Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, December 3, 2006
Advent 1
From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters
Today a new church year begins. And it always begins at All Saints Parish with the singing of The Great Litany in procession. The solemnity and beauty of this ancient prayer remind us that we are approaching the birth of Our Lord, the first great feast of the year. The texts for the Sundays in Advent emphasize "final things" and, late in the season, Mary, who was thought worthy to bring Jesus into the world.
The texts of the choral music today fit today's themes. At the Offertory the choir sings a motet by Palestrina to the text, "Sound the trumpet in Sion, for the day of the Lord is near." And at the communion, a motet by Jacob Handl (yes, I've spelled his name correctly!), a 16th century German composer, with another "looking forward" text: "A star shall rise from Jacob, and a man shall spring up out of Israel. . . every nation shall serve him."