Gibbons: Almighty and Everlasting God.

Orlando Gibbons is one of the greats in Anglican and Episcopalian composers; he wrote all his music only in English (at least according to what I have read).

The full anthem Almighty and everlasting God is in 4 parts (originally ATTB), and, appropriately enough, was written for the Third Sunday after Epiphany;
Gibbons took the text from the collects of the Anglican liturgy, rather than from the bible, which was the more typical way here.


Almighty and everlasting God,mercifully look upon our infirmities,
and in all our dangers and necessities
stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us,
through Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The music is to be found in the First Book of Selected Church Musick, compiled by our friend John Barnard, in 1641.

Advent I 2018 Adam Lay Ybounden

The text Adam lay Ybounden can be found in a book of middle English Lyrics, dating from the 15th Century. The manuscript is now held by the Britsh Library. The text to this song (the original music has long disappeared)  deal with the story from Genesis, but from the prospective of medieval theology, with Adam being bound after death with the patriarchs for "four thousand winter" until the crucifixion of Christ. The story here is handled in a very humane way, and expresses a true individuality of mind.

Carson P. Cooman has not set the original English, but a slight update. I will give the original text here:

Adam lay i-bowndyn,

bowndyn in a bond,

Fowre thowsand wynter

thowt he not to long

And al was for an appil,

an appil that he tok.

As clerkes fyndyn wretyn

in here book.

Ne hadde the appil take ben,

the appil taken ben,

Ne hadde never our lady

a ben hevene quen.

Blyssid be the tyme

that appil take was!

Therefore we mown syngyn

Deo gratias!

Coonan's setting (his opus 576! He is a prolific composer) is lively and fanfare-like; the original uses brass as well. Coonan keeps the rhythms jagged throughout, bouncing between 3/4 and 5/8, following the sharp outlines of the text itself. If you'd like to hear the piece, here is one from YouTube.

Come thou Long Expected Jesus

This week on the First Advent of the Christmas season, the St. Matthew's Choir performed Come Thou Long Expected Jesus by Henry G. Ley.
A quick note on Doctor Ley:

He lived from 1887-1962, and was a chorister in the St. George Chapel and Windsor Castle. He then became an organist at various churches, including St. Mary's and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. Henry Ley wrote many choir pieces, and one of them is apparently famous; a setting of the founders prayer of King Henry VI.

 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus was published in 1957 and was written for the Advent season. It's a standard glorious piece, ending with loud Amen!

It can be found in the Oxford Easy Anthem Book, published in 1962. The piece itself was written in 1937, but then re-released for this collection.