O Come, O Come: Liturgical musical recommendations for the season of expectation

St. John Vianney Parish, Kailua, music minister and composer Robert Mondoy and St. Michael School, Waialua, principal and musician Kainoa Fukumoto shared with the Hawaii Catholic Herald why Advent is their favorite time in the liturgical year for music plus a few of their favorite Advent songs.

Second coming

By Robert Mondoy
Special to the Herald

Planning song choices for the Advent season is rather engaging, given that the different lectionary cycles provide different facets of the same grand season of Advent. For example, the end of Cycle C and the beginning of Cycle A this year (i.e. Advent) both emphasize the eschatological nature of Christ’s “two comings” with the emphasis on things ending and being renewed with life again.

Hence Advent recounts the image of Christ coming as the promised Messiah to redeem the universe and Christ again coming at the end times to enact lasting peace and joy by his universal rulership.

Even Psalm 122 is used for both Christ the King and the first Sunday of Advent.

All three lectionary cycles have delightfully diverse images in their readings and psalms. So it’s a pleasure for the music minister to choose songs that reflect each Advent Sunday’s striking and particular perspective of salvation history.

For this season, I’m highlighting the following songs for their variety of style and strength of melody and text:

“You Clouds of Heaven Open Wide” and “Savior of the Nations Come.” These traditional hymns have melodic and rhythmic strength in a minor key, and they clearly declare in a powerful way the hope and light for the People of God even as the season’s nights lengthen at this time of the year.

The Appalachian-inspired song “Judas and Mary” became the tune-source for the text of Isaiah 11, perfect for the Second Sunday of Advent. The tune was composed by Sydney Carter, who gave us “Lord of the Dance.” I found it in the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal.

“Isaiah the Prophet Has Written of Old” has the same tune. The lyrics stand out: “God, bring to fruition your will for the earth that no one shall hurt or destroy; That wisdom and justice shall reign in the land and your people shall go forth in joy, in joy, your people go forth in joy.”

One of my recent favorites is “Canticle of the Turning” by Rory Cooney, who borrowed the Irish tune “Star of the County Down.” The melody is very bouncy and fetching, and the text reminds me of Mary’s Magnificat. Its refrain is “My heart shall sing of the day you bring; Let the fire of your justice burn, wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near and the world is about to turn”

“People Look East” is a cheery tune and text about our Advent longing and Nativity fulfillment. It is a great last song for the last Sunday of Advent, along with “When the King Shall Come Again.”

I prefer using Communion procession songs that are strongly Advent-oriented, such as “My Soul in Stillness Waits” by Marty Haugen and “Remember Your Love” by Daryl Ducote and Gary Daigle.

I usually reserve the venerable “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” for the third and fourth Sundays of Advent during the time when the “O Antiphons” cited in the song are prayed.

A good sending-forth song is Tim Schoebachler’s 1975 “Rise Up Jerusalem,” which has proven to be a perennial favorite in our community because of its rhythmic power and melodic and textual exuberance.

Gerard Chiusano’s 2000 “Maranatha,” sounds good either in a meditative pace or in a strong two-beat, forceful pace, which is a rather unique circumstance among songs in general.

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Joyful expectation

By Kainoa Fukumoto
Special to the Herald

I personally love music during the Advent season and the theme of “joyful expectation.” There’s so much hope built into this that, despite the darkness, despite the challenges, there is something greater that lies ahead.

One of my favorites is “Creator of the Stars of Night,” originally a chant-like hymn that draws us into the dark and reveals Christ as “Redeemer of us all.” The lyrics cry out, “Come in your holy might, we pray, redeem us for eternal day,” directing our thoughts toward the Second Coming.

The haunting melody is particularly impactful at night, such as during Advent vespers, when dimmed lights move the listener to reflect more closely on Christ as the everlasting light who sets all free from the ancient curse of death.

 

There is a modern rendition by Ed Bolduc that I’ve been using over the last few years that mixes the Second Coming context with the “come, come” antiphon that is so characteristic of Advent music as well as the familiar “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel” refrain.

“The King Shall Come” is another Advent favorite of mine. Its first line, “The King shall come when morning dawns, and light triumphant breaks, when beauty gilds the eastern hills, and life to joy awakes,” brings our attention to the resurrection while also illuminating the Advent image of Christ as the light in the darkness.

I’m not a fan of the original traditional hymn version, but I love the contemporary version of the hymn by Trevor Thomson, and it has certainly become a favorite at my parish.

Advent: Allowing ourselves to be bathed in the light of heaven.

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O Antiphons

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

Perhaps the best-known Advent song, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” incorporates the “O Antiphons.”

These seven antiphons, or responses, date back to the eighth century and are part of the Liturgy of the Hours’ Evening Prayers from Dec. 17-24.

Each antiphon connects to the prophecies in the book of Isaiah and relates to Old Testament titles for the Messiah. In Latin they are:

O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

O Adonai (O Lord)

O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)

O Clavis David (O Key of David)

O Oriens (O Rising Sun)

O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)

O Emmanuel (O God with us)

“They are a magnificent theology that uses ancient biblical imagery drawn from the messianic hopes of the Old Testament to proclaim the coming Christ as the fulfillment not only of Old Testament hopes, but present ones as well,” according to an explanation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website. “Their repeated use of the imperative ‘Come!’ embodies the longing of all for the Divine Messiah.”

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‘What Child Is This?’

By Effie Caldarola
Catholic News Service

The hymns we hear during Advent are one of the season’s greatest consolations.

And is there any musical composition quite as evocative as the beautiful blend of “What Child Is This?” and the more recently written, “Child of the Poor”?

The arrangement, designed to alternate verses of the two songs, makes a powerful and haunting meditation on the meaning of the birth of Jesus. It helps us understand that the Incarnation is more than a story told once, but the ongoing tale of God’s life in the world, particularly among those on the margins.

“What Child Is This?” is an old hymn. It was written by William Chatterton Dix in the year 1865. Unlike most hymns and carols, it doesn’t have its own melody but instead was set to the beloved English tune “Greensleeves.”

“What Child is this, who laid to rest / on Mary’s lap is sleeping?” This is the eternal question — who is this child? — and the answer is one on which we base our faith.

“Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, / while shepherds watch are keeping.”

Juxtaposed with this tender scene is the melody and compelling insistence of its companion piece, “Child of the Poor,” written in 1994 by Scott Soper.

“Helpless and hungry, lowly, afraid, / wrapped in the chill of midwinter, / comes now among us, born into poverty’s embrace, / new life for the world.”

Helpless and hungry, this child reveals to us who God is. Not the God of the rich, the comfortable, the powerful, but the God of those born into poverty’s embrace. What kind of king is this? What kind of salvation?

“Who is this who lives with the lowly, / sharing their sorrows, knowing their hunger? / This is Christ revealed to the world / in the eyes of a child, a child of the poor.”

The Christmas creche is a wonderful illustration of the Gospel story. It’s said that Francis of Assisi first created the replication of Christ’s humble birth as recorded in Luke’s Gospel.

But sometimes, we overly sentimentalize this story. Our creche can be overwhelmed by all the consumerism, the gaudiness, the secular trappings of the Advent and Christmas seasons that surround it in our homes.

When I hear these two songs intertwined, it brings a stark reminder of what this Christmas scene, this Incarnation, really asks of us. Christ asks us to look into the eyes of the child in the manger and see the eyes of a child of the poor.

How do we see and recognize Christ? In the poor. If we look away from the poor, we are looking away from Christ.

The infant Jesus becomes all of us, born in innocence, surrounded by angels and hope. Christ stands with every baby, worthy of a chance to live a full life, a life where medical and nutritional needs are met, where education is provided, where safety guards against evil and war, where life is respected.

The message of Jesus’ life, right from the beginning, was that he desired to be one with us. He was born in the messiness of a human birth, nursed in the arms of a young mother, raised in the reality of a poor and oppressed community.

Not only did he want to be one with us, but he deeply desired that we be one with each other.

Dix’s song takes us quickly, in another verse, to the cross, an inevitable thought even during Advent. Soper’s words take us to Jesus who lived and died alongside the poor and is still found there. The messages of Christmas are not sentimentalized here.

If your parish doesn’t offer the beautiful blend of these two hymns, you can find them online for a powerful Advent meditation.

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‘Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming’

By Shemaiah Gonzalez
Catholic News Service

The 500-plus-year-old German Advent hymn, “Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming,” is not one I grew up singing in church. I had never even heard it until indie musician Sufjan Steven released his box set “Songs for Christmas” in 2006.

Originally created as a gift the artist gave his friends and family, he has since released the collection to the general public and it is a family favorite.

In the collection, Stevens does a deep dive into older, Christocentric hymns and carols, rich in theology and poetry as opposed to pop songs about the season. “Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming” is among that collection.

The hymn first appeared in print in German in 1599 and is mostly sung to a simple harmonic melody by 17th-century German composer, Michael Praetorius. This hymn is rich in both symbolism and theology.

A rose is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn speaks of Jesus’ lineage and prophecies from Isaiah foretelling the Messiah, making it the perfect hymn to sing during Advent.

Now that the Advent hymn has come into my family rotation, I find that artists such as Feist and Sting have their own haunting versions of the song. Yet the song is done best with a full orchestra and chorus, invoking both the tenderness and pageantry of the piece.

The first two verses speak of Mary, the “rose,” blooming from the stem of the tree of Jesse, the symbol used for the lineage of King David’s father Jesse, from whom the Messiah would be born as was prophesized in the Book of Isaiah:

“But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, / and from his roots a bud shall blossom” (Is 11:1).

Combining both Old Testament prophecy and Christ’s lineage in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the hymn sings:

“Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming / From tender stem hath sprung! / Of Jesse’s lineage coming / As men of old have sung.”

In the third verse, the bud or rose, Mary, has given birth to Christ, represented too as a small flower, who is:

“True man, yet very God, / From sin and death He saves us / And lightens every load.”

There is a sweet tenderness to this quiet little song. The simple nature of the melody lends itself to contemplation and that sense of waiting in anticipation that comes with Advent.

Listeners remember the foretelling of the Christ Child in the Old Testament as we hear references to those holy texts. We sense the longing of those waiting for Christ. That longing mirrors our own in the lines:

“This Flower, whose fragrance tender / With sweetness fills the air, / Dispels with glorious splendor / The darkness everywhere.”

As I sing the last verse, I imagine waiting as Israel did for generations, longing for relief from their suffering. I wait as Mary did, for 9 months, knowing she held the savior of the world in her womb.

Waiting, as the disciples did, looking at the sky where Jesus ascended, wondering when he would return. And as we do now, we wait for his presence to bring light in dark places.

The last line is:

“True man, yet very God, / From sin and death He saves us / And lightens every load.”

There is a melancholy in this hymn. The tension we sense each Advent as we wait for a child to be born, only to die, for us. Each Christmas points to Good Friday, but ultimately to Easter — when Christ will save us from sin and death.

We wait in hope.

Gonzalez is a freelance writer. Her website is www.shemaiahgonzalez.com.