SKU: GI.G-8398

English. Text Source: Anonymous, English, 15th c.

Bring new life to your Lessons and Carols service through the ancient beauty of this 15th-century English text, which reflects on the mystery of the sin of Adam that led to Mary’s queenship—thanks be to God! A pronunciation guide and paraphrase are provided.

SKU: GI.G-6270

UPC: 785147627005. English. Text Source: Anonymous, The Brethren's Tune and Hymn Book, 1879. Text by Anonymous.

This edition may be performed as a suite of five pieces: Rejoice, the Lord Is King!, For the Fruit of All Creation, O Sing the Glories, Destructive Sword! and God Is Love.

SKU: GI.G-10670

English. Text Source: Sts. 1-2: Anonymous, st. 3: John T. McFarland, 1851-1913. Text by Anonymous.

SKU: MN.50-3094

UPC: 688670530944. English.

Karen Marrolli provides an original melody for a text first published anonymously in London in 1878. Set in four parts with a fair amount of unison singing, the almost-folk-like tune is singable and satisfying. The text speaks of God's unending love which reaches for us even as we think we are the ones reaching out. Duration: 2:15.

SKU: BT.MUSM570200641

English.

Jesus Reassures His Mother is a setting of medieval lyric poetry written anonymously in the 14th century. The poet recounts a vision of the young Mary rocking the infant Christ to sleep. The child requests his mother to sing a lullaby but, alas, knowing her child’s fate she is too sad to sing. Jesus tells her that all mothers worry about their children’s futures and insists that she should sing nevertheless. Mary recounts the visit of Gabriel and the events of Christ’s birth but reflects how sad it is to have delivered a child to such a fate. Jesus reassures his mother that he will be with his father in heaven where Mary will come to join Him at the end of time, there to livein eternal bliss. At this point Mary is persuaded by and echoes her child’s reassuring words, and she is joined in this by the choir (now representing us all). The vision fades away in the voice of the narrator whose loneliness and longing return. We learn that it is Christmas Day. This setting grows from the visionary mystical world inhabited by Julian of Norwich whose Revelations of Divine Love provided the inspiration for a work Anne Boyd composed in 1994. The medium has been expanded from the Song Company’s six solo voices used in the Revelations to the double motet choir of the Sydney Philharmonia who commissioned this work for their 75th anniversary. The parts of the infant Jesus, Mary, the Narrator and the angel Gabriel are taken by choir soloists: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The work is situated in the context of Boyd ’s personal musical aesthetic which she describes as the intersection of Christian Love with Buddhist silence.

SKU: GI.G-6272

UPC: 785147627203. English. Text Source: Anonymous, The Brethren's Tune and Hymn Book, 1879.

This edition may be performed as a suite of five pieces: In All My Vast Concerns with Thee, Ye Followers of the Prince of Peace, Bright Morning Stars, The Promised Land, and Now Brethren, though We Part. .

SKU: HL.14035285

The Five Lesser Joys of Mary begins with a conventional Nativity scene - the ox and the ass for warmth, the star, the Wise Men - to verses attributed by Warlock to one Daniel Lawrence Kelleher, editor of Christmas Carols (No. 18 in the second series of Augustan Books of English Poetry) where the anonymous verses were published.

The fourth stanza recounts Jesus 'Confounding the doctors, the poor little Child,' while the fifth carries us to Calvary and a singularly lame conclusion as Mary 'Saw Jesus droop over and lie very still, She thought of the good times they had long ago When He'd droop in her arms and she'd singhusheenlo.'

Strophically composed, with small variations, Warlock's tenderness seems generic.

SKU: PL.0319

Make Ye Merry uses an anonymous 15th century text with both Latin and English in a joyous, dancelike setting. Mr. Jones has contrasted both the joy and the mystery of Christ's birth in music that is by turns lyric and playful. The ecstatic joy of the Alleluia peals forth brilliantly in this work. There is the rhythmic underpinning that comes from the oldest traditions of the carol while the harmony and vocal lines are more contempory in sound. The organ part is challenging and colorful in style. Make Ye Merry would make a superb finale to any carol concert.

SKU: GI.G-7272

UPC: 785147727200. English. Text Source: Tr. Anonymous, alt. Text by Ephrem the Syrian.

Text Source: St. Ephrem of Syria, ca. 106-373, Trans. Anon., alt.