In the Lutheran church tradition, Christmas begins with a festive Vespers service on Christmas Eve. For many people, this vesper ranks as the service in the year as such, with the retelling of the birth of Christ (Luke 2), the many candles and lights, the words of the prophets and the singing of the beloved carols.

For many years, it has been a great tradition in St. Finian’s to enrich the 5 p.m. Christmas Eve Vesper with choral music. For this purpose, an ad-hoc choir constitutes itself each year. This will also happen in this year and we will sing parts of Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria (with orchestra) plus the 1609 setting of ‘Es ist ein Ros entsprungen’ by Michael Praetorius.

The Gloria in D Major RV 589 is Vivaldi's most famous sacred work and it is among his most important church music compositions. It was probably composed between 1713 and 1717 for the Ospedale della Pietà, one of the orphanages of Venice in which young girls received a thorough musical training.

Since many singers are very busy during Advent and therefore cannot devote a lot of time to rehearsals, we were asked to hold just one, somewhat longer than usual, rehearsal on Tuesday 23rd December between 7 – 8.30 p.m. in the Lutherhaus. On Christmas Eve 24th December we will meet at 4 p.m. in the Lutherhaus together with the orchestra for a final rehearsal, to be followed by the service at 5 p.m.

We look forward to welcoming many singers for this memorable and uplifting occasion. If you have any further questions or request of an electronic copy of the scores, please contact Werner Blau: werner@lutheran-ireland.org