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.

Music for September 21, 2014 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Behold Now, Praise the Lord – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Slane” – Gerre Hancock (1934-2012)
• Kanon/Seek Ye First – Johann Pachelbel/Karen Lafferty (1653-1706/b. 1948)
• Toccata for Organ – John Weaver (b. 1937)

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

• Hymn 414 – God, my King, thy might confessing (STUTTGART)
• Psalm 145:1-8 – Tone Ig
• Hymn 660 - O Master, let me walk with thee (MARYTON)
• Hymn 711 – Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn 482 – Lord of all hopefulness (SLANE)
• Hymn 551 – Rise up, ye saints of God! (FESTAL SONG)

The anthem this morning is by another giant of Anglican music of the 20^th century, Everett Titcomb. A life-long New Englander, he never strayed far from the Boston, Massachusetts area. He was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, and studied with Samuel Whitney, the organist at Boston’s Church of the Advent. He never attended college, nor music school, but nevertheless, he taught classes in sacred music and chant at New England Conservatory and Boston University where he briefly held the chair in the 50's. 

His interest in Gregorian chant and High Church liturgies met a happy match when he was appointed organist-choir master at Boston’s Church of St. John the Evangelist in 1910. The church was a mission of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, also known as the "Cowley Fathers" and "Anglican Jesuits", an Anglican monastic order which established a house in Boston in 1870. As an outgrowth of the Oxford movement, the Cowleys were Anglo-Catholics ("High Church") and deeply devoted to social justice setting up their house on the base of Beacon Hill to serve the tenements of the West End. He was one of the earliest proponents of early music (before 1650), and, as a result, his Choir at St. John's was singing plainchant and Renaissance polyphony while the majority of church choirs (and even Cathedral choirs in this country) were still mired in the kind of  late-Victorian preciousness which Titcomb so disdained in choral music. Today, however, Titcomb tends to be known for a handful of works which are popular with volunteer church choirs. One of those is today’s anthem, which has a strong Houston connection.

In 1939, for the centennial of Christ Church, Houston, Titcomb wrote the anthem Behold now, praise the Lord, which he dedicated to Edward B. Gammons, the organist-choirmaster of Christ Church at the time. The text, taken from the first two verses of Psalm 134, was chosen by the rector, Dr. James DeWolfe. This well-known anthem is still frequently performed at the Cathedral.

Behold now, praise the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord.Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord,even in the courts of the house of our God.Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and praise the Lord.

Text: Psalm 134:1-2

The Opening voluntary is an improvisation of the familiar hymn-tune, Slane (Be thou my vision), by the organist Gerre Hancock. Hancock was a master of improvisation, and he treats the tune here in a meandering way, relying more on a suggestion of the Irish tune than actually quoting the tune itself. I think it is perfect for an opening voluntary, as it gives the impression of one of the hymns that will be coming up later in the service.

John Weaver in 2005

John Weaver in 1959, age 22

 The closing voluntary is a toccata by the New York organist John Weaver, another giant among the organ world. For 35 years he was organist and director of music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, while simultaneously serving on as Head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1972-2003), and Chair of the Organ Department at The Juilliard School (1987-2004). His students perform and teach all over the world. Ken Cowan, organist at Rice University (and Palmer Memorial Episcopal) is a former student of his.
This Toccata was written by him in 1954, when he was 17. 

Music for September 14, 2014 + The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lord, For Thy Tender Mercy's Sake – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Instrumental Music

• When We Are In Utmost Need, BWV 641 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

• Amazing Grace – arr. A. R. Laurence 

• Fugue in G, BWV 576 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 376 – Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (HYMN TO JOY)

• Hymn S-208 – Canticle 8: Song of Moses (plainsong, Tone 1 and Tonus Peregrinus)

• Hymn R-10 – Be still and know that I am God (BE STILL AND KNOW)

• Hymn R184 – “Forgive our sins as we forgive” (DETROIT)

• Hymn R192 – God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name (FREELY FREELY)

• Hymn 690 – Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONNDA)

Today is the 14th day of September, and it's the 14th Sunday after Pentecost (in year 14 of the 2000s). Little things like that fascinate me.

I am starting the service this week with one of J. S. Bach's little gems from his collection of chorale preludes called Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book). As the Concordia Publishing House says on its webpage, "If any one collection of organ music can be called common property of organists throughout the world, it is surely the Orgelbüchlein of J. S. Bach. It continues to fascinate and challenge organists and other serious musicians both as pedagogical work and as a collection of music unsurpassed in the inventiveness and spiritual depth." 

The chorale I am playing, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (or "When we are in utmost need"), is a short piece, just over 2 minutes long, but is contains one of the most beautifully ornamented melodies in all of Bach's organ music; only "Allein Gott in der Höh" from the "Great Eighteen" comes close. Instead of presenting the melody as a simple hymn tune, as one would sing it, Bach uses the notes as a frame work on which he hangs his ornaments, much in the same way that some would hang baubles on a Christmas Tree, decorating with so many ornaments that the tree (and melody) are almost hidden from view. Albert Schweitzer says the soprano part flows "like a divine song of consolation, and in a wonderful final cadence seems to silence and compose the other parts." This melody, which is well known among Lutheran musicians, is not present in any of our hymnals.

a typical Renaissance Choir

The anthem is also a little gem, which has been variously attributed over the years to a number of 16th century composers. Lord, for thy tender mercy's sake may be by a composer by John Hilton, but our sources all list Richard Farrant, an English composer whose early life, like many composers of his day,  are not well documented. The first acknowledgment of him is in a list of the Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1552. It is assumed from that list that his birth was around 1525. In Farrant's twelve years with the Chapel Royal, he was able to participate in  the developments in Latin Church Music, as composers like William Byrd and Christopher Tye were busy expanding and elaborating on the church music of the day. After his work there, he took up a post as organist at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. It was here that he was able to establish himself as a successful composer, develop the English drama considerably, found the first Blackfriars Theatre, and be the first to write verse-anthems. 

This anthem works well with the Gospel this Sunday, as it has a penitential emphasis, asking for forgiveness, then looking forward to a new life in which 'we may walk with a perfect heart'. 

Music for September 7, 2014 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether – Harold Friedell (1905-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Air – Gerre Hancock (1934-2012)
• Ubi Caritas – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Trumpet Dialogue Processional – Alice Jordan (1916-2011)

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

• Hymn 400 – All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 674 – “Forgive our sins as we forgive” (DETROIT)
• Hymn 576 – God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 602 – Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 527 – Singing songs of expectation (TON-Y-BOTEL)

Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

These two sentences are the last two verses of today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 13. And every time I hear this passage, I recall the opening verse of today’s anthem.

Draw us in the Spirit’s tether, for when humbly in thy name, two or three are met together, thou art in the midst of them. Alleluia! Alleluia! Touch we now thy garment’s hem

Harold W. Friedell

This anthem was written by Harold Friedell, one of America’s leading church musicians in the first half of the 20^th century who ended his career at St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in New York City. He based the anthem on a hymn tune he wrote in 1945 using a text by Percy Dearmer, a British priest, hymn writer, educator, and editor. I won’t go into the history of that text right now, but the interested can read about it here.

The text links the singer with the disciples who gathered with Christ at the table (Matthew 18:20). We are joined by a “tether”—an archaic word that the internet defines as a cord, rope, or chain that anchors something movable to a reference point which may be fixed or moving. It is an appropriate image of the work of the Holy Spirit that links Christians of every time and place at the table. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, sums up the whole text this way:

In the final stanza, Dearmer makes a beautiful and powerful statement that “All our meals and all our living make as sacraments of thee.” Through “caring, helping, giving, we may true disciples be.”

Thus, the hymn begins in the upper room with the disciples and comes full circle as we join them around the table and are nourished to serve others in the world.

This call to love and serve others is also felt in the Epistle reading today.

 ⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments…  are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

With that in mind, we will sing hymns of love and service before the Gospel, at communion and at the end of the service. The organ voluntary at communion is another setting of the Gregorian Chant that was played on the piano two weeks ago and is found at hymn 606. This setting of the chant is by American organist and composer, Charles Callahan. He is among the most published organ composers today, and, though he is a devout Roman Catholic, he bases his organ works on hymns and chants from all traditions within the church universal.

Gerre Hancock

The opening voluntary is by Gerre Hancock, who many would consider the leading musician in the Episcopal Church from the 70's until his retirement from St. Thomas Church, New York City, in 2004. At one time, he had been the assistant at St. Bartholomew's mentioned earlier in the post, but after the time of Harold Friedell. A native of Lubbock, he returned to Texas after his retirement to teach organ at the University of Texas. He wrote this lovely Air in honor of his wife, Judith, in 1963. 

The closing voluntary is a brief processional by one of the small number of women who have been successful writing for the organ and getting it published. Alice Jordan was a native of Iowa, having graduated Drake University and continuing her studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, as did Gerre Hancock. This is the same school where Harold Friedell was on the faculty in the late 40s and early 50s. UTS had one of the great schools of sacred music until it disbanded it in the early 70s.