Advent Carols Liturgy

hartleymartin

Is there a tradition or convention of the readings/hymns for an Advent Carols Liturgy?

I only vaguely remember one that I attended a few years ago which had:

Rorate Caeli de Super - sung as processional

Several Readings and Hymns:

Gospel of the Annunciation
Hymn: The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
Hymn: On Jordan's Banks the Baptist's Cry.
Hymn: One if Royal David's City
Hymn: Silent Night
Hymn: What Child is This?
Gospel Reading: John 1:1-14 (Final Reading)
Hymn: O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Anyone able to shed some light on this for me? I would like to prepare such a liturgy to be sung at my college chapel this year.

JulieColl

I have Volumes 1 and 2 of the Oxford University Press Carols for Choirs edited by Reginald Jacques, David Willcocks and John Rutter and all of the Lessons and collects are included in the back of the book. I bought used copies for my choir from Amazon and the arrangements are superb, esp. the descants.

I had been looking for a long time for the descant to Once in David's Royal City and was thrilled to find it finally in Volume 2.

These are generally the arrangements used by the King's College Choir, as far as I can tell.

JulieColl

P.S. Harley, just thought I'd give a plug for my two new favorite Advent hymns: Remember O thou man and Adam lay ybounden. The music to the first is at CPDL and I've attached it here. Volume 2 of Carols for Choirs has the score for Adam lay ybounden by Boris Ord, that is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azSVHUBHQYY

JulieColl

Here's a fine rendition of Remember, O Thou Man by Ravenscroft:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iy7QUY97N4

Pedro d'Aquino

The Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham: Daily Prayer for the Ordinariate (Canterbury Press, Norwich [UK], 2012) contains a lovely Advent Procession with readings, optional psalms, and carols and hymns. If you don't already have the book, it's worth a look. I could post the outline of the service here when I have a bit more time. Unfortunately, Kings College, Cambridge doesn't post its Advent Procession booklet online, but you could also look at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (saintthomaschurch.org), an Episcopal church in NYC with a strong English choral tradition and look at their Advent Sunday service, which is essentially that of Kings.

CGM

Attached is the 2009 King's College program of Nine Lessons & Carols.

Felipe Gasper

NB: The “Nine Lessons & Carols” service is more Christmas than Advent. (e.g., “Il est né le divin enfant”)

I once did an Advent Lessons & Carols based on the 7 “O” antiphons that more or less mimicked the structure of the Easter Vigil prophecy readings: (reading, musical piece, antiphon) x 7. Worked pretty well, I thought. (Another option is verses of “Veni redemptor gentium” / “Savior of the Nations, Come”.)

Liam

Hymn: One if Royal David's City
Hymn: Silent Night
Hymn: What Child is This?

FWIW, those are more appropriate for Christmas lessons and carols, rather than Advent lessons and carols. Advent carols are a rich lode on their own. Too many fine ones to exhaust without going down a rabbit hole: Creator of The Stars of Night, Of The Father's Love Begotten (which is about the Incarnation more than the Nativity as such), Come Thou Redeemer of The Earth, O Come Divine Messiah, I Look From Afar (the traditional invitatory opening for the service), Adam Lay Ybounden, et cet. The themes are conversion and expectation, and recollection of the scriptural prophecies and narratives pointing up to the Nativity (being distinct from the Incarnation as such, which occurred at the Annunciation) but not rejoicing about the Nativity itself as the primary subject. Also appropriate to consider the Magnificat and the Marian seasonal antiphon, the Alma Redemptoris Mater.

JulieColl

Thanks a bunch for the Advent hymn suggestions, Liam. I was just rounding up some Advent hymns, and I'd missed a few. Here are a few more from the Anglican Hymnal:

Lo, He comes, with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
Sleepers, awake! (WACHET AUF)
Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART)
The King shall come when morning dawns (ST. STEPHEN)
Blest be the King whose coming (ALL GLORY LAUD AND HONOR)

(The last one was a new one for me. I'm very fond of All Glory, Laud and Honor but haven't been able to sing it ever at our TLM on Palm Sunday since we sing Pueri Hebraeorum as our processional and exit after Mass in silence so I was happy to find the tune in the Advent hymn section.)

JulieColl

P.S. The Latin version of Lo, how a rose e'er blooming (Flos de radice Jesse) might be useful for those in the EF. I didn't know it existed but found it last year here on CPDL.

expeditus1

JulieColl, I see that Flos de radice Jesse is also found in "Cantiones Sacrae: A collection of Hymns and Devotional Chants" (1878). The pieces were arranged for four mixed voices, by Rev. Joseph Mohr. The version of Flos de radice Jesse in the book, has the same four verses as the one you posted, with the exception of one word difference in the 3rd verse. My copy has the word flos, instead of flis (misspelling?), for the phrase, Est campi flos pudici. The song has a date of 1605 attached to it. The first portion's melody is that of a standard German hymn, but then switches to the "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" melody.

Thank you for posting the one above; I think we'll try that this year.

Simon

How's this (from St. John's College, Cambridge in 2011) as a lead? The service is divided into four sections: The Message of Advent, The Word of God, The Prophetic Call and The Christ-Bearer

A SERVICE FOR ADVENT WITH CAROLS

Carol: Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen (arr. Nield)
Processional Hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel) (descant: Hill)
Bidding Prayer
Carol: The Cherry Tree Carol (arr. Cleobury)

I The Message of Advent
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Sapientia and O Adonai
First lesson: Isaiah 11 vv.1-5
Carol: A Tender Shoot (Goldschmidt)
Second lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5 vv. 1-11
Out of your Sleep (Milner)

II The Word of God
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Radix Jesse and O Clavis David
Anthem: Adam lay ibounden (Swayne)
Third lesson: Micah 4 vv.1-4
Carol: The Truth from Above (arr. Vaughan Williams/ Robinson)
Fourth lesson: Luke 4 vv.14-21
Hymn: Come, thou long-expected Jesus (Cross of Jesus) (descant: Robinson)

III The Prophetic Call
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Oriens and O Rex Gentium
Motet: Rorate coeli (Guerrero)
Fifth lesson: Malachi 3 vv.1-7
Anthem: How lovely are the messengers (Mendelssohn)
Sixth lesson: Matthew 3 vv.1-11
Hymn: On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry (Winchester New) (descant: Robinson)

IV The Christ-Bearer
Sentence and Collect
Antiphon: O Emmanuel
Carol: The Annunciation (first performance) (Harvey)
Seventh lesson: Luke 1 vv.39-49
Motet: Übers Gebirg Maria geht (Eccard)
Magnificat: Stanford in B flat
Eighth lesson: John 3 vv.1-8
Sentence and Christmas Collect
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Hymn: Lo! He comes with clouds descending (Helmsley) (descant: Robinson)
College Prayer and Blessing
Organ Voluntary:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 (J.S. Bach)

Just found an old pdf of the 2009 service with text.

JulieColl

Bravo, Simon! Thanks for finding this lovely program. It's like the ultimate Advent service.

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