The righteous rejoice

We’re headed to the Sixteenth Century for today’s Advent music. Specifically to The Netherlands for a motet by Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck. Sweelinck was the organist at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam and composed a whole lot of organ and harpsicord music.

Today’s selection, “Hodie Christus Natus Est” might more reasonably be for Christmas day; I mean, it flat out says “Today Christ is born”. But I came across this particular performance and thought it was time we had a virtual presentation. This being the pandemic year, it seems like a major oversight not to have something that reflects the virtual concerts musical groups all over the world are putting on.

Basically, the text is from the liturgy of the vesper service for Christmas Day. It proclaims:

Today Christ is born
Today the Savior has appeared
Today the Angels sing
The Archangels rejoice
today the righteous rejoice, saying:
Glory to God in the highest
Alleluia!

I don’t know what to tell you about the singers, except that they seem to be based in the UK and their bass edited the video. Beautifully

 

A swell time

Let’s ratchet it up from yesterday’s Master of the Baroque to mid-Century Americana. I mean, let’s have Jerry Helms singing his 1957 “Jingle Bell Rock”. It’s hard to get too much different here, eh?

Yeah, not exactly Advent, but definitely seasonal.

Let me frame this by saying that “Jingle Bell Rock” will be forever associated for me with the opening of that iconic 1987 film Lethal Weapon. So that’s what I’m giving you:

It’s been probably a decade or two since I last watched the movie, but I was instantly struck by how absolutely 80s’ the woman is—hair, makeup and nails. Talk about yer blast from the past…

 

Gratitude Monday: a light show

We’ve had rather temperate weather the past couple of days. We’re supposed to be in for a storm on Wednesday with the dreaded “wintery mix”, but at the weekend it was really pleasant.

Saturday late afternoon I was fixing to close the drapes when I noticed that the pre-dusk light was in that magical stage, and I stood watching it for some time before I picked up the camera and shot these. Everywhere I looked there was something else gorgeous.

 

Including the golden light hitting some of the branches.

It was absolutely mesmerizing, and I am so grateful for light displays like these.

 

 

High the song of triumph

Well, here we are, more than halfway through Advent and no Bach. How did that happen? Gotta go to DEFCON 3, so we’ll have a cantata. Specifically, “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland”. (Literal translation: “Now the savior of the heathens comes”.)

“Nun komm” was written by our pal Martin Luther; when it comes to hymnody, Marty was right up there with the Wesley boys. Luther based it on an older plainsong, “Veni, redemptor gentium”—"O come, redeemer of the world”. The English version is a staple of the Lutheran hymnal as “Savior of the Nations, Come”.

Frankly, it’s not one of my favorites, because it’s so mournful-sounding. I mean—give me “Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People” or “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates” (both translated by Catherine Winkworth) any day. But “Savior of the Nations, Come”? Meh.

Now, Bach’s cantata is a different matter altogether. So here we have a performance by the J.S. Bach Stifftung in a time-appropriate setting.

(Check out Mr. Big Seal-Clapper at around 17:20.)

 

 

 

Christmas time

Today is the third Sunday in Advent—Gaudete Sunday. We light the rose-colored candle and remind ourselves of the joy that arrives on Christmas Day.

It’s also Saint Lucia Day, which is widely celebrated in Nordic countries. (Saint Lucia was a Third Century virgin martyr during the Diocletian persecutions. I’ve written about her here.)

In honor of our Northern brothers and sisters, let’s have a joyful song from their culture. “Nu det jul igen” is typically sung by family members dancing a Conga line around the Christmas tree. It’s not what you might call profound, but it certainly is happy. Here are the lyrics in English:

Now it’s Christmas time
And now it’s Christmas time
And holidays will last ‘til Easter.
No, it’s not true
No, it’s not true
For in between is Lent.

And here we have a family singing as they dance around the tree. Props for having actual candles.

 

Something not completely different

Today’s Advent selection is a new take on an old favorite. Tedashii is a Christian hip-hop artist, and Nobigdyl is a Christian rapper. I did not know about these genres, so this is an exploration for me.

Here they are together with “O Come”.

 

It cheers my heart

The text for today’s Advent piece, “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree”, dates from the 18^th Century, a poem probably written by a “Calvinist Baptist” (later known as “Methodist”) preacher, Richard Hutchins. It’s been set to music by several composers, including the ubiquitous John Rutter.

Using the metaphor of the apple tree for Christ may reference the creation story in Genesis, or it could reflect New Testament depictions of Jesus as the Tree of Life. Then there’s the pre-Christian British custom of going out among fruit orchards around the Winter Solstice to offer (and drink) libations to awaken the trees for their Spring duties.

(I wrote before about this custom in a post about wassail, which got merged into Christmas, as things often do.)

I personally love the image, especially in the dead of Winter, and doubly-especially in this ghastly year. We need to remember that—despite our best human efforts to the contrary—nature will do her best to bounce back, and life will triumph over death.

Besides, apples make great pies.

The lyrics are so powerful that I think it worthwhile to set them out for you:

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green;
The trees of nature fruitless be,
Compared with Christ the Apple Tree.

His beauty doth all things excel,
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see,
In Jesus Christ the Appletree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought;
I missed of all but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the Appletree.

I'm weary with my former toil -
Here I will sit and rest awhile,
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the Appletree.

With great delight I’ll make my stay,
There’s none shall fright my soul away;
Among the sons of men I see
There’s none like Christ the Appletree.

I’ll sit and eat this fruit divine,
It cheers my heart like spirit’al wine;
And now this fruit is sweet to me,
That grows on Christ the Appletree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the Appletree.

I am eschewing Rutter and giving you a version set to music by Elizabeth Poston, a 20^th-Century English composer. Here it’s performed by a group called Seraphic Fire. 

 

Five for the brothers Maccabee

Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah, celebrating the rededication of the Second Temple at the time of the Maccabean revolt against the Persians. Hanukkah lasts for eight nights, which is the number of days the lamp oil stayed alight in the temple, when there was only enough for a single day. 

“Happy Joyous Hanukah” was written by Woody Guthrie, and why not? This is a holiday that lends itself to counting, and this song does a whole lot of it. Also, particularly in this year, we need all the light and all the happiness and all the joy we can get.

Here are the Klezmatics performing it. I happen to like folk music and klezmer, and this is a blend of both. (Well, heavier on the folk, but whatevs.)

 

 

A chorus of angels

I’m kind of jumping the gun here with today’s Advent music. By which I mean, Giovanni Pierluigi da Plaestrina’s “O magnum mysterium” is about the wonder experienced by the shepherds who showed up at the manger in Bethlehem, so it should technically be later in the season.

But my blog, my choice.

Palestrina was right at the start of the timeline of a music history class I once took, and I confess that I’ve not paid all that much attention to him since. So it seems appropriate that I dust him off and take him out for a spin. We need a range of music at this time, particularly in this year.

The text of this motet is fairly simple: 

O great mystery and wonderful sacrament
That beasts should see the newborn Lord lying in a manger.
The newborn we have seen and a chorus of angels praising God.

Alleluia

Whom have you seen, shepherds?
Speak, tell us who has appeared?
The newborn we have seen and a chorus of angels praising God.
Alleluia

Here's the King's College, Cambridge, choir performing it. 

 

Pretty little baby

I mentioned on Saturday that this year I’m trying to be more inclusive in my Advent celebration, so I’m going to the Caribbean for the source material, and the Staples Singers for the performance.

I’m more familiar with a different version of this song—last year I gave you Harry Belafonte singing “The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy”. That take is quite upbeat; you can almost feel the soft sea breeze brush your cheek on it.

By contrast, “The Virgin Mary Had One Son” is decidedly minor, and the R&B group here takes that to its logical melancholy extension. In that, it reminds me a bit of “Mary Was the Queen of Galilee”, which I gave you a few years ago.

It’s as though they’re reminding us that the journey begun under a star in Bethlehem will climax on a cross in Golgotha.