Music for March 31, 2019 + The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Just as I Am – Richard DeLong (1951-1994)

Instrumental Music

• Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir – Johann Pachelbel
• Prelude in E Minor – Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

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

• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn - Deep River, my home is over Jordan (NEGRO SPIRITUAL)
• Hymn R147 - Softly and Tenderly (THOMPSON)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul! (ST. THOMAS(WILLIAMS))
• Psalm 32 – Psalm tone IIa

"Every head bowed, every eye closed."

If you grew up anywhere near the "Bible Belt" or every attended a revival in a Baptist Church (read "evangelistic meeting"), you've heard this term, offered at the end of the altar call, while the preacher or evangelist encouraged those with deep, dark sins to repent and give their life to the Lord. He often would ask the choir to sing (yet another) stanza of the quintessential invitational hymn, Just as I am. That hymn was used so much by so many song leaders that many recovering evangelicals have grown to hate that hymn.

Richard DeLong

Yet the text itself is a strong witness to the grace of God, who loves us and welcomes us just as we are. The text, when removed from its familiar tune "Woodworth," takes on a new strength and hope. That is just what happens with this Sunday's anthem, set to a new melody by the late Dallas composer Richard DeLong. DeLong, originally from Ohio, received the degree of Bachelor of Music from Ashland College and the degrees of Master of Music and Master of Sacred Music from Southern Methodist University. His teachers included Robert Anderson, Larry Palmer, Lloyd Pfautsch, Roger Deschner, and Carlton Young.

When I first met Dick he was director of music at East Dallas Christian Church, where he had transformed a rather pedestrian choir into a stellar choral group. Later he served as Director of Music for St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Plano, Texas where his choir had been chosen to perform dozens of world premiere performances. DeLong was very active at the national level with both the American Guild of Organists and the American Choral Directors Association.

The Opening voluntary is the second of two settings of the German chorale, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir. The text is a metrical setting of Psalm 130. (Out of the depths have I called unto thee).

The communion voluntary is an unusual choice for church, as it is by Frédéric Chopin, a well known composer, but one who did not write any religious music. The Prelude in E Minor is from his Opus 28, written when he was around 28 years old. The prelude is one of the composer's saddest works, with its slow melody that hovers around one note while the accompaniment slowly pulses along. By Chopin's request, this piece was played at his own funeral,

Music for March 24, 2019 + Lent III

Vocal Music

• Create In Me A Clean Heart, O God – Carl F. Mueller

Instrumental Music

• Flûtes – Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
• Récit de Nazard – Louis-Nicolas Clérambault

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

• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R141 - Come, ye sinners, poor and needy (ARISE)
• Hymn 439  - What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY)
• Hymn 244 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (TUNE)
• Hymn 149 - Eternal Lord of Love, behold your church (OLD 124TH)
• Psalm 63:1-8– Psalm tone IIa

Carl F. Mueller

The Good Shepherd choir sings verses from Psalm 51, set to music by the American composer Carl Frank Mueller. A native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he graduated from Elmhurst College in 1910 with the aim of becoming a concert organist. Subsequently, he was director of music at Grand Avenue Congregational Church and organ department head at the Milwaukee Institute of Music in Wisconsin. In 1927 he moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and served as organist-director of Central Presbyterian Church (1927-1953), taught at Montclair State College (1928-1954), and was founder-director of the Montclair A Capella Chorale (1931-1956). After summer study in choral music with John Finley Williamson at Westminster Choir College, he obtained a Fellowship there in 1937, and began composing choral music. He later served as organist-director at First Presbyterian Church in Red Bank, New Jersey (1953-1962), and taught at the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music. He received an honorary doctorate from the Strassberger Conservatory of Music in St Louis, Missouri. He is best known for today's anthem, Create in Me A Clean Heart, which has sold over 2 million copies.

The organ music today comes from the pen of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, a French organist and composer of the 18th century. He was organist at various churches including Church of the Grands-Augustins, Saint-Sulpice and the church of the Grands-Jacobins, where he was responsible for playing the organ and directing the choirs.

His important published work includes a large number of religious pieces with chants and choirs; 

more than 25 secular cantatas on subjects often inspired by Greco-Roman myths; sonatas for violin and basso continuo: a book of dance pieces for the harpsichord; and a book of organ pieces in two suites in which melodic charm wins out over religious spirit. These two suites seemed destined to begin a cycle of pieces in all keys but Clérambault never completed the cycle. Today's music comes from the second suite.

Music for March 17, 2019

Vocal Music

• Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive – 19th C. American Hymn

Instrumental Music

• Erbarm' Dich mein, o Herre Gott! BWV 721  (Be Merciful to Me, O Lord God) – J. S. Bach
• Londonderry Air – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-1919)

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 455 - O love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn R243 - You shall cross the barren desert (BE NOT AFRAID)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Psalm 27– Psalm tone IIa

Every five or six years St. Patrick's Day falls on a Sunday. Now I recognize that this is not an official Holy Day in the Episcopal Church, but I have always loved the Irish tune, Londonderry Air, played on the organ. (Probably because as a teenage I had two recordings of the melody played on Theatre organs by none other than Virgil Fox and Billy Nalle.) So I use this as an excuse every time St. Patrick's Day and Sunday occur together to play an arrangement.

This year the arrangement is by the English organist Noel Rawsthorne, who died just two months ago at the age of 89. Rawsthorne became organist of Liverpool Cathedral when he succeeded his teacher, Harry Goss-Custard, in 1955. He stayed at Liverpool until his retirement in 1980. The Liverpool organ is the largest pipe organ in the UK. You can read about it here. (Notice that the cathedral has only had four organists since the organ was installed in 1923!

The communion voluntary is an early work (perhaps 1703?) by Johann Sebastian Bach. The stately melody, in long, slow half notes, rises from a heavy, mournful bass line with repeated four and five-voice chords in quarter notes in the left hand. The melody is what is called a cantus firmus, a well known Lutheran choral theme. The title means "Be Merciful to Me, O Lord God" in German, and you can feel the pain and the guilt of the penitent through the cantus firmus, as he (or she) ascends and seeks pardon from God.

We see no models of this simple form in the complex North-German style of Buxtehude and his circle, although its somewhat archaic style is reminiscent of Johann Kuhnau.

In addition to the unusual texture of this work, it also has unusual harmonies. There are more minor 7th and 9th chords than usual; more chord progressions a 3rd apart than usual; and more untied suspensions than usual.  It truly is an oddity among the organ works of Bach, but one that has become a favorite of organists the world over.

An early printing of the Hymntune DETROIT, in shaped-notes, with the melody in the tenor.

The choir is singing a sparse acapella setting of the 19th century American tune, DETROIT. The text is from the 20th century. Rosamond E. Herklots wrote these words in 1966 after digging out weeds in her garden and thinking how bitterness, hatred, and resentment are like poisonous weeds growing in the Christian garden of life. "Forgive Our Sins" is a hymn about being ready to forgive others again and again-as Jesus said, seventy-times-seven times! We have many hymns about God's forgiveness of our sins, but this one adds a most helpful guide in forgiving others' sins. Herklots revised her own text into the second-person singular ("you") in 1967.

The hymn tune was very popular among Primitive Baptists, and in 1933, George Pullen Jackson included it among the "Eighty Most Popular Tunes" in his White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. It was only in the last half of the 20th century that it was included in mainline hymnals. Both The Hymnal 1982 and the RENEW hymnal include this pairing of text and tune.

Music for March 10, 2019 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Lord Jesus Christ, We Humbly Pray – Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941)

Instrumental Music

• Ach, was soll ich Sunder machen – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

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

• The Great Litany S-67
• Hymn 147 - Now let us all with one accord (BOURBON)
• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICJ)
• Hymn R112 - You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (ON EAGLES WINGS)
• Hymn R114 - Bless the Lord, my soul (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 - Tone IIa

It's the First Sunday in Lent this week, so you will notice some changes in the service.

1. There will be no prelude or opening hymn this week as we sing The Great Litany. 
1. The Great Litany in the Book of Common Prayer derives from the first English litany, compiled by Thomas Cranmer in 1544, drawing from the Sarum rite, the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and a Latin litany composed by Martin Luther. Because of its penitential tone, it is especially appropriate during Lent. The Great Litany includes an invocation of the Trinity; a series of deprecations which seek deliverance from evil, spiritual harm, and natural calamities; a series of supplications which plead the power of Christ's Incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for deliverance; and prayers of general intercession.
2. The Psalms will be sung to the unaccompanied plainsong chant tones.
3. The service music will be the setting by Franz Schubert, and will include the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.
4. There will be no closing voluntary. You are encouraged to leave quietly.

The choir's anthem is a chant-like setting of the communion hymn  by the American composer Gilbert M. Martin. Currently a free lance composer, he has composed more than 300 published pieces of sacred and secular choral, piano, organ, instrumental and ballet music. 

A native of Southbridge, Massachusetts, Martin now lives in Dayton, Ohio. He received a B. Mus. from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J., where he studied with Alexander McCurdy and George Lynn. He was recently honored at Westminster as a distinguished composer and graduate.

The communion voluntary is a partita based on the German chorale, O how great is Thy compassion. Written by Johann Pachelbel (of the famed Canon in D used in many weddings), the partita is a set of variations of the chorale tune, beginning simply with a four-part statement of the melody, with the variations getting more intricate as they progress.

Pachelbel was a German composer known for his works for organ and one of the great organ masters of the generation before Johann Sebastian Bach.

Pachelbel studied music at Altdorf and Regensburg and held posts as organist in Vienna, Stuttgart, and other cities, before being appointed organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nürnberg in 1695, where he remained until his death. He also taught organ, and one of his pupils was Johann Christoph Bach, who in turn gave his younger brother Johann Sebastian Bach his first formal keyboard lessons.

Of special importance are his chorale preludes, which did much to establish the chorale melodies of Protestant northern Germany in the more lyrical musical atmosphere of the Catholic south. His popular Pachelbel’s Canon was written for three violins and continuo and was followed by a gigue in the same key. His son, Wilhelm Hieronymous Pachelbel, was also an organist and composer.

Music for March 3, 2019 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, the Glory – Jean-François Lallouette (1651-1728)
• Alleluia, Song of Gladness – plainsong arr. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugato on “Crusader’s Hymn” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Prière – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019)
• Processional – William Mathias (1934-1992)

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

• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (Daniel Iverson)
• Hymn R102 - The Lord is my light (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R291 - Go forth for God, go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 99 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

The Last Sunday after Epiphany, which observes the Transfiguration of Christ, is like one big final "Hurrah" before we enter the quiet, contemplative season of Lent (Ash Wednesday is March 6.) The Gospel tells of the time Christ reveals his true Glory upon the mountain just before his own passion begins. We remember that glory this Sunday.

We also say "farewell" to our alleluias. The liturgy of the medieval church forbade the use of alleluias from a period before Lent until Easter, a practice which we observe in our own Lenten discipline. Therefore, this Sunday the choir will sing a hymn with roots from the medieval church and tune from the 16th century which is often called “Farewell to Alleluia.” Here is a beautiful meditation on this hymn from the Lutheran blogger Marie Greenway

My communion voluntary is a quiet piece by the English organist Noel Rawsthorne, who died in January at the age of 89. Rawsthorne was Organist of Liverpool Cathedral for twenty-five years from 1955-1980 before becoming Organist Emeritus. After study at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now The Royal Northern College of Music), he won scholarships to study with on the continent with both Fernando Germani & Marcel Dupré. 

From 1980-1984 he was City Organist & Artistic Director at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, and travelled widely as a recitalist in U.K. Europe and USSR. In recognition of his many achievements, he was awarded a D.Mus from the University of Liverpool in 1994.