Sic Semper Tyrannis

The Second "Rejoice!"

Jason beat me to the punch in the comments box, but I promise I’m not copying him when I say that “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is the other Christmas, (or technically “Advent,”) song that really grabs my ear and manly heart of concrete every year around this time. Here it is:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse,
freeThine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Like I was talking about with “O Holy Night,” I really dig the relationship between text and music in this song, particularly the first verse.

But let me start by saying that this song is a real underdog success story, musically speaking. If there were a Billboard chart for all-time Christmas music, this song should be right at the bottom if even on the chart at all. It’s just a simple song in two parts: a short verse and a short refrain. And have you ever noticed how “foreign” or “sad” the melody of this song sounds? That’s because it’s largely in a minor key, a rarity amongst “happy” Christmas music, but the tune of this song predates our system of major and minor.

I did some research and the tune is from the 15th century. (It had formerly been set as a funeral tune.) That would put it into the time when monks were singing chant in what have become known as the “church modes,” most of which are related to our minor scale of today. This is over 200 years before Bach and the beginning of the Common Practice Period. This music is positively ancient compared to the harmonic complexity of, I don’t know, The Christmas Song? (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”) and it sounds that way. How many other songs from the 15th century do you find yourself merrily whistling in the middle of the day?

But that’s a strange comfort to me, the idea that this little collection of notes has been floating around in the consciousness of the church for six hundred years now.

Ok, so now for the lyrics and their relationship with the music. Overall, this song creates the image of a suffering, expectant people yearning for deliverance. And once again, being the music guy that I am, and not so much a words guy, today it’s like I’m reading the second through eighth verses for the first time. But look at that first verse, it pretty much says everything that needs to be said. There is no better setting for this thought-“Come on God, we’re not doing so well down here,” than the simple, ritualistic-sounding minor-mode melody.

But oh, man! Then comes “Rejoice” and a major chord. The minor key moodiness is broken by something new. Nothing more appropriate than that.

But I’ve always thought that what followed that moment was kind of profound and perverse at the same time. The second “Rejoice!” falls back onto a minor chord and the melody falls back down to a lower note. Something is amiss there, but I’ll come back to it. But “Emmanuel” is back into major. (It’s interesting to me that the word “Emmanuel” is sung melismatically, i.e. with more than one note per syllable, in both the verse and in the refrain.) And then, strangely, “Shall come to you, O Israel” is back in the original minor mode.

All of this stuff is interesting to me, but the second “Rejoice!” gets my mind and heart working every year as I wonder “why?” Why must the second “Rejoice!” break down? And why does the refrain have to return to the original minor mode? Of course, I’m speaking figuratively here. And you know, I haven’t got a good answer other than this musical moment really communicates the life of faith, as I know it. There are moments of hope and certainty of redemption and all that. But there are also moments where I am keenly aware of the drudgery of life and the presence of suffering in the lives of the people around me and across the globe and a real need for salvation.

Hopefully, someone will some day re-set this text in a way that our “Rejoice!”es will be only followed by more major key “Rejoice!”es and thus “close the path to misery.”

posted by Mike @ 11:00 AM