December 2017
Seeing the Star: Reflections on the Nativity

Schedule

8 pm Friday, Dec. 1, 2017
University Lutheran Church
66 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA

5 pm Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017
Church of Our Saviour
25 Monmouth Street
Brookline, MA

8 pm Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017
First Lutheran Church of Boston
299 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA

The age-old familiar story of the Nativity, as told from many perspectives:

immortal words of the scriptures, set to immaculate choral music by six composers of the late Renaissance and early Baroque...
the evocative poetry of Richard Crashaw, a near-contemporary of Shakespeare, set for choral voices by Kenneth Leighton: A Hymn of the Nativity...
the foreboding poetry of Laurie Lee, a 20th-century British poet, set for choral voices by Samuel Barber: Twelfth Night...
the poetry of a handful of 17th-century Lutheran theologians, brought together as the text of Bach’s Cantata BWV 40: Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes.

Tomás Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548-1611) Ne timeas, Maria

Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) Dixit Maria ad angelum

Giovanni Gabrieli (1557-1612) Hodie Christus natus est

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525?-1594) O magnum mysterium

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621) Angelus ad pastores ait

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525?-1594) Quem vidistis, pastores

Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594) Videntes stellam

Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988) A Hymn of the Nativity

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Twelfth night

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes, BWV 40