Advent at St. Paul's

Last weekend for Advent 1, several churches had Advent Lessons and Carols services. I ended up at the National Cathedral for theirs, reserving this weekend for the "encore performance" of St. Paul's K Street's Advent Procession with Lessons and Carols. So many people want to go hear St. Paul's service, they have to do two full services, both standing room only, with the second being yesterday for Advent 2.

The Advent service is based on the one created at King's College, Cambridge, in 1934, about a decade after King's originated the Christmas service of Nine Lessons and Carols (which you can hear broadcast on public radio stations every Christmas morning). St. Paul's service is sung by their combined choirs, with their adults, boys choir, and girls choir. I always hate it when they have to combine the boys and girls, because they each have very different sounds; I'm a great fan of the English boy choir sound, and putting girls in with it ruins the purity of the music.

The service went well. They did have a bit of a problem with the Ecce Dominus veniet at the beginning when the girls missed their entrance and then came in wrong, which then threw off another section, a big problem in polyphonic music, so they had to stop and start over. I imagine it's hard to keep all the sections together when they are spread out down each of the side aisles. They did a new hymn, Chance, that I hated (very hard for congregational singing), and an old hymn, Little Cornard, that was really too high for the congregation and jumped around (like a C up over an octave to E-flat). One particularly nice moment during the evening was the Taverner "Hymn to the Mother of God."

There was one of their usual receptions in the parish hall following the service, with cases and cases of wine (I noticed chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot, and shiraz) and a big assortment of shrimp, cheeses and cheese dips, pates, miniature sandwiches, sweets, etc.

Here's the program:

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An Advent Procession with Lessons and Carols
St. Paul's Episcopal Church (K Street)
Washington, District of Columbia
December 10, 2006

Matin Responsory: Palestrina, Aspiciens a longe
Choral Hymn: Puer nobis nascitur, Come, thou Redeemer of the earth
Invitatory: Richard Lloyd, Drop down, ye heavens, from above

First Lesson: Zechariah 2:10-13
Choral Carol: Otto Goldschmidt, A tender shoot hath started up
Hymn: Veni, veni, Emmanuel, O come, O come Emmanuel

Second Lesson: Isaiah 1:1-10
Motet: Praetorius, Ecce Dominus veniet
Hymn: Thornbury, Blessed be the God of Israel

Third Lesson: Isaiah 40:1-8
Motet: Guillaume Dufay, Ut queant laxis
Hymn: Merton, Hark! A thrilling voice is sounded

Fourth Lesson: Baruch 4:36—5:9
Hymn: Winchester New, On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry
Anthem: Ernest Bullock, St. John Baptist
Motet: John Tavener, A Hymn to the Mother of God

Fifth Lesson: Luke 1:26-38
Hymn: Chance, Mary, how lovely
Motet: Patrick Hadley, I sing of a maiden

Sixth Lesson: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hymn: Little Cornard, Hills of the north, rejoice
Anthem: Edward Elgar, Light out of darkness, from The Light of Life

Seventh Lesson: Revelation 21:5-7; 22:12-13, 20
Congregational Chorale: Wachet auf!, Wake, awake, for night is flying

Vesper Reponsory: Palestrina, Judae et Hierusalem
Hymn: Helmsley, Lo! He comes with clouds descending