From: Richard Thomas
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2014 1:20 AM
Subject: Music for the Fourth Sunday of Advent Service at OSHC, December 21, 2014
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2014 1:20 AM
Subject: Music for the Fourth Sunday of Advent Service at OSHC, December 21, 2014
The introit is “Jesus, Name Above All Names” (or, nearly above all names, if you count “Yahweh”)
The opening hymn is No. 8, “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates” which was written by Georg Weissel in 1642 (“Mach hoch die Tür, die Tor macht weit “) and translated in 1855 by Catherine Winkworth.
The familiar tune TRURO was published by Thomas Williams in 1789. The tune is also used with “Christ Is Alive! Let Christians Sing.”
http://youtu.be/IOoEeMEi1XE “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Might Gates” sung by a choir at Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church, 201 Pandan Gardens, Singapore
(This is a very good arrangement for an a cappella performance.)
The original German words are sung to a different tune entirely.
The Love candle will be lit by Kappy Tilney.
Then the choir will sing about lighting one candle of love.
The lighting of the Love Candle is followed immediately by the choir anthem, “Amid the Cold of Winter.”
The anthem is particularly appropriate for the day of the Winter Solstice. (The solstice will be at 6:03 pm EST on Sunday, so we’ll be a few hours early.)
I don’t know why the first day of the winter season is also known as Mid-Winter’s Day. (Mid-Winter’s Day was June 21, 2014, in Australia, but for the northern hemisphere, it is December 21 this year.)
Due to thermal lag, the coldest part of winter is usually four to six weeks after the solstice, which would seem a more appropriate time for “mid-winter.”
There is disagreement over whether the day of the winter solstice is the first day of winter. The day of the Winter Solstice is the beginning of astronomical winter.
NOAA considers December 1 to be the first day of meteorological winter, which runs from December 1 through February 28 (or 29). (As far as the weather bureau is concerned, winter is over on March 1.)
That still gives 90 days for winter (in non-leap years), so December 21 wouldn’t be the middle of meteorological winter either.
I don’t know whether the founders of the South Haven Church engaged in the mid-winter celebration of Christmas.
Most of the founding families of the Town of Brookhaven were from Connecticut or Massachusetts, and the Puritans did not celebrate Christmas.
The time when the days begin to lengthen again, and it becomes evident that the Sun has not abandoned humankind, has always been a time of celebration, which often included partying, gambling, drunkenness, and even reversal of roles (Saturnalia).
The Puritans considered Christmas too closely associated with these pagan festivals, and in any case, the Puritans had determined that Christamas was unbiblical.
Whatever may have been the position of the founders of the church, we know that on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1878, the South Haven Church had both its first evening service and its first Christmas tree.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Thursday Evening, January 9, 1879, p. 3.
City News and Gossip
A Church Wonder.
In 1827 there was a church erected in South Haven, L. I., in which there had never been a light nor an evening service, until last Christmas evening, when the children were given a Christmas tree.
We know that it had to be a candlelight service, as the Minutes reveal that electricity was not put into the church between July 1, 1933, and July 8, 1934. A vote of thanks was given to Charles Robinson "for his generous assistance” in getting electricity installed.
The choir anthem is then followed by the children’s pageant, starring the children of the Sunday School.
The Old Testament lesson is Micah 5:2-5.
It is a prophecy that Israel will be handed over to its enemies until the birth in Bethlehem of a descendant of King David. Judah and Israel will be re-united. The King will “shepherd his people” and “they will live securely. . . . He will give us peace.”
The verses state that the coming King will “rescue us from the Assyrians” and defeat them.
Unfortunately, the prophecy makes no mention of the Romans and how the re- united nations of Israel and Judah will fare against that enemy.
The Gospel lesson given in the bulletin is Luke 1:39-56. It overlaps the lesson from last week (Luke 1:46-55).
The second hymn is No. 19, “To a Maid Engaged to Joseph,” written by Gracia Grindal in 1984. We sang one of her hymns last week, “The Desert Shall Rejoice.” The music, ANNUNCIATION, is by Rusty Edwards.
Rusty Edwards is both a composer and a hymn writer. We sing his words when we sing “We Are All One in Mission,” which we did on July 20 and August 10 of this year.
Here is “To a Maid Engaged to Joseph” sung at “St. Peter’s in the Loop”:
http://youtu.be/CxRHmKchJAY “To a Maid Engaged to Joseph” sung by Schola Cantorum of “St. Peter’s in the Loop”
St. Peter’s in the Loop is at 110 W. Madison St. in Chicago.
After the sermon, there is an Affirmation Hymn, “Song of Mary,” No. 600.
Miriam Therese Winter paraphrased the words. The music, MORNING SONG, is a shape-note tune from Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, 1813.
You can hear the tune here:
The tune has been attributed to Elkanah Kelsay Dare (b. 15 Jan 1782, New Jersey; d. 26 Aug 1826, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania). He was a Presbyterian minister. He served as the Dean of Boys at Wilmington College, Delaware.
Others attribute the tune to the editor of the volume in which it first appeared, John Wyeth. The tune appeared in Part II of Repository of Sacred Music.
The tune also goes by the names CONSOLATION and KENTUCKY HARMONY.
You can hear it as a shape-note tune here. The melody was originally in the tenor line.
Here is a fine arrangement, using words by Isaac Watts:
Another musical work on the same topic is this a cappella anthem:
http://youtu.be/6F33Y7OgXzM “Magnificat” by Randy Gill, performed by The Zoe Group
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” No. 5, is the closing hymn.
It is sung to the tune of a seventeenth-century French carol, PICARDY. The words are from the fourth century, The Liturgy of St. James. The original words were in Greek. The liturgy is the principal liturgy of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
http://youtu.be/JfLWK4aphcg “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent” sung by the Millennium Youth Choir (very good)
The Millennium Youth Choir is a choir for singers between the age 16 and 23 that is an organization of the British Royal School of Church Music.
Instrumental Music
Prelude: "Gottes Sohn ist Kommen" by J.S. Bach
Bach wrote at least four works with this name, BWV 318, BWV 600, BWV 703, and BWV 724. Here are two:
http://youtu.be/0z84AeBbboA Chorale by J. S. Bach, "Gottes Sohn ist Kommen," BWV 318
http://youtu.be/GUElnUjaMQw "Gottes Sohn ist Kommen,” BWV 703
Offertory: "Diapason Movement" by John Keeble. This piece was used as a prelude for the service of March 30, 2014.
You can hear it here played on a "virtual organ" (four-parts on one manual, largo tempo, some expression, rolling bass line) with the following "virtual" ranks:
SW Open Diapason 8' + Gedact 8' (Bass) + Principal 4'
http://zionorgan.com/vb/mp3/keeble_dm_f_lwd.mp3 "Diapason Movement in F" played on a virtural organ
or you can hear it here played on an actual organ:
http://youtu.be/yfvrZiXmQEo "Diapason Movement" by John Keeble
The "Diapason Movement in F Major" was first published in 1777.
Postlude: "Cornet Voluntary" by Henry Heron.
Henry Heron wrote ten for the organ or harpsichord.
I found an audio recording of Heron’s “Cornet Voluntary” here:
http://zionorgan.com/vb/mp3/heron_cv_bos+.mp3 “Cornet Voluntary” by Henry Heron, two movements.
The second movement, which begins at 1:22 is at a much faster tempo than the first movement.
Henry Heron was born in 1730 and died about 20 Jun 1795. He was an organist at Ewell in Surrey, and composed a tune of that name while there. After 1745, he was the organist at St. Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge (a church and parish within the City of London which still exists today). [Some sources say he went to St. Magnus in 1768 rather than 1745.]
In addition to his ten voluntaries for organ, he wrote the music for an arrangement of:
‘All on the pleasant banks of the Tweed, I wish I’d ne’er had seen him,’ which was sung by Mrs. Weichsell at Vauxhall Gardens (in Kennington on the south bank of the River Thames).
All on the pleasant banks of the Tweed,
Young Jockey won my heart;
None tun’d so sweet his oaten reed,
None sung with so much art;
His skillful tale
Did soon prevail
To make me fondly love him;
But now he hies,
Or heeds my cries;
I wou’d I ne’er had seen him!
When first we met, the bonny swain
Of nought but love cou’d say;
Oh! Give, he cry’d, my heart again;
You’ve stole my heart away;
Or else incline
To give me thine
And I’ll together join ‘em;
My faithful heart
Will never part;
Ah! Why did I believe him?
Not now my slighted face he knows,
His soon forgotten dear;
To wealthier lass, o’erjoy’d, he goes,
To breath his falsehood there;
Mistaken Kate,
The swain’s a cheat;
Not for a moment trust him;
For shining gold
He’s bought and sold;
I wou’d I had not seen him.
Then, all ye maidens, fly the swain,
His wily stories shun;
Else you like me, must son complain,
Like me must be undone;
But peace, my breast,
Nor break they rest;
I’ll try clean to forget him;
I soon shall see
As good as he;
I wish I ne’er had seen him.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a score for Henry Heron’s arrangement.
Henry Heron’s psalm tunes were included in William Riley’s Parochial Music Corrected: Plain and Distinct Rules for the More Pleasing and Correct Performance of Psalmody, to Which is Added an Easy Introduction to Singing, which was published in London in 1790.
I also found Henry Heron’s trumpet voluntary. Although the “Cornet Voluntary” above was played on an organ, the “Trumpet Voluntary” below is played by a brass quintet:
http://youtu.be/ovaR02kE_iQ “Trumpet Voluntary” by Henry Heron
Richard
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