Advent Carol Service: St John's College, Cambridge [L] 1.12.24 @ 3pm

[Pulcinella]

A Service for Advent with Carols

A Service for Advent with Carols, live from the Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Introit: Rorate caeli (plainsong)
Processional Hymn: O come, O come Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel, descant David Hill)
Bidding Prayer
Carol: In the stillness (Sally Beamish)

I The Message of Advent
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Sapientia and O Adonaï (plainsong)
Carol: People, look east (Tradition Bescançon, arr. Shaw)
First Lesson: Isaiah 11 vv. 1-5
Carol: A tender shoot (Kerensa Briggs)
Carol: There is no rose (Joubert)
Second Lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5 vv. 1-11
Carol: Christ hath a garden (Eleanor Daley)

II The Word of God
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Radix Jesse and O Clavis David (plainsong)
Third Lesson: Micah 4 vv. 1-4
Carol: A Hymn of St Columba (Britten)
Fourth Lesson: Luke 4 vv. 14-21
Hymn: Come, thou long-expected Jesus (Cross of Jesus, descant Christopher Robinson)

III The Prophetic Call
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Oriens and O Rex Gentium (plainsong)
Fifth Lesson: Malachi 3 vv1-7
Carol: This is the record of John (Gibbons)
Sixth Lesson: Matthew 3 vv1-11
Hymn: On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New, descant Christopher Robinson)

IV The God-Bearer
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Emmanuel and O Virgo Virginum (plainsong)
Carol: Annunciation (The Angel and the girl are met) (Helena Paish)
Seventh Lesson: Luke 1 vv. 39-49
Magnificat: St John’s Service (Jonathan Dove)
Eighth Lesson: John 3 vv1-8
Anthem: The seven joys of Mary (Trad, arr. William Whitehead)

Sentence and Christmas Collect
Carol: What child is this? (Russell Pascoe) (first broadcast, commissioned by the Master and Fellows for the service)
Hymn: Hills of the north rejoice (Little Cornard)
The College Prayer and The Blessing
Organ Voluntary: In dir ist Freude, BWV 615 (Bach)

Christopher Gray (Director of Music)
Alexander Robson (Herbert Howells Organ Scholar)
The Revd Canon Dr Victoria Johnson (Dean)

[smittims]

Thanks for the list. this is one of the few peogrammes I never miss. I shall look forward to 'There is no Rose' and 'Hills of the North Rejoice'. What a marvellous tune that is! Though a bit of a challenge for your average congregation,with that upward minor tenth leap.

[jonfan]

https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/advent-carol-services-2

A link to the booklet.
PS. The congregation not contemplating Minor Tenths makes it easier for them to sing!

[MickyD]

Thanks for the list. this is one of the few peogrammes I never miss. I shall look forward to 'There is no Rose' and 'Hills of the North Rejoice'. What a marvellous tune that is! Though a bit of a challenge for your average congregation,with that upward minor tenth leap.

The latter hymn reminds me of Sunday school, when an aged teacher used to bellow it out with gusto in our ears...."Shout while ye journey home!" Or something like that, I can hear him now!

[Petrushka]

'Hills of the North Rejoice'. What a marvellous tune that is! Though a bit of a challenge for your average congregation,with that upward minor tenth leap.

I'll be missing 'Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending' for the second year in a row. The tune, Helmsley, is one of the really great hymn tunes, in my opinion, and has always meant Advent to me as much as 'Hark! The Herald' means Christmas.

[Petrushka]

I see that 'This is the Record of John' (Gibbons) is described as a carol.

Surely not?

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'll be missing 'Lo! He Comes With Clouds Descending' for the second year in a row. The tune, Helmsley, is one of the really great hymn tunes, in my opinion, and has always meant Advent to me as much as 'Hark! The Herald' means Christmas.

I heartily agree. I make sure I can locate Ledger's EMI CD " Procession with Carols on Advent Sunday". His descants were wonderful......

[oddoneout]

The latter hymn reminds me of Sunday school, when an aged teacher used to bellow it out with gusto in our ears...."Shout while ye journey home!" Or something like that, I can hear him now!

It does lend itself very well to enthusiastic singing.

[jonfan]

https://trinitycollegechoir.com/wp-c...rvice-2024.pdf hy
‘Lo! He comes’ in its rightful place at the end of the service at Trinity College Chapel.

[Roger Judd]

I too am sorry that 'Lo! He comes with clouds descending' is absent from this service - I shall particularly miss Christopher Robinson's fine descant - glad two more of his descants are included though, so I guess I shouldn't be greedy. Very good to see that Chris Gray's Cornish connections are alive with the commission from Russell Pascoe.
RJ

[smittims]

At my school we had an afternoon assembly to end the autumn term and we always sang 'Lo, He comes...' to Helmsley. It invariably raised the roof, sung by lads who would probably be embarrassed to admit an interest in singing. Maybe it was the 'end of term' feeling.

[DracoM]

Thx for doing my task!

[Finzi4ever]

I too am sorry that 'Lo! He comes with clouds descending' is absent from this service - I shall particularly miss Christopher Robinson's fine descant - glad two more of his descants are included though, so I guess I shouldn't be greedy. Very good to see that Chris Gray's Cornish connections are alive with the commission from Russell Pascoe.
RJ

Hear hear to the CR descants I remember St G's,W. In my first teaching post (decades back) the Head was nicknamed 'Whale' - the roof came off at 'Deeply whaling(sic)'.

[Pulcinella]

Thx for doing my task!

You're welcome.
Only spotted that this one was missing when you queried the one on New Year's Day.
Prompted by the lack of a thread for St Thomas NYC, I found that information was already up on the R3 website for all of December, so I took the liberty of starting all the threads off, in case you were not around for whatever reason.

[DracoM]