for mixed voices (SATB div) & organ
Text: English (Advent Prose)
Duration: c5 minutes
Difficulty: 3/5

Composer's note
I used to compose almost every day when I was a teenager but find it very hard to carve out the time for it now! Every now and then I get an idea that I can’t resist trying out, though, and this is what happened with Drop down, ye heavens. I was in the middle of finalising Pembroke College’s Advent service repertoire with just a couple of weeks to go, and I couldn’t decide on a setting of the Advent Prose to open the service. I left my desk to go and conduct the choir rehearsing and singing Compline, and came out a couple of hours later fizzing with ideas. I went and sat in my office, played around on the piano, and three hours later, had written this piece. I was really excited to hear what the choir thought as I had written it with their voices in mind, and so I typed it up and we sang it through at our next rehearsal. We ended up singing it at our Advent service the following week and recording it a couple of months later.

Text
Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
my salvation shall not tarry:
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.
Fear not, for I will save thee:
For I am the Lord thy God,
the holy one of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Advent Prose (Rorate cæli)

Anna Lapwood
Award-winning organist, Anna Lapwood, has drawn a vast new audience to the instrument from all around the world. Her huge social media following has translated into audiences of thousands for recitals, including at her ‘home’ venue – London’s Royal Albert Hall. Much of her year is spent as Music Director of Pembroke College, Cambridge (UK), alongside performing recitals and concertos with orchestras around the world. Anna is now a much-loved broadcaster on radio, TV and online. She was awarded an Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and the prestigious Gamechanger Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2023, and is an advocate for proactive, fair representation for all in music.