Before you file away all your Christmas music...

Jenny

This Advent our parish choir managed to learn and perform a rather complicated piece for our Christmas 'cantata'. Unfortunately, that left us with no time to prepare anything appropriate for the Advent liturgies. When I complained (gently) to the Music Director, she agreed that we had gone off the deep end a bit and asked me to propose an easier program for next year...on the order of a Lessons and Carols sort of thing. (No rest for the complainers, doncha know!) Now our group isn't ready for a full King's College program, but would any of you fine folk be willing to share your favorite pieces/arrangements for a program like this?

Our parish is very slowly creeping toward a more sacred presentation of liturgy and liturgical music. I know that for some, the L&C format is a bit tiresome, but I think this could prove to be a nice vehicle for drawing more folks in.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Can't agree more with the spirit of your comment, as I understand it. Long live Advent - may it be revived for our edification.

Two underrated carols come to mind-
personent hodie
infant holy, infant lowly

there is also a wealth of Spanish copillas to be explored. Some true gems.

Olbash

Wait, I'm not sure what you're asking for... Advent music? Christmas music?

For Advent, here are some of the things that have worked well for me.

Hymns
People, Look East
O Come, Divine Messiah
The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came

Choral
Lullaby for the Holy Child (Gramann)
When God's Time Had Ripened (Fedak)
Thou Shalt Know Him When He Comes (Sirett)
Bogoroditse Devo (Rachmaninoff)

Some of the Six Marian Motets of Frank Ferko are among my choir's favorites, as well as the usual bits from Messiah. Various settings of "Wachet Auf" always seem to work. And I consider "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming" to be just as appropriate for Advent as it is for Christmas.

My choir also did two motets by one of my grad school advisors, John McIntyre. His "Two Advent Motets" -- Rorate caeli and Vigilate -- are exquisite, but challenging. I'll pass along his contact info if you're interested.

Jenny

Thanks for your help.

Olbash, I suppose I'm looking for a bit of Advent and Christmas. We always do our Christmas concert before Christmas (so, in Advent) but people expect Christmas music. We try to be all in all :)

Gavin

At my church, we did "Mary had a Baby" by William Dawson. It's a very effective spiritual if well-conducted.

Liam

Choral Anthem ideas:

Byrd: Hodie Christus Natus Est (very challenging but very worth working up to eventually - even though it might stick out from more typical L&C material, it's rich in text painting at the highest level - Handel and Mendelssohn, eat your hearts out! - so much so that I feel it really can fit in the L&C context)
Hugo Distler: all sorts of lovely chestnuts from the many movements of his Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, with many variations on verses of Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine
Frank Ferko: Adam Lay YBounden; also his Motet for The Annunciation
Palestrina: Alma Redemptoris Mater
Gallus (Handl): Ab Oriente Venerunt Magi (challenging; double the very jazzy (for the late 16th century) alleluia section for fun)
Gramann: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Howells: Here Is The Little Door
Egil Hovland: The Glory of The Father (very distilled, doesn't try to compete with the text; a piece to have in the repertoire generally)
Manz: E'en So Lord Quickly Come
Ramsey: O Sapientia (somewhat challenging if your choir doesn't readily ignore fictitious bar lines)
Ravenscroft: Remember O Thou Man (you could even alternate choir and congregation on verses, to vary the texture)
Stravinsky: Ave Maria (pleasantly tight choral work, without the tiresomeness of its progeny in our present day)
Victoria: O Magnum Mysterium (the little black dress of Christmas polyphonic classics)

Charles in CenCA

KLS, the Manz is a sublime suggestion. I wonder what your rationale for the Faure might be? It's such a warhorse mangled by so many church "choirs" my high school kids blew people away at a Wm. Hall Festival with it in Francaise. It was like a left cross no one ever expected. The Stravinksy is a little gem (as is his Pater Noster) and you're right, it's reverence seems to have escaped popular attention for decades by comparison to, uh, Franz's. And yes, the Victoria is the little black dress, first piece I ever taught at HS large choir. But my heart belongs to Poulenc, whose hem might be a tad shorter.
What about Hassler "Verbum caro factum est" in there somewheres?
David Conte's "A Stable Lamp is Lighted."
Alf Houkem's "The Rune of Hospitality"
....

redsox1

Mary's Magnificat-Andrew Carter (gorgeous)
Lo, How a Rose-Distler
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly-arr. Wilberg
A Spotless Rose-Howells
A Spotless Rose-Wiggins (Oxford) for Women's voices
Motet for Mary, Mother of God-Ferko (you need enough men for the "drone" and a soprano that can soar in the stratosphere!) Also, his Irish Christmas Carol settings for chorus, flute, harp and cello are stunning.)
All Glory Be to God on High-Cruger (arr. Proulx)
A Sound of Angels-Tye
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day-Near
I Wonder As I Wander-Rutter
The Blessed Son of God-Vaughan Williams
Hymn to the Virgin-Britten
Sussex Carol-Ledger
In the Bleak Midwinter-Darke (never goes out of style!)
Resonet in Laudibus-Handl or Lassus
Adam Lay YBounden-Boles
A Maiden Most Gentle-Carter
A Child Is Born-Nestor
Who Comes?- Nestor (a text by Brian Wren-extremely moving and beautifully set by one of the foremost Catholic composers of our day.)

Jenny

Wonderful! Thank you all!

francis

Christmas Eve Concert (11pm)

1 angels we have heard
2 gaudete
3 ding dong
4 ring christmas bells
5 in dulci jubilo
6 o little town
7 un flambeau jeanette isabella
8 it came upon the midnight clear
9 hark the herald
10 A Child Is Born In Bethlehem
11 Puer Natus In Bethlehem
12 christ was born
______________________________
Midnight Mass
Proclamation:
Blessing of Crib: silent night
Ent: o come all ye faithful
Pres: once in royal davids city
Com: what child
o holy night
Rec: joy to the world
go tell it on the mountain (we live in the Teton Mountains)

Jeffrey Quick

Uh, not to be self-serving or anything, but one member of this list has effectively used this in a Lessons n Carols:
http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Ave_Maria_(Jeffrey_Quick)

Chris_McAvoy

Nice to see you here Jenny,

I wish I could've been there for requiem mass on All Souls Day. I received your notice.

I can recommend "Piaes Cantiones"...This is one of the favoured sources for music of that time of year for many anglicans.
It is the origin of the melody for "Of the Father's Love Begotten" (the original 11th c. melody is not necessarily as appealing...)

http://www.lillhannus.net/piaecantiones.html
(see "Divinum mysterium")

Youtube has fine recordings of many of the best hymns from it.

All of them are possible to sing in chant notation, as well. I can typeset any of them that you want.
I am hoping eventually to undertake a project to put most of the music for the Piaes Cantiones into english. It will take at least a thousand dollars to fund that, as the talented adaptor friend of mine does not work entirely for free (but he is cheap.)

I ought to come over and see what you're doing. Is this St Bartholomews or the parish in York?

Oddly enough, much of my repertoire is limited to sequences, besides those, I don't have anything to recommend. I need to keep expanding into other forms of music.

Here are links to recordings of three sequences I typeset this year.
the first one is for two voices, the other two are monodic. I would like to find more 2 voice/2 part sequences like the first one.

Verbum Bonum Et Suave (13th c.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgHHo7aEio

Nato Canunt Omnia (10th c.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtqFVXd-8c

Natus est hodie Dominus (13th c.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTm_Bszuyvk

I think you'd enjoy the nativity material in "The Conductus Collections of MS Wolfenbuttel, 1099 ".

Liam

Charles,

Ah, the Faure. Well, I suspect its reputation as a warhorse has caused it to vanish. A fate I wish would happen to the awful English paraphrase of the Cantique de Noel (the French is welcome).

You might notice no Handel on my list. Unless one has a clutch of true Tenor 1s who are reconciled to being treated rudely as choral in-fill, Handel is worth omitting.

M. Jackson Osborn

Are these supposed to be easy pieces?
Did anyone mention David Willcox's 'Of the Father's Heart Begotten'?
Very easy with fine and effective climax with treble descant.
(Organ accompaniment a la Anglicaine)

Liam

Among the simplest of hymns with descants is While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night to the tune from Este's Psalter and the textbook descant by Willcocks - it's one of the very best examples of the classic English descant. (For more challenging work, Richard Marlow's double descants for carols that he penned for Trinity College are da bomb, though I am not sure if they are published stateside.)

Charles in CenCA

Chris, for clarification's sake-you're not a big fan of the chant version of "Divinum...?"
Liam, we didn't get to the rationale for "Jean Racine" for an Advent performance. +1 regarding Handel, which was also a source of mystery to me why Dr. Latona employed "For unto us" at Midnight's Offerorio. The performance was fine, the programming, a bit jarring for me.
MJO, is your Willcox "Of the Father's Love..." different that the Jos. Wilcox Jenkin's setting of 09 Duquesne Colloquium?
We used that one last year, loved it, emulative of the chant (by happenstance according to Jenkins) and nicely Coplandesque.
I'm not sure, has anyone mentioned a couple of early ars novas: "Gaudete" and "There is nee Rose of such virtue"?

Pedro d'Aquino

In response to MaryAnn, I arranged the carol Infant Holy (along with two other Polish carols) about ten years ago. The arrangements are for mixed choir (a cappella) and are in Polish. I'm planning to prepare an English language version (for the Slavically-challenged, like myself!)

Liam

Charles

Jenny clarified the request, for a mix of Advent and Xmas; my list was an obvious mix.

CHGiffen

Here are a couple of pieces that I find particularly beautiful for the occasion:

Once in royal David's city - by Daniel Kallman, SATB divisi voices and piano (although this could be a harp or ogan). This is an original melody and harmonization that I think is absolutely splendid.

There is no rose - by Howard Helvey, SATB voices a cappella. This ancient text is set in a most moving original way - modern composition with throwback to the Renaissance and Middle Ages from whence the text arose.

Both of these works were featured in the Phipps Festival Chorus concerts on Dec. 3, along with my own piece "This Advent Moon" (SATB divisi, a cappella) of three stanzas from Christina Rossetti's poem "Advent" (she's better known for "In the bleak midwinter").

I would also suggest another piece of mine: an original setting of "Creator of the Stars of Night/Conditor Alme Siderum" (English or Latin, your choice), which has really been widely sung by now (I recycled the original melody and harmonization of mine when I set Kathy's translation of "Adorna, Sion, thalamum/Let Zion's bridal-room be clothed").

Both of my works are available at my CPDL composer page (along with MP3s).

The easiest of all these works are probably "There is no rose" and "Creator of the stars".

Jenny

Thank you, Charles!

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