Church Music Corner › Fourth Sunday after Epiphany 2026 [loc-0032]

Laetétur cor quæréntium Dóminum : quaérite Dóminum, et confirmámini: quaérite fáciem eius semper.

This Sunday I once again sang at both St. Michael and All Saints and Old St. Paul's. Old St. Pauls transferred Candlemas (the Presentation of the Lord) to Sunday, so the evensong was a special one, but the morning mass was an ordinary time mass. In the morning we sang Bach's O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht:

O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht,	Lord Jesu Christ, my life and light,
Mein Hort, mein Trost, mein Zuversicht,	My strength, my stay, my day-star bright,
Auf Erden bin ich nur ein Gast, :	On earth I have no home or rest,
Und drückt mich sehr der Sünden Last.	By all my grievous sin oppressed.

I cantored for the propers. For the Mass setting, we sang the St. Anne Mass by Sir James MacMillan.

In the evening, we began with a Stainer anthem I'm sure I've done before but I'm not sure when, then this Mozart Magnificat (for which I sang the tenor part in the brief solo quartet sections), a 'Mozart' (actually John Kitchen) Nunc Dimittis, for which no recording exists but can be heard on our livestream. Finally for an anthem we sang the very challenging but interesting Rutter Hymn to the Creator of Light:

Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee,

Creator of the visible light,

the sun’s ray, the flame of fire;

Creator also of the light invisible and

intellectual:

that which is known of God, the light invisible.

Glory be to thee, O Lord, glory be to thee,

Creator of the light.

for writings of the law, glory be to thee:

for oracles of prophets, glory be to thee:

for melody of psalms, glory be to thee:

for wisdom of proverbs, glory be to thee:

experience of histories, glory be to thee:

a light which never sets.

God is the Lord, who hath shewed us light.

Light, who dost my soul enlighten;

Sun, who all my life dost brighten;

Joy, the sweetest man e’er knoweth;

Fount, whence all my being floweth.

From thy banquet let me measure,

Lord, how vast and deep its treasure;

Through the gifts thou here dost give us,

As thy guest in heaven receive us.

As usual we did John Kitchen's Divine Praises at the end during the Benediction, which was a magical experience when I first heard it in the congregation of OSP years ago.