Music for December 4, 2016 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Prepare the Way, O Zion – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 616 Hail to the Lord’s anointed (Es flog ein kleins Waldvogelein)
• Hymn 56, st. 3-4 O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 67 Comfort, comfort ye, my people (Psalm 42)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R92 Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 65 Prepare the way, O Zion (Berenden vag for Herran) 
• Psalm 72 - Deus, judicium – tone VIIIa

Adam Lay Ybounden is a poem from the 15th Century by an anonymous British poet. It's commonly heard around Christmas time as it extols the reason Christ was born.

Adam lay ybounden, bounden in a bond,
Four thousand winter thoughte he not to long;
And al was for an appil, and appil that he tok,
As clerkes fyndyn wrytyn, (wrytyn) in hire book.
Ne hadde this apple taken been, this apple taken been,
Ne hadde nevere Oure Lady (ybeen)* (hevene) Queen.
Blessed be this time that apple taken was:
Therfore we mown  singen Deo Gratias.

(here is a loose modernization of the text)
Adam lay bound up, bound by his sin

Four thousands years was not too long,

and it was all because of the apple that he took.
as clergy find it written in their book (Bible)
Had never the apple been taken,
then never would our Lady (Mary) had been the queen of heaven.
Blessed be the time this apple was taken!
Therefore we can sing Deo Gracias! (Thanks to God!)

It is a popular text to accompany the reading of the first lesson (about Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden) read in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols made famous by the choir of King's College Cambridge. Most often it is a setting by Boris Ord, the director of the choir from 1929 until 1957, that is sung, but other musical settings by Benjamin Britten and Peter Warlock are in common usage, too. The music we are singing today was written by English composer and organist Richard Shephard for Robert Delcamp and the University Choir, Sewannee, Tennessee, for their Lessons and Carol service sung each year at the University of the South.

Richard Shephard, MBE

Shephard was educated at The King’s School, Gloucester and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was formerly Headmaster of the Minster School in York from 1985-2004 and now serves as Chamberlain of York Minster and Director of Development for the Minster, responsible for raising funding for conservation work at the cathedral. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Music Department of the University of York. 

His compositions include operas, oratorios and orchestral works but it is perhaps for his church music that he is best known. His anthems and service settings are sung widely in the cathedrals and churches of the UK and they have a considerable following in the USA. He holds the Lambeth Doctorate of Music from Oxford University and two Honorary Doctorates from the University of the South (Sewanee, TN) and the University of York (York, UK).

Music for November 27, 2016 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Advent Processional – Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Jacobus Kloppers (b. 1937)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Emma Lou Diemer (b.1927)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• Hymn 56, st. 1-2 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (St, Stephen)
• Hymn 59, stanzas 1, 2, 5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
• Hymn 61 - Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us (Wachet auf)
• Psalm 122 - Lœtatus sum (ToneVIIIa)

There are two hymns which are usually sung on the first Sunday of Advent, and we will sing both of those today. One is a hymn which I introduced to Good Shepherd 19 years ago during my first Advent Season here. That is number 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending. (You can listen to it here, and you should, because it is just a grand way to start Advent. )The other is one that we have rarely sung, so I am going overboard on the tune in that I am playing three different contemporary settings of the tune. (I also play J. S. Bach's chorale setting of the tune, which, in my opinion, is one of the most perfect organ and choral pieces ever written. I often play it on this first Sunday of Advent, and I am giving it a bye this Advent, though, honestly, it is so perfect, I think it could be played every year. But I digress.)

Jacobus Kloppers

All three of these organ pieces are by living organists (no dead poets today!), and two of them are no strangers to these pages. (You can click on the names at the bottom of this post to see what other music we have done by Emma Lou Diemer and Wayne Wold.) The name that is both new to this blog and to me is Jacobus Kloppers. At first glance, I assumed this was another German organist - probably from the 18th century. I was wrong.

Jacobus Kloppers is a Canadian organist and composer in Edmonton, Alberta, where he's lived since 1976, when he moved from his native South Africa. He is organist/choirmaster at St. John the Evangelist (Anglican) in Edmonton. He served on the faculty of the Music Department at The King’s University College (currently The King’s University) in Edmonton until his retirement in 2013. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Keyboard at the University of Alberta (a position he has held since 1997). His compositions (around 70) include organ solo works for liturgical and concert use, an organ concerto, alto-saxophone concerto, as well as various anthems and choral music.

His setting of "Wachet Auf" (the German title of the choral, which basically means "wake up!" is much more lyrical than both the opening and closing voluntaries. The melody is presented in the right hand, using the oboe sound on the organ, accompanied by a flowing flute accompaniment in the left hand.

Music for Thanksgiving Service + Wednesday, November 23 at 6:30

Instrumental Music

• Now Thank We All Our God – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679 – 1735)
• Now Thank We All Our God – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Thanksgiving – George Winston (b. 1949)
• Now Thank We All Our God – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 290 - Come, ye thankful people, come (St. Georges, Windsor)
• Hymn 288 - Praise to God, immortal praise  (Dix)       
• Hymn 433 - We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing (Kremser)
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (Give Thanks)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (Nun danket Alle Gott)
• Psalm 100 - tone VIIIg

Music for November 20, 2016 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio (c.1560-1614)
• The Crucifixion – Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Organ Concerto in A Minor BWV 593 after Vivaldi RV 522 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• I. Allegro
• II. Adagio
• Menuet Gothique from Suite Gothique, Op.25 – Léon Boëllmann (1862 – 1897)

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

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn R128 - Blest be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn R238 - We will glorify the King of kings (We Will Glorify)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 544 - Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (Duke Street)

This week it's Christ the King Sunday! And while you would think that the music would be all about Jesus seated on the throne, or Jesus in the clouds, or even Jesus riding triumphantly into Jerusalem, the vocal music has Jesus on the cross. What gives?

You can blame (?) it on the Lectionary; it chooses the passage from Luke, chapter 23, as the Gospel, where Christ is crucified, and the soldiers mock him, saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the thieves also being crucified asks Jesus to remember him, and Jesus tells him that they will be together in paradise. It certainly is a different way to begin one's reign.

So the choir's anthem is a setting in Latin of the verse from the second chapter of Philippians.

Christ was made for us obedient to death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place,
and gave Him the name above all names.

It is by the Italian composer Felice Anerio, a composer who came from a family of musicians. His father, Maurizio, was a trombonist at the Oratory of Santa Maria in Vallicella (Rome), and his younger brother, Giovanni Francesco, was a choirmaster and composer. The two brothers sang in the Papal Chapel choir under Giovanni de Pierlugi Palestrina, and when Palestrina died in 1594, Felice was appointed as composer to the Papal Chapel, the only other person to have been so named.

Christus factus est is notable for the striking dissonance of its opening, and for its effective use of suspensions as the main expressive device. This motet, for which Anerio is now most widely known, was not published in his lifetime along with his other sacred works.

The Gospel lesson is also the reason that we are hearing "The Crucifixion" from Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs. (well, that, and the reality that our soprano section leader, Jade Panares, (who is a sophomore voice major at the Moores School of Music at UH) learned it this semester!)

Samuel Barber

Barber was the American composer of whom music critic Donal Henahan said, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." He wrote a song cycle called Hermit Songs on a grant from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, using 10 anonymous Irish monastic poems. Soprano Leontyne Price, with the composer at the piano, premiered the cycle on October 30, 1953, at the Library of Congress. They have become a staple of the soprano repertoire ever since.

Here is the text of "The Crucifixion."

At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify Thee, O Swan!
Never shall lament cease because of that.
It was like the parting of day from night.
Ah, sore was the suffering borne
By the body of Mary's Son,
But sorer still to Him was the grief
Which for His sake
Came upon His Mother.

Music for November 13, 2016 + Kirking of the Tartan

Vocal Music

• Judge Eternal – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether - Jack H. Ossewaarde (1918-2004)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral - James D. Wetherald, arr., Richard Kean, piper
• In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified (A Sylvan Poeme) – Fred Bock (1939-1998)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (Ratisbon)
• Hymn S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn R276 - Soon and very soon (Soon and Very Soon)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (St. Flavian)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (New Britain)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (Moscow)
• Canticle 9: The First Song of Isaiah (Ecce, Deus) Isaiah 12:2-6 – Tone VIIIg

Malcolm Archer has written a sprightly, rhythmic anthem on the text "Judge Eternal, throned in splendor." It's distinct trademark is the use of variable meter, alternating 7/8 time with 4/4 time throughout the melody. Other than that one (noticeable) characteristic, it is very much like a typical hymn. All four stanzas are set to the same tune, with treble voices singing the first stanza, tenors and basses singing the second stanza, and all voices singing the last stanza in unison. Only the the third stanza is sung in four parts, without organ, and in a different key. 

I decided to schedule this anthem this past summer, as the presidential election took an ugly turn. The text spoke to me as a Christian as well as a citizen of this great country. Several times in rehearsal choir members would remark that we should have sung this before the election. It will still bring healing and hope in it's presentation this Sunday.

Judge eternal, throned in splendor,
Lord of lords and King of kings,
with thy living fire of judgment
purge this land of bitter things;
solace all its wide dominion
with the healing of thy wings.

Still the weary folk are pining
for the hour that brings release,
and the city's crowded clangor
cries aloud for sin to cease;
and the homesteads and the woodlands
plead in silence for their peace.

Crown, O God, thine own endeavor;
cleave our darkness with thy sword;
feed all those who do not know thee
with the richness of thy word;
cleanse the body of this nation
through the glory of the Lord.

The text is by Henry Scott Holland, an English priest who was Canon of St. Paul's, London, for years. His hymn, "Judge eternal, throned in splendour" (Prayer for the Nation), first appeared in the Commonwealth for July 1902. It has since been included in over 95 hymnals.

Malcolm Archer is one of the leading church musicians in England today, having also served at St. Paul's, London as director of music.

Many of us have sung and loved Harold Friedell's wonderful anthem, Draw Us In the Spirit's Tether. As with many great texts, there are other musical settings. One of those is a short motet using just the first stanza written by Jack H. Osseraarde. Osserwaarde was Organist and Choir master at Calvary Church in New York City  before coming to Houston in 1953 to be Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral and organist and program annotator of the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stowkowski.

During his time in Houston, Ossewaarde wrote a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C, and “Hosanna to the Son of David.” His anthem Draw us in the Spirit’s tether was published during his tenure at the Cathedral, though it was actually written while he was still at Calvary Church, New York City.

He left Houston in 1958 to return to New York, this time as director of music at St. Bartholomew's in Manhattan.

I refer the reader to a previous post of mine about "Kirking of the Tartan." It's not on the official prayerbook liturgical calendar, but we have been observing the Sunday closest to the feast day of Samuel Seabury as "Kirking Sunday" for 19 years now. Some of the congregation still are at a loss why we do it.  Our piper this Sunday is Mr. Richard Kean, a professional piper and native of Scotland.

Mr. Richard Kean, piper

Music for November 6, 2016 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Thou, Whose All-Redeeming Might – arr. David Blackwell (b. 1961)

Instrumental Music

• Les Vepres du Commun des Saints – J. Guy Ropartz (1865-1955)
• We run to you for your sweet fragrance. – Song of Solomon 1:3a
• Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone – Song of Solomon 2:11
• Shall We Gather at the River – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• For All the Saints – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 287 For all the saints, who from their labor rest (Sine Nomine)
• Hymn 625 Ye holy angels bright (Darwall’s 148th)
• Hymn 707  Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn R127 Blest are they, the poor in spirit (Blest Are They)
• Hymn 618 Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
• Psalm 149 – Tone VIIb

J. Guy Ropartz

The opening organ voluntaries are two selections from a collection of organ antiphons written for Vespers of the Common of Saints by a little known French composer, Joseph Guy Ropartz. These organ antiphons were to be played between the plainsong verses of the canticles for the vesper services. 

As a child, Ropartz played bugle, horn, and double bass in a local orchestra, but his father wanted him to prepare himself for life in a more secure profession. Therefore, he was given a Jesuit education, then studied law and literature, obtaining a degree from Rennes in 1885. Once he fulfilled his father's wishes, Ropartz then enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied music with Theodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, and Cesar Franck. Ropartz was a devout Catholic, and the influence of the modes of the plainsong chants he heard in church can be found in his music, both secular and sacred.

The anthem is a setting of a plainsong hymn arranged by British composer David Blackwell. The text was written in 1861 by the Rev. Richard M. Benson, a clergyman of the Church of England, for the Feast of St. Barnabas. He spent some time in 1870-71 in the United States, labouring with zeal and success in several dioceses

The communion and closing voluntaries are organ arrangements of two popular hymns by two popular composers for church music. The communion voluntary is based on the American Gospel hymn, Shall We Gather At the River.

 Yes, we'll gather at the river,
the beautiful, the beautiful river;
gather with the saints at the river
that flows by the throne of God.

It was arranged by Gordon Young, who was recognized as one of this country's leading composers of both organ and choral works in the last half of the 20th century, with many of his nearly 1000 works having entered the standard repertory. 

His undergraduate degree in music was earned at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas. Following that he was a scholarship pupil at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and then he received his Doctor of Sacred Music from Southwestern in 1964.

During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.

The closing voluntary is that great All Saints hymn with which we open today's service. It is arranged by  Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Mass., who is well known as an award-winning composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. Callahan’s compositions are performed frequently in church and concert. Like Gordon Young, Callahan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Catholic University of America, with additional study in England, France, Germany, and Belgium.