Once In Royal David's City

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I have a confession to make.  I don't really like choir music for the Christmas season.  For Christmas itself?  Sure!  Hark and Joy and Noel away!  But as a (thankfully) short liturgical season, as a choir member--and as a former director--I am less of a fan.

There, that's out of the way.  My little humbug.  I'm not that disappointed in the music, by the way.  I've been coughing away with a cold for the last few weeks--it's why there is no post for last week--and so I was actually pretty thrilled to be able to sing today, period.

Today is the Solemnity of the Holy Family, a celebration of Joseph, Mary and Jesus as a model for faithful living. As was pointed out in our homily, Joseph is a man with concerns, but God gives him direction in his dreams (not unlike another Joseph), and, as a man of faith, he follows along--first to take Mary into his house and then to save Jesus from Herod.  Mary doesn't get dreams--she gets angels.  And while she asks for a bit of explanation, she too consents to God's will.  And of course, Jesus lives his entire life to fulfill the Father's plan.

I'm writing this as I wait for my little sister to drive up from the airport to visit for the day.  She'll be the first family I've seen in person in over a year.  Today, as throughout the holiday season, I'm reminded of the blessings I have just in who I'm related to, even if these days I can't see them very much.  I'm not as close as I wish I were to them, physically or emotionally, but if there's ever a time of year to remind us to do something about that, this is it.

Because of the season, I wasn't sure what to share with you all today.  I decided to embrace Christmas music with Once In Royal David's City.  The video has a rather large choir with an orchestra to boot.  We've done this a couple of times recently, including at the previously mentioned Festival of Blessings and Carols.

Related articles

• The Solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Year C (doohan.id.au)
• The Holy Family: Mary & Joseph (2/2) (qdvf.wordpress.com)

On That Holy Mountain

Today, you get my second choice.

It's Gaudete Sunday this week, a Sunday reserved for rejoicing that Jesus is almost here.  It seems a hard time to rejoice, however, after the events in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday.  It may be hard to wear rose and celebrate, when it seems more appropriate to wear black and mourn.  Of course we should mourn so many lives cut short--lives with so much potential.  Children, and teachers--shepherds of  children.

But I think we should do both.  Our readings, Gospel and homily today remind us that we have a good reason to rejoice, too.  Jesus is coming--on Christmas, and in every moment a person helps out someone else, every time some sees another's need and acts to fulfill it.  On Friday, a teacher gave shelter to those in need.  We know what we have to do to make the world a better place.  We need to take care of each other.

I wanted to share God Shall Gather In with you today, but YouTube didn't like the idea--the only videos i can pull up are a guy singing the individual parts to teach the refrain.  Which is cool, but unhelpful for my purposes.  We sang Advent Cry again this Sunday, in memory of the lives lost at the shooting on Friday.  But the video I do have for you was our closing hymn, and also really appropriate--On That Holy Mountain.  "There shall be peace, led by all the children."

Related articles

• Rejoice in the Lord Always (writerwithacause.wordpress.com)
• Rejoice In The Lord Always! Really? I Need Help. (prayerplace.wordpress.com)
• Holy Father's Sunday Angelus: St. John the Baptist teaches about justice, taxes, power (asianews.it)

Advent Cry

Today is an extraordinarily musical one--besides Mass this morning/afternoon, we're singing as a combined choir for St. Monica's annual "Festival of Blessings and Carols," an evening of scripture and song to celebrate the season.

It's important to note that basically everyone else involved in the combined choir has done most of the music before, and usually many, times.  On more than one occasion, our director asked "Who doesn't know this piece," and one hand went up.  Mine.  New guy!

Also, it turns out I need more purple in my wardrobe.

~~~

Most of the music we sang at Mass was music we'd done before--the theme and continuity of the season of Advent is strong, and our director does not shy away from using the same music from week to week if that's what works with the readings and prayers for that Sunday.  Christ, Be Our Light, of last week's fame, actually book-ended the service today as both the gathering and closing hymn, with different verses for variety.  We also sang Bread of Life again--with optional Advent verses.

My favorite piece was less of a hymn for the congregation, though--we sang it for the preparation of the gifts, and we'll sing it again tonight at the Festival.  Advent Cry has that pleading quality that I wrote about last week.  We start it off softly, hopefully inviting Jesus to be more fully in our world, and that invitation eventually reaches something near a desperate plea.  Like these guys, but imagine more dynamic range overall.

Related articles

• A Little Advent Music (biltrix.com)
• What Is Advent? (momsfirstscreenn.wordpress.com)
• What is your obstacle? - Ordinary Glimpse for the Second Sunday of Advent (ordinaryglimpse.wordpress.com)

Christ, Be Our Light

New blog!

Seriously, cheer now.

I've decided that, since my aim was to post about once a week about the music I've been singing with my new choir at St. Monica's, I may as well set up a full blog to encourage me to write, instead of defaulting to Google+ and sometimes getting lazy.

~~~

This week was inspiring!  The First Sunday of Advent has never struck me as being so full of excitement as it did this year. The music communicated a longing for, an anticipation of Jesus coming to us.  Jesus, Come to Us pleads to Christ to be present in our world.  The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns is full of exultant anticipation--a song of future-tense triumph.

And then there's Christ, Be Our Light by Bernadette Farrell.  It shares a pleading quality with Jesus, Come to Us, but is more specific--in it, we ask Christ to be present, not as a baby in a manger, but in us.  And, as usual, Farrell composed a song that can force me to stop singing for a moment when the refrain gets going.

There are a lot of examples to choose from on YT, but I wanted something that showcased some of the harmonies of the hymn....