If the first week of Advent is for patriarchs and the second week for prophets, the third week must be for St John the Baptist.
Here is a bit of Orlando Gibbons:
15 Monday Dec 2014
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inIf the first week of Advent is for patriarchs and the second week for prophets, the third week must be for St John the Baptist.
Here is a bit of Orlando Gibbons:
14 Sunday Dec 2014
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inToday is Gaudete Sunday, so called from the first word of the entrance antiphon:
Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete: Dominus prope est.
In English:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.
Here is a little something by Purcell:
Footnote:
When I was younger, Purcell was pronounced per-sell. When I was older, I was taught that scholars now believe it to be pronounced per-sul. I’ll do my laundry with Purcell any day. If you try reading ‘An Ode, On the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell’ by John Dryden, you’ll probably find that PER-sull scans and pur-SELL doesn’t:
http://www.love-poems.me.uk/dryden_an_ode_death_henry_purcell.htm
13 Saturday Dec 2014
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inToday is the feast day of St Lucy, a martyr from the time of Diocletian. Where I am, the latitude is about 53° and it is beginning to feel dark. In Scandinavia, it is even darker. St Lucy means light, and they make a big thing out of her feast, as she is a light in the dark. Here is a video I found on YouTube:
12 Friday Dec 2014
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inAnd we’re wondering what Christmas presents to get for people. Here is a song from my teenage years:
11 Thursday Dec 2014
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inWhen trying to decide what presents to buy people, we might check their wish lists. Here is an unusual request:
10 Wednesday Dec 2014
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inI must not forget Bach’s cantata Wachet Auf. This is very much an Advent Part I cantata, drawing on both the parable of the foolish and wise virgins and the imagery from Sunday’s first reading.
Here is the first movement only:
Here is the whole thing:
(I remember singing this with the Bach choir at Keele. The whole is gorgeous, but the chorus soprano part is one of the most boring soprano parts you can get.)
Here is an interesting guide to the cantata:
http://www.timbuckland.id.au/2014/07/19/a-brief-guide-to-cantata-140-wachet-auf-by-bach/
09 Tuesday Dec 2014
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inThis year I heard a new song, which I think is really very apt for the first part of Advent, the part where we look back to the Old Testament, look forward to Christ’s coming at the end of time, and ask ourselves what we should be doing in the present to connect the two. It is a song about hope, as its writer explains:
http://robinmark.com/the-story-behind-days-of-elijah/
Here is just one of the many renditions available on YouTube:
08 Monday Dec 2014
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inToday is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary; the one where we remember that Mary was conceived without stain of original sin.
I have always thought of this as a ‘modern’ thing, because although it has pretty much been believed in the church for ever, the doctrine was only formally defined in 1854 (shortly before Our Lady appeared to St Bernadette at Lourdes), but Wikipedia tells me that the prayer Tota pulchra es Maria was written in the fourth century.
Here is a setting of it by Bruckner:
Here are the words (which I got from Wikipedia):
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol.
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tota pulchra es, Maria.
You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun.
You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people.
You are all beautiful, Mary.
Of course, nobody knows when our Lady was born or conceived, and these dates are ‘official’, much like the Queen’s ‘official birthday’. Notice that the immaculate conception comes exactly 9 months before the nativity of our Lady, which is celebrated on the 8th September, because ‘everybody knows’ that a woman is pregnant for 9 months before the baby is born. Nowadays, we know that the expected time for pregnancy is 40 weeks from the beginning of the last period, and the usual time of conception is two weeks from the beginning of the last period. If you get out your calendar, you should find that (give or take a day, depending ), 40 weeks is 9 months and 1 week, and that if you calculate Our lady’s birth as 40 minus 2 (for the fortnight between period and conception) weeks after the 8th September, you would get an official birthday of the 31st of August…
07 Sunday Dec 2014
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inI began Advent with a carol that looked back to the dawn of Man. The 2nd Sunday in Advent brings us the prophecies of Isaiah. Time for a bit of Handel’s Messiah:
(A friend of ours who is an opera singer was surprised to receive so many invitations to sing the Messaiah just before Christmas. Most people seem to expect if for Easter, but here in the North of England, it’s become a Christmas tradition.)
06 Saturday Dec 2014
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inToday is the feast day of St Nicholas. Hooray!
He was bishop of Myra (in Turkey) in the fourth century, and there are many legends of him, including that he helped some young ladies get married by throwing money for their dowries into their gardens (or possibly, into their house, where some money landed in a sock that was hanging up to dry by the fire).
In consequence of which, many children put out their shoes or slippers for him to bring them presents; in our house, he brings chocolate, including chocolate coins, and miniature chocolate St Nicholases (sometimes they look more like St Nicholas, sometimes a bit like Santa Claus).
Here is a little bit of Britten’s Cantata St Nicolas: