Our Anthem this morning. The 40 voice Parish Choir, the Gloria Dei Choir of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, La Habra, did a splendid job. This has become a favorite of mine to accompany. Our Choir Director, Vicente Chavarria, wrote (beautifully as always) and published the following notes on the anthem in this mornings bulletin: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Such is the scripture that Jesus’ disciples recalled when he drove the traders from the temple in Jerusalem. Today we celebrate the dedication of the Pope’s own church in Rome: not St. Peter’s Basilica, to many people’s surprise, but the Basilica of St. John Lateran, just outside the walls of the Vatican. It is both a celebration of God’s own church, which resides within his people, and an omen of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. British-Australian composer Edgar Bainton (1880-1956) studied composition at the newly-founded Royal College of Music in London with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford; among his classmates and friends was Sir William Henry Harris (whose Come Down, O Love Divine we sang some weeks ago). He was a POW during World War I in Germany; while detained at Ruhleben, he was put in charge of all the music at the camp and collaborated with other notable English composer detainees. Some time after the war, he moved to Australia, where he spent the rest of his life; he introduced works by Elgar, Sibelius, Debussy, and Walton to Australian audiences. The text to his cleverly-crafted anthem And I Saw a New Heaven is found near the very end of the Book of Revelation and is this day’s entrance antiphon. John the Evangelist describes the old world, with all its pain and sorrow, passing away, followed by the coming of the New Jerusalem prepared, John says (in some of the most beautiful imagery in the Scriptures), “as a bride adorned for her husband”. 1 Bainton captures the spirit of Revelation’s ending, which is in fact a new beginning. Each verse begins with an action of the Evangelist himself: “And I saw...and I, John, saw…and I heard…” until the middle, when John says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes…” At that point, the music changes to the major mode, and the darkness and sorrow turns to ecstatic joy. The piece ends with all the former things passing away, as if into nothing more than memory. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:1-4
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 04:49:32 +0000
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