Canterbury Improvisations – Impromptu

Описание: Composer Sidney Schofield Campbell, MVO, FRCO, was born 1909 in London and studied organ under Ernest Bullock and Harold Darke. He wrote this piece based on a French church melody, of which the earliest extant publication of the tune was published in Chants ordinaires de l'office divin (1881) and acquired its current name GRAFTON in Songs of Praise (1925, ed. Sydney Hugo Nicholson).

The ancient text, Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis (Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle), was written in the sixth century by poet and bishop Venantius Honorious Clementianus Fortunatus. It's triumphant nature seemingly wrecks a solemn Good Friday liturgy, but is intended, for we are drawn out of the darkness and hopelessness by the proclamation that, in the cross of Christ, we are redeemed from all that ails us. The crucifix is now seen as the new tree of life that gives us reason to rejoice while we await the promise of Easter.

The lyrics below are based on the translation by John Mason Neale in the 19th century.

1 Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle;
sing the ending of the fray.
Now above the cross, the trophy,
sound the loud triumphant lay:
tell how Christ, the world's Redeemer,
as a victim won the day.

2 Tell how, when at length the fullness
of th'appointed time was come,
He, the Word, was born of woman,
left for us His Father's home,
blazed the path of true obedience,
shone as light amidst the gloom.

3 Thus, with thirty years accomplished,
He went forth from Nazareth,
destined, dedicated, willing,
did His work, and met His death;
like a lamb He humbly yielded
on the cross His dying breath.

4 Faithful cross, true sign of triumph,
be for all the noblest tree;
none in foliage, none in blossom,
none in fruit your equal be;
symbol of the world's redemption,
for the weight that hung on thee!

5 Unto God be praise and glory:
to the Father and the Son,
to th'eternal Spirit honour
now and evermore be done;
praise and glory in the highest,
while the timeless ages run.

Composer: Sidney Schofield Campbell
Organist: Christian Low
The 1912 Bevington & Sons organ at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Singapore