Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic

The Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

The Epiphany of Jesus Christ 

Sunday, January 5, 2020

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in undercroft

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Organ Prelude

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Organ Postlude

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Common

Merbecke

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Anthems

Reges Tharsis et Insulae, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Reges Tharsis et insulae munera offerent,
reges Arabum et Saba dona adducent.
Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae,
omnes gentes servient ei.

The kings of Tharsis and the isles offer their gifts,
the kings of Arabia and Sheba bring gifts.
And all the kings of the earth worship him,
all peoples bow before him.

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Here Is the Little Door, Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Here is the little door,
lift up the latch, oh lift!
We need not wander more
but enter with our gift;
Our gift of finest gold,
Gold that was never bought nor sold;
Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;
Incense in clouds about his head;
All for the Child who stirs not in his sleep.
But holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.

Bend low about his bed,
for each he has a gift;
See how his eyes awake,
lift up your hands, O lift!
For gold, he gives a keen-edged sword
(Defend with it Thy little Lord!),
For incense, smoke of battle red.
Myrrh for the honored happy dead;
Gifts for his children terrible and sweet,
Touched by such tiny hands and Oh such tiny feet.

This is a 1918 setting of the following poem by Frances Chesterton (1869-1938), wife of Gilbert Keith. The date of composition, 1918, may explain the unusual imagery of the poem.

The poem depicts the visit of the Magi, first through evocative description of the traditionally attributed gifts – gold, myrrh and incense. Howells uses a modal harmony throughout, with a hushed opening in A minor leading soon after to a blazing cadence in C major for ‘Our gift of finest gold’. At ‘Incense in clouds about his head’ Howells uses his characteristic ‘Phrygian’ flattened second in the bass . Indeed there is a brief settling on the Phrygian 2nd as a chord of Eb major at ‘sleep’ before a minor plagal cadence (with added 7th!) leads us to the D major conclusion of the first verse.

The second verse is where Howells’s word-painting comes to the fore in illustrating the ambivalence of Chesterton’s text. Christ repays the Magi with his own gifts – a sword and the smoke of battle, and returns the myrrh for embalming the ‘honoured happy dead’. A far cry from the childish innocence of ‘How far is it to Bethlehem?’. Howells first flags up the new atmosphere in his use of a modal B minor cadence (as opposed to G major in the first verse) on ‘lift up your hands, O lift’, and depicts the ‘keen-edged sword’ with a unison phrase on ‘Defend with it Thy little lord’. The piece then safely returns to rest with a repetition of the sublime extended plagal cadence of the first verse.

Despite this resolution, there is an uncomfortable tension wrought by the poem and setting which cannot be ignored. How can a message of peace and love be reconciled with a call to arms? Perhaps ‘Here is the Little Door’ can serve as a salutary reminder; that there is an  ever-present possibility for bold faith to be used in the service of deadly hate.

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Hymns

#51 We three kings (WE THREE KINGS / KINGS OF ORIENT), words and music, was written by Pittsburgh native John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (1820-1891). He received his education at the University of Vermont and at General Theological Seminary in New York City, graduating in 1850. Hopkins then became the first church music instructor at General Theological Seminary. The imagery of the star is central to the Epiphany season and the narrative. The refrain focuses on the star and invites us to join the magi in following its light—“guide us to thy perfect light.”

“We three kings” has many features associated with Christmas carols including a refrain, a narrative-ballad style, and a lilting tune in triple meter. While the traditional number of magi is usually set at three, probably because of the three gifts that the biblical narrative discusses, it is unusual for Epiphany hymns to actually identify the number of magi as three. Stanzas two, three, and four describe in detail the symbolic nature of each of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

From its inception, the composer encouraged the song’s dramatic possibilities: “Each of verses, 2, 3, and 4, is sung as a solo [Kings Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar] to the music of Gaspar’s part to the 1st and 5th verses, the accompaniment and chorus being the same throughout. Only verses 1 and 5 are sung as a trio. Men’s voices are best for the parts of the Three Kings, but the music is set in the G clef for the accommodation of children.”

#47 What star is this (PUER NOBIS) is a translation by John Chandler (1806–1876) of the hymn by Charles Coffin, Quae stella sole pulchrior, from the Paris Breviary (1736). The hymn is a prayer for God’s presence in our lives as we draw closer to Him. The Magi showed faith in God and eagerness, as well as sacrifice, in their journey to see the Christ-child. So may we live as though we really believe and eagerly look forward to the day when we shall one day see Him. In the third stanza, the gifts of the Magi are not even named. The Magi took the trouble to bring “gifts most rare” on a long journey. So may we “All our costliest treasures bring, Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.” This pilgrimage is not easy, so we sing, “Holy Jesus, every day keep us in the narrow way,” remembering that Jesus said, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14).

#52 As with gladness men of old (DIX) is by William Catterton Dix (1837–1898). The particular strength of the hymn is the way in which in each of the first three verses the narrative of the visit of the wise men is related to the present day in the final couplet, opening with the word ‘So’. The themes of travel and of light are continued in the last two verses, which deal with the journey through life towards the heavenly kingdom. Our life is a pilgrimage to the day when we meet Christ face to face.

This hymn is always sung to the tune DIX. Conrad Kocher, a German composer and church musician, originally wrote a longer version of this tune in 1838 for a German chorale in 1838. William H. Monk, editor of the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, altered the music by omitting one phrase and changing a few notes to fit “As with Gladness” for the 1861 edition. It is interesting to note that William Chatterton Dix did not like the choice of this tune. However, it pairs well with his hymn, and it has become standard at Epiphany. Now this tune bears his name.

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Balthazar

Many decades ago, while I was a graduate student at the University of Virginia., I taught a course in the Literature of Fantasy (Quest of the Holy Grail, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis etc). I asked the students to write three papers each semester. I told them, if they so chose, one could be a fantasy story.

A black student in the class wrote a story which was set as an autobiography. In the story, a young black male wrote the story of his life, its ups and downs, mostly downs, missed opportunities, and bad decisions. At least he was called before the Great Assizes, and the Book of Life was read aloud (we had just heard it being read in the story). Confronted with the facts, he had to admit to God he had badly screwed up. But the black King, Balthazar, interceded and discussed the matter with God. God agreed to give the young man a second chance and he was back on earth, in a literature course at the University of Virginia.

I told the student it was a remarkable and remarkably structured story, but I thought the ending was a bit of a trick ending. “But that’s the way it really happened!” he replied. I was so startled I declined the opportunity to pursue the remark — a failure I still regret

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

December 29, 2019

The Feast of the Holy Family

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Common, Merbecke

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Anthems

Born in a stable so bare, John Rutter

Born in a stable so bare
Born so long ago
Born ‘neath light of star
He who loved us so
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Cradled by mother so fair
Tender her lullaby
Over her son so dear
Angel hosts fill the sky
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Wise men from distant far land
Sheperds from starry hills
Worship this babe so rare
Hearts with his warmth he fills
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Love in that stable was born
Into our hearts to flow
Innocent dreaming babe
Make me thy love to know
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day

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A virgin most pure, arr. Charles Wood

A virgin most pure, as the prophets do tell,
Hath brought forth a baby, as it hath befell,
To be our Redeemer from death, hell and sin,
Which Adam’s transgression hath wrapped us in.

Chorus
Aye, and therefore be you merry,
Rejoice and be merry,
Set sorrows aside!
Christ Jesus, our Saviour,
Was born on this tide.

In Bethlehem in Jewry a city there was,
Where Joseph and Mary together did pass,
And there to be taxed with many a one more,
For Caesar commanded the same should be so.

But when they had entered the city so fair,
The number of people so mighty was there
That Joseph and Mary, whose substance was small,
Could find in the inn there no lodging at all.

Then were they constrained in a stable to lie,
Where horses and asses they used for to tie;
Their lodging so simple they took it no scorn
But against the next morning our Saviour was born.

The King of all kings to this world being brought,
Fine number of linen to wrap him was sought;
And when she had swaddled her young son so sweet,
Within an ox’s manger she laid him to sleep.

Then God sent an angel from heaven so high,
To certain poor shepherds in fields where they lie,
And bade them no longer in sorrow to stay,
Because that our Saviour was born on this day.

Then presently after, the shepherds did spy
A number of angels that stood in the sky.
They joyfully talked, and sweetly did sing,
“To God be all Glory, Our heavenly King.”

This is one of the most venerable and widely distributed of all English Christmas carols. The earliest known version of the text is in New Carolls for this Merry Time of Christmas (London, 1661), published after the feast of Christmas was restored after the death of Oliver Cromwell, who had abolished Christmas (which was also outlawed in Massachusetts). This version begins “In Bethlehem city, in Jewry it was”. The familiar first verse, “A virgin unspotted” or “A virgin most pure” had been added when the carol next surfaced in the 18th century.

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Hymns

#20 Of the Father’s love begotten is a translation of corde natus ex parentis by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (ca. 348-ca. 413), The translation is by Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877) based on John Mason Neale (1818-1866).

#117 Sing of Mary is by Roland F. Palmer (1892–1985, an Anglo-Catholic priest, who entered the Society of St. John the Evangelist (“Cowley Fathers”) at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The tune PLEADING SAVIOR was composed by American Congregational minister Joshua Leavitt (1794–1873).

#13 While shepherds watched their flocks by night is a Christmas carol describing the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with words attributed to Irish hymnist, lyricist and England’s Poet Laureate Nahum Tate (1692-1715).

The tune WINCHESTER or WINCHESTER OLD was originally published in Este’s psalter The Whole Book of Psalmes from 1592. This tune was, in turn, arranged from chapter VIII of Cambridgeshire composer Christopher Tye’s setting of the Acts of the Apostles in 1553.

George Kirbye, an East Anglian madrigalist about whom little is known, was employed by Este to arrange some of tunes featured in his The Whole Book of Psalmes and it is his arrangement of Tye’s work that appears in the psalter to accompany Psalm 84 “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place.”  The tune and hymn text were probably first published together in an arrangement by William Henry Monk for Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861.

Professor Jeremy Dibble of Durham University has noted that “While shepherds watched” was “the only Christmas hymn to be approved by the Church of England in the 18th century and this allowed it to be disseminated across the country with the Book of Common Prayer.” This was because most carols, which had roots in folk music, were considered too secular and thus not used in church services until the end of the 18th century.

Note on the icon of the Holy Family

In the middle ages the Holy Family was Jesus, Mary, and Anne, Mary’s mother. Joseph was shown in icons of the Nativity as an old man who was somewhat befuddled by what was going on. He was presumably shown as elderly to avoid doubts about Mary’s perpetual virginity.

Murillo (1617-1682)

However, when the Reformers emphasized the role of the father in the family, the Catholics of the Counter-Reformation transformed the image of Joseph into a young, vigorous man, who was the provider and protector for Mary and Jesus, and a model for Catholic manhood. Young Catholic men were called to be chaste, like Joseph, and to avoid the siren call of donjuanismo.

The image at the head of this post is therefore not a traditional iconographic theme, but a modern one. I find it especially poignant because  the three figures are not shown as separate. but are included in a single outline, with Joseph enfolding and protecting both Jesus and Mary. This emphasizes the unity of the family. Jesus is giving Mary a chin-chuck, a medieval gesture of affection (note the similar gesture in the Murillo).

The Dream of Saint Joseph, by Philippe de Champaigne.

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

December 22, 2019

Advent IV

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Organ Prelude

O Come, All Ye Faithful, Arranged by Hal H. Hopson

Organ Postlude

Offertoire sur Deux Noels, by Alexandre Guilmant

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Common

Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw

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Anthems

A Spotless Rose, Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

A spotless Rose is blowing sprung from a tender root, of ancient seers’ foreshowing, of Jesse promised fruit; its fairest bud unfolds to light amid the cold, cold winter and in the dark midnight. The Rose which I am singing, whereof Isaiah said, is from its sweet root springing in Mary, purest Maid; for through our God’s great love and might the blessed babe she bare us in a cold, cold winter’s night.

It is a simple setting of the anonymous fifteenth-century poem about Jesus’ birth and the purity of Mary, and the naivety of the words seem to give Howells the springboard to create something that appears the model of simplicity on the surface, but hides a deeper complexity – how many carols written in 1919 move mellifluously between 7 8, 5 4 and 5 8 with the subtle changes of metre emphasising the stresses of the words and Howells’s restrained homophony? The harmony moves seamlessly from a modal E major to the minor before returning to the major for the end of the first verse – then the magic happens! The second verse  has a stunning tenor solo that brings a radiant glow to the music, but the skill is in the accompaniment given by the rest of the choir.

Perhaps the most celebrated moment of the piece is the very end, in fact the final cadence – this cadence (on the words “cold winter’s night) is one of Howells’s most sublime and affecting moments and the composer Patrick Hadley famously wrote to Howells saying “I should like, when my time comes, to pass away with that magical cadence.” The cadence itself moves from A minor to E major through some wonderfully piquant suspensions and unusual dissonance resolutions.

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Ave Maria, Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962)

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

This is a deeply compelling setting of the familiar text. The piece commences with a series of contemplative exchanges between the upper and lower voices; the ensuing, unexpected changes of key and texture are potently effective, and typical of Jackson’s compositional style.

Jackson comments:

Why compose yet another Ave Maria? After all, there are innumerable other settings of the Angelic Salutation, many of them great masterpieces. Yet any new treatment of even the most familiar words can, I hope, say something unique about them.

I have divided the bipartite text into three sections. In the first, divided sopranos and altos lead the hymning of the Virgin. After an impassioned and anguished outburst (“Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis”), there follows a solemn and hushed prayer-chorale, while two solo sopranos soar heavenward in imploration.”

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Hymns

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is a translation of the Latin hymn Veni veni Emmanuel, which in turn is based on the seven O Antiphons, which are sung in the monastic office at the Magnificat on the days preceding Christmas. These antiphons are of ancient origin, dating back to at least the ninth century. The hymn itself, though, is much more recent. Its first appeared in the 18th century. It is interesting to note that the initial words of the actual antiphons in reverse order form an acrostic: O Emmanuel, O Rex, O Oriens, O Clavis, O Radix (“virgula” in the hymn), O Adonai, O Sapientia. ERO CRAS can be loosely translated as “I will be there tomorrow”.

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Creator of the stars of light is a translation by John Mason Neale (1818–1866) of the 9^th century Creator alme siderum. The translation captures the essence of the original Latin. Contrasting “everlasting light” with the “stars of night” in the first stanza is a common theological theme of Latin hymns. Stanza two refers to the great New Testament hymn found in Philippians 2:10-11: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

John the Baptist
Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779.

“Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

December 8, 2019

Advent II

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Organ Prelude

Gott, Durch Deine Güte / Gottes Sohn ist Kommen, J. S. Bach

Organ Postlude

Fantasia, Johann Krieger (1651-1735)

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Common

Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw

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Anthems

Domine, praestolamur, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Domine, praestolamur adventum tuum, ut cito venias, et dissolvas jugum captivitatem nostrae.

O Lord, we await thy coming, that thou come quickly and dissolve the bonds of our captivity.

“Domine praestolamur” is a setting of the text for the matins responsory during Advent in the Sarum rite. This anthem was published in 1589 in a collection of five-part Latin motets by William Byrd. The music is in the aeolian mode, which sounds to modern ears like the key of A minor, as befits the solemn text depicting our waiting in captivity for the advent of the Lord and for his deliverance. As is common in the high renaissance style, the piece begins with the same motif sung by each voice at its entrance (a point of imitation). This piece is remarkable because it employs a double imitative technique: in the first phrase “Domine praestolamus adventum tuum” the two first words are matched with one musical motif whereas the second two words are matched with an independent musical motif: two imitative entries for a single phrase of text. Near the end of the anthem, listen for the phrase “captivitatis nostrae” that circles around the same notes, depicting captivity, and how the following phrase “et dissolvas jugum,” dissolving the yoke, is set to a rising melody with a strong sense of forward motion, depicting our liberation.

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Like as the hart, Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God. When shall I come to appear before the presence of God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, “Where is now thy God?”

“Like as the hart” is a mysteriously foreboding setting of the first three verses of Psalm 42 by Herbert Howells (1892-1983). The music was written in a single day in January 1941 while Howells was snowed in at Cheltenham while London was under nearly constant aerial assault. It was published in a series of four anthems “in time of war.” Marked “with quiet intensity,” the piece opens with a lyrical melody in the men’s voices, colored with a pointed chromaticism. The whole chorus enters with the plea “When shall I come to appear before God?” that slowly dies away into a quiet E minor. In the middle section, the pace picks up with a soprano solo answered dramatically by the chorus, “Where is now my God?” After the sopranos and tenors pass this melody back and forth, the first melody returns, now answered in counterpoint by the sopranos. Listen for the plaintive notes in the organ that haunt the final chord sung by the choir. This anthem highlights the longing for the coming of the presence of God characteristic of the Advent season.

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Hymns

On Jordan’s Bank is a translation of a Latin hymn by Charles Coffin (1676—1749 Paris), who was a French teacher, writer, Jansenist, and Rector of the University of Paris. The translator, John Chandler (1806—1876) was an Anglican clergyman who translated hymns of the early church and hymns from the Paris Breviary of 1736, in which this hymn appeared. The text sums up the message of John the Baptist, encapsulating each of the important themes of the Forerunner of Christ: announcement of grace, expectancy for the coming Messiah, and renewal in preparation for the coming of the King. The first stanza calls God’s people to give attention to the coming Christ. The second calls people to receive God’s presence and God’s cleansing from sin. The third is a profession of faith in Christ. The fourth is a prayer for God’s continued grace in our lives and in our world—a response to God’s redeeming Word. The fifth is a doxology of praise.

Prepare the way, O Zion (Modern lyrics) is by the Swedish bishop Frans Michael Franzén (1772-1847). It was translated by Augustus Nelson (1863–1949). This joyful song celebrates Christ who comes to destroy sin and death, not by violence, but by his birth as a child and his self-giving on the cross.

Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding is a translation by Edward Caswell (1814–1878) of the Latin hymn, Vox clara ecce intonat. It is based on Romans 13: 11-1. We hear that “Christ is near”; in response, we “cast away the works of darkness.” Advent is not a passive season but demands something from us. We sing of “The Lamb, so long expected, comes with pardon down from heaven. Let us haste, with tears of sorrow, one and all, to be forgiven.” Advent, like Lent, is a season of repentance, and repentance involves action. Just as Christ came 2,000 years ago, we know he can come again even tomorrow as the next stanza reminds us, “So when next He comes in glory and the world is wrapped in fear, He will shield us with His mercy and with words of love draw near.” By confession and repentance, we prepare to meet the Lord.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares.

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

December 1, 2019

Advent I

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Common

Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw

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Anthems

Rorate coeli, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum: aperiatur terra, et germinet salvatorem. Benedixisti, Domine, terram tuam: avertisti captivitatem Jacob. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum, amen.

Drop down ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: Let the earth open and bring forth a Saviour. Lord, thou hast blessed thy land: Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, amen.

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Laetentur coeli, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Laetentur coeli, et exultet terra. Jubilate montes laudem, quia Dominus noster veniet, et pauperum suorum miserebitur. Orietur in diebus tuis justitia et abundantia pacis.

Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the mountains be joyful with praise, because our Lord will come, and will show mercy to his poor. In your days, justice and abundance of peace shall arise.

Laetentur coeli, the communion anthem, is an early work by Byrd, published in 1589 in a compilation of sacred Latin motets by Byrd and Tallis. The text is from a processional respond for Sundays in Advent from the Sarum rite. The music is set for five voices on a text from Isaiah 49:13 with a contrasting three-part texture for second half from Psalm 71:7. Listen for the shouts of exultation as the earth rejoices “et exultet terra” and for the gentle kindness of the Lord’s mercy on the poor “et pauperum suorum miserebitur;” this text is then repeated after the psalm verse to close the piece.

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Hymns

#3 Wake, awake, for night is flying(WACHET AUF) is by Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878). It is partly based on Matthew 25: 1-13, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Nicolai was a pastor in Westphalia during a terrible pestilence, which claimed some thirteen hundred lives in his parish alone. Nicolai turned from the constant tragedies and frequent funerals (at times he buried thirty people in one day) to meditate on “the noble, sublime doctrine of eternal life obtained through the blood of Christ.” We look forward to the glorious coming of Jesus when He will deliver us from death and bring us into the kingdom of His Father. Christ’s light shining in the darkness of death to deliver us is a profound theme of Advent.

People, look east (BESANCON CAROL) is by  Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965). The delight of the poem is in its idea that ‘Love the Guest’ (stanza 1) is coming, and must be made welcome: his name is kept back until the last stanza, when He is at last named as ‘the Lord.’ Before that the phrase ‘People, look East,’ found in the penultimate line of every stanza, is a reminder of the rising of the sun, and the coming of light; and just as Christmas comes in the middle of winter, so the singer is reminded of seeds lying dormant in the cold earth, seeds of the rose of summer (stanza 2), and of birds building their nests so that new birth can come (stanza 3). Stanza 4 is a reminder of the light that comes from the stars, the light that shines in the darkness (from John 1: 1-14). Throughout the poem the images of life are contrasted with winter cold and darkness, until in the final stanza the Christ who is Lord is revealed in all His wonder and glory

#7 Hark the glad sound, the Saviour comes (BRISTOL) is by Philip Doddridge (1702-1751). The text on which it is based concerns the preaching of Christ in the synagogue. The hymn follows the scriptural account closely. It shows Doddridge’s art very clearly, especially his ability to balance the first half of a stanza against the second.

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

November 24, 2019

The Feast of Christ the King

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Prelude

We Gather Together, arranged by Franklin Ritter

Postlude

Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above, arranged by Hal H Hopson

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Common

Missa S. Maria Magdalena, Willan

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Anthems

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, George Fredrick Handel (1685-1759)

Born in Halle, Germany in 1685, Handel mastered counterpoint and harmony in the Baroque North German style. After a five year sojourn in Rome, he moved to London permanently in 1710, where he wrote and produced Italian opera. His music was wildly successful in England, but in the 1730s the cost of production of operas and changes in musical taste led him to focus his efforts on oratorios (which were cheaper because they are not staged). His oratorio Messiah was composed in three to four weeks in the fall of 1741 and was premiered at Easter in 1742 in Dublin. Handel gave his portion of the proceeds to a hospital and debtor’s prison in Dublin.

This chorus appears in Part II of the oratorio which describes the passion of Christ and his resurrection. These verses from Psalm 24 (using the text of the Book of Common Prayer) refer to Christ’s ascension into heaven. Handel divides the choir into a high group that announces his coming and a lower group of voices that questions “who is this king of glory?” This psalms announces that Christ is the King of Glory and the Lord of Hosts (meaning armies), a fitting depiction for today’s feast.

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Worthy is the Lamb, George Fredrick Handel (1685-1759)

The final chorus in Handel’s Messiah at the end of Part III is “Worthy is the Lamb,” taken from the same text (Revelation 5:12-13) that is the basis of today’s Introit. The piece opens with a full-throated acclamation “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” to receive our praise. In the second section, the men state the fugue theme “Blessing and honour, glory and power be unto him” which is developed with elaborate and increasingly complex counterpoint. At the end of this fugue, another begins on a new subject in the bass voices on “Amen.” This pair of fugues are the most compelling in all of Handel’s choral writing. Handel’s first biographer wrote in 1760 that this conclusion revealed the composer “rising still higher” than in “that vast effort of genius, the Hallelujah chorus.”

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Hymns

#352 Crown Him with Many Crowns  (DIADEMATA) is by the Anglican Matthew Bridges (1800-1894), who wrote six verses of this hymn, which is based on Rev: 1: 12: “and on His head were many crowns.” But Bridges converted to Catholicism in 1848 under the influence of John Henry Newman,, and Godfrey Thring (1823-1903) thought the hymn was too Catholic, and wrote six more verses, so hymnals, depending on their leanings, use different selections of verses. In the 1940 Hymnal the first and last verses are by Bridges, the middle three by Thring. The tune DIADEMATA (Crowns) is by Sir George Job Elvey (1816-1893), private organist to Queen Victoria,and is in the simple Handelian style.

For a complete discussion of this hymn see Nov. 20, 2016 blog.

#345 The King of love my shepherd is (ST COLUMBA) was written by Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821–1877). It is notable for its skillful meter, and its well-managed rhyme scheme of single and double rhymes, which control and shape the emotion very beautifully. Baker gave an Anglican slant to Psalm 23, interpreting it as a psalm of love and care, but stressing these qualities as evidenced in the Eucharist. The spread table of verse 5 becomes the altar on which the elements are displayed, and the delight comes as the believer takes the ‘pure chalice’; the unction, or anointing (from 1 John 2: 27), while bestowing grace in a spiritual sense, also has suggestions of a rite. This verse spreads its meaning through the whole hymn, allowing the words of Psalm 23 to acquire an extra significance: so that the last verse suggests that the length of days of a person’s life can be spent, figuratively, ‘within thy house for ever’, in the service and under the influence of the church, and then later in heaven. The singer can reflect back, and conclude that the first verses suggest the ransomed soul, sought out in love and rescued from sin (Baker’s version of ‘he restoreth my soul’). The beautiful use of the shepherd metaphor in verse 3, as the shepherd carries the lamb gently on his shoulder, is an illustration of the tenderness of Baker’s work: these lines were the last words spoken by Baker on his deathbed.

To Jesus Christ our sovereign King (ICH GLAUB’ AN GOTT) is by Msgr. Martin Hellriegel (1890-1981), a German-American Roman Catholic priest who immigrated to the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri, from Heppenheim, Germany and became one of the pioneers of the Catholic Liturgical Movement. The hymn was written in 1941 as a direct response to the pretensions of the Third Reich and to remind people who actually reigns eternally.  The tune was published in the Mainz Gesangbuch (1870).

Christ as the Sun of Justice, Southwark Cathedral

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

Trinity XXII

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

Sunday, November 17, 2019

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Prelude

Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, arr. Johann Pachelbel

Postlude

Helmsley, arranged by Charles Callahan

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Anthems

Vigilate, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Vigilate, nescitis enim quando dominus domus veniat, sero, an media nocte, an gallicantu, an mane. Vigilate ergo, ne cum venerit repente, inveniat vos dormientes. Quod autem dico vobis, omnibus dico: vigilate.

Watch ye therefore (for you know not when the lord of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning): Watch therefore, lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch.

Vigilate is an early work by William Byrd (1540-1623) published in his Cantiones Sacrae of 1589. It takes its text from Mark 13 where Christ exhorts his disciples to watch and prepare for the coming of the Lord. This work is unusual for its text painting characteristic of the secular, Italian madrigal style. Listen, for example, for “an galli cantu” (at the cock-crow), where the voices imitate the rooster’s crow with leaps and rapid runs. The phrase “inveniat vos dormientes” is set in a long, slow double canon reminiscent of sleepy disciples. And at “repente” (suddenly), a frantic burst of fast rhythms jumps out of the texture.

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Audivi vocem de caelo, Thomas Tallis (1510-1585)

Audivi vocem de caelo venientem: venite omnes virgines sapientissime; oleum recondite in vasis vestris dum sponsus advenerit. Media nocte clamor factus est: ecce sponsus venit.

I heard a voice coming from heaven: come all wisest virgins; fill your vessels with oil, for the bridegroom is coming. In the middle of the night there was a cry: behold the bridegroom comes.

The motet Audivi vocem de caelo by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) offers a completely different take on the same theme, here portrayed with language from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins awaiting the coming of the bridegroom. This motet makes use of the Sarum Rite plainchant (the ancient liturgy of the English church that was finally abandoned in 1559) and several clues point to a very early date of composition prior to Mary’s reign. English composers continued writing in the late Medieval style in the early 16^th century long after composers on the continent had abandoned it; this motet is an example of that trend, with its avoidance of imitation between voices and its uninflected modal harmonies.

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Hymns

The king shall come when morning dawns (MORNING SONG) is by the Scottish Free Church minister John Brownlie (1857–1925). He translated many Eastern hymns, and this hymn bears the impress of Eastern theology. Infused with the imagery of morning light typical of early Greek hymnody, hymn stirs hope in the hearts of all who look forward to the return of Christ. It is a confession of faith in the sure return of our Lord; his coming again will occur in a blaze of glory, which will far surpass his earthly death and resurrection. The text concludes with a paraphrase of the ancient prayer of the church-“Maranatha,” or “Lord, come quickly” (Rev. 22:20). We should not fear, but yearn for the coming of the One we love. MORNING SONG is a folk tune that has some resemblance to the traditional English tune for “Old King Cole.” The tune appeared anonymously in Part II of John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music (1813).

The Lord will come and not be slow (YORK) is a cento by John Milton (1608-1674) of words from Psalms 82, 85, 86. The tune YORK is an old Scottish melody.

Lo, He comes with clouds descending is by John Cennick (1718–1755) and Charles Wesley (1707–1788). The content of the text and particularly the title are derived from Rev 1:7, which tells of the Second Coming. As the liturgical year approaches the coming of Christ at the Nativity, we keep in mind His coming that we await, when He shall come as Judge to make known the truth about the entire history of the human race and indeed of the universe. How will we respond when He shows us the truth about our lives and how they are part of His whole plan of salvation? With wailing or exultation?

The tune HELMSLEY is by Thomas Olivers (1725–1799), who heard the tune whistled in the street and derived his melody from music, a sequence is a short melody that is repeated at a different pitch level. In this case (“Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!”), the melody is repeated once a step lower and then a step higher. Such repetition intensifies the text that is repeated.

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The Sun of Justice

The first reading today is from Malachi, indeed the very last prophetic words of the Old Testament:

1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

4“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

5“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

The image in this blog is a bas relief by Sir Ninian Comper in the Missionary Chapel of Southwark Cathedral.  Christ stands in front of the sun with its healing rays. He holds the globe of the world, because he is the light of all nations (Isaiah); kneeling on either side of him are a figures from mission lands.

From the blog UNAM SANCTAM CATHOLICAM:

We can see how it is a very fitting title for the Messiah. It also has an important liturgical connection. We know that for most of the Church’s history, the Mass was always offered facing east, a position called ad orientem. This usually meant geographically east, but there is also a “liturgical east” which means the priest and the people facing the same direction as the Mass is offered, the position ad dominum, “facing the Lord” (as opposed to versus populum, “facing the people”).

It is beyond the scope of this article to explain the liturgical, historical, and theological reasons for worship facing east; but we can note that, symbolically, it is very fitting. The Messiah is likened to the sun, which rises in the east. This ties in to a very ancient Christian tradition that when Christ returns, He will return from the east. And this is not based solely on an allegorical connection between Jesus and the sun; Christ Himself says in the Gospel of Matthew, “For as lightning comes out of the east, and appears even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:27).

Now, Christ certainly may not be teaching that He will literally appear in the east first; but symbolically, it makes sense to associate His coming with the east. The sun, our Lord’s symbol, rises in the east. Jesus says His coming will be like lightning that comes from the east. In classical antiquity, the east signified brightness and daylight while the west signified darkness. In English etymology, the word east means towards dawn; daybreak, while the word west means “evening, night.” The same connotation exists in Greek and Latin.

Thus, it makes sense that the liturgy should be oriented towards the east, for from here – symbolically at least – the faithful may expect the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ad orientem posture demonstrates the Church’s faith in Christ’s return, professed in the Creed when we say, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

May the Sun of Justice rise upon us. As we prepare to enter Advent, may we recall the words of the traditional hymn, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.

Attavante degli Attavanti, Martyrdom of the Seven Hebrew brothers, c. 1450

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of S. Peter

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

Trinity XXI

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Midori Ataka, Organist

Sunday, November 10, 2019

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Brunch to follow in the undercroft

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Prelude

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, setting by Joel Raney

Postlude

Kingsfold, Setting by James Biery

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Anthems

Requiem aeternam, Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Requiem aeternam dona eis. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.

Rest eternal grant unto them. And may light perpetual shine upon them. Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord.

In 1935 Howells’ son Michael died at the age of nine, a tragedy which inevitably cast an immense shadow over the composer’s life. Until quite recently it was thought that the Requiem was composed in response to Michael’s death, but we now know that Howells composed it in 1932 or 1933, originally intending it for the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. For some reason the music was never sent to King’s, and its existence remained unknown until its eventual publication in 1980, only three years before the composer’s own death. After the tragic events of 1935, Howells increasingly associated the Requiem with his lost son, so much so that a few years later, when he was composing Hymnus Paradisi, a work specifically intended as Michael’s memorial and without doubt Howells’ masterpiece, he used substantial parts of the earlier Requiem, re-scoring it for soloists, large chorus and orchestra.

One of the earliest and most fundamental influences on Howells was Gloucester Cathedral, with its immense, vaulted spaces and glorious east window. Howells wrote of it as ‘a pillar of fire in my imagination.’ He consciously set out to mirror these essentially architectural elements of spaciousness and luminosity in his music, and these characteristics can clearly be heard in the Requiem. Significantly, the main climax of the work occurs at the words ‘et lux perpetua luceat eis’ – ‘let light perpetual shine upon them’ – a symbol of hope and comfort, confirmed in the closing pages by the final release of tension and the gradual transition to a simple, peaceful D major.

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The souls of the righteous, Geraint Lewis (b. 1958)

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and the pain of death shall not touch them. To the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to perish, but they are in peace.

Geraint Lewis was born in Cardiff in 1958 and educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. On graduating he was appointed to the music staff of the University of Wales at Bangor, working with Professor William Mathias. The anthem The souls of the righteous is subtitled ‘In memoriam William Mathias’ and was composed for the Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Mathias at St Paul’s Cathedral on 20 November 1992. The composer explains:

This work was suggested by a request from Nina Walker for an All Souls’ anthem for 1992. I started work before Christmas 1991 and showed the part that I had completed to William Mathias during one of my many visits to see him in Anglesey. He liked what he heard and urged me to complete it. I held back however and put it to one side. A month later Mathias was diagnosed as having terminal cancer and given six months to live. I visited him every other week during this time (travelling from Monmouth to Menai Bridge) and he died on 29 July 1992. During this time we put his manuscript in order and tidied up his catalogue and I helped him with his last works.
We then planned a Service of Thanksgiving for his life and works in St Paul’s Cathedral. John Scott suggested that I write a work for the service (which otherwise consisted entirely of Mathias’s music—much of it with St Paul’s connections) and so I went back to my setting of The souls of the righteous and completed it as a tribute to my closest friend and colleague. The text is from Wisdom and is variously a collect for All Saints—eve of All Souls. Mathias was born on 1 November 1945—All Saints’ Day—and All Souls’ Day is 2 November.

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Hymns

The Son of God goes forth to war (Words at #549; Tune: KINGSFOLD). The author, Reginald Heber, was born in 1783 into a wealthy, educated family. He was a bright youth, translating a Latin classic into English verse by the time he was seven, entering Oxford at 17. After his graduation he became rector of his father’s church  for 16 years. He was appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 and worked tirelessly for three years until the weather and travel took its toll on his health and he died of a stroke. The first reading is about the martyred Maccabees; we too live in an age of martyrs: the Coptic martyrs beheaded by the sea, dying with the name of Jesus on their lips; the Missionaries of Charity slain in the home for the aged in Aden; the priest Jacques Hamel whose throat was slit at the altar as he said mass. They followed in His train.

After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal (1906).

Here is a rousing version. The hymn is sung to The Minstrel Boy    but with the hymn lyrics in The Man Who Would Be King; here it is to the somewhat Victorian ALL SAINTS NEW.

#429 Day by Day (SUMNER) is a prayer by St. Richard, bishop of Chichester. The tune is by Arthur Henry Biggs (1906-1954), organist at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Cathedral in Spokane, Washington.

One night in London, Thomas Olivers (1725—1799), a follower of John Wesley, was attracted to a service in a Jewish synagogue, where he heard a great singer, Myer Leoni, sing an ancient Hebrew text in solemn, plaintive mode. Olivers wrote a hymn to that tune: The God of Abraham Praise, which is a paraphrase of the ancient Hebrew Yigdal, or doxology. In the 12th century, Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides codified the 13 articles of the Jewish Creed. These articles of the Jewish faith were later shaped into the Yigdal around 1400 by Daniel ben Judah, a judge in Rome.

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A Catholic Mother Talks with a Jewish Mother of Martyred Sons

Social media shoves us all up in each other’s faces in unprecedented ways. Where national politics was once metered in through newspapers and the evening news, now people of all ages have access to global details of immeasurable variety. Through the internet, we can see what friends on other continents had for dinner. We have a finger incessantly on the pulse of global events, from terrorism to natural disasters to scandals in the Catholic Church we never wanted to admit happen.

Stacy A. Trasancos is the Director of Publications for Bishop Joseph Strickland’s St. Philip Institute in Tyler, TX. She has a PhD in Chemistry from Penn State University and a MA in Dogmatic Theology from Holy Apostles College & Seminary.