Music for August 31, 2014 + The 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

When Jesus Wept – William Billings (1746-1800), arr. A. F. Schultz (b. 1942)

 Instrumental Music

Voluntary         If thou But Trust in God to Guide Thee – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Piano                Hymne – Vangelis (b. 1943)

Voluntary         Trumpet Prelude – Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)

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

Hymn 401        The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)

Hymn 421        All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOHE)

Hymn 635        If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN)

Hymn              I have decided to follow Jesus (Indian folk song)

Hymn R 226    Ubi caritas et amor (Taizé)

Hymn 450        All hail the power of Jesus’ name (coronation)

Psalm 26:1-8 - mode IV

The tune for the anthem today is a “fuguing tune,” or round, by the first American to achieve lasting fame and respect as a composer. William Billings of Boston, Massachusetts was born on October 7, 1746 with vision in only one eye and uneven legs. He started music lessons as a young boy with a local choirmaster, and by the late 1760’s had become America’s first professional composer. A leather tanner by trade, Billings began teaching a singing class in Stoughton, Massachusetts, which would later become the Stoughton Musical Society (America’s oldest music society and first singing school). He organized the first church choir in America. In 1770, Billings made history with the publication of the first hymnal in America, The New England Psalm Singer, which included this melody, When Jesus Wept.

Alan F. Schultz arranged the anthem, beginning with the entire choir singing the tune in unison, using the original text by Billings based on John 11:35. He then includes two stanzas of the hymn Take up thy cross, the Savior said, the first stanza being sung in canon, and the third stanza being sung in unison with a grand organ accompaniment. Schultz was for many years conductor and music director of The Southern Arizona Symphony and the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, as well as organist/choir master of St. Michael’s Episcopal in Tuscon. 

The opening voluntary is was originally an improvisation for organ on hymn 635, If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN),  by the Lutheran organist Paul Manz. Typical of his improvisational style, he begins with a ritornello, a section that is repeated throughout the piece, “returning” again and again as the name ritornello (Italian for return) would suggest. The ritornello uses a fragment of the opening of the German Chorale-tune as its basis, played by two different flute stops (sounds) on the organ, before playing a four-part setting of the hymn on the string stops of another manual.

The communion voluntary is a piano piece by the Greek composer of electronic orchestral music, Vangelis. Born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, he is best known for his Academy Award–winning score for the film Chariots of Fire. This is a simple, meditative melody in three quarter time.