If the Rector says “Do it this way,” then you do it this way.Nonetheless, it was a good service. Six of the Lessons, a total of fourteen Carols, all congregational, for the Choir is on holiday until January. Those who attended seemed to enjoy it. I received the usual handful of complaints about various aspects – the tempo is too fast, why didn't you sing this, why did you sing that?
I have noted to others that I hear more complaints about the music at Christmas than at any other time of the year. One person who usually supports my efforts told me after the Midnight Mass that unless I can arrange for “something special,” I should not bother with preservice music. After working quite a bit to prepare the Canonic Variations of which I wrote the other day, I did not take that well.
This evening as I worked on yet another set of Bulletins (groan!!!), I have listened to the Real Lessons and Carols, the one that they do at King's College, Cambridge. The music is of course spectacular. Most of it is choral, with a handful of congregational hymns. I have no doubt that their Director, Stephen Cleobury, receives a lot of complaints. But there is probably no one on the planet who would not consider their work “something special.”
I have four liturgical comments:
-- The First Lesson is not Genesis 3:1-15, as it is printed in the green “Carols for Choirs” book and which I have always assumed was the way it is supposed to be done. Instead, it is the later part of the chapter, verses 8-19, about the Curse, and “Dust thou art.” This is a much more logical selection for the account of our Fall and Redemption that is the purpose of the service. I will see if the Rector might let me use this next year both in our Advent service and the inevitable repeat of today's Christmas service.
-- The Scriptures are all from the Authorized Version. I suspect that this is part of the attraction of this Service, which draws its audience from all of the English-speaking world. Who would want to hear the intentionally ugly prose of the New Revised Standard Version?
-- At the end of each lesson, the Lector says “Thanks be to God.” Not “The Word of the Lord” with the congregation responding. I am puzzled at this. Are they, like the trendy liturgists in America with their “Hear what the Spirit is saying to the people,” no longer willing to assert that these passages of Scripture are in any sense the Word of the Lord? That is my suspicion.
-- Somehow, I do not find the whole thing conducive to worship. Not in the slightest. Nor did I find our service this morning worshipful. It too easily becomes all about the music. Perhaps that is all right; for those who want something more liturgical, BBC also broadcast the Roman Catholic Midnight Mass from Westminster Cathedral. And if what one desires is a good sermon, one could do worse than the one that Pope Francis gave on that Night – my thanks to the blogger Jesse, who posted it – and for the music, linked the YouTube of Ting and myself playing “O Holy Night.” I do think that it turned out well, and I am pleased that her fine playing is thus given a larger hearing, well over 100 views when I checked on it yesterday.
This year, the King's service featured several arrangements from their former director Sir David Willcocks, in honor of his 95th birthday. I must say that when the choir – especially THAT choir in that room – sails into his descant on “Sing, choirs of angels” in the penultimate hymn (“O come, all ye faithful,”) it never fails to send chills of delight up my spine. And when the organ cranks up into the harmonization of the final stanza, it is the same. The final hymn, “Hark, the herald angels sing,” again in the Willcocks arrangement (with a slightly different descant than what I know), is the same for me. I played these arrangements the other night at the Midnight Mass, but our little Pilcher – and our little parish choir – cannot work up to such an effect.
The organ scholar concluded with the large and majestic (and youthful: he was under the age of twenty) Bach organ setting of “In dulci jubilo,” BWV 729. By chance, I also finished this morning's service with a Bach setting of “In dulci jubilo” – but not that one. Instead, I played the little setting from the Orgelbuchlein (BWV 608) which dances along like little cherubs at play, the four voices forming a double canon. It is fitting, perhaps: what they do is large, what we do is small. But both have their place.
Concluding Remarks:
I am unable to keep up the pace; tonight's essay is the last of my daily entries. I hope to return to a more-or-less weekly schedule.
One of my accomplishments the other day when I should have been pressing on toward Sunday was a milestone: I cut my first CD of organ music, in limited edition (three copies). It begins with the Toccata and Fugue in F and finishes with the Canonic Variations, and I am proud of it. For all of my complaining and last-minute scrambling this fall, I consider it a respectable body of work.
My principal reason for the CD was the hope of sending it as a gift to my organ teacher, Dr. McDonald. I walked it to the post office on Friday and mailed it. His health has not been good, and I fear that he may no longer be in his apartment where he has lived alone for decades. I hope the CD gets to him.
Last year, my wife and I made the mistake of neglecting one another at this holiday. This year was better; we found small gifts for one another and she had the forethought to have me purchase a frozen lasagna from the grocery so that we could have a bit of a special meal in the late afternoon on Christmas Day. It was good to be with her.
My work is challenging at this time of the year. Hers is worse – “big box” department store work. We must care for one another, especially at this time of the year.
And finally, a bit of a puzzle about that recording of "O Holy Night." I received notice from YouTube that the clip contained Third Party Content, and that one of the performing rights organizations was claiming it. I could acknowledge and All Would Be Well, or I could fight it and probably get a "copyright strike," which could result in my banning from YouTube. Now this is thoroughly puzzling: Adolph Adam wrote the music in 1847 and it is in the public domain. I was one performer, Ting Davidson the other (and she has given me permission to post it). Who is claiming it? YouTube does not say. But I was unwilling to fight it, so I clicked my acknowlegement -- and now I see that there are advertisements running with the video. Someone is making a little money on this at our expense.
Sigh.
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