Song of the Day - 8th June

Today is Pentecost in the Christian calendar, a Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).

Pentecost is one of the Great feasts in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a Solemnity in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion. Many Christian denominations provide a special liturgy for this holy celebration.

The poem I have set for this sacred day is called Pentecost (or Whitsunday) by John Keble.

John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, is named after him. His father was vicar of Coln St. Aldwyns. He was educated at home by his father and won a scholarship in 1806 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He excelled in his studies and in 1810 achieved double first-class honours in both Latin and mathematics. He was for some years a tutor and examiner at the University of Oxford and in 1816, while still at Oxford, he was ordained.

His book of poems for the Sundays and feast days of the church year, from which this poem is taken - The Christian Year - was published in 1827.

My setting would more properly be known as an anthem and is written to be performed by a capable church choir. It is one of the longer settings in Songs for all Seasons, the music reflecting the difference  alluded to in the words between the wrathful "God of old" and the gentler loving God of the New Testament.

It is being Beta Tested by The Deveron Singers.

Pentecost

By John Keble

When God of old came down from heaven,

In power and wrath He came;

Before His feet the clouds were riven,

Half darkness and half flame:

Around the trembling mountain’s base

The prostrate people lay,

Convinc’d of sin, but not of grace;

It was a dreadful day.

But when He came the second time,

He came in power and love,

Softer than gale at morning prime

Hover’d His holy Dove.

The fires that rush’d on Sinai down

In sudden torrents dread,

Now gently light, a glorious crown,

On every sainted head.

Like arrows went those lightnings forth

Wing’d with the sinner’s doom,

But these like tongues, o’er all the earth

Proclaiming life to come:

And as on Israel’s awe-struck ear

The voice exceeding loud,

The trump, that Angels quake to hear,

Thrill’d from the deep dark cloud,

So, when the Spirit of our God

Came down His flock to find,

A voice from heaven was heard abroad,

A rushing mighty wind.

Nor doth the outward ear alone

At that high warning start;

Conscience gives back th’ appalling tone;

’Tis echoed in the heart.

It fills the Church of God; it fills

The sinful world around;

Only in stubborn hearts and wills

No place for it is found.

To other strains our souls are set:

A giddy whirl of sin

Fills ear and brain, and will not let

Heaven’s harmonies come in.

Come, Lord, come, Wisdom, Love, and Power,

Open our ears to hear;

Let us not miss th’ accepted hour;

Save, Lord, by Love or Fear.