This Sunday at Trinity 

Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968) was one of the great women    composers of France in the twentieth century. She graduated from the conservatory in Montpellier, France at age eleven. Her family moved to Paris, where she would study with organist and composer Marcel Dupré and receive a first prize in organ from the Paris Conservatory at age 20. Her prelude on the plainsong hymn Rorate caeli or “Drop Down Ye Heavens from Above” is one of her most  approachable works for both player and listener.  Her Six Etudes for organ are among the technically most difficult pieces in the organ repertoire.

Today’s anthem, “A Tender Shoot” was written by the German  pianist, conductor and composer Otto Goldschmidt (1829–1907), who settled in England in 1858 with his wife, the famous Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, nicknamed ‘The Swedish Nightingale.’ This carol became popular through a recording from the 1960s by St. John’s College, Cambridge University, under the direction of George Guest.

The text of today’s anthem:

A tender shoot hath started up from a root of grace,

As ancient seers imparted, from Jesse’s holy race,

It blooms without a blight, blooms in the cold bleak winter

Turning our darkness into light.

This shoot Isaiah taught us from Jesse’s root should spring,

The virgin Mary brought us the branch of which we sing,

Our God of endless might gave her this Child to save us,

Thus turning darkness into light.