Rather than offering a list of titles, which depends on what your choir knows and on what you are entitled to sing, I share here a method for building. Five pieces are enough to carry you coherently through the whole season of Advent, provided you give them a progression.
Thinking of Advent as a dramatic arc
Each Sunday has its own colour. Choose your hymns so that they trace a single overall movement, from the initial recollection towards the light.
1st Sunday, expectation and watchfulness
A sober hymn, in a minor or modal mode, at a restrained tempo. The text speaks of waiting, of vigilance. The melody stays stripped bare.
2nd Sunday, conversion, the voice that calls
A more assertive piece, almost exhortative. You can introduce a choir descant that “awakens” without breaking the gravity of the season.
3rd Sunday (Gaudete), a break of joy
The Sunday of joy: allow a brighter colour, a slightly livelier tempo, a harmony that opens up. It is the luminous pivot of the season.
4th Sunday, imminence, the Magnificat
A hymn turned towards the figure of Mary and the imminence of the coming. The breath widens, the melody can take on scale in view of Christmas.
Christmas vigil, fullness
The richest piece of the cycle, harmonically and vocally: it is the culmination. If your choir is to work just one hymn in depth, this is the one.
Practical tips for getting it ready
- Start rehearsing by mid-November, Advent is short.
- Reuse a stable core from year to year: the congregation will know it better and better.
- Reserve the new piece to one hymn, ideally the one for the vigil.