Music for April 3, 2016 + The Second Sunday after Easter

Vocal Music

• Most Glorious Lord of Life – W. H. Harris (1883-1973)
• Ave Verum Corpus - Camille Saint-Saens

Instrumental Music

• O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing – Wilbur Held (1914-2015)
• Rejoice, beloved Christians, BWV 755 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Good Christians all, rejoice and sing – John Leavitt (b. 1956)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing (Gelobt sei Gott) 
• Hymn 206 - Alleluia! O songs and daughters, let us sing (O filii et filiae)
• Hymn 193 - That Easter day with joy was bright (Puer Natus)
• Hymn 178 - Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks (Alleluia No. 1)
• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (Finnian)

The offertory for the second Sunday after Easter is a smaller work by the English organist and choir master, W. H. Harris. From 1933 to 1961, William Henry Harris served British royalty as organist at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, and he composed a large amount of organ and choral music for the many services under his direction. Later knighted, but known affectionately to his choristers as "Doc H," Harris acquired a reputation for composing solidly crafted and conservative anthems. Harris' music is consistently devotional and quite gentle in character; and there is an unexpected intimacy to these sacred pieces that seems better suited to quiet Anglican services than to the official ceremonies for which they were used. Harris felt a particular fondness for the Tudor period, and this setting of a poem by one of that period's great poets, Edmund Spenser, follows that gentle description, even though it is a triumphant Easter text.

The congregation is singing the quintessential Second Sunday of Easter hymn, O Sons and Daughters, let us sing. It's suitable for this day because of the reference to the disciple Thomas, who was not present when Christ first appeared to the other apostles.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas - Caravaggio, c. 1601–1602

The Gospel for this Sunday is John 20:19-31, which narrates the story of Thomas wanting proof that Christ was alive. The hymn includes these verses: 

When Thomas first the tidings heard,
how they had seen the risen Lord,
he doubted the disciples' word.
Alleluia!
"My piercèd side, O Thomas, see;
my hands, my feet, I show to thee;
not faithless but believing be."
Alleluia!
How blest are they who have not seen,
and yet whose faith has constant been;
for they eternal life shall win.

The tune name, O filii et filiae, comes from the opening line in its original language, Latin.

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on that ancient hymn. Wilbur Held, composer of the voluntary, died on March 24, 2015 in Claremont, California, a few months shy of his 101th birthday. He was born  in Des Plaines, Illinois. He studied piano as a youngster and became serious about the organ in high school, going on to attend the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago where he studied organ and began to develop his compositional voice.

A conscientious objector, Held spent the final years of World War II cooking food without vitamins for a path-breaking project on nutrition now known as the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment. Its findings were later published as The Biology of Human Starvation.

In 1946 Held was named professor of organ at The Ohio State University for what became a 30-year tenure. His organ studio grew quickly. Held was also able to significantly expand the church music program at OSU. Sadly, both the organ and church music degrees were phased out after his retirement.

The Bach setting of Nun fruet euch ("Rejoice, beloved Christians"), is a three-part fughetta (not the perpetual motion trio version) that is not reliably attributed to Bach. As Hermann Keller says, it is

a neatly worked-out piece that would do credit to any of Bach's contemporaries, but without reasonably clear traces of Bach's style.