Music for April 17, 2016 + The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday

Vocal Music

• I Will Sing New Songs – Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
• The Lamb – John Tavener (1944-2013)

Instrumental Music

• A Chorale Prelude on "St. Columba" Op. 14 - Robin Milford (1903-1959) 
• Chorale – William Mathias (1934-1992)
• Jesus, Meine Zuversicht – Anton Wilhelm Leupold (1867-1940)

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

• Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy name (Grosser Gott)
• Hymn 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing (Gelobt sei Gott)
• Hymn 286 - Who are these like stars appearing? (Zeuch mich, zeuch mich)
• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (Old 100th)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (St. Agnes)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (Sicilian Mariners)

William Blake

This Sunday (The Fourth Sunday of Easter) is often called Good Shepherd Sunday for it always includes a Gospel Reading about Jesus, our Shepherd, as well as the beloved 23rd Psalm. This year, instead of an anthem based on the 23rd Psalm or one that directly refers to Jesus as Shepherd, I decided to go with an anthem setting of a poem by William Blake, the 19th century British poet and painter. He was an unusually sensitive boy, who began seeing visions at an early age. He was 10 when he allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of "a tree filled with angels." Blake's visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced. He was also heavily influenced by the Bible, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring his life and works with intense spirituality. The poem, "The Lamb," for instance, is based on his conception of God. In "The Lamb" Blake makes the traditional association between a lamb and the "Lamb of God," Christ:

For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild;
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb.

The poet sees God in terms a child  can understand. God is gentle and kind and very much like us. The close association between the "I," "child," and "lamb" suggests that all men share in the same spiritual brotherhood.

John Tavener

John Tavener, 20th century English composer who died in 2013 at age 69, used The Lamb in 1982 for the choral piece we wrote for his then 3-year old nephew, Simon. It was composed using only seven notes during a car ride from South Devon to London. “It came to me fully grown so to speak, so all I had to do was to write it down,”said Tavener. The Lamb has become a classic in its own time, and is recorded on over 37 different CDs. Blake's child-like vision perhaps explains The Lamb's great popularity in a world that is starved of this precious and sacred dimension in almost every aspect of life.

The communion voluntary is a simple, quiet piece by the composer of the Sanctus we sing every Sunday in Eastertide. William Mathias wrote Chorale during Eastertide fifty years ago, in 1966. It still sounds fresh and meditative.

Notes on a few of the hymns
It's easy to see why hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless and hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us are part of our hymn line up, as they specifically speak to Jesus as our shepherd. Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell is not as obvious. It is a poetic setting of Psalm 100, which of course has the line "we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." In regards to Good Shepherd Sunday, hymn 286 - Who are these like stars appearing? is a little harder to figure out. It follows the reading from Revelation 7:9-17, and speaks directly to stanzas 13-16. The original hymn included one more stanza which would have made it perfect for Good Shepherd Sunday (and captures verse 17 from the Revelation passage):

Lo, the Lamb Himself now feeds them
On Mount Zion's pastures fair;
From His central throne He leads them
By the living fountains there;
Lamb and Shepherd, Good Supreme,
Free He gives the cooling stream.