Advent I: Teach Our Hearts to Welcome You
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Now the Heavens Start to Whisper
INVITATION TO DEEPER LISTENING:
Listen to the first few minutes of the video above (to the chant settings in Latin and English) and let your hands simply trace the melody. What do you notice in the shapes and gestures? Is there an energy or feeling that emerges for you?
Imagine a rhythmic or dramatic reading of the lyrics of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. What would it sound like whispered? Shouted in rhythm? Try reading them as a dialogue with someone else. How does this change how we hear the text?
Listen to Adolphus Hailstork’s setting below and simply let the music wash over you. What feelings or energy are you aware of? Do you see colors or shapes? Are there moments that feel challenging or uncomfortable?
Finally, listen to the piece again at another time, later in the day or week. It can take time for our brain to process and assimilate new musical experiences and sounds. If you enjoyed the piece, see what new details you notice listening again. If the piece felt confusing or strange, stay curious and try again. How has your relationship with the piece shifted over time? What are you aware of that you might not have been before, either within you or in the music?
You can find the sheet music for O Come, O Come, Emmanuel here.
FURTHER READING and LISTENING:
Dr. Michael Hawn, retired Professor of Sacred Music at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas, has written a blog post tracing the history of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. It’s important to note, the English translation of this hymn dates to 1861 but the Latin text and chant melody are significantly older.
Listen to an arrangement for lower voices based on the Latin text and plainchant melody
Here’s an accompanied congregational setting from the beloved Lessons and Carols held at King’s College, Cambridge each Christmas Eve.
Named “the dean of African-American composers” by his colleagues, Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941) has received significant notoriety and honors throughout his long career, including performances and recordings of his works by the country’s leading orchestras and choirs. He has made a conscious effort to avoid being pigeonholed as a composer of any one type of music and his list of works includes several symphonies and orchestral pieces, choral works, several song cycles, pieces for wind ensemble, and chamber works for various combinations of instruments, including solo piano and organ.
In a 2020 interview with the San Francisco Classical Voice he said:
“I like to tell people that I’m a cultural hybrid and sometimes it’s agonizing. Sometimes I feel like I was hanging by my thumbs between two cultures. After years of this, I said, “Look, I accept myself as a cultural hybrid, and I know I have trained in Euro-classical skills and I also am very interested — and since I went to an African-American college — I am aware of that culture, too. And I use them both.
Hailstork’s Toccata on “VENI EMMANUEL” for organ was first published in 1996 and was included in an Anthology of Organ Music by African-American Composers compiled by the American Guild of Organists. A toccata (from the Italian toccare, literally, "to touch") is a genre of keyboard composition originating in the late Renaissance and early Baroque period that was intended to demonstrate a performer’s virtuosity.
The piece is in 5/8 meter (alternating between groupings of two and three eighth notes per measure), which gives it an unsteady, uneven rhythmic pulse. The fingers are in almost constant motion, fluttering up and down the keyboard. Listen for fragments of the plainchant melody in the lowest notes of the organ, played by the pedals.
