At this time of year, you’ll hear a lot of chatter among organists and other church musicians about waiting with baited breath for “The Chord,” and everyone knows what you’re talking about!

I wait for this chord all year, and even though I know it’s coming, when I sing my note and hear the chord underneath, my heart swells and my eyes fill with tears. It is so powerful. It happens quickly – just four beats and it’s gone.”The Christmas Chord!” It’s not Christmas without it!

YES!!!!! I wait all year for this chord (and I am an organist!) Praise and Glory to the late Sir David Willcocks, whence it cometh!

And here is the description put together by artificial intelligence:

Powerful: Some say the chord is powerful and emotional, and that it comes at you like a lightning bolt. 
Unexpected: Others say the chord is unexpected and outside the normal harmonic structure. 
Meaningful: Some say the chord is meaningful and reinforces the mystery of the text. 
Magical: Some say the chord is a magical moment in the Christmas season. 
Best Christmas chord: Some say the chord is the best Christmas chord of all time. 
Compared to Wagner’s opera: Some compare the chord to the “Tristan” chord in Wagner’s opera. 
Resonant: Some say the chord’s resonance makes you confront the mystery of the text. 
Part of the congregation: Some say the chord makes everyone in the congregation feel like they’re part of the sound. 

“The Chord” happens in verse 7 of David Willcock’s arrangement of “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” on the word “Word,” as in “Word of the Father.” Technically it is a half-diminished seventh chord but some people have called this “the coolest chord ever!”

Even Hugh Morris of the New York Times wrote, “A moment in “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is so popular, it’s printed on T-shirts. But it’s also symbolic, and important to music history.”

Of all the music heard around Christmas, few passages rival the awe and mystery of one chord, known as the “Word of the Father” chord.

It’s a rare instance of powerful drama in holiday liturgical music, more akin to Edward Elgar’s depiction of God in “The Dream of Gerontius,” or the opening of the fifth door in the Bartok opera “Bluebeard’s Castle”: a moment of total release, embracing the unknown.

In British choral circles, this moment is referred to simply as “The Chord.” It comes halfway through the final verse of the popular Christmas carol “O Come, All Ye Faithful” (or “Adeste Fideles”), in a mid-20th century arrangement by David Willcocks, an original editor of the widely used “Carols for Choirs” series and a former director of music at King’s College, Cambridge. Willcocks, following a rising figure full of anticipation, places an explosive, half-diminished seventh chord under the text “Word,” resolving it elaborately over the next few measures. (Hugh Morris, New York Times)

Here is Kings College Cambridge singing the hymn:

Guess what! At both my Christmas Eve services tonight, the congregations will hear “The Chord” because for the first time in many years, I’m playing David Willcock’s arrangement instead of the Crosier version which we wrote in the 80s, published by GIA Publications.

Why, you may ask? As the baby said, “it’s time for a change!”

Here’s a short video titled “Word of the Father aka The Best Chord of All Christmas!

Even though I set my Christmas table shortly after Thanksgiving, I’ll be getting on a plane directly after the Christmas Day High Mass to be with my family in California.

And here is the link to the 41st edition of The Crosier Chronicle, my yearly Christmas newsletter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you in January!