Superb silence by candlelight
Attended the Midnight Eucharist at the Cathedral last night. In preparation, candles had been lit on all the window ledges. At Communion, everyone was given a candle which was lit and they carried down the side aisles before they returned to their seats. As the last communion carol was finished by the choir, the overhead lights were slowly dimmed and we only had the lights from the window candles, those fixed to the choir screen, and those being held by the congregation.
Something dramatic happened in that time when the last few Choir chords drifted into the rafters and only the small flickering points of light illuminated what would have been otherwise a very dark space. The silence was palpable.
Maybe that told it all. Perhaps the speech and music had simply been a preparation for this moment. This is what I shall remember most from this Service…not the pomp, the wonderful music, or the tremendous words…..just the silence…….
Lessons and Carols
It was in 1880, that Rev Edward Benson of Truro, later to become Archbishop of Canterbury, introduced a format of a service to cover the whole Christmas-tide story. It utilised nine Lessons and nine Carols (for choir and/or congregation). Lessons are read by various members of the Church, ending-up with the senior member of the Clergy. Whilst the readings are generally unchanged, there is a flexibility in Hymns or Carols, and many modern ones have crept in over the years.
It can be very emotive, especially if it is lit only by candlelight, and the sound of the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ by a young voice can be something else! I still remember the tingle when my son stood alone for his solo, to be followed by the rest of the choir joining him in the choir stalls.
It is probably the one time of the year when the occasional visitor to a church could join in with most of the singing, so it is the chance for the Church to ’show-off’ its beliefs, with a minimum of Liturgy, to the maximum number of people.
This year we joined with St Aidan’s at Clarkston in this marvellous event. We have been there before at a full Service, and it was very satisfying to go back. To use a well-known phrase, it was a ‘packed programme’ and again the building was full. Rector Colin, and Julie the organist, had put together a wonderful selection of all the well-known carols.
Some of Angelus, St Aidan's Christmas 2008
There was a tinge of sadness as one of the great choir members of St Aidan’s had passed away recently at a goodly age. He was very enthusiastic about the 85th Anniversary of the Church, and was looking forward to this one. But it was not to be! Also one of our very popular members was absent due to serious ill-health, after having been at all our practices.
The carols were:-
- Three lovely children sang the first verse of ‘Once in royal David’s city’.
- O Come all Ye Faithful
- Silent Night
- It came upon the midnight clear
- Angels from the realms of glory
- Joy to the World
- Of the Father’s love begotten
- O little town of Bethlehem
- While shepherds watched their flocks by night
- We three Kings
- Hark the herald Angels
Audrey McKirdy sang us ‘Mid Winter’ by Bob Chilcott, John Rutter’s ‘Shepherd’s Pipe Carol’, and his haunting ‘The Lord bless Thee’. Julie Legowski was again at the organ and accomplished as usual! And can I say that the combined choir excelled itself again!
Mince pies and mulled wine completed a lovely evening!….here’s to next year!
Sing to the sick
16th December 2008
Some of us were at Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow, last night for a carol-singing event.We joined many others from the Cathedral, and other Churches (in total about 40 folk), for an event organised by the Chaplaincy Centre, which involved dividing into groups and going round various parts of the hospital to sing carols.
You need music of course…… one groups had a guitar, and, in one lovely case, a set of hand-bells, whilst your’s-truly brought along David’s keyboard for our group.
Unfortunately the keyboard had no stand, and was mains-powered, so at each location (generally in a passageway near wards), we had to find some flat surface to place the keyboard, a chair, and a mains-socket.
As you will realise, all of the above are in short supply in such a situation. You can’t ACTUALLY push someone out of bed to set the keyboard down, so sometimes it was on a trolley, and sometimes on my knees! And, the risk of pulling-out some vital piece of life-saving equipment is always there so we had to do a lot of double-checking before getting power!
What came over to me again was that there are a considerable number of people in hospital, all with their individual worries. It is something we only think about when we have to go into a hospital, or see a programme on TV.
In life we mostly see normal, reasonably-healthy people, and so it is easy to forget the pain, suffering, and anguish, which people and families have to endure on a daily basis, and in an especially-poignant way, at this time of the year.
Do singing and music in general help the healing process? There is some evidence to show that people who sing regularly, and enjoy music, tend to have a happier disposition and a slightly-better average life. So maybe we did make a minute difference.
But it will be a long time before I will forget the look on some of those people. We obviously could say no more than platitudes…you sometimes just don’t know what to say.
Many of the serious cases may well not be home for Christmas, but if we have raised a small smile of joy, or a glimpse of recognition of Christmasses past, then we will have achieved something.
Why an Apple Tree?
Along with the Authorised parts of the Bible there is a group of books which did not have the full backing of the Canonical Committee who decided what should be ‘in’ and what should be left ‘out’. And so the the Apocrapha contains some of the ‘doubtful’ ones which still have something to offer.
And so it is with some of our carols. Some are based on delightful stories, such as ‘Good King Wenceslas’, some such as ‘Candlemas Eve Carol’ and ‘The Holly and the Ivy’talk of the woodlands, plants and trees, whilst others such as ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’, about the life of Joseph are pure stories. And yet others such as ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ are quite nonsensical.
Recently at the Cathedral we heard the haunting piece ‘Jesus Christ the Apple Tree’. Why should this carol (nothing to do with Christmas!) hold some special place in our psyche. Even Archbishop Robert Runcie loved it. It could be called an allegorical poem and was written with a very-simple verse construction by an anonymous New Englander, appearing in a collection in New Hampshire in 1784, so the words have been around for a long time. Open a Bible at The Song of Solomon, and you find in Chapter 2, lovely references to the Rose of Sharon, the lily, and, yes, there it is, the apple tree. The words of the carol refer directly to the Biblical verses….so no mystery there.
The music is extremely simple. Written in the key of C, with no incidentals it is easy to learn and memorise. It sounds a bit like a form of plainchant with many repeated notes. Also when sung it usually begins in unison and graduallybecomes more rich with other parts coming in. It was written by Elizabeth Poston, who only died in 1987.
So, another quirky set of words which add to the wonderfully-diverse tapestry of worship we have available to us.
How well do you know Carol?
Some facts you might not have known about Christmas Carols:-
- Originally a Carol was not a religious song, but a secular dance, often in triple time.
- The carol ‘In Dulci Jubilo’, when the words are sung as a mixture of English (from the German), and Latin, is an example of a ‘macaronic carol’. The melody can be found in a 14th century manuscript in Leipzig University.
- The wonderful combination of Charles Wesley and Felix Mendelssohn gave us ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.
- The tune of the French carol ‘Whence is that Goodly Fragrance’ later appeared as the rousing drinking song ‘Fill ev’ry glass, for wine inspires us’ in John Gay’s ‘The Beggars Opera’ in the 18th Century. I remember well singing it with the Kirkie Players some 16 years ago!
- ‘Good King Wenceslas’ originally appeared in Piae Cantiones in 1582, as a Spring carol. It was only about 150 years ago that the 10th Century story of Saint Wenceslas of Bohemia was told. After his father died, he encouraged Christianity in Bohemia, against the wishes of his mother, and was murdered by his brother Buleslav.
- The Romans used Holly to decorate their houses at the feast of Saturnalia, which occurred in the winter season. Ivy was dedicated by them, to Bacchus from the idea that it warded-off drunken-ness!
- The Coventry Carol (‘Lul-ly, lul-lay’) is one of the oldest English Carols. The original tune comes from 1591 and was sung in the Coventry Plays of that era.
- There are several Wassailling Songs. The word Wassail means ‘Keep You Well’.
- Czechoslovakia has provided a number of lovely quiet carols including the ‘Rocking Carol’, ‘The Birds’, and ‘The Zither Carol’. ‘Infant Holy’ is from Poland.
- ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’ was written in 1857 by Dr J.H.Hopkins of Pennsylvania, one of very few well-known carols from the USA.
So give a thought, when next singing over Christmas, that the words and music may have had a very strange history!
The Bells, the bells !
One of our members (Gill, the artistic one) has provided us with this lovely little drawing, as a sort of logo for the Angelus Singers. I especially like the bell, and, of course, the flared trousers! It has a wonderfully-peaceful and, dare I say it, angelic, feel about it.
I suppose that’s why a lot of us sing….it gives us a bit of inner peace, even if we are struggling putting the words and notes together!
If you like church bells, click on some of the links below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvn3ftWVAb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RtN3urZiDk
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7372425122532402557&ei=st34SJmjIJOwiALisYXsDg&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogQrUvJrWy0
Wait a minute!
Christmas is heading towards us, and probably many of us remember going out as children, carol-singing, to raise some money or fill our pockets with goodies. We see references in some carols to such people being called ‘Waits’. There is one especially-humorous song written, by Charles Hayes, and music by Sterndale Bennett, where there is a direct co-relation between carol-singers and Waits….in fact they are treated as the same.
Actually, Waits were the original City Watchmen, who patrolled the streets, as an early police force, under the control of the City Fathers. They would indicate that they were at work, and mark the hours with a musical instrument, perhaps a horn as in the Mastersingers’ watchman. As their musical ability increased, and dressed in a uniform on ceremonial occasions, this was seen as a career path for budding musicians. Orlando Gibbons was the son of a Wait in Cambridge. It was not limited to England, and many of the Bach family were town musicians in Germany.
In order to supplement their wages, they would go to inns where there was a chance of receiving money from arriving guests. There are records of in the early 1600’s in Edinburgh, of street concerts organised by the authorities for morning, noon, and evening. Even Aberdeen had them!
So the instrument players of those early days have been translated into the singing groups we see and hear sometimes, but nowadays the invitation into a warm fire and punch, in a pre-arranged location is more likely.
CAN I TAKE THE CHANCE TO BE THE FIRST TO WISH YOU A HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
