Music for June 30, 2019

There is one service this morning at 10:15

Instrumental Music

• Meditation on ‘Melita’ “ – R. Wolf 
• Improvisation on ‘Materna’ – Charles Callahan 
• God Of Our Fathers – John M. Rasley 

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOHE)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ARRAM)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)

I will be out of town this week at the Association of Anglican Musicians Conference in Boston. Rob Carty will be playing the organ for us, and for that I am grateful.

Since I am out of town this weekend, we will not be singing our usual medley of patriotic songs at the church picnic, so I am including a couple in our worship this morning, though they have nothing to do with the scriptures being read. If you listen carefully, closely, and critically, you will hear that the word spoken and read is a call to follow God. Matthew Henry, a Bible Scholar from the 1700s, wrote, "It is easy for us to say, Come, see our zeal for the Lord! and to think we are very faithful in his cause, when we are seeking our own objects, and even doing harm instead of good to others."

Music for June 23, 2019 + Pentecost 2

Vocal Music

• Let the Bright Seraphim – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Choral – Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
• Ayre – George Frederick Handel 
• Postlude – Louis Vierne 

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

• Hymn 388 O worship the King, all glorious above! (HANOVER)
• Hymn 529 In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn R9 As the deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn R218 One bread, one body, (ONE BREAD, ONE BODY,)
• Hymn 411 O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Psalm 42 -  Tone VIIIa

Music for June 16, 2019 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory Be To God on High - Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Adoration Antiphon (Holy, Holy) - Fred Bock (1939-1998)
• We All Believe in One True God - J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA)
• Hymn S-236 - Canticle 13: Benedictus es, Domine – setting by John Rutter
• Hymn 686 – Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)

I understand that clergy-types don't particularly care for preaching on Trinity Sunday. There's nothing innately inspiring about the doctrine of the Three-in-One. But as a musician, I love Trinity Sunday, because we have such good music from which to choose to honor this day. Holy, holy, holy has to be one of my favorite hymns to play, partially because people will sing it, and partially because, as a little boy growing up Methodist in a small town, we sang it every first Sunday of the month, when we would have Communion.  (It was the closest thing we had to a Sanctus!) I could sing it from memory.

The anthem is by Healey Willan, an English musician who immigrated to Canada early in the 20th century to teach at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He was on faculty and staff there from 1913-1936, when he and the school parted ways. He had become organist at St. Mary Magdalene in 1921, and he remained there until his death in 1968.

Musically, he wrote in many different genres, including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano. He is best known today for his church music. Even in that he utilized disparate styles. For his choirs at St. Mary Magdalene he wrote music for the decidedly Anglo-Catholic congregation, with its more mystical approach. Willan's deep interest in plainsong and polyphonic, unaccompanied choral music is evident. But beginning in the 1950s he also began to write organ and choral music with a broader scope, using familiar hymn texts and tunes in his church music. The anthem today is an example of that. The text and tune are perhaps more familiar to Lutherans than Anglicans. The text is a prayer to the Trinity. Listen for this recurring phrase: Before thy throne we sinners bend....

There is also some good organ music based on the Trinity. One of my favorites is this sturdy chorale-prelude by Bach on the German chorale, Wir glauben all an einen Gott (We all believe in one God) The text is a paraphrase of the creed by Martin Luther, using a 15th century tune that Luther adapted for the text.  Bach use a fragment of the melody for the subject in his fughetta which I am playing as the closing voluntary.

I call it a fughetta because, unlike an actual fugue, the subject (melody) does not appear in the pedal. Instead, we find an ostinato passage which makes me feel like Sisyphus, for the pedal melody begins climbing up the pedalboard until it reaches an octave, then tumbles back down again, only to be repeated:

A contemporary of Bach's, Georg Philipp Telemann, wrote the opening voluntary, a two-part setting of the hymn we're singing as our hymn of praise, All Glory Be to God on High. It's a metrical setting of the Gloria which we sing every Sunday. In this organ piece, the melody is heard clearly in the upper voice, played by the right hand. The first verse is imitative, very much like a fugue, but with the melody played in half-notes above all accompaniment. The second setting returns to the usual rhythm of the hymn-tune while the left hand employs a playful dance-like motif.

Music for June 9, 2019 + The Day of Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Be Joyful in the Lord – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
• O Thou Who Camest From Above – Philip Stopford

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy on “Nun Danket all” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Veni Creator Spiritus – Dom Paul Benoit (1893 – 1979)

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (SALVA FESTA DIES)
• Hymn 509 - Spirit divine, attend our prayers (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn R234 - Now Holy Spirit, ever one (WAREHAM)
• Hymn R248 - O Let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (ZIMBABWE)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOTT'S LEIGH)
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37 – setting by William Crotch

For our Pentecost celebration we are singing two anthems by the (relatively) young English composer, Philip Stopford. Stopford has quite the musical pedigree. He began his musical career as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey under the direction of both Simon Preston and Martin Neary. After winning a major Music Scholarship to Bedford School, while still a teenager, he became Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral. While in Truro, Stopford composed a setting of the Responses which later won the Federation of Old Choristers' Composition Prize.

Philip Stopford

After leaving Bedford School, Stopford studied music at Keble College, Oxford. Upon graduating, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral before moving to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 1999 to 2000 Stopford was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral, and then moved to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 2003, at the age of 25, Stopford was appointed Director of Music at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the youngest Anglican Cathedral Organist at the time.

In January 2016 Stopford was appointed Director of Music at Christ Church, Bronxville following a four month period as Composer in Residence, working with the Church Choir and Young At Arts children's choral and theatrical program.

Our offertory anthem, O Be Joyful, was composed for the Enthronement of the Bishop of Belfast Cathedral in 2007. While not strictly a piece for Pentecost, this setting of Psalm 100 from our Book of Common Prayer sparkles with radiance with its buoyant vocals and soaring phrases over the lively organ accompaniment.

The other anthem, a setting of O Thou That Camest From Above by Charles Wesley, is a prayer for the Holy Spirit. Its gentle, lilting melody begins in the men's voices. On stanza 2 the treble voices enter, building to a climax at the fourth stanza which resolves to a quiet, fervent amen.

The opening voluntary is a setting of this morning's hymn before the Gospel by Aaron David Miller organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. The tune, composed by early Baroque musician Johann Crüger, was first published in the 1647 edition of Crüger's hymnal, Praxis Pietatis Melica. The rhythmic structure of Crüger's tune has the second and fourth phrases beginning with a quarter rest and quarter note. This bit of syncopation has been emphasized in Miller's arrangement which begins with a bold fanfare and improvisation before heading into a dance-like treatment of the tune. It's perfect for the party we call Pentecost.

Miller was the featured artist at the National AGO convention held in Houston, in 2016. 

The closing voluntary is an improvisatory toccata on the traditional Pentecost chant, Veni Creator Spiritus, as played by the French monk and organist, Paul Benoit. Dom Paul lived as a member of the Benedictine community at the Abbey of St. Maurice et St. Maur, at Clervaux, in Luxembourg.  Largely self-taught, Benoit's compositions never leave the realm of tonality, albeit often modal. Dom Paul acknowledged the influence of the French impressionist works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel upon his organ compositions.  As a result, Dom Paul's works are somewhat unique for the organ in bearing a pervasive imprint of impressionism.