Easter

I'm a church organist, so this past week was a bit busy - two services on Palm Sunday, one on Maundy Thursday, and one yesterday on Easter. Of course, I always try to pick music that goes with the sermon and the season. Yesterday, I chose Variations on Now the Green Blade Riseth for my offertory. It's a lovely tune, but there's a Christmas carol that's sung to the same melody, so my family was singing the Christmas carol all day. :( Here are the lyrics to the Easter song. It's in our hymnal, but it's not one I ever remember singing in a service. Now the Green Blade Riseth Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain, Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been: Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green. In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain, Thinking that never he would wake again. Laid in the earth like grain...
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Christmas Carol – Good King Wenceslas

  I've always enjoyed "Good King Wenceslas," probably more for the tune than the actual lyrics. The tune is  "Tempus adest floridum" ("It is time for flowering"), a 13th-century spring carol first published in the Finnish song book Piae Cantiones in 1582. It's a delightful tune, probably originally intending to accompany dancing. "Good King Wenceslas" tells a story of a king braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. The legend is based on the life of the historical Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia or Svatý Václav in Czech. Wenceslas was born around A.D. 907 and nominally came to power as a young man in 921 on the death of his father, Duke Vratislaus. Vratislaus was a Christian, but his wife, Drahomira, who...
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Christmas Carol – I Saw Three Ships

This week for me is going to revolve around music. I'm playing the organ at our late Christmas Eve service and the piano for a wedding on Friday and then, of course, for the regular service the following Sunday. When I realized I had nothing to write about today and have posted photos the past two days, I started thinking about Christmas Carols. A couple of weeks ago I played a pretty version of "I Saw Three Ships" as a prelude. I really liked it; it's such a happy, lilting tune. A common version of the lyrics goes like this. I saw three ship come sailing in, on Christmas day on Christmas day. I saw three ship come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the morning. And what was in those ships all three? on Christmas day on Christmas day. And what was in those ships all three? on Christmas Day in the morning. Our Saviour Christ and His lady, on Christmas day on Christmas day. Our Saviour Christ and His lady, on...
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