The Three Kings: music for Christmas from Tewkesbury Abbey

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the T hree K ings Music for Christmas from Tewkesbury Abbey Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum Carleton Etherington organ Benjamin Nicholas director

DCD34047

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The Three Kings Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum Carleton Etherington organ Benjamin Nicholas director 1.

[5:41]

The Magi * Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962)

2.

Lux Aurumque

3.

Lullay, dear Jesus

[4:18]

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

[3:33]

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) 4.

The Word Made Flesh

[5:04]

Philip Wilby (b. 1949) 5.

[2:51]

The Kings

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Giles Swayne: Convocation The National Youth Choir of Great Britain Laudibus Mike Brewer, conductor Michael Bonaventure, organ Stephen Wallace, counter-tenor (DCD34033) When a powerful team of new music exponents come together, magic will happen; when the music is by Giles Swayne, a composer whose light shines brilliantly in its own unique direction, the results will entrance. This disc offers a bracing sonic experience – vividly communicative music performed with rare verve, passion, and youthful vibrancy.

‘Swayne is undoubtedly the finest choral composer writing today’ – The Times, October 2006

Peter Cornelius (1869-1953) 6.

The Virgin’s Slumber Song

[2:18]

Max Reger (1873-1916) 7.

[1:24]

Welcome, Yule!

C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918)

8.

There is no rose of such virtue

[2:37]

John Joubert (b. 1927) 9.

Quem pastores laudavere

[4:53]

James Bassi (b. 1961)

[6:01]

10. La Nativité

Jean Langlais (1907-1991)

Recorded in Tewkesbury Abbey on 5, 6, & 7 March 2007 with kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens.

Producer: Paul Baxter Engineer: Adam Binks 24-Bit digital editing: Adam Binks 24-Bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter Design: Drew Padrutt

Photography: © 2007 Delphian Records Ltd P Delphian Records Ltd 2007 Delphian Records Ltd Photograph editing: Dr Raymond Parks With thanks to Gabriel Jackson & Christopher and Miriam Monk

William Turner: Sacred Choral Music The Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Yorkshire Baroque Soloists (Peter Seymour, director) Geoffrey Webber, conductor (DCD34028) It is easy to forget that our great English choral tradition was once silenced by Act of Parliament. The Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 subsequently ushered in one of the finest periods in English music, though the road to recovery for church music was a slow and difficult one. Turner, then a precocious nine year-old, went on to become one of the best known composers and singers of his day. This premiere recording presents a cross-section of Turner’s sacred music, ranging from small-scale liturgical works to one of his grandest creations, the Te Deum and Jubilate in D. ‘Geoffrey Webber’s choir sings with greater passion than most of its Oxbridge rivals’ – Classic FM Magazine

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O How Glorious is the Kingdom The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle Timothy Byram-Wigfield, conductor Roger Judd, organ (DCD34048) The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, offers a sumptuous programme of jewels from the anthem tradition whose repertoire spans five centuries. Under the luminous direction of Timothy Byram-Wigfield, and in the luxurious resonance of St George’s Chapel, the choir resounds with exhilarating energy, at once arresting and awe-inspiring.

‘The Queen’s own choir is in rude health’ – Gramophone, September 2006

11. O, my deir hert (Cradle Song)

[2:52]

Herbert Howells (1892-1983) 12. I wonder as I wander

[2:00]

Carl Rütti (b. 1949) 13. Thou whose birth *

[3:51]

Gabriel Jackson 14. When Christ was born of Mary free *

[2:32]

C. Hubert H. Parry 15. The Three Kings

[4:46]

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)

Gabriel Jackson: Sacred Choral Music Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Matthew Owens, conductor Susan Hamilton, soprano Michael Bonaventure, organ Simon Nieminski, organ (DCD34027) The culmination of a four-year association between the choir of St Mary’s Cathedral and British Composer Award winner Gabriel Jackson, this disc presents eight world premiere recordings. Whether gentle and meditative, brilliantly exuberant, or soaring in ecstatic contemplation, Jackson’s vividly communicative music is brought thrillingly to life by a choir at the peak of its powers.

‘Beautifully crafted music that allows this excellent choir full rein’ – Gramophone, 2005

16. God is with us (A Christmas Proclamation)

[5:34]

John Tavener (b. 1944) 17. Vom Himmel Hoch (Toccata-Prelude IV)

[5:44]

Garth Edmondson (1900-1971)

Total playing time: * world premiere recordings

Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum Choral Scholarship Fund would like to acknowledge the generous support from The Friends of Cathedral Music and The Ouseley Trust.

[66:02]

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Notes on the music native tradition, in typically English fashion its If good music always sounds contemporary, then good carols sound contemporary in a genius has been assimilative, extending its special way. After all, there is nothing quite like embrace even beyond the bounds of Protestant this unique Christmas tradition, a synthesis of cultures, to include the beauty of the Roman the sacred and secular, spanning denominations and Eastern Churches. Moreover, as testified and centuries and blending high art and folk by the works of contemporary composers art, custom and belief. Carols are settings of featured on this disc, the modern carol reflects seasonal texts – not necessarily ones about changing popular expectations of the form both Christmas – in which English verse may rub in its inclusive attitude to style and to what is shoulders with Latin, or two texts may co-exist indeed a goodly heritage. side by side. Musically, they have journeyed far, on a long and winding path to the present from Not that earlier composers were less sensitive their origins in the late medieval mystery plays, to the worth of this inheritance – certainly and en route they have acquired all kinds of not Hubert Parry (1848-1918), whose choice musical treasure, from balladry and hymnody to of medieval texts for his two carol-anthems the rhythms of Stravinsky and pop.

Welcome, Yule! and When Christ was born of Mary free suggests the Janus-faced quality Such an eclectic history makes programming that is part of a good carol’s contemporary them an adventure in itself. There is much flavour. The text of Welcome, Yule! is probably potential for creative contrasts of mood and best known as the first movement of Benjamin style, and the sequence of fourteen sung items Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols of 1942, and two organ solos in this collection has been where its setting is indeed a paradigm of the assembled in such a spirit. It is extraordinary timelessness of great art. In contrast, Parry how soon the ear grows as accustomed to the was responding at the end of his life (these Byzantine acclamations of God is with us by choruses date from the First World War) to John Tavener, born in 1944, as to the pastoral an important nineteenth-century movement, modality of O, my deir hert by Herbert Howells begun by collectors such as Davies Gilbert and (1892-1983), as to the chorale strains of The William Sandys, to save genuine folk carols Three Kings – in which an affecting melody by from death by Victorian Christmas. the German opera composer Peter Cornelius (1824-74) in turn ‘piggybacks’ on one of the As a result of their dedication, and that most famous of Christmas chorales, Wie schön of twentieth-century textual critics who leuchtet der Morgenstern by Philipp Nicolai brought new life to carols preserved in musty (1556-1608). Though we think of carols as a manuscripts, we are infinitely the richer, not

Trebles Benoit André David Bath Oliver Bullock James Deans Sidgreaves George Eldridge Marcus Emmerson Andrew Gamman Oliver Gay Aaron King Nathan King Joe Morford William Northcott Thomas Ooi Joshua Roberts Hector Watson Giles Williams Robert Wilks

Altos Derek Acock Stephen Burrows Ian Harrold Alexander Pridgeon Tenors James Atherton James Brown James Cadogan Christopher Hand Henry Watson Basses Christopher Borrett James McKelvey Christopher Monk Elvin Young Yang Wern Ooi Soloists Oliver Gay (Wilby) Nathan King and Hector Watson (Dove) Aaron King (Whitacre) Christopher Borrett (Cornelius) Christopher Watson (Tavener)

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Carleton Etherington Carleton Etherington is the Organist of Tewkesbury Abbey and director of the Abbey Choir. Prior to this he held appointments at Leeds Parish Church and St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street. In addition to his work at the Abbey, Carleton is an active recitalist, conductor of Pershore and Cirencester Choral Societies, a member of the music department at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and a member of the council of the Royal College of Organists.

Carleton was educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester and the Royal Academy of

Music, London, where he studied with Peter Hurford and David Sanger. He graduated from London University with an honours degree in music winning numerous prizes for organ performance, culminating in the Recital Diploma.

Carleton won first prize at the 1992 Paisley International Organ Festival Competition and, the following year, was winner of the prestigious Royal College of Organists’ “Performer of the Year” competition. He has travelled widely as a recitalist, performing at most of the major British venues and further afield in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Australia and the USA. He has made several recordings, both as soloist and accompanist, and has broadcast on BBC radio and television.

only as recipients of a priceless gift, but also for a sense of Christmas as a joyful season rather than a brief abstinence from toil and commerce. For example, Welcome, Yule! celebrates not only the Nativity but also saints’ days, the Holy Innocents, New Year and – least palatable to evangelical Victorians – Candlemas, focus of medieval veneration of Mary that informed the entire festival.

been happy to employ this conceit without also registering the pathos of the forthcoming Passion. And as two continental carols included in this collection demonstrate, the latent tension between the birth and death of Christ has been a creative focus for composers as well.

In setting The Virgin’s Slumber Song by the poet Martin Boelitz (1874-1918), the German Catholic composer Max Reger (1873-1916) simplified his style to counter criticism of over-complexity.

A variety of carols relating to the Virgin – including lullaby carols newly composed or But in the third verse of this brief lyric, a touch imported from the continent, and compositions of his more unsettled manner aptly suggests irony in the comforting words of the bird to on pre-Reformation English carol texts – has indeed been among the chief additions to the infant Jesus. And in a refined example of musical symbolism, Arnold Bax (1883-1953), in English Christmas music of the last hundred his arrangement of Lullay, dear Jesus (Lulajze years. They account for a quarter of the works Jezuniu), prefaced this Polish carol with a on this disc, and the most recent of them, There is no rose of such virtue by John Joubert, hushed quotation of Bach’s Passion Chorale. born in 1927, looks furthest back, its text being That a lullaby-carol from a Catholic heartland, fourth of Five Fantasies on Polish Christmas found in a fifteenth-century manuscript roll preserved at Trinity College, Cambridge. Decay Carols commissioned in 1942 for the Polish Red has made parts of it unreadable. But Joubert’s Cross, could rub shoulders with the most truly setting, with a hint of medieval fauxbourdon in sacred of German Protestant melodies – and all its euphonious thirds, sounds as fresh now as from the musical poet of the Celtic twilight – is a indeed a miracle of the genre’s capacity to when it was written in 1954, two years after absorb and reconcile. the publication of John Stevens’s definitive collection of medieval carols in the Musica Britannica series had rendered this forgotten For Christians, the source of the miraculous is God incarnate, announced by the Angel of the repertoire ‘modern’.

Lord and witnessed by the first carollers, the Though the anonymous author of the Trinity roll shepherds ‘keeping watch over their flock by was content to dwell on the theme of Mary night’. Without doubt the greatest of all texts and tunes inspired by the Nativity is from idealised as a rose, later writers have rarely

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Benjamin Nicholas Germany: the Christmas-eve chorale Vom Himmel Hoch, da komm’ ich her, written by Martin Luther for his own children, and raised to consummate art by J.S. Bach in chorale preludes, canonic variations and, most notably, in The Christmas Oratorio.

was an exponent, remains quite separate from the Anglican musical tradition. Yet this piece is a favourite of British players, and is often heard in places of worship on this island.

In fact all these strands, and others, have influenced contemporary composers, striving Though technically more hymn than carol, to create new music fit for Christmas. Openchorales have been at home for centuries in minded to the vocabulary of modernism, they are also fluent in the approachable speech the English tradition, which pragmatically blurs of late-twentieth century figures, from Glass the distinction between the two. The exquisite words of Herbert Howells’s O, my deir hert, to Pärt. Social upheaval has unclouded our composed in 1920, are a translation of verses nationalistic view of carols, and emphasised thirteen and fourteen of Luther’s text, taken the vernacular. But the prestige of the annual from Ane Compendious Buik of Godlie Psalmes, Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, and the popularisation of by the brothers James, John and Robert the genre through series like Carols for Choirs, Wedderburn, and published in 1567, only three decades after the chorale itself. Also from the linked inalienably with the names of Willcocks years between the two world wars, the organ and Rutter, have also secured for carols a place toccata-prelude on Vom Himmel Hoch, by the in the public mind, no less than in the repertoire American composer Garth Edmundson (1900of choral societies.

1971), a native of Pennsylvania who studied in Leipzig, reminds us that the New World was Time-honoured texts continue to be a fruitful the destination for many European Protestant source of inspiration, especially for those who migrants seeking refuge from the Old. The tune favour the familiar harmonies and rhythms is heard four times, treated in a virtuosic manner of popular music. The arrangement of the worthy of Bach, though concluding with a most fourteenth-century Latin verse Quem pastores un-Bachian penultimate chord. laudavere by the New York composer James Bassi, born in 1961, is a fine example, its song And what of the haunting tune that floats across and vocalisation moving gently forward within the numinous harmonies of La Nativité, second a simple tonal setting. In contrast, the Swiss of three Poèmes évangéliques written in 1932 composer Carl Rütti, born in 1949, chose a by the blind organ virtuoso Jean Langlais (1907- quietly syncopated backing for the haunting 1991)? The French organ school, of which he Appalachian folksong I Wonder as I Wander.

Benjamin Nicholas is Director of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, Director of Choral Music at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and Conductor of Stroud and Monmouth Choral Societies. From October 2008 he will also be assistant to Peter Phillips at the newly established choral foundation at Merton College, Oxford.

In September 2000 Benjamin took up his post as Director of The Abbey School Choir at Tewkesbury. Over the next six years he raised the choir’s profile with six foreign tours and a number of recordings, including Elgar’s choral music for Japanese television, Stainer’s choral music for Priory Records and various anthologies for Regent, Guild, Signum and Delphian. On

the closure of The Abbey School in July 2006, Benjamin Nicholas moved with the choir to Dean Close Preparatory School when they were renamed Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum.

As a conductor, Benjamin Nicholas has worked with a number of groups including The Oxford Chamber Choir, Reading Bach Choir, St Cecilia Singers and the English Symphony Orchestra.

He has directed many large-scale works, most recently Bach’s Mass in B minor with James Bowman, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Neil Jenkins and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Justin Lavender.

Benjamin read music at Oxford University and was organ scholar at Lincoln College. He also held organ scholarships at Chichester and St Paul’s Cathedrals and was Director of Music at St Luke’s Church, Chelsea.

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Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum Formed in 2006, Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum is the successor to The Abbey School Choir, singing weekday services in the abbey during term-time. Following the closure of The Abbey School, the role of choir school for Tewkesbury Abbey was taken over by Dean Close Preparatory School, Cheltenham, where all the choristers are now educated.

The work of Schola Cantorum has continued the many successes and busy regime of The Abbey School Choir, which, amongst other activities, includes numerous international tours, recordings and broadcasts. The 2006-07 season began with a broadcast on BBC Radio 3 from St Michael’s Church, Tenbury Wells, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of St Michael’s College, and continued with two performances of J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion, one of which was with the Cheltenham Bach Choir and Stephen Jackson in Gloucester Cathedral.

Further concert appearances during the year included Mahler’s Third Symphony, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Handel’s Messiah. In addition to regular concerts in the Abbey, the choir also appears annually at the Pittville Pump Rooms in Cheltenham, and during 2006 made further appearances with the Cheltenham Bach Choir.

Future highlights will include a performance,

broadcast and recording by the choristers of Honegger’s Cantate de Noël with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.

Recent foreign tours by the choir have taken them to Italy (including perfromances in Venice), Germany (to the monks at Neresheim) and the USA (singing services at St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York). In 2007 the choir celebrated the end of its first year at Dean Close with a ten-concert tour of France, with performances in Albi, Foix, Tournus and Paris.

Schola Cantorum also continues The Abbey School Choir’s pursuit of new choral music, resulting in commissions from composers such as Geraint Lewis, Richard Popplewell and Gabriel Jackson. The Abbey School Choir’s numerous recordings include discs for the Guild, Naxos, Priory, Regent and Signum labels.

At the heart of the choir’s work, however, is the regular service of Evensong in Tewkesbury Abbey.

For further information on Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, please visit: www.tewkesburyabbey.org.uk or www.deanclose.co.uk

its themes of wealth, genocide and outsiders – be they Zoroastrian priests or monarchs! It is therefore fitting that two of the most recent works on this disc from two leading British composers should explore this festival. Written for Harrow School in 2006, Jackson’s setting of The Magi encompasses both the Yeats poem and the Vulgate Latin of Matthew’s Gospel, These are cases not of composers re-treading the uncompromising division between the old ground, but of their planting it with new two languages – an ancient device of the carol seed. In The Word Made Flesh by Philip tradition – suggesting the dual nature at the Wilby, born 1949, and Thou whose birth, by heart of our experience. To the unyielding tread a leading name in new music for Anglican of the camels, heard in the accompaniment, the worship, Gabriel Jackson, born in 1962, two sternly syllabic utterance of the music leads us composers approach the subject of the Nativity without sentiment to its vision of ‘the bestial through the words of two individualists, the floor’, relaxing at last from minor to major in a Elizabethan dramatist Ben Jonson and the flood of radiantly melismatic song.

Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, with equally convincing yet opposite effects. A The musical dramatist Jonathan Dove, born in Mozart scholar, Wilby captures the innocence 1959, answered a commission for the 2000 of Jonson’s lyric in a web of solo and tutti King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with The Three Kings, to a poem by exchanges and deftly modulating phrases.

Jackson’s carol, in contrast, is unitary in the detective writer and Christian apologist conception. Matched by organ timbres of Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). For each of flute and celeste, an ornate chain of melody the gifts Dove offers a different kind of music, for trebles – as emblematic of ‘perfect day’ as drawing archaic splendour and tenderness from of the ‘wild world’s night’ – transfixes the ear the same theme, through bold contrasts of with its bright D major till the climax, suddenly tonality and texture. The work ends quietly, with touched with subdominant colour, invokes an a return to its opening mood. In the process, ecstatic peace. however, we have been changed.

And, neatly contradicting expectations, the luminous chords of the advent anthem Lux Aurumque by the American composer Eric Whitacre, born in 1970, are the musical image of Latin words in praise of light, which turn out to be not at all traditional, but a translation from an English verse by Edward Esch.

No longer the idyllic subject as treated by Peter It would be hard to imagine John Tavener’s Cornelius, Epiphany in particular has in recent music being welcomed in Anglican circles times struck a sombre note among artists, with before the 1960s, and in his recent works,

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such as the Koran-based The Beautiful Names, he continues to challenge our notions of what is fitting. But the point of the Christmas Proclamation God is with us, written in 1987, is not how strange this music might sound, with its Orthodox vocal tunings, but how rooted it has become in our affections, reflecting an aspect of both the awe and tenderness of God which is absent from models in the Western Church. Its words from the Compline service recall the incarnation through Old Testament prophecy – the perennial Janus-face of Christmas, witnessed again in a modern work of musical ecumenism. © 2007 Nicholas Williams A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Nicholas Williams is the publishing director of Stainer & Bell, as well as a regular commentator on music. Amongst his various writing activities, he is a music critic for The Independent newspaper.

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15The Three Kings

Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)

The first king was very young, With doleful ballads on his tongue, He came bearing a branch of myrrh Than which no gall is bitterer.

O balow, balow la lay, Gifts for a baby King, O. The second king was a man in prime, The solemn priest of a solemn time, With eyes downcast and rev’rent feet He brought his incense sad and sweet.

The third king was very old, Both his hands were full of gold, Many a gaud and a glittering toy, Baubles brave for a baby boy.

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) from Poetry of Dorothy L. Sayers, published by The Dorothy L. Sayers Society and The Wade Centre

16 God is with us (A Christmas Proclamation)

John Tavener (b. 1944)

God is with us.

Hear ye people, The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

The people that dwell in the shadow of death, upon them the light has shined.

For unto us a child is born!

For unto us a son is given!

And the government shall be upon his shoulder; And his name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellor!

The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.

Hear ye people, Even to the uttermost end of the earth.

God is with us. Christ is born!

From the Orthodox Great Compline for Christmas Eve

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Texts and translations 13 Thou whose birth

Gabriel Jackson

Thou whose birth on earth Angels sang to men, While the stars made mirth, Saviour, at thy birth, This day born again.

As this night was bright With thy candle ray, Very light of light, Turn the wild world’s night To Thy perfect day.

Bid our peace increase, Thou that madest morn; Bid oppressions cease; Bid the night be peace; Bid the day be born.

A.C. Swinburne (1837-1909)

14 When Christ was born of Mary free

C. Hubert H. Parry

1 The Magi

Gabriel Jackson (b. 1962)

2 Lux Aurumque

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970)

When Christ was born of Mary free, In Bethlehem that fair citie, Angels sang there with mirth and glee, “In excelsis gloria.”

Ecce Magi ab Oriente venerunt Jerosolymam, Dicentes, Ubi est Qui natus est Rex Judaeorum?

Vidimus enim stellam Ejus in Oriente, et venimus adorare Eum.

Lux, calida gravisque pura velut aurum et canunt angeli molliter modo natum.

Herdsmen beheld those angels bright, To them appearing with great light, Who said, God’s Son is born this night.

“In excelsis gloria.”

Behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is He That is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship Him.

Light, warm and heavy as pure gold and the angels sing softly to the new-born baby.

This King is come to save mankind, As in the Scripture truths we find; Therefore this song we have in mind, “In excelsis gloria.”

Matthew 2 vv. 1 & 2

Edward Esch (b. 1970) Latin translation by Charles Anthony Silvestri (b. 1965)

Then, dear Lord, for Thy great grace, Grant us the bliss to see Thy face, That we may sing to Thy solace, “In excelsis gloria.”

Anonymous 15th century, Harleian MS.

Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye, In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones, And all their helms of silver hovering side by side, And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more, Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied, The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) The words of The Magi are reproduced by permission of A.P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Michael B. Yeats

3 Lullay, dear Jesus

Arnold Bax (1883-1953)

Lullay, dear Jesus, my heart’s only treasure; Lullay, my darling, my life’s sweetest pleasure.

Lullay, dear Jesus, oh lullay, stop grieving, Mother will comfort Thee, Thy pain relieving.

Shut now Thine eyelids, so weary from weeping; I’ll cool Thy fevered lips while Thou art sleeping.

Lullay, dear Jesus, oh lullay, stop grieving, Mother will comfort Thee, Thy pain relieving.

Traditional Polish English translation by Jan Sliwinski

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4 The Word Made Flesh

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9 Quem pastores laudavere

11 O, my deir hert (Cradle Song)

Philip Wilby (b. 1949)

James Bassi (b. 1961)

I sing the birth was born tonight, The author both of life and light; The angels so did sound it, And like the ravished shepherds said, Who saw the light, and were afraid, Yet searched, and true they found it.

Quem pastores laudavere, Quibus angeli dixere, Absit vobis iam timere, Natus est rex gloriae.

O, my deir hert, young Jesus sweit, Prepare thy creddil in my spreit, And I sall rock thee in my hert, And never mair from thee depart.

Ad quem magi ambulabant, Aurum, thus, myrrham portabant, Immolabant haec sincere, Nato regi gloriae.

But I sall praise thee evermair, With sangis sweit unto thy gloir; The knees of my hert sall I bow, And sing that richt Balulalow!

Christo regi, Deo nato, Per Mariam nobis dato, Merito resonet vere Laus honor et gloria.

Attrib. James (C. 1495-1533), John (c. 1500-1556) and Robert Wedderburn (c. 1510-c. 1555) from Ane compendious buik of godlie Psalmes

The Son of God, the eternal King, That did us all salvation bring, And freed our soul from danger, He whom the whole world could not take, The Word, which heaven and earth did make, Was now laid in a manger.

The Father’s wisdom willed it so, The son’s obedience knew no No; Both wills were in one stature, And, as that wisdom had decreed, The Word was now made flesh indeed, And took on him our nature.

What comfort by him we do win, Who made himself the price of sin, To make us heirs of glory!

To see this babe, all innocence, A martyr born in our defence, Can man forget the story?

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

The one praised by the shepherds, to whom the angels said, “Now lay aside your fears,” has been born the king of glory.

To whom the wise men made their way, bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which they offered with open hearts to the victorious king.

To Christ the king, born God, given to us through Mary, let there resound as is truly fitting praise, honour, and glory.

Anonymous 14th Century Hoenfurth MS.

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

12 I wonder as I wander

Carl Rütti (b. 1949)

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky, how Jesus the Saviour did come for to die. for poor on’ry people like you and like I. I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus ‘twas in a cow’s stall, with wise men and farmers and shepherds and all.

But high from the heaven a star’s light did fall, and promise of ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing, a star in the sky, or a bird on the wing, or all of God’s angels in heaven for to sing, he surely could have it, ’cause he was the King.

Traditional Appalachian

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7 Welcome, Yule!

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8 There is no rose of such virtue

C. Hubert H. Parry (1848-1918)

John Joubert (b. 1927)

Welcome be Thou, heavenly King, Welcome, born on this morning, Welcome for whom we shall sing, Welcome Yule!

There is no rose of such virtue As is the rose that bare Jesu: Alleluia.

Welcome be ye, Stephen and John, Welcome, Innocents, ev’ry one, Welcome, Thomas, Martyr one, Welcome Yule!

Welcome be ye, good New Year, Welcome, Twelfth-day, both in fere, Welcome, Saints, loved and dear, Welcome Yule!

Welcome be ye, Candlemas, Welcome be ye, Queen of Bliss, Welcome, both to more and less, Welcome both to more and less, Welcome Yule!

Welcome be ye that are here, Welcome all, and make good cheer, Welcome all, another year, Welcome Yule!

Anonymous 15th Century

For in this rose contained was Heav’n and earth in little space: Res miranda.

By that rose we may well see There be one God in Persons Three: Pares forma.

Then leave we all this worldly mirth And follow we this joyous birth: Transeamus.

Anonymous 15th Century

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5 The Kings

Peter Cornelius (1869-1953)

Three Kings had journeyed from lands afar, To Jordan led by a guiding star, In David’s city they ask men to tell Where the newborn King whom they seek doth dwell.

Fine gold and myrrh and incense they bring, An off’ring to the promised newborn King.

The guiding star shining on before, The kings then led to the lowly door, They see the Child in a manger bare, And fall before him in worship there.

Fine gold and myrrh and incense they bring, An off’ring to the promised newborn King.

And still the star, shining bright and clear To those who seek it doth yet appear; The star of mercy in peace will bring The pilgrim who seeketh the heav’nly King; And failing incense, myrrh and gold, Bring thou thy heart to the Saviour’s fold, Give Him thy heart!

Chorale: How brightly shines the morning star With mercy, beaming from afar; The host of heav’n rejoices: O Righteous Branch, O Jesse’s Rod! Thou Son of Man and Son of God! We, too, will lift our voices: Jesus, Jesus! Holy, holy,

Yet most lowly, draw thou near us; Great Emmanuel, come and hear us!

Peter Cornelius (1824-1874) English translation by W.G. Rothery Chorale by Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) English translation by William Mercer (1811-1873) 6 The Virgin’s Slumber Song

Max Reger (1873-1916)

While amid the treetops sighs the breeze so warm and mild.

And soft and sweetly sings a bird upon the bough: Ah, baby, dear one, slumber now!

Happy is Thy laughter, holy is Thy silent rest, Lay Thy head in slumber, fondly on Thy Mother’s breast!

Ah, baby, dear one, slumber now!

Martin Boelitz (1874-1918) English translation by Edward Teschemacher (1876-1940)

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