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.