FROM EAST TO WEST

A cantata for Christmas in eight movements based on a poem by Luci Shaw, and others

This music is published by Fabrique Musicale, Paris

SCORE

LIBRETTO 

[Chorus]
From East to West from shore to shore,
The holy child whom Mary bore,
The Christ the everlasting King.
Let ev'ry heart awake and sing.

Behold, the world’s Creator wears
The form and fashion of a slave;
Our very flesh our Maker shares,
His fallen creatures, all, to save.*

[Soprano solo]
Across the purple-patterned snow
laced with light of lantern-glow,
dappled with dark,
comes Christ, the Child born from the skies.
Those are stars that are his eyes.
His baby face is wise
seen by my candle spark.
But is he cold from the wind’s cold blow?
Where will he go?

I’ll wrap him warm with love,
well as I’m able,
in my heart stable.**

[Treble chorus]
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domine.
Hosanna in excelsis. †

[Chorus]
For this how wondrously he wrought!
A maiden, in her lowly place,
Became, in ways beyond all thought,
The chosen vessel of his grace.*

[Soprano solo]
As if until that moment
nothing real
had happened since Creation

As if outside the world were empty
so that she and he were all
there was—he mover, she moved upon

As if her submission were the most
dynamic of all works; as if
no one had ever said Yes like that

As if one day the sun had no place
in all the universe to pour its gold
but her small room**

[Chorus]
And while the angels in the sky
Sang praise above the silent field,
To shepherds poor the Lord most high,
The one great shepherd, was revealed.*
 
[Tenor solo]
Winter, and very cold
and the night at
its deepest.  The politicians,
as usual, double-tongued.
The town chaotic, teeming
with strangers.
And tonight, as often
in winter, in Bethlehem,
snow is falling.**

[Chorus]
Puer natus est nobis,
et filius datus est nobis.  Alleluia! ‡

[Tenor solo]
I always love
how each flake,
torn from the sky,
arrives separately,
without sound, almost
unnoticed in
a flurry of others.  How
each one (on a clear
night) lies there glittering
on the swelling breats
of snow, crisp
and intact, as wholly itself
as every radiant star
in a sky sparkling
with galaxies.**

[Chorus]
In hoc natali gaudio,
benedicamus Domino.  Alleluia! ‡

[Tenor solo]
How many new
babies tonight
in Judea, coming
like snow flakes?
But plucked,
dazzling, from the
eternal heavens
into time,
tonight is born
The One.**

[Chorus]
Alleluia! Most blessed One,
The Son of Mary, Christ our King;
Our praise to you, O Virgin-born,
Through time in endless time we sing.*

Texts:
Coelius Sedulius, tr. John Ellerton, alt. *
The Roman Mass †
Latin Carol, 15th century ‡
Luci Shaw **