Several audio samples of this week’s music are included for you to enjoy as you read.

Occupy Christmas

A protest song masquerading as a Christmas Carol?  That seems to be exactly what he intended when Edmund Sears (1810-1876) penned his famous hymn, It Came upon the Midnight Clear.  Sears grew up on a farm in Massachusetts, and following graduation from Harvard Divinity School he became a Unitarian minister and an influential voice in liberal theology. The second phrase of his poem, That Glorious Song of Old, provides us with the title of this year’s Advent Concert at Marble Collegiate Church on Sunday, December 4th at 2pm.  This has alternately been called a concert, or a service, but a more accurate description would be an experience. Celebrated actor Simon Jones will be our narrator and spiritual guide, the Festival of Voices and Sanctuary Choir with orchestra will supply heavenly music, and the sanctuary itself will play a significant role, glowing with candles and exquisite lighting.  I hope you will join us for an extraordinary afternoon that might just shape your whole experience of Christmas this year.

Back to our friend Edmund Sears and his seemingly gentle carol in which he offers a stunning indictment of 19th-century America. In his insightful book, Praying Twice, Brian Wren paints a vivid picture of the historical context to Sears’ 1849 poem. It was the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, and vast swaths of California, Texas and New Mexico had been ceded to the United States.  The California Gold Rush was in full swing, with lawlessness and greed as its core values.  The anti-slavery movement was igniting passions, inspiring calls for change, and propelling the country headlong towards Civil War.  Against this backdrop hear anew the words to verse 3 of Edmund Sears’ poem Midnight Clear, as set to music by Russell Schulz-Widmar: [LISTEN]
 
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
Beneath the heavenly hymn have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
And warring humankind hears not
the tidings which they bring;
O hush the noise and cease your strife
and hear the angels sing.

Amazingly, these words could have been written this year – or any year – for their enduring relevance makes for a sad reality in our world. Sears’ final verse, however, goes on to describe the great promise of peace which will come one day as foretold by the prophets. And in that day “all the world [will] give back the song which now the angels sing.” And what is that song which we are to learn from the angels? Let us hush the noise of this busy season and the strife of our ambitious lives, and simply listen.

The Waiting

This year’s concert is organized into three main sections.  We begin with the expectation of Advent. I can vividly recall an Advent sermon given at Marble by Dr. Ed Mulder, “When the Wait Is Worth It.” His title not only described this season of holy expectancy when we are awaiting the birth of Christ, but also of those things in our lives that are worth waiting for – such  as wisdom, maturity, discernment, true love. These cannot be acquired without the crucial ingredient of time – perhaps a lifetime.

In a darkened sanctuary amidst flickering candles the choir will begin with Z. Randall Stroope’s mystical setting of the ancient text, O Magnum Mysterium, which translates, “O great mystery... that animals should see the new-born Lord lying in their manger.”  You may recall that another profound work of Z. Randall Stroope, All My Heart This Night Rejoices, served as the theme of last year’s Advent concert.

There follows a masterpiece of the Russian Orthodox Liturgy that will be sung in Slavonic: Salvation Is Created by Pavel Chesnokov.  [LISTEN]  The divine enormity of God’s incarnation in the form of a baby is perfectly revealed in this transcendent, majestic music for unaccompanied chorus, with the deep tones of those low Russian basses rumbling away in a cavernous cathedral.

The choir will sing another of Hubert Parry’s sublime motets, Never, Weather-Beaten Sail. [LISTEN]  Recently on All Saints Sunday the choir sang There Is an Old Belief which also hails from this same set of pieces, Songs of Farewell, which were composed at the end of Parry’s life. In Thomas Campion’s text, Never, Weather-Beaten Sail, the author equates the longing for Christ with a sailboat bending towards shore, or a weary traveler craving rest. “O come quickly, sweetest Lord” serves as the refrain and message of Advent. The culmination of this section of waiting is the candlelight procession of both choirs accompanied by the ethereal melody of Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission by Enrico Morricone.  [LISTEN] 

The Birth

Once the choirs have assembled in the chancel above the orchestra, music of contemporary British composer John Rutter will be featured, including his warm and embracing What Sweeter Music.  [LISTEN]  I am fascinated by how composers can take texts that are hundreds of years old and frame them with new music, making the words sound utterly fresh and relevant. Such is the case with Robert Herrick (1591-1674), author of What Sweeter Music, as well as with a 16th-century text, Where Riches Is Everlastingly, this one set to joyful music by Bob Chilcott.  [LISTEN]  This can be thought of as an invitation to Jesus’ birthday party, with the choir’s buoyant refrain: “I pray you be merry and sing with me in worship of Christ’s nativity.” Hopefully this will set your spirit dancing and your heart humming this lovely tune!

Two of my favorite pieces on the concert follow shortly thereafter. The first is an introspective setting of e.e.cummings’ poem little tree for solo harp and choir.  [LISTEN]  It reminds me of the Peanuts’ Christmas special I so looked forward to each year, and the little tree which Charlie Brown picks out.  It is fragile and imperfect – just like Charlie Brown himself – but festooned with holiday spirit and imbued with tender love it becomes beautiful. e.e.cummings’ text is a lovesong to this little tree – “you are so little you are more like a flower” – and the sacred ritual of dressing it with decorations that glimmer with the patina of sweet memory. The piece ends with the sound of a music box, a nostalgic moment repeating itself over and over in our heart.

Morten Lauridsen’s achingly beautiful setting of Sure on This Shining Night will then be sung by the Sanctuary Choir.  [LISTEN]  Until I heard his piece for the first time it was hard for me to imagine any setting of this incredible James Agee text other than the Samuel Barber one. For solo voices the Barber is unparalleled, but for the richness of his choral writing and for the unexpected melodic contours of his writing this setting by Lauridsen is my new favorite.

The Message

By now we have sat in holy waiting amidst the gentle light of expectation. We have celebrated Jesus’ birth with songs of cheer and celebration. The final section of the concert invites us to ponder what it all means. I’m truly excited that for the first time we will incorporate dance into the concert, with choreographer and dancer Cameron Jones presenting his interpretation of The Dance by Kemper Crabb.  [LISTEN]  I first learned this contemporary folk song from a 1982 record album called The Vigil, which is still considered a classic in the annals of Contemporary Christian Music (although Crabb would undoubtedly shudder at being associated with that genre).  Aside from being a musician, Kemper Crabb is also an ordained priest serving in Houston as part of the Community of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. The Dance lovingly retells the story of Creation, humanity’s fall from grace (Lucifer “offered death’s dance as a token…in pausing to listen Adam missed his step, earth’s harmony in the dance broken”) and followed by Jesus’ incarnation, death and resurrection. The refrain invites us all to become part of the cosmic dance which God set in motion from the foundations of time:
 
We must dance, dance, dance in God’s honor
We must yield all our steps unto the King.

A trilogy of choral masterpieces will draw the concert to a close and provide a fitting musical benediction. Choirs and orchestra will join forces to present the great finale from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah, And Then Shall Your Light Break Forth.  [LISTEN]  A fanfare for voices opens the work on a grand note, followed by an exhilarating fugue on the text, “Lord our Creator, how excellent Thy name is in all the nations!” The music builds to a thundering climax of exalted praise. (This audio sample is from a superb recent recording by the New York Philharmonic and chorus under the direction of Alan Gilbert.)

Paul Christiansen (1914-1997) grew up as a member of a choral family dynasty headed by his father F. Melius Christiansen, founder of the famed St. Olaf Choir. Paul proudly assumed his father’s legacy, conducing the Concordia Choir for over 50 years and composing many stunning choral works for his choir during that time. His composition, My Song in the Night, takes a hauntingly beautiful American folk melody and expands it into a musical setting rich with profound meaning.  [LISTEN]  This piece has taken hold in my spirit this fall and become a theme in my walk of faith. Its simple message about the love, hope and comfort that are available to us in Jesus seems particularly profound in the context of the recent loss of so many cherished members of our Marble family.

Surely it is this same song of “comfort and joy, my soul’s delight” which heavenly angels imparted to earth on the night of Christ’s birth. May our Advent Concert help us all to “hush the noise and cease our strife” so that we may once again hear That Glorious Song of Old, and perhaps even the miraculous cry of a newborn baby.