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Feast Of The Epiphany


OmegaConsort

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I am taking my choir to St Albans Abbey for Epiphany Sunday (Eucharist and Evensong) and I know any day now, the Precentor is going to be asking for my music list! Any ideas anyone (rehearsal on the day only - choir is from all over the place / good sight readers / reasonable balance / around 30 singers).

All I have so far in my mind is perhaps Mendelssohn There shall a star for Evensong anthem, and maybe something like Darke in F for Euch setting (simple but effective).

I need some inspiration!

Thanks for your suggestions.....

Richard

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I am taking my choir to St Albans Abbey for Epiphany Sunday (Eucharist and Evensong) and I know any day now, the Precentor is going to be asking for my music list! Any ideas anyone (rehearsal on the day only - choir is from all over the place / good sight readers / reasonable balance / around 30 singers).

All I have so far in my mind is perhaps Mendelssohn There shall a star for Evensong anthem, and maybe something like Darke in F for Euch setting (simple but effective).

I need some inspiration!

Thanks for your suggestions.....

Richard

If your choir's affiliated to the RSCM, the music planning guide Sunday by Sunday should be your first stop...

 

otherwise the following all feature the Magi/Wise Men in their texts:

 

from Anthems for Choirs 4 -

Hoddinott: Puer natus

H C Stewart: On this day

 

also

 

Händl: Omnes de Saba

arr. McPhee: Whence is that goodly fragrance?

Howells: Here is the little door

Ouseley: From the rising of the sun

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I am taking my choir to St Albans Abbey for Epiphany Sunday (Eucharist and Evensong) and I know any day now, the Precentor is going to be asking for my music list! Any ideas anyone (rehearsal on the day only - choir is from all over the place / good sight readers / reasonable balance / around 30 singers).

All I have so far in my mind is perhaps Mendelssohn There shall a star for Evensong anthem, and maybe something like Darke in F for Euch setting (simple but effective).

I need some inspiration!

Thanks for your suggestions.....

Richard

 

 

If your choir's affiliated to the RSCM, the music planning guide Sunday by Sunday should be your first stop...

 

otherwise the following all feature the Magi/Wise Men in their texts:

 

from Anthems for Choirs 4 -

Hoddinott: Puer natus

H C Stewart: On this day

 

also

 

Händl: Omnes de Saba

arr. McPhee: Whence is that goodly fragrance?

Howells: Here is the little door

Ouseley: From the rising of the sun

How about Peter Cornelius' "The Three Kings" arranged by Ivor Atkins?Carols for Choirs1 - an evergreen standby if ever there was one (the Oxford Jacques & Willcocks got me through many an Advent Christmas and Epiphany!)

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How about Peter Cornelius' "The Three Kings" arranged by Ivor Atkins?Carols for Choirs1 - an evergreen standby if ever there was one (the Oxford Jacques & Willcocks got me through many an Advent Christmas and Epiphany!)

 

My sixpenny-worth:

 

Lo! Star-led chiefs - Crotch

 

great lines, substantial, appropriate, not sung as often as it should be.

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How about Peter Cornelius' "The Three Kings" arranged by Ivor Atkins?Carols for Choirs1 - an evergreen standby if ever there was one (the Oxford Jacques & Willcocks got me through many an Advent Christmas and Epiphany!)

 

Also worth considering is the Mendelssohn piece.

 

B)

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My sixpenny-worth:

 

Lo! Star-led chiefs - Crotch

 

great lines, substantial, appropriate, not sung as often as it should be.

 

Brilliant! Forgotten about that - used to sing it as a boy, and then when I became an organist, the boys used to count up the finger-slips in the intro!

Richard

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Another suggestion, which I forgot to mention earlier, how about "Videntes stellam" by Poulenc. We did this with the RSCM Midlands & South West Cathedral Singers last year and my girls really loved it. Not particularly difficult either.

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CS Lang's Tres Magi de gentibus (Eastern Monarchs, Sages Three) is an easy barn-stormer- though some might say you need the Christ's Hospital Tuba to bring it off!- or for something gentler, Simon Lole's 'The Journey' (publ RSCM)is a setting of a Rosetti poem and easily sightreadable.

 

If they are keeping it as Sunday after Epiphany (as opposed to Epiphany itsself) the theme is often the Baptism of Christ, or the 'three wonders' (Wise Men, Water into Wine, and Baptism of Christ) which might bring into play Britten's 'New Year Carol' (CFC2), or a 'Tomorrow shall be my Dancing Day' (take your pick- the John Gardner is popular though Carl Rutti's version is worth a look- publ. Escorial), or indeed a setting of 'Tribus Miraculis'. As Epiphany is the Orthodox Christmas, you could reflect this with Tavener's 'God is with us' (though it would I suspect be a 'courageous' decision to plan this on one rehearsal!!!)

 

Past broadcasts of the Trinity Cambridge Epiphany service usually reveal some interesting and unusual repertoire; a Polychoral Epiphany Responsory by Richard Marlow sticks in my mind!

 

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/67269.asp (Epiphany at St Pauls) may also reveal some ideas...

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Can't really argue with that!

Oh, I don't know... I can usually argue with anything if I put my mind to it. B) I stand to be corrected by Tony, Patrick et al., but I had always understood that the Epiphany was about visit of the three kings, who were the first to acknowledge Jesus as the King. Where is the connection with Eccard's piece? Anyway, is the CD a programme of music for the feast of the Eiphany or for the Epiphany season? Not the same thing!

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Guest Patrick Coleman
Oh, I don't know... I can usually argue with anything if I put my mind to it. B) I stand to be corrected by Tony, Patrick et al., but I had always understood that the Epiphany was about visit of the three kings, who were the first to acknowledge Jesus as the King. Where is the connection with Eccard's piece? Anyway, is the CD a programme of music for the feast of the Eiphany or for the Epiphany season? Not the same thing!

 

Epiphany is one of the related 'manifestation' feasts that unfold the meaning of the Incarnation. There are three: Epiphany; the Baptism of Christ; and the Presentation (Purification/Candlemas) - although Christmas itself is strictly part of the sequence too. The Wedding Feast at Cana is often linked to this sequence, and appears in many lectionaries on the Sunday after the account of the Baptism is read (Baptism First, Wedding Feast Second Sundays after Epiphany) Bishop Wordsworth's hymn Songs of Thankfulness and Praise illustrates some of this.

 

I suppose you could get away with Eccard's piece on the Epiphany if you knew nothing more suitable. :blink:

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Anyway, is the CD a programme of music for the feast of the Eiphany or for the Epiphany season? Not the same thing!

 

The CD is Epiphanytide, I reckon- I'd agree that the Eccard (and Senex and Nunc Dimittis) are all on the CD for Candlemas/Presentation on 2nd Feb, but those readings are sometimes used, if my memory isn't failing, on one of the first two Sundays after Christmas if Epiphany doesn't get there first! Knowing the readings to be used would be helpful in planning the music.

 

Another Magi carol, if you want to indulge, is Warlock's Bethlehem Down which I don't think anyone has mentioned.

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