Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, December 17, 2006
Advent 3
From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters
The third Sunday in Advent is traditionally called Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday because for centuries the reading from Philippians - "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice" - was the chosen Epistle for that day each year. In our three-year lectionary cycle the reading is used only in Year C, the year we are now in.
Many composers have found music in that text, and our choir will sing one of those settings, one of the best, attributed to John Redford, Organist and Vicar-Choral of St Paul's Cathedral, London, 1532-47. The attribution is questioned by some scholars, but Anonymous, the only alternative offered, seems insufficient to the quality of the music. In other words, and to my mind, it's too good a piece not to have a parent, even a dubious one. And so, we happily credit Mr. Redford with that role.
At the Communion the choir will sing one of Brahms's Marienlieder (Songs of Mary) choruses, The White Dove. The Dove, a metaphor for the Angel Gabriel, "flew down to earth ... to greet a Maid of lowly birth." It is one of the most beautiful and intimate movements of this Opus, and the text, which we will sing in English rather than the original German, finds Brahms responding with eloquent simplicity to this evocative and tender encounter.
The hymns today advance us towards the excitement of the Nativity.
Hymn 66 - Come, thou long expected Jesus is synonymous with Advent for many Episcopalians. A survey conducted prior to the 1982 General Convention ranked it as number one in usage throughout the church. The text, as so often in our rich hymnody, was the work of Charles Wesley, and the tune, German in source, dates from the 17th century.
At the Offertory we sing Hymn 314 - Humbly I adore thee, one of the great Communion hymns and a treasured inheritance from Roman liturgy. The text is attributed to Thomas Aquinas, This hymn was first brought into Episcopal use in The Hymnal 1940, where it immediately found great popular favor in our liturgy.
No Advent would be complete for Episcopalians without today's concluding hymn, which also was drawn from Roman sources: Hymn 59 - Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding. This hymn first appeared in an Episcopal publication in a collection of sixty-five "Additional Hymns" authorized by the General Convention of 1865. The tune is by William Henry Monk (1823-1889). He was music director for almost four decades at St. Matthias, Stoke Newington, London, and was the first musical editor for Hymns Ancient and Modern, the historic English hymnal which sold 60 million copies.