Justin Appel

Dear Friends in Christ,

In today’s lectionary, there is a set of readings for the Eve of the Presentation. One of the psalms assigned to this evening is Psalm 122, known especially by the opening line:

I was glad when they said unto me:
We will go into the house of the Lord.

Of course, the ubiquitous English setting of these words is that of Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, in the boisterous composition written for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and later performed at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It’s quite the grand psalm-anthem, with a joyous, rousing, late-Victorian sense of occasion, and I’ve enjoyed singing it at important occasions (such as last Sunday, when our Bishop was visiting and performing confirmations for a small crowd of confirmands), but I have to say, my thinking about the work changed when I heard the following performance by the Gabrieli Consort and a huge contingent of youth choristers from around England (some 250 singers) and and a huge orchestra in July of 2019 — the same month that our own choir served as visiting choir at Ely! This performance simply overwhelms the senses, filling one’s soul with a huge dose of English sentiments: both warm sunniness and a kind of emotional reserve.

By the way, this performance was a reconstruction, so they sing the ‘Vivat’ section in the middle to the words ‘Rex nobis’, which was later edited to ‘Regina Elizabetha’. In other words, this is the masculine wording that will likely be used this spring when a new king is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

Whether you are fascinated by coronations or not, this rousing psalm is likely to infuse some warmth into your bones and give you a few minutes of pure joy.

Happy Early Eve of the Presentation,
Justin

I was glad, C. H. H. Parry, Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Gabrieli Roar