Chanticleer sings Herbert Howells' "Here is the Little Door"

This is stunningly beautiful. Here is the text, which the great Herbert Howells put to SATB in 1918:

Here is the little door.
Lift up the latch; O lift!
We need not wander more,
but enter with our gift.
A gift of finest Gold,
Gold that was never bought nor sold;
Myrrh to be strewn about his bed;
Incense in clouds about his head;
all for the Child who stirs not in his sleep,
but Holy slumber holds with ass and sheep.

Bend low about his bed: for each he has a gift!
See how his eyes awake--lift up your hands! O lift!
For Gold he gives a keen-edged sword (defend with it thy little Lord)!
For incense, smoke of battle red.
Myrrh for the honoured happy dead.
Gifts for his children, terrible and sweet,
Touched by such tiny hands and oh! such tiny feet.

The text was composed by Frances Chesterton, wife of G.K. Chesterton.

A Wonderful Interlude from Herbert Howells: Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

When I lived in Chattanooga, I sang in the Chattanooga Bach Choir from 1989 to 1995 (when I left to go to Auburn for graduate school), and I have many fond memories of the many wonderful anthems and other pieces we sang. (There were some magnificent voices in that choir and it was a privilege just to be able to sit among these people.)

Our director, Jim Greasby, especially loved the music of Herbert Howells, and one day we rehearsed (but did not sing in concert) Howells' "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem," which comes from Psalm 22. This is an especially moving piece and is meaningful to me as I see turmoil and wrongdoing going on all around us. Howells wrote this in 1941, while Europe and Great Britain were seeing very dark days as the German Wehrmacht was rolling through Europe and North Africa seemingly unstoppable.

It reminds me that God is on His Throne and that, indeed, the "Peace of Jerusalem" is not far off. I hope this piece is as meaningful to you as it is to me.

I also add Howells' "Magnificat," and "Nunc Dimitis," which we sang at an evensong at Christ Episcopal on McCallie Avenue (which had a wonderful acoustic) in November, 1989.