Your choir can sing “Corde natus ex parentis” (“Of the Father’s love begotten”), either to the Liber hymnarius’s melody or to the melody found in many modern hymnals.

John Goss “Behold, I Bring You Good Tidings”

Praetorius “Psallite unigenito” (short)

Schnabel “Transeamus”

GIA publishes a nice Gloria setting that uses the “Les anges dans nos compagnes” melody for a refrain but sets the LATIN text (and well!) in SATB.

In St. James’s Sunday by Sunday II collection there is a “Verbum caro” by Louis Halsey that’s very doable. Like with much RSCM stuff, though, watch for leaps to dissonances that your singers aren’t expecting and may have trouble with. Very pretty, though.

There are a few “Personent hodie” arrangements out there; that one’s always a hoot. :)

Gaudete (lots of editions on CPDL)

And I wanted to swap tips on "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and which tenor gets to sing "O Holy Night" - darn. If I weren't on someone else's organ bench, I'd be thrilled to hear music like this before Midnight Mass.

I introduced a "lessons and carols" concept at my church, loosely shaped around the office of readings for Christmas Eve, including the reading from the sermon by Pope St. Leo the Great.

We do a setting by Wolgemuth of "Of the Father's Love" and a really nice arrangement of "Gaudete" by Hurd. This year I'm introducing "Bethlehem Down" by Peter Warlock, poem by Bruce Blunt. It's a truly moving poem that draws the connection between the cradle and the cross.

Bearing in mind that when I arrived the choir sang about 1/2-hour's worth of rather generic, often mawkish stuff from Hope Publishing and the like, this is a terrific turn-around.

Patricia,
I did some of my undergrad work with Dr. Tim Blickhan (Northern Illinois Univ.). Small world.
We did "Et incarnatus" from Bach's B minor (I think...) last year accompanied by organ and two violins. Quite nice.

Felipe,
Thanks for the recommendation of "Gaudete." I've since dropped the Stainer and added the "Gaudete." Much easier and in Latin!

Also, for what it's worth...I finally got the Tavener "Behold A Virgin" in. Good text and not that difficult (must have good basses).

Thanks!
Jon

Westminster Cathedral in London does this:

Christmas Eve 2009
Wednesday 24th December
Mass at 07:00, 08:00, 10:30 (Latin), 12:30, 13:05
07:40 Morning Prayer
16:00* Solemn First Vespers of Christmas
18:00 Vigil Mass with Carols
23:30* Vigil and Midnight Mass

Confessions 9:30- 15:30
Cathedral closes briefly after the 18:00 Mass


Christmas Day
Thursday 25th December
08:00 Mass
09:00 Mass with Carols
10:00 Morning Prayer (Sung)
10:30* Solemn Mass
12:00 Sung mass with Carols
15:30* Solemn Vespers and Benediction

Cathedral closes after 15:30 Vespers


I've seen this and the Vigil is wonderful...instead of lessons and carols....I can't find the program, but it is worth considering.

L and C was a liturgy created by Protestants. I am always reluctant to imitate their innovations based on the fact that the Catholic identity can offer our own brand of Christmas music and do it in our own way. What are we doing by playing the "me too" game? It's a fair question to ask.



I'm thinking of a Geoff Moore and the Distance song here from the old school.:) Points to the CCM scholar that knows which song.

Oh, I'm so ignorant. "Nine Lessons and Carols" has a different choice of readings, but otherwise the format is that of the readings from the OF office of readings for Christmas Eve/Day -- what would have been Matins in the EF back in 1880. Presumably the guy who invented it used the Anglican equivalent, and hence the differences in readings.

Click "Read Online" and look up Christmas in Volume I of the Marquess of Bute's The Roman Breviary, if you don't believe me. Matins starts on page 272 of the book. Matins used to be said late at night, I believe, so that must be why those readings were used. You're allowed to say the EF breviary whenever or however you like, as a layperson, so there's nothing stopping you from still using Bute as a template. (There's a foreword called "The Pie" that explains all the stuff not explicitly put in there, and there's a few format changes for having a non-priest say it, because we can't give blessings but can only ask God for them.)

Anyway, it's probably the OF Office of Readings that the USCCB is putting forward as their Lessons and Carols. And why the heck the USCCB doesn't just say so, I don't know. But I think people normally say the Office of Readings at breakfast time or something, so maybe that's why they don't say.

If you want something more evening-ish, here's the OF Evening Prayer for that night, straight out of the book, with suggestions for stuff you could do to make it also a choral concert right before Midnight Mass. There would be plenty of variety, it seems to me, especially if you did the psalms in one style and the interstitial carols in another. If I've forgotten something or made some hideous abusive mistake, I'm sure somebody will say so. If you want to do EF, I'm also sure that somebody can help you.

Isn't there some kind of Mahrt article about how to run a choral vespers? That would probably be a lot better than anything I could make up, because he does that all the time.
------

Whatever stuff you do first that they don't put in the book, which there seems to be a lot of. (Sorry, editorial comment.)

O God, come to my assistance.... back and forthing.

Hymn:
You get to pick this. The traditional hymn is "Christe redemptor omnium", so presumably you want that or something along that line.

Antiphon w Psalm 113:
He comes in splendor,
the King who is our peace,
the whole world longs to see him.

This is a Solomon thing turned toward Christ.... Anyway, you could easily accompany this with some kind of carol or hymn about angels and glory, or about "isn't it great that God came down" (See the psalm text), or about the blessings Jesus brings us, or king stuff.

Antiphon w Psalm 147, 12-20:
He sends forth his word to the earth,
and his command spreads swiftly through the

land.

Angels We Have Heard on High, or another message/angel carol; or one about nature and snow and blessings; or one about coming to Israel.

Antiphon w Canticle (Philippians 2:6-11):
The eternal Word, born of the Father before
time began, today emptied Himself for our sake
and became man.

I'm sure you can find a carol about God coming down to us. :)

Reading: Galatians 4:3-7.

Responsory:
Today you will know the Lord is coming.
- Repeat.

And in the morning you will see His glory.
- The Lord is coming.

Glory be...
- Today you will know the Lord is coming.

Antiphon with the Magnificat:
When the sun rises in the morning sky,
you will see the King of Kings
coming forth from the Father
like a radiant bridegroom from the bridal

chamber.

The Magnificat is already all kinds of choral hymns, so you'd just be adding on the antiphon in front and in back.

You could stick on some kind of Marian carol afterwards, especially a Visitation one.

A set of set intercessions.

The Our Father.

Again, you've already got choral settings for this, I'm sure.

You could stick another carol here.

A set prayer.

Ending: May the Lord bless us...

More carols, if you've still got time. Maybe something quiet to lead into Mass.

(Except not calling it that, probably because of some high church/low church thing, or because the real intent was to have Vespers kill more time without allowing any slack time when the men could slip out of church and go have a drink.)

Vespers, a drink, then Mass... Sounds TLMish to me! New (ancient) tradition.

Personally, I have concerns that the L&C thing steals away from the grandeur of the Mass itself, and since the EC does not celebrate the 'Sacrifice of the Mass', it is perhaps an attempt to raise the bar, I suppose.

"It's Christmas Eve! Let's do a Christmas concert so we can sing and perform music that would be 'perfect' for the moment... after all, the church will be packed and we will have a ready captured captive audience"

I think 20 minutes of wonderful organ preludes would be perfect enough. Maybe with two organists and work for four hands and four feet. I could then pray the Joyful Mysteries in sublimity!

The Manx have an ancient tradition which I imagine derives from popular action taken after the Book of Common Prayer had suppressed their previous festivivities. Commonly called Oeil Verrey abbreviated from the Manx (Gaelg) "Oie Feaill Voirrey" - the Eve of the Feast of Mary i.e. Christmas Eve, it is now sadly decayed into a musical entertainment at any time in autumn/winter, with refreshments, characterised by most of the music being provided by members of the audience coming forward to perform their party piece. This account from two centuries ago was written by a parson's son :_

It was on the evening of Christmas Day, and it bore the name of Ill-vary; I do not know how to spell the word; it is Manx, and I believe has reference to the Virgin Mary. The service concluded with one or two Christmas carols, sung by some rustics who had got them up for the occasion. What those in Manx were I cannot tell; but I remember one in English in which the singers spoke of Mary in such horrible fashion that my father could bear it no longer; he stood up in the reading-desk, angrily rebuked them for their abominable indecency, and brought the service to a hasty close. Such was Kirk Braddan when my father went to it in 1832, and such, or worse, were almost all the parish churches in the Island.

It is perhaps possible that in Cornwall there was some similar custom, though I know of no evidence.

What does everyone feel is the proper placement of the choir for Lessons and Carols? In 2021, our first time, we had the choir upfront in the sanctuary at the Pastor's preference. It was a lot of work for me, setting up for two "dress rehearsals" and the service, all the chairs and instruments, and unsetting up. The lighting in sanctuary was poor, and space very limited by Christmas decorations. Several choir stated that they would not participate again, if choir was in sanctuary. This year, I kept the choir in the loft, dimmed the lights, and only the CCD children proclaiming scripture were in the Sanctuary. My reasoning, beyond preference, being that I wanted to use the organ on half the music, and couldn't direct from several hundred feet away from the choir. This also was met with descension, from the Pastor, and also a parishioner, who stated choir should be seen at a concert. My response was It is NOT a concert, it is a service and the choir is not the focus. This pastor will be leaving this year so his preference will not be the deciding factor next year. I would appreciate opinions on this, including the argument for or against, sanctuary vs. choir loft.

Not only the choir but also the conductor/choirmaster/DM should be unobtrusive. Despite what some of them seem to think, they are not carving the music out of thin air with extravagant gestures.