Music for December 21, 2014 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Maria Walks amid the Thorn - David Cherwein (b. 1957)
• The Provençal Carol - Donald Busarow (1934-2011)

Instrumental Music

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – arr. Larry Dalton (1946-2009)
• Ave Maria von Arcadelt – Franz Liszt
• Magnificat primi toni (BuxWV 203) – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 56 – O come, O come, Emanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 54 – Savior of the nations, come (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 66 – Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART) 
• Canticle S-242: The Song of Mary (Magnificat) – Tonus Peregrinus

Two ancient Christmas melodies from two different countries provide the tunes for today's anthems. At the offertory you will hear the Minnesota composer David Cherwein's setting of the German Folk Song, Maria durch ein'n Dornwald ging, a sixteenth-century hymn traditionally sung in anticipation of Christmas during the Advent season. Although the melody is considered to be much older, its first appearances of lyrics and music together is the Gesangbuch of Andernach (1608) which claims that it was universally known and liked at that time.

Translated into English in the 1950s by Henry S. Drinker, the lyrics and hymn tune were introduced to Americans by Maria Augusta Trapp, (of Sound of Music fame) in her book, Around the Year with the Trapp Family (New York: Pantheon, 1955), who identifies this as a traditional Advent hymn.  

The lyrics combine the Greek text of the “Kyrie eleison” from the Ordinary of the Mass with a vernacular text (originally German, translated into English) that both tells of Mary’s pregnancy and her role as mother of Jesus,with the association of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the “spotless Rose”—a traditional image in German Christian hymnody.

The Annunciation. Fra Angelico c.1450. Fresco, 230 x 297. Museo di San Marco, Corridor, Florence, Italy

The other anthem is a setting of a Christmas Carol from the Provence region of France, arranged by the Lutheran composer, organist, and educator Donald Busarow. The tune first appeared in a collection of Provençal Noels in 1856, but Dr. Busarow wrote these lyrics suitable for the Gospel account of he Annunciation, in 1995. 

As this is the last Sunday of Advent, I like to include the well-known chant, Veni, Emmanuel. We'll sing it as a processional hymn, but I will also play a piano arrangement as the opening voluntary by a man known as Larry Dalton. He's unique among the composers I usually  play in that he is not Anglican, Lutheran or any other liturgical-based composer, but Pentecostal! In fact, he was once the music director for Oral Robert's Television program. The fact that this charismatic musician arranged and played this ancient chant is testimony to the popularity of this hymn, which appears in over fifty modern hymnals.

The communion voluntary is a piece by another talented pianist, Franz Liszt, though not for piano, but for the organ. Many people know that Liszt was known to be quite the ladies' man in his youth, with dashing good looks and a mesmeric personality and stage presence. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. He had several affairs with married women. But in later years, he retreated from public life and joined the monastery Madonna del Rosario, just outside Rome. He was ordained to the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte, and was often called Abbé Liszt.  He wrote several organ works for liturgical use during this time, often based on famous choral works of the day. This work is based on an Ave Maria by Jacob Arcadelt (c. 1507 – 1568) , a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance.

Hymns: 
Hymn 56: O come, O come, Emanuel  - The text for "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" comes from a 7 verse poem that dates back to the 8th century. It was used during the Advent evening, service. The original text created the reverse acrostic "ero cras," which means "I shall be with you tomorrow," and is particularly appropriate for the advent season. The tune, VENI EMMANUEL was originally music for a Requiem Mass in fifteenth-century France. In 1854, an Anglican priest, Thomas Helmore adapted this chant tune and published it in The Hymnal Noted.

Hymn 54: Savior of the nations, come - One of the oldest hymn texts in our hymnal, St. Ambrose wrote this hymn ("Veni, Redemptor gentium") in the fourth century. The text appears in a number of eighth- and ninth-century manuscripts. Martin Luther translated this text into German ("Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland") in 1523. Various English translations have come down through the years. Like VENI EMMANUEL, this tune is derived from a chant which was found in  a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Einsiedeln manuscript. The adaptation of the tune was published in 1524 in an early Lutheran Hymnal. Johann S. Bach used the tune for preludes in the Clavierübung and Orgelbüchlein and in his cantatas 36 and 62.

Hymn 66: Come, thou long expected Jesus - Charles Wesley wrote this Advent hymn and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Our hymnal uses the tune STUTTGART, which is from Psalmodia Sacra (1715), one of the most significant hymnals of the early eighteenth century, which paired the tune STUTTGART to the text "Sollt' es gleich."
The tune title STUTTGART relates to a story about Rev. C. A. Dann's banishment from his pulpit at St. Leonard's Church in Stuttgart in the early nineteenth century. When Dann was eventually invited back to his church, his congregation greeted him with the singing of "Sollt' es gleich." ("It seems right" or something like that.)

Canticle S-242: The Song of Mary (Magnificat) – Tonus Peregrinus. Instead of the Psalm today, we are going with the other option of Mary's song of praise upon hearing the news that she would bear the savior of the world. Like the psalms in Advent, we will chant to text to a Psalm tone, this time the Tonus Peregrinus (or "wandering tone"), a so-called "deviant" Psalm-tone since it uses two different reciting tones (an A for the first part of the psalm verse and a G for the second half), unlike the first eight Psalm tones which use the same note for both halves of the psalm verse.

Music for December 14, 2014 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• God’s Great Lights – Helen Kemp (b. 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come – Wayne Wold (b. 1954)
• O Savior, Throw the Heavens Wide – Rolf Schweizer (b. 1936)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 616 – Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R-92 – Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ)
• Hymn R-128 – Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Psalm 126 – tone  VIII.a

The choir's anthem for this Sunday is There Shall A Star by Felix Mendelssohn. This choral piece is from Mendelssohn's oratorio "Christus" (op 97), which was unfinished at his untimely death at the age of 38, when he died suddenly from a series of strokes. "Christus" is based upon biblical texts of Jesus and libretto by J.F. von Bunsun. The first part of the text comes from Numbers 24:7. The anthem is divided into four parts. In the first section, Mendelssohn supports the text with fluid, calm lines and ascending passages. He also supports the text with soft triplets in the instrumental accompaniment, giving a sense of movement. Each voice has a slightly independent line.

In the second section, the music becomes more intense and passionate as the chorus describes what the star from Jacob will do. The accompaniment continues with its rhythmic triplets. In the third section, Mendelssohn combines the ascending lines about the star of Jacob coming forth with the intense statements about vanquishing the enemy. That section returns to the texts and structure of the first section, with the ascending lines reaffirming the appearance of the King of Judaea.
Mendelssohn concludes the section with Bach's harmonization of  Philipp Nicolai’s (1556-1608) famous hymn, As bright the star of morning gleams (Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern). The chorus begins a cappella. Mendelssohn adds intermittent accompaniment in the same pattern as at the beginning of the movement. The selection concludes with soft, instrumental accompaniment. 

Helen Kemp

The St. Gregory Choir sings another anthem refering to Jesus as the morning star ("great light") with a lilting anthem by America's Grand Dame of Children's music, Helen Kemp. Mrs. Kemp was married to one of America's leading church musicians, and the mother of another (Michael Kemp), but it was her own work with children's choirs that garnered her fame as a director and composer. She understands the child's voice and writes music that will bring out the best in the child as well as the child's voice. She has worked with children and youth choirs for over 70 years!

The opening voluntary is a simple setting of the German Advent Chorale, Savior, of the Nations, Come, arranged for keyboard by Wayne Wold. Wold is the Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and an active church musician, composer, performer, author, and clinician. As an active composer, Wold has published many compositions for organ and choirs. He is also the author of numerous books including Tune My Heart to Sing, and Preaching to the Choir: The Care and Nurture of the Church Choir. This simple setting starts of with an ostinato in the bass which plays continuously throughout the first section of the prelude while the right hand plays the melody in the soprano part. The second entrance of the hymn-tune is in a new key in a simple four-part harmony setting, before returning to the first section with its bass ostinato.

• Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN) James Montgomery (1771-1854) led a thoroughly unremarkable life. The son of a Moravian minister, he tried business until settling down as a newspaper editor in Sheffield, England, where he also wrote poems and hymns. This hymn is his best psalm rendering. It is based on Ps. 72 and was originally written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements in the United Kingdom in 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm." The tune,  ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN, a German folk tune, and was first published in an early-seventeenth-century manuscript collection from Memmingen, Germany.
• Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON) This hymn was translated from a Latin hymn from the 5th century by Edward Caswall, a 19th century priest who left the Anglican church to become a Roman Catholic after his wife died. The text is perfect for the scriptures about the prophet "crying in the wilderness." The tune is by William H. Monk (1823-1889) who composed MERTON and published it in 1850. The tune has been associated with this text since the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune's title is thought to refer to Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College, Oxford, England.
• Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ) - This simple round from the Taizé community in France is much more lilting and upbeat than most of their quiet, contemplative refrains. It fits in quite nicely with the theme of the morning, the voice of one that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye a way for the Lord."
• Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN) -  Here we have a paraphrase of The Song of Zechariah, (Luke 1:68-79) by the contemporary American Episcopal priest, Carl P. Daw (b. 1944) He has written over 80 hymns which appear in over 20 hymnals since the mid 1980s. The tune is a lovely English folk tune arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Music for December 7, 2014 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Rejoice, Greatly (Messiah) – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• By All Your Saints - Joel Martinson (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Lord Christ, the only Son of God – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Lord Christ, the only Son of God, BWV 601 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 67 – Comfort, comfort ye my people (PSALM 42)
• Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion (BEREDEN VAG FOR HERRAN)
• Hymn R-278 – Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 85 – tone VIIIa

Marion Russell Dickson, soprano

The music for the second Sunday of the Advent Season features music of THE Baroque Masters, Bach and Handel, with a lesser known baroque composer thrown in.  The offertory anthem is Rejoice Greatly, that wonderful soprano aria from Handel's Messiah, sung by Kingwood resident and friend of the Good Shepherd Music Ministry, Marion Russell Dickson. She recently completed her doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Houston. This will be a busy weekend of performing for her as she is also the guest soloist with the Kingwood Pops Orchestra Friday and Saturday night.

The chorale Herr Christ, der einge Gottes-Sohn [Lord Christ, the only Son of God] is the basis of both the opening and closing voluntaries. In the opening voluntary by  J. G. Walther, you hear the melody presented in its entirety in the soprano (top) part of the manualiter (that's German for "Look, Ma, no feet!") while the lower three voices accompany the melody with a repetitive eighth-note pattern. The closing voluntary is from Bach's monumental organ collection Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book"), 46 chorale preludes for organ written by Bach during the period 1708–1717. The collection was originally planned as a set of 164 chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year. This is the third of four pieces for Advent, though it was probably the first written. Like the opening voluntary today, the melody (cantus firmus) is presented unadorned in the soprano line with the other three voices on the same keyboard and in the pedal. The accompaniment is derived from the suspirans pedal motif of three sixteenth notes followed by two eighth notes. For Albert Schweitzer, this particular motif signified "beatific joy", representing either "intimate gladness or blissful adoration." The mood expressed is in keeping with joy for the coming of Christ.  The motif, which is anticipated and echoed in the seamlessly interwoven inner parts, was already common in chorale preludes of the period. This motif figured in the earlier manualiter setting of the same hymn by Walther. Bach, however, goes beyond the previous models, creating a unique texture in the accompaniment which accelerates, particularly in the pedal, towards the cadences.

Interestingly, I played an opening and a closing voluntary by Walther and Bach last Sunday, too. This is not planned, just a happy coincidence. You can read what I said about those two here. 

The communion motet is a recycled anthem for All Saints Day based on the hymn in the hymnal, but with the stanza for John the Baptist inserted as verse two. Click HERE to see what I said about the anthem back in November (in case you have forgotten it!)

Hymn 67 – Comfort, comfort ye my people - This is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1-5, in which the prophet looks forward to the coming of Christ. More specifically, the coming of the forerunner of Christ – John the Baptist – is foretold. Though Isaiah's voice crying in the desert is anonymous, the third stanza ties this prophecy and one from Malachi (Malachi 4:5) to a New Testament fulfillment. “For Elijah's voice is crying In the desert far and near” brings to mind Jesus' statement, “'But I tell you that Elijah has already come, ….' Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” (Matthew 17:12, 13 ESV) The tune is called PSALM 42, because it was used for Psalm 42 in the French Genevan Psalter. J. S. Bach also used this tune in seven of his cantatas.
Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion  The text, having gone through a composite translation from Swedish and adapted from that, has bits and pieces of the most familiar Scripture that we hear during Advent.  The tune is very basic:  G major, 6/4 time, range of an octave.  Only the refrain adds some rhythmic interest.

Hymn R-278 – Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
Hymn 76 – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry - Since this hymn explicitly calls us to make way for Christ, it is most fitting for the season of Advent. It references John the Baptist, a key figure in the narrative of Christ’s birth, to prepare the way or Christ’s second coming. Charles Coffin wrote this text in Latin for the Paris Breviary in 1736. In 1837 it was translated into English by John Chandler for his Hymns of the Primitive Church (Chandler mistakenly thought it was a medieval text). The text has since undergone many revisions, and today it is hard to find two hymnals in which the text is the same.

[Disclaimer: The organ has begun to act up again this week. Every time I practice, it behaves as if it were posessed of a ghost, and will instantly clear all my stops while I am practicing - or even worse, will add EVERY stop on the organ while I am in the midst of a quiet piece, to an utterly horrible sound. I have no control over it. Just remember this when you fill out your pledge card for the Capital Improvements Campaign!]

Music for November 30, 2014 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Sleepers, Wake! (from St. Paul) - Felix Mendelssohn 

Instrumental Music
Three settings of the chorale "Sleepers, wake!" A voice astounds us 

• Opening voluntary - Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Communion voluntary - J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Closing Voluntary - Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 57 -  Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 686 - How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (FOUNDATION)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (ST. STEPHEN)
• Psalm 80 - tone VIIIa

Sometimes I get an idea in my head and I can't let it go. Case in point: In choosing the music for service this week's service, I was studying the lectionary readings, as is my custom. The Gospel reading from Mark 13 has this passage in it:

Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” (vv 35-37)

Those words reminded me of the great Lutheran chorale, Wachet Auf! Ruft uns die Stimme, or, as our hymnal puts it, Sleepers, Wake! A voice astounds us. It is such a great hymn that composers from across the centuries have used the text and/or melody in their own works. This was the case with Felix Mendelssohn who included a stanza in his first oratorio , St. Paul. The effect of a voice calling out ("astounds us") is heightened by trumpet notes between the lines. The Good Shepherd Choir will be singing this during the offering today.

Walther

Manz

Bach

I am also using three different settings of the chorale Wachet Auf for organ music this week. The opening voluntary is a setting by the German organist Johann Gottfried Walther. Look at his birth and death years in comparison to Bach's. Not only did  his life span almost the same exact years  of Johann Sebastian Bach, but he was the famous composer's cousin.

Walther was most well known as the compiler of the Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), an enormous dictionary of music and musicians. Not only was it the first dictionary of musical terms written in the German language, it was the first to contain both terms and biographical information about composers and performers up to the early 18th century. In all, the Musicalisches Lexicon defines more than 3,000 musical terms. 

Walther's setting of Wachet Auf is pretty straight forward. The melody is in the upper voice of the harmonization, and there is no pedal part in the piece. The opening line of music is used repeatedly in the lower three voices as part of the accompaniment.

The setting of Wachet Auf that I am playing for communion is one of the loveliest melodies of Bach. Originally a tenor solo from Bach's cantata 140, it was arranged for solo organ by the composer himself and included in his Six Chorales for Organ which became known as the Schubler Chorales. Here bach does what he does so well, by writing an obbligato melody that appears to have virtually no connection with the choral, and yet they fit together perfectly. Julian Mincham, on the website The Cantatas of J. S. Bach says this about the composition

It is possible that Bach saw this as a symbol of the earthly and the spiritual, seemingly apart, dissimilar and diverse and yet, by reason of the Ordained Natural Order, ultimately fitting together and perfectly complementing each other. Thus we might consider the chorale as representing matters spiritual, with the foursquare, almost stolid string melody as earthly life and environment. Each may be depicted perfectly well independently but the fundamental message is that they have been conceived, by the Almighty, as the two parts of the same reality.

The final voluntary based on this hymn is by the late composer Paul Manz, another in a long line of Lutheran organist who lived in Minnesota. 

Hymn 57 -  Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY) Yes, I know we just sang this hymn two weeks ago, but it's imagery of Christ's coming, which was pertinent to the readings about the Second coming, is again relative to today's readings on the first Sunday of Advent. Some of you complain the the tune is challenging. It's the tune that John Wesley used in his 1765 hymnal Sacred Melodies with his brother's text of "Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending." Wesley attributed the tune HELMSLEY to Thomas Olivers, but Olivers is said to have heard the tune on the street somewhere. Since the first line resembles a tune by violinist and composer Thomas Augustine Arne composed for Thomas and Sally, or The Sailor's Return in 1761, it is speculated the tune was composed by Arne. Arne is the same guy who wrote "Rule, Britannia."

Music for November 23, 2014 + The Last Sunday after Pentecost + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• Lord of Life and King of Glory – Michelangelo Grancini (1605-1669)
• Sing, My Soul – Ned Rorem (b. 1923)

Instrumental Music

• Suite Brève: II. Cantilène – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Hymne D’action de Grâce “Te Deum” – Jean Langlais
• There is a Spirit that Delights To Do No Evil – Ned Rorem (b. 1923)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 450 – All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION)
• Hymn 494 – Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn R-268 – King of Kings (KING OF KINGS)
• Hymn 460 – Alleluia, sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

This Sunday is New Year's Eve, as far as the church calendar goes. Christ the King Sunday (the last Sunday after Pentecost) ends the liturgical calendar for churches such as ours. Christ the King Sunday celebrates the all-embracing authority of Christ as King and Lord.
To honor that feast, the Good Shepherd Choir sings an anthem based on a duet by the 17th century composer Michelangelo Grancini. Originally called Dulcis Christe, it was edited by the Chicago musician Richard Proulx as a work for 2-part mixed voice choir with the English text which we sing today.

Michelangelo Grancini was an Italian organist and composer who spent his entire life in Milan. He served several churches there and eventually became choir master of the Milan Cathedral in 1630, where he remained until his death. He was so highly regarded that he received a special dispensation enabling him to hold the Cathedral post which customarily excluded married men. During his life time he published nearly 20 volumes of his works including both sacred and secular music, but only a few pieces of his are now in existence.

Ned Rorem, during his Paris days.
Photo by Man Ray, 1953

We also feature music by the American composer and author Ned Rorem. He has received a Pulitzer Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Time Magazine called him "the world's best composer of art songs," yet his musical and literary ventures extend far beyond this specialized field. Rorem has composed three symphonies, four piano concertos and an array of other orchestral works, music for numerous combinations of chamber forces, ten operas, choral works of every description, ballets and other music for the theater, and literally hundreds of songs and cycles. He is the author of sixteen books, including five volumes of diaries and collections of lectures and criticism. A native of Richmond, Indiana, he now lives in New York City.

The communion anthem is from his set of Three Hymn Anthems which he wrote for Paul Calloway, director of music at Washington National Cathedral, in 1962. The three hymns, taken from the Episcopal Hymnal, are written for a mixed choir without accompaniment. They are chiefly homophonic, sometimes strophic, and generally one note per syllable, such as one might find in a hymnal. There the similarities end, however, for Rorem adds delicious twists and turns of chromaticism and key-changes, yielding a most listenable and affirming effect in every case

The organ piece is a selection from A Quaker Reader, Rorem's first major work for organ. It was premiered by Leonard Raver at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in 1977. Rorem was a Quaker, and though he was raised in Quaker silence, he says "I craved Catholic sound". He wrote this suite based on writings of Quakers.“There Is a Spirit That Delights to Do No Evil . . .” is from the dying words of James Naylor (1660)

Rorem spent 7 years of his life after graduate school in Paris, during the same time that our other composer, Jean Langlais, lived and worked as the organist at Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. If Rorem did indeed crave Catholic sound, then he surely must have heard Langlais play the organ, undoubtedly including improvisations or compositions of Langlais.  One wonders if there was any influence on the young composer.

• Hymn 450 – All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION) - Who doesn't know this thrilling hymn to Jesus? Written  by Edward Perronet, a friend and advisor of John and Charles Wesley, this hymn has gone through many alterations since it first appeared in 1780. It has also been sung to several tunes, including DIADEM and MILES LANE, in addition to the more familiar CORONATION.
• Hymn 494 – Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) Speaking of Coronation, we continue the theme of Christ the King with another favorite hymn. Matthew Bridges wrote the hymn to illustrate the text, "And on his head were many crowns" (Revelation 19:12).
• Hymn R-268 – King of Kings (KING OF KINGS) Naomi Batya Ginsberg wrote "King of Kings" at the age of 13 with her friend Sophie Conty using a Hebrew melody as the tune. She has gone on to make a career out of songwriting and has written hundreds of songs for independent films, cable TV, ads and video games. The song now appears in 12 major hymnals.
• Hymn 460 – Alleluia, sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL) And yet another barn-burner favorite of the church universal. One usually does not expect an insurance agent to write hymns, but William C. Dix wrote this text as a new Communion hymn for the Church of England. William Dix also wrote "As with gladness men of old," "What child is this?" and 46 other hymns.

Music for November 16, 2014 + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Almighty God, Which Hast Me Brought – Thomas Ford (1580-1648)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral– James D. Weatherald
• Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ – Michael Helman (20th C.)
• Praise to the Lord – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Hymn R-152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R-172 - In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 561 - Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT)

Stained Glass image of Samuel Seabury

This Sunday is “Kirking of the Tartans” Sunday at Good Shepherd. It’s not found on any liturgical calendar. We do it every year around Samuel Seabury day, the first American Anglican bishop who was consecrated by the Scottish Bishops of the Anglican church during the Revolutionary War. (England was a bit perturbed with Americans, so they would have none of that!) Here is a link to my post from last year which explains the origins of the Kirkin O’ the Tartans. As usual, we’ll have bagpipes, hear Highland Cathedral, and sing “Amazing Grace.” (Not because it’s Scottish, but because it can be played by the pipes!)

The opening voluntary is a rousing handbell setting of a Jamaican tune which is best known around the world as the hymn “Let us talents and tongues employ.” Doreen Potter adapted the Jamaican melody as a hymn-tune for Fred Kaan’s text in 1975, and to date it is in 20 hymnals. You’ll recognize a Caribbean beat in the syncopation, even without steel drums! The arranger of the bell piece is Michael Helman, Director of Music and Organist at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral, an active composer of handbell, organ, and choral music with well over a hundred pieces in print.

Let us talents and tongues employ,
reaching out with a shout of joy:
bread is broken, the wine is poured,
Christ is spoken and seen and heard.
Jesus lives again; earth can breathe again.
Pass the Word around: loaves abound!

The anthem, Almighty God, who hast me brought, was written by Thomas Ford with a text by William Leighton. Now well-known as a church anthem, this piece was originally published in 1614 as a lute-song in a volume called The teares or lamentacions of a sorrowfull soule. Happy stuff, to be sure.

Ford was an English composer, lutenist, viol player and poet. He was attached to the court of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of James I, who died in 1612

The communion handbell voluntary is a setting of the familiar hymn Praise to the Lord, by Anna Laura Page. Page is a composer, clinician and organist who has taught organ at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. For three years she served as director of the Austin Peay Community Children's Chorus in Clarksville, Tennessee before moving to Sherman, Texas, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Oscar C. Page, President of Austin College.

Hymn Notes:
O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE) Considered one of the finest paraphrases written by Isaac Watts, O God, Our Help in Ages Past expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90, even though the entire psalm has a recurring theme of lament. Watts wrote the paraphrase in nine stanzas around 1714. Our hymnal includes the most well-known stanzas. The first line, originally "Our God, our help … ," was changed to "O God, our help…" by John Wesley in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns. (1738). It has great stature in the British Commonwealth and virtually serves as a second national anthem.

Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG) William Pierson Merrill was an American Presbyterian clergyman, who served in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Considered an outstanding preacher, he was also an author and a hymn writer. When an editor told Dr. Merrill that there was a need for more hymns on Christian brotherhood, he responded by writing Rise Up, O Men of God, a hymn that emphasizes human priorities and responsibilities. This hymn began to be criticized because it spoke only of men of God and not women, so to make it more inclusive, the term “Men” became “Saints.”

I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light  was written one sweltering hot summer by Kathleen Thomerson, an Episcopalian organist, who had moved to St. Louis, Missouri, the previous fall. That summer, her mother came from Houston, Texas, to visit. Because an airline strike cancelled her mother’s travel plans and a heat wave was making St. Louis unbearable, Thomerson decided to drive her mother back to Houston. This hymn came to her as she anticipated visiting her “brothers and sisters in Christ at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston.”  Hence, the tune name is HOUSTON.

In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED) Singer-songwriter and producer Bob Kilpatrick tells this story about writing this standard contemporary chorus. "One evening at my mother-in-law's house I got the idea of writing a private prayer song for (wife) Cindy and me to sing before we would go on stage. While the rest of the family was in the family room I sat alone in the living room with my guitar and Bible and the song 'In My Life Lord Be Glorified' began to come. I had composed all of the melody and most of the counterpoint when Cindy came in. I told her about what I was writing and that it would be just for the two of us. It was Cindy that strongly suggested to me that I sing it publicly. I think she knew from the start that other people would want to sing it, too.”

Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT) The Reverend Dudley A. Tyng was a dynamic Episcopal priest known for his preaching. On, March 30, 1858, Tyng preached a sermon on Exodus 10:11, “Go now ye that are men and serve the Lord”, at a YMCA noon mass meeting to 5,000 men, with more than 1,000 of those men responded to the call. Just over a week later, Tyng lay dying as a result of a tragic accident. His final statement, whispered to friends and family, was “Let us all stand up for Jesus.”

The Sunday following Tyng's death, Presbyterian Pastor George Duffield preached a sermon as a tribute to the final words of his friend Tyng. He concluded his sermon with a six-stanza poem. The poem Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, has since become one of the most recognized hymns in all English-speaking Christendom.

Music for November 9, 2014 + The 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Keep Your Lamps – Spiritual, arr. André J. Thomas
• Missa Brevis No. X in C – Healey Willan

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on the hymn tune “Bevan” – Healey Willan
• (Jesus, My Great High Priest)
• Postlude in D Major – Healey Willan
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence -  improvisation 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO)
• Psalm 70 – Tone VIIIg
• Alleuia     Tone VIIIg

To me, there is no purer form of music making than unaccompanied singing. Music that is made
without benefit of any musical instrument is the purest expression of musical art. Don’t get me wrong, I love the piano and the organ, and the cello is one of my favorite instruments, but given a choice between hearing a choir sing with accompaniment or without, and I will take the unaccompanied choir every time. And this Sunday, we feature the Good Shepherd choir in two varied expressions of a capella singing.

André Thomas

The anthem is a setting of the African-American Spiritual Keep Your Lamps by André J. Thomas, the Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music Education at The Florida State University. He has made it his mission to educate the public about spirituals, arranging the sorts of spirituals and gospel music he had heard as a child. His first such arrangement was Keep Your Lamps, a spiritual based on today’s Gospel reading. Except for a conga drum beat, it is sung completely unaccompanied.

Healey Willan

The service music (Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) is the Missa Brevis No. X by Canadian composer Healey Willan. Willan was well versed in plainsong and became an authority on plainchant in the vernacular (ie, English rather than Latin). He also loved the sound of choral music of the Renaissance period (roughly 1400-1600). A typical choral piece has four, five, or six voice parts of nearly equal melodic interest. Imitation among the voices is common: each presents the same melodic idea in turn, as in a round. This is music with a gentle flow rather than a sharply defined beat, because each melodic line has great rhythmic independence: when one singer is at the beginning of his or her melodic phrase, the others may already be in the middle of theirs.

Inside the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Toronto

The Missa Brevis No. X was written for the dedication of Willan's church, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Toronto, in 1948. It reflects the needs of the church’s Anglo-catholic liturgy and exploits its suggestions of a more mystical approach. Willan’s deep interest in plainsong and polyphonic music is clearly evident in this short mass. The melismatic vocal line, rhythmic freedom based on verbal accentuation, and a strong preoccupation with linear shape rather than vertical congruence combine to form a thoroughly personal idiom. It is this that separates this music from his organ and choral music based on hymns and makes it possibly his most important.

Willan's work as a practical, publishing church musician gave rise to a variety of lesser pieces, including anthems and organ works based on hymn-tunes, collections for junior choirs, and many carols and carol arrangements. Our organ voluntaries are indicative of those kinds of pieces. The opening voluntary is based on a Lutheran chorale, and the closing voluntary is from an anthology of organ music for the church organist.

Hymn 690 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA) At the urging of a Welsh evangelist, under whom he was converted, William Williams (and not the one in our congregation) began writing hymns as a Welsh Calvinist-Methodist minister. The tune is another one of those great, rollicking Welsh tunes that practically sing themselves!
Hymn 57  Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY) Charles Wesley used the first line but completely recast the rest of a crude hymn by John Cennick six years after Cennick's death. The ideas and language are borrowed from the book of Revelation, and the whole is based on Rev. 1:7, "Behold, he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindred of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." The language is apocalyptic and should be interpreted symbolically, not literally.
Hymn 324 Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY) This hymn comes from the opening of the Eucharist in one of the oldest liturgies of the Christian Church, traditionally ascribed to and named after St. James, the brother of Jesus. Its first written form exists in the mid fourth century in bot Greek and Syriac, and is still sung in Jerusalem on the Sunday after Christmas.
Hymn 436 Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO) This hymn by Georg Weissel (1590-1635) is probably the most famous paraphrase of Psalm 24 (Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates), and reveals a spirit of praise and hope unexpected from the depths of the dreadful years of the Thirty Years' War. Its theme is the preparation for the Messiah's coming, and goes well with these pre-Advent readings today.

Music for November 2, 2014 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints Still Striving – Joel Martinson (b. 1962)

Instrumental Music

• Improvisation I – George Oldroyd (1887–1956)
• Improvisation on “Sine Nomine” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 287        For All the Saints (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 293        I sing a song of the saints of God (GRAND ISLE)
• Hymn 297        Descend, O Spirit, Purging Flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 620        Jerusalem, my happy home (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 656        Blest are the pure in heart (FRANCONIA)
• Hymn 618        Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)

Joel Martinson

My friend Joel Martinson has written this Sunday's anthem based on hymn 232 in our hymnal. It's a fairly straight-forward settting of the hymn, with the treble voices (the sopranos and altos, joined this week by the children of the St. Gregory choir) singing the first stanza. Stanza two has the men and trebles singing the tune in canon (a piece in which the same melody is begun in different parts successively, so that the imitations overlap). The last stanza has the entire choir singing the tune in unison.
Joel is Director of Music Ministries and Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas where he coordinates the vibrant musical life of the parish, the Transfigured Nights music series, and oversaw the installation of their new organ. As a composer, his music has been performed throughout the United States, in Great Britain and Europe, and on the continents of Africa and Asia. Nearly 100 of his works have been published.
This hymn was written to commemorate many of the different saints days in our calendar. Horatio Nelson first wrote the initial stanza and the concluding Doxological stanza for his 1864 collection Hymns for Saints Days and Other Hymns. Following the original publication, additional stanzas were contributed by friends and were revised by Nelson. In the same spirit of cooperation, the present form of the text was prepared for the 1982 Hymnal using additional texts of F. Bland Tucker and Jerry Godwin, making the hymn appropriate for eleven different saints days. 

About our hymns:

Hymn 287        For All the Saints (SINE NOMINE) -  Based on a picture of the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1), this hymn gives thanks for the saints of old, makes a prayer that we may be found faithful, and acknowledges the unity of the whole Church in heaven and on earth in the mystical body of Christ, a picture of the church in holy warfare, and a vision of the victorious Church. Vaughan Williams' magnificent marching tune makes this a contemporary version of "When the Saints Go Marching In!"

Hymn 293        I sing a song of the saints of God (GRAND ISLE) "Are there any saints alive today?" The children of Lesbia Scott often asked such questions, so she wrote this hymn for All Saints Sunday in 1929 to suggest that there are plenty of saints alive today in all walks of life, and that anyone can be a saint if we really work at it. The tune has just the light-hearted, joyful feeling to fit the charmingly simple and picturesque text.

Hymn 620        Jerusalem, my happy home (LAND OF REST) -  Several different sources have been found for this text, but it seems to have been written by a Catholic priest Frances Baker around 1553, who based it on meditations by Augustine on the hoped for peace of Jerusalem, the old city of heaven where all will be be peace and joy. This hymn is popular among our church for its delightful early American folk tune, LAND OF REST.

Hymn 656        Blest are the pure in heart (FRANCONIA) John Keble wrote a collection of hymns for all the various seasons of the church year, and this one is the most famous. Based on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5;3), it originally had seventeen stanzas! Thank goodness our hymnal only uses four of those!

Hymn 618        Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) Athelstan Riley (isn't that a great name?) wrote ths festive hymn, which we often sing at St. Michael and All Angels, for the first stanza names the nine order of angels who serve God. The "bearer of the eternal Word" in stanza two is the virgin Mary. We are singing it for All Saints Sunday because of stanza three, which adds in all the "souls in endless rest" who have arrived in heaven. While rehearsing this for Sunday, one of the kids in children's choir asked, "Don't we sing other words to this song?" The answer is yes, the most familiar being "All Creatures of our God and King."

Music for October 26, 2014 + The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Let Us Love in Deed and Truth – Larry King (1932-1990) 

Instrumental Music

• Sonata in D Minor: Cantilena, Opus 148 No. 11– Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) 
• Sonata in E Minor: Scherzoso, Opus 132, No. 8 - Josef Rheinberger 
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, BWV 147 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750) (arr. Douglas Wagner) 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 423 – Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO) 
• Hymn 707 – Take my life and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE) 
• Hymn R 145 - Lord, I want to be a Christian (I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN) 
• Hymn R 289 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI) 
• Hymn 610 – Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN) 
• Psalm 1 (Tone IV )

The anthem this Sunday is by Larry King. No, not that one. Not the one in suspenders who used to work on CNN. And not the Larry King whose Larry King Orchestra plays for all the big society galas in the Chicago area. I am talking about Larry Peyton King, a composer and organist who was the music director at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan for 21 years. King was a graduate of Redlands University in California and received a master's degree in sacred music at Union Theological Seminary. He studied organ at the Royal Academy of Music in London on a Fulbright scholarship. As a composer, he wrote many groundbreaking works for choir, organ and other instruments, including pre-recorded synthesizer sounds. He loved to use new sounds and musical styles in worship services, and composed numerous choral works and three intriguing organ works based on scriptural passages.

Trinity Church, NYC, where Larry King was organist
for 21 years. Note the World Trade Center in the background.

It is one such work that our choir sings today. The anthem, Let Us Love In Deed and Truth, uses a paraphrase of the scripture from I John 3:17-23, which I believe forms the basic tenets of Christianity:

If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his neighbor in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth: We have confidence before our God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments, and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another.

The choral parts stand apart from the accompaniment, which forms a carpet of sound that supports, but not duplicate, the choir.

About our hymns:

Hymn 423 – Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO) "Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever" (I Timothy 1:17) is the basis for this hymn of pure praise. The rollicking anapestic rhythm of the Welsh melody rushes the singer along to the climactic poetic thought of God being invisible only because he is hidden by the glory of light.
Hymn 707 – Take my life and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE) A favorite at Good Shepherd because it is used so often as a presentation (of the offering) hymn, it was written by Frances R. Havergal who, during a visit with friends in the 1870s, prayed that God would use her to witness to win all ten members of the family to Christ. "Before I left the house everyone had got a blessing," she wrote. On the last night of her visit, she penned twelve couplets including these two stanzas in our hymnal.
Hymn R 145 - Lord, I want to be a Christian (I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN) The story goes that in 1756, a slave in Hanover, VA went to a Presbyterian minister with the request: "I come to you, sir, that you may tell me some good things concerning Jesus Christ and my duty to God, for I am resolved not to live any longer as I have done." This desire to be a Christian is a universal longing that is voiced in many spirituals like this one.
Hymn R 289 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI) One of the simplest and most appealing melodies in our hymnal is this one that comes from the African nation of Ghana. It is a statement of commitment and servanthood, appropriate not only for Maundy Thursday, but for any service emphasizing discipleship. The tune name, CHEREPONI, comes from the village in Northern Ghana where this melody was collected.
Hymn 610 – Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN) This hymn was written in 1961 in response to an invitation of the Hymn Society of America to write hymns on social welfare. As Christians, we should follow the example of Christ, whose life was spent serving others. The tune is another of the Welsh tunes that are in our hymnal (like today's opening hymn) that has an easy melody to sing coupled to a driving rhythm.

Music for October 19, 2014 + The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Judge Eternal – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Trio Sonata in E Minor: III. Un poco Allegro, BWV 528 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness, BWV 654 - Johann Sebastian Bach
• Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 - Johann Sebastian Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 408 – Sing praise to God who reigns above (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Psalm 96: 1-9 (Tone 1g )
• Hymn 377 – All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100th)
• Hymn 325 – Let us break bread together (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn 544 – Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

Today it's English Choral music and the organ music of J. S. Bach. First, let's talk about the choral music,

Malcolm Archer

Judge Eternal is a very rhythmic setting of a hymn from our hymnal (#596) which was written in 1902 by the English priest Henry Holland, Canon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. This setting is by a former Director of Music at St. Paul’s, Malcolm Archer, who is currently Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College in the heart of England, where conducts the choirs and teaches organ and composition. He has enjoyed a distinguished career in cathedral music, which has taken him to posts at Norwich, Bristol, and Wells Cathedrals, as well as St. Paul's. The first stanza is repeated at the end with the sopranos singing a soaring descant.


The hymn before the Gospel reading is the well known hymn All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100th) as arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, It was the only hymn used at the coronation, and this setting, with it's thrilling opening fanfares, has become loved and sung by choirs the world over. The fourth stanza is actually a harmonization by John Dowland, (1563?-1626) who was the most famous musician of his time.

Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams at their wedding in 1953. RVW was 81 at the time.

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is like scripture to me. In practicing the works of that great Baroque master I can find peace and solace akin to the feeling I get from struggling in prayer and studying the daily scripture readings. Sometimes I stumble, and put away a difficult piece. The opening voluntary was one of those pieces. Twenty plus years ago I began to learn the three-movement Trio Sonata in  E Minor by Bach. I learned the first two movements, but for some reason, I never got the third movement learned. This past Summer, I was looking through my volumes of Bach's organ music and came across the six trio sonatas (music Bach had written to train his own son how to play the organ) and decided to finish the work. I am playing it this Sunday with no little feeling of self-satisfaction. 

The "Trio Sonata" is a musical form that was popular in the 17th and early 18th centuries. A trio sonata was written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata. In the organ version, the right hand plays one melody line, the left hand plays the second melodic line, while the feet play the bass line. It's like rubbing your stomach and patting your head while dancing a jig.

The Communion voluntary is from the last volume of music that Bach worked on before going to his great reward. The so-called "Great Eighteen" was a collection of various chorales that he had written in previous years, but for some reason was never published. The first 15 of the chorales were copied in his own hand, but as his eyesight failed and his vitality diminished, he turned the pen over to his son-in-law to write down the last three. He never lived to see the book published.

There are three large arrangements with a florid, ornamented melody in the Eighteen Chorales. This setting of Hymn 339 in the Hymnal 1982 is one of those. Robert Schumann described it in a letter he wrote to Felix Mendelssohn  in 1840:

Around the cantus firmus (the melody) were hung gilded garlands, and such happiness had been poured into it that you yourself confessed to me that, if life were to deprive you of all hope and faith, this one chorale would restore them to you.

Bach expands the introduction and accompaniment into an independent music concept in opposition to the highly decorated melody.

Music for October 12, 2014 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Taste and See – Richard DeLong (1951-1994)
• Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us – William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)

Instrumental Music

• Basse de Trompette - Jean-François Dandrieu (1682-1738)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness - Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Rigaudon - André Campra (1660-1744)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (ST. COLUMBA)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 321 - My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 556 - Rejoice, ye pure in heart (MARION)

Dr. William Bradley Roberts

The things you learn writing (and researching) a blog about your music. For instance: this Sunday we are going to sing one of the anthems from last week's Diocesan Choral Festival, a simple but beautiful piece by a friend of mine, Bill Roberts. I had met Bill several years ago at the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy and strengthened that friendship through the avenue of Facebook. It was not until looking up pertinent information about him  (read: his birth-year) that I learned he was a graduate of Houston Baptist University. The Rev. Dr. Roberts is currently Professor of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary and Director of Chapel Music there, so you can imagine my surprise to find out that not only is he an alum of HBU, but was also ordained as a Baptist minister! He is now, however, thoroughly Episcopalian, having served as music director of some of the country's largest and most active Episcopal congregations.

We are singing his setting of the hymn text, Savior, like a shepherd lead us, which employs a lilting melody in compound triple meter. The addition of a flute (played by Ruth Clark) on the second stanza really adds to the pastoral feel that one would expect for a song about a shepherd.

Richard DeLong

Our other anthem was written by another friend of mine from my SMU days, Richard Delong, Richard was an organist, harpsichordist, conductor, composer, and clinician, from Mansfield, Ohio, before he moved to Dallas, Texas in 1973 to attend Southern Methodist University, where he received the degrees of Master of Music and Master of Sacred Music. He served as director of music for East Dallas Christian Church and St. Matthew's Episcopal Cathedral before being appointed Director of Music for the Roman Catholic parish of St. Mark the Evangelist, in Plano, Texas, a position he held until his death.  He was an exquisite choral conductor, and his choirs rivaled any choir at home or abroad.

His work as a composer became recognized nationally following the premiere of his "Deus Creator Omnium" at the opening of the 1985 Regional American Guild of Organists convention in Providence, RI. His own choir sang the premiere performances of nearly 100 choral works. His anthem, O Taste and See, was published in 1992. It is a superb a cappella motet on the text from Psalm 34. It has a harmonic language with really requires the choir to listen and tune to each other.

Music for October 5, 2014 + The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• A Repeating Alleluia– Calvin Hampton (1938-1984)
• Everywhere I Go – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)
• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)

Instrumental Music

• Andante – John Stainer
• March in G – Henry Smart (1813-1879)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 518 – Christ is made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
• Hymn 458 – My song is love unknown (LOVE UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R-173 – O Lord hear my prayer (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 495 – Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)

In many traditions, especially Catholic and Episcopal congregations, it is customary to sing an Alleluia before the reading of the Gospel. Most protestant churches sing a hymn instead. This morning we are using A Repeating Alleluia by Calvin Hampton. One of the most important composers of American church music in the twentieth century, Hampton was Director of Music at Calvary Episcopal Church, New York City, from 1963 to 1983. Before his untimely death from AIDS at the age of 46, he developed a unique compositional voice, which is heard in his extensive catalogue of hymn-tunes and works for choir and organ; A Repeating Alleluia features an imaginative set of variations on a repeating eight-bar theme which the congregation will sing while the choir provides the two counter melodies. 

Calvin Hampton

Hampton had an energetic and inimitable approach to music in the church.  He experimented with unusual instruments like the Ondes Martenot and the Moog synthesizer, and various styles, from the Baroque to Rock. He created the famous “Fridays at Midnight” organ concerts, noted to be a “fixture of Manhattan cultural life” in the 1970s. His Halloween events at Calvary, where Hampton dressed as a werewolf, as the Frankenstein monster, or another scary specter; and many unique musical events that he presented, brought a wide range of people into the church.  This playful approach to sacred music seemed to attract a wide and diverse audience, not least of which were children. I know that the children of our St. Gregory Choir, who are singing with the adults this Sunday on this anthem, have grown to love A Repeating Alleluia.

Sir John Stainer

In reading the Gospel story this week about the vineyard owner who sent his son to collect the produce of the harvest, only to have the tenants kill the son, I was reminded of the favorite scripture of John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son." I felt called to use the familiar anthem with that text by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as the choir's communion motet today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Pauls, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing. I am playing one of his organ works as an opening voluntary. His music was fairly conservative for the time, and today seems rather dated, but he has faired better than his contemporary Henry Smart, the composer of the closing voluntary, Smart was highly rated as a composer during his time, but is now remembered only by a few organists and choral singers. His many compositions for the organ were described as "effective and melodious, if not strikingly original" by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica,

The offertory is an anthem for children's choirs by the 20th century composer Natalie Sleeth. The bright, cheery melody fits her own text of faith and assurance. 

Everywhere I go, the Lord is near me. If I call upon him, he will hear me. Never will I fear, for the Lord is near, everywhere I go.

Music for September 28, 2014 + The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost + St. Michael and All Angels

Vocal Music

• Wondrous Love – Robert Shaw/Alice Parker (1916-1999/b. 1925)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Wondrous Love” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Choral – Michael Larkin (b. 1951)
• Voluntary on “Engelberg” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 435 - At the Name of Jesus (KING'S WESTON)
• Hymn R173 - O Lord hear my prayer (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn R228 - Jesus, remember me (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 477 - Al praise to the, for thou, O King divine (ENGLEBERG)
• Psalm 25:1-8 - Tone Ig

5:00 P.M.  – Choral Eucharist for St. Michael and All Angels

Vocal Music

• Behold Now, Praise the Lord – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)
• Call to Remembrance – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Instrumental Music

• Basse des Trompette – Jean-François Dandrieu (1682-1738)
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Rigaudon - André Campra (1660 –1744)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 618 – Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 282 – Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (CAELITES PLAUDANT)
• Hymn 625 – Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)

The scripture readings for today reminded me of the wondrous love that God in Christ has for us. Especially poignant is this passage from the epistle reading for today from Philippians 2:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.

That is indeed a wondrous love, so I was lead to use the hymn What wondrous love is this, O my soul as the choir’s offering today. The hymn is taken from one of the early American shape note books, hymnals (or song books) in which the note heads are printed in one of seven different shapes to indicate a place on the scale. These compositions are folk hymns, using secular tunes for the setting of religious texts. Wondrous Love was first found in The Southern Harmony, a compilation of hymns, tunes, psalms, and songs published by William Walker in 1834. Wondrous Love also is found in the most famous of these shape note books, The Sacred Harp, first published by Benjamin White in 1844. Both of these compilations still are published today.

Alan Lomax, noted folk song authority, relates the secular background of the tune:

This hymn is a member of the “Captain Kidd” family, so called because the ballad of Captain Kidd is set to one form of the tune. The ‘Captain Kidd’ type has for several centuries been responsible for a very large number of beautiful songs, including The Wars of Germany, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye, Sam Hall and Sugar Babe.” Captain William Kidd (1645-1701), an English sailor, was commissioned by New York and Massachusetts to hunt pirates. He supposedly turned pirate himself and killed one of his crew, an action for which he was hanged in 1701. The following ballad appeared soon after his death. You will find that the words easily fit the tune for Wondrous Love.

My name is William Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed
My name is William Kidd, as I sailed
My name is William Kidd, God’s laws I did forbid
And most wickedly I did, as I sailed, as I sailed.

This arrangement is one of the many hymns and folk songs that Alice Parker arranged in collaboration with Robert Shaw. Shaw early achieved recognition as a consummate choral conductor while still in college. Fred Waring, the popular musician, bandleader and radio personality, enlisted Shaw to move to New York and direct his group, “The Pennsylvanians” in 1937. Four years later, Shaw founded and directed the Collegiate Chorale, a highly dedicated amateur New York chorus of 185 singers that grew into a significant symphonic chorus under his leadership. After intense studies with Julius Herford, Shaw formed the Robert Shaw Chorale, which toured the United States and later performed in thirty countries throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. The Robert Shaw Chorale was signed to an exclusive recording contract by RCA Victor. Shaw wished to record only choral masterworks, but RCA Victor also wanted recordings of the Shaw Chorale performing light popular music, in the hope that these would sell well to the American public. Shaw enlisted one of his former students, Alice Parker to do research and create choral arrangements for the new touring and recording ensemble. This resulted in a collaboration that lasted over 17 years, producing many settings of American folksongs, hymns and spirituals which have for many years been standard repertoire for high school, college, and community choruses, and are to this day widely performed.

The St. Michael Window at Good Shepherd, Kingwood

The opening voluntary is also based (loosely) on Wondrous Love. In this arrangement, Gordon Young takes liberties with the notes in the melody, changing it just enough to make the listener familiar with the hymn to go "Huh?" and wonder if the organist has missed a note. He has not.

The closing voluntary is an improvisation by Charles Callahan on the hymn tune ENGELBERG. Charles V. Stanford composed ENGELBERG as a setting for William W. How's "For All the Saints" in 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern but lost out as the definitive tune for that text when Ralph Vaughan Williams published the New English Hymnal in 1906, using his own tune, SINE NOMINE for that text. ENGELBERG came into its own, however, when it was used as the tune for today's closing hymn. You will also remember it as the tune for "When in our music God is glorified" and "We know that Christ is raised," both hymns that we sing regularly at Good Shepherd.

In his improvisation, Callahan uses several of the attractive, energetic motives in his composition. Listen for the "Alleluia" and "All praise to thee" motives used over and over (and over) again.