Sunday, April 21, 2024
Music for the Soul
Music for Meditation – “Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain” – setting, Rebecca te Velde
“Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain” is the one of the oldest hymn texts still in current use in Christian churches. It is an excerpt from a much longer poem about the Resurrection by John of Damascus, who lived in the eighth century. One of the commonly used tunes with this text, “St. Kevin,” was composed by the nineteenth-century Englishman Sir Arthur Sullivan, who was (and still is) internationally famous for his many operettas. The short, quiet setting of “St. Kevin” heard today is by the American composer Rebecca te Velde.
Here is the complete text of the hymn “Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain”:
Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness!
God has brought his Israel
Into joy from sadness;
Loosed from Pharoah’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.
Tis the spring of souls today:
Christ hath burst his prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death
As a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From his light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Now the queen of seasons, bright
With the day of splendor,
With the royal feast of feasts,
Comes its joy to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem,
Who with true affection
Welcomes in unwearied strains
Jesus’ resurrection.
Neither might the gates of death,
Nor the tomb’s dark portal,
Nor the watchers, nor the seal
Hold thee as a mortal:
But today, admidst thine own
Thou didst stand, bestowing
That they peace which evermore
Passeth human knowing.
– (John of Damascus, 8th cent.; tr. John Mason Neale (1818-1866), alt.
Postlude – Prelude in G major, BWV 541 – J.S. Bach
A lively, vivacious work, Bach’s Prelude in G major features three principal elements, heard in succession at the start of the piece: an extended passage of rapid scalewise and arpeggiated writing for the hands; a majestic motive played in the pedal, at its first entrance; and a series of repeated chords in the manuals.
– Charles Tompkins