Singing to angels and arcangels

The Feast of Michaelmas

The feast of St. Michael is celebrated on Sept. 29 by the liturgical Western churches. The celebration of St. Michael dates to 5th century Rome on Sept 30, and on Sept. 29 from the 7th century onward. In England, Michaelmas was once one of the major English quarterly holidays (along with Christmas, Lady Day and Midsummer), and was traditionally celebrated by a feast with a fatted goose.

The Catholic church today remembers the three archangels named in scripture: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. In the Anglican church, the feast is for St. Michael and All Angels. This is also the observance of the Lutheran church, which kept it despite dropping so many other Roman holidays; as an LCMS writer explains:

At the time of the Reformation, the Lutherans revised the celebration of former holidays and saint days in order to give greater prominence to the work of Jesus. St. Michael and All Angels was retained in the Lutheran liturgical calendar because it was seen as a principal feast about Christ. In fact, Philip Melanchthon, a colleague of Dr. Martin Luther, even wrote a hymn about St. Michael and All Angels (LSB 522, “Lord God, To Thee We Give All Praise”).

At first, this might strike us as strange. How is a feast named after an archangel about Jesus? But as with all commemorations within the Lutheran Church, the focus is not on the person but held in grateful thanksgiving to our Lord for using this person (or His holy angels) to give glory to His name and to bring about salvation for His people. The event celebrated on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels is thus important both in regard to our salvation and to the comfort it brings the Christian conscience.

The website Text This Week helpfully lists readings for Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran congregations. All agree on the appointed reading for today: Revelation 12:7-12, telling how St. Michael leads the victorious battle in heaven. (I would probably still be chanting this Epistle today — as I did 25 years ago — if we hadn’t changed churches).

Anglican Hymns

I had trouble finding familiar hymns with texts that fit today. The LiturgyTools website has a list of hymn (most of which I don’t know), but perhaps the most obvious hymn (for “All Angels” if not St. Michael) is a Victorian hymn:

Ye holy angels bright,
who wait at God's right hand,
or through the realms of light
fly at your Lord's command,
assist our song,
for else the theme
too high doth seem
for mortal tongue.

I remember it from childhood because it is the last hymn of the first edition of Hymnal 1940 (600), it is also the last hymn of Book of Common Praise 2017 (#639); it is also found in The English Hymnal (#517); the New English Hymnal (#475) and Hymnal 1982 (#625). The tune is Darwall’s 148th, published by John Darwall in 1770, with a wonderful four part harmony. Hymnary.org says it’s found in 95 hymnals — basically Anglican hymnals worldwide — but not in Catholic or Lutheran ones, and only the earliest (1933) US Methodist hymnal. It has a descant by Sydney Nicholson, published both in Hymnal 1982 and the Oxford Book of Descants.

This hymn is recommended for this day in Hymnal 1940, as is “Ye watchers and the holy ones” (H40: 599, H82: 618; BCP17: 637). While this connection to the feast day seems less direct, this hymn is also found in Catholic, Lutheran, and Methodist hymnals (for those that still use hymnals). The tune is Lasst uns enfreuen, from a 17th century German Catholic hymnal and harmonized by Ralph Vaughan Williams. There is a descant by Christopher Gower in the Oxford Book of Descants, while my own music director (J. Davis Simmons) has written his own magnificent descant.

Hymnal 1940 lists four hymns for the feast day:

120. “Around the throne of God,” written by John M. Neale, and set to the (quite singable) 1873 tune Abends.
121. “Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright,” a 9th century Greek text translated by Neale in Hymns of the Eastern Church, set to Trisagion, a tune composed for this purpose and published in the 1868 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern.
122. “Angels and ministers, spirits of grace,” by Percy Dearmer in his 1933 Songs of Praise, Enlarged Edition (one of the few hymns from this hymnal that made it into H40). It is set to the Irish tune Slane; two different descants are in the Oxford Book of Descants. 
123. “Christ the fair glory of the holy angels,” the official office hymn for this date — a 9th century Latin text translated by The English Hymnal and updated by H40. It has a choice of two tunes: Christ Sanctorum (a Sarum plainsong) and the 17th century Coelites Plaudant.

The New English Hymnal has only one text — the latter — with Iste Confessor (also a plainsong) and Coelites Plaudant. Book of Common Praise 2017 also retains only this one text, but with the tune Supplication by W.H. Monk (music editor of Hymns A&M).

For once, Hymnal 1982 does not have the widest selection of hymns for saints’ days. For the office hymn, it retains Coelites Plaudant (#282) and adds a second plainsong (#283), Caelitum Joseph (adapted in 1983 by Schola Antiqua). The other text it has is “O ye immortal throng of angels” (#284), a text by Philip Doddridge) set to Croft’s 136th.

Lutheran Hymns

With DuckDuckGo, I also found a Lutheran website with hymn suggestions for this date: the Free Lutheran Chorale-Book. It writes

The most well-known is Paul Eber’s “Lord God, to Thee We All Give Praise” (“Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir“), 1554. It appears in The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, as No. 254, “Lord God, We All to Thee Give Praise,” and in the Lutheran Service Book, 2006, as No. 522, “Lord God, to Thee We Give All Praise.” Eber’s German hymn is a paraphrase of a Latin composition by Philipp Melanchthon, “Dicimus gratias tibi” (“We give thank to Thee”), 1543. The tune, which in the Lutheran chorale tradition is known as “Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir,” is well known among English speakers as “Old Hundredth” due to its association with the metrical setting of Psalm 100 in the Geneva Psalter. 

Hymnary lists 22 (18th and 19th century) hymnals with the German text, and 18 (Lutheran) hymnals with the English text, including the current LCMS and WELS (but not ELCA) hymnals. However, the text is more generically about angels than specific to St. Michael.

It mentions a second hymn, the 17th century “Aus Lieb läßt Gott den Christenheit,” but that was only published in the U.S. in an 18th century German Lutheran hymnal by C.F.W. Walther.

I pulled out my copy of the 1941 The Lutheran Hymnal, and it offers its own assortment of hymns that overlaps H40:

254. “Lord God, we all to thee give praise,” set to Old Hundredth.
255. “Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright,” set to O Quanta Qualis, a 17th century plainsong tune.
256. “Around the throne of God,” set to Winchester New (a descant is available in the Oxford Book of Descants).
257. “Jesus, brightness of the Father,” a 9th century text translated by Edward Caswall, set to Neander (a descant is available in the Oxford Book of Descants).

The latter two familiar tunes seem a great way to get Anglicans to sing these lesser known Anglican texts.

A hymn worthy of an Apostle

A Bright Contribution to Saints’ Hymns

September 21 is the feast of St. Matthew. In observance of the feast day, today we sang a hymn intended for the occasion: “He sat to watch o’er customs paid” by Rev. William Bright (1824-1901). I didn’t recognize it because it’s not in Hymnal 1916, Hymnal 1940 or Book of Common Praise 2017.

According to Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (via Hymnary), Bright was an Oxford grad, fellow and later chaired professor (and canon of Christ Church Oxford). Julian concludes: “Canon Bright's hymns merit greater attention than they have received at the hands of compilers.” Indeed, his best known hymn, “And now, O Father, mindful of the love”, appears in only 73 hymnals. By comparison, John Mason Neale has 24 hymns in more than 100 hymnals, although such prodigious output of timeless hymns (e.g., “All glory, laud and honor,” “Good Christian men rejoice” and “O come, O come Emmanuel”) is impossible to match.

“He saw to watch o’er customs paid” appears in 11 hymnals. In Songs of Praise Discussed, it is described thus

Dr. Bright’s hymn, which is one of  the really good saint’s day hymns, combining in lines of classical finish the historical facts with their practical application, was first published in the Supplementary Hymns to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1889).

The first and last of the six verses summarize the premise of the hymn:

He sat to watch o’er customs paid,
A man of scorned and hardening trade,
Alike the symbol and the tool
Of foreign masters’ hated rule.

Who keep thy gifts, O bid them claim
The steward’s, not the owner’s name;
Who yield up all for thy dear sake,
Let them of Matthew’s wealth partake.

Tuning In

Alas, both my favorite Anglican hymnal and the newest Anglican hymnal don’t include this hymn. Hymnal 1940 is lamentably sparse in its coverage of saints’ days, something that Hymnal 1982 certainly improves upon.

While there is a consistent pattern of the text, the choice of tune was highly fragmented. Because it is Long Metre (8.8.8.8), there is an embarrassment of options.

Of the 11 hymnals, 7 are familiar Anglican hymnals. Not surprisingly, the hymn first appeared with the 2nd supplement (1889) to original 1861 Hymns Ancient & Modern (aka “original edition” aka “standard edition”). In these, it is hymn #615 with the tune Gloucester, while the same text and tune are #238 in the “New Edition” (1904). Finally, the Hymns Ancient & Modern Revised  (1950, aka the “Revised edition”) it was #563, to Thomas Turton’s tune Ely.

The English Hymnal (1906) published the hymn (#240) to the tune Alfretòn. The same text and tune are also found in the 1925 Songs of Praise (#237), and the 1986 New English Hymnal (#189).

A third tune was chosen by Hymnal 1982 (#281). Breslau is a 15th century German tune, harmonized by Mendelssohn.

Today, however, we sang none of the above. Instead, our choir director selected Creator Alme Siderum. This Sarum plainsong tune is one of my favorites — and beloved by many — from its use with the hymn “Creator of the Stars of Night.”

No matter what the tune, the text is one that one that deserves to be in any Anglican hymnal.

Collecting Our Thoughts

For mass, the gospel is the calling of Matthew (Matthew 9:9-13), and for mass and daily office the collect from 1549 until 1928 is the same

O ALMIGHTY God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist; Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The collect in the 1979 ECUSA prayer book is inexplicably different (even in Rite I)

We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of thine apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of thy Son our Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

For this collect, the 2019 ACNA prayer book does not follow the 1979 (as it often does), but more closely follows the historic Anglican liturgy:

Lord Jesus, you called Matthew from collecting taxes to become your apostle and evangelist: Grant us the grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, that we may follow you as he did and proclaim to the world around us the good news of your salvation; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

St. Patrick’s doctrine of the Trinity

Today is both the second day of Lent and the (lesser) feast of the great 5th century Irish missionary St. Patrick. For Americans making some effort at lenten discipline, it fortunately falls on a Sunday.

It is not a red-letter saint’s day in the American prayer book, and in fact is not even mentioned in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer at all. However, Eucharistic readings were later provided in the 1963 Lesser Feasts & Fasts, as well as (for the 1979 prayer book) the 1980 Lesser Feasts & Fasts.

Of these, there are only two overlaps. One is the collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be an apostle to the people of Ireland, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen. 

The collect is not mentioned in the Daily Office of CommonPrayer.org, but (as with other lesser feasts) is included in the daily worship of AnglicanHours.

The other is the Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 2:2-12, which includes this relevant except from St. Paul’s letter to Thessalonica:

But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.”

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

For Anglicans, the mandatory hymn is “I bind unto myself today” (St. Patrick’s breastplate), adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams for The English Hymnal in 1906. The hymn has three main features

• The lyric is a catechetical text that teaches the doctrine of the Trinity and is attributed to Patrick, translated by Cecil Frances Alexander. The hymn is thus normally recommended for Trinity Sunday (and of course St. Patrick’s feast day).
• For the hymnal, Vaughan Williams combined two Irish folk tunes — St. Patrick arranged by C.V. Stanford, and Deirdre, which he arranged for the hymnal. The second tune adds a complexity and difficulty for newcomers.
• It is a long hymn: nine verses in the 1906 original, but “only” seven verses as introduced to America in Hymnal 1940.

In my interviews on church music practice last fall, it was a (slightly) controversial hymn: everyone loved the doctrine and the memories it evokes. However, the parishioners were split: most loved the complete hymn, but a minority complained that it was too long. (IIRC only one music director regularly abridged the hymn).

The hymn as printed in Hymnal 1940 and Hymnal 1982 has verses 1-5 (with verse 1 shorter) in unison to St. Patrick, verse 6 (in four parts) to Deirdre, and verse 7 in St. Patrick. Hymnary.org has page scans of many of the printed versions, including 

• Hymnal 1940 #268 and Hymnal 1982 #370: of the 7 verses, verses 3-5 are optional
• Glory to God (the 2006 Presbyterian hymnal): with guitar chords
• Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the 2006 ELCA hymnal): drops verses 3, 5
• Lutheran Service Book (the 2006 LCMS hymnal): drops verses 3-4, adds its own new verse after verse 5, drops verse 6 (with the separate tune) and then ends with verse 7

Not included in the page scans are two others that (like the LSB) use a single tune:

• Worship II (a popular unofficial Catholic hymnal from 1975): verses 1,2,4,5,7 (with one tune)
• New English Hymnal (1986) #159: verses 1-5 and 7. It includes the comment that “Hymn 278 may be inserted after verse 5 if desired"; while 278 has the words of Verse 6, it’s to Gartan, another Irish tune arranged by Stanford

Thus, this day, it will be American Protestants who carry on Vaughan Williams’ original vision and testimony to the patron saint of Ireland.

Faithful Saint Matthias

The red-letter feast of Saint Matthias is designated for February 24 in every American Book of Common Prayer, the same date designated by the Church of England from 1549 to 1662. This year it is transferred from Sunday to Monday (February 25).

Since 1789, the American Book of Common Prayer has used this (lightly) modernized version of the 1549-1662 collect:

ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Through the 1960s, the Catholic church celebrated February 24 but today the US Catholic Church celebrates May 14. Today the Church of England celebrates on  May 14 (or February 24 as an alternate).

Naturally, the Epistle reading is Acts 1:15-26, where the apostles choose Matthias (over Joseph Barsabbas) to replace Judas. From 1549-1928, the Gospel is Matthew 11:25-30 (“my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”), but the 1979 BCP uses other readings.

What is an appropriate hymn? The Catholic Culture website suggests stanzas from the Menaea (Eastern Breviary) and includes these verses

O blessed Mathias! spiritual Eden! thou didst flow, like a full river, from the divine fountain; thou didst water the earth with thy mystic rivulets, and make it fruitful. Do thou, therefore, beseech the Lord that he grant peace and much mercy to our souls.

O apostle Mathias! thou didst complete the sacred college, from which Judas had fallen; and by the power of the Holy Ghost, thou didst put to flight the darkness of idolatry by the admirable lightnings of thy wise words. Do thou now beseech the Lord that he grant peace and much mercy to our souls.

It attributes it to a translation by John Mason Neale’s Hymns of the Eastern Church, but I can’t find it in my 1882 edition. So instead, I kept digging to other sources.

Hymnal 1982

Hymnal 1982 has a unique (and I would say admirable) solution to minor feast days: Hymn #231, “By all your saints still striving.” It includes two fixed verses, and a variable middle verse for one of 12 days (St Andrew, St Thomas, St Stephen, St John, Holy Innocents, Confession of St Peter, Conversion of St Paul, St Matthias, St Joseph, St Mark, St Philip/St James, St Barnabas).

The tune is King’s Lynn by Ralph Vaughan Williams, an English folk tune adaptation first published in The English Hymnal. It was originally used with “O God of Earth and Altar,” by GK Chesterton (TEH #562), which is also in Hymnal 1940 (#521) and H82 (#591).

The hymn is adapted from an 1864 text by Horatio Nelson, editor of the Salisbury Hymn-Book (1857), later the Sarum Hymnal (1868) — perhaps the most successful of the Hymnal Noted knock-offs. Nelson’s 19-verse hymn was originally titled “For all thy saints in warfare,” but that was too militaristic for H82. His original text

From all Thy saints in warfare,
For all Thy saints at rest,
To Thee, O blessèd Jesus,
All praises be addressed;
Thou, Lord, didst win the battle,
That they might conquerors be;
Their crowns of living glory
Are lit with rays from Thee.

became verse 1 of Hymn 231:

By all your saints still striving,
for all your saints at rest,
your holy Name, O Jesus,
for evermore be blessed.
You rose, our king victorious,
that they might wear the crown
and every shine in splendor
reflected from your throne.

H82 preserves almost intact Nelson’s final, doxological verse:

Then praise we God the Father,
And praise we God the Son,
And God the Holy Spirit,
Eternal Three in One;
Till all the ransomed number
Fall down before the throne,
And honor, power, and glory,
Ascribe to God alone.

The middle part of Nelson’s hymn makes direct (but unnamed) reference to major NT saints, including John the Baptist, Peter, Paul and the gospel writers. Hymnal 1982 seems to keep many of the original Nelson verses — including Holy Innocents, Peter, Paul, Mark, Barnabas — but explicitly adds their names for the less Biblically literate 20th century.

The Nelson’s text for St. Matthias was

Lord, Thine abiding presence
Directs the wondrous choice
For one in place of Judas
The faithful now rejoice.
Thy Church from false apostles
Forevermore defend,
And by Thy parting promise
Be with her to the end.

which Hymnal 1982 made into

For one in place of Judas,
the apostles sought God's choice
the lot fell to Matthias
for whom we now rejoice
May we like true apostles
your holy church defend
and not betray our calling
but serve you to the end.

Tune: St. Matthias

Finally, William Henry Monk (1823-1889), music editor of Hymns Ancient & Modern, wrote a tune St. Matthias, one of more than 70 that he composed. Naturally, it appeared first in Hymns A&M for

• #28 (2nd tune): “Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go”
• #191: “Jesu, my Lord, my God, my All”
• #348: “Behold us, Lord, before Thee met”
• #357: “How blessèd, from the bonds of sin”

#28 survives as an evening hymn in Hymnal 1940 (#182). However, neither the hymn nor any version of the tune appears in The English Hymnal, the New English Hymnal, Hymnal 1982 or Book of Common Praise 2017.

19th Century Hymn for St. Matthias

Perhaps more intriguing in A&M is #408, the only hymn in this most Anglo-Catholic of hymnals specifically for St. Matthias the Apostle. To the tune of Sherborne (also by Monk), the text explicitly links the Matthias story to that of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-19):

Bishop of the souls of men,
When the foeman’s step is nigh,
When the wolf lays wait by night
For the lambs continually,
Watch, O Lord, about us keep,
Guard us, Shepherd of the sheep.

When the hireling flees away,
Caring only for his gold,
And the gate unguarded stands
At the entrance to the fold,
Stand, O Lord, Thy flock before
Thou the guardian, Thou the door.

Lord, whose guiding finger ruled
In the casting of the lot,
That Thy Church might fill the throne
Of the lost Iscariot,
In our trouble ever thus
Stand, good Master, nigh to us.

When the saints their order take
In the New Jerusalem,
And Matthias stands elect,
Give us part and lot with him,
Where in Thine own dwelling place
We may witness face to face.

The tune is unfamiliar but has straightforward voice leading. The words are completely appropriate. So for an evensong on St. Matthias’ day, this would be my first choice.

The world’s favorite Annunciation hymn

Today’s date, March 25, is nine months before Christmas, and thus the traditional date the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is controversy (between the most Catholic and Reformed extremes) over the role of Mary in the church, nonetheless creedal Christians acknowledge the saviour who “was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary.” Our knowledge of the Annunciation comes from the Gospel of St. Luke, as one of the events Mary pondered in her heart and later recounted to Luke.

Issues Etc. on Friday presented the Luther perspective on the Annunciation, in an interview with the LCMS Director of Worship, Pastor Will Weedon. In honor of the day, the LCMS radio station (Lutheran Public Radio) is playing Christmas music all day today.

As Pastor Weedon points out, it’s hard for the church to celebrate a joyous feast when it falls in the middle of Lent or especially — as in 2016 — when it falls on Good Friday. As he also notes, this is a case when it’s fortunate if a church’s midweek service lands on this feast, since (under both Anglican and Lutheran liturgical calendars) no feasts are transferred to the Sundays of Lent.

The Annunciation is called out in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as one of 25 major feasts of the CoE, and remains on the shorter list in the current CoE liturgical calendar. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer retains the same list of 25 fixed Holy Days. The new ACNA liturgical calendar seems clearer than the 1662 in that it distinguishes between seven principal feasts (Epiphany, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity, All Saints’, Christmas) that take precedence over 16 Holy Days (including the Annunciation).

Today’s collect in the 1662 (and 1928) BCP links the Annunciation to the incarnation, passion and resurrection of our Lord:

We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymns for The Annunciation

Hymnal 1940 lists two hymns for this date and recommends three others

• 117 “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly”
• 118 “Praise we the Lord this day”
• 317 “A message came to a maiden young”
• 418 “Blest are the pure in heart”
• 599 “Ye watchers and you holy ones”

Hymnal 1982 has a longer list

• 263, 264 “The Word whom earth and sea and sky adore” (from Hymns Ancient & Modern)
• 265 “The angel Gabriel from heaven came,” the famous Basque carol that was also featured in the Issues Etc broadcast (and is #356 in the current Lutheran Service Book)
• 266 “Gabriel of high degree,” a new hymn translation by Carl Daw
• 267 “Praise we the Lord this day, from an 1846 CoE hymnal
• 268, 269 “Ye who claim the faith of Jesus,” an early 20th century text; the first with a new tune by David Hurd
• 270 “Gabriel's message does away,” a translation of a Latin text from J.M. Neale’s 1853 Carols for Christmastide

Despite my frequent criticisms of Hymnal 1982, it has consistently done a better job of making available hymns for these Holy Days. In this case, it corrects the omission by Hymnal 1940 of the world’s best known Annunciation/Christmas carol.

The Angel Gabriel From Heaven Came

The text is a paraphrase of a Basque text by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a Cambridge grad, choral director and later Anglican churchman. His best known hymn is “Onward, Christian soldiers.”

Because it has only recently (late 20th century) entered into the standard repertory and hymnals, I have not been able to find mention of the hymn in a reliable hymnal companion such as Ian Bradley’s Book of Hymns or those for the Lutheran Book of Worship or Lutheran Worship. (The explanation in the 1990s Presbyterian Hymnal companion is characteristically sketchy).

Wikipedia — that source of eternal truth — credits the Basque original to Charles Bordes (but doesn’t list an original publication date). It also says the current arrangement was first published “by Edgar Pettman in his 1892 book Modern Christmas Carols.” However, there is no mention of this carol in the version of the book archived by Google Scholar. CPDL has various Basque and English versions, appearing to rely on the Wikipedia explanation. The wonderful YouTube performance of the carol by King’s College Cambridge credits Pettman (1866-1943) as the arranger. 

I finally found it explained in The New Oxford Book of Carols (1992), an indispensable resource alongside the original The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). I quote from the former (pp. 641-642):

One of the best-known Basque carols in England. It was collected by Charles Bordes and appeared at the beginning of his volume Douze Noëls populaires in the series Archives de la traditional basque (1895), to which he also contributed the volume Dix Cantiques populaires basques.

…His publication stands head and shoulder above similar collections, and remains a primary source. The melodies are unharmonized, and the texts are edited by J.F. Larrien, who also provided French prose translations.

Whatever the provenance of ‘Birjina gaztettobat zegoen’ and ‘Oi Betleem!’, the texts are sophisticated literary productions, presumably by a Basque cleric. Perhaps they are from a publication (of the eighteenth century?) which caught the public imagination, and came to be sung to folk tunes; or, as in the usual French tradition, perhaps the texts were written to fit existing folk-song melodies. …

… R.R Terry set a number of items (including the present one and ‘Oi Betleem’), and George Oldroyd set the entire volume, both composers using English translations. But it was Pettman’s settings of ‘Birjina’ and ‘Oi Betleem!’ that caught the public’s fancy, and they have remained extremely popular.
…
The other great merits of Pettman’s settings of this carol and ‘Oi Betleem’ is their texts, which do not attempt to mirror the Basque, a spacious language which has English translators searching for words to fill up the long lines. In this case, Baring-Gold conveys the gist of the original eight stanzas in four of great refinement.”

While Pettman presumably finished the work before his death in 1943, the original publication date and title are still unclear. Clearly texts published by Bordes in 1895 would not appear in a Pettman book of 1892. The oldest reference I find in Google Books is from a 1961 list of new publications at the Library of Congress, listing sheet music they received in June 1961. In general, a Google search of the web produces pages that replicate the (seemingly inaccurate) Wikipedia provenance.

Whatever the source, I am grateful that this most suitable Annunciation carol entered the repertoire in the latter half of the 20th century.

St. Luke the Evangelist

October 18 is the date the church celebrates St. Luke the Evangelist. In the one year lectionary for this date (2 Timothy 4:5-15), Paul acknowledges Luke as his faithful companion on his missionary travels (as he also does in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24). What else we know is from early extra-canonical sources — as when he is reported as a physician in the 4th century Church History by Eusebius.

Luke’s Gospel and its Sequel

As our preacher noted this morning, the words contributed by St. Luke to the New Testament canon (with the third gospel and Acts of the Apostles) is second only the Pauline Epistles. The Acts of the Apostles provide a unique and invaluable account of the early church, but it was only earlier this year did I realize the unique contribution of Luke’s gospel.

Yes, Luke has unique parables, including the the Fig Tree (13:1-9), Lost Coin (15:8-10) and Prodigal Son (15:11-32). Luke 18 has the remarkable contrast of the Pharisee (“I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector”) and the tax collector (“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!“).

But what I find remarkable is how much of what we know of Jesus before his ministry — from the promise to Elizabeth through Jesus in the Temple — is found only in the first two chapter of Luke.

And as a musician (and an Episcopalian from childhood if not birth) what is also remarkable is how much of our liturgy comes from Luke. This includes the Benedictus of our morning prayer, the rejoicing of Zachararias after the birth of St. John (Luke 1:68-79):

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; * for he hath visited and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, * in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets, * which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies, * and from the hand of all that hate us.
To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, * and to remember his holy covenant;
To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham, * that he would give us;
That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies * might serve him without fear;
In holiness and righteousness before him, * all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: * for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people * for the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God; * whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Perhaps more significantly — at least for many Catholics (and Anglo-Catholics) — the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-56) (used at evening prayer) from the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary:

My soul doth magnify the Lord, * and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded * the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth * all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me; * and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him * throughout all generations.
He hath showed strength with his arm; * he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * and hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; * and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel; * as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.

Finally, there is the Simeon's recognition of the diviity of Christ in Luke 2:29-32 (which we now use as the Nunc Dimittis in evening prayer):

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, * according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen * thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared * before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, * and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Note: from my Lutheran days, all three can be found in the Missouri Synod liturgy (TLH, LSB), but the Nunc Dimitiss is used in the everyday communion service rather than evening prayer).

Invoking Luke

How do we acknowledge Luke? The 1928 BCP has a collect for this day

ALMIGHTY God, who didst inspire thy servant Saint Luke the Physician, to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of thy Son; Manifest in thy Church the like power and love, to the healing of our bodies and our souls; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

that was modified in the (traditional) version of the 1979 prayer book:

Almighty God, who didst inspire thy servant Luke the physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of thy Son: Graciously continue in thy Church the like love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of thy Name; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The 1662 collect strikes similar themes with different words:

ALMIGHTY God, who calledst Luke the physician, whose praise is in the Gospel, to be an Evangelist, and Physician of the soul; May it please thee, that by the wholesome medicines of the doctrine delivered by him, all the diseases of our souls may be healed, through the merits of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

and is only slightly modified from Cranmer’s 1549 original:

ALMIGHTIE God whiche calledst Luke the phisicion, whose prayse is in the gospell, to be a phisicion of the soule ; it may please thee, by the holsome medicines of his doctryne, to heale all the diseases of our soules; through thy sonne Jesus Christe our Lorde. 

Singing Praises for Luke

Beloved by the church, St. Luke is not quite forgotten in our Anglican hymnals. In each hymnal, as with the other saints he is is listed under Saints’ Days. Alas, he doesn’t rank with St. Michael (who had no earthly ministry), who warrants four hymns (#120-123) in H40, three in H82 (3282-284) and six in The English Hymnal.

Oremus recommended “Savior, who didst healing give,” a three verse hymn written in 1906 for TEH (#247) by Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley. TEH pairs it with Jesus Ist Da Schönste Licht, a 18th century tune by J.A. Freylinhausen.

Hymnal 1940 lists no hymns for Luke, and the “see also” choices are vaguely about science (#515) or healing (#516). Hymnal 1982 has a generic three-stanza hymn (#231-232) where the middle stanza can be adapted for any saint, Luke among them.

However, it also has four verses of a hymn specific to Luke (#285), “What thanks and praise to thee we owe” by William Dalrymple Maclagan, 1873, set to a 1753 tune Deus tuorum militum. H82 uses verses 1,6,7 and 8 of the 8 verse hymn, altering verse 7 for clarity and verse 8 for gender neutrality. H82 (as is its want) is harmony free, but on Sunday at the 28 BCP parish I attended, the music director used the PC words and applied what appeared to be his own harmonization.

Although the hymn was written by Maclagan —  a Cambridge graduate then rector at Newington and later Archbishop of York from 1891-1908 — it doesn’t appear in TEH, Songs of Praise (Extended Edition), or the New English Hymnal. Instead, Hymnary.org implies that its first appearance was in the U.S. Hymnal 1892. The hymnal lists six (original texts) of the eight verses in (#172), set to Ely. The same six verses (#1,2,5-8) and tune appear in Hymnal 1916 (#292).

Non-Sunday worship

At Pray Tell, a Catholic monk from Minnesota, lamented the light attendance at Saturday’s services for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I discovered that the Assumption (called the Dormition of the Theotokos) is a big deal for our Eastern friends — one of Twelve Great Feasts — as my Anglo-Orthodox (now more Orthodox than Anglican) book club was nearly deserted Friday as the Orthodox

It’s not a day I ever remember celebrating as a lifelong Protestant. August 15 is listed (by TEC and CoE) as a Holy Day for Mary†. I think it’s safe to say that the more Reformed wing of the Anglican Communion do not ascribe a supernatural assumption of Mary’s body into heaven, even if some individual Anglo-Catholic parishes do.

However, Father Anthony Ruff makes a more general point:

[Modern Catholics believe] holy days aren’t that important anymore, and liturgical time should not interrupt real time, which is what happens in one’s real (and very busy) life in the secular world.
…
We still kept the holy days of obligation in the tiny parish where I grew up in southern Minnesota. … But miss Mass? Not on your life.
…
The holy day liturgy said, more than any religion class or episcopal statement could, something about the claim the church makes on us.
…
“We have our own schedule,” the liturgy was saying to us, “and it’s not the world’s schedule.” Just think for a moment what that said about Christian identity and the church’s relationship to broader society. It said it especially strongly when two obligatory days fell inconveniently a day apart, Saturday plus Sunday, or Sunday plus Monday.

The holy days of obligation are there to form us in an alternative narrative. The liturgy tells us that it has its own integrity on its own terms. The liturgy is countercultural, not by behaving like an obnoxious culture-warrior, but simply by being itself.
…
That’s too bad. I wish we could put Ascension back on Thursday, and maybe even Epiphany back on the 12th day of Christmas. And tell everyone that God is still God, even on Saturdays and Mondays.

He is talking to me. There are only three church holidays I have regularly observed midweek over the past 30-40 years: Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. (And I’m not very good about Good Friday). Yes, I’ve been to Holy Innocents and Epiphany services (it helps this is during a slow time of the year), and as a tourist to England we would always try to catch an Evening Prayer at the cathedral we visited. But I can’t recall a single Annunciation, Ascension or Transfiguration service. (There might have been an All Saints’s Day — as with Epiphany, there are good hymns.)

At the same time, there’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma. During my Lutheran period, our choir sang at Epiphany, so we were all there. I can’t say that most of the parishes I’ve attended have midweek services for Holy Days (except for Thanksgiving, a local favorite).

As a suburban Anglican, I don’t think it’s realistic to try to match the RCC (let alone the Orthodox) for the frequency or intensity of our midweek Holy Days. Instead, I would build up the adherence to the Daily Office – whether personal or corporate — and remind worshippers of these important days by using the collects and readings that are designated to educate us about these days.

† Footnote: On Friday, Issues Etc. rebroadcast an August 15, 2013 broadcast — with the Missouri Synod's director of worship — on why the Lutheran church remembers the Blessed Virgin Mary on this date. Rev. Will Weedon noted that the Protestant Reformers rejected the idea of Mary (and the saints) hearing our prayers as intercessors between Christians and God. However, he said, the Lutherans [like the Anglicans] continue to commemorate the saints in their annual liturgical calendar.

St. James deserves better

Today is the feast of St. James the Greater, perhaps the most important of the apostles after Peter, the rock of the church. As it so happened, I attended two Anglican services today — one that observed the feast day and one that ignored it.

Both the 1928 BCP and the 1979 prayer book honor James on this date with his own readings, following the 1789 American BCP which in turn uses the readings from the English 1662 BCP. The Gospel is the familiar reading (Matthew 20:20-28) about James' mom trying to install her two sons in a privileged position at Jesus' left and right hand.

Meanwhile, the Epistle is Acts 11:27-12:3, about his martyrdom at the hands of Herod in 44 A.D. My history isn't very good, but it appears James the Greater was the 2nd documented Christian martyr, after Stephen — consistent with church chronologies I found at FreeRepublic and CTLibrary. James is also interesting because of how he is called by Jesus (along with Peter, Andrew and John) from his work fishing along the Sea of Galilee.

However, James seems to be sorely underrepresented in the 1940 Hymnal. He is used as a symbol of the martyrs and apostles, and for this feast the choirmaster is encouraged to schedule one or more of these hymns. The best of these is perhaps Hymn #136: “Let us now our voices raise.” It uses a 9th century text by the greatest Greek hymnographer, as translated by John Mason Neale. The melody is a 13th century tune, first published in the 16th century. But the Hymnal 1940 Companion says the hymn is (for the Orthodox tradition) a hymn for the martyrdom of St. Timothy (May 3). Hymnal 1982 (#237) uses the same words but a 16th century German tune.

Hymnal 1982 offers another option, with a general purpose roll-your-own hymn for the saints (#231 and #232 differ only in the tune). Peter, Paul, James, Matthew, Luke and both Marys are represented by relevant verses.

However, further down in H82, hymn #276 ("For thy blest saints") by Cecil Frances Alexander starts with a general tribute to all martyrs, and then lays out what little we know of John: leaving his father Zebedee, witnessing the Annunciation, and being slain by Herod. The blog Conjubilant with Song lists the hymn as “For all thy saints, a noble throng,” with a different tune.

This is not one of Mrs. Alexander's best known hymns, which include "He is risen, he is risen," "Once in royal David's city," and "All things bright and beautiful." Still, for a hymn written in 1875 by an English bishop’s wife, it’s surprising not to find it as one of the 13 Alexander lyrics in The English Hymnal (1906), nor in Songs of Praise (1933) or New English Hymnal (1986).

Is the hymn obscure because we don’t make a big deal about James (or most of the saints)? Is it because the major hymnals list two other hymns with a similar opening line: "For all the saints" (with the magnificent Ralph Vaughan Williams tune) and "For thy dear saints" by Richard Mant?

I don’t know the reason, but it seems like an apostle — and a major one at that — might have expected better treatment by posterity.