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"Climb to the top of the highest mountain,
Joyous tidings proclaim to the world,
Lift up your voice, shout the good news:
Behold, your Lord comes to you."
-Isaiah 40, adapted by Carolyn Jennings
When the writers of the New Testament gospels – all of them – borrowed language and imagery from the prophet Isaiah to tell the story of Jesus, they couldn’t have known how influential that borrowing would become as the early Church began to celebrate Advent and Christmas. By describing John the Baptist, for example, with words from Isaiah 40 – the voice crying in the wilderness – the Gospel writers invited preachers, poets and artists to make use of Isaiah’s language in this season of “preparing the way of the Lord.”
The choral anthem, Climb to the Top of the Highest Mountain, quoted above, is one of many, many choral or congregational works for the Advent and Christmas season that, like the gospel writers, borrows imagery and language from Isaiah. Why not? Isaiah’s language is both beautiful and effective. As such, it doesn’t exactly need music, it speaks eloquently on its own; but it does welcome music, especially music as lovely, as moving, as what Carolyn Jennings has composed.
If this particular composition is unfamiliar to you it isn’t singing silently in your memory right now as it is in mine. I cannot read the words at the top of this page without simultaneously hearing the music in my head, and even feeling it in my body. You can hear it too, and feel it, on the program we have recorded for the Second Sunday in Advent (the second Sunday in December). And it is on the CD that Sing For Joy is offering as a thank you gift this season for contributions to the program.
It is impossible to describe music in words, and I would be foolish to think I can. Only music describes music. Still, knowing I am going to fail doesn’t always mean I shouldn’t try. There is something about the music – I think it is the steady beat, the steady rhythm of the grounding accompaniment – that makes it feel like music that is walking, but without drudgery; walking, but maybe dancing a bit at the same time. There is an emphasis on the first beat of each measure, as well as a secondary emphasis on the second beat – it feels a bit like walking, slowly. But the music itself is in ¾ time, like a dance or lullaby. That combination feels exactly right for a text that invites the listener (following Isaiah’s call) to climb, on foot, one step at a time, to the top of the highest mountain, not to conquer it or prove one’s strength, but from there, “joyous tidings proclaim to the world.” The text concludes with these words:
"He will love the little children,
He will hold them in his arms,
Love him and trust him as a child,
Behold, your Lord comes to you."
Sing for joy this holy season!
Peace be with you,
Pastor Bruce Benson
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