The song of the Virgin Mary, the Magnificat, has long been sung in the evening services in the Church, whether Vespers in the Roman Catholic and Lutheran liturgies, or Evening Prayer in the Anglican tradition. When the Magnificat is sung, it is often set apart — before and after — by the singing or saying of an antiphon, a short phrase that reinforces some aspect of the significance of Mary’s song. Sometime between the 6th and 8th centuries, it became common during the week before Christmas to use a series of special Magnificat antiphons. A different text was used each night from December 17th through the 23rd, and each text…
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Recommended recording: Gregorian Chants (Advent)
Earlier this week, I recommended a recording of Advent music sung by an all-female group, the sisters of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. The current recording features an all-male ensemble, CantArte Regensburg. This album includes traditional Gregorian chant settings of many texts used liturgically during Advent, including texts from the propers for the Sundays in Advent (Introits, Gradual and Alleluia, Offertory, Communion) and the texts for the O antiphons, traditionally sung at Vespers during the last week of Advent. There are different ways of chanting these venerable works. Sometimes one hears recordings of monks who seem to have among their ranks sincere but somnabular brothers whose chanting may convey…
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Christina Georgina Rossetti, Advent (1858)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) wrote a number of poems about Advent and Christmas. Since we sing it almost every Christmas Eve, we are very familiar with the text to her “In the bleak mid-winter” This poem is not as familiar. It has been set to music by Charles Giffen (b. 1940), and (in an abbreviated form) sung by our choir. This Advent moon shines cold and clear, These Advent nights are long; Our lamps have burned year after year And still their flame is strong. ‘Watchman, what of the night?’ we cry, Heart-sick with hope deferred: ‘No speaking signs are in the sky,’ Is still the watchman’s word. The…
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Gaudete in Domino semper
The Introit for the third Sunday of Advent is from Philippians 4:4-6 — “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice: let your moderation be known unto all men: the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing: but in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” This is followed by the first verse from Psalm 85: “Lord, thou art become gracious unto thy land: thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.” Here is the Latin text: Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete. Modestia vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus: Dominus enim prope est. Nihil solliciti sitis: sed…
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O come, O come, Emmanuel
Hymn #2 Text: Traditional antiphons Music: 15th-century plainsong, adapted by Thomas Helmore (1811-1890) Tune name: VENI EMMANUEL THE TEXT This is one of the most familiar of our Advent hymns. In its earliest form may date back to a community of fifth-century Jewish Christians. The first translation in English appeared in John Mason Neale’s The Hymnal Noted (1851). In Neale’s version, the first verse began with the words, “Draw nigh, draw nigh, Emmanuel.” Our Hymnal includes seven verses, each of which addresses the Messiah with a different Biblical name: Immanuel, Wisdom, Lord of Might, Branch of Jesse, Key of David, Morning Star, and King of Nations. Before these seven verses became…
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Bach’s Advent cantatas, part 3: Schwingt freudig euch empor (BWV 36)
While most of the cantatas written by Johann Sebastian Bach were written for liturgical use, he also wrote a number of cantatas that are typically designated as “secular.” These were written to accompany festive civic celebrations, for the private enjoyment of noble patrons and their guests, and for other public performances. Conductor Masaaki Suzuki — who with the Bach Collegium Japan has recorded all of Bach’s cantatas — has commented that “in Bach’s attitude toward composing there was no difference between sacred and secular cantatas, in spite of some technical differences derived from the different aim. And this is probably how he has felt about his life in — and…
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Recommended recording: Advent at Ephesus
Not far from the ancient city of Ephesus is a small stone building traditionally known by Christians and Muslims as the “house of Mary.” Since the 19th century, the building has been maintained as a shrine to the Virgin Mother of Jesus. About 5,900 miles away — an hour’s drive north of Kansas City, Missouri — is the site of the Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus. It is the home of the small community of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. The sisters living, working, praying, and singing there recognize a connection between their vocation and the house of Mary As their website explains: This little home is the…
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Recommended recording: German Advent Music
What might one expect from an album with the subtitle German Advent Music? From what genealogy does this music emerge? In Music in Early Lutheranism, an introductory guide to the tradition that gave the Church some of its most enduring musical achievements, Carl Schalk writes: The first two centuries of the Lutheran Reformation — the period between Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach — produced a singularly impressive body of music written specifically for the worship life of the church. Less often noted is that this music developed as a clear result of Lutheranism’s understanding of worship and the important place it gave to the art form it considered next in importance to…
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Bach’s Advent cantatas, part 2: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland II (BWV 62)
In Lutheran Germany in the early 18th century, the first Sunday in Advent was the last time until Christmas when any elaborate music would be heard in church services. The relative austerity of the second, third, and fourth Sundays in Advent served to focus attention on the prospect of Christ’s return in judgment. It also gave church musicians an opportunity to concentrate their energy on preparing for the grueling demands of the Christmas season. Advent of 1724 was J. S. Bach’s second season as Kapellmeister at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. For the first Sunday in Advent that year he wrote a second cantata based on Luther’s Advent hymn, Nun…
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Advent Prose (Rorate caeli)
For centuries it has been common to chant or sing the text called Rorate Caeli, or the Advent Prose during Masses and other services in Advent. The complete text is assembled with passages from different chapters by the prophet Isaiah. When sung in a liturgical setting, the first two lines of the text are often treated as an antiphon: the passage is chanted at the beginning and end of the entire text and at the end of each stanza by the entire choir and congregation. Here is an English translation: Drop down, ye heavens, from above,and let the skies pour down righteousness. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,neither remember…