Advent Carols

[Contre Bombarde]

lucky you !!!!

(is your avatar the instrument you play?)

Sadly, no - it's the Cavaille-Coll of St. Ouen, Rouen, although I have been lucky enough to have played it in the past. A quite simply awe-inspiring monument to an unsurpassed era of organ building.

[jean]

No mention yet of Byrd's Laetentur caeli which I thought they sang beautifully - a fine motet and a text very suitable for Advent, though I don't know where it occurs liturgically:

Laetentur caeli et exsultet terra, quia Dominus veniet, et pauperum suorum miserebitur

(Let the earth rejoice and the heavens be glad, for our Lord will come and will have mercy on his poor.)

It reminded me of that other fine Byrd Advent motet:

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum. Aperiatur terra, et germinet salvatorem

(Drop down dew from above, ye heavens, and let the clouds rain righteousness. Let the earth open and bring forth a Saviour.)

That is the Introit for the fourth Sunday of Advent, the words originally from Isaiah.

Then there's Handl's Ecce concipies, et paries filium and jumping a few centuries, Bruckner's Virga Jesse floruit.

[mercia]

I enjoyed the Byrd (and Gibbons for that matter) very much. Since you are obviously a scholar could you give a translation of the Sven-Erik Back, please (Nox praecessit ......) ?

[Panjandrum]

I must buy of copy of the recent JEG Bach.

JEG Bach? That's a new member of the clan to me

[jean]

...could you give a translation of the Sven-Erik Back, please (Nox praecessit ......) ?

I wasn't listening very closely to the words, but I expect it's

nox praecessit dies autem appropinquavit. abiiciamus ergo opera tenebrarum et induamur arma lucis (Romans 13, 12)

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

[ListenerDave]

I love the season of Advent with so much glorious music but perhaps it should be borne in mind that the organ should be silent on purple days with one exception being that it may be used to accompany singing to help the singers cope. It seems that only a few churches and cathedrals adhere to this nowadays. Nevertheless I always enjoy joining in the singing of Stainer's tune, "Cross of Jesus" to the words "Come, Thou long expected, Jesus". Yes, Stainer.
Advent Sunday is also the nearest Sunday to the feast of St Andrew.
I always enjoy the Advent Carol Service from St John's but it can be different from a carol service from a church or cathedral as this is a college chapel where Christmas falls out of Term Time and maybe Christmas is given more prominence than would normally be the case. Well done once again, St John's; I enjoyed so much of the service with the Rachmaninoff taking the eye for me.

[mercia]

Thank you very much for that (I feel I should be paying you for this free consultation-work!) May I ask another? Do you think the words of the Panufnik - The Call - were/are the same as Vaughan Williams's The Call from the 5 Mystical Songs?

[David_Underdown]

Full order fo service (with all texts and translations) is available on the John's website http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/cms_misc/me...rvice_2010.pdf. "The Call" deos seem to be the same John Herbert poem as set by RVW. In addition to the Romans guessed at by Jean, Nox Praecessit also includes words from Matthew and Luke.

[mercia]

Thank you very much for that

[Finzi4ever]

I'm new to this so please be gentle.
But what is your favourite Advent carol?
Everybody has a Christmas favourite. But what would you like to hear next Sunday at a parish church or cathedral near you?

Going back to the original question at the head of this thread, I'd love to hear Richard Lloyd's haunting arrangement of "Drop downs, ye Heavens," done far more prequently but it demands a big building for the spacing requirements of a distant, ethereal treble solo.

[thoroughlygood]

Yes...I agree with secret squirrel about "Lo! he comes" ...and I'm looking forward to hearing the St John's College Advent Service broadcast from Sunday...

Up until Choral Evensong the other day I thought my favourite was O Come. But then I stumbled on Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (not literally, obviously) and was fairly certain that was my favourite. Now I read this, I'm reminded about Lo! He Comes. So .. er ... It's got to be the latter. I'm listening to Choral Evensong for a third time as a result.

:)

[secret squirrel]

that (Lloyd's Drop down ye heavens) was my [I]only[I] solo as a chorister - always been a chorus kinda guy!

Funnily enough, it only came about as I had the temerity to remind John Scott of Barry's promise to all his (Barry's) boys that [I]every[/I ] chorister will sing a solo even if it just the one, be it a Batten short or Hear my Prayer!

My voice vas nearly broken by that stage, but I go through it by way of an early falsetto (and being hidden amongst the quire organ pipes!) but it was probably not that etherial!

In those days, you see, broken-voiced choristers remained in the stalls until the last day of term: they stilll had something to give (leadership, low notes in 4-part boys' voices music etc), though whithout straying into 'that old chestnut', most voices broke within the last term or two and not (as happens today too frequently) in the penultimate year!

Still 'Lo he comes' for me, but are we allowed to stray into Messiah territory...? In which case, 'But who may abide'....
ss

[jean]

In addition to the Romans guessed at by Jean, Nox Praecessit also includes words from Matthew and Luke.

Less of Romans than I guessed! And interestingly, the text has been changed slightly from the Vulgate appropinquavit (has approached) to a more-suitable-for-Advent appropinquabit (will approach).

[mercia]

ah yes, -vit and -bit, 'O'-level Latin all comes flooding back

[french frank]

JEG Bach? That's a new member of the clan to me

Known in the family as 'Jiggy' I understand ...