Music for First Sunday After Christmas – 12/30/2018

Prelude                                What Child is This                             Richard Purvis

Introit (Psalm 93:1, 2, 5)                Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, forever. Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting. The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with majesty: the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith He hath girded himself.

Offertory (Psalm 93:1, 2)              The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting.       In Dulci Jubilo                     Marcel Dupré

Postlude              God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen                                Wilbur Held

The carol              “What Child is This” is from a poem from 1865, “The Manger Throne” written by William Chatterton Dix, an English insurance company manager, while recovering from an illness. It has been sung to the 16th century tune Greensleeves since its publication in 1871. Richard Purvis (1913-1994), organist-choirmaster of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, created a richly harmonic organ setting.

In dulci jubilo     (Good Christian Men, Rejoice) is a German carol, dating back to at least 1400. Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), concert organist, composer and organist of the Church of St. Sulpice in Paris, wrote this imtimate setting of this carol.

God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen is an 18th century English carol set to a 19th century English tune. The organ piece is by the American composer Wilbur Held (1914-2015), professor of organ and church music at Ohio State University.