Music for August 9, 2015 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music
Ave Maria – J. S. Bach/Charles Gounod
Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Devotion - Jim Brickman (b. 1961)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn, which is found in the Episcopal supplemental hymnals Lift Every Voice and Sing II and Wonder, Love and Praise.)

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) *
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY) *
• Hymn - Taste and See (TASTE AND SEE)
• Hymn 178 - Alleluia! alleluia! give thanks to the Lord (ALLELUIA NO. 1) *

* - denotes one of the top 17 favorite hymns of this congregation.

Here in the Episcopal Church, we follow the Lectionary, a three-year cycle of readings from the Bible that, each week, prescribes a reading from each of the Old Testament, Psalms, The Epistles, and the Gospels. I use these readings to help shape a theme of the day when choosing the hymns and other music for our Sunday worship. All my good intentions, however, fly out the window this month, as we sing the hymns you have chosen as the favorite hymns of the congregation. This list is as random a list as they come, so I'm just choosing the rest of the music to be as random.

Take the offertory this morning. Jade Panares, a recent choral intern in our choir, is going to sing "Ave Maria" in a setting by Charles Gounod. It's probably also a favorite of many in this congregation. I particularly like it because it uses the Prelude in C Major for clavier (keyboard) by J. S. Bach. The prelude is from a collection of 24 preludes and fugues in all 12 major keys and all twelve minor keys, something that was not possible to do in Bach's earlier years as a composer because up until that time, keyboard instruments were tuned to an unequal temperament, a temperament that keeps pure or nearly pure intonation in some keys but causes dissonances in the little-used keys, making them sound out of tune. The "equal tempered scale" was developed for keyboard instruments so that they could be played equally well (or badly) in any key. It is a compromise tuning scheme. Bach wrote this collection, called Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (or The Well-Tempered Clavier) in 1722.

131 years later, Charles Gounod is waiting for dinner with his fiancee and her parents. He's fiddling around with the Bach Prelude and improvising a lovely melody that his future father-in-law, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, notices and asks him to play again. Zimmermann hurried to note it, then some days later, had Gounod listen to it played with a violin, and supported with a small choir. And so was born " Consideration on Bach's prelude " which later became the famous Ave Maria. (Let us add that Zimmermann, who had signed up with a publisher, handed back to Gounod a sum two hundred francs for the purchase of the work.)

Hymn focus

Rock of ages, cleft for me.

No one was more surprised than me to see this hymn in the top 17 list. After all, it's a pretty old hymn, with a kind of sing-songy melody that we really don't sing much at Good Shepherd. I think, much like in American politics, that the older generation voted more in this poll! Regardless of how it got there, it actually is a very solid hymn.

1."Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! Let the Water and the Blood, From thy riven Side which flow'd, Be of Sin the double Cure, Cleanse me from its Guilt and Pow'r.

2.“Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy Law's demands: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for Sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone! 

3.“Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to thy Cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for Dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly : Wash me, Saviour, or I die! 

4."Whilst I draw this fleeting breath— When my eye-strings break in death— When I soar through tracts unknown— See Thee on thy Judgment-Throne— Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! 

The hymn appeared in the March 1776 issue of The Gospel Magazine following a pair of related articles. The first, which was attributed to “J. F.,” demonstrated by a series of questions and answers the magnitude of the British national debt, and how it could never be repaid. The second article, which was by AugustusToplady, used the same approach to demonstrate the magnitude of human sin, and how impossible it is for a human to achieve the righteousness of God for even one moment; hence, the need for Christ and his redemptive work on the cross. He then went on to say that Christ's redeeming work “will not only counter-balance, but infinitely over-balance, all the sins of the whole believing world” and concluded the article with the four stanzas of this hymn, which he titled “A living and dying Prayer for the holiest Believer in the World.”

Augustus Montague Toplady was an
Anglican cleric and hymn writer. He was
a major Calvinist opponent of John Wesley

Each stanza elaborates on a truth about salvation. The first stanza describes the redemption that can be found in Christ. The second lists various ways in which human effort is inadequate to atone for sin, and the third is a declaration of dependence on the Savior and a plea for His cleansing. The final stanza looks forward to heaven. Our hymnal combines the last of stanza two and the first of stanza three into one middle stanza. (denoted by the bold-faced type)