Nativity Carol (John Rutter)

My introduction to John Rutter was in the recording, The Holly and the Ivy: Carols from Clare College. I love Christmas music and this album became a favorite and made me pay attention to the work of John Rutter who is one of the most notable composers and choral directors living today. Rutter has certainly made his mark in sacred choral music.  “Nativity Carol” is one of Rutter’s compositions and appears on The John Rutter Christmas Album.  It is performed here by the King’s College Choir, Cambridge

-

O Little Town of Bethlehem (Vaughan WIlliams) King's College Cambridge

The beloved carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written by the Rev. Phillips Brooks for his Sunday School in 1868. He had spent Christmas in Bethlehem two years before. Brooks was born in Boston in 1835, graduated at Harvard College 1855, and was ordained in 1859. He served as rector at the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, and later at Trinity Church, Boston.

Most congregations that sing this carol use the tune ST LOUIS, composed by Lewis Redner. Here we hear FOREST GREEN which is an English folk tune associated with the ballad "The Ploughboy's Dream." Ralph Vaughan Williams turned FOREST GREEN into a hymn tune for The English Hymnal (1906), using it as a setting for "O Little Town of Bethlehem." 

Vaughan Williams played a primary role in establishing English sacred music in the 20th century. Himself an agnostic, he took on the task of revising the English Hymnal and the result was both solid and magical. He had long collected English folk tunes and incorporated many of those tunes in hymns he composed for the hymnal.

 -

The Wexford Carol

One of my all-time favorite Christmas carols, performed by Clare College Choir under the direction of John Rutter.

-

Silent Devotion and Response, by Ernest Bloch

This is performed by students at Eastern New Mexico University, but I went searching for it because I heard it at Southside Baptist Church this morning as they recounted their interfaith partnership with with Temple Emanu-El.
It is Jewish sacred choral music by Ernest Bloch. The words are from Psalm 19, and they are words I often heard as the benediction by Rev Murray Seay at Dadeville First Baptist Church when I was a kid: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."

-

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say - Ralph Vaughan Williams (Kingsfold)

Ralph Vaughan Williams  played a primary role in establishing English sacred music in the 20th century. Himself an agnostic, he took on the task of revising the English Hymnal and the result was both solid and magical. He had long collected English folk tunes and incorporated many of those tunes in hymns he composed for the hymnal. Kingsfold is a wonderful example of the fusion of English folk music with English poetry. As such, "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" has been included in Celtic celebrations as well as in Christian hymnals across many denominations.

Vaughn Williams may have been an agnostic, but that was surely reflective of the times that he was born into and the world in which we live today. He had a compassionate, humanitarian spirit and an ear for beauty and harmony. Kingsfold, set to the text by Horatius Bonar, 19th century Scottish poet and churchman, beautifully and transcendently declares our discovery of "this dark world's light."

(For further reading: Why Ralph Vaughan Williams should he as revered as William Shakespeare, by Simon Heffer, The Telegraph.

-

"I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Instrumental)" by Celtic Expressions Band

-

Salve Regina chanted by the Monastic Choir of the Abbey of Notre-Dame Fontgombault

-

Vide Homo sung by The Gesualdo Six at Ely Cathedral

-

O Bone Jesu (Palestrina)

Palestrina's "O Bone Jesu"

-

Ave Verum (Mozart) - King's College, Cambridge

-

Wade in the Water (Ella Jenkins)

-

I Believe in You (Dylan cover by Alison Krauss)

Here  is a superb cover of Bob Dylan's "I Believe in You." The song first appeared on Dylan's Slow Train Coming album released in 1979. The album was the first of Dylan's "Christian albums" and it introduced him to a whole new audience. For many people, Slow Train Coming was the first Dylan album they had ever bought. At the time, Noel Paul Stookey (of  Peter, Paul & Mary fame) wrote a review of the album for Christianity Today in which he celebrated Dylan's ability to appeal to an audience that would not likely connect with the typical gospel album. Alison Krauss's beautiful rendition is yet another example of the timelessness of Dylan's songwriting skills.

-