UPCOMING PERFORMANCE
CANDLELIGHT CONCINNITY
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Voices of Concinnity
Candlelight Concinnity:
Music to Illuminate the Holidays
An evening of luminescent sound and candlelit atmosphere to help celebrate and reflect during the holiday season… together
​
Voices of Concinnity will be performing this concert as part of the Friends of Music at Emanuel Chamber Music Series. This concert is free to attend.
Saturday, December 14, 2024 | 7:00PM
Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Manchester
60 Church Street, Manchester (map)
​
Admission is Free
DIGITAL PROGRAM
Texts & Translations
This Christmas Life
Composed by Lucy Walker
Text by Wendy Cope
​Bring in a tree, a young Norwegian spruce,
​Bring hyacinths that rooted in the cold.
Bring winter jasmine as its buds unfold--
Bring the Christmas life into this house.
Bring red and green and gold, bring things that shine,
Bring candlesticks and music, food and wine.
Bring in your memories of Christmas past.
Bring in your tears for all that you have lost,
Bring in the Christmas.
Bring in the stillness of an icy night,
Bring in a birth of hope and love and light.
Bring the Christmas life.
1
The Year’s Midnight (Matins – Raag Malkauns)
from A Winter Breviary
Composed by Reena Esmail
Text by Rebecca Gayle Howell
​
The longest night is come,
A matins for beasts, they low, they kneel,
O, their sleep, their psalm sung.
A matins for trees, they slow, they stem,
O, their reach, their psalm won.
Hush, hush,
Can I hear them?
Can I hear what is not said?
Hush, hush,
Can I hear You?
Ev'ry need met.
To light, the path is dark,
Our star has gone.
Beneath my feet a year of leaves fallen, frozen, done.
I walk these woods,
The longest night is come,
Above me, the sparrow,
She brings our new seed home.
Brown true sparrow,
Take tomorrow home.
2
O Radiant Dawn
Composed by James MacMillan
Text is an Antiphon for December 21st
​
O Radiant Dawn, Spendour of a eternal Light,
Sun of Justice, come,
shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Isaiah had prophesied,
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone."
Amen.
3
Wexford Carol
Arranged by Kira Zeeman Rugen
Traditional Irish Carol
​
Good people all, this Christmas time
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born
Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God's angels did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear
'Prepare and go, ' the angels said
'To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you'll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus born
With thankful heart and joyful mind
The shepherds went, this babe to find
And as God's angel had foretold
They did our saviour Christ behold
Within a manger he was laid
And by his side the virgin maid
Attending on the Lord of life
Who came on earth to end all strife
Good people all, this Christmas time
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved Son
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas day
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born
4
Audience sings part of this song with Concinnity:
Alleluia, Rejoice!
arr. J. Edmund Hughes
​
O come, O come, Emmanuel
Hodie Christus Natur est
And ransom captive Israel
Hodie Salvator apparuit
That mourns in lonely exile here
Hodie in terra canunt Angeli
Until the Son of God appear
Hodie exultant justi dicentes
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Alleluia.
Shall come to thee, O Israel
When invited by a singer, the audience sings:
5
Noel: verbum caro factum est
[The word is made flesh]
Composed by Tasmin Jones
Traditional (before 1556)
​
Noel!
​
This night there is a child y-born, that spring out of Jesse's thorn,
we must sing and say therefore: verbum caro factum est
​
Jesus is the childes name, and Mary mild is his dame,
all sorrow is turned to game: verbum caro factum est
​
Now kneel we down upon our knee and pray we to the Trinity, our help, our succour for to be: verbum caro factum est
​
Noel!
6
Gabriel's Message
Arranged by Jim Clemens
Basque Carol / Text by S. Baring-Gould
​
The angel Gabriel from Heaven came
His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame
"All hail," said he, "Thou lowly maiden Mary
Most highly favored lady, gloria
For know a blessed mother thou shalt be
All generations laud and honor thee
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady, gloria"
Then gently Mary meekly bowed her head
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said
"My soul shall laud and magnify His holy name"
Most highly favored lady, gloria
Of her, Emanuel, the Christ was born
In Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn
And everyone throughout the world forever said
"Most highly favored lady, gloria"
7
8
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
Arranged by Ellen Gilson Voth
Traditional Polish Carol
​
Jezusowi Chrystusowi [Jesus Christ}
Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed a cattle stall
oxen lowing, little knowing,
Christ the babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging, angels singing,
tidings bringing, noels ringing.
Christ the babe is Lord of all.
Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping
vigil til the morning new
Saw the glory, heard the story,
tidings of a gospel true
Thus rejoicing, praises voicing,
greet the morrow, free from sorrow
Christ the babe was born for you.
Audience sings this song with Concinnity:
Carol of the Bells
Composed by Mykola Leontovich
arr. by Peter J. Wihousky
​
Hark! how the bells, sweet silver bells
All seem to say "Throw cares away."
Christmas is here, bringing good cheer
To young and old, meek and the bold
Ding, dong, ding, dong, that is their song
With joyful ring, all caroling
One seems to hear, words of good cheer
From ev'rywhere, filling the air
Oh, how they pound, raising the sound
O'er hill and dale, telling their tale
Joyf'ly they ring, while people sing
Songs of good cheer, christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
On-on they send, on without end
Their joyful tone to ev'ry home​
9
In Bethlehem Above
Composed by Yshani Perinpanayagam
​
In Bethlehem above, a star pieces the midnight sky to proclaim:
the child is born!
Gloria in excelsis, Deo! [Glory to God in the highest]
​
In a stall below a babe fed by a mother loving and brave
the oxen whisper:
Gloria in excelsis, Deo! [Glory to God in the highest]
​
Shepherd, take knee with king.
Rejoice! Heaven and earth resound with his glory,
The angels singing:
Gloria in excelsis, Deo! [Glory to God in the highest]
​
10
Lo, how a rose e'er blooming
Arranged by Brian Jones
New composition PREMIERE
​
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming,
As men of old have sung.
It came, a flow’ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
​
Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
She bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
​
This Flow’r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.
​
11
O magnum mysterium
Tomas Luis de Victoria
​
Latin text:
O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
​
English translation:
O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!
​
12
Coventry Carol
arr. by B.E. Boykin
from the Pageant of the Shearmen & Tailors (16th c.)
​
Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child
Bye, bye, lully, lullay
Lullay, thou little tiny Child
Bye, bye, lully, lullay
O sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay
Herod, the king, in his raging
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his owne sight
All young children to slay
That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and say
For thy parting neither say nor sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay
13
Alleluia! A new work is come on hand
Composed by Ghishlaine Reece-Trapp
​
A new work is come on hand through might and grace of Goddes son, to save the lost of every land,
for now is free that erst was bound.
We may well sing, Alleluia!
​
No is fulfill'd the Prophecy of David and of Jeremy,
and also of Isaiah. Sing both loud and high!
Sing we therefore both loud and high, Alleluia!
​
This sweete song out of a green branch it sprung.
God send the life that casteth long,
now joy and bliss be him among.
That thus can sing, Alleluia!
14
Gold and Spices
Composed by Alison Willis
​
They have brought gold and spices to my King,
incense and precious gifts and ivory.
O holy Mother mine, what can I bring,
so that my Lord may deign to look on me?
They sing a sweeter song that I can sing
Mother mine what can I bring?
I, bound on earth, weeping for my trespassing.
They sing the song of love in heaven set free.
Then answered me my Mother, and her voice
sake to my heart and answered in my heart.
Sing, saith he to the heavens,
sing, saith he to the earth! Rejoice!
They have brought gold and spices to my King,
What can I bring?
15
Halcyon Days
Composed by Melissa Dunphy
Text by Jacqueline Goldfinger
​
Sacred days draw near, traditions hallowed and wan,
Well-worn prayers embrace their heirs when love returns as embers.
Dreams delayed, hopes frayed in the blue nights of winter,
Daybreak dreams of reunions lost.
Rise up, tattered and torn! Rise up, barren and reborn!
Go forth in peace, bring joy to the dawn,
and grace, turn your face upon us.
16
Audience sings this song with Concinnity:
My Guardian Angel
Composed by Judith Weir
Text by William Blake
​
The Angel that pressed o'er my birth
Said, "Little Creat, form'd of Joy & Mirth,
Go Love without the help of anything on earth."
Audience will repeat this throughout the whole song:
