“Come and sing the Christmas story” (Ar Hyd Y Nos).
“All my heart this night rejoices”.
...
“Christians, awake!” (Yorkshire).
“Come and join the celebration”.
...
“See him lying on a bed of straw”.
Except for Christians, awake!, which I first heard only last Christmas!, all new to me. Thank you. I particularly liked the "life embracing, death defying" in the first and the encouraging words of the second.
...there probably weren't enough at Mass on Thursday to warble about winter fu-u-el...
I may be shot down in flames and banned for life from ever contributing here 🙂, but I do love that part of GKW...and it in general.
On sackings, I heard someone involved in music was removed from a parish over in Perth (the Western Australian one) and many in the congregation were quite upset. Always hard to know what is going on, especially when the person involved keeps quiet (not taking sides or condemning...honestly I have no idea).
The speaker at Our Place also described the season we're in as Twixtmas.
We had:
Great is He who's the king of kings and the lord of lords, He is wonderful which has three different parts divided between the congregation. Great fun to sing.
Light of the world
O little town of Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing with a chorus I've never heard before and I'm not going to hunt for a YouTube link to it as I never want to hear it again.
Hark the herald angels sing with a chorus I've never heard before and I'm not going to hunt for a YouTube link to it as I never want to hear it again.
Was it:
We’ll walk in the light,
Beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright,
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the World.
We sang it to the only tune I know - this one - a wonderful tune, a wonderful carol. I've never heard it sung with the verses interspersed with a chorus and I hope I never do again.
We sing of that disciple (Ellacombe)
To you was given O saint beloved (Golden Sheaves)
Let all mortal flesh (Picardy)
Word supreme before creation (Regent Square)
This was a late morning event with a "festal lunch" following and quite well supported. The first hymn was new to me, by Ralph Wright OSB and had splendid words, wish I had taken a screenshot.
Parish Communion for Christmas 1
The great God of heaven is come down to earth (A virgin unspotted)
St Thomas Mass (Thorne)
Celtic Alleluia
See amid the winter's snow (Humility)
Child in the manger (Bunessan)
When Christ was born in Bethlehem (Rodmell)
Evensong
Of the Father's love begotten (Divinum mysterium)
Silent night
Behold the great Creator makes (St Peter)
Once in royal (Irby)
I have been a bit neglectful lately, here is our Christmas Eve service, which had some different arrangements of some pieces and some unfamiliar ones (to me anyway).
Carols
O little town of Bethlehem, / Forest Green
Child in the manger/ Bunessan
Love came down at Christmas / Hermitage
Hark the Herald / arr. D./ Willcocks
O come all ye faithful / arr. D. Willcocks
Choir
O come, O come Emmanuel / Taylor Scott Davis
Christ is the truth, / RV Williams
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree / Arr. Elizabeth Poston
Child of the Stable’s secret birth, / Thomas Hewitt Jones, words by Timoth Dudley-Smith
Sussex Carol / arr. Elaine Hagenberg
My Lord has come/ Will Todd
Hark the herald angels sing with a chorus I've never heard before and I'm not going to hunt for a YouTube link to it as I never want to hear it again.
Was it:
We’ll walk in the light,
Beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright,
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the World.
?
No. It started with
"King of heaven, come now
Let your glory reign
Shining like the day
King of heaven, come."
Not only did I consider it an abomination unto the Lord to have the verses interspersed with a chorus, the words of the chorus itself annoyed me, seeing as the point of Christmas (expressed in the verses of that lovely carol) is that God has come.
While the words don't move me particularly, is Christ's Glorious Appearance at the end of time not part of Christmas? Or is it only an Advent thing? Genuine question: I'm not criticising/judging.
Hark the herald angels sing with a chorus I've never heard before and I'm not going to hunt for a YouTube link to it as I never want to hear it again.
Was it:
We’ll walk in the light,
Beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright,
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the World.
?
No. It started with
"King of heaven, come now
Let your glory reign
Shining like the day
King of heaven, come."
Not only did I consider it an abomination unto the Lord to have the verses interspersed with a chorus, the words of the chorus itself annoyed me, seeing as the point of Christmas (expressed in the verses of that lovely carol) is that God has come.
Ah, not what I was thinking of then (which, in case anyone was wondering, is this).
Based on the link @Darda provided, I must admit to sharing your dislike of that mash-up.
Feast of Dedication (1840, by the Bishop of Australia when there was only one!; the penal colony in Sydney was established in 1788) and Watchnight Mass (19:00, New Year's Eve); same Anglican parish I visited on Christmas Eve.
The single bell tolled for several (I estimate ~5) minutes beforehand.
Christ is made the sure foundation (Westminster Abbey)
We love the place, O God (Quam Dilecta; new to me)
Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria)
Sparkling wine ("or something softer") in the area the name of which I cannot recall (in the church, before the nave (porch?))
Happy New Year 2025 -- in roughly 3⅔ hours (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) -- to all!
(aside: Thank you all for sharing your music; I've appreciated it. Thanks for answering my questions also: "bonk"/"POM" shall remain with me always...)
Today (31st December) we sang Vespers of the day (i.e. for January 1st) with texts combining the Feast of the Circumcision with the commemoration of St Basil the Great. After that we sang a Te Deum for the New Year. Being Orthodox of a Russian liiturgucal tradition we sang the so-called Hymn of St Ambrose, with the English text based on the Slavonic, which has some interesting minor deviations from the Western (Latin) text.
I’ve spent two days singing Evensong at Ely Cathedral. This is wot we done:
Monday 30th
Responses - Bernard Rose
Psalm 65 - F Jackson
Psalm 84 - C Parry
Office Hymn - From East to West, From Shore to Shore
Canticles - Stanford in A
Anthem - What Child Is This? - T Hewitt-Jones
Tuesday 31st
Responses - Bernard Rose
Psalm 148 - Stanford
Office Hymn - Oh let the heart beat high with bliss
Canticles - P Prior in E flat
Anthem - A Babe is Born - William Mathias
Those odd sounds you can hear are Wesley and Mendelssohn turning in their graves...
There seems to be a 'recent' trend of formally grafting a new song with an old hymn. There's a version of "all creatures of our god and king" which stitched in a mismatched condensed gospel story. Not a fan of the merger (unless there was a particular reason why the the two themes needed the same space, I don't recall the new bit being terrible in it's own right)
About 50 years ago the Vicar of the Church of my Youth introduced us to a new tune to *While Shepherds Watched*.
The tune is quite jolly and singable as it stands, but it has a weird chorus between verses which chunters on about sweet chiming bells (not a part of the Nativity story AFAIK).
We only sang it once - a pity, as it's rather fun!
Thank you @Bishops Finger for bringing this back to my mind, like you I associate it with the 1970s and not on the organ! It was sung in a Cornish village with the parish handbell team and I don't recall hearing it since so it has brought along good memories of earlier life. Very cheerful and better than "Winchester Old" by a country mile 😉
To bring us back to earth I accompanied on New Year's Eve a "Watchnight Eucharist" which was pretty much BCP Holy Communion with a few add ons. A tradition there although not many present but they sang well and the tower team rang in the new year. Many years since I heard the BCP readings for the Circumcision 😳
O God our help (St Anne)
Anglican Folk Mass by Martin Shaw
For thy mercy and thy grace (Culbach)
Lord of all hopefulness (Slane)
Amazing grace
God is working his purpose out (Benson)
About 50 years ago the Vicar of the Church of my Youth introduced us to a new tune to *While Shepherds Watched*.
The tune is quite jolly and singable as it stands, but it has a weird chorus between verses which chunters on about sweet chiming bells (not a part of the Nativity story AFAIK).
We only sang it once - a pity, as it's rather fun!
That brought a tear to my eye as my mum used to sing that to us. I always thought it must be a Salvation Army song, as that was her background. I still have her concertina!
About 50 years ago the Vicar of the Church of my Youth introduced us to a new tune to *While Shepherds Watched*.
The tune is quite jolly and singable as it stands, but it has a weird chorus between verses which chunters on about sweet chiming bells (not a part of the Nativity story AFAIK).
We only sang it once - a pity, as it's rather fun!
That brought a tear to my eye as my mum used to sing that to us. I always thought it must be a Salvation Army song, as that was her background. I still have her concertina!
You may be right - it has a sort of TSA ring to it (see what I did there?).
@Truron remembers it from Cornwall, and the Vicar I referred to earlier came to Kent from Lancashire (he was born and brought up in Bolton), so the tune gets around.
Alas! our people didn't seem to like it, so we reverted to the gloomy dirge (Winchester Old).
I have the "While shepherds/Sweet chiming bells" on a CD of carols by the late lamented Coope, Boyes and Simpson. Don't know where they picked it up, but I do know that they came from the Belper area of Derbyshire.
Epiphany Sunday at Our Place tomorrow, with *The Procession Of The Kings* at the beginning of Mass, followed by these appropriate hymns:
We three kings of Orient are (Kings of Orient) As with gladness men of old (Dix) Angels from the realms of glory (Iris) What child is this (Greensleeves)
There are to be a couple of items from The Sheet - no idea what they may be, but I suspect one of them might be Cliff Richard's version of the Lord's Prayer, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne..
I suspect one of them might be Cliff Richard's version of the Lord's Prayer, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne..
[Shudders, and not with the cold ...]
Just so.
I'm only guessing that they're having it, but it's one of FatherInCharge's favourites, he being a Cliff Richard fan, and this is the first Sunday of the New Year...
I agree with @Baptist Trainfan that Dix is a very dull tune. I always try to play it quickly but find it monumentally tedious. As to the Our Father 'music' referred to then yes 🤮
There are to be a couple of items from The Sheet - no idea what they may be, but I suspect one of them might be Cliff Richard's version of the Lord's Prayer, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne..
I remember when it was released, the Radio 4 show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue had a game of “one song to the tune of another” where they had to sing Auld Lang Syne to the tune of Batchelor Boy
“The first Nowell”.
“Riding out across the desert” (Camel Shuffle).
“Shepherds came, their praises bringing” (Quem Pastores).
“From the eastern mountains” (Evelyns).
“Brightest and best of the sons of the morning” (Epiphany Hymn).
Imho it's got one of the most boring alto lines in the repertoire.
Our offerings at St Pete's were mostly epiphanically predictable:
Arise to greet the Lord of light - Repton Earth hath many a noble city - Stuttgart As with gladness men of old - Dix See, amid the winter's snow* - Humility We three kings of orient are - Kings of Orient (well you sort of have to, don't you?)
* That was the Communion hymn, and went on far too long, even though we had quite a full church to get through. If it had been up to me, I think I'd have cut the verses about the shepherds - wouldn't they have buggered off back to their mountain by the time the Magi got there?
Yes, Our Place had a reasonable turnout - a few more than usual, but not as many youngsters as FatherInCharge would have liked.
The two items from The Sheet were a Gloria set to the tune usually associated with Ding, dong, merrily on high! (Bransle de l'official - a traditional French melody*) and the egregious Cliff Richard's mangling of the Lord's Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne...
I could hear the distaste in Madam Sacristan's voice as she gave me this latter piece of information.
(*I've not come across this use of the tune before - no doubt FatherinCharge picked the words up at some church or other which he visited whilst on holiday)
From the eastern mountains (Goshen)
Burton in F and Shaw Folk Mass
Psalm 96
Hail thou source of every blessing (Redhead)
We three Kings
Bethlehem of noblest cities (Stuttgart)
Brightest and best (Epiphany Hymn)
All went well and given the weather a good number, I have a great fondness for that parricular tune to the last hymn. W3K was off the Bethlehem carol sheet as it is not in the old EH used here.
Mattins. a few miles distant
As with gladness 🤮
Psalm 72
Te Deum and Jubilate
How vain the cruel Herod's fear (Ely)
Brightest and best (Spean)
Lo! the pilgrim magi (Whitworth)
Spean made a change from other tunes, I have only been asked to play it in Free Church circles around here previously. I rather like it and it made up for having that wretched Dix tune.
The final hymn (on printed sheets as not in the old blue A&M they use) was new to me and had a lovely tune which apparently originated in Toronto (I think that was the place?) written by a man called Whitworth. Any from Canada or USA here may be able to comfirm this but the words were I think in the 1940 hymnal but not to that tune. Anyway it was a nice experience and brightend up Mattins! Epiphany Carols tonight cancelled due to weather so pasta, tiramisu and prosecco will be my three gifts for the feast 🤣
Being the first Sunday in the month, today's 9 o'clock was our regular "Hymns of Praise" service.
As With Gladness Men of Old DIX
How Deep the Fathers Love for Me (Townend)
Be Thou My Vision SLANE
Come and Join the Celebration CELEBRATIONS
We Three Kings of Orient Are KINGS OF ORIENT
In Christ Alone I love you, Lord, your mercy never fails me Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus Come, Lord Jesus, come (All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the fountain...)
I always get the feeling that Dix was composed for a different set of words. Its the two notes on "with" at the start - odd.
DIX is a modification of Conrad Kocher’s tune written for Treuer Heiland, wir sind hier (“Faithful Savior, We Are Here”). The first three lines are identical; it’s the end of the tune that’s shortened. So you’d get the same thing in the German, with two notes on the -er of Teuer.
Of course, on this side of The Pond at least, DIX is also the standard tune for “For the Beauty of the Earth.” (And you get those two notes on “the.”) I’d be pretty confident betting that’s the text most people here, at least in my tribe, think of when they hear the tune.
Today, the second Sunday of Christmas, we had:
“Angels from the Realms of Glory”/REGENT SQUARE
“What Star Is This, with Beams So Bright”/PUER NOBIS NASCITUR
“The Days Are Surely Coming”/LLANGLOFFAN
“We Three Kings”
Although I stand by my comment about the alto part, I still see Dix as the "right" tune for AWGMOO, because it's the only one I've ever used.
I've seen the tune being used for other words (probably FTBOTE), which just feels Wrong.
Regent Square for Angels from the realms of glory strikes me as very odd; I don't think I've ever sung it to anything but Iris. Maybe a Pond thing (although I'm fairly sure we used Iris in Canada)?
Comments
New to me; what a word! (and stop!)
I may be shot down in flames and banned for life from ever contributing here 🙂, but I do love that part of GKW...and it in general.
On sackings, I heard someone involved in music was removed from a parish over in Perth (the Western Australian one) and many in the congregation were quite upset. Always hard to know what is going on, especially when the person involved keeps quiet (not taking sides or condemning...honestly I have no idea).
We had:
Great is He who's the king of kings and the lord of lords, He is wonderful which has three different parts divided between the congregation. Great fun to sing.
Light of the world
O little town of Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing with a chorus I've never heard before and I'm not going to hunt for a YouTube link to it as I never want to hear it again.
We’ll walk in the light,
Beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright,
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the World.
?
"Eucharist of the Patron"
We sing of that disciple (Ellacombe)
To you was given O saint beloved (Golden Sheaves)
Let all mortal flesh (Picardy)
Word supreme before creation (Regent Square)
This was a late morning event with a "festal lunch" following and quite well supported. The first hymn was new to me, by Ralph Wright OSB and had splendid words, wish I had taken a screenshot.
Parish Communion for Christmas 1
The great God of heaven is come down to earth (A virgin unspotted)
St Thomas Mass (Thorne)
Celtic Alleluia
See amid the winter's snow (Humility)
Child in the manger (Bunessan)
When Christ was born in Bethlehem (Rodmell)
Evensong
Of the Father's love begotten (Divinum mysterium)
Silent night
Behold the great Creator makes (St Peter)
Once in royal (Irby)
I have been a bit neglectful lately, here is our Christmas Eve service, which had some different arrangements of some pieces and some unfamiliar ones (to me anyway).
Carols
O little town of Bethlehem, / Forest Green
Child in the manger/ Bunessan
Love came down at Christmas / Hermitage
Hark the Herald / arr. D./ Willcocks
O come all ye faithful / arr. D. Willcocks
Choir
O come, O come Emmanuel / Taylor Scott Davis
Christ is the truth, / RV Williams
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree / Arr. Elizabeth Poston
Child of the Stable’s secret birth, / Thomas Hewitt Jones, words by Timoth Dudley-Smith
Sussex Carol / arr. Elaine Hagenberg
My Lord has come/ Will Todd
No. It started with
"King of heaven, come now
Let your glory reign
Shining like the day
King of heaven, come."
Not only did I consider it an abomination unto the Lord to have the verses interspersed with a chorus, the words of the chorus itself annoyed me, seeing as the point of Christmas (expressed in the verses of that lovely carol) is that God has come.
New to me; thank you.
I do like Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.
O dear.
Those odd sounds you can hear are Wesley and Mendelssohn turning in their graves...
I'll get me coat.
It sounds as if exhumation may be necessary.
Based on the link @Darda provided, I must admit to sharing your dislike of that mash-up.
The single bell tolled for several (I estimate ~5) minutes beforehand.
Christ is made the sure foundation (Westminster Abbey)
We love the place, O God (Quam Dilecta; new to me)
Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria)
Sparkling wine ("or something softer") in the area the name of which I cannot recall (in the church, before the nave (porch?))
Happy New Year 2025 -- in roughly 3⅔ hours (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) -- to all!
(aside: Thank you all for sharing your music; I've appreciated it. Thanks for answering my questions also: "bonk"/"POM" shall remain with me always...)
It is indeed, and featured at our wedding. ❤️
Monday 30th
Responses - Bernard Rose
Psalm 65 - F Jackson
Psalm 84 - C Parry
Office Hymn - From East to West, From Shore to Shore
Canticles - Stanford in A
Anthem - What Child Is This? - T Hewitt-Jones
Tuesday 31st
Responses - Bernard Rose
Psalm 148 - Stanford
Office Hymn - Oh let the heart beat high with bliss
Canticles - P Prior in E flat
Anthem - A Babe is Born - William Mathias
There seems to be a 'recent' trend of formally grafting a new song with an old hymn. There's a version of "all creatures of our god and king" which stitched in a mismatched condensed gospel story. Not a fan of the merger (unless there was a particular reason why the the two themes needed the same space, I don't recall the new bit being terrible in it's own right)
The tune is quite jolly and singable as it stands, but it has a weird chorus between verses which chunters on about sweet chiming bells (not a part of the Nativity story AFAIK).
We only sang it once - a pity, as it's rather fun!
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK2tP1OU3oM
To bring us back to earth I accompanied on New Year's Eve a "Watchnight Eucharist" which was pretty much BCP Holy Communion with a few add ons. A tradition there although not many present but they sang well and the tower team rang in the new year. Many years since I heard the BCP readings for the Circumcision 😳
O God our help (St Anne)
Anglican Folk Mass by Martin Shaw
For thy mercy and thy grace (Culbach)
Lord of all hopefulness (Slane)
Amazing grace
God is working his purpose out (Benson)
HNY to all.
That brought a tear to my eye as my mum used to sing that to us. I always thought it must be a Salvation Army song, as that was her background. I still have her concertina!
You may be right - it has a sort of TSA ring to it (see what I did there?).
@Truron remembers it from Cornwall, and the Vicar I referred to earlier came to Kent from Lancashire (he was born and brought up in Bolton), so the tune gets around.
Alas! our people didn't seem to like it, so we reverted to the gloomy dirge (Winchester Old).
We three kings of Orient are (Kings of Orient)
As with gladness men of old (Dix)
Angels from the realms of glory (Iris)
What child is this (Greensleeves)
There are to be a couple of items from The Sheet - no idea what they may be, but I suspect one of them might be Cliff Richard's version of the Lord's Prayer, sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne..
The First Nowell to end.
Random RC stuff as the filling.
Just so.
I'm only guessing that they're having it, but it's one of FatherInCharge's favourites, he being a Cliff Richard fan, and this is the first Sunday of the New Year...
BTW Am I the only one who finds "Dix" a bit dull? YMMV.
I remember when it was released, the Radio 4 show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue had a game of “one song to the tune of another” where they had to sing Auld Lang Syne to the tune of Batchelor Boy
“Riding out across the desert” (Camel Shuffle).
“Shepherds came, their praises bringing” (Quem Pastores).
“From the eastern mountains” (Evelyns).
“Brightest and best of the sons of the morning” (Epiphany Hymn).
No.
Imho it's got one of the most boring alto lines in the repertoire.
Our offerings at St Pete's were mostly epiphanically predictable:
Arise to greet the Lord of light - Repton
Earth hath many a noble city - Stuttgart
As with gladness men of old - Dix
See, amid the winter's snow* - Humility
We three kings of orient are - Kings of Orient (well you sort of have to, don't you?)
* That was the Communion hymn, and went on far too long, even though we had quite a full church to get through. If it had been up to me, I think I'd have cut the verses about the shepherds - wouldn't they have buggered off back to their mountain by the time the Magi got there?
The two items from The Sheet were a Gloria set to the tune usually associated with Ding, dong, merrily on high! (Bransle de l'official - a traditional French melody*) and the egregious Cliff Richard's mangling of the Lord's Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne...
I could hear the distaste in Madam Sacristan's voice as she gave me this latter piece of information.
(*I've not come across this use of the tune before - no doubt FatherinCharge picked the words up at some church or other which he visited whilst on holiday)
Solemn Eucharist BCP
From the eastern mountains (Goshen)
Burton in F and Shaw Folk Mass
Psalm 96
Hail thou source of every blessing (Redhead)
We three Kings
Bethlehem of noblest cities (Stuttgart)
Brightest and best (Epiphany Hymn)
All went well and given the weather a good number, I have a great fondness for that parricular tune to the last hymn. W3K was off the Bethlehem carol sheet as it is not in the old EH used here.
Mattins. a few miles distant
As with gladness 🤮
Psalm 72
Te Deum and Jubilate
How vain the cruel Herod's fear (Ely)
Brightest and best (Spean)
Lo! the pilgrim magi (Whitworth)
Spean made a change from other tunes, I have only been asked to play it in Free Church circles around here previously. I rather like it and it made up for having that wretched Dix tune.
The final hymn (on printed sheets as not in the old blue A&M they use) was new to me and had a lovely tune which apparently originated in Toronto (I think that was the place?) written by a man called Whitworth. Any from Canada or USA here may be able to comfirm this but the words were I think in the 1940 hymnal but not to that tune. Anyway it was a nice experience and brightend up Mattins! Epiphany Carols tonight cancelled due to weather so pasta, tiramisu and prosecco will be my three gifts for the feast 🤣
As With Gladness Men of Old DIX
How Deep the Fathers Love for Me (Townend)
Be Thou My Vision SLANE
Come and Join the Celebration CELEBRATIONS
We Three Kings of Orient Are KINGS OF ORIENT
Presumably, people prefer the (admittedly much chirpier) tune England's Lane, often used for For the beauty of the Earth...
I love you, Lord, your mercy never fails me
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus
Come, Lord Jesus, come (All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the fountain...)
Of course, on this side of The Pond at least, DIX is also the standard tune for “For the Beauty of the Earth.” (And you get those two notes on “the.”) I’d be pretty confident betting that’s the text most people here, at least in my tribe, think of when they hear the tune.
Today, the second Sunday of Christmas, we had:
“Angels from the Realms of Glory”/REGENT SQUARE
“What Star Is This, with Beams So Bright”/PUER NOBIS NASCITUR
“The Days Are Surely Coming”/LLANGLOFFAN
“We Three Kings”
I've seen the tune being used for other words (probably FTBOTE), which just feels Wrong.
Regent Square for Angels from the realms of glory strikes me as very odd; I don't think I've ever sung it to anything but Iris. Maybe a Pond thing (although I'm fairly sure we used Iris in Canada)?