Jesus healing a leper, drawing by Rembrandt, c. 1650

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Quinquagesima Sunday

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

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Prelude

L’Orgue Mystique op. 54 no. 14 “Quinquagesima”,  Charles Tournemire

Hymns

How firm a foundation (LYONS)

Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Thou art the Way (DUNDEE)

Anthems

Te lucis ante terminum, Thomas Tallis

O Lord, the maker, William Mundy

Postlude

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622,  J. S. Bach

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Prelude

L’Orgue Mystique op. 54 no. 14 “Quinquagesima”,  Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)

Here is  Le Quinquagésime – 1 – Prélude а l’Introït.

Charles Arnould Tournemire (1870 – 1939) was a French composer and organist, notable partly for his improvisations which were often rooted in the music of Gregorian chant. His compositions include eight symphonies (one of them choral), four operas, twelve chamber works and eighteen piano solos; but he is remembered largely for his organ music, the best known being set of pieces L’Orgue Mystique, a group of 51 sets of five pieces each (except for Holy Saturday, which contains only three pieces), all written between 1927 and 1932. This collection covers the cycle of the Roman Catholic liturgical year, each set being based on the Gregorian chants for the day.

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Hymns

How firm a foundation (LYONS)

How firm a foundation (1787) is a hymn that for over two centuries has assured believers of the faithfulness of Christ and the certainty of hope. The first verse acts as an introduction, giving us cause to stop and ponder the Word of assurance that God has given us, described in greater detail in the next four verses. Those four verses are in fact paraphrases of Scripture passages: Isaiah 41:10, 43:2, Romans 8:3-39, Hebrews 13:5, and Deuteronomy 31:6. In the words of this hymn, we carry with us the Word from God, and the call to trust in that Word. But God’s Word is expansive and not limited to letters on a page — the fifth verse moves us to a trust in the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. Thus we are assured by the words we sing, the Word we are given, and the Word made flesh, of the steadfastness of God and His unfailing love.

In John Rippon’s A Selection of Hymns (1787, plus numerous subsequent editions), “How Firm a Foundation” (no. 128) is attributed simply to “K—”.  The author of the hymn has never been definitively identified.

How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,
for I am your God, and will still give you aid;
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
for I will be with you in trouble to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

“When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply;
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake!”

Here is the original text:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say that to you he hath said?
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled,

In every condition, in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home or abroad, on the land, on the sea,
“As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.”

“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismay’d,
I, I am thy God, and will soon give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.”

“When thro’ the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, thy deepest distress.”

“When thro’ fiery trials thy path-way shall lie,
My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

“Even down to old age, all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.”

“The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, tho’ all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never – no never- no never forsake.”

Joseph Martin Kraus

The tune LYONS is by Joseph Martin Kraus (20 June 1756 – 15 December 1792), was a composer in the classical era who was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. He moved to Sweden at age 21, and died at the age of 36 in Stockholm. He is sometimes referred to as “the Swedish Mozart”, and had a life span which was very similar to that of Mozart’s.

Here is a concert performance of How firm a foundation. It has become a folk hymn, and here is a lively rendition. Here is Chelsea Moon.

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Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Lord Jesus, think on me is a translation by the Anglican clergyman Allen William Chatfield (1808-1896) of the Greek hymn, Μνώεο Χριστέ by Synesius of Cyrene (375-430). Synesius was the Bishop of Ptolomais, one of the ancient capitals of Cyrenaica that is today part of modern day Libya.

1. Lord Jesus, think on me
And purge away my sin;
From earth-born passions set me free
And make me pure within.

2. Lord Jesus, think on me
With many a care opprest;
Let me Thy loving servant be
And taste Thy promised rest.

3. Lord Jesus, think on me
Amid the battle’s strife;
In all my pain and misery
Be Thou my Health and Life.

4. Lord Jesus, think on me
Nor let me go astray;
Through darkness and perplexity
Point Thou the heavenly way.

5. Lord Jesus, think on me
When floods the tempest high;
When on doth rush the enemy,
O Savior, be Thou nigh!

6. Lord Jesus, think on me
That, when the flood is past,
I may the eternal brightness see
And share Thy joy at last.

7. Lord Jesus, think on me
That I may sing above
To Father, Spirit, and to Thee
The strains of praise and love.

Here is Lord Jesus, think on me with Magdala and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Here it is as used in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.

Synesius was descended from a wealthy and illustrious family which, according to the historian Edward Gibbons, could trace its descent back seventeen centuries to Spartan Kings. In his youth, he went to Alexandria and was educated under the celebrated woman Neo-Platonist, Hypatia. As an adult, he became wealthy and was known as a sportsman, a brilliant philosopher, a statesman, an eloquent orator, and a man of noble character.

Also, Synesius was a friend of Augustine of Hippo. When invasions by the Goths were threatening his country, he sought to persuade Emperor Arcadius about the imminent danger, but without success. After marrying a Christian in 403, he was converted to Christianity and a few years later was made bishop of Ptolemais by popular demand in 410. In spite of his dissent from some of the tenets of the church, his outstanding character alone made him acceptable. Around 410, Synesius published a series of ten hymns in which he set forth Christian doctrine. They show the evidences of Semitic influence on classic Greek poetry. “Lord Jesus, Think On Me” is the last of the ten. After having outlived his beloved wife and lost all his sons to a plague, he died around A. D. 430 in Ptolemais, although some authorities give the date as early as 414.

The tune SOUTHWELL was composed by Herbert Stephen Irons (1834 -1905).  He became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under T. E. Jones. After studying music under Stephen Elvey at Oxford, he was appointed organist at St. Columba’s College, a large public school at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, Ireland. He stayed there only a few months before being offered the position of organist at Southwell Minister. From Southwell, he went to Chester as assistant organist to Frederic Gunton. Three years later, he accepted an appointment at St. Andrew’s Church, Nottingham, where he remained until his death.

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Thou art the Way (DUNDEE)

Thou art the Way is by the Episcopal Bishop George Washington Doane (1799-1859). “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). In His sayings which begin “ἐγώ εἰμί, ego eimi, I am,” Jesus implicitly makes a claim to divinity, because the name of God is יְהֹוָה, YHWH, “I AM WHO AM.” Jesus is the only Way to the Father, because Jesus alone is God and man and unites the two; Jesus is the only Truth, because He reveals the Father and He reveals the ultimate meaning of creation, which is Himself, in whom and for whom the universe was created; Jesus is the only true Life, which death itself could not destroy, and which through His resurrection and the power of the Spirit He pours forth onto a dying world to rescue it from eternal death.

Thou art the Way: by thee alone
from sin and death we flee;
and they who would the Father seek
must seek him, Lord, by thee.
Thou art the Truth: thy word alone
true wisdom can impart;
thou only canst inform the mind
and purify the heart.
Thou art the Life: the rending tomb
proclaims thy conquering arm;
and those who put their trust in thee
nor death nor hell shall harm.
Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life:
grant us that Way to know,
that Truth to keep, that Life to win,
whose joys eternal flow.

Here is the hymnal version.

George Washinton Doane

George Washington Doane, D.D. was born at Trenton, New Jersey, May 27, 1799, and graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York. Ordained in 1821, he was Assistant Minister at Trinity Church, New York, till 1824. In 1824 he became a Professor at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.; in 1828 Rector of Trinity Church, Boston; and, in 1832, Bishop of New Jersey.  Influenced by the Oxford Movement, Doane prepared the American edition of John Keble’s The Christian Year (1834).

As a young priest Doane published Songs by the Way: chiefly devotional, with translations and imitations (1824). This included many of his hymns, of which the best known are ‘Softly now the light of day’, and ‘Thou art the way; to Thee alone’. The latter was one of only two American hymns to be included in the First Edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861)

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Anthems

Te lucis ante terminum, Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Te lucis ante terminum, Rerum Creator poscimus, Ut solita clementia Sis praesul ad custodiam. Procul recedant somnia, Et noctium phantasmata: Hostemque nostrum comprime, Ne polluantur corpora. Praesta pater omnipotens, Per Jesum Christum Dominum, Qui tecum in perpetuum, Regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.

Here is The Blossomed Voice.

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O Lord, the maker of all thing, William Mundy (1529-1591)

Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Sexagesima Sunday

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Prelude

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, J.S. Bach

Hymns

Thou, whose almighty word

Blessed Jesus, at Thy word

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old

Anthems

Out of the deep I call to Thee, Thomas Tallis

O sacrum convivium, Thomas Tallis

Postlude

Postlude in A major, Frantisek Walczynski

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Prelude

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, – J.S. Bach

Here is Jacques van Oortmerssen.

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Hymns

Thou, whose almighty word

Thou whose almighty word was written by the Anglican clergyman John Marriott (1780-1825). It is a call to mission, reminding us that the essence of the Church is mission, to bring light to the world. At the beginning, God said “Let there be light,” and now in our time the Father again through his Word lets the light of the Gospel shine into the chaos and darkness of the world. The hymn is also Trinitarian, reminding us that all three Persons bring light: the Father who through the word created the universe and recreates it through the Gospel; the Son, who comes like the rays of  the rising sun, “with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2), with a light which heals diseased minds and gives light to the blind; the Spirit who at the beginning moved over the dark waters and who now broods over the darkness of the world to bring the light of Christ to the dark earth.

Formerly Christian countries are now mission lands, and are filled with darkness and error. Among us are those whose minds are sick with lies, whose minds are darkened, who are despairing and see no life beyond the grave. The Gospel brings life and hope because it shows that the chaos of the world is being transformed by the light of the Gospel of the Risen Lord.

Thou, whose almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the gospel-day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light!

Thou, who didst come to bring
On thy redeeming wing
Healing and sight,
Health to the sick in mind,
Sight to the inly blind,
O now, to all mankind
Let there be light!

Spirit of truth and love,
Life-giving, holy Dove,
Speed forth thy flight;
Move on the water’s face,
Bearing the lamp of grace,
And in earth’s darkest place
Let there be light!

Holy and blessèd Three,
Glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
Boundless as ocean’s tide
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the earth far and wide
Let there be light!

Here (with some feedback) is the International Choir of Notre-Dame Cathedral (CIC) of Ho Chi Minh-City (Vietnam) singing this hymn in opening of Pentecost Mass on June 3rd 2001. Here is a version for four clarinets. And here is the choir of the Norwich Cathedral.

John Marriott, M.A, son of E. Marriott, D.D., Rector of Cottesbach, near Lutterworth, was born at Cottesbach, in 1780, and educated at Rugby, and Christ Church, Oxford. He was the second of two who obtained honours in the schools in 1802, the first year in which there was a public examination for honours at Oxford. He was also Student of Christ Church, and for about two years a private tutor in the family of the Duke of Buccleuch. The Duke presented him to the Rectory of Church Lawford, Warwickshire. This he retained to his death, although his wife’s health compelled him to reside in Devonshire, where he was successively curate of St. Lawrence and other parishes in Exeter, and of Broadclyst, near Exeter, where he died March 31, 1825. (Hymnary)

Felice Giardini

The tune is MOSCOW, also known as ITALIAN HYMN, composed by Felice Giardini, (Turin, April 12, 1716 – Moscow, June 8, 1796), an Italian composer and violinist. Felice de Giardini (b. Turin, Italy, 1716; d. Moscow, Russia, 1796) composed ITALIAN HYMN in three parts for this text at the request of Selina Shirley, the famous evangelically minded Countess of Huntingdon. Giardini was living in London at the time and contributed this tune and three others to Martin Madan’s Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1769), published to benefit the Lock Hospital in London where Madan was chaplain.

Giardini achieved great musical fame throughout Europe, especially in England. He studied violin, harpsichord, voice, and composition in Milan and Turin; from 1748 to 1750 he conducted a very successful solo violin tour on the continent. He came to England in 1750 and for the next forty years lived in London, where he was a prominent violinist in several orchestras. Giardini also taught and composed operas and instrumental music. In 1784 he traveled to Italy, but when he returned to London in 1790, Giardini was no longer popular. His subsequent tour to Russia also failed, and he died there in poverty. (Hymnary)

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Blessed Jesus, at Thy word

Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word was written by Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684) and translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1828). It has many themes beloved of Lutherans: the Word of God is Himself the power that gathers us together to hear Him; the Word by his teaching draws our hearts to love Him; the Spirit prays within us with unutterable groans; we trust in the promise of God’s Word, and are therefore consoled.

Tobias Clausnitzer  (5. Februar 1619 in Thum; † 7. Mai 1684 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz) war ein deutscher lutherischer Geistlicher und Kirchenliederdichter. Clausnitzer wurde als Sohn eines Kärrners und Landfuhrmanns in Thum geboren. Er studierte ab 1642 Evangelische Theologie an der Universität Leipzig. Im Jahr 1644 wurde er Feldprediger in einem schwedischen Regiment. Nachdem er 1649 in Weiden auf Befehl des schwedischen Generals Wrangel die Feldpredigt zur Feier des Westfälischen Friedens hielt, wurde er dort Pfarrer und später auch kurpfälzischer Kirchenrat und Inspektor des gemeinschaftlichen Amtes Parkstein und Weiden. Er starb 1684 als Superintendent in Weiden. (Wikipedia)

Tobias Clausnitzer was born at Thum, near Annaberg, in Saxony, probably on Feb. 5,1619. After studying at various Universities, and finally at Leipzig (where he graduated M.A. in 1643), he was appointed, in 1644, chaplain to a Swedish regiment. In that capacity he preached the thanksgiving sermon in St. Thomas’s Church, Leipzig, on “Reminiscere” Sunday, 1645 (ii. Sunday in Lent) on the accession of Christina as Queen of Sweden; as also the thanksgiving sermon at the field service held by command of General Wrangel, at Weiden, in the Upper Palatine, on January 1, 1649, after the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia. In 1649 he was appointed first pastor at Weiden, and remained there (being also appointed later a member of the Consistory, and inspector of the district,) till his death, on May 7, 1684. (Hymnary)

The German:

Liebster Jesu! wir sind hier,
Dich und dein Wort anzuhören.
Lenke Sinnen und Begier
Auf die süßen Himmelslehren:
Daß die Herzen von der Erden
Ganz zu dir gezogen werden.

Unser Wissen und Verstand
Ist mit Finsterniß verhüllet,
Wo nicht deines Geistes Hand
Uns mit hellem Licht erfüllet:
Gutes denken, thun und dichten
Mußt du selbst in uns verrichten.

O du Glanz der Herrlichkeit,
Licht vom Licht aus Gott geboren!
Mach uns allesamt bereit,
Öffne Herzen, Mund und Ohren:
Unser Bitten, Flehn und Singen
Laß, Herr Jesu, wohl gelingen.

Here is a charming version of the hymn by four siblings,

The translation by Catherine Winkworth (stanzas 1-3; unknown, stanza 4)

Blessed Jesus, at Thy word
We are gathered all to hear Thee;
Let our hearts and souls be stirred
Now to seek and love and fear Thee,
By Thy teachings, sweet and holy,
Drawn from earth to love Thee solely.

All our knowledge, sense, and sight
Lie in deepest darkness shrouded
Till Thy Spirit breaks our night
With the beams of truth unclouded.
Thou alone to God canst win us;
Thou must work all good within us.

Glorious Lord, Thyself impart,
Light of Light, from God proceeding;
Open Thou our ears and heart,
Help us by Thy Spirit’s pleading;
Hear the cry Thy people raises,
Hear and bless our prayers and praises!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Praise to Thee and adoration!
Grant that we Thy Word may trust
And obtain true consolation
While we here below must wander,
Till we sing Thy praises yonder.

Here it is sung by a boy’s voice. Here by a choral group.

Catherine Winkworth (13 September 1827 – 1 July 1878) was born at 20 Ely Place, Holborn, on the edge of the City of London. She was the fourth daughter of Henry Winkworth, a silk merchant. In 1829, her family moved to Manchester, where her father had a silk mill. Winkworth lived most of her early life in this great city, engine of the Industrial Revolution. Winkworth studied under the Rev. William Gaskell, minister of Cross Street Chapel, and with Dr. James Martineau, both of them eminent British Unitarians. She subsequently moved with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. Her sister Susanna Winkworth (1820–1884) was also a translator, mainly of German devotional works.Winkworth translated biographies of two founders of sisterhoods for the poor and the sick: Life of Pastor Fliedner, 1861, and Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863.

She is best known for bringing the German chorale tradition to English speakers with her numerous translations of church hymns, which were published in the Lyra Germanica.

She also worked for wider educational opportunities for girls and  in promoting women’s rights, as the secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women, and a supporter of the Clifton High School for Girls, where a school house is named after her, and a member of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She was likewise governor of the Red Maids’ School in Westbury-on-Trym in the city of Bristol.

According to the Encyclopedia of Britain by Bamber Gascoigne (1993), it was Catherine Winkworth who, learning of General Charles James Napier’s ruthless and unauthorised, but successful campaign to conquer the Indian province of Sindh, “remarked to her teacher that Napier’s despatch to the governor-general of India, after capturing Sindh, should have been Peccavi (Latin for ‘I have sinned’: a pun on ‘I have Sindh’). She sent her joke to the new humorous magazine Punch, which printed it on 18 May 1844. She was then sixteen years old. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations attributes this to Winkworth, noting that it was attributed to her in Notes and Queries in May 1954.The pun has usually been credited to Napier.] The rumour’s persistence over the decades led to investigations in Calcutta archives, as well as comments by William Lee-Warner in 1917 and Lord Zetland, Secretary for India, in 1936.

Catherine Winkworth died suddenly of heart disease near Geneva on 1 July 1878 and was buried in Monnetier, in Upper Savoy. A monument to her memory was erected in Bristol Cathedral. She is commemorated as a hymn writer with John Mason Neale on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 7 August.

The tune LIEBSTER JESU was composed by Johann Rudolf Ahle.

Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625 – 1673) was a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician.

Ahle was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. While not much is known of his early musical training, he studied at the grammar school in Göttingen and then studied theology at the University of Erfurt from 1645 to 1649. In 1646 he became cantor at the Church of St. Andrew in Erfurt. In 1648 he published the Compendium per tenellis, a theoretical treatise on choral singing which was reprinted several times during his lifetime and for a last time 50 years later by his son Johann Georg (the last edition appeared in 1704).

In 1654 Ahle assumed the post of organist at the Church of St Blaise in Mühlhausen. The next year he married Anna Maria Wölfer; their son, Johann Georg Ahle (1651-1706), was also a well-known composer and organist. Johann Rudolph was elected a town councilman in Mühlhausen in the 1650s, and was elected mayor shortly before his death in 1673. His immediate successor at St. Blasen/Blasius was his son Johann Georg, and then briefly Johann Sebastian Bach, who was in Mühlhausen in 1707/08.

Much of his compositional output consists of sacred choral and vocal works, instrumental music, and organ music. He is best known for motets and sacred concertos (most of them in German, some in Latin) contained in Neu-gepflanzte Thüringische Lust-Garten, in welchem… Neue Geistliche Musicalische Gewaechse mit 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 und mehr Stimmen auf unterschiedliche Arten mit und ohne Instrument … versetzet (1657–65). He is also known for hymn melodies, of which three remain in the Evangelical Hymn Book. (Wikipedia)

Except for his collection of dances of 1650, Ahle’s large output of music consists entirely of sacred vocal works. On the whole it is interesting not because it is original but because it is typical of the music written for the Protestant Church in Thuringia and Saxony during the third quarter of the 17th century. Moreover, since Ahle and his son were the immediate predecessors of the young J.S. Bach, who as his first employment held the same position as they did at St Blasius, the state of music under them provides at least a few clues to some of the early influences on J.S. Bach’s style. Ahle was probably influenced by Michael Altenburg and especially by Hammerschmidt, who, though belonging to the generation of Heinrich Schütz, wrote simpler and more popular church music. He cultivated the simple style of the chorale, avoiding polyphonic counterpoint. Certainly the tendency towards popularization characterizes almost all of Ahle’s output. His tunes were for long very popular, and are still sung in the Protestant churches of Thuringia – amongst others that known as Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier. (Bach Cantata Website)

The tune is of surpassing sweetness; J. S. Bach used it in a cantata (BWV 373) and six choral preludes. Here is the cantata with choral prelude BWV 633, 634, etc.  Here is a charming version of teh hymn by four siblings – Bach would have loved it.

Here is Albert Schweitzer in 1937 playing BWV 731 on the organ of the Église Sainte-Aurélie in Strasbourg (with an unusual video). And there are that and other preludes in unusual versions Here is Alicia de Laroccha (ah, I remember hearing her when we were both young).  Here a lively version for piano and percussion. Here we have it on the flute and organ in Brazil. Here on four cellos. Here on guitar (rather nice). Here for a Japanese recorder ensemble. Here are the Swingle Singers. Here for saxophone, cello, and piano. Yes, here for accordion.

It is a lovely prelude, but I am astonished at how it has captured the popular imagination all over the world, really becoming a part of pop culture, like Durer’s Hands.

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Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old was written by Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891), who wrote it for King’s College Hospital. It is a hymn for the sick, whether in body in mind. Unlike much Victorian writing about sickness, the hymn avoids mawkishness and strikes a positive note, with words such as ‘strong’, ‘calmed’, ‘almighty’, ‘deliverer’ and ‘soothe’ stressing both the power and gentleness of God. Like several of Plumptre’s other hymns, it achieves a strong sense of inclusiveness. The first verse describes the sick, with their various afflictions, coming together to seek healing from Jesus. The second verse draws in both those who are able to go about their business and the bedridden, ‘in crowded street, by restless couch’ and links them to those healed in the past ‘by Gennesareth’s shore’. In the third verse, both the healers and the sick ask for God’s help and support and take part together in praising him. This breadth of vision gives the hymn a strength which has ensured its enduring value. We should sing it especially for the sick of our congregation and thsoe in Joseph Richey Hospice, because jsus triumphs “o’er disease and death/ O’er darkness and the grave.”

In the original text, there was a penultimate verse emphasizing that miracles no longer happen, and healing takes place through scientific knowledge. This verse is generally dropped, but otherwise the hymn has not been much altered.

1 Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old
Was strong to heal and save;
It triumphed o’er disease and death,
O’er darkness and the grave.
To Thee they went, the blind, the deaf,
The palsied, and the lame,
The leper with his tainted life,
The sick with fevered frame.
2 And lo! Thy touch brought life and health,
Gave speech, and strength, and sight;
And youth renewed and frenzy calmed
Owned Thee, the Lord of light:
And now, O Lord, be near to bless,
Almighty as of yore,
In crowded street, by restless couch,
As by Gennesareth’s shore.
(3 Though love and might no longer heal
By touch, or word, or look;
Though they who do Thy work must read
Thy laws in nature’s book:
Yet come to heal the sick man’s soul
Come, cleanse the leprous taint;
Give joy and peace, where all is strife,
And strength, where all is faint.)
4 Be Thou our great deliverer still,
Thou Lord of life and death,
Restore and quicken, soothe and bless,
With thine almighty breath.
To hands that work and eyes that see,
Give wisdom’s heavenly lore,
That whole and sick, and weak and strong,
May praise Thee evermore,

Edward Hayes Plumptre

Edward Hayes Plumptre, D.D., was born in London, 1821, and educated at King’s College, London, and University College, Oxford, graduating as a double first in 1844. He was for some time Fellow of Brasenose. On taking Holy Orders in 1846 he rapidly attained to a foremost position as a Theologian and Preacher. His appointments have been important and influential, and include that of Assistant Preacher at Lincoln’s Inn; Select Preacher at Oxford; Professor of Pastoral Theology at King’s College, London; Dean of Queen’s, Oxford; Prebendary in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament in King’s College, London; Boyle Lecturer; Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint, Oxford; Examiner in the Theological schools at Oxford; Member of the Old Testament Company for the Revision of the A.V. of the Holy Scriptures; Rector of Pluckley, 1869; Vicar of Bickley, Kent, 1873; and Dean of Wells, 1881.

Dean Plumptre’s literary productions have been very numerous and important, and embrace the classics, history, divinity, biblical criticism, biography, and poetry. The list as set forth in Crockford’s Clerical Directory is very extensive. His poetical works include Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1864; Master and Scholar, 1866; Things New and Old, 1884; and translations of Sophocles, Æschylus, and Dante. As a writer of sacred poetry he ranks very high. His hymns are elegant in style, fervent in spirit, and broad in treatment. The subjects chosen are mainly those associated with the revived Church life of the present day, from the Processional at a Choral Festival to hospital work and the spiritual life in schools and colleges. The rhythm of his verse has a special attraction for musicians, its poetry for the cultured, and its stately simplicity for the devout and earnest-minded. The two which have attained to the most extensive use in Great Britain and America are: Rejoice, ye pure in heart,” and “Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old.” His translations from the Latin, many of which were made for the Hymnary, 1871 and 1872, are very good and musical, but they have not been used in any way in proportion to their merits.

The tune ST MATTHEW is attributed to William Croft, who was born in the year 1677 and received his musical education in the Chapel Royal, under Dr. Blow. In 1700 he was admitted a Gentleman Extraordinary of the Chapel Boyd; and in 1707, upon the decease of Jeremiah Clarke, he was appointed joint organist with his mentor, Dr. Blow. In 1709 he was elected organist of Westminster Abbey. This amiable man and excellent musician died in 1727, in the fiftieth year of his age. A very large number of Dr. Croft’s compositions remain still in manuscript.

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Anthems

Out of the deep I call to Thee, Thomas Tallis

Out from the deep I call to thee, O Lord hear my invocation. Thine ears bow down; incline to me and hear my lamentation. For if thou wilt our sins behold, that we have done from time to tide, O Lord, who then dare be so bold as in thy sight for to abide.

Here is the Chapelle du Roi.

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O sacrum convivium, Thomas Tallis

O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur, recolitur memoria passionis eius, mens impletur gratia, et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

Here is St. George’s Windsor.

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Postlude

Postlude in A major, Frantisek Walczynski

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Candlemas

Friday, February 2

7 :00 PM

Blessing of Candles

Procession

Solemn Mass

Blessing of Throats

Reception

Prelude

Noel (Une vierge pucelle), Le Begue

Hymns

Hail to the Lord who comes

Of the Father’s love begotten

Hail gladsome light

Anthems

Diffusa est gratia, Palestrina

Diffusa est grata, Tomás Luis de Victoria

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On Candlemas, candles are blessed because it is the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple of Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.

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Common

Mass for Five Voices, William Byrd

Here is the Kyrie.

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Prelude

Noel (Une vierge pucelle), Nicolas Lebègue

Nicolas Lebègue (1631 – 1702) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born in Laon and in the 1650s settled in Paris, quickly establishing himself as one of the best organists of the country. Lebègue was probably the first among French composers to introduce independent pedal parts in his pieces.

Here is the noel.

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Hymns

Hail to the Lord who comes

This hymn was written by John Ellerton on 6 October 1880 at the request of Godfrey Thring for inclusion in Frances Carey Brock’s Children’s Hymn Book, which appeared in the following year. It follows the characteristic Victorian pattern set by Cecil Frances Alexande of using specially written hymns to teach children the meaning of the various Christian Festivals or articles of the Creed.

The hymn is one of very few on the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The first verse contains a series of negatives: this is not the eschatological Christ in glory, nor the one entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But in the second verse the secret is disclosed: the Lord is an infant. Here Ellerton imaginatively reinterprets Luke’s story. Mary’s breast is Christ’s earthly throne and the infant Saviour is now a guest, albeit a heavenly guest, in his Father’s earthly house. The third verse is not unlike an Italian Renaissance painting rendered into words, but towards the end of the verse the mention of Simeon recalls the ‘Nunc dimittis’*, and we return to the centre of Ellerton’s spiritual life, the services of the Church of England, which all his hymns were written to enhance.

1 Hail to the Lord who comes,
comes to his temple gate,
not with his angel host,
not in his kingly state:
no shouts proclaim him nigh,
no crowds his coming wait.

2 But borne upon the throne
of Mary’s gentle breast,
watched by her duteous love,
in her fond arms at rest;
thus to his Father’s house
he comes, the heavenly guest.

3 There Joseph at her side
in reverent wonder stands;
and, filled with holy joy,
old Simeon in his hands
takes up the promised child,
the glory of all lands.

(4 Hail to the great First-born,
whose ransom-price they pay,
the Son before all worlds,
the child of man to-day,
that he might ransom us
who still in bondage lay.)

5 O Light of all the earth,
thy children wait for thee:
come to thy temples here,
that we, from sin set free,
before thy Father’s face
may all presented be.

Here is the tune, old 120th.

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Of the Father’s love begotten

This hymn 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).

Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending he,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

O that Birth for ever blessèd,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed his sacred face,
Evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore him;
Angel hosts, his praises sing;
Powers, Dominions, bow before him,
And extol our God and King;
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring,
Evermore and evermore!

Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

Christ, to thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honour, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

Here is St Martin’s Chamber Choir. Here it is at Corcordia Seminary. 

Here is Prudentius’s original.

1. Corde natus ex parentis ante mundi exordium
A et O cognominatus, ipse fons et clausula
Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt, quaeque post futura sunt.

2. Ipse iussit et creata, dixit ipse et facta sunt,
Terra, caelum, fossa ponti, trina rerum machina,
Quaeque in his vigent sub alto solis et lunae globo.

3. Corporis formam caduci, membra morti obnoxia
Induit, ne gens periret primoplasti ex germine,
Merserat quem lex profundo noxialis tartaro.

4. O beatus ortus ille, virgo cum puerpera
Edidit nostram salutem, feta Sancto Spiritu,
Et puer redemptor orbis os sacratum protulit.

5. Psallat altitudo caeli, psallite omnes angeli,
Quidquid est virtutis usquam psallat in laudem Dei,
Nulla linguarum silescat, vox et omnis consonet.

6. Ecce, quem vates vetustis concinebant saeculis,
Quem prophetarum fideles paginae spoponderant,
Emicat promissus olim; cuncta conlaudent eum.

7. Macte iudex mortuorum, macte rex viventium,
Dexter in Parentis arce qui cluis virtutibus,
Omnium venturus inde iustus ultor criminum.

8. Te senes et te iuventus, parvulorum te chorus,
Turba matrum, virginumque, simplices puellulae,
Voce concordes pudicis perstrepant concentibus.

9. Tibi, Christe, sit cum Patre hagioque Pneumate
Hymnus, decus, laus perennis, gratiarum actio,
Honor, virtus, victoria, regnum aeternaliter.

The tune is  DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, a plainchant from Piae Cantiones (1582) , although the tune is older. It originated as a Trope to the Sanctus and is found in tropers of the Middle Ages in Germany and Italy, sometimes with the words ‘Divinum Mysterium’. The tune has been effectively modernized, but retains the name.

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O gladsome light

O gladsome light  is a translation by Robert Bridges (1844-1930) of the Phos hilaron. ‘Phos hilaron’ (‘joyful light’) is an ancient hymn originating in the early church and sung daily at Vespers (hesperinos) in the Byzantine liturgy of the hours.  St. Basil the Great (d. 379) described it as ancient, in fact so old that he did not know who wrote it, and he equated it with thanksgiving for the light.

1 O gladsome Light, O Grace
of God the Father’s face,
th’eternal splendor wearing;
celestial, holy, blest,
our Savior Jesus Christ,
joyful in Thine appearing.
2 Now, as day fadeth quite
we see the evening light,
our wonted hymn outpouring;
Father of might unknown,
Thee, His incarnate Son,
and Holy Ghost adoring.
3 To Thee of right belongs
all praise of holy songs,
O Son of God, Life-giver;
Thee, therefore, O Most High,
the world does glorify
and shall exalt forever.

Here are the Cambridge Singers.

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Anthems

Diffusa est gratia, Palestrina

Diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis propterea benedixit te Deus in aeternum.

Grace flows from your lips, because God has blessed you for ever.

Here are The Sixteen.

Diffusa est grata, Tomás Luis de Victoria

Call of Andrew and Peter, Lorenzo Veneziano

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Epiphany III

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Prelude

Ach, Gott und Herr, J. G. Walther

Hymns

Hark! A thrilling voice is calling

Jesus calls us

Praise to the living God

Anthems

Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake, Richard Ferrant

Salvator mundi, Thomas Tallis

Postlude

Alle Menschen müssen sterben – Johann Pachelbel

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Prelude

Ach, Gott und Herr, J. G. Walther

Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) was a German music theorist, organist, composer, and lexicographer of the Baroque era. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of Johann Sebastian Bach, he was the famous composer’s cousin.

Here is Ludvík Śuranský.

Hymns

Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding is based on the Latin hymn Vox clara ecce intonat in a translation by Edward Caswall.

Stanzas 1-3 contain references to Christ’s first coming, but they can be used to celebrate his second coming as well. Stanza 4 surely refers to His second coming.

1 Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding;
“Christ is nigh,” it seems to say;
“Cast away the works of darkness
O ye children of the day!”

2 Wakened by the solemn warning,
Let the earth-bound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all sloth dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.

3 Lo! the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from heaven;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiven;

4 So when next He comes in glory,
Wrapping all the world in fear,
May He with His mercy shield us,
And with words of love draw near.

Here is St Johns, Detroit.

Here is the Latin original:

VOX clara ecce intonat,
obscura quaeque increpat:
procul fugentur somnia;
ab aethere Christus promicat.

Mens iam resurgat torpida
quae sorde exstat saucia;
sidus refulget iam novum,
ut tollat omne noxium.

E sursum Agnus mittitur
laxare gratis debitum;
omnes pro indulgentia
vocem demus cum lacrimis,

Secundo ut cum fulserit
mundumque horror cinxerit,
non pro reatu puniat,
sed nos pius tunc protegat.

Summo Parenti gloria
Natoque sit victoria,
et Flamini laus debita
per saeculorum saecula. Amen.

Here is the Gregorian setting.

Edward Caswell

Edward Caswall (1814—1878) was an Anglican clergyman. In 1850, his wife having died the previous year, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri under the future Cardinal Newman, to whose influence his conversion to Roman Catholicism was due.

He was the son of Rev. R. C. Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yateley, Hampshire. Caswall was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1836 with honours and later proceeded to Master of Arts. He was curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, 1840–1847. In 1850, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. He died at the Oratory, Edgbaston, near Birmingham on 2 January 1878 and was buried at Rednal, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

He wrote original poems that have survived mainly in Catholic hymnals due to a clear adherence to Catholic doctrine. Caswall is best known for his translations from the Roman Breviary and other Latin sources, which are marked by faithfulness to the original. His widely used hymn texts and translations include “Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise”; “Come, Holy Ghost”; “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee”; “When Morning Gilds the Skies”; and “Ye Sons and Daughters of the Lord.”

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Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult is by Cecil Frances Alexander. It contains a revivalist note which was also part of the Oxford Movement, which emphasized the Catholic nature of the Church of England in order to call men to conversion and a holy life.

1 Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult
of our life’s wild, restless sea,
day by day his clear voice soundeth,
saying, “Christian, follow me;”

2 as, of old, Saint Andrew heart it
by the Galilean lake,
turned from home and toil and kindred,
leaving all for his dear sake.

3 Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world’s golden store;
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, “Christian, love me more.”

4 In our joys and in our sorrows,
days of toil and hours of ease,
still he calls, in cares and pleasures,
“Christian, love me more than these.”

5 Jesus calls us! By thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear thy call,
give our hearts to thine obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) was born in Dublin.  She began writing verse in her childhood, being strongly influenced by Dr Walter Hook, Dean of Chichester. Her subsequent religious work was strongly influenced by her contacts with the Oxford Movement, and in particular with John Keble, who edited one of her anthologies. Some of her hymns, e.g. “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, “There is a Green Hill Far Away”  and the Christmas carol “Once in Royal David’s City”, are known by Christians the world over, as is her rendering of “Saint Patrick’s Breastplate”.

Alexander was involved in charitable work for much of her life. Money from her first publications had helped build the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, which was founded in Strabane in 1846. The profits from Hymns for Little Children were also donated to the school. She was involved with the Derry Home for Fallen Women, and worked to develop a district nurses service. She was an “indefatigable visitor to poor and sick.” She was criticized, however, for her endorsement of the class system, as expressed, for example, in the original third verse of “All Things Bright and Beautiful”:

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high and lowly,
And ordered their estate.

Subsequent versions of the hymn omitted this verse.

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Praise to the living God, like many hymns, has a complicated textual history.

1 Praise to the living God!
All praised be his Name
who was, and is, and is to be,
for ay the same.
The one eternal God
ere aught that now appears:
the first, the last, beyond all thought
his timeless years!

2 Formless, all lovely forms
declare his loveliness;
holy, no holiness of earth
can his express.
Lo, he is Lord of all.
Creation speaks his praise,
and everywhere above, below,
his will obeys.

3 His Spirit floweth free,
high surging where it will:
in prophet’s word he spake of old:
he speaketh still.
Established is his law,
and changeless it shall stand,
deep writ upon the human heart,
on sea, on land.

4 Eternal life hath he
implanted in the soul;
his love shall be our strength and stay
while ages roll.
Praise to the living God!
All praised be his Name
who was, and is, and is to be,
for aye the same.

“Praise to the Living God” is an American Judeo-Christian hymn written in 1884 by Max Landsburg and Newton Mann. It was revised in 1910 by William C. Gannett.

Landsburg was a Jewish rabbi of German origin in Rochester, New York. In 1884, he approached Mann, a Unitarian minister, for assistance in adapting the British Methodist hymn “The God of Abraham Praise,” itself a loose and Christianized translation of the Jewish hymn “Yigdal,” into a more accurate and less Christianized translation of “Yigdal” for interfaith use. Mann wrote “Praise to the Living God” as a version of Yigdal that was suitable for use in both Jewish and Christian worship. However, in 1910, William C. Gannett was approached by Landsburg to revise the hymn. A revision was subsequently completed, despite Gannett claiming it was not his work, and the revised hymn first appeared in the Jewish Union Hymnal in the same year.

“Praise to The Living God” and its lyrics have often been combined with other hymns to create hybrids. In the 1930s, for example, “The God of Abraham Praise” was sung to a melody called “Leoni” which was composed by Myer Lyon and adopted by Thomas Olivers as the music for the hymn. In 1933, the editors of The Presbyterian Hymnal decided to replace “The God of Abraham Praise” with “Praise to The Living God” in the hymnal. In order to make the new hymn familiar to the congregation, they set it to the tune of the old hymn and substituted the first line of the old with the first line of the new. Consequently, several American hymnals until the 1980s misattributed “The God of Abraham Praise” to Landsburg and Mann instead of crediting Olivers.

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Anthems

Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake, Richard Ferrant

Lord,  for thy tender mercy’s sake, lay not our sins to our charge, but forgive that is past, and give us grace to amend our sinful lives. To decline from sin and incline to virtue, that we may walk in a perfect heart before thee, now and evermore. Amen.

English musician, organist, choirmaster, and producer of plays, Richard Farrant was attached to the Chapel Royal, though not continuously, from the reign of Edward VI until he died in 1580. In 1564, he was appointed master of the Choristers and organist at St George’s Chapel. In 1576 he was appointed deputy to William Hunnis, Director of the Children of the Chapel Royal. His Morning, Communion, and Evening service (à 4) in A minor survives also in G minor. The fine short anthems Call to remembrance and Hide not thou thy face help to give Farrant a place in the musical history of the period out of proportion to his small output. Lord, for thy tender mercies’sake, sometimes ascribed to Farrant is more likely by Tye, or the elder John Hilton (d. 1608). Farrant converted Blackfriars, the old monastery, into a private theatre in 1574.

Here is the Kempen Boy’s Choir.

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Salvator mundi, Thomas Tallis

Salvator mundi, salva nos, qui per crucem et sanguinem redemisti nos, auxiliare nobis, te deprecamur, Deus noster.

 O Savior of the World, who by thy cross and precious blood hast redeemed us, save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

Here are The Sixteen.

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Postlude

Alle Menschen müssen sterben, Johann Pachelbel

This cheerful melody for the chorale All men must die provided the tune SALZBURG for hymn No. 89  in our hymnal, At the Lamb’s high feast we sing.

Here are the variations.

Behold the Lamb of God!

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Epiphany II

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Prelude

Puer nobis,  J. P. Sweelinck

Hymns

O splendor of God’s glory bright

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted

The God of Abraham praise

Anthems

Jubilate Deo, Laslo Halmos

O taste and see, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Postlude

Trumpet Voluntary no. 5,  op, 7, John Stanley

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Prelude

Puer nobis, Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck (1562-1721)

Here it is played with a very delicate touch by Diederik Blankesteijn.

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Hymns

O splendor of God’s glory bright is a translation by Robert Bridges, poet laureate of England, of St. Ambrose’s morning hymn Splendor paternæ gloriæ.

O Splendor of God’s glory bright,
O Thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of Light, light’s living spring,
O Day, all days illumining.

O thou true Sun, on us Thy glance,
Let fall in royal radiance,
the Spirit’s sanctifying beam
upon our earthly senses stream.

The Father, too, our prayers implore,
Father of glory evermore;
the Father of all grace and might,
to banish sin from our delight.

On Christ, the true bread, let us feed;
Let Him to us be drink indeed;
And let us taste with joyfulness
The Holy Spirit’s plenteousness.

All laud to God the Father be;
All praise, eternal Son, to thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To God the holy Paraclete.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir doing a cheerful version.

Here is the English sung to a Gregorian melody.

Splendor paternæ gloriæ,
De luce lucem proferens,
Lux lucis et fons luminis,
Diem dies illuminans

Verusque sol, illabere
Micans nitore perpeti
Iubarque sancti spiritus
Infunde nostris sensibus.

Votis vocemus et patrem,
Patrem perennis gloriæ,
Patrem potentis gratiæ
Culpam releget lubricam.

Informet actus strenuos,
Dentem retundat invidi,
Casus secundet asperos,
Donet gerendi gratiam.

Mentem gubernet et regat
Casto, fideli corpore,
Fides calore ferveat,
Fraudis venena nesciat.

Christusque noster sit cibus,
Potusque noster sit fides,
Læti bibamus sobriam
Ebrietatem spiritus.

Lætus dies hic transeat,
Pudor sit ut diluculum,
Fides velut meridies,
Crepusculum mens nesciat.

Aurora cursus provehat,
Aurora totus prodeat,
In patre totus filius
Et totus in verbo pater.

Here is the Latin with Gregorian chant.

Robert Bridges

Robert Bridges (1844-1930) was poet laureate of England from 1913 until his death. At Oxford he was a friend of Gerald Manley Hopkins and arranged for the publication of Hopkins’ poetry posthumously.

Bridges wrote and also translated historic hymns, and many of these were included in Songs of Syon (1904) and the later English Hymnal (1906). Several of Bridges’ hymns and translations are still in use today, such as “O Gladsome Light” (Phos Hilaron), “O Sacred Head, sore wounded” (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656), and
“When morning gilds the skies” (stanza 3; Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1744)

PUER NOBIS NASCITUR is a melody from a fifteenth-century manuscript from Trier. However, the tune probably dates from an earlier time and may even have folk roots. PUER NOBIS was altered in Spangenberg’s Christliches Gesangbuchlein (1568), in Petri’s famous Piae Cantiones (1582), and again in Praetorius’s  Musae Sioniae (Part VI, 1609), which is the basis for the triple-meter version.

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Father, we thank Thee who hast planted  is a paraphrase by the Episcopal clergyman Francis Bland Tucker (1895—1984) of the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, one of the earliest documents of the church.

Stanza 1 corresponds to 10: 2 of the Didache, a post-communion prayer: ‘We give Thee thanks, Holy Father, for Thy holy name, which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus’ (translation by Joseph Barber Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 1891). Stanza 2 is from 10: 3: ‘Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for Thy name’s sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee; but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son.’ Stanza 3 is from 10: 5: ‘Remember, Lord, Thy Church to deliver it from all evil and to perfect it in Thy love…’. Stanza 4 is from 9: 4: ‘As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom.’

Here at St. John’s, Detroit, before a Tigers game.

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted
Thy holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus, Thy Son, to us imparts.
Thou, Lord, didst make all for Thy pleasure,
Didst give us food for all our days,
Giving in Christ the Bread eternal;
Thine is the pow’r, be Thine the praise.

Watch o’er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,
Save it from evil, guard it still,
Perfect it in Thy love, unite it,
Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will.
As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,
Was in this broken bread made one,
So from all lands Thy Church be gather’d
Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son.

Francis Bland Tucker (1885-1984)  was an important figure in hymnody. He was educated at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Beginning in 1945, he was Rector of Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia. Tucker served on the two commissions, forty-two years apart, that revised hymnals of the Episcopal Church. He worked on the 1940 Hymnal and the 1982 Hymnal which includes 17 of Tucker’s contributions. Among these are the texts, Oh, Gracious Light (Hymns 25-26), Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted (Hymns 302-303), and his original text, Our Father, by Whose Name (Hymn 587). Only John Mason Neale is credited with more items in the 1982 Hymnal.  Tucker was also a theological adviser to the commission that produced the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

A collateral descendant of George Washington, Tucker’s parents were Beverley Dandridge Tucker, Episcopal Bishop of Southern Virginia, and Anna Maria Washington who was one of the last children to be born at Mount Vernon. Francis Bland is the brother of Henry St. George Tucker (1874–1959), 19th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and descendant of St. George Tucker (1752–1827), lawyer, legal scholar, state and federal judge for whom the St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg is named.

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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.

Her is the King’s College choir.

Here is a wonderful Sephardic Yigdal. Here is a modern arrangement of the Yigdal.

Here are the original verses. Note that in almost all hymnals the specifically Christian references have been removed, often to make the hymn suitable for interfaith gatherings.

The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days, and God of Love;
Jehovah, great I AM! by earth and Heav’n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred Name forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise, at Whose supreme command
From earth I rise—and seek the joys at His right hand;
I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and power;
And Him my only Portion make, my Shield and Tower.

The God of Abraham praise, whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my happy days, in all my ways.
He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God!
And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.

He by Himself has sworn; I on His oath depend,
I shall, on eagle wings upborne, to Heav’n ascend.
I shall behold His face; I shall His power adore,
And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.

Tho’ nature’s strength decay, and earth and hell withstand,
To Canaan’s bounds I urge my way, at His command.
The wat’ry deep I pass, with Jesus in my view;
And thro’ the howling wilderness my way pursue.

The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty bless’d;
A land of sacred liberty, and endless rest.
There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound,
And trees of life forever grow with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our righteousness,
Triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of peace;
On Sion’s sacred height His kingdom still maintains,
And glorious with His saints in light forever reigns.

He keeps His own secure, He guards them by His side,
Arrays in garments, white and pure, His spotless bride:
With streams of sacred bliss, with groves of living joys—
With all the fruits of Paradise, He still supplies.

Before the great Three-One they all exulting stand;
And tell the wonders He hath done, through all their land:
The list’ning spheres attend, and swell the growing fame;
And sing, in songs which never end, the wondrous Name.

The God Who reigns on high the great archangels sing,
And “Holy, holy, holy!” cry, “Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same, and evermore shall be:
Jehovah—Father—great I AM, we worship Thee!”

Before the Savior’s face the ransomed nations bow;
O’erwhelmed at His almighty grace, forever new:
He shows His prints of love—they kindle to a flame!
And sound thro’ all the worlds above the slaughtered Lamb.

The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” they ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine! (I join the heav’nly lays,)
All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.

Here is the 1940 Hymnal version by an English choir.

Here is the Yigdal:

1. Exalted be the Living God and praised, He exists – unbounded by time is His existence;
2. He is One – and there is no unity like His Oneness – Inscrutable and infinite is His Oneness;
3. He has no semblance of a body nor is He corporeal – nor has His holiness any comparison;
4. He preceded every being that was created – the First, and nothing precedes His precedence;
5. Behold! He is Master of the universe – Every creature demonstrates His greatness and His sovereignty;
6. He granted His flow of prophecy – to His treasured, splendid people;
7. In Israel, none like Moses arose again – a prophet who perceived His vision clearly;
8. God gave His people a Torah of truth – by means of His prophet, the most trusted of His household;
9. God will never amend nor exchange His law – for any other one, for all eternity;
10. He scrutinizes and knows our hiddenmost secrets – He perceives a matter’s outcome at its inception;
11. He recompenses man with kindness according to his deed – He places evil on the wicked according to his wickedness;
12. By the End of Days He will send our Messiah – to redeem those longing for His final salvation;
13. God will revive the dead in His abundant kindness – Blessed forever is His praised Name.

Note that the last verse expresses belief in the resurrection of the dead, which is an article of Jewish belief, as is clear from  Gospels.

Thomas Olivers

Thomas Olivers was born in 1725. Both his father and his mother died when he was four years old. He grew up to be an apprentice shoemaker and he became a profligate and reckless young man. After his involvement in a scandal which forced him to leave his home, Olivers travelled to Bristol where he heard George Whitfield preach on the text “is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2). Olivers was converted and expressed a desire to follow Whitfield; however one of Whitfield’s preachers discouraged him and instead he joined the Methodist society and met one of the founders of Methodism, John Wesley.

After joining Wesley as a preacher, Olivers was initially stationed to preach in Cornwall.  He was later stationed to preach all around Great Britain and Ireland because of his fearless preaching style. He also had good relations with Great Britain’s Jewish community, attending Jewish synagogues and became friends with Rabbi Myer Lyon. In 1775, Wesley appointed Olivers to co-write the Arminian Magazine with him. Olivers often exercised control over the content of the magazine. Due to a lack of formal education, Olivers’ editions of the magazine contained several printing errors, which annoyed Wesley but he persevered with Olivers whom he counted as a friend and attached a list of errors at the back of the yearly annual in 1778. However following an “astounding number of errata”, Wesley declared in a letter that “I cannot, dare not, will not suffer Thomas Olivers to murder the Arminian Magazine any longer. The errata are intolerable and innumerable. They shall be so no more” and removed Olivers from his position in 1789. Despite this, Olivers and Wesley remained good friends, often viewed as a father-son relationship. When Olivers died in March 1799, he was buried in Wesley’s grave in London.

Anthems

Jubilate Deo, Laslo Halmos

Jubilate Deo universa terra, psalmum dicite nomini eius. Venite et audite, et narrabo vobis omnis qui timetis Deum quanta fecit Dominus animae meae. Alleluia.

O be joyful in God, all ye lands: sing praises unto the honour of his Name. O come hither, and hearken, all ye that fear God: and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. Alleluia.

László Halmos (1909- 1997) was a Hungarian composer, choir director and violinist.

He wrote choral works, songs, chamber music, oratorios, cantatas, masses, as well as works for orchestra and for the organ, totaling several hundred works. He was choir director of Gyór Cathedral and also held the position of professor at the Theological College and the State Conservatory. As a violinist, he was one of the early members of The New Hungarian Quartet.

Here the anthem by mixed chamber choir; here at the Christ the King mass at St. Peter’s in Rome; here by a male choir at Đakova cathedral in Croatia.

Halmos was born a subject of Franz Josef in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He lived through the Red Terror of Béla Kun, the regency of Admiral Horthy, the takeover by the Germans, and Communist era, including  the Revolution of 1956.  He lived to see a free Hungary. America’s political difficulties should be kept in perspective.

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O taste and see, Ralph Vaughan Williams

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blest is the man that trusteth in Him.

Here is the score and the Cambridge Singers

Common

An Anglican Folk Mass, Martin Shaw

Here is the Creed as sung at Chichester Cathedral.

Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 – 1958) was an English composer, conductor and (in his early life) theatre producer. His over 300 published works include songs, hymns, carols, oratorios, several instrumental works, a congregational mass setting (the Anglican Folk Mass) and four operas including a ballad opera.

He was the son of the Bohemian and eccentric James Shaw, composer of church music and organist of Hampstead Parish Church. He was the elder brother of the composer and influential educator Geoffrey Shaw and the actor Julius Shaw, whose career was cut short by the First World War – he was killed in March 1918. He studied under Stanford at the Royal College of Music, together with a generation of composers that included Holst, Vaughan Williams and John Ireland. He then embarked upon a career as a theatrical producer, composer and conductor, the early years of which he described as “a long period of starving along”.  However, he began his career as an organist, serving at Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, from 1895 to 1903.

Working with Percy Dearmer, Martin was music editor of The English Carol Book (1913, 1919) and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams, of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). His tune Little Cornardis sung to Hills of the North Rejoice, and Marching is sung to Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow. While doing research for the English Hymnal (1906) in the British Library, he came upon the traditional Gaelic hymn-tune Bunessan in L. McBean’s Songs and Hymns of the Gael, published in 1900. However, the tune was not included in the English Hymnal. It was used instead in the second edition of Songs of Praise (1931), set to the poem Morning Has Broken, which Martin Shaw commissioned specially from his old friend Eleanor Farjeon. This tune and words became a No. 1 hit for Cat Stevens in 1972. Martin Shaw also noted down the Czech carol Rocking and included it in The Oxford Book of Carols.

Postlude

Trumpet Voluntary no. 5,  op, 7, John Stanley

Here it is on organ and trumpet.

Sagrada familia, New Mexican retablo

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

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Sunday, December 31, 2017

The Feast of the Holy Family

8:00 Said Mass

10:00 Sung Mass

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Monday, January 1, 2018

The Feast of Mary Mother of God

9:oo AM Said Mass with hymns

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Music for December 31 Sung Mass

Prelude

Overture from The Messiah, Handel

Common

Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw

Hymns

Gentle Mary laid her child

Joseph dearest, Joseph mine

The first Nowell

Sing of Mary, pure and lowly

Away in a manger

Postlude

Pastoral from The Messiah, Handel

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Gentle Mary laid her child is a Canadian carol by the Methodist mister Joseph Simpson Cook (1858–1933) Born in England he at a young age emigrated to Canada and attended McGill University.  Cook followed John Wesley’s Catholic tendencies; he loved the church of England and saw the positive aspects of the Roman Catholic church.

Gentle Mary laid her Child
Lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the undefiled,
To the world a stranger:
Such a Babe in such a place,
Can He be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race
Who have found His favor.

2 Angels sang about His birth;
Wise men sought and found Him;
Heaven’s star shone brightly forth,
Glory all around Him:
Shepherds saw the wondrous sight,
Heard the angels singing;
All the plains were lit that night,
All the hills were ringing.

3 Gentle Mary laid her Child
Lowly in a manger;
He is still the undefiled,
But no more a stranger:
Son of God, of humble birth,
Beautiful the story;
Praise His name in all the earth,
Hail the King of glory!

Here is the tune.

The tune Weimar is by Melchior Vulpius (Latinized from Fuchs, fox). He wrote exclusively church music. As a composer, his roots are in the tradition of the Lutheran reformation. He avoided the new styles of bass continuo and monody and was, in a positive sense, a retainer of 16th-century musical style.

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Joseph dearest, Joseph mine is a traditional German carol, Josef, lieber Josef mein, which was originally sung as a lullaby by the Virgin Mary in 16th Century mystery plays in Leipzig, Germany.

1. “Joseph, Dearest Joseph mine,
Help me cradle the Child divine.
God reward thee and all that’s thine,
In paradise,” so prays the mother Mary.

“Gladly, dear one, lady mine,
Help I cradle this child of thine;
God’s own light on us both shall shine
In paradise,
As prays the mother Mary. “

Her are the Dale Warland Singers.

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The first Nowell is a traditional English carol, first published in 1823. The usual derivation of ‘Nowell’ is from the Old French ‘Nouel’, modern French ‘Noel’ from the Latin ‘natalis’, meaning ‘belonging to a birth’ (as in ‘Dies natalis’ meaning ‘birthday’). It is however also possible that the word should be linked with ‘novellare’ and ‘nouvelle’ with the implication that it is a cry of ‘News! News!’

1. The first Nowell the Angel1 did say
Was to three poor Shepherds in fields as they lay.1b
In fields where they lay keeping2 their sheep,
In a cold winter’s night that was so deep.3

Chorus
Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell.
Born is the King of Israel.

2. They looked 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. Chorus

3. And by the light of that same Star
Three Wise Men came from country far,
To seek for a King was their intent,
And to follow the Star wherever it went. Chorus

4. This Star drew nigh to the North West;
O’er Bethlehem it took it’s rest.
And there it did both stop and stay,
Right4 over the place where Jesus lay. Chorus

5. Then did they know assuredly5
Within that house, the King did lie
One entered in then for to see
And found the babe in poverty. Chorus

6. Then enter’d in those Wise Men three,
Full reverently upon their knee,
And offer’d there, in his presence,
Their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense. Chorus

7. Between an ox stall and an ass,
This Child truly there born he was;
For want of clothing they did him lay
All in a manger, among the hay. Chorus

8. Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made heaven and earth of nought,
And with his blood mankind hath bought. Chorus

9. If we in our time shall do well
We shall be free from death and Hell
For God hath prepared for us all
A resting place in general. Chorus

Here is King’s College, Cambridge.

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Sing of Mary, pure and lowly, also a Canadian carol, was written by Roland Ford Palmer (1891–1985), who was also born in England and in 1905 emigrated to Canada. Palmer was an Anglican priest who entered the Society of St John (Cowley fathers) in 1919 and founded its Canadian province in 1927. The text is based on an anonymous poem published in an Ilkeston, Derbyshire pamphlet c. 1914.

Sing of Mary, pure and lowly,
Virgin mother undefiled,
Sing of God’s own Son most holy,
Who became her little child.
Fairest child of fairest mother,
God the Lord who came to earth,
Word made flesh, our very brother,
Takes our nature by his birth.

Sing of Jesus, son of Mary,
In the home at Nazareth.
Toil and labour cannot weary
Love enduring unto death.
Constant was the love he gave her,
Though he went forth from her side,
Forth to preach, and heal, and suffer,
Till on Calvary he died.

Glory be to God the Father;
Glory be to God the Son;
Glory be to God the Spirit;
Glory to the Three in One.
From the heart of blessed Mary,
From all saints the song ascends,
And the Church the strain reechoes
Unto earth’s remotest ends.

Here it is from the album Walsingham Way.

The tune Pleading Saviour was composed by Joshua Leavitt (1794–1873), a Congregational minister, who was for many years musical advisor to the most famous revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, Charles Grandison Finney. In 1831 Leavitt compiled and published The Christian Lyre, the first hymnal to print music for every hymn. He was first Secretary of the American Temperance Society and co-founder of the New York City Anti-Slavery Society. He aided a slave Basil Dorsey to escape from Maryland to Massachusetts and formed the Amistad Committee to raise funds for the defense of Amistad captives.

Nativity, English, 12th c.

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

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December 24, ANNO SALUTIS 2017

Christmas Eve Mass

10:00 PM Carols

10:30 PM Mass

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Prelude

Noel Polonais – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Common

O quam gloriosum, Tomás Luis de Victoria

The Procession to the Creche

O come all ye faithful

Silent night

Angels we have heard on high

Offertory

Of the Father’s love begotten

Closing

Joy to the world

Anthems

Hodie Christus natus est, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Advent III: Gaudete Sunday

Prelude

Préludes liturgiques, No. 2 – Gaston Litaize

Archibald Farmer wrote that the Préludes liturgiques were “clever, interesting, often good, and always modishly French.”

Here is No. 11 of Prélude Liturqiques.

Gaston Litaize (1909-1991) was born in Ménil-sur-Belvitte, Vosges, in northeast France. An illness caused him to lose his sight just after birth. He entered the Institute for the Blind at a young age, studying with Charles Magin, who encouraged him to move to Paris and study with Magin and Adolphe Marty at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which he did from 1926 to 1931. Concurrently, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in October 1927, studying with Marcel Dupré and Henri Büsser, as well as privately with Louis Vierne. Over the course of six years, he won first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue, and composition, as well as the Prix Rossini for his cantata Fra Angelico. In 1938 he finished second to Henri Dutilleux in the Prix de Rome, said to be the first time that a blind person was accepted in the competition.

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Hymns

Hail to the Lord’s anointed was written by James Montgomery (1771-1854) for a Moravian Christmas occasion, perhaps at the settlement at Fulneck, near Leeds. It is a free paraphrase of Psalm 72, a psalm of righteousness and justice.

Here is the complete hymn. The 1940 Hymnal uses stanzas 1, 2, 3, a combination of 5 and 6, and 7.

1 Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,
great David’s greater Son!
Hail, in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
to set the captive free,
to take away transgression,
and rule in equity.

2 He comes with succor speedy
to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy,
and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing,
their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying,
were precious in His sight.

3 He shall come down like showers
upon the fruitful earth;
and love, joy, hope, like flowers,
spring in His path to birth;
Before Him on the mountains
shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains,
from hill to valley flow.

4 Arabia’s desert ranger
to Him shall bow the knee,
the Ethiopian stranger
His glory come to see;
with offerings of devotion,
ships from the isles shall meet,
to pour the wealth of ocean
in tribute at His feet.

5 Kings shall fall down before Him,
and gold and incense bring;
all nations shall adore Him,
His praise all people sing;
for He shall have dominion
o’er river, sea, and shore,
far as the eagle’s pinion
or dove’s light wing can soar.

6 For Him shall pray’r unceasing,
and daily vows ascend;
His kingdom still increasing,
a kingdom without end;
the mountain dews shall nourish
a seed in weakness sown,
whose fruit shall spread and flourish,
and shake like Lebanon.

7 O’er every foe victorious,
He on His throne shall rest,
from age to age more glorious,
all-blessing and all-blessed;
the tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand forever –
that name to us is Love.

Here is St. John’s, Detroit.

It is closely based on Psalm 72.

A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.

He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.

There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

The King James translation indicates that this is song written by David for his son Solomon. The song addresses Solomon in exaggerated terms that could be fulfilled only by the Messiah, but Solomon in his wisdom and peacefulness foreshadows the Messiah: “One greater than Solomon is here.”

David proclaims in hope that his son, Solomon, shall reign to the ends of the earth, that kings from afar will bring him gifts, that all nations shall serve him. Solomon’s wisdom will be in service of justice, especially justice for the poor and oppressed, whom he will redeem. Therefore all nations will call him blessed. Such hopes no merely human king could fulfill, and therefore Coffman’s Commentary lists the ways in which Solomon is a type of Christ.

1. Just as the First Israel had its most glorious extent under Solomon; so shall the Second Israel, the Church of God though Christ attain to eternal glory in Christ.
2. Solomon was a son of David; Jesus Christ is The Son of David.
3. Solomon reigned over the earth from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea; but Christ’s dominion is “to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
4. Solomon’s wisdom was known all over the world; but “In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.”
5. Solomon’s reign was one of peace; and Christ our Lord is the Prince of Peace, “And of the increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end.”
6. Solomon sat upon the literal throne of David in Jerusalem; but Christ, risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, is seated upon the Throne of David in heaven (Acts 2:30-31).
7. Kings and rulers of all the world of Solomon’s day honored him and brought presents to him. In Christ’s kingdom, “The kings of the earth bring their glory into Christ’s kingdom” (Revelation 21:24); and even in the manger at Bethlehem the kings of the earth brought unto Christ gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

But Coffman does not consider the several passages in the psalm about the judgment that shall save the poor and needy.

James Montgomery (1771-1854), the English author of the hymn Hail to the Lord’s Anointed noticed these passages. For thirty years he edited a radical paper; in the fears that swept England after the French Revolution he was twice jailed because of his advocacy of social justice. He was an advocate for the end of the slave trade and of the exploitation of child chimney sweeps. During his time in jail he wrote poetry, including probably this hymn. It was first sung on Christmas Day, 1821, at a Moravian gathering.

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On Jordan’s bank is one of the few Advent hymns to take account of Saint John the Baptist as the forerunner of the coming Christ.

This hymn, which is based on the text in Luke 3: 1-18, was written by Charles Coffin (1676-1749), who became the Rector of the University of Paris in 1718, and first appeared in the Paris Breviary in 1736. It was translated by the Revd John Chandler (1806-1876), Vicar of Witley in Godalming, Surrey, and one of the early translators of Latin hymns into English with Anglican churches and parishes in mind.

Every hymnal seems to have a different version. Here is the one from the 1940 Hymnal.

1. On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake, and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings.

2. Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
Make straight the way for God within;
Let each heart prepare a home
Where such a mighty Guest may come.

3. For Thou art our Salvation, Lord,
Our refuge, and our great reward.
Without Thy grace we waste away,
Like flowers that wither and decay.

4. To heal the sick stretch out Thine hand,
And bid the fallen sinner stand;
Shine forth, and let Thy light restore
Earth’s own true lovliness once more.

5. All praise, eternal Son, to Thee
Whose advent doth Thy people free,
Whom, with the Father, we adore,
And Holy Ghost, forevermore.

Here is a congregational rendition.

Here is the original Latin:

Jordanis oras praevia
Vox ecce Baptistae quatit:
Praeconis ad grandes sonos
Ignavus abscedat sopor.

Auctoris adventum sui
Tellus & aether & mare
Praegestiente sentiunt,
Et jam salutant gaudio.

Mundemus & nos pectora:
Deo propinquanti viam
Sternamus, & dignam domum
Tanto paremus hospiti.

Tu nostra, tu, Jesu, salus;
Tu robur & solatium:
Arens ut herba, te sine
Mortale tabescit genus.

Aegris salutarem manum
Extende: prostratos leva:
Ostende vultum, jam suus
Mundo reflorescet decor.

Qui liberator advenis,
Fili, tibi laus maxima
Cum Patre & almo Spiriiu
In sempiterna secula.

Charles Coffin (1676 – 1749 ) was a French teacher, writer and Jansenist who was Rector of the University of Paris. Among his writings are a number of hymns which have been translated into English. In 1701, he was appointed chief assistant to Charles Rollin, principal of the Collège de Beauvais. He succeeded Rollin as principal in 1712.  In 1718. he became rector of the University of Paris, a post which he held until his death.

Coffin published in 1727 some of his Latin poems, for which he was already noted, and in 1736 the bulk of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of that year, an edition of which was published in 1838 at Oxford by John Henry Newman. 1736 also saw the publication of Coffin’s Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin.

The Hymni Sacri included a poem adapted from the original chant, Jordanis oras prævia, which Rev. John Chandler later translated to the hymn On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry set to the tune Winchester New for use at Matins during Advent. Chandler also translated Coffin’s The Advent of Our King.

Among his other works is an ode in praise of the wines of Champagne. This work is a version of a similar poem in which Bénigne Grenan, professor at Harcourt College, praised the pre-eminence of Burgundy wine, and that one of Charles Coffin’s Jansenist friends, Marc-Antoine Hersan, had had fun reciting one evening at a dinner.

While the papal bull Unigenitus condemned Jansenism, many in France interpreted it as an attack on the perogatives of the French church. The University of Paris and the provincial Parlements were hotbeds of opposition. The University was known to harbor Jansenist sympathizers; the Parlement of Paris went so far as to threatened to confiscate the temporalities of the Archbishop. As rector of the University and clerk to the Parlement of Paris, even Coffin’s hymns were viewed by some with suspicion.

Coffin died of pneumonia in Paris 20 June 1749. Due to his persistence in appealing against the apostolic constitution Unigenitus, under instructions from the Archbishop, who wished to make an example, the parish rector of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, refused to administer last rites to him, or give him a Christian burial ] Four thousand Parisians joined the funeral procession. Because the crown had supported the suppression of the Jansenists, Danton notes that the religious rite took on political overtones. The Parlement of Paris subsequently issued an official and strong “remonstrance” to the king. Richard J. Janet sees the resulting popular demonstrations as contributing to the growing disenchantment with the monarchy that would later play into the coming Revolution.

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John Chandler (1806 – 1876) was the son of the vicar of Witley. John was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1827, MA 1830). He took Holy Orders, becoming a Fellow of his College and curate of Witley. He became vicar of Witley in 1839, remaining there until his death. He is chiefly known for The Hymns of the Primitive Church, published in 1837 (a later edition, with additional hymns, appeared as The Hymns of the Church, mostly Primitive, in 1841).

In the Preface to The Hymns of the Primitive Church, written in a rather ponderous style, Chandler wrote:

It has long struck me, indeed, that as our Liturgy is compiled, in a great measure, from ancient materials, so, if there were any ancient hymns still extant, of the same date and character with the prayers, they would be most suitable for our purpose; for they would, from their antiquity, carry more weight with them than any modern ones could do…

He disapproved of ‘those rhyming jingling hymns which are found in the Popish missals, as barbarous in their Latinity, as defective in their doctrine’. He then described how he had found the deliberately unmetrical translations (by Isaac Williams*) in the British Magazine of hymns from the Paris Breviary of 1736, got hold of a copy, and proceeded to translate some of them again in a manner suited to congregational singing. In his orotund way, Chandler addressed himself with heavy playfulness to the Church of England:

It will not, I trust, be unpleasing or unedifying to her members to see a Morning hymn by a Bishop of Milan of the fourth century [Ambrose] joined to one on the same subject by a Bishop of Salisbury of the seventeenth [Ken? -who was Bishop of Bath and Wells]. Perhaps, if the authorities of our Church carry on the design, we may see next to them a hymn by a Bishop of Calcutta of the nineteenth [Heber].

The tune, ‘Winchester New,’ is a melody adapted from Georg Wittwe’s Musikalishes Hand-Buch (Hamburg, 1690) by Canon William Henry Havergal (1793-1870), one of the leading figures in reforming church psalmody in the Anglican tradition.

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Rejoice the Lord is King is by Charles Wesley (1707-1788).

The hymn has four principal sources. First, it begins with a clear allusion to Psalm 97:1, 12. Second, the 2-line refrain, with which each verse except the last concludes, begins with a citation of part of the Third Century Eucharistic text, Sursum Corda (‘Lift up your hearts.’). Third, the refrain continues with a reference to Philippians 4: 4. Fourth, the content of the hymn is influenced by that section of the Nicene Creed which deals with Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, the belief that he will come again as Judge, and the unending nature of his Kingdom.

The final stanza concludes with a modified version of the refrain, in which the words of Sursum Corda are replaced by an allusion to 1 Thessalonians 4:16. This modification may have suggested itself to Wesley because the final verse itself draws upon 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

1 Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing,
And triumph evermore:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

2 The Lord, our Savior, reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When He has purged our stains,
He took His seat above:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

3 His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o’er earth and heav’n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv’n:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

4 Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord the Judge shall come
And take His servants up
To their eternal home:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Here is John Rutter’s arrangement.

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This brilliant work comes from the “Chorale Preludes based on famous Hymn Tunes, Volume 5, No. 3,” and published by Ashdown. It is to be played “like an improvisation,” and there is plenty of color and excitement as it sweeps along to its triumphant conclusion.

Here is the piece. Click on Listen.The famous melody was composed by John Darwall (1731–1789), an English clergyman and hymnodist.

Alec Rowley (1892-1958) was a teacher, composer, organist, pianist, lecturer and writer, who studied at the RAM with Frederick Corder and where he won sundry scholarships and prizes. He was an organist at several London churches including, during the Second World War, St Margaret’s, Westminster. As a pianist he often broadcast duets with Edgar Moy. In 1920, he was appointed to the staff of Trinity College, London, where he was elected a Fellow and remained until his death. He was elected a Fellow of the RAM in 1934.