Advent: The Playlist

That’s right, folks: the Playlist for Advent-tide

(Apologies for redundant posting.)

Update: Sam Kendrick has generously put ported this playlist to YouTube here!

Another note: This playlist is best listened to in the order I arranged it in, as the order is quite on purpose. Don’t shuffle it!

The English choral tradition is world-renowned—especially at Christmas—but one aspect that makes it especially rich is its vast repertoire of carols, hymns, and anthems specifically for Advent.

In this Spotify playlist, which I’ve been tweaking for several years, the English tradition predominates, but not exclusively. We also hear from the Gregorian chant tradition featuring the austere Advent Prose (“Rorate Cœli”) and the poignant O Antiphons, along with Renaissance polyphonic and modern choral renderings of the same.

The playlist also dips into the German Lutheran tradition, with the chorale Wauchet auf (Sleepers, wake!—the Bridegroom is at hand!) and Bach’s intricate and jubilant elaboration of that melody in the opening movement of his 140th Cantata. I bring in too the quintessential Lutheran Advent chorale Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland (Savior of the nations, come!), with the opening movement of Bach’s Cantata 62 based thereon, and two organ chorale preludes to boot—one by Buxtehude and the other by Bach.

In making my selections, I’ve had an ear not only to the quality of the arrangements and performances (scouring the length and breadth of Spotify to place before you, etc., etc.) but also to the various layers of theological themes that are woven together in the Western tradition of Advent:

• the Fall of Adam and Eve… (“This is the Truth,“ “Adam and His Helpmate,” “Adam Lay Ybounden“)

• …with the promise of redemption in the distant future (“Ad te levavi—I lift up mine eyes to thee,” ”I look from afar…”)

• the ministry of John the Baptist (“This is the Record of John,” “On Jordan’s Banks,” “Hark! a thrilling voice”)

• and the anticipation of the First Coming of Christ in the Incarnation, with the Annunciation (“Angelus ad Virginem,” “Ave Maria,” “Alma, Redemptoris Mater—Hail, Mother of the Redeemer”; the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth (Gloucester Service—the Magnificat); the mystery of Christ blossoming yet hidden in the hallowed womb of the Virgin (“There is No Rose,” “A Spotless Rose,” “The Noble Stem of Jesse”); and the strenuous road to Bethlehem (“The Cherry Tree Carol”)

• …and the analogous anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world (“The Midnight Cry,” “Watchman, tell us of the night,” “E’en So, Lord Jesus,” “Lo, he comes with clouds descending”)

• The aforementioned O Antiphons, sung in the Roman Rite at Vespers on the seven (or eight! Sarum, amirite?) nights preceding Christmas, bring all these themes together in a mystical and interior majesty drawn from Biblical images foreshadowing Christ. They’re given a popular, metrical form in the famous hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which features more than once in this playlist.

In addition to these themes characteristic of the Western observance of Advent, I’ve also given a nod to the Byzantine tradition of the Nativity Fast with its repeated celebrations of Old Testament prophets and the forebears of Christ in the flesh (with the Sunday before Christmas and the chanting of the Gospel of the Matthaean genealogy of Christ) by including Arvo Pärt’s whimsical but profound “…Which was the Son of…,” a setting of the passage in Luke 3 with that Gospel’s presentation of Christ’s family tree. Aside from that, however, little attention is given to the Byzantine musical tradition, in large part due to the pre-Christmas season having a quite different character therein. (Among other things, it begins to sing Christmas music proper already starting on November 21st!)

English choirs predominate, both famous (King’s and St. John’s College Choirs, Cambridge; New College Oxford; St. Paul’s, London; the Tallis Scholars, etc.) and less well-known (Tewkesbury Abbey; Lichfield Cathedral; All Saints, Margaret Street). For a couple of the German numbers, we turn to continental choirs, including Bach’s own Thomanerchor in Leipzig and the Holland Boys Choir. American choirs too have their voice: the Boston Camerata, Theatre of Voices, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Chicago, St Thomas, Fifth Avenue, the William Appling Singers.

Among composers and arrangers, the English Herbert Howells, Benjamin Britten, Judith Weir, and Patrick Gowers stand out in addition to those already mentioned. Lowell Mason represents American composition, as does Paul Manz—another representative of the Lutheran tradition, whose motet “E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come” captures as little else does the sweet but taut longing for the arrival of Christ that is the essence of Advent—a longing shared by the whole of creation which groans and travails, buried (at least in northern Indiana) under snow on snow, awaiting the full revealing of the glory of God.