Where Is This Most Holy Stranger?
NEW FOR CHRISTMAS 2022
Text by Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
Available for both SATB, and TTBB choirs
I have been interested in this text from Christopher Smart for a
number of years. The text expresses the wonder, and the profound
mystery of the first advent of Christ. The hymnist wrestles with a
number of seeming paradoxes - such as the strength of an eternal
God, wrap in the vunerability of an infant. I decided on a modified
through-composed structure for the text - which is uncommon for
strophic hymns - but 1) the emotions are so varied from verse to
verse, and 2) the accented syllable always falls in a different place -
so to follow the natural flow of the text means treating each verse
as its own musical idea.
Where is this most holy stranger?
Prophets, shepherds, kings - advise
Show me my master’s manger
Show me where my savior lies
Oh most mighty, most holy
Far beyond the seraph’s thought
Are you then so meek and lowly
As unheeded prophets taught?
Oh the magnitude of meekness
Worth from worth eternal sprung
Oh the strength of infant weakness
If immortal is so young!
God all bounteous, all creative
Whom our sins could not dissuade
You have come to be a native
In the very world you made