ABOUT THE MUSIC ...
A Service of Lessons and Carols has, by definition, a lot of music in it. The mu- sic and words chosen for this evening span sixteen centuries — the earliest comes from the 5th century, the newest from the middle of the 20th century — and rep- resents five different countries. Some will be very familiar to you — some you may be hearing for the first time. It is our hope that it will add meaning to the hearing of very well-known scripture passages as we celebrate the coming of the Messiah.
The organ music for this service is all based on the German carol In dulci jubilo , which is found in our hymnal, in a very loose translation by John Mason Neale (“Good Christian friends, rejoice”), at number 107. The prelude setting is by the great French organist and composer Marcel Dupré (1886-1971). His gentle set- ting places the German carol in the top voice over a rocking accompaniment on the softest sounds of the organ.
Since the first Lessons and Carols service more than a century ago at King’s Col- lege, Once in Royal David’s City has been the processional hymn. Traditionally there, the first stanza is sung by a single child unaccompanied, and the second by the choir alone, with the congregation joining on the third stanza. We will follow that pattern this evening. Our soloist is 9th grader Lucy Weiss, who is the daugh- ter of James and Krystal Weiss , and is a voice student of Organist-Choirmaster Stephen Morris.
Of the Father’s Love Begotten is one of two hymns this evening that is based on plainchant — the music of the early church. The text is from the 4th Century and the tune from the 11th. We will sing it in equal notes (like chant) rather than the “modernized” rhythm printed in the hymnal.
Adam lay ybounden is traditionally the carol sung following the first lesson at King’s. This setting is by the English composer Peter Warlock, one of the most remarkable of 20th century English composers. He was a strange character even by composer standards. He truly suffered from a split personality — his real name was Philip Heseltine, who was a music critic. It was not uncommon for Heseltine to write scathing criticism of the works of — Peter Warlock. He struggled throughout much of his life with alcohol and what might be termed “riotous living” (including more than one short stint in jail) and eventually died of gas poisoning, likely by his own hand, at the age of 36. He left behind some important scholarship on early music and the first biography of the composer Frederic Delius — as Heseltine; and, as Warlock, a sizable body of compositions, mostly in small forms, in his own very-English musical language, but always charming and fresh. Despite his troubled mind, his music is almost always astonishingly beautiful and gentle.
Adam lay ybounden is a macaronic text (a text containing two or more languages) from a single manuscript held by the British Museum, which has been dated to approximately 1400. The text however is likely to be considerably older. The poem relates the story in Genesis, chapter 3, which form the lesson read immedi- ately before. In medieval theology, Adam is said to have remained in bonds with the other Patriarchs in limbo ( limbus partum ) from the time of his death until the crucifixion of Christ (the “4000 winters” in the text). The remaining verses tell of the taking of the apple (interestingly, unlike many sources as well as the Bible itself, not blaming or even mentioning Eve) and concludes positively, hinting at Thomas Aquinas’ felix culpa (blessed fault), that the subsequent redemption of man through Jesus Christ was ultimately because of Adam’s sin.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel is the second of two hymns this evening based on plainchant. In this case, it is a 19th century adaptation of a 15th century proces- sional, with a text adapted from a Latin hymn of the 9th century. The text is structured around the “O Antiphons” sometimes used during Advent. This is probably the only Advent hymn to attain near-universal status as a “Christmas carol”.
Lo, How a Rose E’erblooming (the literal translation of the German is “A rose has sprung up”) is likely the best known of the old German Christmas chorales, at least in this country. The words of the first two verses, by an anonymous author, first appeared with this tune in a hymnal in Speyer, Germany in 1599. This har- monization was written by Michael Praetorius a decade later in 1609. The third verse the choir will sing was added in the early 19th century, as were several oth- ers. It is interesting to note that during the Nazi era in Germany, this was one of the hymns that was rewritten to promote National Socialist ideology and excise references to the Jewish origins of Jesus. The rewritten words are completely secularized and refer to light falling on the Fatherland and extolling the virtues of motherhood. It has been translated a number of times and set by many com- posers. This translation, which is the most familiar, was made by Theodore Baker in 1894, and is the one found in the bulletin The words for O Little Town of Bethlehem were written in 1868 by Phillips Brooks, the rector of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia, inspired by a visit to Bethlehem and the Holy Land three years earlier. The organist of the church, Lewis Redner, composed the tune. In the United Kingdom this is generally sung to a tune called “Forest Green” which was adapted from a folk ballad by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It seems appropriate, however, to sing this very American text to the American tune which was initially composed for it.
The Angel Gabriel is a Basque folk carol of the Annunciation which has found its way into a number of hymnals, including our own. It quotes the biblical account of the angel’s visit to Mary, which is read immediately before this. It is based on an even older Latin carol, Angelus ad virginem , which dates from the 13th or 14th centuries. It was paraphrased into English by Sabine Baring-Gould, who is best known as the author of “Onward Christian Soldiers”.
Sweet Was the Song is a 16th century carol by an anonymous English poet. It ap- peared in William Ballet’s Lute Book (ca. 1600) which is found in the library at Trinity College, Dublin. This book was a collection of songs and dance tunes, written to be performed, as you might expect, on the lute. The collection also contains the famous melody Greensleeves , though without the Christmas words, which were added much later. The composer of this setting, William Mathias (1934-1992) was a Welsh composer perhaps best remembered for his anthem “Let the People Praise Thee” which was written for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. He is also the composer of one of the communion settings found in our hymnal. His setting of these words conveys both the ethe- real mystery of the Incarnation as well as the very human scene of a mother rocking her baby.
This is the only piece in the service that was not recorded this year. The Parish Choir had hoped to be able to record one or two socially distanced things for this service, but the recent rise in Covid-19 cases turned that hope into an unful- filled wish. This recording is from the Service of Lessons and Carols of 2018 and is presented here as a way of allowing the choir to participate in this service in some way.
It may surprise you to learn that Angels We Have Heard on High is a relative new- comer to the canon of Christmas carols. The tune was arranged from a French carol by American organist and composer Edward Shippen Barnes in 1938. The text is of unknown French origin from the region around Toulouse in the south. The English translation we sing today was done in 1862 by James Chadwick, the Roman Catholic bishop of Hexam and Newcastle in northeast England.
The First Mercy (1926) is an early collaboration between Peter Warlock and Bruce Blunt (1899-1957), an English journalist, poet, wine merchant and all-around bon vivant . Warlock and Blunt became good friends and drinking partners, and it was Blunt who inspired some of Warlock’s finest work in the realm of song. Tragi- cally, at the time of Warlock’s death (in 1930, likely by his own hand) there were several further sets of songs on Blunt’s poetry planned, which were never to be. This exquisitely charming text looks at the Nativity from the standpoint of the creatures that we don’t normally consider — the vermin that were surely present in that stable. It is best known in the composer’s arrangement for 3-part wom- en’s chorus, but what we hear tonight is the original version for a solo singer with piano.
Both the words and the music of We Three Kings were written by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., an Episcopal priest who was for a time the musical director of the General Theological Seminary in New York. As part of his work there, he orga- nized an elaborate Christmas pageant for the seminary students, for which he wrote this hymn in 1857.
The words of Love Came Down at Christmas are those of pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti. She was from a creative family — her father taught at King’s College for a time and both her brothers and her sister were writers. Her oldest brother, Dante Rossetti was quite important as an artist as well as a poet. In ad- dition to this text, she is the author of In the Bleak Midwinter . She is honored with a feast day on the calendar of the Anglican church on the 27th of April. The tune is an Irish folk melody, named after the parish of Gartan in County Done- gal, Ireland, which is the birthplace of St. Columba, one of the three patron saints of that country.
Just as we began this service as is traditional at King’s College, we will conclude it the same way. Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is traditionally the recessional hymn for the Service of Lessons and Carols at King’s, and is the best-known of the 6,000 hymns written by Charles Wesley, arguably the best hymn writer in history. Wes- ley’s words are notable for the density of the theology contained in them, without becoming difficult to digest. Wesley’s original first line, written in 1839, was, “Hark! how all the welkin rings Glory to the King of Kings". Wesley’s co-worker and friend George Whitefield altered that line to what is familiar to us today. Wesley originally conceived of singing this to the tune to which we sing “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”, which would seem strange given its close association with Easter. The familiar tune comes from a cantata that Felix Mendelssohn wrote to commemorate Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. It is from this music that William H. Cummings arranged the present tune in 1840.
The first organ postlude for the Service of Lessons and Carols at King’s College (there are generally two) is always In Dulci Jubilo as set by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 729). The character of this setting could not be more different than the gentle one heard as the Prelude. Here, Bach sets the chorale tune very simply and boldly in phrases set apart by elaborate “fantasia” sections. This is much like the style in which hymns were sung in the churches of northern Germany in Bach’s time — the congregation singing the tune at a rather deliberate tempo, and the organist improvising florid passages between each phrase.
PARTICIPANTS IN TONIGHT ’S SERVICE
Clergy The Reverend Joshua T. Condon The Reverend Korey J. Wright
Organist Stephen J. Morris
Lucy Weiss, treble soloist Kristine Overman, soprano Jennifer Wobser, mezzo-soprano Brian Yeakley, tenor Joseph Roberts, baritone
Videography Sophia Hwang Korey J. Wright
Video editing and production Kevin Thompson Kim Thompson
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