Music for May 31, 2015 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound – Healey Willan (1880 -1968)
• Bist du bei mir - Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749)
• A Blessing – Martin Shaw (1875-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Wir Glauben Alle in einem Gott (We all believe in One God) BWV 1098 and 680 – 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 362 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH)
• Hymn S-236 A Song of Praise: Glory to you (John Rutter)
• Hymn 371 Thou, whose almighty Word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn R-264 Abba, Father (Steve Fry)
• Hymn R-149 I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD) 
• Hymn 423 Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)

Many of the special days on the church calendar remember and celebrate events in the life of Christ (Christmas, Easter) or the church (Pentecost) or the Saints of God (All Saints), but this Sunday we'll observe the only day on the church calendar dedicated to a doctrine: the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. For that reason, we sing the great Trinitarian hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy.... God in three persons, blessed trinity."

The choir will sing Healey Willan's setting of the hymn, Father of heaven, whose love profound, with a text by the Rev. Edward Cooper. It is based on a litany and consists of 4 stanzas of 4 lines, the last stanza being a doxology to the "mysterious Godhead, three in one."

Father of heaven, whose love profound
a ransom for our souls has found,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy pardoning love extend.

Almighty Son, incarnate Word,
our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy saving grace extend.

Eternal Spirit, by whose breath
our souls are raised from sin and death,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy quickening power extend.

Thrice holy! Father, Spirit, Son,
mysterious Godhead, Three in One,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
grace, pardon, life to us extend.

Martin Shaw, left, and Healey Willan, right, were contemporaries and leading figures in Anglican Church Music in the mid-20th century.

The choir also sings A Blessing by English church musician Martin Shaw, using a prayer found in The Proposed Book of Common Prayer (1928) of the Church of England. No one has ever been credited with the composition of this prayer, but an educated guess would say it's by Walter Frere, who was highly involved in the preparation of the Proposed Prayer Book. Frere composed many prayers, and this charge/blessing, written for a confirmation service and based in scripture, is wholly in line with other works that we do know were written over his name. It did not appear in the final version in 1928, but when the Presbyterians were revising their The Book of Common Worship in 1932 they picked it up and in 1946 The Book of Common Worship provided it as the conclusion to the Confirmation service. Some Presbyterian pastors thought so much of those words that they began to use them at the conclusion of worship.

We think it is the perfect prayer for Senior Sunday.

Speaking of Senior Sunday, one of our seniors, Jade Panares, will sing the lovely aria Bist du bei Mir (Be Thou With Me),  found in Anna Magdelena Bach’s famous notebook. Because of its inclusion by his second wife, it was long assumed to be by J.S. Bach, but it is actually an aria in a now lost opera by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, a very prolific composer of the Baroque era who some thought rivaled Bach's own work. Alas, today he is so little known, that not even a picture of him can be found on the internet.

Bach, however, lives on. In 1984 an exciting discovery was made by musicologists studying scores in the library of Yale University. A volume of organ music, copied by hand in the late 1700s by Johann Gottfried Neumeister (1757–1840), was found that contained eighty-two chorales, most of which were previously unknown, including 33 works by a young J. S. Bach.  Two were previously known only from fragments and the other thirty-one were heretofore unknown works (BWV 1090–1120) now identified as the Neumeister Chorales.

These chorales are considered on stylistic grounds to be early works, probably dating from 1703 to 1707, when Bach was active at Arnstadt, and possibly even earlier. They provide a new window on his formative years as a composer. I will be playing a setting of the Martin Luther's hymn We All Believe in One God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This chorale is a setting of the Nicene Creed, and is therefore very suitable for occasions such as Trinity Sunday.

I will also play the same hymn as arranged by Bach over 30 years later for his Clavier-Übung III. In this setting Bach writes a trio sonata for two manuals and pedal, which is both exuberant and triumphal. Bach used the first seven notes of the Luther’s melody, to which the words ‘Wir glauben all an einen Gott’ are sung, to form a jubilant theme, in which a buoyant downward leap generates a festive string of semiquavers. The material forms the basis for a dancy fugue that assures the listener that only one thing matters: faith.

Hymns for Sunday

• Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA) In 325 AD, Church leaders convened in the town of Nicaea in Bithynia to formulate a consensus of belief and practice amongst Christians. What resulted was the Nicene Creed, a document passed on through the ages as one of the pillars of church doctrine. The primary function of this creed was to establish a firm belief in the divinity of Christ, countering the heresy of Arius, who believed that Jesus was not fully divine. It was this creed that inspired Reginald Heber to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter. The tune, composed by John B. Dykes for Heber’s text, is also titled NICAEA in recognition of Heber’s text. The words evoke a sense of awe at the majesty of God, and call on all of creation – humans, saints and angels, and all living things – to praise the Godhead three-in-one.
• All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH) The tune name ALLEIN GOTT derives from the opening words of Nikolas Decius's rhymed text in High German. Decius adapted the tune from a tenth-century Easter chant for his German setting of the Gloria text. Lutheran composers have written various chorale preludes on ALLEIN GOTT for organ. Bach himself used the hymn in four cantatas and composed about ten preludes on the tune. Typical of many Lutheran chorales, ALLEIN GOTT is in bar form (AAB).
• A Song of Praise: Glory to you (John Rutter) On some Sundays the Lectionary suggests certain canticles be sung instead of a Psalm. Canticle 13, Benedictus es, Domine, is especially appropriate for Trinity Sunday. We will sing a setting for Rite II by John Rutter, the leading composer of choral music throughout the world today. Be prepared for a short introduction!!
• Thou, whose almighty Word (MOSCOW) You may know the tune from the hymn Come, thou almighty King or Christ, for the world we sing. It's based on Genesis 1 (let there be light), but it is Trinitarian in its framework. Look for the theme of Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer in the first three stanzas, with a hymn to all three in the last stanza.
• Abba, Father (Steve Fry) Abba Father was written by Steven Fry in the seclusion of a church prayer room at the midnight hour when he was serving as a Youth Minister in the late 70s. He is now Sr. Pastor of The Gate Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee. The text is drawn directly from today's Epistle reading. 
• I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD) Another contemporary hymn, it was written in 1981 by Daniel Schutte, a Jesuit priest.  He was one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English as a result of the liturgical reforms initiated by Vatican II. 
• Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO) ST. DENIO is based on "Can mlynedd i nawr" ("A Hundred Years from Now"), a traditional Welsh ballad popular in the early nineteenth century. It was first published as a hymn tune in John Roberts's Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary, 1839). The tune title refers to St. Denis, the patron saint of France.Walter C. Smith based this text, written in 1867, on 1 Timothy 1: 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." 

Music for May 24, 2015 + The Day of Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Veni Creator Spiritus – Stephen Sturk (b. 1950)
• Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me – K. Lee Scott (b.1950)

Instrumental Music

• Choral varié sur le thème du 'Veni Creator', Op 4 – Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (SALVE FESTA DIES)
• Hymn 20 - Now Holy Spirit, ever One (WAREHAM)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (Daniel Iverson)
• Hymn R168 - If You believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)

This Sunday is Pentecost, the Sunday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ (120 in all), as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church".  (You can read more about the origins of Pentecost here.)

Stephen Sturk with the San Clemente
Choral Society

Therefore, there will be a lot of singing about the Holy Spirit at church this Sunday. The first anthem the choir sings incorporates one of the earliest hymns of the church with its original Gregorian Chant. Veni Creator Spiritus has taken deeper hold of the Western Church than any other medieval hymn, with the exception maybe of the Te Deum. The choir will start the anthem singing in unison, in Latin, accompanied only by bells. Then a metrical version of the tune is used to sing parts of the Psalm, accompanied by the organ. This arrangement is by Stephen Sturk, director of music at St. Thomas of Canterbury, San Diego, composer-in-residence at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego, and conductor of Cappella Gloriana, San Diego’s professional chamber choir. A professional singer, he's also the only composer of anthems in our library who is on the soundtrack of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. (I don't know which part, though I highly suspect it was not Beauty.)

 Maurice Duruflé and his wife
Marie Madeleine Chevalier Durufle 

The organ voluntaries also use the Veni Creator plainchant. It is a set of variations on the chant by the great French Organist, Maurice Duruflé. Like Olivier Messiaen (whose music I played last week), Maurice Duruflé was a 20th century French organ virtuoso and composer trained at the Paris Conservatory, but unlike Messiaen, Duruflé united the church's unique language of plainsong  with the secular harmonies of the modern French school (as typified by Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas). He was not an innovator, but, like Bach, was a master at his craft.

The Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le thème du 'Veni Creator' was the first of his three major organ works. I will be playing the last part of the work, the theme and four variations. First you hear the theme (Allegro religioso) presented in full organ. Next comes Variation 1. Poco meno mosso. Written in four parts, the theme appears in the pedals whilst the right hand plays an elaboration of the theme. Variation 2. Allegretto is for manuals only, while Variation 3. Andante espressivo is a canon at the interval of the fourth.

I will play the final variation for the closing voluntary. Variation 4 'Final'. Allegro, is a brilliant toccata, introducing the theme in canon between right hand and pedals. The music winds up to a glorious climax; Duruflé saves his master-stroke for the coda marked ‘tempo poco più vivo’ when he presents the plainsong ‘Amen’ (only hinted at in the organ music until that point) in the pedals on full organ.

Sunday's hymns

• Hail thee, festival day (SALVE FESTA DIES) - This is the tune we have been singing each Sunday since Easter, but now we are singing the words that are specific to Pentecost. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed SALVE FESTA DIES as a setting for Venantius H. Fortunatus's famous text "Hail Thee, Festival Day." The tune, whose title comes from the opening words of that text, was published in The English Hymnal of 1906.
• Now Holy Spirit, ever One (WAREHAM) Here's another Pentecost hymn written by an founding father of the church (St. Ambrose) that has been translated into English for modern usage. The first two stanzas of this hymn were translated especially for use in our Hymnal, the Hymnal 1982, and then picked for inclusion in our other song book, Renew.
• Spirit of the Living God (Daniel Iverson) This composite hymn text is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to work renewal in the individual heart (st. 1) and to make these renewed people one in love and service (st. 2). Daniel Iverson wrote the first stanza and tune of this hymn after hearing a sermon on the Holy Spirit during an evangelism crusade in Florida in 1926. Michael Baughen, retired Bishop of Chester (Great Britain) added a second stanza in 1980. That stanza's emphasis on the Spirit moving “among us all,” provides a necessary complement to the first stanza's focus on the Spirit's work in the individual ("fall afresh on me"). 
• If You believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe) The tune for this traditional Zimbabwe song is an English folksong which was taken by British colonizers to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where it was taken up by the local people and re-fitted with these words which were sung as an anti-colonial protest. The words which we today sing "...and set God's people free" would have been sung as "set Zimbabwe (or Namibia, or Africa) free."
• Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH) This two stanza hymn is by Timothy Rees, a monk born in 1874 in Wales who became the first monastic in over 300 years to become a Bishop in the Anglican church in 1931. He has written two hymns in our hymnal (God is love, let heaven adore him and this one) and both of them are set to the same tune, ABBOT'S LEIGH. 

Music for May 17, 2015 + The Seventh Sunday after Easter and The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• Blessed is the Man – Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• O Taste and See - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Danket dem Herren (Thank the Lord) - Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père ("Prayer of Christ ascending towards his Father") - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Hyfrdol - Ralph Vaughan Williams

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

• Hymn 450 All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  (CORONATION)
• Hymn 494 Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 314 Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

Known primarily for his symphonies, concertos and ballets, Pytor Tchaikovsky was also deeply interested in the music and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Though his sacred output was not large, it still included A Hymn to the Trinity (1877), the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (1878), an All-Night Vigil (1881), and 9 Sacred Pieces (1884–85). He published a book in 1875, A Short Course of Harmony adapted for the Study of Russian Church Music.

Interestingly, the anthem the choir sings today is not from one of his sacred works, but is an arrangement from his piano work Album for the Young, Op.39, subtitled "24 simple pieces à la Schumann". It is a cycle of piano pieces composed between May and July 1878, and No. 24., In Church, is the source for our anthem.  As a prelude to this short anthem, I will play the first number from that volume called Morning Prayers.

Olivier Messiaen in March, 1952.
He looks a LOT like my Aunt Bonnie.

Some composers labor for years before finding their own voice. But Olivier Messiaen, even in his earliest works, sounds like Messiaen and no one else. In his work L’Ascension, we see (or hear) Messiaen’s language emerge before our very eyes as passages influenced by his early models — chiefly Debussy and Stravinsky — begin to evolve in entirely new directions. One bedrock of Messiaen’s music was the composer’s Catholic faith, which is behind every note he composed.

Messiaen was only 25 when he completed L’Ascension. He had graduated from the Paris Conservatoire just three years earlier. Since 1931, he had been the organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Written for orchestra (he rewrote it for the organ a year later in 1933), it was his reflections on the Feast of the Ascension. Here, Christ’s reunion with His Father gives cause for joy, but also for the contemplation of a deep mystery. Messiaen prefaced each movement with a quote from the Bible or the Catholic liturgy to set the tone.

I will be playing movement four during communion today. Messiaen assigned this saying of Jesus to 4. Prayer of Christ Ascending to His Father.

Father . . . I have revealed Your name to humanity. . . . Now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you (John 17: 1, 6, and 11). 

The tempo is slow (Extrêment Lent – extrememly slow – is the tempo marking); the texture is homophonic, and the harmonies iridescent and otherworldly. The music climbs higher and higher (in keeping with the idea of Ascension) and ends on a resplendent dominant-seventh chord. According to Western musical conventions, this chord would call for resolution, but in this context, the lack of resolution is a perfect ending point for this quite extraordinary set of harmonies.

The opening voluntary is a short setting of an old Lutheran hymn which, loosely translated, is Thank the Lord. That’s the way I feel with summer quickly approaching. The closing voluntary is one of three works that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote for the organ. It is based on the closing hymn tune today.

• All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  (CORONATION) It is interesting that those who express the most eloquent praise are often the people we would deem the least likely to have the ability. Yet David, the adulterating, murdering, lying king of Israel wrote a good deal of the Psalms, which we still use today as our guide for worship. In the same way, all accounts show Rev. Edward Perronet (1721-1792) to be a sharp-tongued, difficult personality, who would rather pick a fight over theology than display brotherly love.  This one has been published in over 2,760 hymnals!
• Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) Composed in 1868 for this text by Matthew Bridges, George J. Elvey named the tune DIADEMATA. “Diademata” is Latin, basically meaning “wearing a crown.” Almost 150 years later, this sturdy, rousing tune is still thouroughly connected to this text.  
• Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) One of the oldest hymns in our hymnal, it is part of a larger hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas. We may not get to sing it this Sunday, due to the length of the communion voluntary.
• Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL) One of the favorite hymns of the Episcopal Church, it combines the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL with a text by William Chatterton Dix, who also wrote the words for As with Gladness Men of Old and What Child Is This? The second stanza is often left out, but we will sing it today, as we remember the ascension of Christ.

Music for May 10, 2015 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• The Story Tellin' Man II - Ken Medema 
• I Give You a New Commandment – Peter Aston (1938-2013)
• Give Ear unto Me – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

Instrumental Music

• Rejoice, Beloved Christians – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Praeludium in F Major – Johann Ludwig Krebs

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

• Hymn 400 All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 455 O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn R 226 Ubi caritas et amor (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 610 Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

Quick Pop Quiz: What is the greatest commandment?

• A. Thou Shalt honor thy father and mother.
• B. Love thy neighbor as yourself
• C. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
• D. Thou shalt not wear white until after Memorial Day.

The answer is C, though B comes in a close second, and A has special relevance this Sunday. (It's Mother's Day - a gentle reminder from your music ministry.) We will make no comment about D.

I bring this up because this Sunday's Gospel from John 15 reminds us what Jesus said about commandments: If we love him, we will keep his commandments. “This is my commandment", he says, "that you love one another as I have loved you". It's about love. So all of our vocal music centers on that theme.

Peter Aston

The Good Shepherd choir sings a setting of a text from John 13 by English composer, Peter Aston. Though best known as a composer of church music, Aston's career combined teaching and conducting as well as composing. He held posts at the University of York and University of East Anglia,and conducted leading British orchestras and various international choirs. He was a founder of the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music and was a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral. He died a month before his 75th birthday near Norwich, U.K., on September 13, 2013.

Benedetto Marcello

At communion the St. Gregory Choir will sing Benedetto Marcello's two part anthem Give Ear unto Me, with a text paraphrased from Psalm 17. Even this psalm concentrates on our following the commandments:

Give ear unto me, Lord, I beseech Thee,
for I have walked in Thy commandments,
Let me be judged with righteous judgment,
O let my sentence, come from Thy presence.

Marcello was an Italian composer, writer, and teacher, best known today for his church music and instrumental works. He was a younger contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi, and, indeed, his musical style closely resembles that of the Venetian master.

Ken Medema

However, the main musical offering this Sunday is the presentation of the musical, The Story Tellin' Man II, by Ken Medema. Every Spring the St. Gregory Choir presents a short musical presentation of a Biblical story in our 10:15 worship service.

One of the first musicals written in a contemporary vein for children was The Story Tellin' Man. Written in 1975, it was a collection of several of the parables, or stories, told by Jesus (the Story Tellin' Man) and has become a classic. Medema used several different musical styles to tell the different stories. Kids love singing the music, but the entire musical is 45 minutes long - we Episcopalians don't have patience for long sermons on Sunday morning, much less long musicals! - so I have devised a way to divide the work into TWO musicals - the first one focusing on the "lost" parables (lost coin, lost sheep, lost son) and the second one telling the story of the Good Samaritan. It's that story that we tell this Sunday as we hear the scripture about "Love One Another." I think it's a perfect fit.

Be sure to read about Ken Medema's inspiring story here.

The opening and closing voluntaries are by Johann Ludwig Krebs, German organist and composer noted for his organ music. He began his musical studies under his father and was later a favorite pupil of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach at Leipzig. (Bach held him in high regard, punning on both their names (Krebs [crab] and Bach [brook]) by saying "He is the only crab in my brook."
Krebs's organ music is composed in the forms used by Bach and leans heavily on Bach’s style. It is technically very accomplished. Krebs also wrote trio sonatas, sonatas for flute and harpsichord, and some sacred vocal music.

About the hymns:

• All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) We are singing this hymn, the "Canticle of the Sun" by St. Francis of Assisi, in a nod to Rogation Sunday, the sixth Sunday before Easter, the day when the Church has traditionally offered prayer for God’s blessings on the fruits of the earth and the labors of those who produce our food. The word “rogation” is from the Latin rogare, “to ask.” It is good to be reminded of our dependence upon those who produce our food and our responsibility for the environment. We will omit those stanzas with an asterisk.
• O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN) The love of God lies at the heart of the Christian message, and that love is not an abstract idea but an act of redemption. William Temple points out that the essence of Christianity is not "God is love" but "God so loved that he gave," and this love is the theme of Horatio Bonar's great hymn.
• Ubi caritas et amor (Jacques Berthier) One of the most loved and familiar of the songs from the Taizé Community in France, it was written by Jacques Berthier, the organist at St-Ignace, the Jesuit church in Paris from 1961 until his death in 1994.
• Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN) This hymn was written in 1961 and is a reminder that, as Christians, we should follow the example of Christ, whose life was spent serving others. Our worship in church is in vain unless it is followed by concerns for others.

Music for May 3, 2015 + The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• O Thou Who Camest from Above – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)

Instrumental Music

• Communion – Richard Purvis (1913-1994)
• Sonatina in C Major, Op. 13, No. 1: Andantino – Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
• Come, O Come, Thou Spirit of Life – Max Reger (1873-1916)

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

• Hymn 47 - On this day, the first of days (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Hymn 379 - God is love: let heaven adore him (ABBOT’S LEIGH) 
• Hymn R 145 - Lord, I want to be a Christian (I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN)
• Hymn 344 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)

This week the choir is singing a new (to us) anthem by the young English composer Philip Stopford. It is a setting of the well-known text by Charles Wesley with an original new tune that brings a fresh approach to this great hymn. An effective motif is introduced in the beginning with the gentle, pulsating chords in the organ accompaniment and the repetitive "falling" motif in the opening of the melody.

Philip Stopford

Born in 1977, Stopford began his musical career as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey. After winning a major Music Scholarship to Bedford School, he became Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral, playing the organ for services and taking probationer chorister rehearsals. Stopford went on to study music at Oxford University. He was on the music staff of Canterbury and Chester Cathedrals as Assistant Organist, before being appointed Director of Music at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, in January 2003. He now lives in Chester and devotes his time to composition.

Three of Stopford's works appeared in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2014, after he made his first appearance on the chart in 2013.

The opening voluntary is by Richard Purvis—organist/choirmaster at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral—who (along with Alexander Schreiner, E. Power Biggs, and Virgil Fox) made mid-20th century American organ music popular with the masses through records, recitals, and the press. But unlike his colleagues, Purvis was also a writer and performer of original music for the organ, who engaged church and concert audiences everywhere with daring harmony, colorful registration, and evocative emotion of compositions that won him instant acclaim. Hollywood noticed, but Purvis turned down offers to leave Grace to write for the movies. It was said that Purvis wrote "film music for the Episcopal church." This prelude is no exception. Communion is from a collection from 1941 called Five Pieces on Gregorian Themes. A quiet and contemplative composition, with a melody in the style of an old Gregorian chant, with big, sustained chords in the accompaniment.

• On this day, the first of days (GOTT SEI DANK) - This generic hymn of praise  is a 1861 translation by Anglican, Sir Henry W. Baker of the Latin hymn: 'Die parente temporum' which first appeared in the Carcassion Brievary in 1745. In this volumn, 'Dei parente temporum' is indicated for use on the Sunday at Nocturns from Pentecost to Advent. It is set to the tune GOTT SEI DANK, first published in Freylinghausen's Gesangbuch (1704). 
• God is love: let heaven adore him (ABBOT’S LEIGH) -This tune just missed making it into The Hymnal 1940.  It appears three times in the current Hymnal and is an immensely popular tune. It was written by Cyril Vincent Taylor during the Battle of Britain as a replacement tune for Glorious things of thee are spoken, which used the tune AUSTRIA – which happened to be the German national anthem.  (Both tunes currently appear to the text in our hymnal.)  Soprano and bass lines both feature octave leaps.  
• Lord, I want to be a Christian (I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN) - Though originating in the 1750s, both text and tune were first published in Folk Songs of the American Negro (1907), compiled by brothers Frederick Work and John W. Work, Jr.  This music is an example of the repetitive text with a slow, sustained, long-phrased tune found in a number of African American spirituals. This music is intended to be reverent, with little, if any, accompaniment (perhaps piano)
• Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS) - As we opened the service, we close it, too, with a generic hymn of blessing. The tune SICILIAN MARINERS has been around for centuries and may have actually originated in Sicily.  If you double the note values, you get the tune for a Christmas carol, "O Sanctissima" which, with its original Latin text, was first published in London in 1792 and in 1794 in the United States. Today, the opening bars are familiarly known for their use in the song "We Shall Overcome."