Opening Music : Let all the world – Dyson (2m)
My God and King!
The heavens are not too
high,
His praise may thither
fly:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may
grow.
Let all the world in every
corner sing,
My God and King!
The church with Psalms
must shout.
No door can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest
part.
Let all the world in every
corner sing,
My God and King!
Link 1 - Welcome,
introduce second piece (200 words)
Hello and welcome to Choral Classics, twenty minutes of sublime music sung by our talented choral scholars under the direction of Olivia Tait our conducting fellow and accompanied by Phoebe Chow our organ scholar. This week, the theme for our music and readings is Christ the King – in recognition of the feast at the end of the church’s year when we remind ourselves our dependence on divine authority.
Someone who witnessed the futility of earthly power at first hand, having served in WW1, was the composer of our first piece, Sir George Dyson. Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing was written shortly after the Feast of Christ the King was established in the shadow of the Great War and the growing threat from dictators across Europe. The music - a setting of a poem by George Herbert - is a hymn of praise to the enduring authority of Christ as King of the world.
A King who provides the model for our own faithful service and by whose death and resurrection we are promised to enter into glory; the message of our next piece, by Henry Purcell, one of the earliest of his anthems that still survives, composed in 1679; O God, the King of Glory.
O God, the King of Glory –
Purcell (2m)
O God, the King of glory,
who hast exalted thine
only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph into
heaven:
We beseech thee, leave us
not comfortless;
but send to us thine Holy
Ghost to comfort us,
and exalt us unto the same
place
where our Saviour Christ
is gone before us. Amen.
(Collect, Sunday after
Ascension, Book of Common Prayer)
Link 2 - Introduce first
reading (89 words)
“The Makers” is a poem by
Dorothy Sayers, used as a dedication to her scripts for ‘The Man Born to be
King’ - a series of radio plays on the life of Christ, first broadcast in
December 1941.
In it, an architect, a
craftsman and a stone enter into dialogue through which they come to realise
that true happiness is not to be found through lauding their own power over one
another but by serving each other - following the example of Christ, our
Servant King.
First Reading - The Makers
by Dorothy Sayers (from ‘The Man Born to be King’) (3m)
The Makers
The Architect stood forth
and said:
“I am the master of the art :
I have a thought within my head,
I have a dream within my heart.
“Come now, good craftsman,
ply your trade
With tool and stone obediently;
Behold the plan that I have made -
I am the master; serve you me.”
The Craftsman answered : “Sir, I will;
Yet look to it that this your draft
Be of a sort to serve my skill -
You are not master of the craft.
“It is by me the towers grow tall,
I lay the course, I shape and hew;
You make a little inky scrawl,
And that is all that you can do .
“Account me, then, the master man,
Laying my rigid rule upon
The plan, and that which serves the plan -
The uncomplaining, helpless stone.”
The Stone made answer : “Masters mine,
Know this: that I can bless or damn
The thing that both of you design
By being but the thing I am;
“For I am granite and not gold,
For I am marble and not clay,
You may not hammer me nor mould -
I am the master of the way.
“Yet once that mastery bestowed
Then I will suffer patiently
The cleaving steel, the crushing load,
That make a calvary of me;
“And you may carve me with your hand
To arch and buttress, roof and wall,
Until the dream rise up and stand -
Serve but the stone, the stone serves
all.
“Let each do well what each knows best,
Nothing refuse and nothing shirk,
Since none is master of the rest,
But all are servants of the work-
“The work no master may subject
Save He to whom the whole is known,
Being Himself the Architect,
The Craftsman and the Corner-stone.
“Then, when the greatest and the least
Have finished all their labouring
And sit together at the feast,
You shall behold a wonder thing:
“The Maker of the men that
make
Will stoop between the cherubim,
The towel and the basin take,
And serve the servants who serve Him.”
The Architect and Craftsman both
Agreed, the Stone had spoken well;
Bound them to service by an oath
And each to his own labour fell.
Link 3 - Introduce third
musical piece (86 words)
The recognition that earthly power is dependent on divine authority is the basis for our next piece of music. Christus Vincit by Scottish composer James MacMillan sets to music the opening words of a text of a liturgy known as the Royal Acclamations, which was in common use in the middle ages and through which the earthly powers of the pope, king, queen and bishop would be “acclaimed” and placed under the protection of divine authority. “Christ conquers, Christ is King, Christ is Lord of all.”
Christus Vincit – James
MacMillan (3.5m?)
Christ conquers, Christ is
King, Christ is Lord of All
Link 4 - Introduction to
second reading (117 words)
One of the many inspiring
people who have devoted their lives to the service of Christ the King is the
acclaimed mystic and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, who described her life as “a
feather on the breath of God.”
One of her surviving
letters is addressed to King Henry II and dates from 1154, before the
controversy that culminated in the brutal murder of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas a Beckett. In the letter, Hildegard counsels the King to be
a just ruler; to turn away from all that might tempt him away from humble acts
of service; to remember always the truth about the source of his power and
authority; where his true Kingship lies.
Second Reading - Hildegard
of Bingen’s Letter to King Henry II (2m)
From Hildegard Abess at
Rupertsberg to Henry, King of England, greetings:
When a certain man holds a
high office over other men, the Lord commands him:
“Yours are the gifts of
giving, it is by ruling and defending, protecting and providing, that you may
reach Heaven.”
But then a bird, black as
pitch, will come to you from the North, and it will say:
“You can do whatever you
want; so do this and do that; make this excuse and that excuse, for it does not
profit you to have regard to Justice; for if you always consult Justice, you
are not the master, rather you are reduced to mere slavery.”
It is imperative that you
not listen to the Thief who so counsels you, who is like the one who in the
First Age stripped humanity of its great glory, when from dust humankind was
made in a beautiful form, and when it received that vital spark of life. Rather
you must pay your attention to your Father the Creator, especially since your
mind is well-intentioned, and thus you will willingly do good unless you are
overcome by the squalid habits of those around you and become estranged from
Him in the course of time. Dear Son of God, you must flee this environment and
call on your Father with all your might, as He gladly reaches out His hand to
help you.
Thus may you live forever
and dwell in eternal happiness.
Link 5 - Thank you &
introduce final piece (157 words)
Christ the King marks the
end of the church year and the end of this season of Choral Classics; we’ll be
back in January. Thank you for joining us today and a special thank you to our
musicians for such beautiful music over the past ten weeks. Do stay with us for
our Choral Eucharist which begins at 12.45pm; and make a note of our services
and events taking place throughout Advent. Please help us maintain our music
ministry by making a donation by cash or card at the pay point by the door.
The triumphal entry of
Jesus into Jerusalem riding not on horseback as an armed conqueror but in
humility on the back of a donkey is one of the great symbols of Christ as King
of peace.
As we listen to our final
piece of music - Ride on, King Jesus, by acclaimed composer Moses Hogan - well
known for his settings of spirituals - it is impossible not to get caught up in
the liberating fervour of that scene. Enjoy!
Ride on, King Jesus – Hogan (2.5m)
Ride on King Jesus,
No man can a-hinder thee.
Ride on King Jesus,
No man can a-hinder thee.
In that greatness of
morning
Fair thee well, fair thee
well.
In that greatness of
morning
Fair thee well, fair thee
well.
When I get to heaven
gonna' wear a robe,
(No man can a-hinder
thee.)
Gonna' walk all over those
streets of gold.
(No man can a-hinder
thee.)
When King Jesus sittin’ on
the throne,
(No man can a-hinder
thee.)
Joy to a man when the
devil goes.
(No man can a-hinder
thee.)
Links and References
Let
all the world in every corner sing – Commentary on the hymn.
Let
all the world by George Dyson - CD/Track Notes from Hyperion Records
O God
the King of Glory – CD/Track notes from Hyperion Records
The
Makers by Dorothy Sayers
Christus
Vincit – CD/Track Notes from Hyperion Records
Christus
Vincit – Blog by Jim Friedrich
Letter
of Hildegard of Bingen to King Henry II
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