Description
Kallman Creates Publications
SATB, piano, opt. cello. Duration: 5’40”
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(Choral Arts Ensemble, Rochester, MN; Rick Kvam, Conductor)
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Composer’s Notes
“Good people all, this Christmas time, consider well and bear in mind…” I was commissioned to set this 12th century text from Wexford County, Ireland in honor of Lloyd Ketterling by his family, friends and former students. He is a beloved former choral director who taught at Rochester John Marshall High School for decades. Ketterling and his family attended all three performances of the premiere by the Choral Arts Ensemble in December 2017 at Assisi Lourdes Chapel, Assisi Heights, Rochester, Minnesota.
What Our Good God For Us Has Done is a new setting of the ancient text known as “Wexford Carol”:
Good people all, this Christmas-time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved Son.
With Mary holy we should pray
To God with love this Christmas day;
In Bethlehem upon that morn
There was a blessed Messiah born.
The night before that happy tide
The noble Virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark right well what came to pass;
From every door repelled alas!
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but an humble ox’s stall.
Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep;
To whom God’s angel did appear,
Which put the shepherds in great fear.
‘Arise and go’, the angel said.
‘To Bethlehem, be not afraid:
For there you’ll find, this happy morn,
A princely babe, sweet Jesus born.
With thankful heart and joyful mind,
The shepherds went the babe to find,
And as God’s angel had foretold,
They did our Saviour Christ behold.
Within a manger he was laid,
And by his side a virgin maid,
Attending on the Lord of Life,
Who came on earth to end all strife.
