The Shepherd's Song



Psallam spiritu et mente.
I will sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also.
--Motto of the Royal School of Church Music (I Corinthians 14:15)
  
19 December 2013
In This Issue

22 December 2013 - The Fourth Sunday of Advent

 

9:00am Eucharist, II

      Canterbury Choir

      John Linker, Organist/Choirmaster

              Statham / Fantasy on Veni, Emmanuel

              Carter / A maiden most gentle

              Carter / Toccata on Veni, Emmanuel

              Hymns

                 59*               O come, O come, Emmanuel                  Veni, veni, Emmanuel

                 68* (St. 1)    Rejoice! rejoice, believers                                     Llangloffan

                 LEVAS 14*   Soon and very soon                                                           Crouch

                 66*               Come, thou long-expected Jesus                                 Stuttgart

 

11:15am Eucharist, II

      Treble Choir / Parish Choir

      John Linker, Organist/Choirmaster

              Statham / Fantasy on Veni, Emmanuel

              Tone IV.4 / Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 Qui regis Israel

              Carter / A maiden most gentle

              Carter / Toccata on Veni, Emmanuel

              Hymns

                 59*               O come, O come, Emmanuel                  Veni, veni, Emmanuel

                 68* (St. 1)    Rejoice! rejoice, believers                                     Llangloffan

                 265*             The angel Gabriel from heaven came          Gabriel's Message

                 66*               Come, thou long-expected Jesus                                 Stuttgart

 

 

5:00pm A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols for Christmastide

      The Combined Choirs

      John Linker, Organist/Choirmaster

      Owen Sammons, Assisting Organist

              Woodward / Up! good Christen folk

              Boles / Adam lay ybounden

              Holst / Let all mortal flesh keep silence

              Arr. Vaughan Williams / The Truth From Above

              Messaus / Dies est laetitiae

              Rachmaninoff / Богородице Дево (Bogorođitse Devo)

              French carol / Dans cette �table

              Tavener / The Lamb

              Arr. Pettman / Sing lullaby!

              Plainchant / Puer natus est

              Darke / In the bleak mid-winter

              Lauridsen / O magnum mysterium

              Organ

                 Bach / In dulci jubilo, BWV 729

              Hymns

                 102*             Once in royal David' city                                                      Irby

                 70*               Herald, sound the note                                         Herald, Sound

                 92*               On this day earth shall ring                                Personent hodie

                 94*               While shepherds watched their flocks                Winchester Old

                 82*               Of the Father's love begotten                         Divinum mysterium

                 109*             The first Nowell                                              The First Nowell

 

[* = Hymns chosen from the 2009 Hymn Survey]

Notes for Sunday's Music

 

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is a pivotal point between two church seasons. This morning we conclude our patient waiting and expectation of the Advent season and this afternoon we usher in the season of Christmas with a Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols. There is such a wealth of music associated with the season of Advent that it seems a shame we must put it aside for another year after today, but the liturgical calendar marches on. 

 

Hymn 56, perhaps one of the most memorable of all of the Advent hymns, is also one of the most ancient. The text comes from the "O antiphons" ("The Great Os," O Sapientia, O Adonai, O radix Jesse, O clavis David, O Oriens, O Rex genitum, and O Emmanuel), which arose no later than the eighth century. These antiphons have traditionally been attached to the Magnificat at Vespers (Evensong) from December 17th through 23rd, hence the dates found at the beginning of each verse. The second word of each antiphon yields an acrostic: read in inverse order from the last to the first stanza, the words begin with the letters ERO CRAS, Latin for "I shall be present tomorrow." If one antiphon is sung each day at Vespers, the full text of the acrostic is revealed only on the day before Christmas Eve. 

 

Hymn 66 for many Episcopalians is synonymous with Advent. The text/tune comb3ination was Hymn 1 in The Hymnal 1940 and in a survey held by the Sacred Commission on Church Music prior to the 1982 General Convention ranked as number one in usage. Behind this hymn stand Isaiah 9:6 (and following) and other messianic passages of the Old Testament. Christ's redemptive and liberating rule is here seen stereoscopically in all its stages, from prophecy through the Incarnation to present sovereignty and final triumph; it bears individual, communal, and ultimately cosmic dimensions.
The Christmas chant "Puer natus est" used by Widor as a basis for his Symphonie gothique
This chant will be sung by the men's voices during Lessons & Carols,
and prior to the 7:00pm Christmas Eve Service.

Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols this Sunday 22 December

 

Plan to arrive early to get a good seat for our annual Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols this Sunday 22 December at 5:00pm. Visiting Assisting Organist Owen Sammons (St Peter's, Paris) joins Organist John Linker and the Good Shepherd Choirs in singing this annual first service of the Christmas season. Nine lessons are read by various representatives of church and civic life in ascending rank from a chorister through the bishop.

 

The format for Lessons & Carols was drawn up by The Right Rev'd Edward White Benson, Bishop of Truro (later Archbishop of Canterbury) and first presented in crude surroundings on Christmas Eve 1880. This service format became wildly popular after it was aired live in 1918 by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. To this day this service is aired live on BBC Radio 4 in the UK on Christmas Eve and rebroadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC World Service on Christmas Day (be sure to tune in to WEKU, 88.9 at 10:00am on Christmas Day). Cathedrals and parishes throughout the Anglican Communion present a similar service each Christmastide.

 

This year's service at Good Shepherd includes works by Boles, Holst, Woodward, Willcocks, Vaughan Williams, Messaus, Rachmaninoff, Tavener, Darke, Lauridsen, and others. The choir will sing anthems and carols in modern English, Middle English, French, Latin, and Russian. The congregation sings six hymns during the course of the service. Join us as we put away the darkness of Advent and usher in the joyous season of Christmas.

Upcoming Sunday Afternoon Concerts in Good Shepherd


We have launched an exciting new concert series each Sunday afternoon throughout the academic year.  Though these concerts are primariliy organ recitals, 

many different genres of music will be celebrated throughout the year.  

Please spread the word and invite your friends!

All Sunday afternoon concerts are at 4:15pm (unless otherwise noted) and admission is free, 

however, donations are gratefully accepted.

 

 

22 December 2013 - NO CONCERT TODAY.

                        5:00pm A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols

 

24 December 2013 (Christmas Eve) - 6:15pm - Organ Recital by John Linker. Free admission.

                        John Linker is Organist/Choirmaster at Church of the Good Shepherd, Lexington.    

 

                        Program

                        Widor / Symphonie gothique, Op. 70

 

29 December 2013 - NO CONCERT TODAY.

 

5 January 2014 - 4:15pm - Organ Recital by Owen Sammons. Free admission.

Owen Sammons is Director of Arts & Music at St Peter's Episcopal Church, Paris, Kentucky.

 

12 January 2014 - 4:15pm - Recorder and Organ Recital by Susan Weatherford, Recorder, with John Linker, Organ

 

19 January 2014 - 4:15pm - Choir Concert by Cantabile, Donna Bonner, Director

 

26 January 2014 - 4:15pm - Trumpet and Organ Recital by Patrick Tuck, Trumpet, with John Linker, Organ

 

2 February 2014 - 4:15pm - Clarinet and Organ Recital by Andrew Burton, Clarinet, with John Linker, Organ

 

9 February 2014 - 4:15pm - Choir Concert by University of Kentucky Blue Note Ensemble, Dimitrius Walker, Director

 

16 February 2014 - 4:15pm - Voice Recital by Whit Whitaker, Tenor

What's Coming Up

 

28 February 2014 - 7:30pm - Organist Olivier Latry in Recital

Olivier Latry, one of the three organistes-titulaires de Grande-Orgue of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, will be playing a recital in Good Shepherd on Friday 28 February 2014. This remarkable event will be co-sponsored between the Lexington and Louisville Chapters of the American Guild of Organists as well as Good Shepherd. Latry is also organ professor at Paris Conservatory and is considered to be one of the finest organists in the world. You may read more info about this dynamic musician here.
Good Shepherd Choir at St Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, June 2013
Church of the Good Shepherd | 859 252 1744 | office@goodshepherdlex.org | http://goodshepherdlex.org
533 East Main Street
Lexington, Kentucky  40508


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