A Service for Advent with Carols 27.xi.2022 [L]

[DracoM]

A Service for Advent with Carols 27.xi.2022 [L]
Chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge

Introit: Advent Calendar (Ledger)
Processional Hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel) (descant: David Hill)
Bidding Prayer
Carol: There is no rose (Preston)

I The Message of Advent
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Sapientia and O Adonaï
First lesson: Isaiah 11 vv. 1-5
Carol: Adam lay ybounden (Warlock)
Second lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5 vv. 1-11
Carol: Cedit, Hyems (Abbie Betinis)

II The Word of God
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Radix Jesse and O Clavis David
Carol: Drop down, ye heavens, from above (Judith Weir)
Third lesson: Micah 4 vv. 1-4
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Fourth lesson: Luke 4 vv. 14-21
Hymn: Hark, the glad sound! (Bristol) (descant: Christopher Robinson)

III The Prophetic Call
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Oriens and O Rex Gentium
Carol: One star, at last (Maxwell Davies)
Fifth lesson: Malachi 3 vv. 1-7
Carol: Lo! the desert depths are stirr’d (Cheryl Frances-Hoad)
Sixth lesson: Matthew 3 vv. 1-11
Hymn: On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New)

IV The God-Bearer
Sentence and Collect
Antiphon: O Emmanuel
Carol: A tender shoot (Goldschmidt)
Seventh lesson: Luke 1 vv. 39-49
Carol: A spotless rose (Howells)
Magnificat: Chichester Service (Walton)
Eighth lesson: John 3 vv. 1-8
Sentence and The Christmas Collect
Carol: Nova! Nova! (Iain Farrington)
Hymn: Lo! He comes with clouds descending (Helmsley) (descant: Robinson)

The College Prayer and The Blessing

Organ Voluntary: Chorale Prelude ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’ BWV 661 (Bach)

George Herbert (Assistant Organist)
Anna Ryan (Flute)
Oliver Wass (Harp)

Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)

[Pulcinella]

15:00 start.

I might have to catch up on Sounds (now I know how), as I'll be going to the similar event at York Minster (though that doesn't start until 17:30).

[smittims]

This is a usual 'must-listen' for me, and the start of the 'it's starting to feel like Christmas' time of year. I recommend it strongly, not just to Christians, but to all who feel there must be something more to life than Strickly, paying the bills, and keeping warm. Pour something soothing and curl up to listen.

[Petrushka]

Time again for my annual complaint that it's a pity that 'Helmsley', surely one of the truly great hymn tunes, has its only outing of the year at this service.

Needless to say it will receive its customary sing-along at Petrushka Towers.

[ardcarp]

'Helmsley', surely one of the truly great hymn tunes

Agreed! I like it pitched high though. It's gone down to G in Songs of Praise (bottom B for the sops). A major is an altogether more joyful key.

[Rolmill]

Agreed! I like it pitched high though. It's gone down to G in Songs of Praise (bottom B for the sops). A major is an altogether more joyful key.

Also in G in the New English Hymnal (which we use in our church), as well as in the Willcocks arrangement in C for C 3. My old church used A&M and my recollection is that it was in A flat. I don't think I've seen it published in A.

Anyway, another enticing music list from SJC (though it would be good to ditch the omnipresent Gardner 'Tomorrow shall be my dancing day' occasionally...) - definitely looking forward to this.

[ardcarp]

Gardner 'Tomorrow shall be my dancing day'

I love it.

It's the Goldschmidt I could do without. (It seems to have become increasingly popular in recent times.) It starts and ends just fine, but Otto might have avoided those high notes which always sound 'shrieky' however well done

[smittims]

Poor old John Gardner seems destined to be a one-hit wonder, for all his symphonies, concertos and canatatas. I once came across a big choral and orchestral work commissioned to celebrate the Shakespeare 400th in 1964. He might have guessed it was the sort of work fated to be peformed once or perhaps twice, then 'ditched'.

[Magister Chori]

The music list is - as always with Andrew Nethsingha - a very good mix of old and new items, moreover with the instrumental addition of flute and harp, but I still have to complain that I would also have liked to hear some of the simpler carols - mainly taken from the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols - that were common in the George Guest era and Guest's own beautifully crafted advent carols arrangements which sadly, since his times, I have never heard anymore from SJJC.

However, I'll be very happy to hear the opening Ledger and Preston: two very fine pieces indeed.

[smittims]

Well said; yes, I too feel there should be room for the 'simpler carols'. I think we need to avoid too much sophistication at this traditional event.

[Keraulophone]

Poor old John Gardner seems destined to be a one-hit wonder.

JLG did write other carols, including those in the same set written for St Paul's Girls School, of which he was in a very distinguished line of (part-time) Directors of Music, The Holly and the Ivy being the other one that gets an occasional outing.

Despite writing 249 opus numbers, and Barbirolli having premiered his 1st Symphony Op.2 in 1951, Gardner's 'conventional' musical language was never really in fashion after the 1950s, when post-war expectations brought on by Peter Grimes and the beginning of the New Elizabethan Age of optimism and modernity were not met by composers who wrote tunes, however original and various were their works (the notable exception being Malcolm Arnold).

[jonfan]

I too enjoyed GG’s enthusiasm for the 1928 OBC, shared now by Harry Christophers and the Sixteen who use quite a few on their Christmas CDs. Each DOM has their own agenda moving forward and I’m happy with that.

I always think JG’s Dancing Day sounds galumphing on the organ, a giant trying to be a Sugar Plum Fairy. We always use piano which goes well with the other two percussion instruments, then unison throughout with descant last chorus.

Agree Helmsley one of THE great tunes, made peerless with RVW’s delicious inner harmonies. For the last verse harmonies I go to Martin How, with an organ part to die for and a descant above if you wish. I first heard it at the 1981 first broadcast of Advent from St John’s with Ab being GG’s choice of key.

[Guest]

As always, timing clashes with another commitment!

[Alison]

I’d like to hear GG’s Zion, At thy shining Gates and The Lord at First did Adam make.

[ardcarp]

The Holly and the Ivy being the other one that gets an occasional outing

I find that one just a wee bit trite.