Music for December 3, 2017 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• O Thou the Central Orb – Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Instrumental Music

• Sleepers, Wake! A Voice Astounds Us – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Sleepers, Wake! A Voice Astounds Us – Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Sleepers, Wake! A Voice Astounds Us – 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 WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Trisagion S-102 – setting by Alexander Archangelsky
• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes, with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! Rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (ST. STEPHEN)
• Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 - Tone VIIIa

As we enter the new Church Year with the season of Advent, we find two themes in Sunday's service:  In the opening collect, Psalm, and the Gospel we see the juxtaposition of darkness and light. We also hear the warning, "Stay Awake! Be ready, for you don't know when the Bridegroom comes."

At Children's choir this past Wednesday, as we began our study of Advent, we read the opening verses from Psalm 80:   

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
    shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.
2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
    stir up your strength and come to help us.
3 Restore us, O God of hosts; *
    show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

I asked them if they could remember the last time it really rained. Often times children struggle to answer such broad questions such as this, but not this time. "Harvey!" was the immediate answer. "Well, do you remember the first time you saw the sun after that rain?" I asked them. Indeed they did, and recalled what joy they felt at seeing those beams of light.

Well, that is the same kind of joy we can feel if we look for the beams of light this Advent season. It's the kind of light we hear of in the anthem today:

O Thou the central orb of righteous love,
Pure beam of the most high,
Eternal light of this our wintry world,Thy radiance bright awakes new joy in faith,
Hope soars above, above.

Come, quickly come, and let thy glory shine,
Gilding our darksome heaven with rays divine.

Thy saints with holy lustre round Thee move,
As stars about thy throne, set in the height
of God’s ordaining counsel, as Thy sight
gives measur’d grace to each,
Thy power to prove.

Let Thy bright beams disperse the gloom of sin,
Our nature all shall feel eternal day,
In fellowship with Thee,
Transforming clay to souls while ere unclean,
now pure within. Amen.

The words are by H.R. Bramley, and in researching on the web, I found this well written meditation on the text by the Revd Canon John Seymour of Leicester Cathedral. I hope you take a moment to read it.

Charles Wood, contemplating
the answer to 8 across in the Times
Crossword Puzzle.

The composer of the anthem, Charles Wood, wrote a considerable amount of church music and most of it is still in use today simply because it is well written and enjoyable to sing. Much of it is skilfully crafted, and this is amply demonstrated in today's anthem where the organ part which accompanies the melody sung by the basses ("Come, quickly come") shows careful handling of the chromatic counter-melody.

Wood spent much of his life in Cambridge at the University and wrote the chimes for the Gonville and Caius College clock. Like his counterpart C. V. Stanford, Wood collected and published Irish folksong (both were Irish), and he succeeded Stanford to the post of Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge in 1924. Wood only began church music towards the end of his life and much of it was published posthumously. In his earlier years he composed much larger works for stage, oratorios, and three string quartets.

The organ voluntaries are all based on the quintessential Advent hymn, "Sleepers, Wake!"  I am playing the best known setting of this by J. S. Bach for the communion voluntary. Bach himself arranged this for organ from his Cantata No. 140, where it was originally sung by the tenors alone. The accompaniment itself is one of the most beautiful melodies ever written, and when Bach brings the stark, straight-forward chorale melody in (played on the trumpet stop), it acts as a clarion call to "wake up!"

The opening Voluntary is another setting of the same hymn by Bach's cousin, Johann Gottfried Walther, whose life was almost exactly contemporaneous to that of J.S. Bach.   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 sacred vocal works and numerous organ pieces, consisting mostly of chorale preludes.

Music for November 26, 2017 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• King of Glory, King of Peace – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• My Shepherd Will Supply My Need – Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)

Instrumental Music

• The Lord My Shepherd Is and Guide – Helmut Walcha (1907-1991)
• Partita on Auf meinen lieben Gott, BuxWV 179- Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Postludium in C – Helmut Walcha

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

• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION)
• Hymn R267 - The King of Glory comes (PROMISED ONE)
• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn R29 - He Is Lord (HE IS LORD)
• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Canticle S-35 – Come, let us sing unto the Lord (Jack Noble White)

Just a few notes about this Sunday's music for Christ the King Sunday. As we end this holiday weekend, it seems appropriate that, on the Sunday following one of the most American Holidays, we hear choral works of two American composers. I've written about Gerald Near before, so you can click here to read about him. The other composer is Virgil Thomson, a composer and a music critic from the 20th century.  He composed in almost every genre of music, producing a highly original body of work rooted in American speech rhythms and hymnbook harmony.

Born 121 years ago on November 25 in Kansas City, Missouri, Thomson was inspired by a strong sense of place—rooted in heartland America and its Protestant traditions. The biography on the webpage VirgilThomson.org tells us

His early connection to music came through the church, through piano lessons beginning at age 5, and stints accompanying theatricals and silent films. The music he heard was part and parcel of the wide world around him: Civil War songs, cowboy songs, the blues, barn-dance music, Baptist hymns, folk songs, popular songs, in addition to the canons of Western art music that he studied. 1

Virgil Thomson

 When he finished junior college, he joined the army to fight in World War I, stationed in New York City. He trained in radio telephony and in aviation and was set for embarkation for France when the war ended. 

In 1919, he enrolled as a student at Harvard where he became interested in all things French, so he secured a fellowship in 1921 to study organ and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger, where he met Jean Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Igor Stravinsky and Eric Satie, among many others. Returning to Harvard in 1922, he graduated in 1923. 

Between 1923 and 1940 he live between New York and Paris, composing opera, film scores, ballet scores, incidental music for the theater, and musical portraits, a genre in which he created more than 140 works. 

He finally settled in New York in 1940 when he accepted a job as chief music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, a position he held until 1951. 

His many honors and awards included the Pulitzer Prize a Brandeis Award, the gold medal for music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Book Circle Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and 20 honorary doctorates.

In contrast to the American choral music for today, the instrumental music for this Sunday all comes from Germany. The communion voluntary is a partita by Dietrich Buxtehude on the German chorale In my beloved God. What is unusual about this partita (set of variations) is that the hymn is arranged for clavier, or keyboard (harpsichord) as opposed to the organ, which was normally used for sacred tunes. Buxtehude also used the typical dance rhythms of the day (sarabande, courante, gigue) as framework for different variations. These are forms that would normally be reserved for secular music.

Helmut Walcha

The opening and closing voluntaries are by 20th century organist and composer Helmut Walcha, a specialist in Bach and neo-baroque music.  As a result of a smallpox vaccination, Walcha had poor eyesight since childhood, and was fully blind by sixteen. He learned new pieces by having musicians (including his mother in his childhood and his wife in later years), play for him four times (each hand separately, the pedal part separately, and the complete piece). Having perfect pitch, he would memorise the piece while listening. Read this article from Pipedreams about his prodigious memory skills here.

His own music followed some of the same principles of music from the Baroque era, while incorporating harmonies and sounds found in more modern music.

1 http://www.virgilthomson.org/about/biography Accessed November 24, 2017.

Music for November 19, 2017 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether – Harold Friedell (1905-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Pastorale on St. Anne  (Partita on St. Anne, Op. 6) – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Devotion – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• O God, Our Help in Ages Past – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 9 - Not here for high and holy things (MORNING SONG)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R172 - In our lives, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Psalm 90:1-8, 12 - Tone VIIIa

Today's anthem was chosen not for its appropriateness to today's scriptures (that would be the hymns and the organ voluntaries), but for the fact that it has been in our folders since Hurricane Harvey and we just really needed to get it sung before the new (liturgical) year.  So it's now or never.

Not that I mind. It's long been one of the favorite anthems of mine and every choir with which I have worked. The melody is beautiful and the harmonies pleasing to sing, with just enough challenge and movement to make it interesting. The text is by Percy Dearmer, one of the most influential leaders in twentieth-century English hymnody who was a professor of ecclesiastical art at King’s College, London, and later served as canon of Westminster Abbey.

Percy Dearmer, c. 1890. Photograph by Frederick Hollyer
(From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

He distinguished himself in the field of hymnology as the editor, with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, of The English Hymnal (1906). He also co-edited Songs of Praise (1925), The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) and Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). Editions of each of these works can still be found today in English churches.

This text of this anthem is full of imagery which captures the interest of the singer and links the singer with the disciples who gathered with Christ at the table (Matthew 18:20). We are joined by a “tether”—an archaic word but an appropriate image of the work of the Holy Spirit that links Christians of every time and place at the table.

In the final stanza, Dearmer makes a beautiful and powerful statement that “All our meals and all our living make as sacraments of thee.” Through “caring, helping, giving, we may true disciples be.”

Thus, the hymn begins in the upper room with the disciples and comes full circle as we join them around the table and are nourished to serve others in the world. Beautiful thoughts as many of us gather with our families around the Thanksgiving board.

This music was written 60 years ago by Harold Friedell, organist at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, and a professor at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.

The opening and closing voluntaries are based on the tune ST. ANNE which also serves as our processional hymn. The Psalm appointed for today is Psalm 90, and this is a splendid paraphrase of that Psalm by Isaac Watts, written around 1714 and first published the text in his Psalms of David (1719). "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90, even though the entire psalm has a recurring theme of lament.

Though no firm documentation exists, ST. ANNE was probably composed by William Croft, possibly when he was organist from 1700-1711 at St. Anne's Church in Soho, London, England. (According to tradition, St. Anne was the mother of the Virgin Mary.) The tune was first published in 1708 as a setting for Psalm 42. It was not until 1861 that ST. ANNE became a setting for "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" in Hymns Ancient and Modern, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Music for November 12, 2017 + Kirking of the Tartans

Vocal Music

• Keep Your Lamps – André Thomas (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral - James D. Wetherald, arr., Richard Kean, piper
• Meditation on Jesus, meine Zuversicht – Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)

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

• Hymn 524 - I love thy kingdom, Lord  (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Hymn S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! Rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R167 - Surely the presence of the Lord (SURELY THE PRESENCE)
• Hymn 189 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO)
• Psalm 78:1-7 – Tone VIIIa

It is a favorite Sunday for many parishioners at Good Shepherd when we “Kirk (or bless) the Tartans.” 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 20 years now!  It's a custom which seems to have begun in the early 1940s, when Peter Marshall (the Presbyterian minister who was chaplain of the Senate - not the game show host) held prayer services at New York Avenue Presbyterian in D.C to raise funds for War Relief. At one of the services, he preached a sermon called “Kirking of the Tartans,” and thus a legend was born. You can read the entire fascinating history here on the Scottish Tartans Website.

We do it every year around the feast day of Samuel Seabury, the first American Anglican bishop who was consecrated by the Scottish Bishops of the Anglican church during the Revolutionary War. (England was a bit perturbed with Americans, so they would have none of that!) 

Thus we commemorate his consecration by wearing our tartans, hanging them in the church, and hearing the bagpipes play. We begin the service with the piper playing “Highland Cathedral” and end with him playing “Amazing Grace.”

Our piper this Sunday is Richard Kean, a professional piper who now calls Houston home. He is a native of Scotland who made his way through Canada before moving to Texas. We are honored to have him with us today.

André Thomas

Today's anthem was chosen because of its appropriateness in light of the scripture. In Matthew 25 we read of the ten bridesmaids who go out to meet the bridegroom. Five took enough oil in their lamps so that they would continue to burn. Five "foolish" bridesmaids did not, and were left in the dark when the bridegroom came.  Keep Your Lamps (Trimmed and Burning) is a traditional gospel blues song that alludes to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids. It was first recorded in 1928 by Blind Willie Johnson, an American gospel blues singer, guitarist, and evangelist.

This arrangement is by André Jerome Thomas, an American composer and conductor who is currently Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Choral Music Education at Florida State University and the artistic director for the Tallahassee Community Chorus.

The organ voluntary at communion is based on the chorale JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT. You can find it at hymn 313 in the hymnal, with the communion text, "Let thy Blood in mercy poured."

Music for November 5, 2017 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• I Heard a Voice from Heaven – John Goss (1800-1880)

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare Flourish – Ron Mallory (B. 1973)
• Chant de Paix – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Placare Christe Servulis (O Christ Forgive Thy Servants) – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

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 526 - Let saints on earth in concert sing (DUNDEE)
• Hymn 618 - Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 625 - Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)
• Hymn - Taste and See (James Moore) Paraphrase of Psalm 34:1-4, 8

The choral music of the English composer Sir John Goss is among the core works of Anglican choirs’ repertoire; our choir often sing his works and we sing his best known hymn tune, LAUDA ANIMA with the text, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven” (#410). Goss is best remembered for his vocal music and is one of the last English composers who devoted their work almost entirely to writing church music.

Sir John Goss, by unknown artist, circa 1835.

Born in Fareham, Hampshire, England, Goss was a descendant of a long line of English musicians. Several in his family were excellent singers, and his father was the organist of the parish church in Fareham. Goss was educated in London, sang as a chorister for the Chapel Royal, and studied organ with Thomas Attwood, organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Goss was appointed to several prestigious organist positions in London including Stockwell Chapel in South London, St. Luke’s Church in Chelsea, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, succeeding his former teacher there in 1838. While at St Paul’s, Goss had little influence over the music of the cathedral, and he struggled to improve musical standards there.

Goss was also an active teacher, serving as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music where he taught harmony from 1827 to 1874, and taught at St. Paul’s. His instructional book written in1833, An Introduction to Harmony and Thorough-Bass, was a standard music text of the era.

Goss was remembered by his students for his pious, religious life, patience and gentleness of character. Following years of poor health during the 1870s, Goss died in his home in Brixton. He is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Goss was knighted by Queen Victoria when he retired from St. Paul’s in 1872. In 1876, he received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Cambridge. Numerous posthumous memorials honoring Goss were erected in London and Fareham.

The closing voluntary is a wonderful work by Marcel Dupré on the chant Placare Christe Servulis which is traditionally sung at Vespers on the Feast of All Saints in the Roman Breviary. It is the last piece in Dupré's organ collection, Tombeau de Titelouze (16 Chorals sur des Hymnes liturgiques), Op 38. During an Organ Week held in Rouen in 1942, the Abbé Robert Delestre, Maître de Chapelle of Rouen Cathedral showed Dupré the unmarked grave of Jean Titelouze, the founding father of French organ music. It immediately inspired Dupré to compose this volume which he inscribed to the Abbé. Placare Christe servulis treats the hymn melody in the form of a toccata (D major, 12/8) for All Saints Day.