The Concert Singers

Bells Ringing, Choirs Singing

December 10, 2017, 4:00 p.m.

Westchester United Methodist Church

Program

• A Carol Fantasy (arr. John Alexander)
  • In dulci jubilo
  • Personent hodie
• Carol of the Bells (m. M. Leontovych; w. & arr. Peter Wilhousky)
• Puer Natus in Bethlehem (w. Latin, 14th century; m. Gregor Werner; ed. Paul Thomas)
• There Is No Rose of Such Virtue (w. 15th century; m. Stephen Caracciolo)
• Star in the East (w. Bishop Reginald Heber, 1811; m. from “The Southern Harmony” ; arr. Vicki Tucker Courtney)
• Christmas Bell Roundelay (Linda Spevacek)
• Away in a Manger (w. anon & John T. McFarland, alt.; m. arr. Susan T. Nelson, based on the English folk song “The Bold Grenadier,” also known as “The Nightingale” and “One Morning in May”)
• Christmastime (wm. Michael W. Smith & Joanna Carlson; arr. Heather Sorenson)
• Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah (Yiddish song; arr. Cristi Cary Miller)
• Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (m. Elizabeth Poston; arr. Carl Schalk)
• Ain’t That a-Rockin’ (arr. Stacey V. Gibbs)

Intermission

• Ding Dong! Merrily on High (w. George R. Woodward; m. 16th century French carol; arr. Chester Alwes)
• The First Noel (arr. Andrew Huish)
• Sleigh Bells (arr. Earlene Rentz)
• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (m. Audrey Snyder)
• Celebration of Light (Joseph M. Martin)
• Christmas Gloria <Sing-Along> (arr. Lloyd Larson)
  • Hark the Herald Angels Sing
  • O little Town of Bethlehem
  • Angels We Have Heard on High 
• Jingle, Bells (J. Pierpont; arr. David Willcocks)
• The Work of Christmas (Dan Forrest)

Cut

• Hark the Herald Angels Sing (Samuel Arnold/Arr. William Lock)
• Angels’ Carol (John Rutter)
• Bashana Haba'ah (SSAA women) (w. Ehud Manor; m. Nurit Hirsh; arr. Nick Page)

Notes and Translations

• In dulci jubilo is a 14th century macaronic (meaning having words in Latin and some other language, such as English or German) carol, with words in both Latin and German. The words are attributed to the German Dominican friar and mystic named Heinrich Suso, who, according to legend, on hearing these words being sung by angels, joined them in a dance of worship. The tune first appeared in manuscript in Leipzig in 1400. The text has been translated into English several times: most translations keep the Latin but translate the German. In 1853, John Mason Neale used the tune, and the text became the basis of his Christmas hymn “Good Christian men rejoice.”

  In dulci jubilo, nun singet und seid froh. Unsers Herzens Wonne leit in praesepio, und leuchet als die Sonne matris in gremio: Alpha es et O. In dulci jubilo, let us our homage shew. Our heart’s joy reclineth in praesepio, And like a bright star shineth matris in gremio: Alpha es et O. O Jesu parvule I yearn for thee alway. Hear me, I beseech thee, O puer optime. My prayer, let it reach thee, O princeps gloriae! Trahe me post te. O Patris caritas! O Nati lenitas! Deeply were we stained per nostra crimina. But thou for us hast gained Coelorum gaudia. O that we were there!

  In sweet rejoicing, now sing and be joyful. Our heart’s delight lies in the manger, and shines as the sun in his mother’s lap: Thou art alpha and omega. In sweet rejoicing in the crib, in mother’s lap: [Thou art] Alpha and Omega. O tiny Jesus, O best of boys! O prince of glory. Draw me after thee. O love of the Father! O gentle Son! through our sins. heaven’s joys

• Personent Hodie is included in Piae Cantiones (Latin for devout songs), a collection of late medieval carols for Christmas and other seasons, published in Finland in 1582. The collection includes 74 Latin songs, mostly religious, although some are secular. The songs spread in the Lutheran churches in both Finland and Sweden. Some were translated and used in Lutheran hymnals in Finland and Sweden as well as Germany. A copy Piae Cantiones was given to Rev. John Mason Neale, who in 1853 translated some of the carols into English. In 1910, George R. Woodward published the first English edition, with some translated, and some with new words to the tunes. Some other familiar carols from the collection include Puer natus in Bethlehem ("A Boy is Born in Bethlehem"), Resonet in laudibus (the tune of “Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine”), and Tempus adest floridum (a secular spring carol, the tune of which Woodward used for “Good King Wenceslas.”

  Sing aloud on this day Children all raise the lay, cheerfully we and they hasten to adore thee, sent from highest glory. For us born, born, born, for us born, born, born, For us born on this morn of the Virgin Mary.
  Personent hodie  voces puerulæ Laudantes jucunde  qui nobis est natus, Summo Deo datus, et de vir-, vir-, vir-,  et de vir-, vir-, vir-, et de virgineo  ventre procreatus.	Resound today voices of children, merry praises who for us is born, given from Highest God. And from the vir-, vir-, vir-  from the vir-, vir-, vir-  From the Virgin’s womb born.

• Carol of the Bells is based on a Ukrainian New Year Carol called Shchedryk (Щедрик) by Mykola Leontovych (Микола Леонтович); the words and the arrangement are by Peter J. Wilhousky, who was of Czech descent, and made many arrangements of Slavic songs.
• Puer Natus in Bethlehem is a popular carol from the middle ages. It exists in several translations in German and English and other languages. The carol has at least 14 stanzas! We are singing a setting by the German composer Gregor Werner; it is arranged by Paul Thomas, with the German translated into English.

  Puer natus in Bethlehem, Unde gaudet Jerusalem. Hic jacet in præsepio Qui regnat sine termino. Gloria tibi, Domine, qui natus es de virgine.

  A Child is born in Bethlehem, Therefore rejoice, Jerusalem! He doth within a manger lie, Whose throne is set above the sky. O Holy Three, we thee adore, This day, henceforth, for evermore.

• There Is No Rose of Such Virtue is the modern version of a carol that began “There is no rose of swich vertu.” It is one of thirteen carols found in a Cambridge manuscript, part of which at least is attributed to John Dunstable of Henry VII’s Chapel. It is unclear whether he wrote the words or just the music. This arrangement is by Stephen Caracciolo.

  There is no rose of such virtue As is the rose that bare Jesu; Alleluia. For in this rose contained was Heaven and earth in little space; Res miranda. [marvelous thing] By that rose we may well see That he is God in persons three, Pares forma. [equal in form] The angels sungen the shepherds to: Gloria in excelsis Deo: Gaudeamus. Leave we all this worldly mirth, And follow we this joyful birth; Transeamus. [We are transported.]

• Star in the East is an early American Southern folk hymn, whose tune is found in The Southern Harmony. The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion is a shape-note hymn and tune book compiled by William Walker, first published in 1835. The book is notable for having originated or popularized several hymn tunes found in modern hymnals and shape note collections like the Sacred Harp, published in 1844. The roots of Southern Harmony singing, like Sacred Harp, are found in the American colonial era, when singing schools convened to provide instruction in choral singing, especially for use in church services. This practice remained popular with Baptists in the South long after it fell from use in other regions. The text is from Reginald Heber’s Epiphany hymn of 1811, “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning.” The first two stanzas are from Southern Harmony. The third, “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning” is Heber’s original; the fourth, is modified from Heber’s, which began, “Shall we not yield him” and has “odors of Edom” rather than “fragrance of Eden.” This arrangement is by Vicki Tucker Courtney.

  1. Hail the blest morn, see the great Mediator, Down from the regions of glory descend! Shepherds, go worship the babe in the manger, Lo, for his guard the bright angels attend. 2. Cold on his cradle the dewdrops are shining; Low lies his bed with the beasts of the stall; Angels adore him, in slumbers reclining, Wise men and shepherds before him do fall. 3. Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid; Star of the East, the horizon adorning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid. 4. Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion, Fragrance of Eden and offerings divine? Gems from the mountain, and pearls from the ocean, Myrrh from the forest, and gold from the mine?

• Christmas Bell Roundelay is a new Christmas piece by Linda Spevacek. It is unusual in that the bells say “dong, ding” rather than “ding, dong”! A roundelay is, by definition, a 24 line poem in trochaic tetrameter (that is, the rhythm of each foot is DEE-dum, and there are four feet per line).

  Dong, ding, dong, ding. Out in the English countryside, in a Southern region, bells of a grandeur nature ring ev’ry Christmas season. Year after year with great fanfare, bells reverberating. Sounds will come out from ev’rywhere, it’s time for celebrating. People come from far and wide, only to behold it, wondering what will betide as they were foretold it. Waiting for the bells to toll, waiting for their rhyming, Waiting for the bells to roll, waiting for the chiming. Jolly does the mood appear, merry are the people, Waiting for the sounds of cheer from ev’ry church and steeple. Listen now! Listen now! The have started swinging. Listen now! Listen now! Bells are now a-ringing! Such a delightful tune they play, such a delightful chorus, So many diff’rent melodies playing now before us. Bells ring loud and clear all throughout the year. Bells ring loud and clear, how their echoes linger. Roundelay, roundelay, the bells are ringing! Hear them ringing!  Christmas bells are ding-a-ling-ing, hear them ringing, gaily ringing. Dong, ding, dong, ding.

• The words to Away in a Manger are partly anonymous and partly by John T. McFarland, later altered. The notion that it was written by Martin Luther is false; however, it first appeared in 1883 in a celebration of the 400^th anniversary of Luther’s birth. It was written in America, but has become the second-most popular carol in Great Britain. There are many tunes associated with the carol. Probably the most familiar was published in 1887 by James Murray as “Luther’s Cradle Hymn.” By 1914 scholars attributed the tune to Carl Müller, otherwise unknown. Other tunes include “Flow gently, sweet Afton” and even “Home Sweet Home!” We are singing a new setting by Susan T. Nelson, based on the English folk song “The Bold Grenadier,” also known as “The Nightingale” and “One Morning in May”.
• Christmastime is another new piece by Michael W. Smith and Joanna Carlson, as arranged by Heather Sorenson.
• The Hebrew word חנוכּה (Hanukkah or Chanukah) means “dedication,” and refers to the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in bc 165. In the Hellenistic world, one of the successors of Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV, the ruler of the Seleucid kingdom in the East, attempted to impose pagan worship on his entire kingdom, including the Jews. Although some cooperated with him, many did not, including one Mattathias with his five sons, including the most famous, Judah Maccabee. The Maccabees were eventually successful in freeing Judea from the rule of Antiochus, until conquered by the Romans. When the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem, they needed to cleanse the temple, as it had been used for pagan sacrifices, including offering of swine on the altar. They celebrated this dedication for eight days, because they could not celebrate the eight-day festival of Sukkot, while they were living in the hills. (A legend recorded in the Talmud tells that when they returned to the temple, they found a small vial of consecrated oil, which was only enough to burn for one day. But miraculously it burned for eight.)
• Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah is an English version of the Yiddish song “Oy Chanukah” (חנוכּה אױ חנוכּה “Chanukah, oy Chanukah”). The English lyric is not a translation of the Yiddish, but conveys the sense of it. It is not an Israeli song, but has been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century, sung by the Jews of Eastern Europe. A sprightly children’s song, it mentions dancing the hora, spinning a dreidel, eating latkes, lighting candles, and singing songs. Dreidel is the Yiddish word for the spinning top traditionally connected with Hanukkah; it is “s’vivon” in Hebrew. The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans; the name comes ultimately from the Greek word for dance, χορός (choros). Latkes are potato pancakes shallow fried in oil: because the story of Hanukkah tells that a small amount of oil burned for eight days, rather than one. In Israel and in some other countries, rather than latkes, people eat jelly doughnuts. The arrangement is by Cristi Cary Miller.
• Jesus Christ the Apple Tree is a folk song compiled in 1784 by Joshua Smith in New Hampshire, published in Divine Hymns or Spiritual Songs. The tune was written for the words by Elizabeth Poston.
• Ding Dong Merrily on High uses a 16^th century French tune with words by George R. Woodward. This arrangement is by Chester L. Alwes.
• The First Noel is a carol from the West Country of England, probably Cornwall. It was first published in Some Ancient Christmas Carols, 1823, compiled by Davies Gilbert. William Sandys included it in his 1833 Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern, and supplied a tune. The source of the tune is unclear: Sandys probably arranged it from fragments of other tunes. This arrangement incorporates melodies from some of the other tunes that Sandys used, and the familiar tune occurs in the violin solo and in the final choral statement.
• Sleigh Bells is an arrangement of another Ukrainian melody by Earlene Rentz.
• The words to I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day were taken from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written on Christmas Day, 1863, as a bit of an anti-war song, after his son was severely wounded in November, 1862. Around 10 years later some unknown person turned some of the stanzas of Longfellow’s poem into a carol. A tune was written by John Baptiste Calkin. However, there are several other tunes for this carol. The tune in our version is by Johnny Marks, who also wrote “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas.” This arrangement is by Audrey Snyder.
• Celebration of Light is an original composition for Hanukkah by Joseph Martin.
• Christmas Gloria is a medley of three familiar Christmas carols by Lloyd Larson. We invite you to sing along!
  • Hark the Herald Angels Sing is based on a Christmas hymn by Charles Wesley, “Hark how all the welkin rings, Glory to the King of kings.” It was modified by George Whitefield in 1753  and others 1760, 1782, 1810, and 1861 to the hymn we know today. The tune is based on a composition of Felix Mendelssohn, which was written for the 500th anniversary of Gutenberg’s printing press, although Mendelssohn thought the tune would never be used for a sacred text!
  • O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by Bishop Phillips Brooks in 1868, and has been slightly modified over the years. The tune most associated with the text was written the same year by Lewis Henry Redner, and received the title St Louis.
  • Angels We Have Heard on High is a translation of a French carol, Les anges dans nos campagnes. It first appeared in English in 1860. There are several English translations.
• Jingle, Bells originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” was written by James Lord Pierpont and published in 1857. It was originally associated with Thanksgiving rather than Christmas, as it makes to reference to the religious or secular traditions of Christmas, other than snow! This arrangement is by David Willcocks, who for many years led the choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
• The Work of Christmas was composed by Dan Forrest.
  From the Composer
  I first encountered this Howard Thurman text online in January 2014, after the Christmas season had ended. Its beautiful lines call us not to merely take in the sights and sounds of the Christmas celebration, but to respond by doing our part in working toward the “peace on earth” that we so often sing about. I never set a text to music unless it “sings to me”–that is, it suggests some musical setting to me in which its external and internal beauty might be heightened by being joined to music. For me, some texts are best left alone as poetry; others eventually “sing to me,” but only after the song is coaxed out of them. Once in a while, though, a text seems to sing right off the page, and this poem did just that. I strove for a simple but elegant a cappella setting that would breathe with the flow of the words and let its beauty shine through. The piece may be effectively programmed in a variety of settings, either in the middle of a service or concert, or as a closing benediction. It is also effective either during the Christmas season or after it. —Dan Forrest
  
  Text of the poem by Howard Thurman
  When the song of the angels is stilled,
  When the star in the sky is gone,
  When the kings and princes are home,
  When the shepherds are back with their flock,
  The work of Christmas begins:
  To find the lost,
  To heal the broken,
  To feed the hungry,
  To release the prisoner,
  To rebuild the nations,
  To bring peace among brothers,
  To make music from the heart.
  —Howard Thurman
  

• Bashana Haba’ah, with words by Ehud Manor, music by beloved Israeli singer Nurit Hirsch, 1970, and arranged by Nick Page; this song is typically heard around the Jewish high holidays such as Rosh Hashanah. In Israel, Bashana may be heard on the radio all year; however, in America, it became a traditional song to end holiday services. The text was especially significant for the Israeli people following the wars.

בשנה הבאה  נשב על המרפסת ונספור ציפורים נודדות.  ילדים בחופשה ישחקו תופסת  בין הבית לבין השדות.  עוד תראה, עוד תראה  כמה טוב יהיה  בשנה, בשנה הבאה.  בשנה הבאה נפרוש כפות ידיים  מול האור הניגר הלבן  אנפה לבנה תפרוש באור כנפיים  והשמש תזרח בתוכן.

Bashana haba’ah, neishev al haimrpeset v’nispor tsiporim nod’dot. Y’ladim b’shufsha y’sachaku tofeset bein habayit l’vein hasadot. Od tir’eh, od tir’eh, kama tov yihye, bashana haba’ah. Bashana haba’ah, nifros kapot yadayim Mul ha’or hanigar halavan. Anafa l’vana tifros ka’or k’nafayim. V’hashemesh tizrach b’tochan. Od tir’eh &c In the year that’s to come our lives will be so peaceful, counting birds as they soar in the sky. As the birds spread their wings, see the sun streaming though them, we’ll rise up like the birds, we will fly. In the year yet to be we will sing, you and me, sing a song of a new day begun. Come with me, you will see just how sweet life will be when we sing, when we dance in the sun.

Next year we’ll sit on the porch, and count migrating birds children will play outside, between the house and fields. You will see, you will see, how much good there will be, next year.

• “a”
• w’s