Fourth Sunday of Advent
A common myth in Advent lore is that the third Sunday of Advent is associated with the virgin Mary. When the Advent candles are displayed each year, the third one is pink in many sets. Many people, and even many churches associated that pink candle with Mary.
There are literally dozens of possibilities and historical anecdotes that explain the pink candle, but the one that seems to stand up the firmest is actually tied to the Catholic church and the Lenten tradition. When the whole idea of "church year" and "seasons" started to take form, Lent was really the only season at the time, signified by the color purple. Despite the Lenten season being used as a time for reflection and preparation for the crucifixion and death of Jesus, there are still overtones of joy, which foreshadow the resurrection and return. This joy was manifest in the color pink. During Lent, this was acknowledged on the third Sunday, where priests would sometimes wear pink vestments, and even the Pope would distribute pink roses to certain citizens.
As the church year continued to evolve, the seven Sundays of Lent were the model that was used to base the similar four Sundays of Advent. Like the third Sunday of Lent was associated with pink, so was the third Sunday of Advent.
The first clue that Advent 3 isn't associated with Mary is that the seminal Mary story from Luke 1: 39-55 is the scripture associated with Advent 4 in the New Revised Common Lectionary. This is the story we celebrate this Sunday, and that we also celebrated on Wednesday night as a part of "Joy From Heaven To Earth Come Down."
PRELUDE
Magnificat noni toni - Dietrich Buxtehude
Let's get the simple thing out of the way first. "Noni toni", meaning "ninth tone," describes the psalm tone that this Magnificat setting would have been sung with. That is not to be confused with a mode, or a scale on which a piece, or tone, or melody is based. Where we normally think of just major and minor scales, there are actually scales based on each note of a base major scale. If you think of the seven white notes in each scale on a piano, starting with C, you have Aeolian (traditional major scale), Dorian (minor scale with a raised sixth degree), Phrygian (minor scale with a lowered second), Lydian (major scale with a raised fourth), Mixolydian (major scale with a lowered seventh), Ionian (a natural minor scale), and the mysterious Locrian mode (which some argue isn't a true mode at all since it doesn't contain a perfect fifth, and its tonic triad creates a dissonance).
In using these modes for composition, it creates a unique sound that is sometimes difficult to wrap one's ear around initially, but these modes transcend our modern ears and give music written before 1700 that mysterious, unknown quality. The Dorian mode is minor at its core, but the raised sixth degree gives it a glimmer of hope. Sounds a lot like Advent, I think.
That was quite a digression. I also said that was the easy thing to explain. Maybe that only applies to me, because as I have studied the church modes and psalm tones for years, they come as second nature to me. Perhaps non musical people have their eyes crossed in confusion at this point, and that's okay. The mystery for me in Buxtehude's Magnificat settings is why are they called Magnificats? If I didn't know the title of it, there's nothing in the piece that would indicate a Magnificat setting on the surface. There isn't any obvious tone painting or "feminine" characteristics in the music.
After doing a fair amount of research, it turns out that Buxtehude's Magnificat settings were intended to be used in alternation with a choir chanting the Magnificat text, which in ancient church tradition, is done every evening at Vespers, or evening prayer. The Magnificat setting on the ninth (psalm) tone would be sung by a choir in alternation with the organ playing these brief settings. This is similar in concept to J.S. Bach's chorale settings, where at times each phrase of a chorale would be broken up by a short interlude or flourish of organ color. The composition does in fact match the ninth psalm tone (which begins with a minor third up and down). It also explains why most of Buxtehude's Magnificat settings are multiple movements. This Sunday we will hear just the first movement of Buxtehude's Magnificat on the Ninth Psalm Tone (noni toni).
OPENING HYMN
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
This hymn as we know it today is a translation of the metrical setting of the O Antiphons. Regardless of the language they are presented in today, each starts with the word "O." Traditionally, they are sung on each day of the week in the seven days before Christmas. Since we don't go to church that often, we'll have to settle selecting the more impactful, hopeful stanzas as we gather the day before Christmas Eve.
HYMN OF THE DAY
Canticle Of The Turning
Over the last twenty years, this paraphrase of the Magnificat has become most people's first choice for expressing the Song of Mary in a congregational setting. As you trace the Magnificat itself, you can see how it is interpreted in the paraphrase. Each stanza has its own character, whether it be the innocence of Mary, the changing of the world, or the comfort we take in a world of strife.
The tune has a very intriguing history. The original song, "Star of County Down," is an Irish folk song that tells an intriguing story that we don't really need to go in to here. The tune is almost identical to the English tune KINGSFOLD, which has been made famous by many composers, most notably Ralph Vaughan Williams. Though there doesn't appear to be any scholarly evidence of it, I can't imagine that these two tunes didn't derive from the same source.
COMMUNION HYMNS
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Charles Wesley, father of Methodism, penned this beautiful Advent hymn in the mid-18th century. It is one of Wesley's only Advent hymns that survives in our ELW.
Though the text is universal throughout various hymnals, the tune is commonly different. We usually associate a hymn with the first tune we hear it with. For me, I first associated this text with the tune HYFYRDOL (Love Divine, All Loves Excelling) from the Presbyterian Hymnal. In the ELW, it is set to the tune JEFFERSON, which originated in the early American Southern Harmony hymnal. These tunes are extremely different, yet they both compliment this text in different ways, particularly on the third line of the JEFFERSON tune. The phrase reaches its peak on the words "Israel's strength and consolation," which is very dramatic.
Savior Of The Nations, Come
These two hymns during Communion contain a very similar message. The original form of this text is attributed to Ambrose of Milan, but was "modernized" by Martin Luther during the reformation and set to a German chorale. The imagery of this text really doesn't need an explanation... the text and translation themselves do it enough justice. Evocative lines such as "mystic breath of God," which gives birth to the Savior, or the first line of stanza four describing the pipeline from God to us and back, or the fifth which foreshadows the birth capture the idea of God arriving at earth better than just about anything imaginable.
CLOSING HYMN
Joy To The World
It is a long standing debate of whether this hymn should be an Advent hymn or Christmas hymn. I personally think this paraphrase of Psalm 98 by the "father of English hymnody" Isaac Watts is truly an Advent hymn. The entire first stanza is a stanza of preparation; we are getting the earth ready for the Lord to come. The remaining three stanzas aren't really specific to Christmas or Advent, but rather general stanzas of praise for Jesus.
Whether you feel this belongs in the Advent or Christmas sections, we're doing it in a position that bridges the gap between Advent and Christmas.
POSTLUDE
Savior Of The Nations, Come - J.S. Bach
Bach wrote several settings of this chorale for organ. This setting uses the first eight notes of the chorale tune and turns it into a four voice fugue, imitating and repeating the subject throughout. Scholastically, it may be more of an invention, since there aren't really any periods of development or expansion on the subject. Either way, it is a fine example of Bach's short form fugal writing based on a chorale tune.
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