:)
What a feast yesterday was! I always look forward to Advent Sunday: two cracking Cantatas, (BWV36 isn't bad, either!) and all the organ variations based on the theme. The Radio 3 St. John's service in the afternoon had some excellent singing and (as this is a HiFi Forum!) sounded very good too, apart from the dreaded compression kicking in during the congregational hymns.
I wasn’t able to hear much of yesterday’s broadcasts, and what I did hear was mostly on the car radio – being required to provide an on call taxi service for my kids and their various friends – you know what it’s like… But I agree advent is marked by some memorable music. It’s an odd time in a way - clearly defined, but fleeting. Everyone knows it because you start opening those little doors on the calendar, but it’s soon forgotten in the crescendo towards Christmas. An example is the lovely advent carol ‘Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending’. It’s an 18th century tune so very English – lyrical and folk song like. It’s only ever sung at advent. For me it always evokes memories of this particular time of year – music has this strange power… It’s odd really because ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’ (also sung on the St. Johns broadcast), specifically an advent carol, has become associated with Christmas. It has joined the pantheon of other Christmas baubles and doesn’t, for me anyway, have the same associations. It’s beautiful though, clearly some medieval plainchant that has been harmonised. However, I thought the version sung yesterday (not that I could hear it much, having a car full of raucous 12 year old girls at the time) was a bit naff.
