A Service for Advent with Carols Sunday, Dec 1st @ 3 p.m.[L]

[DracoM]

A Service for Advent with Carols Sunday, Dec 1st @ 3 p.m.[L]
The Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge


Order of Service:


Carol: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Distler)
Processional Hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel)(descant: Hill)
Bidding Prayer
Carol: People, look east (Tranchell, arr. Marchbank)

I The Message of Advent
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Sapientia and O Adonai
First lesson: Isaiah 11: 1-5
Carol: A tender shoot (Goldschmidt)
Second lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11
Carol: Out of your sleep (Milner)

II The Word of God
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Radix Jesse and O Clavis David
Third lesson: Micah 4: 1-4
Carol: I am the day (Dove)
Fourth lesson: Luke 4: 21
Anthem: Hark, the glad sound! (Bingham)
Hymn: Hark, the glad sound! (Bristol)

III The Prophetic Call
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Oriens and O Rex Gentium
Carol: Deo Gracias (Britten, arr. Harrison)
Fifth lesson: Malachi 3: 1-7
Carol: John the Baptist (Finnissy)
Sixth lesson: Matthew 3: 1-11
Hymn: On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry (Winchester New) (descant: Robinson)

IV The God–Bearer
Sentence and Collect
Antiphon: O Emmanuel
Carol: The Angel Gabriel from heaven came (arr. Pettman)
Seventh lesson: Luke 1: 39-49
Carol: The Annunciation (Harvey)
Magnificat: Service in G (Sumsion)
Eighth lesson: John 3: 1-8
Sentence and The Christmas Collect
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Hymn: Lo! He comes with clouds descending (Helmsley) (descant: Robinson)

The College Prayer and The Blessing

Organ Voluntary: Chorale Prelude ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland' BWV 661 (J.S. Bach)

James Anderson-Besant (Herbert Howells Organ Scholar)
Andrew Nethsingha (Director of Music)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000btwt

[Bella Kemp]

Very much looking forward to this. In the morning we Kemps will be singing Veni Veni Emmanuel in our church and it never fails to lift the heart.

[greenilex]

There is nevertheless a problem with messianic wishes...regrettable, but inevitable in my view.

Once the baby has landed (to borrow from last night’s excellent documentary) there may be a problem adjusting to fallible reality. There’s no messiah that can touch the one in prospect.

Now puppies don’t seem to have that problem at all...hearty Advent wishes nevertheless.

[ardcarp]

Interesting theology there, greenilex. Above my head, I'm afraid. I just like the tune......and if you prefer it 'arranged', Andrew Carter's version is rather splendid.

[DracoM]

I'm afraid I miss the Guest sound from his front row!
Like the whole John's sound of Nethsingha, but that GG treble front row...! How DID GG get them to sing like that?

[greenilex]

I love the tune as well, don’t get me wrong.

[Alison]

I'm afraid I miss the Guest sound from his front row!
Like the whole John's sound of Nethsingha, but that GG treble front row...! How DID GG get them to sing like that?

I only caught the tail end of GG’s era but have been wondering that ever since.

[ardcarp]

I think the man himself said he got them to sing more like an oboe than a flute.

Anyone who hasn't heard the classic Westminster Cathedral recording of the Victoria Tenebrae Responsories directed by George Malcolm will get the idea if they listen to this.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HbvxMYyLWA

[Pulcinella]

I'm afraid I miss the Guest sound from his front row!
Like the whole John's sound of Nethsingha, but that GG treble front row...! How DID GG get them to sing like that?

You might enjoy Timothy Day's "I saw eternity the other night" (grouses on the "What are you reading now?" thread notwithstanding).
It has a short section on the 'St John's sound'.

[Nick Armstrong]

How DID GG get them to sing like that?

I’m bound to say I always wished he hadn’t

[Barry Rose]

The GHG sound....

I only caught the tail end of GG’s era but have been wondering that ever since.

St.John's will sing wonderfully this coming Sunday, as they always do, and without wanting to bore anyone, I thought it might be useful and informative to give a little of the history as to how this Service came to be broadcast. I was the strand-editor of the BBC Choral Evensong programme at the time, and in mid 1981, Canon Colin Semper (then Head or Religious Programmes, Radio) and Ian McIntyre (then Controller of Radio 3), suggested - perhaps instructed is a better word - that they'd like to have a broadcast of an Advent Carol Service. It was a happy coincidence that my choice of the suggested venue was St.John's College, Cambridge, since I later found out that Ian McIntyre was himself an former Johnian. The first broadcast - live, on Sunday, 29th November 1981 - see https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio3/1981-11-29 - was special for me, in that our son Tim was also a chorister at the time, so it also gave me the opportunity for an extra parental visit ! We had an extended full rehearsal and balance-test on the morning of the day before, some of which I recorded and still have in my own archive, as well as a quick top-and-tail before the huge congregation filled every nook and cranny in the Chapel - these days, I gather there are two similar Services, the second one being the live broadcast.
As for the GHG sound - well, everyone had tried to figure out why his treble line sang the way it did - including George himself, I think - but I have always had the theory that choirs sing in the way that their director SPEAKS to them (time for all you choir directors out there to take stock...) and George Guest had one of the most musical speaking voices ever, with a gentle lilt and musical rise and fall. Maybe that was part of the secret ? Whatever, that first Service is now consigned to history, though for all you GHG fans (and that includes me), and in the hope that the following link works (if it doesn't, please copy and paste into your browser), here is one of the carols from that very first broadcast with the typical John's sound of that period - https://www.dropbox.com/s/6vqdifjzn4...01981.wav?dl=0

[jonfan]

Great to have your contribution to the discussion Barry. It was through the foundation of these broadcasts that Advent Carol services became more popular. I recorded and saved every broadcast from the first and used the format in our church to corner the market in our area for Advent celebrations. There was quite a detailed explanation at the start of that first broadcast explaining what an Advent service was, so unfamiliar was the format. The choice of music for the choir was more 'popular' and 'simple' than now, to quote Dearmer's classic definition of a carol. Many were from the 1928 OBC so were possible for an ordinary parish choir to attempt. Some items became fixtures, the Bach 'Wachet Auf' voluntary, 'Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light' Chorale, but the big advantage of this service is that it can be freshened each year with different lessons and themes, unlike the fixed Nine Lessons. Sir Harry Hinsley reading the final lesson another wonderful moment to savour.

[ardcarp]

Interesting also that the early King's College carol services of the Boris Ord era tended to have 'simpler' fare, e.g. A Virgin Most Pure, arr. Wood; O Little One Sweet (Bach Chorale).

The hugely popular Norwegian Silver Boys' Choir Christmas Concerts used to take this to an extreme, i.e.endless verses of Lutheran Chorales, all beautifully sung but without any variety. [I haven't heard them for some time now, so things may have changed.]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks indeed for your interesting, informative, and entertaining post, Barry. (and/or, if you prefer, )

[Barry Rose]

[QUOTE=ardcarp;765296]Interesting also that the early King's College carol services of the Boris Ord era tended to have 'simpler' fare, e.g. A Virgin Most Pure, arr. Wood; O Little One Sweet (Bach Chorale).

And here is a memento of that time of 'simpler' fare from King's- I saw a Maiden (arr. Edgar Pettman) from the live broadcast of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve 1956 - Boris Ord's last one in charge, I think (he was not well from the mid 1950's onwards). https://www.dropbox.com/s/31q4cc2uiq...56%29.wav?dl=0