Comments on: Lo, he comes with clouds descending

By: Richard Gillin

Richard Gillin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:23:33 +0000

I love this hymn… Advent Sunday has to start with O Come, O Come Emmanuel and feature Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending at the end, or it isn’t Advent Sunday (thanks to our Minor Canon for Liturgy and Master of the Music for getting it right again this year!)

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:49:28 +0000

We also sang it more briskly – and I attempted the bass line on a couple of verses.

At school, Dean Buchner had a compulsory non-credit tutorial we called “Dean Hymn” (in distinction to the other comulsory non-credit tutorials “Dean Sing” – where he tried to make us competent in singing the priest’s parts – and Priestcraft – where he taught us the rudiments of actually presiding at the eucharist and baptism).

In Dean Hymn, he advised us to be very careful with this hymn and only sing it when there were enough competent singers to carry it off – lest “deeply wailing” sound precicely that.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:26:52 +0000

This is THE most awesome hymn ever written!!!
Having sung it every Advent Sunday since about the age of 8, I always associated it with the joy of knowing that Christmas really was on its way, but now as an adult I appreciate every little twist and turn of the melody, and the myriad multi-layered meanings in the text…..

By: GinnyRED57

GinnyRED57 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:17:05 +0000

We took it at a slightly brisker pace, but it went very well. There were 5 of us in the “early service” choir this morning, and at practice this morning the choir mistress took one look at it, looked over the top of her half-glasses, and demanded to know if anybody needed to run it through before the service. No ma’am, we did not, and we did not discuss any dynamics or musical niceties either.

We opened our mouths, we sang unison on the first voice, and then the harmony poured out in the last two verses, with a nice little ritard on the last line that ended cleanly.

Didn’t tackle the descant with the male voices, though – that’s a pretty one! I’ll have to pass that along to Her Musical Nibs for next year.