The Holy Eucharist: Rite II on The First Sunday of Advent, Year A, November 30, 2025, at 11 a.m.
The Holy Eucharist: Rite II on The First Sunday of Advent, Year A, November 30, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Rev. Cameron J, Soulis, Senior Associate Rectot, was the preacher. Assisting: The Rev. Jonathon W, Jensen, Rector, the Rev. Geoffrey S. Royce, Deacon, Alan Lewis, Organist, Jon Tyillian, Assistant Organist. Musical Notes: A warm welcome to Becca Nadler, Sarah’s sister, joining in the duet in the Offertory Anthem today. The Calvary Choir offers a service of Lessons and Carols for Advent this afternoon at 4 p.m.. Chatham Baroque joins the choir in presenting Bach’s Advent cantata, Savior of the nations, come, and other seasonal music. Please join us. A reception follows. Among the musical markers of Advent is a shift to plainsong for the Psalms and service music (Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) during this brief season. The Kyrie and Agnus Dei settings come from a cycle of chants historically associated with feasts of the Virgin Mary; while their language is that of Rite I, the Book of Common Prayer expressly permits the use of texts in older idioms for the sake of their musical settings. The Sanctus is a simpler chant drawn from a different group of chants for the Eucharist. Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) was an English composer, music-historian, and educator. Largely conservative in his compositional outlook, he was esteemed highly by figures like Stanford and Elgar, but somewhat less so by more forward-looking musicians. He was particularly influential as the professor of composition, and later the director, of the Royal College of Music in London (founded in 1882 and quickly established as the preeminent venue for musical training in the United Kingdom). Parry composed his best-known anthem, I was glad, for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, expanding the introduction into its now-familiar form for the subsequent coronation of George V in 1911. (A central section, with thrilling trumpet fanfares, is reserved for the entry of the monarch at coronations, and was heard at the recent coronation of Charles III; it is, by tradition, always omitted from other uses of the piece.) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47) was an important and sadly short-lived figure in the lineage of German composers between Beethoven and Brahms. He was also an early champion of the rediscovery of the music of J.S. Bach, whose monumental St. Matthew Passion he edited and performed in 1829, after it had lain more-or-less forgotten since the composer’s death in 1750. The Song of Praise, from which I waited for the Lord comes, dates from 1840; Mendelssohn wrote it to be part of a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention of his revolutionary printing-technique. The piece is sometimes termed Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony (though he never numbered it that way). Its eleven movements are a series of what amount to anthems on scriptural texts, scored for choir, soloists, and orchestra. Visit our website at http://www.calvarypgh.org Download the bulletin for this service at https://www.calvarypgh.org/bulletins-... Visit our YouTube page where you will find an archive of our services, sermons, and classes at / @calvaryepiscopalchurchpitt207
