Advent Lessons & Carols 2019

Blow out the trumpet -- Martin Peerson (c1572–c1650) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor / Jeremy Bruns, organ /

Blow out the trumpet in Sion, and sound the alarum in my holy mountaine. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. And sound the alarum in my holy mountaine. (Joel 2:1)

2019.11.17 Proper 28 C

Peerson-Blow out the trumpet / The Advent Choir

2019.12.01 Advent Lessons & Carols

Palestrina-Vesper Responsory / The Advent Choir

A Hymn to the Virgin -- Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) / The Advent Choir / Jeremy Bruns, conductor /

Of one that is so fair and bright, velut maris stella,  [like a star of the sea] Brighter than the day is light, parens et puella.  [mother and maiden] I cry to thee, thou see to me, Lady, pray thy Son for me, Tam pia,  [thou Holy One] That I may come to thee. Maria!  [Mary]
All this world was forlorn Eva peccatrice,  [through Eve, the sinner] Till our Lord was yborn de te genetrice.  [of thee, the mother] With ‘Ave’ it went away darkest night, and comes the day salutis;  [of salvation] The well springeth out of thee virtutis.  [of virtue]
Lady, ﬂower of everything, rosa sine spina,  [rose without a thorn] Thou bare Jesu, heaven’s King, gratia divina:  [by divine grace] Of all that bear’st the prize, Lady, queen of paradise, Electa:  [chosen one] Maid mild, mother es effecta.  [thou art proved]
(Anonymous, c1300)

Britten-A Hymn to the Virgin / The Advent Choir

The last and greatest Herald -- John McCabe (1939–2015) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor / Jeremy Bruns, organ /

The last and greatest Herald of Heaven’s King, girt in rough skins, hies to the deserts wild, among the savage brood the woods forth bring, which he more harmless found than man, and mild.

His food was locusts, and what there doth spring, with honey that from virgin hives distill’d; parch’d body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing made him appear long since from earth exiled.

There burst he forth: “All ye whose hopes rely on God, with me amidst these deserts mourn, repent, and from old errors turn!”

Who listened to his voice, obey’d his cry? Only the echoes, which he made relent, rung from their flinty caves, “Repent! Repent!”

[William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649), in his Flowers of Zion, 1623]

McCabe-The last and greatest Herald / The Advent Choir

Ave maris stella -- Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843–1907) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor

Ave maris stella, Dei Mater alma, atque semper Virgo, felix cæli porta.

Solve vincla reis, profer lumen cæcis; mala nostra pelle, bona cuncta posce.

Vitam præsta puram, iter para tutum, ut videntes Jesum, semper collætemur.

Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus, Spiritui Sancto, Tribus honor unus. Amen.

Hail, Star of the Sea, kindly Mother of God, and evermore a Virgin, blissful gate of heaven.

Break the chains of sinners, bring light to the blind, drive away our evils, and beg for all good things.

Keep our life pure, make our journey safe, so that, seeing Jesus, we may rejoice together forever.

Let there be praise to God the Father, to Christ the most high, and to the Holy Spirit; to the Three be one honor. Amen.
(Office Hymn at Vespers in the Common Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, variously attributed, most recently to Ambrose Autpert, tutor to Charlemagne, 9th cent; tr John H. Uhrig, (1943–2013])

Grieg-Ave maris stella / The Advent Choir

Ecce Dominus veniet -- Hieronymus Prætorius (1560–1629) / The Advent Choir / Jeremy Bruns, conductor

Ecce Dominus veniet, et omnes sancti ejus cum eo, et erit in die illa lux magna, et exhibit de Jerusalem sicut aqua munda.
Et regnabit Dominus in æternum super omnes gentes. Alleluia.
Behold, the Lord cometh, and all his saints with him, and he shall come on that day of great light, and shall go forth from Jerusalem like pure water. 
And the Lord shall reign forever over the nations. Alleluia.
(Medieval Advent Matin Responsory)

Praetorius-Ecce Dominus veniet / The Advent Choir

To Morning -- Gabriel Jackson (born 1962) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor
 
O holy virgin! clad in purest white, unlock heav’n’s golden gates, and issue forth; awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven; let light rise from the chambers of the east, and bring the honey’d dew that cometh on waking day. O radiant morning, salute the sun rous’d like a huntsman to the chase, and with thy buskin’d feet appear upon our hills.

[William Blake (1757–1827)]

Jackson-To Morning / The Advent Choir

The Cherubikon, op 41, no 6 -- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer / conductor

Izhe kheruvimï tayno obrazuyushche, i zhivotvoryashchey Troytsye trisvyatuyu pyesn pripyevayushche; vsyakoye nïnye zhityeskoye otlozhim popyecheniye. Yako da Tsarya vsyekh podïmyem, Angelski,inyevidimo dorinosimachinmi, Alliluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Let us, who mystically represent the Cherubim and sing the thrice-holy hymn to the life-giving Trinity, lay aside all worldly cares: that we may receive the King of All, invisibly escorted by the angelic hosts, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

(Οἱ τὰ Χερουβεὶμ μυστικῶς εἰκονίζοντες, from The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom)

Tchaikovsky-The Cherubic Hymn, op 41, no 6 / The Advent Choir

Adam lay ybounden -- Howard While Skempton (born 1947) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor

Adam lay ybounden, bounden in a bond: four thousand winter thoght he not too long. And all was for an appil, an appil that he took, as clerkes finden wreten in their book.
Ne hadde the appil taken ben, ne hadde never our Lady a ben heavene quene. Blessed be the time that appil taken was: therefore we may singen: Deo gracias. [Thanks be to God]

(London: British Library Sloan MS 2593, 15th cent)

Skempton-Adam lay y-bounden / The Advent Choir

E’en So Lord Jesus, Quickly Come -- Paul Otto Manz (1919–2009) / The Advent Choir / Jeremy Bruns, conductor / 

Peace be to you and grace from him who freed us from our sins, who loved us all and shed his blood that we might saved be. 

Sing holy, holy, to our Lord, the Lord, Almighty God, who was and is and is to come; sing holy, holy, Lord! 

Rejoice in heaven, all ye that dwell therein, rejoice on earth, ye saints below, for Christ is coming, is coming soon, for Christ is coming soon! 

E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come, and night shall be no more; they need no light nor lamp nor sun, for Christ will be their All! 

[text adapted by Ruth Manz (1919–2008) from Revelation 22]

Manz-E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come / The Advent Choir

Matin Responsory -- adapted from a Nunc dimittis of G. P. da Palestrina (1525–1594) / The Advent Choir / Mark Dwyer, conductor / Jeremy Bruns, organ / Francesco Logozzo, Henry Clapp, Laura Ziegler & Agnes Coakley Cox, soloists /

Cantor: I look from afar:
Gentleman: And lo, I see the power of God coming, 
and a cloud covering the whole earth.
Cantor: Go ye out to meet him and say:
Choir: Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?
Soprano: High and low, rich and poor, one with another,
Choir: Go ye out to meet him and say:
Soprano: Hear, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep.
Choir: Tell us, art thou he that should come?
High Voices: 	Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come
Choir: to reign over thy people Israel.
Cantor: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Choir: I look from afar: and lo, I see the power of God coming, 
and a cloud covering the whole earth.
Low Voices: Go ye out to meet him and say:
Choir: Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?

(Aspiciens a longe, First Responsory at Matins of Advent Sunday)

1 Come, thou Redeemer of the earth,
And manifest thy virgin-birth:
Let every age adoring fall,
Such birth befits the God of all.

2 Begotten of no human will,
But of the Spirit, thou art still
The Word of God, in flesh arrayed,
The Saviour, now to man displayed.

3 The virgin womb that burden gained
With virgin honour all unstained,
The banners there of virtue glow,
God in his temple dwells below.

4 Forth from that chamber goeth he,
That royal home of purity,
A giant in twofold substance one,
Rejoicing now his course to run.

5 From God the Father he proceeds,
To God the Father back he speeds,
Runs out his course to death and hell,
Returns on God’s high throne to dwell.

6 O equal to thy Father, thou!
Gird on thy fleshly mantle now,
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.

7 Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness glow with new-born light,
No more shall night extinguish day,
Where love's bright beams their power display.

8 All laud to God the Father be,
All praise, eternal Son, to Thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To God the Holy Paraclete.

(Veni Redemptor gentium, Ambrose of Milan: tr John Mason Neale)

Palestrina-Matin Responsory & Hymn-Puer Nobis / The Advent Choir

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Advent Lessons & Carols 2019

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