Sing ye to the Lord

I know it’s the middle of Pentecost/Ordinary Time, but I’ve been itching for some spice to the liturgical season. Yesterday I noticed that I was humming “Sing ye to the Lord,” a marvelous piece of English choral music by Sir Edward Bairstow. Here’s a recording from Easter 2008 at St. Clement’s, Philadelphia (my old parish) with small orchestra, choir, and organ.

The triumphal beginning with the Song of Moses (“Sing ye to the Lord”) gives way to a verse from “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing:”

Mighty Victim from the sky,
Hell’s fierce powers beneath Thee lie;
Thou hast conquered in the fight,
Thou hast brought us life and light;
Now no more can death appall,
Now no more the grave enthrall;
Thou hast opened Paradise,
And in Thee Thy saints shall rise.

The music starts small and quiet, then swells and diminishes at the end before a final triumphant alleluia. Just the kind of thing for Easter Day, or another Monday in Ordinary Time.