Music for Sunday, March 29, 2020 + The Fifth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Pie Jesu – Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Praeludium in C, BWV 846 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Erhalt Uns, Herr, Hymn 143, The Glory of These Forty Days – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

My life as a church musician has changed drastically in the past month. Normally at this time I would be concerned with what hymns I would choose to be used in worship during these Sundays in Lent. I would be preparing organ and piano pieces suitable for Lenten and Easter worship. I would be rehearsing the choirs which would sing “Kyrie,” “Hosannas,” and “Alleluias.”

But this year is different. Our focus is not on the cross, but on the crown (Corona) virus. And my thoughts are not just on what would strengthen the reading of God’s word in worship, but what will also bring comfort and peace to the hearts and minds of those worshipping with us, maybe not IN church, but still AS church.

My opening voluntary for this Sunday was to be J. S. Bach’s miniature masterpiece based on the chorale, “O Man, Bewail thy Grievous Fall.” On reflection, that title didn’t sound too pastoral, and, quite frankly, the organ setting was almost too melancholy for my own personal needs. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is one of the most beautiful of the yearning, aching melodies that Bach ever wrote, but right now I need hope.

The Praeludium in C in Bach's
own handwriting.

So, I chose the simple Praeludium in C from his collection, The Well-Tempered Clavier, instead.  (Clavier means Keyboard.) But before I tell you why, let me explain the reason for this work.

You see, in Bach’s time, keyboards were tuned in a purer sense, so that some keys (such as D, G, or A Major) would sound bright and clear, with a perfect tuning, but keys such as D-flat or A-flat would sound out of tune. It was during Bach’s lifetime that people began regularly using a method of tuning wherein the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard were tuned in such a way that it was possible to play music in all major or minor keys that were commonly in use, and it would not sound perceptibly out of tune. Bach then wrote Das Wohltemperirte Clavier, a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, composed "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study". The collection is generally regarded as being among the most important works in the history of classical music.

This Prelude in C was probably the first real piece by Bach that I ever learned. It is a seemingly simple progression of arpeggiated chords, wandering from the home key of C Major through various chords and tonalities, as if Bach was using it to test the tuning. I have always liked the way that the pattern of the broken chord stays the same, even when meandering through a ever-changing harmonic progression. It brings peace and joy to me, even when I listen to my piano students struggle through it at Lone Star College. (And I make every one of them learn it. They never complain.)

This Sunday you will also hear Christine Marku sing one of the movements from the Requiem by Gabriel Faure. Fauré’s Requiem is noted for its calm, serene and peaceful outlook. Anyone looking for morose themes of death is searching in the wrong place. Instead, here we find musical solace in a work that focuses not on the morbid, but on the supposedly restful and fear-free nature of death.

Pie Jesu (pronounced Pea-eh Yeh-soo) is the shortest and simplest section from the Requiem, but one that I hope will bring peace to all who hear it. Though written as part of a funeral mass, I think the words can bring comfort to the living, even as we navigate these uncertain and troublous times.

The original text, derived from the "Dies irae" sequence, is as follows:

Pie Jesu Domine, Pious Lord Jesus,
Dona eis requiem. (×2) Give them rest.
Pie Jesu Domine, Pious Lord Jesus,
Dona eis requiem sempiternam. Give them everlasting rest.

A Hymn for Such a Time as This

Here in America, in a country overflowing with every kind of food imaginable, streets lined with glittering stores stuffed full of clothing and toys, and amenities like water and electricity at our fingertips, we have been brought to a sudden and complete standstill by the world-wide pandemic called COVID-19. We feed our anxiety by following every news report, watching the stock market roller coaster, and stock piling such things as toilet paper and hand sanitizer. But it could be and has been worse.

In 1618, the future Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II, in his role as king of Bohemia, attempted to impose Roman Catholic absolutism on his domains, and the Protestant nobles of both Bohemia and Austria rose up in rebellion. Thus began what was known as The Thirty Years War, one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. It resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague.

A walled city, Eilenburg, Germany, quickly became a place of refuge for thousands of frightened and displaced Germans fleeing the devastating conflict. The sudden overcrowding caused widespread food shortages, and starving residents soon began fighting in the streets for dead cats and birds.

On top of the famine, densely-packed humanity and filth soon led to an outbreak of plague. The four ministers in the town began officiating ten or more funerals a day -- each. One overwhelmed pastor eventually fled and two others died, leaving Martin Rinkart the sole minister in the desperate and overpopulated city.

Alone, Rinkart was tasked with burying up to 50 people a day, including his own wife. By the end of the ordeal, he’d conducted nearly 4,500 funerals. The dead eventually became so numerous they had to be buried in mass trenches without services.

In the face of overwhelming pressure, constant risk and horrendous conditions, Rinkart never stopped ministering to the people of his city. He gave away nearly everything he owned to the poor and needy, though he could barely clothe and feed his own children. He mortgaged his own future income to provide for his family and his community.

After nearly thirty years of ceaseless struggles, it began to look like peace was within grasp. Wanting to give his children a song to sing to God in thanks at the dinner table, Rinkart sat down and wrote what would become one of the most well known Thanksgiving hymns of all time -- “Now Thank We All Our God.” Set to a simple tune by Johann Crüger, it's been said that aside from Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," no other song is sung more often in Lutheran churches today than Rinkart's table grace.

Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms,
Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.

All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.

listen to one of these renditions of this great hymn. Perhaps you can sing along. The first is the traditional choir and organ, the other is a more contemporary, acoustic solo version.
Now Thank We All Our God

Now Thank We All Our God by Reawaken (Acoustic Hymn)

Music for March 15, 2020 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Jesus, My Breath, My Life – K. Lee Scott

Instrumental Music

• O Man, Bewail Thy Grievous Fall – J. S. Bach
• Prelude in C, BWV 846  – J. S. Bach
• Christ, the Lamb of God – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn R 9 - As the Deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 676 - There is a balm in Gilead (BALM IN GILEAD)
• Hymn 679 - Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn S-35 - Psalm 95: The Venite (Jack Noble White)

Notes on some of our hymns this week: Notice the theme of water that runs through many of them.

Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace," wrote this hymn to educate his congregation about the Bible. Most classic hymns are Biblically oriented, and this text has references to Isaiah 33:20, Psalm 87:3, I Peter 2, Revelation 1, and Exodus 17:1-7, which describes the streams of living water, referring to the Israelites journey through the wilderness in today's Old Testament reading.

As the Deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
Nystrom was at a Bible College in Dallas one summer when a friend challenged hymn to take up a fast. On the 19th day of the fast he found himself sitting at a piano trying to write a song. "I was simply playing chord progressions when I noticed a Bible on the music stand of the piano. It was open to Psalm 42. My eyes fell on the first verse of that chapter... As the hart (deer) panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. After reading the verse I began to sing its message, right off the page. I wrote the first verse and the chorus of a song, pretty much straight through. The whole of the adventure was completed in a matter of minutes."
"As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after thee."

Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
In 1752, a young Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned these words which have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns.
The imagery of Christ as the giver of living water reminds us of his encounter with the woman at the well in today's Gospel.

Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
Isaiah 12 consists of two stanzas of praise (12: 1-3 and 4-6). Together they make up the "First Song of Isaiah," one of the "lesser" Old Testament canticles used by the medieval church. As songs of joy and praise for God's deliverance, these stanzas are the climax to a group of prophecies spanning Isaiah 7-11. In stanza 1, Isaiah 12:2 echoes Exodus 15:2 of the Song of Moses (see also 152), and 12:3 uses the "wells of living water" image, often a biblical symbol of salvation (John 4:10). Carl P. Daw, Jr., versified these passages in 1981 for The Hymnal 1982.

Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY)
There is a legend that Augustus Toplady was inspired to write this hymn after finding shelter from a thunderstorm in a cleft in a rock at Burrington Combe in Somerset, England in 1776. While evidence to support that story is lacking, it does provide a vivid image which echos the themes of both the Old Testament reading and Gospel.

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
At the urging of a Welsh evangelist, under whom he was converted, William Williams began writing hymns as a Welsh Calvinist-Methodist. His brother Peter, who was later expelled from the church for heresy, provided the translation. The Exodus and the journey through the wilderness to Canaan is the basis of the hymn, with its reference to "the crystal fountain" being perfect for the Old Testament reading of Exodus 17.

Music for March 8, 2020 + Lent II

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Goss (1800-1880)

Instrumental Music

• Wär Gott nicht mi tuns diese Zeit – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• (Had God Not Been With Us This Time)
• Contemplation on “Beautiful Savior” – Matthew Compton (b. 1994) 
• Good Shepherd Handbell Guild
• Lift High the Cross – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn R 132 - As Moses raised the serpent up (GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn 691 - My faith looks up to thee (OLIVET)
• Hymn 313 - Let thy Blood in mercy poured (JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)
• Psalm 121 – tone IIa

Sir John Goss, looking for all
the world like Franz Schubert.

This Sunday's anthem is a setting of a verse from Sunday's Gospel reading, a verse that is probably the most well known and memorized verse from the Bible. Most choirs know and sing John Stainer's setting of God So Loved the World, but few know the setting by Stainer's teacher and predecessor, Sir John Goss, who was an English organist, composer and teacher.

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, his best-known compositions are his hymn tunes "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" and "See, Amid the Winter's Snow". The music critic of The Times described him as the last of the line of English composers who confined themselves almost entirely to ecclesiastical music.

From 1827 to 1874, Goss was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, teaching harmony. He also taught at St Paul's. Among his pupils at the academy were Arthur Sullivan, Frederic Cowen and Frederick Bridge. His best-known pupil at St Paul's was John Stainer, who succeeded him as organist there.

Goss was noted for his piety and gentleness of character. His pupil, John Stainer, wrote, "That Goss was a man of religious life was patent to all who came into contact with him, but an appeal to the general effect of his sacred compositions offers public proof of the fact." His mildness was a disadvantage when attempting to deal with his recalcitrant singers. He was unable to do anything about the laziness of the tenors and basses, who had lifetime security of tenure and were uninterested in learning new music.

I can relate.