In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. We have to have The Record of John now.<\/p>\n
Sorry, sudden attack of Pride and Prejudice there.\u00a0 Put it down to severe lack of sleep and far, far, too much time spent making confectionery this weekend.<\/p>\n
But the other thing I\u00a0did this weekend was attend (and of course sing in) our Advent Service, which was this evening.\u00a0 Every year, we do a service of readings and carols.\u00a0 We always do some new pieces – this year, we did some lovely, medieval-sounding polyphony by Heinrich Isaacs and some truly demented Palestrina, as well as Es Ist Ein R\u00f6s Entsprungen – but there are some we do every year.\u00a0 The Matin Responsory. \u00a0Adam Lay Y Bounden.\u00a0 The Record of John, by Orlando Gibbons (also known as my big Elizabethan crush).<\/p>\n
(Incidentally, the other highlight of the Advent service is sitting there during the readings and mentally singing along with the reader.\u00a0 “For unto us a son is born,” says Isaiah, and I’m in Handel-land.\u00a0 “Make straight in the desert a highway,” and there’s John’s tenor solo.\u00a0 Actually, currently it all seems to be Handel, but I know there were other composers in my head too.)<\/p>\n
I\u00a0posted this in the Advent Calendar last year, but I\u00a0feel no hesitation in posting it again now, because for me, Advent starts on a Thursday in late November when Geoff starts playing the accompaniment, generally without warning, and I\u00a0come in on the alto solo:\u00a0This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, to ask him, “Who art thou?”\u00a0And he confessed and denied not, and said plainly, I\u00a0am not the Christ.<\/p>\n
The specific part where Advent begins is on “And he confessed and denied not’.\u00a0 There’s something about the way the accompaniment and the voice combine there that affects me on a visceral level.\u00a0 Suddenly, everything is just right (until we get into the chorus and I\u00a0screw up my section because I’ve forgotten what the other alto part is doing).\u00a0 And then there’s the part: And he said, I\u00a0am the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness “Make straight the way of the Lord,” which just sends shivers down my spine whenever I sing it.\u00a0 It’s something in the writing, I\u00a0think, because it’s on the same bar every time, and for just a few moments right there I can’t help believing absolutely in what I’m singing. Belief of this kind (of any kind, really) doesn’t come easily to me.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0do think this is down to Gibbons’ writing, and his exceptional way with setting lyrics.\u00a0 I’ve mentioned before his habit of setting the lyrics so that they follow the inflections of speech, and this does something – I\u00a0don’t know what, exactly – to enhance the emotion in the music.<\/p>\n
Basically, it’s a perfect, perfect piece of music.\u00a0 It’s in my head now, and will be all the way until Christmas.<\/p>\n
It might as well be in yours, too.<\/p>\n
[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a9pE5vrgBHQ&w=560&h=315]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. We have to have The Record of John now. Sorry, sudden attack of Pride and Prejudice there.\u00a0 Put it down to severe lack of sleep and far, far, too much time spent making confectionery this weekend. But the other thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,553,700],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advent-calendar","tag-orlando-gibbons","tag-the-record-of-john"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}