O Come Or Once In Royal

[Contrabombarde]

Personally I prefer "O come all ye faithful" to come as the climax to a Christmas carol service. Sadly the "long" or processional version, with the verses about joining the shepherds with our joyful footsteps, and in particular, the magnificent verse

 

Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,

We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;

Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?

 

are rarely sung, but when they are included, it never fails to send shivers down my spine.

 

At one church I played for, determined to end with "Yea Lord we greet Thee" but aware the service was the Sunday before Christmas, they substititued "born this happy morning" for "born this happy season". I thought the little swap actually worked quite well, though others might disagree.

 

Contrabombarde

[Arp Schnitger]

I've always been with the 'Once in Royal' brigade to open Lessons and Carols, and brought up (when I was playing as an assistant) on a Midnight Mass that was invariably :

Procession: O come AYF (7vv)

Gradual: While Shepherds Watched

Offertory: O Little Town (with the 'Where Children pure & happy' verse)

Comm: Stille Nacht

Post C- Hark! the Herald

We would tend to do home-grown descants at Midnight Mass and the CFC descants on Christmas morning.

 

[i know this bit should be in the Descant discussion but the two threads do seem to overlap]

More recently, I've taken a liking to the David Hill descants in the Noel! carol book- quite similar in some ways to the Willcocks descants but equally stylish IMHO. I do like the Hill brass fanfare to OCAYF as well.

 

For our school 'six lessons and carols' I have though reinstated an original setting of OCAYF at the start, entitled Venite Adoremus and composed by a former DoM, who still plays for us. It opens Once in royal-like with a solo latin verse of Adeste Fideles in a fluid plainsong-type free rhythm and then another trebles verse of 'Deum de deo', then the procession begins with p organ interludes and a syncopated 'venite adoremus' motif. More latin on 'Ergo qui natus die hodierna' (ie 'v7') before a big organ crescendo and the trebles reach their seats in time for an ff 'We to the Christ Child' in English (which is always the spine-tingling moment for me), more ff organ interlude, and finally two verses for everyone in English (O come, and Sing Choirs of Angels- for which the descant is in Latin). Sounds complicated but it works very well indeed and the children enjoy it- I think there'd be mutiny if we tried to return to 'Once in Royal' now!

I think this setting would work well at Midnight Mass as well- don't Westminster Cathedral do something similar...?

[Peter Clark]

I've always been with the 'Once in Royal' brigade to open Lessons and Carols, and brought up (when I was playing as an assistant) on a Midnight Mass that was invariably :

Procession: O come AYF (7vv)

Gradual: While Shepherds Watched

Offertory: O Little Town (with the 'Where Children pure & happy' verse)

Comm: Stille Nacht

Post C- Hark! the Herald

We would tend to do home-grown descants at Midnight Mass and the CFC descants on Christmas morning.

 

[i know this bit should be in the Descant discussion but the two threads do seem to overlap]

More recently, I've taken a liking to the David Hill descants in the Noel! carol book- quite similar in some ways to the Willcocks descants but equally stylish IMHO. I do like the Hill brass fanfare to OCAYF as well.

 

For our school 'six lessons and carols' I have though reinstated an original setting of OCAYF at the start, entitled Venite Adoremus and composed by a former DoM, who still plays for us. It opens Once in royal-like with a solo latin verse of Adeste Fideles in a fluid plainsong-type free rhythm and then another trebles verse of 'Deum de deo', then the procession begins with p organ interludes and a syncopated 'venite adoremus' motif. More latin on 'Ergo qui natus die hodierna' (ie 'v7') before a big organ crescendo and the trebles reach their seats in time for an ff 'We to the Christ Child' in English (which is always the spine-tingling moment for me), more ff organ interlude, and finally two verses for everyone in English (O come, and Sing Choirs of Angels- for which the descant is in Latin). Sounds complicated but it works very well indeed and the children enjoy it- I think there'd be mutiny if we tried to return to 'Once in Royal' now!

I think this setting would work well at Midnight Mass as well- don't Westminster Cathedral do something similar...?

 

 

This sounds like a rivetting "O Come all Ye" - is it available? I've been doing the Carols for Choirs version for all my working life so to get hold of something really different would make Chrismas - a season I generally approach with a combination of dread and derision - at least tolerable (along with Gardner's Holly and the Ivy which I also hope to do).

 

Thanks

 

Peter

[Arp Schnitger]

This sounds like a rivetting "O Come all Ye" - is it available? I've been doing the Carols for Choirs version for all my working life so to get hold of something really different would make Chrismas - a season I generally approach with a combination of dread and derision - at least tolerable (along with Gardner's Holly and the Ivy which I also hope to do).

 

Thanks

 

Peter

 

 

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