We Have Seen His Star in the East

Tomorrow is the Octave Day of the Feast of the Epiphany:  January 6th, the day on which, according to tradition, the Three Kings ended their search for the Child of whose birth they had read in the stars.  It is an event that has been much celebrated in Western art and in music.  And with the octave day comes the official end of Christmastide.

I though I'd celebrate the last liturgical day of Christmas by sharing several of the Adoration of the Magi works from the wonderful museum at  El Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes and a last piece of music for the season.   The styles - both artistically and theologically - are disparate but none the less celebrate the last Feast of Christmas.

The most famous modern Epiphany carol is, of course, We Three King, written in 1857 by John Henry Hopkins Jr, the rector of an Episcopal church in Pennsylvania.  He had written it for a Christmas pageant at the seminary where he taught.  It was the first "American" carol to be included in Christmas Carols Old and New.

And as the most popular Epiphany carol comes from America I thought I'd post another lovely American carol for the Feast as an end to this year's Christmastide musical posts.

Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem is a modern carol in the tradition of Southern Baptist gospel music.  It was written by a Tennessee farmer, Robert Fischer Boyce in 1938.   With eleven children in the house Mr Fischer couldn't find peace and quiet so retired to the cow barn and wrote the words for what was to become a much recorded gospel carol.  His daughter Nannie-Lou Taylor helped him with the music and it was eventually published by  James D. Vaughan Music Publishing.  At one point this led to the carol being attributed to Adger M. Pace, an music editor at the company.  As was usual for the time Boyce received a flat fee for the song and gave up all rights and royalties to the music publisher.

 It was first recorded in 1953 but has since become a standard on gospel, country and cross-over Christmas albums.  It has been a feature in many of the Gaither Homecoming Christmas concerts.  I've always loved these concerts - perhaps not the theology behind them but certainly the music and here is a great version from one of their recorded specials.  Ben  Speer is very much in the old style gospel (and sadly his voice has lost much of its power) while Amy Lambert is more modern in her delivery.  But as with so many of the Gaither recordings its the ensemble that makes things take flight.

The tree has been taken down, the decorations put away, the Christmas CDs shelved for another year.  But where we living in another time there would be one more celebration before we went back to the humdrum days of winter.  But more about that tomorrow.

January 12 - 1554: Bayinnaung, who would go on to assemble the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, is crowned King of Burma.

A Carol for Christmas - A Hymn for Christmas Day

The cover of the last (1878)  "library" edition
of Bramley and Stainers Christmas Carols New and Old.

In 1871 Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer published Christmas Carols New and Old,  a book of hymns and songs that could to be said to be responsible for the revival of the Christmas Carol in Victorian England and the English speaking world.  The two had met at in 1860 at Magdalen College, Oxford where Bramely was a fellow of the College and Stainer had been appointed organist.  At the beginning of the 1870s they  collaborated on a book of Christmas music - Bramley acting as editor, translator and in some cases lyricist while Stainer saw to the music and included arrangements thought suitable for use in church and parlor.

That first slim volume was to be expanded to a series of three hymnals and from twenty to seventy carols by the time the last combined edition was published in 1878.  In those seven years Bramley and Stainer introduced most of the carols that we hear in concerts, office parties, on TV specials, in shopping malls and at church during Christmastide.

That first edition included carols which we now take as givens at this time of year but for their time were if not new were certainly not well known - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Nowell, What Child is This and Good King Wenceslas.  A wonderful interactive copy of that first series can be thumbed through at the Internet Archive - and notice the use of "f" or the "long s" in the lyrics.

The second book in the series included a carol which was often sung at Festal Evensongs during the Christmas season at St. Thomas and which  became one of my favourites.   "See amid the winter's snow" was published under the title A Song for Christmas and I particularly remember the wonderful descant and organ variations that Walter McNutt and his choir wove around it on those solemn evenings on Huron Street.  The text was by Edward Caswall, an Anglican priest who followed Newman's example and joined the Oratorians, and set to music by Sir John Gross who was known for the popular hymn Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

I searched for a version that could perhaps bring back memories of those candlelit and garland festooned services at St Thomas's but came across this version by Annie Lennox that is as moving and memorable in its own way.  In 2010 Annie released an album of Christmas carols and songs and toured  extensively in North American during the time leading up to the holiday.  Though there are several postings on YouTube of the studio recording, one of which can be heard here, however  I choose a live recording that she did on a syndicated American morning show.  Despite the inanities of the hosts in the post performance segment - which can be fortunately avoided - there is a joy that shines through and illuminates the true meaning of this carol in her performance.  

The standard editions of Bramley and Stainers carol books (as in the Internet Archive edition) were simply the words and music.  However there was a more elaborate "library edition" published for the home archives.  The illustrations were done by famous engravers of the period - the winter landscape for Caswell and Gross lovely carol was created by Edward Dalziel  one of the four Dalziel brothers who were popular engravers and lithographers of the period. 

The first page of "See amid the winter's snow"
illustrated by Edward Dalziel.

The "library" editions were illustrated and
annotated with the history of the carol

In the introduction to the final combined volume in 1878 Bramley and Stainer wrote:

The following collection of Christmas Carols, new and old, has been formed with the purpose of providing a single source, easily accessible, from which those who are so disposed may make choice of songs, suitable in words and music, for the sacred and joyous season of our Lord's Nativity.

The time-honoured and delightful custom of thus celebrating the Birthday of the Holy Child seems, with some change of form, to be steadily and rapidly gaining ground. Instead of the itinerant ballad-singer or the little bands of wandering children, the practice of singing Carols in Divine Service, or by a full choir at some fixed meeting, is becoming prevalent.

Among the Carols here given are some which are best suited for the old simple mode of rendering; others which require more ample means for their performance. Some, from their legendary, festive, or otherwise less serious character, are unfit for use within the Church.
.......

With this brief account of the purpose and nature of their undertaking they again submit the result to those orthodox lovers of music who desire to keep the Feast of Christmas with mirth which shall not overstep the bounds of reverence.

Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer
London, 1878

I can't be alone in feeling that their stated purpose and nature was more than achieved.

15 dicembre/December - Beato Carlo Steeb