4 January - Second Sunday After Christmas

Sigh. Late again.

I just had one service at St. Joseph's Episcopal Church where I played the usual 10.30 am service. As usual, the numbers are out of The Hymnal 1982. Silly me forgot one of my books at home, so I didn't play the prelude I had originally planned ... FWIW, here is the list anyway.

One point of major squeeage: our friend Valarie, who is in the middle of her first year as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, visited us and brought her flute! It was really nice to hear the flute again at the service. Thanks much, Val! Good luck with the rest of the year, and in finding a lab to indenture yourself spend the next few years of your life.

Second Sunday After Christmas: Holy Eucharist Rite II
Prelude: Improvisation on Puer nobis nascitur
Pro: 98, Unto us a boy is born! (PUER NOBIS NASCITUR)
Gloria: S-278 (W. Mathias)
Psalm: Psalm 84 (Ford; plainsong, Mode 8)
Seq: 499, From heaven above to earth I come (SONG 1)
Music accompanying the Gospel Procession: a portion of the Introduction-Choral from L. Boëllmann's Suite Gothique
Off: 247, Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child (COVENTRY CAROL)
Sanctus: S-128 (W. Mathias)
Lord's Prayer: chanted (S-119 in Hymnal 1982)
Agnus Dei: S-165 (W. Mathias)
Comm: 112, In the bleak mid-winter (CRANHAM)
Re: 109, The first Nowell the angel did say (THE FIRST NOWELL)
Postlude: Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich (J. G. Walther)

Hmmm. So I didn't play the setting of Lobt Gott that I mentioned in the bulletin either. (I originally indicated Buxtehude's setting.) Oh well. A couple of notes. Firstly: Hymn 499, which I recall with fondness as the setting of the Nunc dimittis that we sang at Compline every Thursday after choir practice at St Stephen's when Richard Townley was the organist/choirmaster there, has only one verse. Admittedly, we have this highly irritating habit of singing all but the very last verse of the Sequence Hymn, then the Gospel is proclaimed, and then the last verse of the Sequence Hymn is sung whilst the Gospel Procession ... erm, processes back to the Chancel. Doesn't work all that well if the Sequence Hymn has only one verse. So I was asked to play some "travelling" music to accompany the Gospel Procession. I'll admit - it threw people off. But, a little unpredictability is fun ... in some cases ...

The Communion Hymn was a special request by the esteemed Dr Joel Marcus. (Yes, he's in the choir, and yes, he's got a lovely singing voice. You should hear him chant plainsong sometime.) I would have rather programmed that for the First Sunday after Christmas, but since we had Lessons and Carols then, I figured it didn't hurt pushing it back a Sunday.

And after this service, the greens went down ... and after Epiphany, the Christmas carols would also be packed up for the year.