Enter in the Wilderness

The words of this Advent hymn were written by American Roman Catholic priest, teacher, playwright and author Willard F Jabusch (1930-2018) in 1966.

It was the title-track of an album of Jabusch's music which was released in 1977 by World Library Publications (ref and ref).

It was included in 20th Century Folk Hymnal Volume 4 in 1978, and was published in a 34 page score arranged by Charles G. Frischmann (sometimes available on Amazon), but it doesn't appear to have been widely published apart from that.

Today, copyright is still held by Kevin Mayhew Ltd. Sheet music is no longer in print, and no on-line examples have been found.

It is set to a traditional Hassidic folk-tune. This has a 4/4 time-signature, and in the key of Em the first few notes are B, GFE DBDE F F F F.

Examples

Singer with piano:

Lyrics

The lyrics are copyright, so cannot be reproduced in full. But they are available here. The hymn starts with a four-line chorus, which is repeated after each verse. There are three verses, each of four lines.

A rough outline is:

Chorus:
Enter in the wilderness the Lord is coming,
...
Every mountain levelled at his feet!

1. God comes, run out to meet him; ... So

2. Christ comes, now we will heed him; ... So…

3. Look up, bonds cut asunder; ... So….