Kathryn

Music for 24th November: Advent 4, Year B

Kathryn


2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Canticle: Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) OR
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

Christmas is very nearly upon us, but Sunday morning is still Advent.

2 Samuel: King David lives in a house of cedar but the Ark of God dwells in a tent; David finds this disconcerting but God seems to have very particular ideas about it, and makes a covenant with David.

Psalm 89, or bits of it: very much about God’s anointed and the covenant with David. But you could use the Magnificat instead here.

Romans: So many ideas touched upon in only one sentence! Strength and faith in Christ; mystery and prophecy and wisdom. But the main idea is to give glory to God.

Luke: The Annunciation. An angel appears to Mary and tells her she’s going to get pregnant despite being a virgin.

The obvious choice of music here is Mary’s Whys by Helen Williams. There’s a recording online and you can download the score for free from Canossa Choral Music. Sarah Lutton’s poem imagines Mary’s response to being asked to bear the Son of God.

New music this week: Ruth Watson Henderson

Kathryn

This week I was sent a wonderful list of music by women, thanks to the Multitude of Voyces project. I promptly fell down a rabbit hole of listening to lots of music instead of updating my database… hence this post is a day late.

When I finally pried myself away from the Tube of You, I added some work by Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson to the site, and I added a new page for works I haven’t sorted into categories yet.

Here’s Ruth Watson Henderson’s Missa Brevis:

[Listen to Missa Brevis by Ruth Watson Henderson on Youtube]

I’m going to take a couple of weeks off from updating the database, so there won’t be “new music this week” posts on Tuesday 26th December or Tuesday 2nd January. I do still intend to make music recommendations, though.

Music for Sunday 17th December: Advent 3 (Gaudete), year B

Kathryn

The readings for this week are
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126 OR Canticle: Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28.

Gaudete Sunday, hurrah! Rejoice!

Now it gets interesting. There’s enough imagery in Isaiah alone to last several weeks: the focus on justice and good news for the poor and downtrodden, or the rejoicing as a bride, or the earth bringing forth its shoots.

To complicate things further, you could have the Magnificat as a canticle instead of the psalm this week, or next week instead. Psalm 126 is one of the Songs of Ascents, and it’s about a harvest of (guess what?) joy and thanksgiving.

1 Thessalonians is short and sweet, rejoice in the Lord always, and some other instructions and benedictions from the letter-writer. And “the one who calls you is faithful”.

And then we have John the Baptist, again, this time as told by John rather than Mark.

If you are using the Magnificat this week, check out the Evensong page for a couple of recommendations. If you’re really going all-out for Gaudete you could also consider Isabella Leonarda’s Magnificat, but it does require two violins and a basso continuo as well as the choral parts and it lasts a good nine or ten minutes, so this is not a good substitute for the psalm at your average Parish Eucharist! Here’s a recording:

Isabella Leonarda’s Magnificat on YouTube

The hymn I wrote for last week would work well again this week, but… well, probably not if you used it last week.

New music this week: Justine Koontz

Kathryn

During an already-busy time of year for church musicians (even ones like me who don’t have a steady post), something came up this past week that demanded a lot of my time and attention.

As a result I haven’t added very much music to the site this week. Just one piece, in fact: this rather lovely setting of “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Justine Koontz, for unison voices with piano accompaniment.

order the score from her website.

Signal Boost: a selection of Advent calendars

Kathryn

I thought, briefly, about doing some kind of Cecilia’s List Advent calendar. Then I thought better of it: I don’t have enough music in the database yet to do that without repeating composers. But there are some other musical Advent calendars which might be of interest:

Over on tumblr, Emily E Hogstad has the Song of the Lark Advent Calendar, made up of some of her favourite compositions by women.

Salon Without Boundaries also has an Advent Calendar, under the “discover” tag on their website, with visual art and music by women every day.

And last but not least, Ally Barrett has some Advent doodles and reflections, based on scripture.

Music for Sunday 10th December: Advent 2 (Year B)

Kathryn

The readings for this Sunday are:


Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Isaiah: Comfort ye my people. Make the way straight. The Lord is coming, and he will feed his flock like a shepherd.
Psalm: A prayer for God’s favour. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
2 Peter: It’s all a bit wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey… The Lord is not slow, but patient; and then some stuff about what it will be like when God does turn up, new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. In the meantime we are to wait patiently and strive to be found at peace.
Gospel: good old John the Baptist, telling us who’s coming next. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

I was expecting to run into a Sunday eventually where I couldn’t make many recommendations yet, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon.

There’s always Crimond, if you didn’t use it last week, given the feeding of flocks like a shepherd; but that isn’t particularly Advent-y.

So, I wrote a hymn tune myself, to some words by Percy Dearmer.

New music this week, and administrivia

Kathryn

This week I added some music by Isabella Leonarda, Leanne Veitch, Susan Partlan, and Helen Williams. Check out the pages for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Eucharist to have a look.

I’m also changing the format of the listings slightly, using H6 (heading six) tags within the lists to make individual works easier to find for people using assistive screenreaders. I haven’t updated absolutely everything just yet, so please bear with me while the site looks a bit mis-matched.

Finally, please do use the music submission form if you’d like to suggest music for me to include on the site. I’ve updated it slightly to allow for you to submit someone else’s work.

TEST: nothing interesting here

Kathryn

I’m doing some testing of formatting to make the site more accessible to people using assistive tech. Proper update later today!

  • Mary’s Whys. Williams, Helen.

    Words by Sarah Lutton. English, SATB with or without children’s choir, organ, 3:00, easy to medium difficulty. [Listen to mp3] [Download score from Canossa Choral Music] Inspired by Luke 1:26-38. Sarah Lutton’s poem imagines Mary’s response to being asked to bear the Son of God. Suitable for Mothering Sunday, the Annunciation or the Fourth Sunday of Advent. May be downloaded and used in Christian worship without charge. For other use please contact Canossa Choral music.

Music for Sunday 3rd December: Advent 1 (Year B)

Kathryn

The readings for this Sunday are:

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-8, 18-20
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Serious stuff. Repentance is a theme in Isaiah and the Psalm; 1 Corinthians is more encouraging, and the Gospel reading is about keeping awake.

If you’re of a Marian bent you could use the Alma Redemptoris Mater, which is the Marian antiphon used from Advent to Candlemas. There’s a setting by Isabella Leonarda available on CPDL; here’s a Youtube recording of it sung by women, rather than the SATB:


[external link: Alma Redemptoris Mater by Isabelle Leonarda, on Youtube]

If Advent carol services and processions are more your thing, you could sing Stephanie Martin’s Legend of the Bird, a carol in the form of a conversation with a robin about the return of Christ. It’s available to order from Cypress Choral Music, and here it is on Soundcloud:

[external link: Legend of the Bird by Stephanie Martin, on Soundcloud]

Finally, my own setting of “Advent” by Christina Rosetti is available from Lulu or CPDL, and here’s a demo recording of it on YouTube:


[external link: Advent by Kathryn Rose, on Youtube]

There are also arrangements by women of various traditional Advent tunes; these are in some ways beyond the remit of Cecilia’s List, but the two that spring to mind are O Come O Come Emmanuel arranged by Sheena Phillips, and Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen by Sigrid Schultz-Kokerbeck. I’m intrigued by the text for the latter — there’s more information at good old Wikipedia but no English translation there, and my German is pretty shaky; however, I did find this blog post from 2013 with an English translation.

New music this week: Judith Clingan, Sheena Phillips and Sakari Dixon

Kathryn

Today I am mostly on a train from Aberdeen to London.

I’ve still been able to add a bit of new music to the site, though. So, check out the Christmas page for music by Judith Clingan, the Lent page for another piece by Sheena Phillips and the Eucharist page for some Sheena Phillips and a piece by Sakari Dixon.

I’ve found or had suggested a few other composers this week, which is great: keep the suggestions coming! In the meantime, be sure to check back on Thursday for repertoire suggestions for Advent 1.