Music for December 20, 2020 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Latin Chant, arr. Jackson Hearn (b. 1958)
• Come, thou Long Expected Jesus - Stuttgart
• Amy Bogan, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Three Advent Preludes – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Savior of the Nations, Come
• Ave Maria
• Veni, Emmanuel
• Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming – Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953)
• Herr Christ, der ein'ge Gottes-Sohn, BWV 601 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• (Lord Christ, the only Son of God)

Since we are not able to sing safely yet in our services, I have made the effort to include as many hymns in the vocal and instrumental music as possible. Today, Amy Bogan is singing two of our most favorite and well-known Advent hymns.

Probably the first Latin chant that any of us learn is the Advent hymn, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel). This ancient advent hymn originated in part from the “Great ‘O’ Antiphons,” part of the medieval Roman Catholic Advent liturgy. On each day of the week leading up to Christmas, one responsive verse would be chanted, each including a different Old Testament name for the coming Messiah. When we sing each verse of this hymn, we acknowledge Christ as the fulfillment of these Old Testament prophesies. We sing this hymn in an already-but not yet-kingdom of God. Christ's first coming gives us a reason to rejoice again and again, yet we know that all is not well with the world. So along with our rejoicing, we plead using the words of this hymn that Christ would come again to perfectly fulfill the promise that all darkness will be turned to light. The original text created a reverse acrostic: “ero cras,” which means, “I shall be with you tomorrow.” That is the promise we hold to as we sing this beautiful hymn.

The other hymn is "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus." Charles Wesley  wrote this Advent hymn and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Stanzas 1 and 2 recall Advent prophecies in the Old Testament; 

Music for December 13, 2020 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Hark! A Herald Voice is Sounding – Roger Price (b. 1955)
• You Are Mine – David Haas (b. 1957)
• Camryn Creech, soprano, Harrison Boyd, baritone.

Instrumental Music

• Magnificat – Joseph Bonnet (1884-1944)
• Prelude on “Winchester New” – Malcolm Archer (b.1952)
• Chaconne – Louis Couperin (c. 1626-1661), transcribed for organ by Joseph Bonnet

The Canticle for this Sunday is Luke 1:46-55, known as The Magnificat, or "Song of Mary". It derives its name from the initial words of the Latin text, Magnificat anima mea Dominum. It was first spoken by Mary on the occasion of her visit to her cousin Elizabeth after the Annunciation. The western church has included it as the canticle at vespers at least since the 6th century, and it continues to be used so today.

Over the centuries all the great composers have supplied choral settings from the simple to the most elaborate. Our opening voluntary this week is The Magnificat by the French organist Joseph Bonnet, written for organ alone based on a theme in the fourth mode which resembles Psalm tone 4. I will perform it according to the ancient practice of alternation, whereby the odd-numbered verses are chanted by a cantor, and the even verses are played on the organ. It was first presented in that fashion for the chanting of the Magnificat by the choir of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago in the early 20th century during the tenure of Frederick Marriott as Chapel organist.

A student of Alexandre Guilmant, Bonnet served for 22 years as the organist of St Eustache, Paris. He extensively toured Europe and America as a concert organist. His organ compositions were very popular, and his six-volume Historical Organ Recitals, surveying centuries of organ music, was one of American organists’ sources of great music for several generations. It was in that collection that he published his arrangement of Louis Couperin’s Chaconne in G Minor. 

In his notes on the music, Bonnet wrote that the 1658 manuscript of the Chaconne was in the Bibliothè nationale in Paris, but he failed to mention that the manuscript was for harpsichord, not organ. Nevertheless, he treats it as a French-Classic Grand Chœur, beginning and ending on full organ, with three couplets, or interludes, played on a quieter sound.

Two duets will be sung by two of our college students home for Christmas. Harrison Boyd and Camryn Creech will sing the hymn Hark, a Thrilling Voice Is Sounding, set to an old Sacred Heart tune by Roger Price, Professor of Music at The University of Tulsa, and You Are Mine, a hymn by Catholic Composer David Haas.

Music for December 6, 2020 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Prepare the Royal Highway – arr. Thomas Gieschen (1931-2006)
• An Advent Prayer – Allen Pote (b. 1945)
• Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Partita on  "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Meditation on “Winchester New" from An Advent Triptych – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Improvisation on “Bereden väg för Herran” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

This Sunday's scripture readings includes the beautiful passage from Isaiah

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” - Isaiah 40

There are two hymns which we always sing on the second Sunday of Advent. Those are hymn 67 – Comfort, comfort ye, my people, and hymn 65 – Prepare the Way, O Zion. This year, you are invited to read the words to hymn 67 while I play Johann Pachelbel's Partita on the tune, "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” (The Hymnal 1982 identifies it as PSALM 42, but it is the same tune.)

Christine Marku will sing a version of hymn 65 during the preparation of the communion elements using an arrangement by the Lutheran Composer Thomas E. Gieschen. A Native of Wisconsin, Gieschen was a professor of music for 40 years at Concordia University in River Forest, where he served as department chair and head of the Music Department. He earned a B.S. in Education from Concordia Teachers College, and a master's and doctorate in music from Northwestern University in Chicago.

He was also a published composer, arranger and organ recitalist, and a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and the American Guild of Organists.

Another Lutheran, Paul Manz, improvised an organ setting of the same tune, the Swedish tune Bereden väg för Herran (Make way for the Lord). It was transcribed (written out) and published, and I will be playing it for the closing voluntary.

During Communion, Christine will sing an Advent anthem by the American Composer Allen Pote.  Pote is a nationally knowns composer of sacred music as well as a clinician for festivals and workshops. Since 1975 his published choral works, which include twelve musicals for youth and children, have been widely performed by choirs the world over, including the Chorister Choir here at Good Shepherd. Born in Halstead, Kansas, Pote earned a diploma in Church Music from Texas Christian University. He studied in Brussels on a Fulbright scholarship and took advanced work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. For a while in the 80s he was director of music at Memorial Drive Presbyterian in Houston.

Music for November 29, 2020 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Pieta, Signore! – Alessandro Stradella (1645?-1682?)
• Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 533 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us, BWV 645 – J. S. Bach
• Introduction and Fanfare on “Helmsley” – Bruce Neswick (b. 1956)
• Hope – Joel Raney (b. 1946)
• Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 – J. S. Bach

This Sunday we begin our four-week journey through Advent to Christmas. The themes are all about watching for Christ. This Sunday's Gospel come from the Gospel according to Mark:

Mark 13:24-37

“But in those days, after that suffering,

    the sun will be darkened,

    and the moon will not give its light,

    and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.  Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Music for this Sunday draws heavily on this passage, and especially the thoughts that are highlighted in bold type. Beginning with the opening voluntaries. First you'll hear the Prelude and Fugue in E Minor of Bach. It's nicknamed "The Cathedral Prelude and Fugue, with the fugue also nicknamed Nachtwächterfuge (The Night Watchman Fugue). More on that later.

It's a work from his youthful period, when Bach was still in his twenties. He had just got his first real job in Arnstadt. This position as a highly paid organist had fallen into his lap in 1703, after a brilliant performance when testing the new organ. But a couple of years later, it was actually criticism of his organ playing that was given as one of the reasons for letting him go. He was supposed to have used too many curious variationes and strange notes in his chorale preludes. The church council believed that this confused the congregation.

In this concise Prelude and fugue, we hear both sides of the coin. In the prelude, there are short pedal solos, shaking tremolos for both hands, and series of full chords for keyboard and pedal simultaneously – all exciting musical elements which can also be used, if necessary, to test an organ’s sound and speed of response.

These elements return in the fugue, which opens with a moving theme which gives it the Night Watchman sobriquet. It begins modestly and almost hesitantly, but later with increasing assurance. Towards the end, there is a passage where Bach makes the left hand stand out rather dissonantly against the right hand, in opposition to the rules of composition. This is precisely the sort of “frembde Thone” (strange notes) to which people later objected in Arnstadt. Here, we see a youthful and rather impetuous Bach. On the one hand, an excellent job application, and on the other a reason for dismissal.

The second voluntary before the service is the wonderful organ setting of the aria from Cantata 140, "Wachet Auf!" It's a transcription of the tenor solo (Zion hears the watchmen singing) that Bach himself arranged for the organ. It is one of his most famous pieces. It consists of only three melodic lines: unison violins and violas play a graceful melody over the chorale tune sung by the tenors and a basso continuo. (One the organ, the right hand plays the violin part, while the left hand plays the tenor part on a trumpet stop. The basso continuo is just the bass line, played on the pedal.) It is an example of Bach’s counterpoint at its elegant and imaginative best, all the more remarkable in the knowledge it was part of a frenetic cantata output, written during a period when he had grown disillusioned with his social and musical position in Leipzig.

What I love about the piece is how the beautiful, flowing melody, casually proceeding, is at once interrupted by the cry of the watchman on the blaring trumpet (a perfect instrument of warning.)

During communion, Richard Murray will sing of staple of Italian art song, Pietà, Signore.  It is a religious song, also known as Aria di chiesa, Air d'église and Kirchen Arie. It is often attributed to the Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella, but there is every reason to believe that it was composed by a 19th century composer, either François-Joseph Fétis, Abraham Louis Niedermeyer, or Gioachino Rossini.

The closing voluntary is another work from Bach's early Arnstadt period. It opens with a descending G Major scale. This glorious main theme is split between statements in big chords and scale-like runs down the keyboard, but the two elements are often imaginatively presented in combination. 

Music for November 22, 2020 + Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• King of Glory, King of Peace – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950) 
• Jade Panares, Soprano

Instrumental Music

• Suite Gothique – Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)
• Introduction-Choral
• Menuet gothique
• Prière à Notre-Dame
• Toccata
• At the Name of Jesus – arr. Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)

Since the last Sunday of Pentecost (Advent begins next Sunday!) is called Christ the King Sunday, our solo and the communion voluntary are based on hymns which refers to Christ as King.

The text for the offertory solo is by George Herbert, a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England who was born on April 3, 1593 at Black Hall in Montgomery, Wales. His family on his father's side was one of the oldest and most powerful in Montgomeryshire, having settled there in the early 13th century and improving and consolidating its status by shrewd marriage settlements and continuous governmental service. 

George Herbert, 1593-1633

His father died when Herbert was three and a half years old so George's mother, Magdalen, who was by all accounts an extraordinary woman, moved the family first to Shropshire, then to Oxford, and then finally to a house at Charing Cross, London to facilitate the education of her ten children. George was tutored at home and then entered Westminster School, probably in 1604, a distinguished grammar school that not only grounded him in the study of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and music, but also introduced him to Lancelot Andrewes, one of the great churchmen and preachers of the time. From Westminster, Herbert went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609 and began one of the most important institutional affiliations of his life, one that lasted nearly 20 years.

Herbert wrote much of his poetry during his Cambridge years. He began, auspiciously enough, with a vow, made in a letter accompanying two sonnets sent to his mother as a New Year's gift in 1610, "that my poor Abilities in Poetry, shall be all, and ever consecrated to Gods glory." 

Herbert wrote poetry in English, Latin and Greek. Shortly before his death in 1633, he sent a literary manuscript to Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of a semi-monastic Anglican religious community at Little Gidding, reportedly telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul", otherwise to burn them. Later that year all of his English poems were published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. It was so popular that there were at least 11 editions of The Temple in the 17th century alone.

One of the poems which has become most loved is Praise, a seven stanza poem of 4 lines each, which contains the three stanzas which make up the text for today's solo. This hymn has been set to music by many composers. Today's solo, King of Glory, King of Peace,  was written by K. Lee Scott, an American composer born, raised, and still living in Alabama. Scott attended The University of Alabama School of Music, where he has since served as adjunct faculty as well as for Music departments or The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University. 

I am  delighted to have former choir member and staff singer Jade Panares sing for us this day. Jade is a graduate of Atascocita High School and the University of Houston School of Music.

The hymn At the Name of Jesus has been lovingly arranged by Lutheran organist Michael Burkhardt. Listen for an accompaniment that seems to hover above the melody which I will be playing on the oboe. We've put the text in the service leaflet so that you can read the words while listening (since we can't sing in church just yet!)

Music for November 15, 2020 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Partita on “St. Anne” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

                I. Theme
                II. Adagio
                III. Canon
                IV. Presto
                V. Pastorale
                VI. Fugue-Finale

• A Pleasant Thought – Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
• Mit Freuden Zart – Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Paul Manz

O God, our help in ages past, by Issac Watts, is one of the best paraphrases of the first six verses of Psalm 90. Since that is the psalm for this Sunday, I decided to play Paul Manz's partita (or variations) on ST. ANNE, which is the tune used for the hymn. Paul Manz was a Lutheran organist, who had a particular talent of improvising organ music based on hymns. These variations were probably improvised by Manz during a recital or one of his Hymn Festivals, and later published as Partita on St. Anne.

There are six movements which may or may not correspond to the six stanzas of Watt's hymn. The first movement is very straightforward, with an underlying rhythmic motive reminiscent of J. S. Bach's organ setting of the German Choral WER NUR DEN LIEBEN (BWV 642). The second movement also harkens back to music of Bach and German baroque composers with its ornamented solo line over an imitative accompaniment. You'll still be able to hear the melody if you listed closely.

In the third movement, Manz leaves the familiar realm of 18th century counterpoint and becomes more impressionist in style. The melody will be found in canon, with the right hand playing the melody in an undulating style in normal quarter-note rhythms, while the left hand plays the same melody, but in HALF-NOTE rhythms, and with some harmonies that we might find disconcerting. It sounds as if the two hands are playing two different songs in two different keys!

The fourth movement is much lifelier, as you can tell by its title, Presto. The accompaniment will be in both hands, featuring a spinning counter-melody against a leaping part in the other hand. These melodic fragments bounce back and forth between the two hands while the feet play the melody.

One of the loveliest movements is the Pastorale (fifth movement). Pastorales are generally in 6/8 or 9/8 metre, at a moderate tempo, and this is no exception. The accompaniment has a lyrical melody which could stand alone by itself, without the addition of the hymn-tune that comes in, played by the left hand.

I'll play the last movement as the closing voluntary, for it's drive and excitement is perfect for music that should encourage us to leave this place with joy and commitment.

During communion I'll play a simple melody by the African American composer, Florence B. Price. I discovered her in February when I was looking for non-idiomatic music by Black composers. She has a fascinating story, and I encourage you to review what I wrote about her here. 

During the preparation of the elements I will be playing Gerald Near's setting of the hymn tune MIT FREUDEN ZART. The order of service will have the words to the hymn Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth, Hymn 598 in The Hymnal 1982. It is especially appropriate to the Gospel reading this day.

Music for November 8, 2020 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• How Great Thou Art – Stuart K. Hine (1899-1989), Amy Bogan, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Suite for Organ – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Festive Trumpet Tune – David German (b. 1954)

Amy Bogan sings a favorite of many in the congregation, "How Great Thou Art," by Stuart K. Hine. Hine was a British Methodist missionary on a mission trip in Ukraine in 1931 when he heard the Russian translation of a German song inspired by Carl Boberg's poem "O Store Gud" (O Great God). Hine began to translation the song to English and added several verses. The third verse was inspired by the conversion of villagers in Russia who cried out to God loudly as the repented and realized God's love and mercy - "And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in." 

Stuart K. Hine

Stuart Hine and his family left Ukraine as famine and World War Two began, and settled in Somerset, Britain where he continued to serve as a missionary to Polish refugees. The fourth verse of "How Great Thou Art" was inspired by displaced Russians who experienced great loss and looked forward to seeing their loved ones again in heaven - "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation to take me home, what joy shall fill my heart."

The final English version of "How Great Thou Art" was published in 1949 and quickly spread among Britain, Africa, India and America. 

The opening voluntaries are all from a suite by American composer Gerald Near. Now living in Arizona, he is director of music and organist at St. Francis in the Valley Episcopal church in Green Valley, Arizona. He's been connected to Episcopal churches most of his career, including St. Matthew's Cathedral in Dallas. I think it's because of his understanding of Anglican music that I find his compositions very appealing. He's written much music based on chant, and traditional hymn-tunes of the church, but this Suite, written in 1965 when he was 27 years, has only one movement based on a hymn tune. 

It opens with a Chaconne. Originally a fiery and suggestive dance that appeared in Spain about 1600 in moderate triple meter, the chaconne became a popular compositional form of composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a series of variations built on a short phrase in the bass. This form often is confused with the form Passacaglia, and honestly, there is little difference. Near uses a short, 2-bar motive as the repeated bass line (called a "ground bass") in the pedal while he employs the tonal resources of the organ to vary the accompanying music found in the manuals (keyboards). You will hear the same eight notes in the pedal 18 times (except for variation 14 which finds the motive, not in the pedal, but in the top line of the music.

In the middle movement, the American folk tune Land of rest is set as a sarabande. A sarabande is also a dance in triple meter that originated in Central America back in the sixteenth century. It became popular in the Spanish colonies before making its way to Europe. At first, it was regarded as being rather scandalous, even being banned in Spain for its obscenity. Baroque composers, such as Handel, adopted the sarabande as one of the movements for the suites they were writing at the time.

The Suite ends with a Final (We musicians pronounce it fee-nahl) in A-B-A form. The A section is a dialogue between the Full organ on the great with a less-full organ sound on the accompanying choir manual. In the B section, you will hear a jaunty melody played on the organ's trumpet stop, accompanied by flutes. Then the A section returns just like the beginning to bring the whole thing to a close.

LAND OF REST is the tune used for hymn 620 in our hymnal, Jerusalem, my happy home, which is appropriate for today's readings. (It is also used for the communion hymn I come with joy and a favorite setting of the Sanctus that we often sing in the summer.)

Another hymn that was appropriate for today is the hymn Let all mortal flesh keep silence. During communion, I will be playing a piano setting of that tune, PICARDY, arranged by the composer Rudy Davenport. I played another piece by him last month.

Music for November 1, 2020 + All Saints Sunday

I'm taking the Sunday off this week (I was supposed to be on a cruise 😞) So my friend and our consummate substitute organist Rob Carty will be playing the organ for us.  Staff singer Anna Zhang will be singing the classic anthem by English composer Sir John Goss, These Are They Which Follow the Lamb, based on the passage from Revelation 14:

These are they which follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth.
These were redeemed from among men,
being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no guile,
for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Born to a musical family, Goss was a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, London, and later a pupil of Thomas Attwood, organist of St Paul's Cathedral. After a brief period as a chorus member in an opera company he was appointed organist of a chapel in south London, later moving to more prestigious organ posts at St Luke's Church, Chelsea and finally St Paul's Cathedral, where he struggled to improve musical standards.

As a composer, Goss wrote little for the orchestra, but was known for his vocal music. You'll know his hymn tune LAUDA ANIMA, which we use for "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven." He has been  referred to as the last of the line of English composers who confined themselves almost entirely to ecclesiastical music.

Goss and his student John Stainer were the two most prominent Victorian composers of church music. Goss was organist of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1838 until his death, and most of his church music dates from his time there. These are they which follow the Lamb, written in 1859, belies the belief that all Victorian church music is sentimental or vulgar: it is simple, chaste, and almost completely diatonic.

Music for October 25, 2020 + The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• My Jesus, I Love Thee – Dan Forrest, arr. (b. 1978) Bruce Bailey, Baritone

Instrumental Music

• Suite du Premier Ton – Louis Nicolas Clérambault (1676 1749)
• Duo
• Trio
• Basse et Dessus de Trompette
• Récits de Cromorne et de Cornet Séparé
• Choral Partita on Werde Munter – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Trumpet Tune in D – David N. Johnson (1922-1987)

Bruce Bailey is singing a hymn familiar to Protestant Christians, "My Jesus, I Love Thee." I think the story of this hymn is fascinating, as told on the website hymnary.org:

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, William Featherstone most likely wrote this hymn at the age of sixteen on the occasion of his conversion and/or baptism. He sent the text to his aunt in Los Angeles, who sent it to friends in London, where it was published anonymously in the London Hymn Book to a now forgotten tune. Adoniram Judson Gordon found it, wrote a new tune for it, and also published it anonymously in The Service of Song for Baptist Churches. It wasn’t until around 1930, fifty years after its publication, that enough research had been done to establish Featherstone as the author, who had died at the young age of 28. Today, it is a much loved hymn of assurance and confession of faith, with words of comfort and peace. And perhaps bolstering the power of the text is Featherstone’s story itself. A young man with no connections, who simply wrote a poem one night about his own faith, has, unbeknownst to him, come to bless millions. God certainly works in mysterious ways to use the gifts and talents of his people.

Today's arrangement of the hymn is by the North Carolina composer Dan Forrest. Originally published in 2011 as a choir anthem, this setting of the well-loved hymn, with a piano countermelody floating over top of the traditional hymn tune, was written as a memorial piece for one of Forrest's friends. The memorial setting was the reason for the tender musical style, as well as the choice of stanzas, including “I’ll love Thee in life, I’ll love Thee in death” and the triumphant final stanza about heaven. Forrest reset the choral piece as a solo work in the last 24 months.

In the last decade, Dan’s music has become well established in the repertoire of choirs in the U.S. and abroad, through both smaller works and his major works Requiem for the Living (2013), Jubilate Deo (2016), and LUX: The Dawn From On High (2018). Dan holds graduate degrees in composition and piano performance, and is active as a composer, educator, publisher, editor, and pianist. 

The opening voluntaries are from a Suite for Organ by the French composer and church organist, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault. Like so many musicians of the 18th century, Clérambault came from a musical family. His training began at an early age, and soon he was organist at various churches in France, including St. Sulpice (Paris). This suite was the first of what was to be a cycle of pieces in all keys but Clérambault never completed the cycle.

You'll hear four of the seven pieces. The titles describe the compositional form and registration (sounds) to be used. "Basse et Dessus de Trompette" is simply a piece employing both the bass and soprano (treble) registers of the trumpet stop. A "récit" is a piece in which a single voice emerges soloistically above all others by means of special registration. This is indicated in the title, here it's a Récit de Cromorne AND a Cornet - a solo stop made up of five different ranks of flute sounds at different pitches.)

The Choral partita during communion is a set of variations on the German Chorale Werde munter, mein Gemüte, which most people would recognize as the tune used for the choral part of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Originally used for an evening text, it is paired with a Eucharistic text in our hymnal, hymn 336 (Come with us, O blessed Jesus.) Even though we aren't able to sing this, the words will be printed in the bulletin for you to follow along. This is the third Sunday in a row I have played works by Johann Pachelbel. His music is so well suited for church! (And easy to play - usually!) You see, there is SO MUCH more to Pachelbel than his famous Canon in D!

Music for October 18, 2020 + The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

Laudate Dominum – W. A. Mozart (1756-1791), Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Suite for Organ – Philip E. Baker (b. 1934)
• I. A Trumpet Tune for Beginnings
• III. Aria
• Meditation on "Old Hundredth" - Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

As we return to in-person worship we'll be doing some things a little differently, at least for the time being. Choirs will not be a part of worship as group singing is thought to be a quick way of spreading the Covid-19 virus. We won't be singing hymns at this time, either. 

But hymns have such a prominent place in our worship that we don't want to just ignore their value. Therefore we will be including lyrics to familiar hymns in the worship leaflet for the congregation to read and meditate on while an instrumental setting of the tune most often associated with that text is played. 

This Sunday I will be playing two settings of the familiar hymn-tune, OLD HUNDREDTH. One is a piano setting played between scripture readings by the contemporary composer Rudy Davenport. Davenport is a freelance composer, pianist and church musician residing in Austin, Texas. 

Born in 1948 in Hayesville, North Carolina, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Young Harris Junior College, Cardinal Stritch College and Florida State University, where he studied composition with Harold Shiffman and Dr. John Boda. 

He has a wide and varied religious background. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Sacred Heart School of Theology in Milwaukee, where he studied composition with the late John Downey, Composer-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He studied the music and writings of the Vaishnava devotional sect of Hinduism in India, and of Zen in a Zendo. While living in a Trappist Monastery, he learned about the Catholic mystical saints. 

His musical tastes are as diverse as his religious studies. Davenport has written music for and played in a rock band, worked with developmentally delayed children by using music therapy, taught piano, and for many years was the Director of Music at several large Catholic churches.

The other setting of the tune which we most often think of as "The Doxology," Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, is an organ setting by the South German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It presents the well-known tune in the pedal, while the hands play a fugal-like accompaniment.

We are fortunate this Sunday to hear Mozart's beautiful setting of Psalm 117, Laudate Dominum, sung by Christine Marku. From his large work, Vesperae solennes de confessore (Solemn Vespers for a Confessor), Laudate Dominum originally was a solo with choir (the choir singing the Gloria Patri at the end of the psalm.) Since we have no choir, we will omit the Gloria.

Christine is the choral director at Riverwood Middle School.

The opening voluntary is by Philip Baker, organist and composer who was director of music at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas for many years, including those I spent at Southern Methodist University working on my masters. His Suite for Organ was published just before I moved to Dallas, and it includes one of the loveliest melodies of all time, and one of my personal favorite organ pieces to play, Aria. 

Since retiring from active music making, he and his wife Tissa have moved to Houston, where (before Covid) I got to see him at various concerts around town.

Music for October 11, 2020 - The FIRST SUNDAY back in church (10:15)

This Sunday will be our first Sunday back in church with a live service, which will also be livestreamed over You Tube. We'll have less music initially, with only one solo and instrumental music. For this week, you can expect to hear:

Vocal Music

• Will You Come and Follow Me? – John L. Bell (b. 1949), Bidkar Cajina, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Ciaconna in F Minor – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Brother James’ Air – Larry Shackley (b. 1956)
• Little Prelude in C Minor – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

The solo is a hymn by the Scottish minister John L. Bell, set to the Scottish folk melody KELVINGROVE. It's a gorgeous text call "The Summons."

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown?

Will you let my name be known?

Will you let my life be grown in you,

and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?

Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?

Will you risk the hostile stare,

should your life attract or scare?

Will you let me answer prayer in you

and you in me?

Will you let the blinded man see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean,

and do such as this unseen?

And admit to what I mean in you,

and you in me?

Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell that fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you've found

to reshape the world around

through my sight and touch and sound in you,

and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In your company I'll go,

where your love and footsteps show,

thus I'll move and live and grow in you,

and you in me.

This is the kind of hymn that is typical of Bell's writing. He began writing hymns in the 1970s to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal:

"I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution." [from an interview in Reformed Worship (March 1993)]

He is now employed full-time in the areas of music and worship with the Wild Goose Resource Group, the publishing arm of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions within Christianity which is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, with its main activities taking place on the island of Iona.

Another Scottish hymn-tune, BROTHER JAMES' AIR, will be played between scripture readings. Composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain (1840-1925), the Scottish healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James, the tune was first published in his volume The great peace: being a New Year's greeting ... (1915) and is often used as the tune for the metrical setting of Psalm 23, "The Lord's my Shepherd; I'll not want." Psalm 23 is the Psalm for Sunday. 

Music for October 4, 2020 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lord, for thy Tender Mercy’s Sake – Richard Farrant (c. 1525 –1580) or John Hilton (the elder) (1565 – 1609(?))

Instrumental Music

• All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name – Lani Smith (1934 - 2015)
• How Firm a Foundation – Lani Smith

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Song of Praise S-280 - Canticle 20: Glory to God – Robert Powell

Pardon Me, Your Roots are Showing

I have a confession to make.

Well, actually, two confessions.

(1) From where I sit in the choir gallery, I have a clear view of the tops of people's heads. And from that perch, it is easy to see who dyes their hair, and who needs to have their roots touched up. I'm just saying...

Your roots don't lie. They tell you just who (or what color) you (or your hairs) really are.

(2) Back where I come from (both geographically and generationally), the epitome of classy church music was a well played piano and organ duet. I grew up in rural West Tennessee, in what was considered a "high-church" Methodist. Our congregation had a really beautiful building built in 1924, with the only pipe organ in our town. We were justifiably proud of our 13-rank Möller pipe organ. I was enamored with it from a young age. 

Yours truly at the console of the 1924 Moller

Back in 1927 or '28, the organist, Mrs. Mae Peacock started subscribing to a bi-monthly organ magazine published by The Lorenz Publishing Company. Lorenz was to church music as Ford or Chevrolet was to the automobile. (The same could be said about Möller.) And, like Möller and Chevrolet, Lorenz was all I knew when it came to published music. So in 1975, when I was just a Junior in high school, I ordered a book of piano and organ duets which I played with my piano teacher in church. And it's that same volume of music that I have pulled out of mothballs for this Sunday's service! Only this time I am playing the organ with my friend (and Good Shepherd's usual substitute organist) Rob Carty on the piano.

Lani Smith

They were arranged by Lani Smith, a man whose musical pedigree belied his position in what most modern day church musicians would label a rather pedestrian publishing house.  Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was educated at the College‑Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (BM and MM), and in 1958 he was a co‑winner of the Joseph H. Bearns Prize in Music from Columbia University, an award that honors America's most promising young composers. At age twenty‑five, Smith published his first piece with Lorenz, thus beginning a long career at the company. From 1967–82, Smith was a member of the editorial and composition staff at Lorenz, where he had responsibility for a number of publications and organ magazines, just like the one Mrs Mae subscribed to in the 20s and 30s.

So now you know my true colors. I'm just a rural church organist at heart, pretending to be one of the big boys!

The choir's anthem is a choral setting of a sixteenth century prayer by Henry Bull, set to music by either Richard Farrant or John Hilton, both English composers of sacred music. Farrant was organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in the middle of the sixteenth century, while Hilton was known as a counter-tenor and organist, most notably at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the beginning, the music is in a simple, a capella, hymn-like style which befits the reflective and restful mood of the text, but at the words "that we may walk in a perfect heart" the choir has a chance to play around with the rhythms of the words and sing much more independently of each other, finally ending with a contrapuntal "amen." This was a challenge for the choir to sing as a virtual group, but they rose to the occasion!

Music for September 27, 2020 + The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Seek Ye The Lord – Richard DeLong (1951-1994), Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• At the Name of Jesus – Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)
• Allegro Marziale e ben marcato – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 439 What wondrous love is this? (Wondrous Love)
• Song of Praise S-436 Canticle 13: Glory to You (John Rutter)

September 20, 2020 + The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Hear My Prayer – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Processional – William Mathias (1934-1992)
• Sunday Morning Fire - Jackson Berkey (b. 1942)
• Come, Labor On – Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “W” which are from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 660 - O Master, let me walk with thee (MARYTON)
• Song of Praise S-280 Glory to God – Robert Powell
• Sanctus W-858 (LAND OF REST)

This Sunday we warmly welcome Brooke Vance to our service today. Brooke grew up in Good Shepherd, singing in the choirs from kindergarten through High School. She is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with a degree in vocal performance. She'll be singing  part of Felix Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer, a miniature cantata with three distinct, contrasting movements. She will sing the first section, “Hear my prayer, O God.” Mendelssohn’s subtle changes of harmony and melody indicate alternating moments of optimism and loneliness. 

From The Musical Times, Feb. 1, 1891 by F. G. Edwards:

"Hear my Prayer" – "a trifle", as he modestly calls it – is one of Mendelssohn's most popular and widely-known choral works. It was written at the request of Mr. William Bartholomew for a series of Concerts given at Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street, in the "forties", by Miss Mounsey, who afterwards became Mrs. Bartholomew. The work was first performed at Crosby Hall on January 8, 1845, with Miss Mounsey at the organ, and was published in the same year by Messrs. Ewer and Co…

In 1843, William Bartholomew wrote to Mendelssohn requesting "one or two sacred solos with an organ accompaniment for some concerts we are to give at Crosby Hall, a renovated Gothic Structure which was once the palace of Richard the Third". The texts submitted were Judges 16: 23–31 (the ‘Death Prayer of Samson’) and a version of the opening of Psalm 55, which was accepted by Mendelssohn, and became Hear my prayer.

The first performance was in January of 1845, with Ann Mounsey playing the organ accompaniment on the new organ by Henry Cephas Lincoln, and the soprano solo by Elizabeth Rainforth, a well-known stage singer; according to a review of the performance published in Musical World, neither the soloist nor the chorus were ‘thoroughly at home’ and the new organ also met with little enthusiasm. The modern-day popularity of the work stems from the recording made in 1927 by boy soprano Ernest Lough which became EMI’s first million-selling classical recording.

Music for Sunday, September 13, 2020 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

 Vocal Music

• Go Down, Moses – Negro Spiritual, Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Vater Unser in Himmelreich, BWV 737 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Toccata in E Minor – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 674 – “Forgive our sins as we forgive” (DETROIT)
• Hymn 421 – All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH)

The Old Testament lesson this Sunday is the account of the children of Israel being led out of Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. The first song I thought of was the old Negro Spiritual, Go Down, Moses. 

Many of the Negro Spirituals, which were sung in the field as well as in church meetings, were "code songs," songs that sounded like Bible stories, but with double meanings which were most often covert. Therefore, only Christian slaves understood them, and even when ordinary words were used, they reflected personal relationship between the slave singer and God.

The codes of the first negro spirituals are often related with an escape to a free country. For example, a "home" is a safe place where everyone can live free. So, a "home" can mean Heaven, but it covertly means a sweet and free country, a haven for slaves. 

"Go Down, Moses" does not employ the hidden symbolism of the code songs. 

Only a very obtuse listener can miss its point. It says flatly that Moses freed these Egyptian slaves boldly and justly because slavery is wrong. It clearly projects the principles of this experience to all the world: wherever men are held in bondage, they must and shall be freed. The "Let my people go!" refrain is thunderous. It does not argue economic, sociological, historical, and racial points. . . . It wastes no words and moves relentlessly toward its goal of filling every listener with a pervasive contempt for oppression and a resounding enthusiasm for freedom. -from Black Song, 1972, pp. 326-327

Vater unser im Himmelreich is Martin Luther’s interpretation of  the Our Father: the only prayer that came directly from Jesus himself and which has thus always had a special place in Christianity.

Of the various organ arrangements Bach made of this chorale, this is the most subdued and timeless. The piece is written in stile antico – the ‘ancient’, vocal, polyphonic composition style of the sixteenth century. Bach may have used the ‘ancient style’ here to emphasise the fact that Vater unser im Himmelreich is a prayer, implying words and thoughts, either spoken or sung. In fact, this arrangement is a four-part motet in the ancient style and you could easily perform the whole piece in song. Occasionally, there is a slightly more daring harmony, which is all that betrays the fact that this piece is not really a motet from the 1500s.

This tune is found in our hymnal at hymn 575, though to a different text. (Before thy throne, O God.)

Music for September 6, 2020 + The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• The Lord is My Light – Mary Frances Allitsen (1848 – 1912)

Instrumental Music

• Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Hymn to Joy; Finale – Charles Callahan (b. 1952)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 376 Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (TUNE)
• Song of Praise S-280 Glory to God – Robert Powell

This Sunday we are so very fortunate to have one of the bright stars of Houston classical music singing for us during our virtual worship. Todd Miller is the driving force behind the music department at Lone Star College, Kingwood, where he has been on the faculty since 1994. Todd earned a Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Louisville. He also obtained a Master of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Arizona. In addition, he holds a doctoral degree in voice performance and conducting from the University of Houston.

As a singer he has performed with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Choral Society, Houston Chamber Choir, Greenbriar Consortium, the San Antonio Symphony, and Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera in the Heights, and Carnegie Hall.

He is probably best known in Kingwood as the director of the Kingwood Chorale, which he has conducted since 1996, and as director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Kingwood. Since both churches are yet to meet live, it made it possible for us to collaborate for the music this Sunday.

I often joke when someone asks what music we will be doing on Sunday and say "Something by some dead white man." 

The names of women and people of color are sorely lacking when you look at the list of music so often sung in most congregations. So when Todd gave me a choice between two songs, I chose "The Lord Is My Light," by the British composer Mary Frances Allitsen. So this Sunday I get to talk about a dead white WOMAN!

Frances Allitsen was born as Mary Bumpus in London, but her family moved to a small village where Frances felt isolated and lonely. She said of that time, "It was impossible to go out walking of an afternoon without it being imputed that I was going to see the young men come in on the train, where the chief subject of conversation was garments, and the most extravagant excitement sandwich parties." Her family did not support her interest in music and as a result she was discouraged from seeking a formal education in the subject.

She began her musical career as a singer, but her voice failed and she ended her singing career and turned to voice coaching and composing. She took some of her compositions to Thomas Henry Weist Hill, principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and he expressed his regret that she had put off serious study till so late. She began to apply herself to her musical studies with determination, but because she had to teach in order to support herself, and, at that time, this required travelling to her pupils' residences on trains and buses, she had to confine her studies to the night hours, in a state of fatigue. Later, on tour in America to promote her music, she told Etude magazine that, looking back, she scarcely knew how she lived through those days.

Allitsen published over fifty songs in many different styles, the most successful being the setting of Psalm 27 which we will hear this Sunday.

She also wrote two overtures, entitled Undine and Slavonique, a Funeral March, and a Tarantella, (which were performed by the Royal Artillery Band and by the Crystal Palace orchestra), and other piano pieces.

The opening voluntary is one of Bach's Schübler Chorales, "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" ("Whither shall I flee?")  Named after its publish, Johan Georg Schübler, the original title was Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art: auf einer Orgel mit 2 Clavieren und Pedal vorzuspielen (lit. 'six chorales of diverse kinds, to be played on an organ with two manuals and pedal')

At least five preludes of the compilation are transcribed from movements in Bach's church cantatas, mostly chorale cantatas he had composed around two decades earlier. The only questionable one is the one I'm playing today. There is no extant model from which the chorale prelude may have transcribed. Most scholars assume that the source cantata is one of the 100 or so believed to have been lost. 

The trio scoring of the movement suggests the original may have been for violin, or possibly violins and violas in unison (right hand), and continuo (left hand), with the chorale (pedal) sung by soprano or alto.

Music for Sunday, August 30, 2020 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Psalm XXIII – Paul Creston (1906-1985), Amy Bogan, soprano

Instrumental Music

1. Symphony No. 4 in C Minor: II. Andante – Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
2. Prelude in C, BWV 547– J. S. Bach (1678-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (BOURBON)
• Song of Praise S-236 – Canticle 13: Glory to You – John Rutter (b. 1945)

For the opening voluntary this week, I am playing a piano transcription of the first theme of the second movement of the fourth symphony of Franz Schubert. (I tried to get a "third" in there somewhere, but I just can't. You'll have to read on further to get to a"three.") The second movement of the classic symphony form is usually the slow, lyrical movement, 

This second movement Andante is no different. It is a beautifully Schubertian poem – yearning, melodic, full of rays of tenderness and hope. I thought it would be a nice, quiet, peaceful way to prepare for worship.

Franz Schubert about the time he wrote Symphony 4

Franz Schubert was just 19 years old when he wrote his Fourth Symphony. He was really beginning to hit his stride as a composer, but it was not yet his sole profession. He unhappily endured his working hours as an assistant teacher at his father’s school in the Säulengasse in Vienna. 

It is hard to imagine how Schubert balanced his teaching duties with his passion for composition. During two years as a teacher, he wrote 382 pieces of music, including his Second, Third, and Fourth Symphonies; four Singspiels (operas); great quantities of dances for solo piano; a fair amount of chamber music; lots of sacred music, including three complete Masses; and an abundant stream of songs, including such enduring favorites as Erlkönig, Heidenröslein, and Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen. Then, too, he was enjoying a full social life and was taking composition lessons twice a week from Antonio Salieri. It is a remarkable output for a man who died just twelve years later.

The closing voluntary is a prelude in C Major by Johann Sebastian Bach. In this piece, Bach plays with both movement and motionlessness. The 9/8 time signature of the Prelude evokes a rocking motion, which is underlined in the first bar by the clear division into three groups of three notes. (Here is where the elusive "three" from the first paragraph comes in.) From the opening of the Prelude onwards, a world of movement unfolds. The hands start to play faster notes and the pedal enters below with a hop, step and jump.

Bach plays with motionlessness as well. Towards the end of the Prelude, we hear long, motionless notes in the pedal and at a certain moment the movement seems to falter to a halt in a series of chords that go off the harmonic rails, after which the pedal comes to rest on the home base with a throbbing low C, while the rest of the parts run the final stretch.

Music for August 23, 2020 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me – arr. K. Lee Scott

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare and Chorale – Calvin Fuller 
• Holy God, We Praise Your Name – Max Reger

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

• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)
• Song of Praise S-280 - Glory to God – Robert Powell
• Sanctus R-207 - Holy, holy, holy Lord (LAND OF REST)

It's not every Sunday that I get to play an organ work written by a friend of mine. Especially rare is when that piece is vibrant, fresh, and so much fun to play. Well, this Sunday is one of those rare occasions when I play Fanfare and Chorale for the opening voluntary for our Sunday morning service. 

This stunning piece was composed by Calvin Fuller, organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in Houston. He is a native of Houston and received his musical education at Texas Southern University where he earned Bachelor and Master of Music Education degrees. He pursued further study at the University of Maryland, the University of Texas and the University of Houston where he was a conducting student of Charles Hausmann and composition student of David Ashley White. 

For fifteen years he was chorus master of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, a position he also held at Opera in the Heights. Presently, he is adjunct lecturer in the Music department of Texas Southern University, and The University of Houston-Downtown. I've known Calvin for more than 20 years through our work on the Diocesan Music Commission.

A charming and gracious man, his unassuming personality would never lead you to think that here was a first class composer and musician, but that is the case. And when I asked him for a photo to accompany this article, he sent me one which also shows his love for the Houston Astros. That caused me to remember a photograph taken at the Diocesan Choral Festival in 2017, the year the Astros won the World Series. There was a game the day of the festival (out of town, thankfully!), so we arrived in our Astros gear! I've included that photo of Calvin, Linda Patterson, and myself as well!

The choir (virtually) sings a setting of the hymn, Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me, as arranged by K. Lee Scott. We previously sang this on Pentecost of this year.

Music for August 16, 2020 + The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Build My House from Peter Pan – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1919), Kimberly Bollinger, soprano 

Instrumental Music

• Ach Gott und Herr – Johann Gottfried Walther 1684-1748 (attr. To Johann Sebastian Bach)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 420 - When in our music God is glorified (ENGLEBERG)
• Song of Praise S-236 – Canticle 13: Glory to You – John Rutter (b. 1945)

One of the unexpected blessings of virtual worship is that the same technology which enables me to bring the Good Shepherd Choir together in this time of quarantine also allows me to work with friends who live hundreds or thousands of miles away. One former choir member, Kim Bollinger, has been part of our virtual congregation these past few months, which led me to ask her to sing for one of our services. She readily agreed, and suggested a song from Leonard Bernstein's little known musical, Peter Pan. 

Most folks don’t know it, since it didn’t have a big run on Broadway. Bernstein wrote half a dozen songs for the show, which starred (of all people) Boris Karloff! (He was Hook, of course). The song Kim suggested is sung by Wendy, where she expresses her hope that her home will be be built with Peter Pan. It's a beautiful song, but I wondered what Kim was thinking! What does this have to do with the worship of God?

Then I reread the lyrics, and heard, for the first time, the voice of God, speaking to us! It was like a parable, and we know how much Jesus loved speaking in parables! Read these words:

Will you build me a house?
A house that really will be mine.
Then let me give you my design.
A simple scheme of ... the house I dream of.

Build my house of wood.
Build my house of stone.
Build my house of brick and mortar.

Make the ceiling strong.
Strong against the storm.
Shelter when the days grow shorter.

But build my house of love.
And paint my house with trusting.
And warm it with the warmth of your heart.

Make a floor of faith.
Make the walls of truth.
Put of roof of peace above.
Can you build my house of love?

Copyright (C) 1950, 1980 by The Estate of Leonard Bernstein. Copyright Renewed. Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company, LLC, Publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Sole Agent

I can imagine God asking this of each of us. Not so much as in our church, but in ourselves. In Paul's letters to the Corinthians, he often asked,  "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?"  We would do well to survey our own life and see of what our "temples" are made.

The opening and closing voluntaries are two settings of the same German Chorale, O God and Lord,These pieces were part of a collection of organ chorale preludes found in the music library of Johann Kirnberger, a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach. Many of Bach's manuscripts had been preserved in Kirnberger's library (the "Kirnberger collection"), as well as other pieces that Bach had transcribed for his pupil. These two settings of Ach Gott und Herr were among those, and were for centuries thought to be by the master himself, but modern scholarship has attributed the authorship to the baroque composer Johann Gottfried Walther, a second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach whose his life was almost exactly contemporaneous to that of the famous composer. 

Music for August 9, 2020 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Choose Love – Mark Miller

Instrumental Music

• Aria - Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
• Mohrentanz (La Mourisque) – Tyman Susato (c. 1510/15 – after 1570)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 608 - Eternal Father, Strong to Save (MELITA)
• Song of Praise Hymn 421 - All Glory be to God on High (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH)

Mark Miller

In the midst of pain, of war, of brokenness... we choose love. We choose community. What better way to share this message than through powerful song, and that's exactly what you'll hear this Sunday in the piece our choir will sing at the offering. This soulful anthem, written in response to the tragic events that occurred at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, North Carolina in 2015, is a testament to the power of forgiveness and peace. I chose it even as our community was still knee-deep (literally) in post-Harvey pain, and it is even more appropriate the week after the tragedy in Las Vegas.

It is written by the contemporary composer Mark Miller. He is on the faculty at both the Drew Theological School and the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University where he teaches music and worship. He also is Minister of Music of Christ Church in Summit, New Jersey and Composer in Residence of Harmonium Choral Society in NJ. From 2002-2007 he was Director of Contemporary Worship at Marble Collegiate Church and from 1999-2001 was Assistant Organist and Music Associate at the Riverside Church, both in New York City.  Miller received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University and his Master of Music in Organ Performance from Juilliard.

As the the son, grandson, brother, and cousin of United Methodist clergy, Mark Miller believes in Cornel West’s quote that “Justice is what love looks like in public.” He also passionately believes that music can change the world. This is never more obvious than today's anthem, I Choose Love. Here is
Miller’s Reflection on his composition:

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

The gospel stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection continue to inspire, uplift, and amaze me. They inspire, uplift, and amaze because Jesus consistently chooses love. When it would be easier for him to appease with the powerful religious leaders and Roman backed authorities he chooses love. Even as his friends disappear and the crowds that once shouted “hosanna” turn on him with shouts of “crucify,” he chooses love. Even after betrayal and humiliation, even when he is dying, he chooses love.

The words to the song “I Choose Love” are by my friend Lindy Thompson, written in response to the murder of nine people who were at their church bible study. The people of Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, S.C., chose love when they offered forgiveness in the face of hatred and violence.

We always have a choice. Every day we have a choice–how will the events of your day and your life affect you? It’s the challenge of the witness of Jesus–the challenge of a truly faithful life–a daily spiritual discipline for each of us to rise up every day and say “I choose love.”

Tylman (or Tielman ) Susato was a Renaissance composer, instrumentalist and publisher of music in Antwerp. In 1543, he founded the first music publishing house using movable music type in the Low Countries. Until Susato set up his press, music printing had been done mainly in Italy, France and Germany.

Susato was also an accomplished composer. He wrote (and published) several books of masses and motets which are in the typical imitative polyphonic style of the time. He also wrote two books of chansons which were specifically designed to be sung by young, inexperienced singers: they are for only two or three voices.

Susato also was a prolific composer of instrumental music, and much of it is still recorded and performed today. He produced one book of dance music in 1551, Het derde musyck boexken ... alderhande danserye, composed of pieces in simple but artistic arrangement. Most of these pieces are dance forms (allemandes, galliards, and so forth).

Tielman Susato offers his Chanson book to Maria
of Hungary, governess of the Netherlands.

Music for August 2, 2020 + The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• En Prière– Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Instrumental Music

• Hyfrydol – Gregg Sewell (b. 1953)
• Chorale – Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “LR” which are from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn L146 - Break thou the bread of life (BREAD OF LIFE)
• Song of Praise S-280 - Glory to God (Gloria in Excelsis) – Robert Powell (b. 1932)

Gabriel Fauré

This Sunday we get to hear one of our former (and returning) staff singers, Anna Zhang, who will offer a lovely sacred song by Gabriel Fauré,  one of the most influential of French composers, bridging the the Romantic period with the beginnings of the modern era in music.

His early training was for a life as a church organist. At age nine he was sent to the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse (School of Classical and Religious Music), which Louis Niedermeyer was setting up in Paris. There he stayed for 11 years, training to become a church musician. Although he played the organ professionally for over four decades, his real strength lay in composition. His Requiem and Pavane remain among the best-loved classical pieces.

Fauré is regarded as one of the masters of the French art song, or mélodie. Maurice Ravel wrote in 1922 that Fauré had saved French music from the dominance of the German Lied. Today's solo is a great example of that. En Prière, or In Prayer, is a beautifully poetic song written in 1890 and based on the text of a devotional poem by Stéphan Bordèse. Stylistically and textually, En Prière is a musical glimpse into the prayer of a sincere believer. The delicate yet intense melodic line is supported, even sheltered, by the piano’s repetitive triplets.

Pianist Graham Johnson had this to say about the piece:

The creation of an atmosphere of heartfelt piety seems effortless, the progression of harmonies a miracle of fluidity. Only Fauré could have written this music. At ‘Révélez-Vous à moi’ the triplet accompaniment cedes to a motif of crotchets which wafts across the stave as if the Holy Spirit revealed; on the song’s last page this alternates in an almost liturgical manner with triplets, and is repeated no fewer than five times, as if in benediction.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2005

The piano voluntary is a beautiful, meditative piece by the Norwegian composer, Ola Gjeilo, one of the bright "Northern Lights" in the modern musical atmosphere. This piece is taken from a recording of piano improvisations recorded in 2012.

Music for July 26, 2020 + The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Be Thou My Vision– Irish Folk Tune, Margie VanBrackle, soprano, Hans VanBrackle, guitar

Instrumental Music

• Allegro from Concerto No. 3 in F major, Op. 8, RV 293, "Autumn" (L'autunno)– Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
• Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee – arr. Carolyne Taylor (21st C.)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 615  "Thy kingdom come" (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn of  Praise S-236 – Canticle 13: Glory to You – John Rutter (b. 1945)

The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy! - To a Mouse, by Robert Burns

I had every intention of including a virtual choir anthem by the Good Shepherd Choir in the July 26 Worship service, but a gremlin in the system (or one of the submitted videos) made it an almost impossible task. As I am away this week in Memphis, my laptop computer didn't want to fully cooperate, so the Anthem this week is a beautiful setting of the Irish folk tune, SLANE, with the familiar words, Be Thou My Vision. Margie and Hans VanBrackle recorded this for us back in April for one of our earlier services. It was so lovely I included it again this week.

I DID get to use the choir in singing this Sunday's hymn, which goes along well with both the Epistle and the Gospel readings. So sing along with the choir on "Thy kingdom come, on bended knee."

Music for July 19, 2020 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Thou Fount – setting by Roland E. Martin (b. 1955)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude in C Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Magnificat in G Major, Opus 41, No. 2 - Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 290 - Come, ye thankful people, come (ST. GEORGE'S, WINDSOR)

“Do not cry for me, for where I go music is born”

-Bach, to his wife, on his deathbed

Today, when almost every serious student of the cello learns the unaccompanied cello suites of J. S. Bach, it is hard to imagine that these works were almost lost. There is no manuscript of the music in Bach's own handwriting, just a copy of the music by Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena, and three other handwritten copies from the 18th century. They seemed destined for oblivion.

The suites were discovered and finally published in 1825. But in spite of their publication, they were not widely known by anyone besides a few cellists who viewed them as exercises. The development of the cello as a solo instrument continued without Bach's influence for another century, during which, again, virtually no music for solo cello was written.

In 1889, A 13-year-old Catalan wunderkind cellist by the name of Pablo Casals went for a stroll with his father, and they stepped into a second-hand music shop. There, Casals stumbled upon an old copy of Bach's Cello Suites. He took them home, began to play them, and fell in love. When he recorded them in 1936, the works were suddenly thrust into the consciousness of every cellist.

I tell you all this, because one of the Suites is hidden within the offertory duet sung by our KHS graduate Camyrn Creech and Ole Miss student Harrison Boyd. Much like Charles Gounod used the Prelude in C from Bach's Das wohltemperierte Klavier for his Ave Maria, Roland Martin used the Prelude from the G Major Suite as the basis for the accompaniment. (Except it's played on the piano, and in the key of D.)

Roland E. “Ron” Martin is a member of the music faculty of The Buffalo Seminary, Daemen College, and the University at Buffalo. He is organist and Director of Music at St. Joseph University Church, Buffalo and the founder and director of Speculum Musicae, an ensemble for early music, and Music Director of the Freudig Singers of Western New York. He also serves as conductor/music director for Opera Sacra for many of its productions.

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant, the composer of the closing voluntary, was a French organist and composer living in Paris. He was the organist of La Trinité from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was appointed as Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896