Marnanel Thurman

Music for Sunday 30th December 2018, 1st Sunday of Christmas, Year C

Kathryn

The readings for this Sunday are:
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 — Samuel was given to the Temple by his parents when he was still a child, and they used to go and visit him each year.

Psalm 148 — a song instructing all to praise God’s glory, including heavens, heights, angels, sun, moon, stars, heavens (again), waters above the heavens, sea monsters and all deeps, et cetera.

Colossians 3:12-17 — advice to the Colossians and to us about behaving in a loving and kind manner, and allowing the peace of Christ to rule in us; being thankful; allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us; singing praises to God; and doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Luke 2:41-52 — Jesus and his family go to the Temple for Passover, Mary and Joseph travel back but they can’t find Jesus, after three days he’s still in the Temple.

In terms of musical resources, you might have a visiting choir on this Sunday, or you might have no choir at all, or you might just be a bit thin on the ground.

Alice Tegnér, Psalm 148
Swedish text, SATB with soloist, organ optional, moderately easy, 2min 20s.
Available from CPDL:
http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Psalm_148_(Alice_Tegn%C3%A9r)

Hilary Tann, Contemplations (8, 9)
Latin and English text from Psalm 148 and a poem by Anne Bradstreet.
SSA a capella, moderately challenging, 5min 10s
http://hilarytann.com/2011/12/31/contemplations-8-9
Available from Brichtmark Music, scroll right to the bottom: http://www.brichtmarkmusic.com/catalogue
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ERiqE88eQ

Patricia Van Ness, Psalm 148
Part of Birds of the Psalms
English text adapted from the Book of Common Prayer by the composer
SSATBB a capella, challenging, 2min
Available from the composer’s website:
http://www.patriciavanness.com/works-psalms.html
Recording: https://youtu.be/MkKpMWvJpHE

Rosephanye Powell, Have you seen the baby Jesus?
English text, SSAA or SATB with soloist, moderately easy, 2min 40s.
Available from JW Pepper:
https://www.jwpepper.com/Have-You-Seen-the-Baby-Jesus%3F/10873687.item (SSAA)
https://www.jwpepper.com/Have-You-Seen-the-Baby-Jesus/10279106.item#/submit (SATB)
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQrG46Q5nVA

Kathryn Rose, BRAXTED, Wherever Love Is.
English text by Marnanel Thurman, SATB hymn tune, easy, 3vv.
Available from CPDL:
https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Wherever_Love_Is_–_Braxted_(Kathryn_Rose)

Music for Maundy Thursday

Kathryn

Here are some pieces for Maundy Thursday.

Ramona Luengen’s Ubi Caritas for TTBB is beautifully haunting. It’s available to purchase from Cypress Choral Music, with a downloadable perusal score, and here’s a recording of Chor Leoni singing it.

If you don’t have enough lower voices to split into four parts like that, and you still want to sing Ubi Caritas, but you don’t want to do the plainchant, you could try a metrical paraphrase, set as a hymn. That’s exactly what my version on CPDL is, with words by Marnanel Thurman:

As friendship fills our meeting-place,
Jesus is here;
He dwells in every friend’s embrace,
Each smile sincere,
Rejoicing in the love we share.
Wherever love is, God is there.

As friendship fills our meeting-place
Jesus brings peace.
Divisions heal, and by his grace
Arguments cease.
Forgiven friends are one in prayer:
Wherever love is, God is there.

As friendship fills our meeting-place,
Jesus our friend
Will smile to see us face to face,
World without end,
And hold us in his loving care:
Wherever love is, God is there.

And finally, I’ve been sent a hymn for Maundy Thursday by the author of the blog Conjubilant With Song. The text is by Frances Ridley Havergal, though I’ve only been able to find it in the post on that blog; and it fits to the tune PENMAENMAWR by Sarah Geraldine Stock; there are scores of the tune, and information about Sarah Stock, at Hymnary.org, which is probably the most comprehensive online hymnody resource I know. If I can verify the text, I’ll probably put a copy of this up on CPDL; in the meantime I look forward to digging into the rest of the Conjubilant With Song blog, particularly the Voices Found tag.

12th Day of Christmas: ‘I walked in darkness’ by Kathryn Rose

Kathryn

For the twelfth day of Christmas, here’s I walked in darkness by Kathryn Rose, with words by Marnanel Thurman:

I walked in darkness. Many a lonely mile,
my eyes and footsteps hesitant and blind.
I sought a kindly light I did not find
in land or ocean, asking all the while
if lightless lives are taken in exchange
for light eternal; still the shades of sight
would whisper, “Even I shall see the light!”
I never thought the light would look so strange.
Not in a temple, echoing and awed,
Nor in a palace, glistening and grand,
Nor in my home, nor any friendly land.
But distant, dirty, in a shed abroad,
I met a maiden bloody from a birth
and in her arms, the light of all the earth.

[Listen to I walked in darkness on Youtube]

The score is available from the Choral Public Domain Library.