Four Candles: Prologue and First Candle

A sweet fellow undergraduate named DeeDee introduced me to Advent during exam week at Duke in December 1980.  She invited our Bible study regulars up to her room around 11 pm, where we performed the readings for Advent and lit a candle each night, squeezing four Sundays of Advent into one week.


Later, when I studied composition under Dr. James Sclater, I used that experience to create a choral cantata with soloists who played contemporary adults in need of what the season of Advent offers.  I had Bernstein's Mass in mind, interpolating music theatre pieces with liturgical texts.

Four Candles, lyrics and music by W. Scott Smoot. Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

 [Photo: Candles at St. James Episcopal Church, Marietta GA, today.]

CHORUS:

Advent, prologue to the year,
Rest before another climb,
Silence for the inner ear,
Space the Church has cleared in time.

SOPRANO

Two cars, two daughters, gone!
One with my "ex," the other dating,
No one expects my decorating.
If I deck the hall,
No one cares at all!
Except me.
This must be like other Christmases;
I'll make it to be!

CHORUS:

Advent, season set aside,
Waiting time the Church ordained,
Listening for that still, small, guide,
So ways lost can be regained.

(ALTO and BARITONE sing their lines simultaneously, in counterpoint)
BARITONE

Case closed, we won. Big deal.
Bankruptcy courts and corporations,
Titles and torts and two vacations.
I want out now; I want out now!
What I mean--
It's time to leave when
Even when you win it's only [another part] of routine!

ALTO

Airport snowbound: My luck.
After awhile in sales meetings,
Forcing a smile with "Season's Greetings"
I wanted home. I want home now!
Just as well, just as well--
I'm home so little,
It'll be like going home to just
another hotel!

(Now, the lines for CHORUS and SOLOISTS all intertwine.)

BARITONE

Lights out, drive home.
Traffic is [stopping]
Jamming the mall with last - gasp shopping.
Now, no one's home.
I need time. I need Advent.

ALTO

Airport hotel.
Taxi! Taxi?
Catch the shuttle.
Traffic is [stopping].
Room, please.
Dine at the coffee shop.
Maybe not eat at all -- just stop!
TV off.
What I need is Advent.

SOPRANO

From the bottom drawer,
Advent candles.
Advent like before
In an empty home.
Stop,
Dim the light

CHORUS

Set against the winter night,
Lively Advent candles burn,
Clear and concentrate our sight,
We who watch for God's return.

Return... reflect... restore... renew.

SOLOISTS (sing variously, coming together on the final 2 lines)

(BASS) Beside the fireplace...a flier from the church
(ALTO) Gift shop candles, cupcake size,
Gideon Bible, improvise.
(SOPRANO)Advent wreath, my mother's;
Prayer book, my daughter's.
(ALL THREE) What a fool to try to squeeze a season into a night!
My own Advent.

CHORUS:

Advent candles number four,
Each a sign of what has been,
Yet they promise something more:
What each life will see again.

First Candle: "Waves"
In this part, a sales representative for a corporation finds herself snowed in at a hotel. Tired of rootless life, she tries to recreate Advent in just one evening, lighting candles from the gift shop, and reading the first Scripture of Advent in the room's Gideons Bible, Luke 21.25-36.

The chorus sings the text, the accompaniment suggesting ocean waves. Then, looking out the window onto a city blanketed in snow, she reflects.

CHORUS

And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon earth distress of nations and perplexity at the roaring of the waves and the sea, men fainting with fear and foreboding at what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, look up, raise up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

ALTO:

"Signs in the stars?"
"The roar of the sea?"
Where's the one about room at the inn?
"Men fainting in fear?"
"The end of the world?"
The end is no place to begin.

I wanted a manger,
A silent night,

Not signs of distress
coming in waves
Like disasters all day on T.V.
The chaos on cable news,
Like chaos in ancient times,
Began with the world, in the sea.

"For in the beginning,
The spirit of God
Moved over the face of the deep"
bringing light from the darkness,
Land from the sea,
Life out of chaos.

Where is my land, my home?
Where's a light to guide me?
And when is there time to ask why?
My days come in waves,
I never look deep,
And never look up to the sky.

"The Son of Man coming in a cloud,"
"Redemption is drawing near,"
Bringing light from the darkness,
Land from the sea,
Life out of chaos.

Now I look up:
More snow.
The traffic far below
Winds by like a river of light.
The window makes a frame,
reflects my candle's flame,
Sets my eyes like stars on the night.

Part Two