Time enough for joy - Simon, Allen H.

Download PDF on CPDL ↗ Download MIDI on CPDL ↗

Loading player...

"A small cantata for Christmas, suitable for a small choir, many small solo parts. Covers Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany in eight movements &mdash; could have other suitable small pieces inserted. Total duration about 25:00 '''Difficulty: ''' Notes aren't very hard (mostly triad harmonies), but constantly changing time signatures make counting difficult"

◈ Genre / Form Cantatas

♯ Key D minor

⁄ Time Signature 5/8

♬ Voicing → SATB|add=some divisi

◆ Difficulty

Advanced (Grade 6)

↕ Range D2 – C6

♩ Tempo 180

◷ Duration ~5 min 31 sec

¶ Language → English

Measures 168

Texture mixed texture

Parts 6

Instruments Organ (manuals only) or piano

Pages 16

CPDL # 17472

Editor Allen H. Simon

Posted 2008-07-06

License CPDL License

♫Pitch Ranges

Soprano

D4 – F5

Alto

B3 – D5

Tenor

B2 – F4

Bass

F2 – D4

Organ

D2 – E4

¶Lyrics / Text

===Intro=== Do we have time? We have to buy the presents, wrap the presents, visit the relatives, cook the turkey, buy the tree (we always go to the cut-your-own tree farm), decorate the tree, put up the wreath, clean the house. These are the symbols of Christmas, but what about time for Christmas itself? Solo: We need to make time in our busy lives for joy, for a moment of the eternal, for a moment [pause] of eternity. Time enough for joy. Time was suspended for a moment (an eternal moment) at the Annunciation Time was suspended for a moment (an eternal moment) at the Nativity Time was suspended for a moment (an eternal moment) at the Epiphany To God, there is no time. This moment contains all moments. Did the Creation happen ten billion years ago? Or six thousand? Neither. To God, it’s happening now. The Resurrection is happening now. The Last Judgment is happening now. Time is an affliction of humans only. To understand God, we need to seek his timelessness. When the shepherds heard the angels sing, how long did it take? They didn’t know, because it was a moment of eternity. When the apostles fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, how long did it take? They didn’t know, because it was a moment of eternity. When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, how long did it take? He didn’t know, because it was a moment of eternity. Time enough for joy. Do we have time? We have to… house. We must make time enough for joy. ===Advent=== (trio) Christmas is three seasons. Advent is the time of waiting, of expectation, of anticipation. Christmas is the time of joy, the instant when the divine and the human are intermingled, when God, in whose image we are made, made himself in his own image. Epiphany is the time of wonder, when we, along with those to whom the Nativity was revealed, acknowledge its mystery. Advent is about John the Baptist, who is famous because he predicted that Jesus was about to come. John’s parents were really old (How old?)