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!]