Music for April 29, 2018 + The Fifth Sunday after Easter

Vocal Music

• O Lord, I will Praise Thee – Gordon Jacob (1895–1984)
• Ave Verum - W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
• The Light of God’s Love – Mark Burrows (b. 1971)

Instrumental Music

• Partita 1 from “O God, Thou Faithful God", BWV 767 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Land of Rest – George Shearing (1919-2011)
• Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 379 - God is love: let heaven adore him (ABBOT'S LEIGH)
• Hymn R18 - Come, let us with our Lord arise (SUSSEX CAROL)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32 – setting by Jeff Ostrowski

The offertory anthem this Sunday is one that we have been rehearsing off and on since late January. Originally planned for a Sunday in Lent, we have had to push it back on the calendar as it just didn't fall together like we planned. That is ironic, as it is from the Oxford Easy Anthem series from Oxford University Press. But as many church musicians (and most choir members) know, "easy" is a relative term to OUP, and this piece is not without its challenges.

Gordon Jacob

Written in 1951, it is a setting of the first six verses of Isaiah 12, a hymn of praise, set to music by English musician Gordon Jacob. Though there is a lot of unison writing, and the organ doubles the voices quite a bit, there are just enough syncopated rhythms, harmonic shifts, and wide, angular melodic motives that make it challenging for a choir such as ours that is used to square, predictable harmonies of Bach and Handel or the flowing melodies of Mendelssohn or Brahms.

A native of London, Jacob studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry and Herbert Howells. He taught briefly at other schools before returning to the Royal College as a lecturer in 1926; he was to remain there until his retirement in 1966.

Gordon Jacob is remembered for his achievement in a number of fields, including education, composition and arranging, but unlike many of the British composers we regularly hear at Good Shepherd, church music was not an important part of his output. He wrote much instrumental music for orchestra, symphonic band, and chamber and vocal ensembles, but just a handful of pieces for church choir or organ.

The other anthem is the lovely Ave Verum Corpus (Hail, true body) of W. A. Mozart. We have sung it quite a bit, the last time being 3 years ago. It is a setting of the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus". Mozart wrote it in 1791 for Anton Stoll, the musical coordinator in the parish of Baden bei Wien while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was fewer than six months before Mozart's death.

Mark Burrows

The choristers of the Coventry Choir will sing an anthem by Mark Burrows, who just directed our choir with 100 children at the Houston Choristers Guild Children's Choir festival this month at Atascocita United Methodist Church. Burrows received his undergraduate degree in music education from Southern Methodist University and his graduate degree in conducting from Texas Christian University. Mark is currently the Director of Children's Ministries at First United Methodist Church – Fort Worth. He directs choral ensembles of all ages and oversees programs in visual arts and theater. Prior to his work in Fort Worth, Mark was a music teacher at Stephen C. Foster Elementary School in Dallas, Texas.

Mark resides in Fort Worth, Texas, with his wife, Nina, and daughters, Emma and Grace

Music for Sunday, April 22 + Good Shepherd Sunday

Vocal Music

• The Lord is My Shepherd – Allen Pote (b. 1945)
• Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us – William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “St. Columba” – Don Freudenberg (1939-2007)
• Prelude in D Minor, Op. 16, No.3a – Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
• Prince of Denmark’s March – Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707)

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

• Hymn 518 - Christ is made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY) 
• Hymn 417 - This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE)
• Hymn 208 - The strife is o’er, the battle done (VICTORY)
• Hymn 380  - From all that dwell below the skies (OLD 100th)
• Hymn R106 - The King of love my shepherd is (ST. COLUMBA)
• Hymn R226 - Ubi caritas (Taize)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (ST. AGNES)
• Psalm 23 - Dominus regit me - setting by Hal H. Hopson

The fourth Sunday after Easter is traditionally referred to as "Good Shepherd Sunday,"  the name coming from the gospel reading for the day, which is always the tenth chapter of John's Gospel. In this reading Christ is described as the "Good Shepherd" who lays down his life for his sheep. Our two anthems reflect that description, one being a setting of the 23rd Psalm, and the other a setting of the hymn "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." Both of these were composed by men who have Houston connections.

The Lord is My Shepherd was written by Allen Pote. A native of Halstead, Kansas, and educated at Texas Christian University, he has served Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston as director of music. He is currently a full-time composer living in Pensacola, Florida, where, with his wife Susan, he was founder of the Pensacola Children's Chorus, an organization of over 200 singers which has achieved national recognition. He has collaborated with Tom Long for several very successful children's musicals, including The Three Trees, which our children's choirs have performed several times.

The composer of the communion anthem, Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us, is William Bradley Roberts is an Episcopal priest who is Professor of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria. Previously he was Director of Music at St. John's, Lafayette Square, in Washington, D.C. Prior to this, he was in similar positions in Tucson, Ariz., Newport Beach, Calif., Louisville, Ky., and Houston, where he got his undergraduate degree at Houston Baptist University. 

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on the communion hymn, The King of Love My Shepherd Is. This Gaelic hymn tune appears in over 125 hymnals under the tune name St. Columba after the Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in the 6th century in what is today Scotland. He founded the important abbey on Iona. These variations were written by Don Lee Freudenburg, a Lutheran pastor and musician who served churches in New York State and Missouri.

The communion voluntary is a piano piece by Clara Wieck Schumann, a German musician, who was one of the leading pianists of the Romantic era, as well wife of composer Robert Schumann.

Clara Schumann was trained from the age of 5 with her father, the well-known piano teacher Friedrich Wieck. She had a brilliant career as a pianist from the age of 13 up to her marriage to Schumann which was opposed by her father.

Clara Schumann

She continued to perform and compose after the marriage even as she raised seven children. An eighth child died in infancy.  In fact, she was the main bread winner, making money by performing - often Robert Schumann's music. She continued to play not only for the financial stability, but because she wished not to be forgotten as a pianist. She had grown up performing and desired to continue performing. Robert Schumann, while admiring her talent, wanted a traditional wife to bear children and make a happy home, which in his eyes and the eyes of society were in direct conflict with the life of a performer. Furthermore, while she loved touring, Robert Schumann hated it and preferred to sit at the piano and compose.

Clara Schumann considered herself a performing artist rather than a composer and no longer composed after age 36. It is suggested that this may have been the consequence of the then prevalent negative opinions of women's ability to compose, which she largely believed as her statements show: "I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose - there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?" 

However, today her compositions are increasingly performed and recorded. Her works include songs, piano pieces, a piano concerto, a piano trio, choral pieces, and three Romances for violin and piano. Inspired by her husband's birthday, the three Romances were composed in 1853 and dedicated to Joseph Joachim who performed them for George V of Hanover. He declared them a "marvelous, heavenly pleasure."

If you don't know the closing voluntary, go back under your rock. You may, however, think of it as the Trumpet Voluntary by Henry Purcell, but it is really the The Prince of Denmark's March written c. 1700 by English baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke (who was the first organist of the then newly rebuilt St Paul's Cathedral). I'm not going to tell the story here, but there is a fun piece in the Houston Press about Clarke which you can read here: Why you shouldnt play trumpet voluntary at your wedding.. I disagree. It's better than "Here comes the Bride." (and I KNOW you finished that title in your head.)

Music for April 15, 2018 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music 

• Come, Ye Faithful – Reginald. S. Thatcher (1888-1957)

Instrumental Music 

• Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness – Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795) 
• Let Heaven and Earth Rejoice – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO) 
• Hymn 417 - This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE)) 
• Hymn 193 - That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS) 
• Hymn R18 - Come, let us with our Lord arise (SUSSEX CAROL) 
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN) 
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together (LET US BREAK BREAD) 
• Hymn 180 - He is risen, he is risen (Unser Herrscher) 
• Psalm 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9 - Jeff Ostrowsk 

Do you ever watch the late night talk shows, and find that, while their conversations are vaguely current, it's like they are a couple of weeks behind the times? Then you click on the information button on the screen and find that, sure enough, this is The Tonight Show from a month earlier. Sometimes the networks repeat a recent program that was really good but may have missed a larger audience.

That's what's going on today.

Most of the choral and instrumental music you are hearing today got their first exposure at our Easter Vigil, a wonderful service that (unfortunately) many of you missed. (We'll work on that next year, right?)

The anthem is the best known work of  English composer Reginald S. Thatcher. Born in Salisbury, Thatcher received his education at the Royal College of Music and at Worcester College, Oxford, England. His career consisted of a series of music school appointments, including director of music at Harrow Public School, the Royal Naval College and principal of the Royal Academy of Music. From 1954 to 1960 Thatcher was president of the Royal College of Organists. He also served on the editorial committee of The BBC Hymn Book (1951). In 1952 Thatcher was knighted for his contribution to British music and Culture.

He also has one hymn-tune in the Hymnal 1982, which is used for  39. Jesus, Redeemer of the world and 394. Creating God, your fingers trace.

Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio,1601,
Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

The text for the anthem is by Eighth-century Greek poet John of Damascus. Written around 750 and inspired by the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, this text is from John's poem for the Sunday after Easter.

John's father, a Christian, was an important official at the court of the Muslim caliph in Damascus. After his father's death, John assumed that position and lived in wealth and honor. At about the age of forty, however, he became dissatisfied with his life, gave away his possessions, freed his slaves, and entered the monastery of St. Sabas in the desert near Jerusalem. One of the last of the Greek fathers, John became a great theologian in the Eastern church. He defended the church's use of icons, codified the practices of Byzantine chant, and wrote about science, philosophy, and theology.

Music for April 8, 2018 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Rise Up, My Heart with Gladness -  J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Instrumental Music

• Divine Praise  - Dimitri Bortniansky (1751-1825)
• Prelude on “Bread of Life” Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Postlude in D  - A. Louis Scarmolin (1890-1969)

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

• Hymn 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing (GELOBT SEI GOTT)
• Hymn 417 - This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE))
• Hymn 206 - Alleluia! O sons and daughters, let us sing (O FILII ET FILIAE)
• Hymn 188 - Love’s redeeming work is done (SAVANNAH)
• Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn - In the bulb there is a flower (HYMN OF PROMISE)
• Hymn 178  - Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks (ALLELUIA NO. 1)

I am away this Sunday, and in my absence, I want to welcome Jill Kirkonis to the organ and  Harrison Boyd as soloist for this Sunday's music. Harrison has been our bass choral intern this past year. He is a junior at New Caney High School, and a very talented musician. He also happens to be the grandson of Lynn and Mike Boyd.

Harrison will be singing Bach's harmonization of the Lutheran Easter Chorale, AUF, AUF, MEIN HERZ, with a translation of the German text by my former professor, the late Lloyd Pfautsch. It's a lilting tune that expresses well the joy of the resurrection.