Music for August 16, 2015 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• How Can I Keep from Singing – American Folk Song, arr. By Richard Walters (b. 1956), Leila Hays, mezzo-soprano

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Trumpet Tune in E – David N. Johnson (1922-1988)
• Two Reflections on Hymn Tunes – David Ashley White (b.1944)

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

• Hymn 688 A Mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)*
• Hymn R37 Glorify your name
• Hymn 662 Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE)*
• Hymn 335 I am the bread of life (I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE)*
• Hymn 680 O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)*

One of our newest choir members, Leila Hays, sings an arrangement of an old gospel hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing? by the 19th century Baptist preacher Robert Lowry (who also wrote Shall We Gather At the River). It is arranged by Richard Walters, managing editor of the concert music division at Hal Leonard Publishing and an extraordinary pianist, arranger, and orchestrator. I met Richard in New Orleans over 13 years ago, and our similar backgrounds (He's from Mississippi, I'm from Tennessee, we were both raised in the Methodist church and very active in its music ministries) caused us to develope a great friendship. Upon my return to Kingwood, I received a large box of music from Hal Leonard Publishing containing many volumes of his music, some of which he edited, and some of which he arranged. It is one of those pieces we are using today.

This hymn is a reminder of the joy of faith, especially in times of trial. It opens with an assertion that the troubles of this world are nothing when compared to the new creation that is to come. By keeping our focus on our Lord – that He is our Rock and that He lives – we can follow the admonition of the apostle James: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). This arrangement is rather quiet and has a peaceful mood.

Johannes Brahms, date unknown
(Library of Congress)

Johannes Brahms, composer of the opening voluntary, had no particular personal relationship with the organ - he was not a church musician and had not studied the instrument - so it is strange that he would turn to it for his last compositions. They were written in the summer of 1896 after his dear friend Clara Schumann’s death, and it is highly probable that Brahms was already aware of his own illness at that point.  The preludes are “settings” (albeit wordless) of religious texts--Lutheran hymns and their associated chorale melodies. Though not a particularly religious man, he may have found comfort in the hymns of his upbringing.  This may have influenced his decision to set, twice each, the chorales "Herzlich tut ich verlangen nach einem sel'gen End" (I sincerely wish for a happy end) and "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (O world, I must leave you). Indeed, the second of the two "O Welt" settings contains the last notes the composer ever wrote.

But it is not one of the funeral hymns that we hear today, but the chorale "O Gott, du frommer Gott" (O God, Thou faithful God), a prayer of faith, hope, and healing.

O God, Thou faithful God,
Thou Fountain ever flowing,
Without whom nothing is,
All perfect gifts bestowing,
A pure and healthy frame
O give me, and within
A conscience free from blame,
A soul unhurt by sin.

At communion I am playing two piano arrangements of hymn-tunes by David Ashley White, a Houston composer who retired as the director for the Moores School of Music in 2014. He's arranged the hymn-tune MARTYRDOM (Alas, and did my Savior bleed or, as in the case of our 1982 Hymnal, As longs the deer for cooling streams) and his own tune, GARDEN DISTRICT, which he wrote in 2005 after the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

* We continue our singing of the top 15 (though it turned out to be 17) favorite hymns from our Summer Hymn survey. The astute (and faithful) congregant will notice that once again we are singing I am the bread of life. That's because we are in Year B of the lectionary, and "B" stands for Bread. We are hearing six weeks of bread readings during the last days of summer. As one of my friends on twitter says,

Jesus describes himself as the bread of life.  I've spent my life being afraid of carbs. Hmmm. There's a sermon in that....   Daniel D. Brereton, @RevDaniel on Twitter) 

Perhaps that explains my disdain for this hymn. (But let it be noted that I still schedule hymns that I don't like as well as the ones I do!)

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE) is today's featured hymn. According to an edition of the British Weekly, in the late summer of 1847, after preaching his final sermon, knowing his time on earth was drawing to a close, Henry Francis Lyte

walked in the valley garden in front of the home, then down to the rocks, where he sat and composed. It was a lovely sunny day and the sun was setting over distant Dartmoor in a blaze of glory. On the left lay Brixham harbor like a pool of molten gold, with its picturesque trawling vessels lying peacefully at anchor. After the sun had set, Lyte returned to his study. His family thought he was resting, but he was putting the finishing touches to his immortal hymn. (Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns, 171). 

Later that fall, Lyte passed away, but his hymn has indeed endured through the years as a beloved hymn of peace and prayer in the face of change. Theodore L. Cuyler once relayed a story in which a dying woman recited this hymn as she lay in bed during her last hours. He writes,

As I came away from that room, which had been as the vestibule of heaven, I understood how the ‘light of eventide’ could be only a flashing forth of the overwhelming glory that plays for ever around the throne of God (Sankey, My Life and Sacred Songs, 57). 

What a beautiful image when we see the light of day ebbing – this light is only a shadow of the light of life that shines forth from Christ.

William H. Monk wrote the tune EVENTIDE for Lyte's text in ten minutes. As the story goes, Monk was attending a hymnal committee meeting for the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of which he was music editor. Realizing that this text had no tune, Monk sat down at the piano and composed EVENTIDE. The hymn was then published in that edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune has always been associated with this text.