Welcome All Wonders – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Text by: Richard Crashaw (1613-1649 and Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Instrumentation: SATB, treble choir, oboe

Duration: Approx. 4 minutes

Date Written:  1996

Composer’s note: With layered entrances by oboe, treble/children’s choir, and SATB, joy and welcome abound in this piece. A contemplative middle section provides a calming contrast to the unbridled joy of Christmas Day.

– Carol Barnett

Text:

Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, day in night.
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great Little One, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth!
To Thee, meek Majesty! soft King
Of simple Graces and sweet Loves,
Each of us his Lamb will bring,
Each his pair of silver doves;
Till burnt at last in fire of Thy fair eyes,
Our selves become our own best sacrifice.
from “In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord God”

– Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)

Moonless darkness stands between,
Past, O past, no more be seen!
But the Bethlehem star may lead me
To the sight of Him who freed me
From the self that I have been.
Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;
Make me meek, Lord; Thou wert lowly;
Now beginning and alway;
Now begin, on Christmas day.

– Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)