Paul Vasile

  Advent 2: Dear Desire of Every Nation
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Ososo (Come Now, O Prince of Peace)

FURTHER READING and LISTENING:

John and Charles Wesley wrote almost 9,000 new hymns as founders and leaders of the “Methodist” or evangelical revival in eighteenth-century England. Two central themes of the Wesley’s hymns are sanctification and grace, framed in deeply personal language. Proclamation of scripture, preaching, and singing were all essential to the movement they inspired that swept through England and the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus was first published in Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord, just a few days before Christmas in 1745. Talk about hot off the press! It appeared in an American hymnal in 1847.

In his excellent resource, Glory to God: A Companion, Carl Daw, Jr. writes:

Despite the title of the collection in which this text was published, and despite the four appearances of “born” here, this is not so much a hymn about Nativity as it is about Incarnation. The details of the birth are never mentioned: no manger, no shepherds, no angels. Yet there is an awareness here that the larger mystery being celebrated leads to the sending of the Holy Spirit and comes full circle in Christ’s reign in glory, when God’s people will find freedom from fear and sin, when hope will be fulfilled, and when human hearts will be aligned with God’s saving purposes.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus has been sung to several hymn tunes since it was written, including several British tunes that aren’t well known in the United States.

• Hear it offered by a Roman Catholic congregation in Maryland to the tune STUTTGART. This setting is #83 in Glory to God.

• Here’s a lovely choral arrangement to the tune HYFRYDOL. This setting is #82 in Glory to God. Many congregations also sing Charles Wesley’s text Love Divine, All Loves Excelling with this tune.

• Here's a beautiful jazz trio arrangement of HYFRYDOL by my colleague Deanna Witkowski. While not specifically focused on this Advent text, how might different musical styles offer a way to hear the text anew?

In the early 1700’s Singing Schools were founded in the United States and there was a shift from unison Psalm singing (lined out in aural/oral tradition fashion) to reading music using mnemonic devices (shaped notes that indicated the pitch). William Billings and other composers also set texts of Isaac Watts and other contemporary British hymn writers, moving toward language that was more expressive and personal.

As American musical culture started to shift toward Euro-centric models, these practices of Shape Note singing disappeared from American cities prior to the Civil War, and from the rural areas of the Northeast and Midwest in the following decades. However, they retained a haven in the rural South where Sacred Harp singing continued and grew. Several collections were published in the mid-1800’s and many of these tunes have found their way into our hymnals including WONDROUS LOVE, BOURBON, and BEACH SPRING.

The tune JEFFERSON was first printed in 1818. While the composer of the tune isn’t know, the compendium A Selection of Shape-note Folk Hymns from Southern United States Tune Books, 1816-61 calls it “a folk song of praise” from “southern sources.” It is usually associated with the text Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken by abolitionist and hymn writer John Newton (best know as the author of Amazing Grace).

Here’s a performance of the hymn from a Sacred Harp Convention in Ireland. What do you notice in the energy and sound of this music? What do you see in the bodies and faces of the singers? How might this energy shape our singing of Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus or our understanding of Advent?