Music for March 29, 2015 + Palm Sunday

Vocal Music

• Hosanna – David W. Music
• Go to Dark Gethsemane - T. Tertius Noble (1867-1953)
• Were You There? – spiritual (Richard Murray, baritone, Bernice Satterwhite, piano)
• Gethsemane – Sally DeFord (b. 1959) (Bidkar Cajina, baritone)

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

• Hymn 154 – All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 458 – My song is love unknown (LOVE UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R 227 – Jesus, remember me (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 168 – O sacred head, sore wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN [PASSION CHORALE])

The anthem this Sunday is a beautiful acapella setting of the Holy Week hymn, Go to Dark Gethsemane by the composer T. Tertius Noble. It was written in 1918 for the

T. Tertius Noble
prior to coming to America

choir of the Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany in Philadelphia for a service of Lenten music. Included on the program was an anthem written especially for this service by Dr. Noble, who was then the organist/choirmaster of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York City. Noble was an English-born organist and composer who had studied at the Royal College of Music. He served as Organist and Choirmaster at Ely Cathedral and York Minster prior to his last appointment at St Thomas, where he was responsible for establishing a choral tradition along Anglican cathedral lines. Noble also founded the Saint Thomas Choir School for boys in 1919.

Noble composed orchestral and chamber music, but is now remembered for his music for the Anglican church, particularly his Evening services in a A major, B minor and A minor, and his anthems Go to dark Gethsemane, Souls of the Righteous, and Grieve not the Holy Spirit.

The children's choirs will join the adults for the Blessing of the Palms out in the front yard at the beginning of the 10:15 service to sing a musical setting of Hosanna in the Highest by David W. Music, Professor of Church Music and Graduate Program Director in the School of Music at Baylor University, where he has taught since 2002.

Hymns for Sunday

• All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN) - This well known hymn was written by St. Theodulph of Orleans in 820 while he was imprisoned in Angers, France, for conspiring against the King, with whom he had fallen out of favor. The text acts as a retelling of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The tune was composed by Melchior Teschner in 1613 for "Valet will ich dir geben," Valerius Herberger's hymn for the dying. Though the tune is often named ST. THEODULPH because of its association with his text, is known in our hymnal, and especially in organ literature, as VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN.  
• My song is love unknown (LOVE UNKNOWN) - Though not as well known as today's opening hymn, it is a perfect hymn for Palm Sunday, for it tells the entire story of Holy Week, from Triumphal entry to the crucifixion. Samuel Crossman wrote the hymn in 1664, when only Psalms were allowed to be sung in public worship. It is a very personal expression of Christ's Love and our response. John Ireland composed LOVE UNKNOWN in 1918 for this text,  the tune was first published in The Public School Hymn Book of 1919. Ireland wrote LOVE UNKNOWN within fifteen minutes on a scrap of paper upon receiving the request to compose it from Geoffrey Shawfor the 1919 hymnal, The Public School Hymn Book. 
• Jesus, remember me (Jacques Berthier) Another of the short, repetitive chants from the the Taizé community, an ecumenical community in France, the text references Luke 23:42, where one of the robbers crucified with the Savior cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus responded, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (v. 43). This humble plea of a sinner for divine mercy is all the more poignant today as our Savior in heaven continues to pray for his people.
• O sacred head, sore wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN [PASSION CHORALE]) The original Latin poem addressed seven Aspects of the Crucifixion: feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart, and face. Known as "crucifix hymns" they were designed for long, intense devotions while kneeling at the altar. Part seven, salve caput, was put into German by the famous hymn writed Paul Gerhardt, then translated into English by Robert Bridges for "O sacred head, sore wounded." The tune HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN has been associated with Gerhardt's text since they were first published together in 1656. The tune's first association with a sacred text was its attachment in 1613 to the funeral text "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" (hence the tune name). It was originally a court song by the great Renaissance composer Hans Leo Hassler in 1601.

Music for March 22, 2015 + The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• City Called Heaven - Josephine Poelinitz (1942?)
• Pange Linqua Glorioso – plainsong, mode 3

Instrumental Music

• Wondrous Love – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Largo from Trio Sonata in C Minor BWV 526 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 439 - What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 479 - Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pain (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim (CRUCIFER)

Josephine Poelinitz is an Elementary Music Specialist in the Chicago Public Schools. Her arrangement of City Called Heaven, a “sorrow song” performed in the style of “surge-singing,” has become a favorite of choirs of all ages. In it, Poelinitz salutes the American gospel heritage evident in the vocal spacing and piano accompaniment. While our soloist (the lovely and talented Simone McQuitty from Lone Star Kingwood) laments about life’s troubles, the choir and piano accompany with short, sighing pulses. These aspects in the context of the F minor sonority create a weary hopelessness overcome only by the hope to “make heaven my home.”

The organ prelude is on the Southern Hymn "What Wondrous Love Is This" that has been the focus of the Lenten Wednesday Night Study. Michigan composer Gordon Young used the hymn as inspiration, but did not make a literal arrangement of the tune. Fragments of the tune and/or harmonies from the chorale are use to create an 'impression' of the hymn.

The communion voluntary is a movement from one of the six trio sonatas Bach wrote for the organ during his first few years in Leipzig, where he lived from 1723 until his death in 1750. Written for the organ or pedal clavichord (a practice instrument for organists), these sonatas require the right and left hands to play independently melodic lines on separate keyboards, while the feet play the basso continuo. According to Paul Jacobs, organ professor at Julliard, “The organ sonatas are disarmingly attractive and immediately appealing to the listener, though they pose ferocious interpretive and technical demands for the player.” A significant challenge of performing these works is one of sheer coordination: playing three lines of music on two keyboards and pedal with all four limbs. “There isn't much for the performer to cling on to,” Jacobs said. “It’s a little like walking on eggshells.”  By contrast, in other weightier organ and keyboard works, Bach sometimes employs thicker four- or five-part counterpoint, offering a more idiomatically conceived keyboard texture. In other words, there is nothing for the organist to hide behind!

(I am delighted to be playing this on the day after J.S.Bach's 330th birthday, though, according to Wikipedia, Bach's birth date of March 21 is in the Old Style, which is March 31 in the New Style. This discrepancy corresponds to the difference between the Julian calendar [which was in use in Bach's time] and the newer Gregorian calendar. So I can celebrate for TEN WHOLE DAYS!)

Hymns for Sunday

• Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE) The author, John Bakewell, lived to be 98,  and was an English Methodist minister in whose home Thomas Olivers wrote "The God of Abraham praise." To the original two stanzas, others were added by Martin Madan, who became chaplain to the Lock Hospital (an institution for the "restoration of unhappy females.") It can best be described as rhymed theology.
• What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE) - The melody for this hymn shows signs of Celtic influences, and the unusual meter of the text is that of an old sea chantey about Captain Kidd! The tune first appeared in the valleys of the Southern Appalachians, where William Walker wrote it down and included it in his historic hymnbook Southern Harmony. Each stanza has a single thought which is  underscored by repetition, but it is the haunting melody which has made this hymn so popular. 
• Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pain (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN) This devotional hymn on the crucified Christ is thought to be eighteenth-century Italian in origin. It appears in the Hymnal in a much altered form, matched with a very accessible German tune from the 19th century. The tune's name comes from the funeral text that was first associated with the tune in 1874. ("O let him whose sorrow no relief can find")
• Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim (CRUCIFER) Here is another hymn which owes its popularity to its tune (with its stirring refrain) than to any great merit of the text-- which is a revision of original lines by George Kitchin, an Anglican who published works in the history, biography, and archaeology. It is related to "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "For all the saints" in its symbolism of marching in the ranks of the soldiers of the crucified. It is the crucified Christ and his cross which we follow, and his love e proclaim to the world.

Music for March 15, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)
• O God, Have Mercy – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Récit du chant Pange Linqua Gloriosum - Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703)

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

• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON) 
• Hymn R 132 - As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (THE GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message  - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem 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. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

Portrait of Mendelssohn
by the English miniaturist
James Warren Childe, 1839

Richard Murray is also singing a fitting solo for the season of Lent, from the oratorio St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn. During his lifetime, St. Paul was a popular and frequently performed work. However, compared with such oratorios as Handel's Messiah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion or even Mendelssohn's own Elijah, it has failed to maintain its place in the choral repertory and is now infrequently performed in its entirety. I think that is a shame, as it is full of beautiful, dramatic music, and tells the story of Paul, beginning with the stoning of Stephen, the conversion of  Saul (Paul), and ending with the apostle’s subsequent career. This aria comes after Saul is left blinded by the light on the road to Emmaus, and he breathes out this prayer ("O God, have Mercy upon me").

The opening voluntary is a 17th century French organ work by Nicolas de Grigny. He died young and left behind a single collection of organ music, which together with the work of François Couperin, represents the pinnacle of French Baroque organ tradition. J.S. Bach so admired it that he transcribed (by hand!) the entire volume for his own use. As with most of de Grigny's music, this prelude is based on a familiar chant (No. 166 in our hymnal, Sing, My Soul, the Glorious Battle). His treatment of the melody, however, is so ornate and complex, that it would be hard to recognize it, regardless of how well known it might be!

As this is the fourth Sunday of Lent, otherwise known as Refreshment Sunday in England. On this day, the Lenten fast is allowed to be relaxed, so I am taking a break from the more somber Lenten chants and have chosen some well known hymns which still fit the readings of today quite well.

• Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON) In 1752, a young Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned the words that have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.”
• As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (THE GIFT OF LOVE) This is a poetic setting of John 3:14-17, part of Jesus' nighttime discourse with Nicodemus and includes that famous profession of faith "God so loved the world. . . ," one of the best-known and most frequently memorized verses in the entire Bible. Marie J. Post prepared the versification in 1985 for use with the tune O WALY WALY for the Christ­ian Re­formed Church’s Psal­ter Hymnal. She said this versification was one of her easiest assignments: “The lines simply fell into the music!” O WALY WALY is a traditional English melody which Hal H. Hopson adapted and arranged as an anthem in 1971 for his setting of 1 Corinthians 13, "Gift of Love"; his version became known as GIFT OF LOVE. 
• Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN) When John Newton was just eleven, he joined his father and began a tumultuous life at sea, eventually becoming captain of a slave ship. In a period of four years, however, his life was drastically turned around: he nearly drowned, he married a very pious Mary Catlett, and he read through Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and joined forces with the great abolitionist, William Wilberforce. A number of years later, he was ordained for ministry, and soon after wrote this great text, declaring that we are saved only the grace of God. Newton wrote, “I can see no reason why the Lord singled me out for mercy…unless it was to show, by one astonishing instance, that with him 'nothing is impossible'”
• Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA) The great circuit-riding preacher/poet William Williams wrote the original Welsh text "Arglwydd, arwain trwy'r anialwch"–"Lord, Lead Me Through the Wilderness." It was published in 1745 with the title, "A prayer for strength to go through the wilderness of the world." Translated into some seventy-five languages, Williams's text has become universally popular in Christendom. The English translation by Peter Williams ("Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,") was published in 1771.   

The popularity of Williams's text is undoubtedly aided by its association with CWM RHONDDA, composed in 1905 by John Hughes during a church service for a Welsh Baptist song festival.  Hughes had little formal education, but he composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known.

Music for March 8, 2015 + The Third Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin - John Hilton (ca. 1599 – 1657), arr. Peter Crisafulli
• Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured - Johann Cruger

Instrumental Music

• These are the Holy Ten Commandments, BWV 679 – J. S. Bach
• Balm in Gilead - Timothy Shaw

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

• Hymn 143 The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR) omit stanza 5
• Hymn R 75 Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 676 There is a balm in Gilead (BALM IN GILEAD)
• Hymn 149 Eternal Lord of love, behold your church (OLD 124TH)

The choir is singing two unfamiliar hymns from the Hymnal 1982 this Sunday as part of their weekly offering. The anthem to be sung at the offertory is a contemporary arrangement of a 17th century hymn by the poet and priest, John Donne (1573-1631). He was dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, when he wrote the poem "Hymn to God the Father", which is the text of today's anthem. I am including it here, for I think the listener would do well to read and meditate on this text before and after hearing it sung in church.

from Hymns of the Christian Centuries, (1903) page 95

Izaak Walton says, in his Life of Donne (1670),

I have the rather mentioned this hymn for that he [Donne] caused it to be set to a most grave and solemn tune, and to be often sung to the organ by the Choristers of St. Paul's [Cathedral] Church in his own hearing, especially at the evening service, and at his return from his customary devotions in that place, did occasionally say to a friend, 'the words of this hymn have restored to me the same thoughts of joy that possessed my soul in my sickness, when I composed it. And, O the power of Church-music! that harmony added to this hymn has raised the affections of my heart, and quickened my grace of zeal and gratitude; and 1 observe that I always return from paying this public duty of prayer and praise with an unexpressible tranquillity of mind, and a willingness to leave the world.'

John Donne

The special sickness during which this hymn was composed fell upon the author during the earlier part of his life. It was sung at St. Paul's Cathedral, at intervals from 1621 to 1631, when Donne died.
Gregory Benoit notes that Donne puns on his own name in this poem, ending the first two stanzas by saying to God, “When you have done forgiving this sin, you still don’t have Donne — for I have more sins to address.” Each stanza addresses a specific class of sin, rather than specific actions which he has committed.

The music is by English composer and organist, John Hilton. He received the B. Mus. from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1626, and became organist of St Margaret's, Westminster in 1628. It is highly possible that this is the tune that Donne commissioned for his text which was sung at St. Paul's

The opening voluntary is a hands-only organ piece (called manualiter) by J. S. Bach from the Clavier-Übung III, which has been referred to as the German Organ Mass.  It is a collection of compositions for organ which Bach published in 1739. It is considered his most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his musically most complex and technically most demanding compositions for that instrument. The purpose of the collection was fourfold:

1. an idealized organ program, taking as its starting point the organ recitals given by Bach himself in Leipzig.
2. a practical translation of Lutheran doctrine into musical terms for devotional use in the church or the home; 
3. a compendium of organ music in all possible styles and idioms, both ancient and modern, and properly internationalized.
4. a didactic work presenting examples of all possible forms of contrapuntal composition, going far beyond previous treatises on musical theory.

Albert Schweitzer compared it to the Greater and Lesser Catechism of Martin Luther:

Luther, however, had written a greater and a smaller catechism. In the former he demonstrates the essence of the faith; in the latter he addresses himself to the children. Bach, the musical father of the Lutheran church, feels it encumbent on him to do likewise; he gives us a larger and smaller arrangement of each chorale ... The larger chorales are dominated by a sublime musical symbolism, aiming simply at illustrating the central idea of the dogma contained in the words; the smaller ones are of bewitching simplicity.  - Albert Schweitze, "J. S. Bach, Le Musicien-Poète", (Leipzig 1905).

This setting of the German chorale based on the Ten Commandments is the second, smaller setting of which Schweitzer speaks. It is a fughetta on a paraphrase of the first line of the chorale, in the rhythm of a gigue, and with bouncing leaps and an almost playful mood of high spirits! Not quite what we think of as LENTEN music!

Hymns -

• The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR) The Latin hymn Clarum decus jejunii may have been written by Pope Gregory I, and was translated from the Latin by Maurice F. Bell for The English Hymnal, 1906. It is a Lenten hymn that reminds us of the necessity for fasting and prayer as exemplified by Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and John the Baptist. We will omit stanza 5 during the processional as we are singing that stanza as the presentation hymn after the offertory.
• Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA) This hymn, based on Psalm 148, is by an anonymous author, and has been around since around 1801. A post-exilic hymn, Psalm 148 maintains that God's glory displayed in creation and redemption is so great that the praise on Israel's lips needs to be supplemented by a chorus from all creation. This echos the sentiment found in today's Psalm, Psalm 19 (The heavens declare the glory of God.)
• There is a balm in Gilead (BALM IN GILEAD) In the Old Testament, Gilead was the name of the mountainous region east of the Jordan River. This region was known for having skillful physicians and an ointment made from the gum of a tree particular to that area. Many believed that this balm had miraculous powers to heal the body. In the New Testament, God answers the suffering of His people by sending His own son to take our place. Jesus becomes our “balm in Gilead.” It is Him we are called to turn to in our times of trial for healing and comfort. We sing this song with that assurance: no matter our hardships or supposed shortcomings, Jesus loves us enough to take our suffering upon Himself.
• Eternal Lord of love, behold your church (OLD 124TH) A relatively new hymn, found only in about four hymnals, it is another hymn for the Lenten season, this time comparing our Lenten pilgrimage with the pilgrimage of the Israelites in escaping Pharoah (Cloud by day, fire by night).