Anne Bornath, Amy Dodington
Alto – Lynn Featherstone, Andrea Ludwig
Tenor – Willis Bote, Phil Smith
Bass – Scot Denton, Giles Tomkins
Scripture: Luke 21:25-36
Reader: Jennifer Duchesne

 

Prelude And the Glory of the Lord (from Messiah)                     George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Academy of Ancient Music
VOCES8, Apollo5, and VOCES8 Foundation Choir
Conductor – Barnaby Smith

Opening Hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel                     Music: 15th century plainsong melody
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Redeem thy captive Israel
That into exile drear is gone,
Far from the face of God’s dear Son.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Branch of Jesse! draw
The quarry from the lion’s claw;
From the dread caverns of the grave,
From nether hell, thy people save.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light;
Dispel the long night’s lingering gloom,
And pierce the shadows of the tomb.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Come, thou Lord of David’s Key!
The royal door fling wide and free;
Safeguard for us the heavenward road,
And bar the way to death’s abode.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Adonai,
Who in thy glorious majesty
From that high mountain clothed in awe,
Gavest thy folk the elder Law.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
(From the Latin antiphons for Advent, ca. 9th century)

Lighting of the First Advent Candle – Hope

Come, Light of Lights                     Words and music: E. Daley (2018)
Fairlawn Avenue Senior Choir and Congregation

Double Quartet Adam Lay Ybounden                    Boris Ord (1897-1961)
Soprano – Anne Bornath, Amy Dodington
Alto – Lynn Featherstone, Andrea Ludwig
Tenor – Willis Bote, Phil Smith
Bass – Scot Denton, Giles Tomkins

Adam lay ybounden, bounden in a bond;
For thousand winter thought he not too long.

And all was for an apple, and apple that he took,
As clarkès finden written in their book.

Ne had the apple taken been, the apple taken been,
Ne had never our lady abeen heavené queen.

Blessèd be the time that apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen,
Deo Gracias!
(Anon. 15th century)

Hymn Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus                   Music: Psalmodia Sacra, 1715
Fairlawn Avenue Senior Choir and Congregation

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free:
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.

Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art,
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every loving heart.

Born thy people to deliver;
Born a child and yet a king;
Born to reign is us for ever;
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine own sufficient merit
Raise us to thy glorious throne.
(Charles Wesley, 1744)

Anthem People, Look East                   Music: French traditional melody
                                                                 Arr. Paul Trepte (b.1954)
The Boy Choristers of Ely Cathedral Choir
Conductor – Paul Trepte

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.

Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.

Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.

Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.

Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.
(Eleanor Farjeon, 1928)

Closing Hymn Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending               Music: English melody, 18th century
Fairlawn Avenue Senior Choir and Congregation

Lo, he comes with clouds descending,
See the Lamb for sinners slain!
Thousand thousand saints attending
Join to sing the glad refrain:
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall then behold you,
Robed in awesome majesty;
All who jeered, and mocked, and sold you,
Pierced, and nailed you to the tree,
Deeply grieving,
Deeply grieving,
Deeply grieving,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Now redemption, long expected
See in solemn pomp appear;
All the saints, by us rejected,
Thrill the trumpet sound to hear:
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

Yea! Amen! Let all adore you,
High on your eternal throne;
Crowns and empires fall before you,
Claim the kingdom for your own:
O come quickly!
O come quickly!
O come quickly!
Everlasting Christ, come down.
(John Cennick, 1750,
revised by Charles Wesley, 1758)

Choral Commissioning                   Music: E. Daley (2019)
                                                           Words: George Weissel (1590-1635) Trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1855, alt.
Fairlawn Avenue Senior Choir and Congregation

Postlude Overture from Messiah                   George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

♪ Music notes ♪

Various legends, registering differing degrees of reality and truth, inevitably surround such a famous and long-lived composition as Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). It is known that he wrote most of the work in an astonishingly short three weeks time, beginning on August 22, 1741. Another legend attached to the work relates to his inspiration, which casts the frenzied composition as a sort of divine dictation. Handel is said to have emerged at some point (usually, it is noted, after finishing the “Hallelujah Chorus”), and proclaimed: “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself!” The first performance of Messiah took place in Dublin, on April 13, 1742. Handel gave the London premiere less than a year later at Covent Garden, and in the almost 300 years since then, Messiah has taken its rightful place as one of the most frequently performed and most beloved choral works of all time.

Boris Ord (1897-1961) was a British organist and choirmaster. Educated at Clifton College, Bristol, he then went to study at the Royal College of Music on an organ scholarship. Ord’s studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, and he went to serve as a pilot of the Royal Flying Corps. After the war, he returned to the Royal College to continue his musical studies, and in 1920 won an organ scholarship at Christi College, Cambridge. In 1929, Ord took the position of Organist at King’s College, Cambridge, a role which placed him in charge of the chapel choir. At the onset of World War II, he and his then organ scholar, David Willcocks, left King’s to join the armed forces. Ord served in an administrative position in the Royal Air Force, as he was considered too old to fly. In the mid 50s, he began to suffer from disseminated sclerosis, and it was decided to split his role into two new positions. Ord took on the new title of Director of Music and Willcocks was appointed to the role of Organist. After Ord’s retirement in 1957, Willcocks took over as Organist and Director of Music – a title which has since been held by all his successors. Today, Ord is best known for his only published composition, Adam Lay Ybounden.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement, most widely known for writing about 6,500 hymn texts. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and after graduating with a masters degree in classical languages and literature, Charles followed his father and brother into Anglican orders in 1735. He was a younger brother of Methodist founder John Wesley, and Anglican cleric Samuel Wesley the Younger, the father of musician Samuel Wesley, and the grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley.

Paul Trepte (b. 1954) is a British organist, choirmaster and composer. Between the years 1972 and 1990, he was the organ scholar at New College, Oxford, the Assistant Organist at Worcester Cathedral, and the Director of Music at St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. In 1990, he accepted the post of Director of Music at Ely Cathedral, where he served until his retirement in 2019.

Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) was a British poet, biographer, and author of children’s books. Her magical but unsentimental tales, which often mock the behaviour of adults, earned her a revered place in many British nurseries! The daughter of a British novelist and granddaughter of an American actor, she grew up in the bohemian literary and dramatic circles of London. Although frequently ill as a child, thereby having to spend a great deal of time at home reading and writing, she nevertheless attended opera and theatre productions at age 4, and began writing on her father’s typewriter at age 7. When she was 16, she came to public attention as the lyricist of an opera, with music written by her brother Harry, which was produced by the Royal Academy of Music. She was the first recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for lifetime achievement in children’s literature, and also received the Carnegie Medal.

John Cennick (1718-1755) was an early Methodist and Moravian evangelist, as well as a successful and prolific hymn writer. His family was originally from Bohemia, but Cennick was born in England to an Anglican family and raised in the Church of England. He spent much time as an itinerant evangelist in England and Ireland, enduring great and often violent opposition. By the time of his early death, he had established over 40 churches. Although he wrote many hymns, he is probably best remembered for the popular Advent hymn “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending”, the text of which was subsequently revised by Charles Wesley.

Georg Weissel (1590-1635) was a Prussian pastor who served a church in Königsberg for most of his career. One of the most important of the earliest hymn writers of Prussia, he wrote Macht hoch die Tür (Lift Up Your Heads) for the first Sunday of Advent. This morning’s choral commissioning is the text of the third verse (translated into English by Catherine Winkworth). Although Weissel wrote some 20 hymn texts in total, this hymn is the only one to endure.

Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) was the foremost 19th century British translator of German hymns into English. Her translations were polished, and yet remained close to the original, and are still used extensively in many denominational hymnals. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge and interest in German hymnody. A pioneer in promoting women’s rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women.

Music Sources:

And the Glory of the Lord (from Messiah) George Frideric Handel www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRq9EkDTdxs
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Music: 15th century plainsong melody https://youtu.be/qcIIZpnZPgo
People, Look East Music: French traditional melody Arr. Paul Trepte www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9ucg8zusg
Overture from Messiah George Frideric Handel https://youtu.be/b4tS3UQ082Q

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