What is an epiphany? The most famous example may be the visit of the Magi (wise men) from the East, who saw the star and came to worship the newborn Jesus. Brightest and Best is a Christian hymn written in 1811 by the Anglican bishop Reginald Heber to be sung at the feast of Epiphany. Arranger Shaun Kirschner shares “One of my favorite aspects of ‘Brightest and Best’ is the rich text by Reginald Heber. He is constantly offering up vivid images in quick alliterative succession, such as ‘cold on the cradle the dewdrops are shining, low lies his bed with the beasts of the stall.’  My favorite phrases are from the third verse: ‘Shall we not yield him, in costly devotion, odors of Edom and off’rings divine: gems of the mountains and pearls of the ocean, myrrh from the forest or gold from the mine?’ Such a string of images is a delight for the tongue to tell and the ear to hear.”