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Stephen Watkins presents music and texts that seek to enlighten the path untravelled, the idea unravelled. JS Bach leads. Others (and often the unexpected) follow. The seasons are reflected and the hour is respected with space and contemplation.
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Strangers bear gifts in the deepening shadow of a star: wise men with gold, frankincense and Myrrh. The New Year begins with some recordings that arrived in 2008 – Epiphany at Winchester Cathedral (beautifully embroidered with wise men and gifts from a range of composers accented by Messiaen and Duruflé), an Epiphany Sequence from Kenneth Leighton at Wells Cathedral (a BBC commission that bridges liturgies of East and West) and Trappist Monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky singing the office for Epiphany, ‘Shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come’. Bach’s cantata BWV65, for what churches in Leipzig in 1724 called the ‘Feast of the Three Holy Kings’, calls Epiphany’s three sages Balthazar, Melchior and Caspar, and has them arrive to an ensemble of horns. The introit is John Rutter’s welcome to the New Year ‘New life, and love, and light and hope this good New Year’.
Presented by Neil McEwan
Music played on For The God Who Sings with Stephen Watkins on January 4 | December 28 | 21 | 14 | For earlier dates, start at the index of Archived Music Details.
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