cathedral choral society of... · descant and organ, ... melissa fox, soprano not in that poor...

Saturday, December 13 | 4:00 pm

Sunday, December 14 | 4:00 pm

Washington National Cathedral

Cathedral Choral Society J. Reilly Lewis, conductor

Hylton High School Troubadours Thomas P. Tutwiler, choral director

Todd Fickley, organ

Washington Symphonic Brass

Edward M. Nassor, carillon

Patrons are kindly requested to turn off pagers, cell phones, and signal watches during the performance.

Any taking of photographs or unauthorized recording of this concert is prohibited.

CARILLON PRELUDE Edward M. Nassor, carillon

A MEDLEY OF TRADITIONAL CAROLS Washington Symphonic Brass

Phil Snedecor, co-founder and director

PROCESSION OF THE ADVENT WREATH The Advent wreath with holly garlands attached to the torches, as carried in procession at this concert, is similar to

the one used at Liverpool Cathedral in England. The candles represent the four weeks in the penitential season of

Advent that precedes Christmas. Three candles are either violet or blue, representing penitence. The fourth, a rose-

colored candle for the Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete), symbolizes the day of rejoicing. Blanche L. Curfman

continues the tradition begun by David R. Curfman, M.D., president of the Cathedral Choral Society Board of Trustees

from 1984 - 1986, in giving this wreath in memory of her husband David and his grandmother Florence Marie Schreck.

PROCESSION Once in Royal David’s City (1970) Henry John Gauntlett (1805-1876)

Vv. 1–5 harm. by Arthur Henry Mann

Descant and organ, David Willcocks (b. 1919)

On Christmas Eve afternoon, millions around the world listen to the annual BBC live broadcast of the Festival of Nine

Lessons and Carols sung by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. The voice of a single choirboy, whose identity for

this coveted assignment is closely held until just before the service, begins the hymn Once in royal David’s city. This

Lessons and Carols association has indelibly identified this text with Christmas although Cecil Frances Alexander,

among the greatest of British women hymn-writers, originally wrote it to illustrate and explain the Apostles Creed to

children. These carol arrangements for organ and brass by Sir David Willcocks, director of music at King’s College

from 1957 to 1973, have spelled “Christmas” for many generations.

Once in royal David’s city

Stood a lowly cattle shed,

Where a mother laid her baby

In a manger for his bed:

Mary was that mother mild,

Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven

Who is God and Lord of all,

And his shelter was a stable,

And his cradle was a stall;

With the poor and mean and lowly

Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

And through all his wondrous childhood

He would honour and obey,

Love and watch the lowly maiden,

In whose gentle arms he lay:

Christian children all must be

Mild, obedient, good as he.

For he is our childhood’s pattern,

Day by day like us he grew,

He was little, weak, and helpless,

Tears and smiles like us he knew:

And he feeleth for our sadness,

And he shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see him,

Through his own redeeming love,

For that child so dear and gentle

Is our Lord in heaven above;

And he leads his children on

To the place where he is gone.

Melissa Fox, soprano

Not in that poor lowly stable,

With the oxen standing by,

We shall see him; but in heaven,

Set at God’s right hand on high;

Where like stars his children crowned

All in white shall wait around.

—Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander (1818-1895)

Hymns for Little Children, 1848

CHORAL FANFARE Gloria in Excelsis Deo (1968) Paul Halley (b. 1952)

Paul Halley was only sixteen when he composed this jubilant, one-minute fanfare for chorus and organ for the St.

Matthew’s Anglican Church Choir in Ottawa, Canada. He is a multiple Grammy Award-winning composer, former

organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, and principal composer and

keyboardist of the famed Paul Winter Consort for eighteen years. Since 2007, he has been director of Chapel Music at

the University of King’s College, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest.

—from The Ordinary of the Mass

Roman Rite, sixth century

ALL STAND AND SING:

CAROL: O Come, All Ye Faithful John F. Wade’s Cantus Diversi, 1751

arr. Willcocks

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;

Come and behold him,

Born the King of Angels.

O come let us adore him,

Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels,

Sing in exultation,

Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above.

Glory to God

In the highest.


Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee,

Born this happy morning,

Jesus, to thee be glory given;

Word of the Father,

Now in flesh appearing.


Christ the Lord.

—trans. Frederick Oakeley (1802-1880)

PART I — CATHEDRAL CHORAL SOCIETY

Tidings, tidings that be true (1991) Peter Aston (1938–2013)

The Salutation of the Angel Gabriel receives a jaunty treatment in this anonymous fifteenth-century text with a lively

organ accompaniment that takes its cue from the refrain, “Sorrow is past, and joy doth renew.” English composer

Peter Aston studied at Birmingham School of Music and the University of York. He combined teaching and lecturing

with his work as a composer, conductor, and musicologist. A founder of the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church

Music, he worked with leading British orchestras and was principal conductor of the Sacramento Bach Festival Choir

and Orchestra. Aston also founded two outstanding ensembles, the Tudor Consort and English Baroque Ensemble.

Benjamin Britten chose him as conductor of his Aldeburgh Festival Singers.

Tidings, tidings that be true:

Sorrow is past, and joy doth renew.

Whereas Adam caused by sin

Our nature thus to be mortal,

A maiden’s Son doth now begin

For to repoise us from that fall,

And that is true, and that is true,

The name of Him is Christ Jesu.

Some of our kind hath had such grace

That since his birth they did him see,

Both Son and mother, face to face,

In the chief city of Jewry:


Both kings and shepherds, they it knew.

The prophets thereof were nothing dismayed

Of the tidings beforn that they had told,

For now it is fallen right as they said:

A maiden clean a king hath born;


For He is born to wear the purple hue.

—Anonymous, fifteenth-century

From MS. Landsdowne,

Ave Maris Stella (1919) Otto Olsson (1879–1964)

Hail, Star of the Sea

Devotion to the Virgin Mary was particularly strong in the Middle Ages. In this ninth-century Latin hymn, Mary is the

guiding star of souls in the ocean of life. This setting comes from Six Latin Hymns, op. 40, written in 1919 by Otto

Olsson, the greatest Swedish organ virtuoso of his time. An influential figure in the renaissance of Swedish church

music, he taught harmony at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and served as organist at Gustaf Vasa Church in

Stockholm. In addition to his affinity for French organ music, Olsson incorporated plainchant into his late Romantic

style. Altos sing the cantus firmus in this sumptuous seven-part setting, which is preceded by the Schola Cantorum’s

intonation of the original Gregorian chant.

Ave maris stella

Dei Mater alma

atque semper Virgo

Felix cœli porta.

Hail, star of the sea,

God’s own mother most dear

You were ever a virgin;

Fairest gate of heaven. Amen

—First Vespers, Feasts of the Blessed Virgin, Liber Usualis

trans. Eugene Lindusky

Schola Cantorum: James Clay, David Costanza, David Dietly, Jeremy Gosbee, James Mixter,

Nicholas Petersen, David Peyton, Christopher Riggs, John Schaettler, James Schaller

Angelus ad Virginem (1999) English Traditional Carol

Gabriel the Angel Came arr. Antony Baldwin (b. 1957)

Angelus ad Virginem is a fourteenth-century Latin carol of the Annunciation believed to be Franciscan in origin. It is

mentioned in “The Miller’s Tale,” the second of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as sung by Nicholas, the Clerk of

Oxenford: “And all above ther lay a gay sautre (psaltery) /On which he made a-nyghtes melodye /So swetely that all

the chamber rang /And Angelus ad Virginem he sang.” Composer Antony Baldwin began his musical career as a

chorister at Southwark Cathedral in London. He won the prize for harmony and counterpoint at the Royal College of

Organists at 17, was an organ scholar at Oxford, and earned his doctorate in music from Durham University. For

twenty-seven years, Baldwin was director of music at The American Church in London. The English translation of this

carol is by clergyman Michael Perry, one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century hymn writers until his untimely death

at age 54.

Gabriel the angel came

to greet the Virgin Mary:

“Peace!” he said, and called her name,

“For joyful news I carry:

The Lord of all from realms above

has looked upon your soul in love;

you shall give birth to Christ on earth,

the Saviour; you bear the hope of grace,

the mark of heaven’s favour,

and all shall see God’s face.”

Mary asked, “How can it be:

my love is given to no one,

Joseph is betrothed to me,

can what is done be undone?”

“The Spirit comes and this is how

God’s power will be upon you now:

Don’t be afraid, what God has said

will cheer you, the promise is not vain,

all people shall revere you,

and virtue shall remain.”

Mary then with joy replied

“I serve the Lord of heaven:

God shall be my hope and guide,

to him my heart is given

who lowly stoops to fill my cup

and raise his humble servant up.

God’s will this day I shall obey rejoicing:

then let the nations sing,

such love and mercy voicing,

and praise their Lord and King!”

—Fourteenth-century Latin carol

Trans., Michael Perry (1942–1996)

Silent Night (1948) Franz Gruber (1787–1863)

arr. Malcolm Sargent (1895–1967)

Franz Xaver Gruber, an Austrian primary school teacher in Arnsdorf, was also organist and choirmaster at St. Nicholas

Church in the nearby village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg. On Christmas Eve 1818, the assistant pastor Joseph Mohr

asked Gruber to set to music a six-stanza poem he had written in 1816. With the church organ out of commission,

Gruber produced a melody with guitar accompaniment. They sang and played Stille Nacht for the first time at

Christmas Mass. Sir Malcom Sargent, longtime conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic and BBC Symphony

Orchestra, made this arrangement for an album recorded by the Royal Choral Society in November 1948. His

harmonies and English words lend a wonderful dimension to this most familiar of carols.

Silent night, holy night.

Round thy head a radiant light.

Lovely boy with golden hair,

Parents guard thee with tender care.

Sleep, thou darling one, sleep,

Sleep, thou darling one, sleep.


Wise men see the star so bright.

‘Hallelujah’ the angels sing,

Shepherds hear and glad tidings bring.

Christ the Saviour is here.

Jesus our Saviour is here.


Son of God, O blessed sight.

On thy lips a sweet smile of love,

Sent to earth from the heaven above.

Christ the Saviour is here.

Jesus our Saviour is here.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen (1961) English Traditional Carol

arr. Willcocks

This popular Christmas carol may have been sung to the gentry in the London streets as early as the fifteenth-century

by the town watchmen, who earned extra pay during Christmastide. “God rest you merry” (meaning “God keep you

merry”) is a paraphrase of Luke 2:10, the angels’ greeting to the shepherds (gentlemen) who are frightened, or

“dismayed,” by their appearance.

God rest you merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

For Jesus Christ our Saviour

Was born upon this day,

To save us all from Satan’s power

When we were gone astray:

O tidings of comfort and joy.

From God our heav’nly Father

A blessèd angel came,

And unto certain shepherds

Brought tidings of the same,

How that in Bethlehem was born

The Son of God by name:


Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place,

And with true love and brotherhood

Each other now embrace;

This holy tide of Christmas

All others doth deface:


—William B. Sandys,

Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern, 1833

Toccata on “Vom Himmel hoch” (1937) Garth Edmundson (1892–1971)

Prelude IV from Christus Advenit (Christmas Suite No. 2)

After studying music in Pittsburgh, New York, London, Paris, and at the Leipzig Conservatory, Garth Edmunston

served lengthy tenures as organist and choirmaster at two Pennsylvania churches. This is the best known of his

chorale preludes based on plainsong and German chorale themes. Vom Himmel hoch, a Christmas song attributed to

Martin Luther, first appeared in print in 1535 in his Wittenberg Geistliche Lieder. Published with its robust melody in a

1539 Leipzig collection, the carol has inspired composers for more than four centuries, notably Johann Sebastian

Bach’s Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch. Edmundson employs a continuous figuration for three verses with

the cantus in the pedal and concludes with a flamboyant statement of the chorale in massive rapid scales up and down

the keyboard between phrases. “It owes inspiration,” says organist Todd Fickley, “to those crazy chorale settings by

Bach that so annoyed the congregation at Arnstadt!”

Todd Fickley, organ

—Joseph Mohr (1818);

English version, Malcolm Sargent (1948)

PART II — HYLTON HIGH SCHOOL TROUBADOURS

Thomas P. Tutwiler, Choral Director

Gaudete (c. 1582) English Traditional Carol

arr. J. David Moore (b. 1962)

This carol takes its title from the incipit, or opening words, of the antiphon for the third Sunday in Advent, which

symbolizes the day of rejoicing. Its recording in 1972 by Steeleye Span surely marks the only time a carol has risen to

the Top Ten charts in Great Britain. Gaudete is one of twenty-four Christmas carols found in Piae Cantiones (Sacred

Songs), a rare 1582 compilation by a Finnish student and a Swedish Lutheran publisher originally intended for pupils

of the Cathedral School in Rostock, Finland. There have been many settings of the text, including this one by J. David

Moore, founder and music director of The First Readings Project, a professional chamber choir created to assist

composers in the development of new work. Formerly tenor section leader with the Dale Warland Singers, More has

founded and directed two professional a cappella groups, taught composition, and is currently director of music at

Nativity Episcopal Church in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Burden

Gaudete, gaudete, Christus est natus

ex Maria virgine, gaudete.

Tempus adest gratiae hoc quod optabamus,

Carmina laetitiae, devote reddamus.

Deus homo factus est, natura mirante,

Mundus renovatus est, à Christo regnante.

Ezekelis porta, clausa pertransitor; unde lux est

orta, salus invenitor.

Ergo nostra contio, psallat jam in lustro.

Benedicat Dominio. Salus regi nostro.

Burden

Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born

of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice!

The time of grace that we desired is here.

Songs of joy, devoutly let us render.

God has been made human, while nature wondered.

The world has been renewed by Christ’s reign.

The closed gate of Ezekiel is crossed; salvation is

found in the place from which the light came.

So let our assembly now sing psalms in offering.

Let us bless the Lord. Hail to our king!

—Piae Cantiones, 1582

Ave Maria (c. 1550s) Robert Parsons (c. 1535–1572)

This sixteenth-century setting (using the shorter pre-1566 Council of Trent text) of the well-known Roman Catholic

prayer, Ave Maria, is one of the most beautiful motets of the English Renaissance. Although much of his music

survives, little is known about Robert Parsons other than his appointment as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1563

and that William Byrd succeeded him, after he died in a drowning accident in the River Trent at Newark.

Ave Maria, gratia plena,

Dominus tecum;

benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee;

blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Amen.

—Christ Church College, Oxford,

“Dow” partbooks, Mus. 984-8

Good King Wenceslas (1953) English Traditional Carol

arr. Alice Parker (b. 1925) and Robert Shaw (1916-1999)

Clergyman and theologian John Mason Neale wrote this children’s song in 1853 to illustrate generosity. After

Wenceslas, the Christian Duke of Bohemia, was murdered in 929 A.D., he became Bohemia’s patron saint, and the

Crown of Wenceslas, made in 1347, came to symbolize Czech independence. Beginning in the 1950s, the legendary

conductor Robert Shaw and composer-arranger Alice Parker produced many fresh arrangements of Christmas carols,

which the Robert Shaw Chorale then recorded with RCA Victor. This and the next carol are among them.

Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the feast of Stephen,

When the snow lay round about,

Deep, and crisp, and even:

Brightly shone the moon that night,

Though the frost was cruel,

When a poor man came in sight,

Gathering winter fuel.

Monarch: “Hither, page, and stand by me,

If thou knowest it, telling,

Yonder peasant, who is he?

Where and what his dwelling?”

Page: “Sire, he lives a good league hence,

Underneath the mountain;

Right against the forest fence,

By Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

Monarch: “Bring me flesh and bring me wine,

Bring me pine logs hither;

Thou and I will see him dine,

When we bear them hither.”

Page and monarch forth they went,

Forth they went together;

Through the rude wind’s wild lament

And the bitter weather.

Page: “Sire, the night is darker now,

And the wind blows stronger;

Fails my heart, I know not how,

I can go no longer.”

Monarch: “Mark my footsteps, good my page,

Tread thou in them boldly;

Thou shalt find the winter’s rage

Freeze thy blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod,

Where the snow lay dinted;

Heat was in the very sod

Which the Saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure,

Wealth or rank possessing,

Ye who now will bless the poor,

Shall yourselves find blessing.

—John Mason Neale (1818–1866)

Here, Mid the Ass and Oxen Mild (1953) Sixteenth-Century French Carol

arr. Alice Parker and Robert Shaw

This muted lullaby, based on the well-known carol Entre le boeuf et l’âne gris, is believed to be the very earliest French

Christmas carol. To create a new Christmas Hymns and Carols album for the Robert Shaw Chorale, Alice Parker would

go to the New York Public Library and work her way through many books of folk songs, or carols, copying down on

five-by-eight cards those she thought might work. Then she and Shaw would form three piles—“this has to be in,” “no

use,” and “maybe.” From 300, they might cull twenty-five for which she made arrangements such as this. Then the

real work began: together, they would work at the piano for up to twelve hours at a time until Shaw was satisfied with

the sounds of the words and the sounds of the music. Here, Mid the Ass and Oxen Mild is another result of their

remarkable collaboration. The English text is by Alice Parker.

Here, mid the ass and oxen mild,

sleep, sleep, sleep my little child.

Refrain: Thousand seraphim, thousand cherubim

come from heaven above to guard the Lord of love.

Rachel Danby, soprano

Here, where sweet flowers their fragrance bring,

Sleep, sleep, sleep my little King.

Here, where the shepherds’ search is done,

sleep, sleep, sleep my little son.

—English version, Alice Parker

Past Three O’Clock (2001) English Traditional Carol

arr. Eugene Butler (b. 1935)

This energetic arrangement of an old English carol, sometimes known as the Carol of the Town Watchman, is by Dr.

Eugene Butler, composer, conductor, educator, and church musician, who has published more than a thousand

compositions during his career as director of choral activities at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park,

Kansas. George Ratcliffe Woodward, a Church of England clergyman and a founder of the Plainsong and Mediaeval

Music Society, wrote many texts for hymns and carols. In this carol, his new Christmas verses are combined with the

traditional refrain dating to the Renaissance. The tune London Waits was first published in William Chappell’s Popular

Music of the Olden Time in 1856.

Refrain

Past three o’clock,

on a cold frosty morning,

past three o’clock,

good morrow masters all.

Born is a baby

gentle as may be,

son of the Eternal

Father supernal.

Angel choir singing,

angel bells ringing,

hark how they rime it,

time it, and chime it.

All earth rejoices

hearing such voices

chanting, singing so well,

carolling Nowell!

Therefore, I pray you,

up, sirs, nor stay you

till you confess Him.

likewise and bless Him.

—Traditional refrain

Verses, George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934); alt.

ALL STAND AND SING: CAROL: The First Nowell English Traditional Carol

arr. Willcocks

The first Nowell the angel did say

Was to certain poor shepherds

in fields as they lay.

In fields where they lay

keeping their sheep

On a cold winter’s night

that was so deep.

Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!

Born is the King of Israel!

They lookèd up and saw a star

Shining in the East

beyond them far.

And to the earth

it gave great light,

And so it continued

both day and night.


Born is the King of Israel!

Then let us all with one accord

Sing praises to our

heav’nly Lord.

That hath made heav’n

and earth of naught.

And with his blood

mankind hath bought.


Born in the King of Israel!

Andrew Soto, Cathedral Choral Society Bass I, Saturday guest conductor

Margot T. Young, Cathedral Choral Society Soprano II, Sunday guest conductor

PART III — CATHEDRAL CHORAL SOCIETY

Winter’s Wait (2010) James Whitbourn (b. 1963)

James Whitbourn is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford. He began his career in music at the BBC, where he has

worked as composer, conductor, producer, and presenter. Composed for, and first performed by, the Choir of King’s

College, Cambridge, at its 2010 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Winter’s Wait is a setting of a contemporary

poem by the late Robert Tear, famed Welsh tenor and a close friend of the Scottish composer. Whitbourn’s serene

melody has been described as “sharing its tonality with Peter Abelard’s beautiful hymn O quanta qualia, but it bursts

into the major for the final stanza.”

Days grow short, the dead leaves fall,

The mist is thick ’round the stable’s wall.

Harvest’s in, the fire is lit

The shepherds watch and sit –

And wait for the sun.

Hands grow numb in an icy cold,

The water’s locked in its frozen hold.

Man and beast are most asleep

Across the floor a mouse creeps –

They wait for the sun.

Snow grows deep, a night owl sings

“Where are the Kings? Where are the Kings?”

Bright star shines in a velvet sky

But Oh! So bright, so high! –

All wait for the sun.

Sleep is over, the cold is past,

The star has shown the world at last

That death’s defeated, Christ is come.

Man’s wait is done, is done.

All praise to God’s Son.

—Robert Tear (1939-2011)

The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns (2014) Alistair Coleman (b. 1998)

This Advent carol, suffused with images of morning light characteristic of early Greek hymnody, appears in a

collection of material based on the Eastern Orthodox tradition compiled by Scottish Presbyterian pastor John

Brownlie. Award-winning composer Alistair Coleman began his musical education at age six as a chorister and soon

developed an interest in improvisation on piano and organ. Appointed head chorister of the Choir of Men and Boys at

St. Paul’s K Street, Alistair was treble soloist in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem with the Alexandria Symphony

Orchestra. Since 2013, he has sung tenor in the Maryland All-State Choir. He attends Walt Whitman High School,

whose Chamber Singers gave this carol’s first performance last June. Truly a family affair, music brought Alistair’s

parents together: Jonathan Coleman and Kris Brown met as singers in the Cathedral Choral Society.

The King shall come when morning dawns

and light triumphant breaks;

when beauty gilds the eastern hills

and life to joy awakes.

Not, as of old, a little child,

to bear, and fight, and die,

but crowned with glory like the sun

that lights the morning sky.


And earth’s dark night is past;

O haste the rising of that morn,

The day that e’re shall last;

And let the endless bliss begin,

by weary saints foretold,

when right shall triumph over wrong,

and truth shall be extolled.


and light and beauty brings:

Hail, Christ the Lord! Thy people pray,

come quickly, King of kings.

Not, as of old, a little child,

to bear, and fight, and die,

but crowned with glory like the sun

that lights the morning sky.

—Greek text comp. and trans., John Brownlie (1859-1925),

Hymns of the Russian Church, 1907

Past three o’clock (2011) English Traditional Carol

arr. Andrew Kirk (b. 1970)

Andrew William Kirk has been director of music and organist at St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol, England, since 2003. He

was an organ scholar at Pembroke from 1988 to 1991, after which he spent two years as assistant organist at the

Cathedral in Perth, Western Australia, before returning to England. In 1984, he sang as a boy treble in the Choir of

Men and Boys of Washington National Cathedral. Kirk has created a tuneful and transparent arrangement of this

carol. The traditional refrain is based on the cry of town watchmen, or waits, making their rounds from All Hallows

tide through Christmastide “from three of the clock vntill they have gone through the Whole Citie vpon everye Daye

of the weeke except Sondayes hollydayes and ffrydayes.” (Exeter Council Records, 1590)

Refrain: Past three o’clock,

and a cold, frosty morning:

Past three o’clock,

Good morrow, masters all!

Born is a baby,

Gentle as may be,

Son of the eternal

Father supernal.

Seraph quire singeth,

Angel bell ringeth:

Hark how they rime it,

Time it, and chime it!

Light out of star-land

Leadeth from far land

Princes, to meet him,

Worship and greet him.

Myrrh from full coffer,

Incense they offer:

Nor is the golden

Nugget withholden.

Thus they: I pray you,

Up sirs, nor stay you

Till ye confess him

Likewise, and bless him.

Samantha Anthony, soprano —Traditional refrain

Verses, George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934)

Barn Jesus i en krybbe lå (1859) Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890)

Børnenes Jul, op.36, no. 2

Hans Christian Andersen is one of Denmark’s national treasures, and author of this carol’s text. In 1832, the fairy-tale

master published Hi Aarets tolv Maaneder. Tegnede med Blæk og Pen (The Twelve Months of the Year. Drawn by Ink

and Pen), which he dedicated to King Frederik VI. When he delivered a personal copy to the king, he also importuned

the monarch—unsuccessfully—for funds to undertake the classic grand tour of Europe. Niels Wilhelm Gade was

considered the most important musician in nineteenth-century Denmark. Composer, conductor, violinist, organist,

and teacher, he succeeded Mendelssohn in 1847 as principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1859,

he composed Børnenes Jul (The Children’s Christmas), four miniature piano pieces depicting Christmas Eve scenes.

One, an eighteen-measure Andantino, includes words from Hans Christian Andersen’s song for “December.”

Barn Jesus i en krybbe lå,

skønt Himlen var hans eje;

hans pude her blev hø og strå,

mørkt var det om hans leje!

Men stjernen over huset stod,

og oksen kyssed barnets fod,

Halleluja! Halleluja! Barn Jesus!

Hver sorgfuld sjæl, bliv karsk og glad,

ryst af din tunge smerte,

et barn er født i Davids stad

til trøst for hvert et hjerte;

til barnet vil vi stige ind

og blive børn i sjæl og sind.

Halleluja! Halleluja! Barn Jesus!

Baby Jesus lay in a manger,

Although the sky was his own.

His pillow here was hay and straw,

It was dark in his bed!

But the star stood over the house,

And oxen kissed the child’s foot.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Baby Jesus!

Each sorrowful soul, be healthy and happy,

Shake off your tongue’s pain,

A child is born in David’s city

To console each heart.

For the child, we will go in

and become children of soul and mind.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Baby Jesus!

—Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875),“December,”

Hi Aarets tolv Maaneder. Tegnede med Blæk og Pen, 1832

Joys Seven (1961) English Traditional Melody

arr. John Morehen (b. 1941)

Joys Seven, The Nine Gifts, and The Twelve Days of Christmas are among the many counting hymns and carols of

Christmas to be found in Europe and the United States. The Oxford Book of Carols cites a fifteenth-century

manuscript as the source of Joys Seven, “one of the most popular, annually reprinted in eighteenth-century

broadsides all over England.” John Morehen was educated at Clifton College, the Royal School of Church Music, and

New College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1964 with first class honors. During a semester spent at the College

of Church Musicians at Washington National Cathedral and The American University in 1968, Morehen conducted the

American premiere of Maurice Duruflé’s Mass Cum Jubilo at the Cathedral. He wrote his version of Joys Seven as a

student in 1961, then stuck it in the piano bench. “I fished it out about ten years ago for one of my choirs,” he said,

“and people heard it and liked it.”

The first good joy that Mary had,

It was the joy of one;

To see the blessed Jesus Christ

when he was first her son.

Refrain: When he was first her son: good man,

and blessed may he be,

Both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

to all eternity.

The next good joy that Mary had,

It was the joy of two;

To see her own son, Jesus Christ,

To make the lame to go.


It was the joy of three;


To make the blind to see.


It was the joy of four;


To read the Bible o’er.


It was the joy of five;


To bring the dead alive.


It was the joy of six;


Upon the crucifix.


It was the joy of sev’n;


To wear the crown of heav’n.

—Fifteenth-century Sloane Mss. 2598

BRASS INTERLUDE

In Dulci Jubilo (1988) arr. Frank Warren Denson (b. 1942)

Frank Denson made his jaunty arrangement of the fourteenth-century German melody In dulci jubilo (also known as

Good Christian Men, Rejoice) for the Empire Brass Quintet. After more than three decades in California composing and

conducting music for television series, motion pictures, documentaries, theater, chamber groups, concert bands, and

choruses and orchestras, Denson now lives in New Hampshire where he sings in the Pemigewasset Choral Society, for

which he also arranges and composes. Music runs in the Denson family: he is descended from two North Carolina

singing teachers who published The Sacred-Harp, Denson Edition, the well-known collection of shape-note songs.

Washington Symphonic Brass

Ring-a the News (1989) Robert Evans (1933-2005)

The 2014 Joy of Christmas concert concludes with a festive and rhythmically sprightly carol for chorus, brass quintet,

and organ with original words and music by Canadian composer Robert Evans. In addition to being a choral

conductor, Evans was also an accomplished poet and an award-winning photographer who made significant

contributions to the cultural life of his country and beyond, infusing his work with humanitarian values. He composed

Ring-a the news in 1989 in celebration of the life of Paul Evans.

Ring-a the news, the Saviour is born,

Ring-a the bells all over the town,

Sing-a we joy like birds in the heaven,

Sing-a we Jesus born to be King.

Angels are watching over the Christchild,

Shepherds are kneeling, Mary is near;

Chorus

Noël, Noël, Emmanuel,

Noël, Noël, Come see the Child,

Dance-a we joyous ’round the Babe and

Sing-a we praises,

ring-a we In excelsis Deo.

Ring-a the bells, oh ring on high,

Ring-a the news, three wise men are nigh,

Kneeling and off’ring to the Baby

Gold and myrrh and frankincense,

Lifting their hearts in praise and thanksgiving

In a stable Bethlehem way;

Chorus

Ring-a the news, all glory to Thee,

Ring-a the bells for peace alway,

Glory to God, goodwill to all and

Sing-a we Jesus, shining with joy,

Angels are choiring, ringing the manger,

Worshiping Christchild, Son of our God;

Chorus

—Robert Evans

Cathedral Choral Society and Hylton High School Troubadours

ALL STAND AND SING:

CAROL: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Adapted by William Cummings (1831-1915)

arr. Willcocks

Hark! the herald angels sing:

Glory to the new-born King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!

Joyful, all ye nations rise!

Join the triumph of the skies!

With the angelic host proclaim:

Christ is born in Bethlehem!



Christ, by highest heaven adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord:

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of the Virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!

Hail th’incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with man to dwell:

Jesus, our Emmanuel!



Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.



—Charles Wesley (1707-1788), alt.

CARILLON POSTLUDE Edward M. Nassor, carillon

Program notes © 2014 Margaret Shannon

cathedral choral society of... · descant and organ, ... melissa fox, soprano not in that poor...

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