Music for April 2, 2017

Vocal Music

• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio (1560-1614)

Instrumental Music

• O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622– Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Prélude au Kyrie (Hommage à Frescobaldi)  –Jean Langlais (1907-1991)

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

• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I Adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 715 - When Jesus wept (WHEN JESUS WEPT)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 130 - Tone IIa

There are only two people who have ever held the post of composer to the Papal choir. One of them was Giovanni de Pierlugi Palestrina and the other was Felice Anerio. Christus factus est is a perfect example of why his fellow musicians held him in such esteem. Its text is from the Epistle to the Philippians which is used in the Gradual for Maundy. It’s a beautifully simple homophonic work that eschews modality and ornamentation in favour of a simple but oh so effective directness. The chromatic harmonic touches show an influence of early baroque madrigal style not found in Palestrina.

O Mensch bewein dein sunde gross, BWV 622 (O Man, Bewail your Great Sins), is a piece from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) by Johann Sebastian Bach, a collection of 46 preludes for organ almost exclusively written during the 1708-1717 period, while Bach was court organist in Weimar. The collection is defined by Bach himself in the title page as '[a book] in which a beginning organist receives given instruction as to performing a chorale in a multitude of ways while achieving mastery in the study of the pedal, since in the chorales contained herein the pedal is treated entirely obbligato'. Many consider it a collection also for the liturgical year, as the layout of the book begins with Advent and Christmas hymns and then works its way through the life of Christ, and thus the liturgical year.

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross  is a traditional Passiontide chorale, or hymn, whose melody and text both date from around 1525. Bach's organ treatment of this simple E flat major melody could hardly be more lush -- indeed, this setting is one of the most thoroughly ornamented of all Bach's compositions; the melody as laid out in the top voice of the organ part is coloratura in the best and most original sense of the word. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Bach treatment (on top) of the first phrase of the original hymn melody (on bottom).

In addition to being the most elaborately decorated piece in the Orgelbüchlein, O Mensch, bewein  is probably the most chromatically adventuresome as well, especially in the final few bars (the last one is marked adagissimo by Bach, calling attention to the last line of text: "stretched out on the cross"), in which we are treated not only to a steadily rising chromatic bass line that moves with great conviction towards a shocking C flat major chord, but also to some wonderfully pungent G flat/F flat decoration in the top voice.

The idea of a musical composition as an homage honoring a great musician is nothing new. Maurice Ravel, composed Le tombeau de Couperin for solo piano between 1914 and 1917 and  Marcel Dupré wrote Le tombeau de Titelouze for organ in 1943.  In Hommage à Frescobaldi, Jean Langlais pays homage to the seventeenth-century Italian keyboard virtuoso and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. Throughout the work Langlais perhaps purposefully exhibited some of Frescobaldi's idiosyncrasies, including startling harmonic shifts and the quotation of existing melody; but perhaps the most notable similarity is both composers' natural penchant for passionately mystical moments.

The first movement of the work, "Prelude au Kyrie," begins with a slowly-ascending melodic figure against suspended chords. When the opening material returns, halfway through, it is now accompanied by the pedal, which plays the chant theme from the Kyrie of the Mass "Cunctipotens genitor Deus."

Jean Langlais was a French composer and organist who wrote choral and  organ music, often based on Gregorian chant, enhanced by polymodal harmonies. Langlais became blind due to glaucoma when he was only two years old, and was sent to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children) in Paris, where he began to study the organ, with André Marchal. From there, he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ and studying composition with Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas.

It was as an organist that Langlais made his name, following in the footsteps of César Franck and Tournemire as organiste titulaire at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris in 1945, a post in which he remained until 1988. He was much in demand as a concert organist, and toured widely across Europe and the United States.

Langlais died in Paris aged 84.

Music for March 26, 2017 + The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• O Jesus, Every Moment – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)

Instrumental Music

• Psalm Prelude, Set1, No.3 - Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
• Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort - Johann Walther (1684-1748)

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 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (ST. COLUMBA)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise! (LYONS)
• Hymn R189 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 149 - Eternal Lord of love (OLD 124TH)

A beautiful old Irish prayer provides the text for today's anthem. Philip Stopford has taken great care to write a simple melody and to treat this meaningful prayer with tender lyricism. Renowned for his beautiful choral music, Stopford is a British composer who is currently Director of Music at Christ Church, Bronxville, New York. This energetic 40 year old started life as a church musician as a chorister at Westminster Abbey in London. Since then, he has worked at Canterbury Cathedral, Chester Cathedral, St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, UK, before coming to the states. He's written much beautiful choral music, much of which can be heard on his YouTube channel, including this Sunday's anthem, under his direction. 

 After studying with Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral as a teenager, Herbert Howells moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Wood, and Hubert Parry. Diagnosed with Graves’ disease in 1915, Howells was given six months to live, but survived after doctors treated him with radium injections, a previously untried treatment. The first set of Psalm-Preludes dates from this time and his illness may be the reason the second Psalm-Prelude is inspired by the fourth verse of the 23rd Psalm,‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...’

Johann Gottfried Walther, student of J. Bernhard Bach (a second cousin of THE Bach), was an accomplished organist and composer of the Baroque period, In 1702, at the age of eighteen, he was made organist of the Thomaskiche in Erfurt. At twenty-three he was appointed Weimar town organist and music master to the ducal children. In 1721 he became a court musician.

Walther wrote much organ music; his compositions explore stylistic elements from across Europe. He is placed next to Bach as a composer of the chorale variation (he and Bach became friends while Bach lived in Wiemar). Outside of his organ music, Walther was also known for his book, Musikalishe Lexikon oder Musicalisches Bibliotek (Leipzig, 1732), the first dictionary/encyclopedia of music.

Music for March 19, 2017 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• As Pants the Hart - Joel Martinson (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Lenten Contemplation – William E. Moats (20th-21st C.)
• Antiphonal Celebration  – Kevin McChesney (b. 1963)

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

• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 143- The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 686 - Come thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn R122 - Surely it is God who saves me (FIRST SONG OF ISAIAH)
• Hymn R9 - As the deer (AS THE DEER)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 95 - Tone IIa

Kevin McChesney

This Sunday we feature the Good Shepherd Bell Choir in two pieces by contemporary American composers. The opening voluntary is a piece in 6/8 time called Antiphonal Celebration - not the most Lent-like title, but a nice way to start the service. It is by Kevin McChesney, a free-lance specialist in handbells who is in demand as a workshop leader across the country. Previously he was a church music director in Methodist and Presbyterian churches as well as accompanist and co‑director for the vocal music department at Air Academy High School, where he co‑directed a major production each fall season for eleven years. McChesney graduated with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a BMus in Composition and Theory. A composer and arranger of handbell music, Kevin currently has over 450 titles in print.

Listen for the antiphonal dialogue between treble and brass bells. The piece combines a lyrical melody with strong rhythmic energy, and uses mallets and the bell technique called martellato, where the bells are rung directly into the table pads.

The other piece uses both the full set of bells plus our three octaves of handchimes. It is a lovely medley of hymns associated with the Lenten season: SOUTHWELL (Lord Jesus, Think on Me), GETHSEMANE (Go to Dark Gethsemane), and HERZLIEBSTER JESU (Ah, Holy Jesus), all from the Hymnal 1980. This arrangement is by William E. Moats, a former band and orchestra director from Ohio. Moats graduated from Kent State University in Music Education and from Ball State University with a Master of Arts degree in Music.

He also served as choir director at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Kettering, Ohio for 15 years.  In addition to vocal choir he directed a brass ensemble, church band, folk ensemble, and handbell choir. In addition to handbell music, he has published band music, string orchestra music and brass chamber music.

Mr. Moats is currently semi-retired, currently directing an adult vocal choir in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

Music for March 12, 2017 + The Second Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)

Instrumental Music

• From Deepest Woe I Cry to Thee – Max Drischner (1891-1971)
• Song Without Words: Andante espressivo – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

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

• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn 147 - Now let us all with one accord (BOURBON)
• Hymn 636 - How firm a foundation (FOUNDATION)
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R231 - How blessed are you (Taizé)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)
• Psalm 121 - Tone IIa

Church music must be like a good sermon that everyone can understand - Max Drischner

Max Drischner (composer of the opening voluntary) was a Polish/German composer, church musician, and organist whose life and career spanned two World Wars. He began studying theology in 1910 at 19, but in 1914 he decided to go against the will of his father and take up music. He was the first German student of the famed harpsichordist Wanda Landowska in Berlin.

In 1916 he volunteered for medical service in France, and during his service there lost the end of a finger on his right hand. After the war, he taught himself about early music, the music written before J. S. Bach, and became an authority on the subject. At a time when such music was hardly ever played, Drischner had music of approximately 120 early composers in his repertoire. His music cabinet would have been worth a fortune had the Russian army and later Polish looters not stolen everything. A clavichord, a gift from Albert Schweitzers, was also used as a target and was shot to pieces by Russian soldiers.

Max Drischner and his sister Margarete

Drischner's music is distinguished by its simple, quiet, particularly melodic splendor. Compared to music being written by the leading composers of the early part of the 20th century, his music was very conservative. He wrote music for his own use, or for the simple church musician. He hated to use the organ as a concert instrument out of the liturgical context. He called his concerts "organ celebrations".

Today's opening voluntary is a piece he wrote based on the Lutheran Chorale, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (From deepest woe I cry to you, No. 151, The Hymnal 1980), based on a paraphrase of Psalm 130.  It is in the form of a passacaglia, a musical form from the early seventeenth-century based on a bass-ostinato and often written in triple metre (though not in this case).

The opening eight notes of the chorale form the ostinato which the pedal plays repetitively:

You will first hear this refrain by itself before the manuals add their own variations on the implied harmonies. Each repetition gets louder as well as more complicated until the end where the full organ is playing.

Music for March 5, 2017 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Turn Thy Face From My Sin – Thomas Attwood (1765–1838)

Instrumental Music

• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – Dietrich Buxtehude

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

• The Great Litany
• Hymn 142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 380 - From all that dwells below the skies (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn R172 - In our lives, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn R107 - You are my hiding place (Michael Ledner)
• Hymn 688 - A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Psalm 32 - Tone IIa

The First Sunday in Lent is like riding in a car that has been going 65 miles an hour then the driver hits the brakes because he realizes he needs to be going in the other direction. All the music from the previous weeks with its "Alleluias" and upbeat tempos are gone, and we are unaccustomed to the quietness we find in Lent.

We start the service not with a prelude and opening hymn followed by the Gloria, but with silence and then the Great Litany, sung in procession. The Great Litany is an intercessory prayer including various petitions that are said or sung by the leader, with fixed responses by the congregation. The Litany was the first English language rite prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, published in 1544. Cranmer modified an earlier litany form by consolidating certain groups of petitions into single prayers with response.

The Great Litany may be said or sung, with the officiant and people kneeling or standing, or it may be done in procession, as is our custom.  Because of its penitential tone, it is especially appropriate during Lent.

The anthem is Turn thy face from my sins, with words from Psalm 51. It is by Thomas Attwood, an English organist and composer who was fortunate enough to come under the patronage of the Prince of Wales (later George IV) at the age of 16. This enabled him to travel abroad to study in Naples and later Vienna, where he was a pupil of Mozart.  In 1796, when he was 31, he was chosen as the organist of St Paul's Cathedral, and in the same year he was made composer of the Chapel Royal. 

In spite of his modest achievements in the field of composition—which include some thirty-two operas—Attwood will be remembered for a few short anthems, including "Turn Thy face from my sins" and "Teach me, O Lord" (which we sang just two weeks ago at the Bishop's visit.) 

The only other piece of music outside the usual hymns is a chorale prelude by the Baroque composer Dietrich Buxtehude. Like many of the composers of the 1600s, Buxtehude loved to take a familiar hymn (in this case, Ein feste Burg - A Mighty Fortress) and add embellishments, or musical flourishes, that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note, like a trill or a turn. Sometimes the melody becomes so drawn out that you might not even recognize it. See if you can pick "A Mighty Fortress is our God" out of the notes you'll hear from the organ during the communion.

examples of Baroque ornamentation in art