Less well known than its sister King’s College Cambridge, the SJC choir dates to 1670 and sings the daily offices every day but Monday in the chapel.
This Year's Service at St. John’s, Cambridge
Here is the program announced on the BBC website (also available as a PDF on the SJC choir website):
Carol: Adam lay ybounden (Ord)†
Processional Hymn: O come, O come, Emmanuel! (Veni Emmanuel) (descant: David Hill)†
Bidding Prayer
Carol: E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come (Manz)
I The Message of Advent
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Sapientia and O Adonai
First lesson: Isaiah 11 vv.1-5
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (James Burton)†
Second lesson: 1 Thessalonians 5 vv.1-11
Sacred Song: Einklang (Wolf)
II The Word of God
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Radix Jesse and O Clavis David
Aria: Ach, so lass von mir dich finden, TVWV 1:1657a (Telemann)
Third lesson: Micah 4 vv.1-4
Carol: The Linden Tree Carol (Trad, arr. Jacques)†
Fourth lesson: Luke 4 vv.14-21
Hymn: Come, thou long-expected Jesus (Cross of Jesus) (descant: Christopher Robinson)
III The Prophetic Call
Sentence and Collect
Antiphons: O Oriens and O Rex Gentium
Carol: A Prayer to St John the Baptist (Cecilia McDowall)
Fifth lesson: Malachi 3 vv.1-7
Carol: Vox clara ecce intonat (Gabriel Jackson)
Sixth lesson: Matthew 3 vv.1-11
Hymn: On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New) (descant: Christopher Robinson)
IV The God-Bearer
Sentence and Collect
Antiphon: O Emmanuel
Carol: There is no rose (Elizabeth Maconchy)†
Seventh lesson: Luke 1 vv.39-49
Carol: Bogoroditse Dyevo (Arvo Part)
Carol: A Spotless Rose (Howells)†
Magnificat: Watson in E
Eighth lesson: John 3 vv.1-8
Sentence and Christmas Collect
Carol: Noe, noe (David Bednall)
Hymn: Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley) (descant: Christopher Robinson)
College Prayer and Blessing
Organ Voluntary: Chorale Prelude on ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’, BWV 661 (Bach)
As there are Nike and Adidas teams, this is not an Oxford Book of Descants choir — no Cleobury (or even Willcox) descants here. Instead, three of the four descants are by Christopher Robinson, editor of the Novello Book of Descants.
Advent: Not Just a Christmas Prequel
Many music directors and churchgoers know the KCC Christmas Eve service, broadcast annually on the BBC. It list of lessons are codified in the 2007 book on the KCC tradition, and least four other published books.
Instead, SJC is doing its Lessons & Carols on Advent 1. Right now I'm helping support my daughter’s church planning an Advent L&C service, so I'm becoming more aware of the differences, which include:
- Different lessons: only one lesson overlaps the KCC (Isa 11:1). One could argue that the John the Baptist (Matt 3) is equivalent to one of the OT lessons at KCC, but clearly these lessons downplay the “baby Jesus is coming” and add the “Christ will come again” eschatological sense of Advent.
- Different music: no baby Jesus songs, lots more Advent songs (4 explicitly about Jesus coming). Of the 14 carols or hymns, only 5 overlap (according to my files) the KCC choices from 1997-2017
IMHO a service on Advent 4 (particularly the evening of Dec 23, as in this year) would be almost indistinguishable from Christmas Eve. For their (our) Advent 3 service, there isn’t baby Jesus — except that (in a nod to the KCC tradition) they are opening with “Once in Royal David’s City.” (I’d argue this choice is more defensible than other Christmast hymns, because this one is clearly in the past tense, while “Hark the Herald Angels” and others are in the present tense.)
References
William Pearson Edwards, The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols: As Celebrated on Christmas Eve in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge (Rizzoli International, 2007)
Julian Elloway, ed., The Oxford Book of Descants (Oxford: Oxford, 2012)
Christopher Robinson, ed., The Novello Book of Descants (London: Novello, 2007)
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