The opening voluntary for the Second Sunday of Advent is NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND (Savior of the Nations Come), PH 14.  This advent hymn has not been sung since I have been at Covenant, but it is a long venerated one written by Ambrose in the fourth century and translated into German by Martin Luther for protestant use early in the reformation.  The tune is an adaptation of a medieval plainsong.  I will play the harmonized version from the Presbyterian Hymnal and then a setting by Wayne L. Wold, Professor of Composition at Shepherd University and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland and Director of Chapel Music at Camp David.

As the tithes and offerings are collected, the Natica Bahar Handbell Choir will ring “Song of the Angels” by Anna Laura Page.  This composition incorporates REGENT SQUARE and GO TELL IT, tunes of two “good news” hymns.

The closing voluntary is a Jan Bender chorale prelude on “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” PH 1.  This Charles Wesley hymn was first published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord (1744).  Wesley’s focus is the celebration of the first Advent as it looks forward to the second.  The tune is STUTTGART, one of eleven tunes found in Christian Friedrich Witt’s Psalmodia Sacra (1715). It is generally thought that STUTTGART was written as a psalm setting but in time became a chorale tune. Today it is the musical setting for both hymns and psalms (see PH 223)

– Gail