Friday, August 30, 2019

Music for September 1, 2019

Vocal Music

  • Bread of the World – Carlton Young (b. 1926)

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

  • Hymn 376 - Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (HYMN TO JOY)
  • Hymn R 141 - Come, ye sinners, poor and needy (ARISE)
  • Hymn - Through north and south  (LAAST UNS ERFREUEN)
  • Hymn R 148 - Brother, let me be your servant (SERVANT SONG)
  • Hymn R 29 - He is Lord (HE IS LORD)
  • Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (ENGELBERG)
  • Psalm 112 – Tone Va

Carlton Young
I am away this weekend, mourning the last gasp of summer. In my stead, Rob Carty will be playing the organ, and the choir will sing a setting of the hymn Bread of the World in Mercy Broken, set to the early American tune, CHARLESTOWN, by the Methodist composer Carlton R. Young. This tune was a folk tune included in a 1799 tunebook, The United States Sacred Harmony. (You guessed it; it was discovered in Charleston, South Carolina.) This tune is in our hymnal, but set with a completely different text, "All who love and serve your city."

Young wrote this arrangement for Christ Memorial Lutheran Church here in Houston. A native of Hamilton, Ohio, he was a teacher, editor, composer and conductor, with the unique distinction of serving as editor of two revisions of hymnals for Methodists: The Methodist Hymnal, 1966; and The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989.

The opening hymn is that great hymn, Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, with its tune from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Here are some notes on the hymn from the website Hymnary.com.
Henry Van Dyke’s brilliant hymn of praise has many layers that add to the beauty of his text. As hymnologist Albert Bailey writes, within Van Dyke’s text, “creation itself cannot conceal its joy, and that joy is appreciated by God the center of it all; likewise all nature fills us with joy, caused fundamentally by our recognition of God as the giver” (The Gospel in Hymns, 554). We experience joy on many levels: we witness the joy expressed by Creation, we bask in the joy of God as He delights in us, and we experience our own joy as we reflect on all God has done for us and through us. We have all heard this line over and over again, but it’s worth repeating: we rush through life too quickly to stop and be filled with joy. We allow the phone calls we have to make, the laundry we need to fold, the paper we need to write, and the porch we need to fix get in the way of simply stopping, looking around, and being filled with joy and gratitude at the world God has given us. It’s a world where we have people to call, children to clothe, knowledge to express, and parties to host. And more so than anything, even when it seems to be crumbling around us, it’s a world redeemed by Christ. What can we raise to our Savior but this outburst of joy?
ODE TO JOY or HYMN TO JOY is the adaptation of Beethoven’s famous final movement in his Ninth Symphony into a melody fit for congregational singing. Around 1908, Henry Jackson Van Dyke wrote his text to be “sung to the music of Beethoven’s ‘Hymn to Joy.’”  It is a tune of grandeur and, fittingly, joy. It almost begs to be sung in a fast, upbeat manner; Jerry Jenkins writes, “the tune is so reminiscent of sprightly harpsichords that the words begin to bounce, and suddenly I’m singing it the way it was meant to be sung – at least in style” (Hymns for Personal Devotions, 132).
The only point of contention about this tune revolves around one note. In Beethoven’s symphony, there is a pick-up note into the third line – many try to imitate this. Paul Westermeyer argues that using this syncopated rhythm allows the congregation to sing music “in its integrity” (Let the People Sing, 202). Austin Lovelace, however, argues that “syncopation is a stumbling block to congregational singing and does nothing to make the hymn easier to sing or understand” (Let the People Sing, 202). In this case, Lovelace is probably right. 
Hymnary.org, Featured Hymn: "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" Sat, 08/17/2019

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Music for August 25, 2019

Rally Day

Vocal Music

  • Laudate Dominum – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Marion Russell Dixon, soprano

Instrumental Music

  • Galliard on “Gather Us In” – James Biery (b. 1956)
  • Come Sunday – Duke Ellington (1899-1971), arr. Craig Curry
  • Toccata on “Gather Us In” – Donald M. VerKuilen III (b. 1994)

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

  • Hymn 8 - Morning has broken (BUNESSAN)
  • Hymn 523 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (ABBOTT’S LEIGH)
  • Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
  • Hymn 297 - Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
  • Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
  • Hymn 685 - Rock of Ages (TOPLADY)
  • Hymn R 149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
  • Psalm 71:1-6 - Tone VIIIa
A quick search on the internet of the word “Rally” led me to images of cars: specifically race cars. Other suggestions on Google refine the search to either “school” (as in “pep rally”), political (as in Trump),  or protest (again, as in Trump). No matter which direction you take your search, you are looking at a high-energy event, with lots of noise and excitement.

So, naturally, when planning the music for this Sunday, the day we call “Rally Day,” I would normally look at music of a more upbeat, celebratory nature. This is true of the organ voluntaries, and many of the hymns we will sing this Sunday.

Marion Russell Dickson
It is not true, however, of the choir’s anthem, a setting of Psalm 117. With just two verses and sixteen words in Hebrew, it is the shortest of all the Psalms. We are singing Mozart’s sublime setting of the text, taken from his Vesperae solennes de confessore (Solemn Vespers for a Confessor), written in 1780 as a Vesper service for the Salzburg Cathedral. It is for soprano solo, sung by Kingwood’s own Marion Russell Dickson; the choir quietly enters at the conclusion of the psalm with the Gloria Patri, and the Marion will rejoin them at the Amen. 

I thought the contemporary hymn ,"Gather Us In (hymn 14 in Renew),  would be a great hymn for Rally Day. We don't know it (yet) as a congregational hymn, so I have found two organ pieces based on this American hymn to "frame" our worship service. 

The opening voluntary is a galliard (a lively dance in triple time) by the Michigan organist James Biery. Biery is Minister of Music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian) in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, where he directs the choirs, plays the organ, and oversees the music program of the church. Prior to this appointment Biery was music director for Cathedrals in St. Paul, Minnesota and Hartford, Connecticut.

The closing voluntary is another setting of the hymn "Gather Us In, by the young composer Donald VerKuilen III. This is a toccata which was one of the winners of the 2016 American Guild of Organists New Music Competition, which was premiered here in Houston. A native of Appleton Wisconsin, VerKuilen is a graduate of The Oberlin Conservatory. He has studied performance and improvisation with Marie-Louise Langlais, former professor at The Conservatoire de Paris and widow of the famed organist Jean Langlais. VerKuilen currently serves as Director of Music at Saint Rocco Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Duke Ellington
The communion voluntary is a piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's song, "Come Sunday." Originally part of his instrumental jazz suite Black, Brown and Beige (1943), a musical history of African Americans, Ellington added text to this instrumental theme in 1958 and the song became a standard at his sacred jazz concerts.

I thought of this piece while reading the Gospel for this Sunday. Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath, and is criticized.  Jesus answered his critics, "...ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” 

African American scholar William McClain notes the importance of Sunday to African Americans, even in secular music: “To the Christian Sunday is, or should be, another Easter, in which God’s victory in Christ over sin and death are celebrated in work, word, song, prayer, and preaching. After all, even [slave] masters and owners tried to be more human on Sunday.” [1]

The song is ultimately about the providence of God in all our lives. The refrain addresses God directly, “Lord, dear Lord above, God Almighty, God of love,” and then makes a petition, “please look down and see my people through.” The stanzas point to hope and heaven, concluding that “With God’s blessing we can make it through eternity.”
Lord, dear Lord above, God almighty,
God of love, please look down and see my people through.
I believe that God put sun and moon up in the sky.
I don't mind the gray skies
'cause they're just clouds passing by.
Heaven is a goodness time.
A brighter light on high.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
And have a brighter by and by.
Lord, dear Lord above, God almighty,
God of love, please look down and see my people through.
[1] Hawn, C. Michael, History of Hymns: “Come Sunday” reflects Duke Ellington’s faith & sacred jazz tradition retrieved August 22, 2019 (https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-come-sunday-reflects)

Friday, August 16, 2019

Music for August 18. 2019

Vocal Music

  • Lord God of Abraham – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Richard Murray, bass

Instrumental Music

  • Sonata II: Grave/Adagio – Felix Mendelssohn
  • Sonata II: Allegro Maestoso e Vivace – Felix Mendelssohn
  • Ave Verum Corpus – Gerald Near (b. 1942)

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

  • Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
  • Hymn 691- My faith looks up to thee (OLIVET)
  • Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
  • Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
  • Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
  • Hymn R 291 - Go forth for God (GENEVA 124)
  • Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18 – Tone VIIIa
I love the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I think I could play nothing but Bach and not grow weary of him. After Bach, I love playing the music of Felix Mendelssohn. It's quite a jump going from the 18th century Baroque to the 19th century Romantic period, but there are some very strong connections.
Felix Mendelssohn, By James Warren Childe
- watercolor painting, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123195
By the time Felix came along, the music of J. S. Bach was all but forgotten, a relic of a bygone era that was considered more math than music. When Felix was 14 years old, his maternal grandmother presented him with a hand-copied manuscript score of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion. She recognized in this little-known work one of the most deeply spiritual works ever composed; and it had a profound effect on the young boy. He conceived an idea of presenting the entire work, and five years later, he himself conducted the first full performance of this masterwork in over 100 years.

The idea of writing a large choral work also captivated Mendelssohn's imagination, for in his short life, he wrote three oratorios, Paulus, Elias, and Christus (which remained unfinished). It is from Elias (Elijah) that we draw today's offertory.

At this place in the story, Israel is in a great drought. The prophet Elijah is accused of causing Israel’s troubles but he charges that the people have brought their problems on themselves by worshipping false gods. Elijah challenges the priests of the god Baal. In a scene that would be perfect for the reality tv shows of today, the priests pray to Baal as Elijah prays to his God. Baal’s failure to answer is symbolized by dramatic silences. Elijah mockingly demands that the priests call him louder. This happens for the third time, but still there is no answer. When Baal fails to end the drought, Elijah exhorts the people of Israel to turn their prayers to the one true God.  A consuming fire from the heavens convinces everyone to turn again to God, and they launch prayers for rain. At first it only brings a little white cloud and then, finally, the longed-for waters that “laveth the thirsty land,” symbolized by a downward rush of musical scales.

During the last years of his life, Mendelssohn paid further homage to J.S. Bach by preparing an edition of the latter's organ works (published in London in 1845-46). Mendelssohn's own Six Sonatas for organ, op. 65 (of which I play two movements this morning) not only renewed interest in the organ repertoire, and especially that of Bach, but also prompted the composition of new works for organ by other major composers. 

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Music for August 11

Vocal Music

  • O Divine Redeemer – Charles Gounod (1818-1893) - Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

  • If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee, BWV 647 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
  • I Call on Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, BWV 639 – Johann Sebastian Bach
  • If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee, BWV 641 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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

  • Hymn 637 - How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (LYONS)
  • Hymn 558 - Faith of our fathers (ST. CATHERINE)
  • Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
  • Hymn R 140 - Just as I am, without one plea (WOODWORTH)
  • Hymn R 278 - Wait for the Lord (Jacques Berthier)
  • Hymn 68 - Rejoice! Rejoice, believers* (LLANGLOFFAN)
  • Psalm 33:12-22 – Tone VIIIa
I remember one night, when I was in high school and still a novice at playing the organ, hearing my mother in a telephone conversation with one of her friends from church. I suppose they had been talking about me, and my organ skills, when my mother recalled another teenage boy in our church who, a generation earlier, had shown promise at the organ console. He had studied with the late Adolphe Stutermann at Calvary Church in Memphis, and was quite good before his untimely death in 1967.

"Sometimes I just get so hungry to hear some Bach. I want to hear real music," she said.

My mother, Mary Maude Algee Hearn
when she was a senior at UT Austin (1944)
My mother was an amateur musician. She took voice and piano lessons all through high school and into college. All she ever did with it was just direct the small volunteer choir at church, and sing for her own enjoyment. I can still remember hearing her sing when I was a boy, singing songs she had studied at UT Austin (My mother was a Longhorn!) One of the songs she loved was Charles Gounod's classic song, "O Divine Redeemer."

When Gounod was semi-retired, after a lifetime writing operas, oratorios, and masses, his 5-year-old grandson died. This tragedy filled Gounod with such grief that he turned once again to writing sacred music. In a final surge of creative energy, he pointed his art and his faith steadfastly in the direction of hope.

He titled the song “Repentir,” which means “to repent,” with the subtitle “Scene in the Form of a Prayer.” We know it as “O Divine Redeemer.” The words captured his feelings as he mourned his grandson’s passing and as he approached the end of his own life — he passed away only a few months later. It is a prayer for forgiveness, a plea for mercy, a supplication for strength and a meditation on life:

Ah! turn me not away,
Receive me, tho’ unworthy, . . .
Hear Thou my cry, . . .
Behold, Lord, my distress! . .

Christine Marku
O divine Redeemer!
I pray thee grant me pardon,
And remember not … my sins! ...
Haste Thee, Lord, to mine aid!

And now, close to 50 years later, I, like my mother, long to hear some real music. I long to hear Gounod's song, full of simplicity, clarity, and taste, but also with a depth of feeling and a directness of expression that I somehow associate with my mother. When Christine Marku, choral director at Riverwood Middle School, volunteered to sing this coming Sunday, I immediately suggested this song, and, thankfully, she agreed. She will sing it at the 10:15 Nave service this Sunday. I encourage everyone to come hear her!

* Oh, and you may wonder why the closing hymn is an Advent hymn. Well, consider the text of today's Gospel.
 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves."But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Luke 12:35-40 
Doesn't it make sense that we use a hymn written for Advent with the lines
Rejoice, rejoice, believers,
and let your lights appear!
The evening is advancing,
and darker night is near.
The Bridegroom is arising
and soon he will draw nigh;
up, watch in expectation!
At midnight comes the cry.


Thursday, August 1, 2019

Music for August 4, 2019

Vocal Music

  • O Be Joyful – Philip Stopford (b. 1977), Bruce Bailey, baritone

Instrumental Music

  • Aria – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
  • Prelude on Michael – Charles Callahan
  • Prelude and Fugue in C – attr. 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 R 49 - Let the whole creation cry (LLANFAIR)
  • Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
  • Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ A DIEU)
  • Hymn - One bread, one body (ONE BREAD ONE BODY)
  • Hymn R 136 - Alleluia (ALLELUIA)
  • Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
  • Psalm 49:1-11 - Tone VIIIa
Bruce Bailey is singing the offertory this Sunday, using an anthem that the choir sang back in June. Click here to read about the piece composed by the English composer Philip Stopford who now lives and works in New Jersey.
Stopford

Two of the organ works come from the pen of Charles Callahan, an extremely prolific American composer of sacred music for organ and choir. He has a way of writing a piece that sounds as if it is being improvised at the spot. The piece for communion is based on the hymn-tune MICHAEL by Herbert Howells. It's a tune (and text!) that I want our congregation to learn and embrace.

Callahan
The tune was written in 1930 by Howells in response to a request from his friend, Dr Thomas Percival (TP) Fielden, looking for a new tune for the text "All my hope on God is founded." In 1935, Howell's son, Michael, died unexpectedly at age nine from spinal meningitis. When Felden published the hymnal The Clarendon Hymn Book in 1936, he chose to include the hymn with Howells' tune. In tribute Howells rechristened the tune MICHAEL. The hymn's popularity increased in consequence as it became more widely known, and it is now found in over 60 hymnals, including ours.

Here are the first two lines of the hymn by Joachim Neander in 1680 and translated from German by Robert Bridges in 1899.
1 All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone
calls my heart to be his own.
2 Mortal pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God's power, hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

The closing voluntary is a short prelude and fugue which has for centuries been attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, but are now believed to have been composed by one of Bach's pupils, possibly Johann Tobias Krebs or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs. Since we don't know for sure, I'm just going to leave it as attributed to...
Bach