Music for February 25, 2016 + The Second Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Take Up Your Cross – Richard Corp (b. 1951)
• Mass for Three Voices – William Byrd (1539/40?-1623)

Instrumental Music

• Suite Breve: Cantilène – Jean Langlais
• Suite Breve: Plainte – Jean Langlais

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

• Hymn 142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (BOURBON)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn R217 - You satisfy the hungry heart (GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT)
• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Psalm 22:22-30 Tone IIa

This Sunday the choir will sing parts of the Mass for Three Voices by William Byrd at the 10:15 Service.

The greatest English Renaissance composer and one of the finest English composers of all times, William Byrd was born in London around 1540. Not much is known of Byrd’s early life. Two of his older brothers were listed as choristers at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, but there is no listing for young William. Scholars surmise that he was a boy chorister in the Chapel Royal, the choir of the royal family, although his name does not appear on any list of members. He studied with Thomas Tallis, the father of the English anthem, and composer John Sheppard. Scholars also believe that after his voice changed, Byrd remained with the Chapel Royal as assistant organist and choir trainer for the boy choristers.

A faithful Catholic, Byrd experienced both musically and personally the effects of the tremendous religious upheavals in 16th and 17th century England. Byrd lived under the reigns of five monarchs:

1. Henry VIII (1491-1547), a Catholic until his 1530’s differences with the Pope over his marriage; 
2. Edward VI (1537-1553), a Protestant; 
3. Mary Tudor (1516-1558), a Catholic; 
4. Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who steered a middle course between Protestantism and Catholicism
5. James I, a Protestant (1603-1625). 

With the accession of each monarch came a change in procedures and practices, greatly affecting the style, content and language of the music that was performed.

His tenure under Elizabeth I was a fruitful one. Although Byrd was a Catholic, Elizabeth esteemed his music highly, most probably saving him from the severe persecution that befell other Catholics.  He composed an anthem, Look and bow down, set to Elizabeth’s words. He wrote an anthem honoring the 20th anniversary of her accession to the throne, and he wrote the first known madrigal in her praise, This sweet and merry month of May.  It was during this time that he wrote three Latin masses which are among his most popular works—the Mass for Three Voices (1593-1594), the Mass for Four Voices (1592-1593), and the Mass for Five Voices (1595). The were probably written for the private Catholic services that were held in secret, meant not to be sung by a choir, but by solo voices, as the homes where the recusant Catholics met would not have room for an entire choir.

The anthem this Sunday is by the contemporary English composer and conductor Ronald Corp. He is founder and Artistic Director of the New London Orchestra and the New London Children's Choir. Corp is Musical Director of the London Chorus, a position he took up in 1994, and is also Musical Director of the Highgate Choral Society. Born and raised in Wells, Somerset, Corp studied music at Oxford University. Ronald Corp was awarded an OBE for services to music in the Queen’s 2012 New Year Honours

The text is perfect for this Sunday, as it is references the Gospel Reading:  “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." The middle section comes from Psalm 51.

The organ music comes from the Suite Brève by Jean Langlais. Born in great poverty in rural Northwest France, he was blind by age two, and his musical talent became evident when he sang in the choir of the local church. At ten he was sent to the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, where he began to study the organ. From there, he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ and composition. By 1945 he was organist at one of Paris's great churches, St. Clotilde. It was here that he wrote today's voluntaries in 1947.

The communion voluntary, the lyrical "Cantilene," is based on an original modal theme heard on a reed stop in the pedal and accompanied by soft chords., which reinforce the modal character (neither Major nor Minor key) of the melody. The next section plays of the melody canonically between high and low registers, simultaneously using the two melodies in the pedal. The third section has the melody once again in the pedal, but with an add flute obbligato in the treble register. It's not easy. Pray for the organist.

The opening voluntary is the piece that follows "Cantilene" in the suite. Titled "Plainte," it sounds like just what it is, a "lamentation," an expression of sorrow. It is dark and moody, and fitting for the season of Lent.

Music for February 18, 2018 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Lord Jesus, Think on Me – Raymond Haan (b. 1938)

Instrumental Music

• Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No.  2  – Johannes Brahms (1833-1896)

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

• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH)
• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R223 - Soften my heart, Lord  (SOFTEN MY HEART)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (HOLY HOLY)
• Hymn 559 - Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (DULCE CARMEN)
• Psalm 25:1-9 Tone IIa

Today's anthem, Lord Jesus, Think On Me, is an arrangement of the hymn that is found in over 111 hymns since the turn of the 20th century. Well over two-thirds of those hymnals use this tune, SOUTHWELL, written  in 1579 by William Daman, an Italian transplant to London  in 1566 as a servant of Sir Thomas Sackville. In 1576 he became a recorder player at the Court of Elizabeth I.

The text is one of the oldest in the hymnal, written by Synesius of Cyrene around A. D. 410. After marrying a Christian in 403, he was converted to Christianity and in 410 was made bishop of Ptolemais by popular demand. In spite of his dissent from some of the tenets of the church, his outstanding character alone made him acceptable. "Lord Jesus, Think On Me" is the last of ten hymns he wrote the year he was consecrated as a bishop.  The English translation was made by Allen William Chatfield, an Anglican minister in England.

The arrangement is by Raymond H. Haan, a Michigan native who was the Director of Music for the Cutlerville East Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids for over 50 years. He is a graduate of Calvin College and the University of Michigan. He is the composer of hundreds of compositions for organ, voice, choir, handbells, piano, and other instruments.

This anthem was written for Jonathan Tuuk and the choir of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids.

This will be the first Sunday of Lent, so the service begins differently than it usually does. We will not have an organ voluntary and opening hymn, but instead will begin with the Great Litany, an intercessory prayer in the form of a litany that includes an invocation of the Trinity; a series of petitions seeking deliverance from evil, spiritual harm, and natural calamities; a series of supplications pleading for the power of Christ in our deliverance; prayers of general intercession; and asking for mercy.

As is the custom at our church as well as many others across the globe, we will sing the Litany in procession around the church. ( The Litany's use in church processions was ordered by Henry VIII when England was at war with Scotland and France.) As the procession takes many turns and loops around the nave by the choir and altar party, it is often referred to as "The Holy Pretzel."

 As is my custom during Lent, I omit playing a festive closing voluntary, opting instead to let the Lenten worshiper leave the church in contemplative silence.

Music for February 11, 2018 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Upon the Mountain Stands – Robert W. Lehman (b. 1960) 
• Thanks be to God – Marty Haugen (b. 1950) 

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on Salzburg – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972) 
• Chorale Prelude on St. Elizabeth – Aaron David Miller 
• Toccata – Georgi Mushel (1909-1989) 

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

• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG) 
• Hymn R238 - He is exalted (HE IS EXALTED) 
• Hymn 529 - Fairest Lord Jesus (St. ELIZABETH) 
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) 
• Hymn 490 -  I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) 
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) 
• Hymn R 247 - Shine, Jesus, shine (SHINE JESUS SHINE)

As part of our Black History Month commemoration, I wanted to include the anthem, Thanks Be To God. The composer, Marty Haugen, is not an African-American. He is not even Episcopalian. He's a 67-year-old white guy from Minnesota who was raised as a Lutheran and is now a member the United Church of Christ. Despite being a non-Catholic, his music has found great favor in the Catholic church as well as other liturgical churches looking for newer expressions through music.

What makes this anthem relevant to Black History Month is its inclusion of that great anthem of the Civil Rights movement, "We Shall Overcome." Haugen presents that inspiring song as counterpoint to his own melody. It is fitting, as you can see in the text of his anthem:

Thanks be to God when people care, thanks be for friends and loved ones,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God for food and home, thanks be for health and laughter,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God when hatred ends, thanks be for peace and safety.
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Teach us the way of your peace, kindle your fire within us,
 Give us a vision of a world where people care for each other. 

 We shall overcome, We shall overcome,   Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday. 

Thanks Be To God was written as part of a larger work, Agapé , a reflection on the Eucharist, with ancient stories & contemporary heroes. This was part of the section on Dr. King.

An interesting development in the clouded history of "We Shall Overcome" was made known just last month, as a federal district court in New York on Jan. 26 oversaw a negotiated settlement that places “We Shall Overcome” in the public domain, while giving due credit to the woman who wrote the original version of the song some 70 years ago.

Louise Shropshire 1913-1993

Louise Shropshire was the director of music at Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati when her minister asked her family to host a young minister, Martin Luther King, who was in Cincinnati to speak at a banquet. While there, she shared with a him a hymn she had written in 1942 (and later copyrighted in 1954) called. "If My Jesus Wills".  This is the likely source from which folk singer Pete Seeger derived the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” when he first heard it sung by striking African-American tobacco workers in the late 1940s. Her original text goes:

I'll overcome,
I'll overcome,
I overcome someday
If my Jesus wills,
I do believe,
I'll overcome someday. 

Music for February 4, 2018 + The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O Christ, the Healer – Richard Gieseke (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• Pavane - Alec Rowley (1892 –1958)
• The Quiet Church – Mark Fax (1911-1974)
• Processional on “Praise to the Lord” – Martin Shaw (1875-1958)

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R 223 - Soften my heart (Graham Kendrick)
• Hymn R 224 - Healer of my soul (John Michael Talbot)
• Hymn R 227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Psalm 147:1-12 - Laudate Dominum – Tone Ih

February is Black History Month, celebrating the accomplishments of African-Americans and their contributions to American society and culture. We're pretty familiar with the Spirituals and Gospel songs that Black Americans have contributed to our sacred music repertoire, but not so much with music in the more classical vein, and especially organ music.

Mark Oakland Fax was an African American educator and composer from Baltimore, Maryland.  He showed early promise as a musician, and by the time he was a teenager, he was accompanying silent movies on the organ at Baltimore's Regent Theatre and playing for church on Sundays.

He enrolled as a student at Syracuse University and graduated with honors in 1933. As a student, Fax won the prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in a national competition and was elected to the All-University Honor Society.  Depression-era conditions forced him to forgo graduate school, and he accepted a position at Paine College in Georgia, where he founded and chaired the music department.

In 1942, he the entered the Eastman School of Music, where he also studied piano at Bennington College in Vermont. During this time he composed music for the Martha Graham Dance Troupe. After receiving his Masters of Music in 1945, he taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina for one year before moving to Washington, D.C. for a faculty position at Howard University, teaching theory and serving as director of the music school.

In addition, he held numerous posts at churches, most notably Asbury United Methodist Church, Washington, DC where he was the music director, organist, and composer.

In Washington, he received favorable attention. Washington Post critic Paul Hume praised Fax’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano as “striking…difficult…a work of surprising contrapuntal texture” and declared the composer’s oeuvre “music of rare power.” ’Til Victory is Won (1967), Fax’s epic operatic history of the African American experience, was mounted at the Kennedy Center. Today, except for a small group of organists and conductors, few musicians know his music.

 A review of Fax’s works reveals that his compositions range in genres including vocal solo, choral, operatic, symphonic, chamber and solo instrumental works. Very little has been published, though several organ works have been included in a relatively new series of books highlighting the organ music of African American composers.