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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Welcome All Wonders


Many years ago, I had the privilege of working under the baton of Richard Wayne Dirksen at the Washington National Cathedral. Below is one of his choral pieces, a glorious celebration of the birth of Christ the Lord. Ever since I obtained a recording of "Welcome All Wonders," I never let a Christmas go by without listening to this glorious musical celebration of the birth of Christ the Lord:


Welcome all wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, day in night, heaven in earth, and God in man,
That He, the old Eternal Word, should be a Child and weep.
Each of us his lamb will bring, each his pair of silver doves,
Till burnt at last in fire of thy fair eyes, ourselves become our own best sacrifice.
Welcome all wonders in one sight!

5 comments:

  1. A very festive and well executed piece. Merry Christmas AoW and posting family!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Odd, not the first embedded video my android tablet muted, but finding the url and watching it on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnuj7LFEhmw, it's wonderful.
    Merry Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. AOW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ed,
      Your android tablet muted the video? How strange!

      Glad that you made the effort to find this piece on YouTube. Worth the effort, huh?

      A blessed Christmas to you!

      Delete
  3. Yes, it's a splendid work. It reminds me of the kind of sacred concert music -- contemporary with the 1950's -- we sang in our high school choirs and in All-State Choruses across the land.

    We had a much more active, vigorous, creative, positively assertive Christian culture then. I remember it as being a healthier, happier, more hopeful and productive time than anything that has occurred in the wake of all those deeply regrettable Supreme Court decisions we know too much about that have cast a pall across our land and made us timid, fretful, confused, defensive, and belligerent.

    Oh well, MERRY CHRISTMAS anyway. God never changes no matter how foolish we act, and He is always there for us -- the Everlasting Arms -- ready to catch and steady us us whenever we stumble and get off balance.

    I love this text. It is most unusual -- even mystical. Do you know who wrote it, AOW?

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    Replies
    1. FT,
      I think that I've discovered who wrote the text: from “In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord God” by Richard Crashaw, 1652.

      More about Richard Crashaw HERE and HERE. The latter includes the full text of "In The Holy Nativity of Our Lord God: A Hymn Sung as by Shepherds."

      Delete

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