Seasonal songs set the spirit

Carols and hymns are an essential part of church services for many worshippers during Advent and Christmas. The music helps set the tone of the season.

Kurt Kennedy, director of music ministries at First United Methodist Church in North Little Rock, said there is an emotional aspect to music that can "lift a person's mind to a higher plane."

"There's something about music," he said. "It's that other language that will just lift your spirits."

Many of the beloved songs of the season are sung year after year, including Advent favorites "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" by prolific hymn writer Charles Wesley and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," a plainchant song dating to the ninth century.

Wesley's hymn is filled with a sense of anticipation, setting the tone for the season as Christians await the arrival of Christmas.

Originally published in 1744 in Wesley's Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord, the hymn took a while to gain a foothold with congregations. It wasn't added to Methodist and Episcopal hymnals until a century later. Today, the hymn is often the first song listed in hymnals that follow the liturgical year of the church and it's a popular choice for kicking off the season of Advent.

C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, writes that the hymn has "the quality of a petition -- a prayer that implores Christ to be among us."

The lyrics include:

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free; From our fears and sins release us, Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's strength and consolation, Hope of all the earth Thou art; Dear desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child, and yet a King, Born to reign in us forever, Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit, Rule in all our hearts alone: By Thine all-sufficient merit, Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Wesley's use of imperative verbs -- come, release, bring and raise -- give a "tone of supplication," Hawn writes in his "History of Hymns" series for the United Methodist Church. The final effect, he says, is that "Wesley succeeds in recalling the deep longing of ancient Israel for the Messiah -- the Promised One."

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is based on chants that were sung in monasteries in anticipation of Christmas. Known as "O antiphons," they included O Sapientia (wisdom), O Adonai (God), O Radix Jesse (root of Jesse), O Clavis David (key of David), O Oriens (dayspring), O Rex Gentium (King of the Gentiles), O Emmanuel (God with us) and O Virgo virginum (virgin of virgins).

The song begins:

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

The lyrics of the hymn as it is sung today were translated by hymn writer John Mason Neale in 1851. Neale, a Church of England priest, translated many songs and hymns from Latin and Greek and also wrote some. A few of his best known translations sung for Advent and Christmas include "Good King Wenceslas," "Good Christian Men, Rejoice," and "Of the Father's Love Begotten," based on a fourth-century poem written by Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius.

Religion on 12/10/2016

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