2nd Sunday of Advent (Year C, 2009)

Entrance Song of Consolation (Peter Jones)
Kyrie Dinah Reindorf
Psalm What marvels the Lord worked for us (mcb)
Gospel Acclamation Advent Gospel Acclamations (Alan Smith)
Preparation of the Gifts On Jordan’s Bank
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen Mass XVIII (in English)
Agnus Dei Alan Rees
Communion Bread of Life (Bernadette Farrell)
Postcommunion Adam lay ybounden (John Ireland 1879-1962)
Recessional Come, thou long expected Jesus

I’ve been looking for ages for a strong and singable musical interpretation of the text Prepare a way for the Lord, and Peter Jones’s Song of Consolation (from Decani’s Veni Emmanuel) is a very pleasing find. The refrain has the words

Prepare the way for the coming of God
Across the desert drive a long straight highway
Fill in the valleys, make the mountain tops low
And all shall see the glory of the coming of God

John Ireland’s simple setting of Adam lay ybounden must be less well-known than Boris Ord’s Carols-for-Choirs version, but it has nice little touches of word-painting. I especially like the throwaway feel of the words and all was for an apple with a couple of beats’ rest immediately following, like a shrug of the shoulders: it didn’t take much to bring about the fall of mankind; any trivial object of desire would have done the trick.

1 comment:

  1. So glad you found Peter Jones's Song of Consolation. We've been using it in our parish for several years. I think it's a great setting of that text.

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