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.