Music for February 1, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• The Apple Tree – Mark Schweizer (b.1956)

Instrumental Music

• Trio in D minor – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 493 O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn R115 Psalm 111: God’s holy ways are just and true (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 536 God has spoken to his people (TORAH SONG)
• Hymn 530 Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

Mark Schweizer, the composer

There is a beautiful poem that has become popular as a text for Christmas Carols called "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree." Many composers have set this anonymous 18th century poem as a choral work, including Elizabeth Poston, whose setting was made famous by the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, with its inclusion in their yearly Christmas Lessons and Carols. Our choir has sung that one, but this week we are singing a simple a capella setting by Mark Schweizer. But more about him in a moment.

I've always found it curious that "The Apple Tree" was thought of as a Christmas Carol, when it mentions nothing about the incarnation or birth of Jesus. The text is, however, full of allusions to both the apple tree (such as in Song of Solomon 2:3 which has been interpreted as a metaphor representing Christ), and to Jesus' description of his life as a tree of life.There was an old English tradition of wassailing or wishing health to apple trees on Christmas Eve, so that may be where the Christmas connection came in.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,

Laden with fruit, and always green,

The trees of nature fruitless be,

Compar'd with Christ the appletree.

His beauty doth all things excel,

By faith I know, but ne'er can tell,

The glory which I now can see,

In Jesus Christ the appletree.

For happiness I long have sought,

And pleasure I have dearly bought;

I missed of all but now I see

'Tis found in Christ the appletree.

I'm wearied with my former toil,

Here I will sit and rest awhile;

Under the shadow I will be

Of Jesus Christ the appletree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,

It keeps my dying faith alive;

Which makes my soul in haste to be

With Jesus Christ the appletree.

Mark Schweitzer, the author

Mark Schweizer is an interesting man. A native of Florida, he received music degrees from Stetson University in DeLand and the University of Arizona including a doctorate in vocal performance. He went on to teach voice and perform professionally before starting his own publishing company which publishes church music AND murder mysteries. That sounds like an unusual combination, but if you've ever worked in a church, it makes perfect sense. Read more about him from his bio on the Goodreads page.

• O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON) “If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ with them all.” So said Peter Böhler to Charles Wesley, inspiring the first line of the classic hymn, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook.) Written to celebrate the one year anniversary of Charles’ conversion to Christianity, this declaration of Christ’s power and victory in his own life, rich in Biblical imagery of the Kingdom of God, becomes our own hymn of praise. We stand with the angels before the throne of God, lifting our voices as one church to glorify the one who “bids our sorrows cease.” (from Hymnary.org) I am using it today because of its reference to healing in the fifth stanza.
• Psalm 111: God’s holy ways are just and true (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) This is a relatively recent poetic paraphrase of Psalm 111 (the psalm appointed for this day) by Barbara Woollett (b.1937), a full-time housewife and mother as well as a hymn writer.  The tune for this Psalm setting is the great German chorale "Laast uns erfreuen."
• God has spoken to his people (TORAH SONG)  Catholic priest Willard Francis Jabusch (b. 1930) wrote this text for his congregation in Chicago in 1966, using the Israeli tune, TORAH SONG (or YISRAEL V'ORAITA, as it is known in other hymnals.) The tune is not in a typical major or minor key, but is instead in a strange mode which may sound foreign to our ears, but is prominent in the synagogue music of Eastern Europe, as well as Jewish folk and Hasidic music.
• Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK) This hymn expresses a worldwide concern for education and mission. Originally in German by J. F. Bahnmeaier with seven stanzas, the Catherine Winkworth translation of the first three stanzas made it into the hymnal, along with a new fourth verse  by modern hymnist F. Pratt Green.