Music for April 16, 2020 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Rise Up, My Heart, With Gladness, BWV 441 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750), Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Abide With Me – Timothy Shaw (b. 1976)
• Erschienen ist der Herrliche Tag, BWV 529 – J. S. Bach
• Sunday Morning Fire - Jackson Berkey (b. 1942)

Congregational Music (from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (DUKE STREET)
• Sanctus – (LAND OF REST)

Harrison Boyd sings one of the hymns from J. S. Bach's collection Geistliche Lieder und Arien. It is a harmonization of an Easter hymn by Paul Gerhardt (1647) set to a melody of Johann Crüger in 1648. There is little scholarly evidence, however, that Bach had anything to do with this chorale.

Our congregational hymn, sung by Camryn Creech, is the hymn Christ is alive, set to the tune DUKE STREET. Brian A. Wren, (born 1936 in Romford, Essex, England), an internationally published hymn-poet and writer, wrote the text during April of 1968. Wren writes:

It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God's love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing.

"Christ Is Alive" is a joyful celebration of Christ's resurrection and of his personal rule in a human world in which pain, war, and injustice abound. Christ’s transcendent and immanent reign is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will ultimately bring about a new creation. I can't let an Easter season pass without singing this hymn, which is especially poignant this year during isolation and pandemic.

Timothy Shaw

The Opening voluntary is an arrangement of the old hymn by Scottish Anglican Henry Francis Lyte, Abide With Me. I wanted to play this beautiful setting by Timothy Shaw today for two reasons. First, its opening line is linked to Luke 24:29, today's Gospel reading, in which the disciples asked Jesus to abide with them "for it is toward evening and the day is spent". Second, the hymn is a prayer for God to remain present with us throughout life, through trials, and through death. The penultimate verse draws on text from 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?":

Born and raised in Keene, New Hampshire, Timothy Shaw is a contemporary pianist, composer, and educator. Like J. S. Bach, he has studied both theology and music. As a composer, he is the recipient of the 2019 ALCM Raabe Prize for Excellence in Sacred Composition. He has written extensively for the church and is published by nine different publishers. 

The closing voluntary, "Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag" (The day hath dawned—-the day of days), is a German Easter carol with text and tune written by Nikolaus Herman and published in 1561. It has inspired musical settings by composers from the 17th to the 20th century. It appears in several hymnals, including the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch. Other hymns, especially Easter hymns, are sung to the same melody.

The melody is in Dorian mode, a triple metre, and shows dotted rhythms. Its character is dance-like. Musicologists have suggested an origin in Gregorian chant, and Easter plays that may have contained "liturgical dance". In his Orgelbüchlein, Bach composed this chorale prelude on the hymn  in which he uses the melody as a cantus firmus in soprano and bass in canon, with joyful motifs in the middle voices.

Music for April 19, 2020 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• How Can I Keep from Singing – folk song, arr. Judith Herrington (21st Century) Christine Marku, soprano 

Instrumental Music

• Variations on Unser Herrsher (Hymn 180 – He is Risen, He Is Risen!) – arr. Curt Oliver (1943-2018)
• Easter Hymn – Noël Goemanne (1926-2010)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 208 – The strife is o’er (VICTORY)

Here’s what’s coming up on this week’s streaming worship service:

We have two pieces of music made possible by current technology: One is a 4-part setting of a hymn sung by just one person, and the other is a hymn performed by over 600 Episcopalians across this wide world, all in different locations.

First I’ll talk about the anthem. A couple of weeks into this Covid-19 physical distancing period, my friend, fellow musician, and Good Shepherd parishioner Christine Marku posted a video on her Instagram page of her singing an arrangement of the old hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing.” She used the app called Acapella. It has a simple concept: One person can record multiple videos, layering them to create harmonies a la Pitch Perfect.

She used an arrangement by Judy Herrington, a choral conductor from the Pacific Northwest. Herrington established her reputation through her conducting work with the Tacoma Youth Chorus. Later, her folk song arrangements became very popular. This a cappella arrangement of one of the great American hymns is another example of her excellent work.

The hymn is by 19th century Baptist clergyman Robert Lowry. He wrote many hymns and Gospel songs, the most famous being “Shall We Gather at the River.” When I heard Christine’s video, I knew that it would be a fitting hymn for us to hear as we worship together, but separate, via the internet.

This hymn is all about perspective. It opens with an assertion that the troubles of this world are nothing when compared to the new creation that is to come. By keeping our focus on our Lord – that He is our Rock and that He lives – we can follow the admonition of the apostle James: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2 ESV).

My life flows on in endless song;
above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the real, though far off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing? 

What though the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness 'round me closed,
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

Robert Lowry, 1826-1899, arr. Judith Herrington

The other “modern miracle” of music in this service is Hymn 208 from our hymnal, The Strife Is O’er. When it became apparent that we would not be able to worship together in our churches on Easter, the national church sent out a plea for volunteer musicians to submit videos singing or playing (on their instruments) to a pre-recorded track that the church sent out. Combining nearly 800 submissions from more than 600 participants all around the world, technicians were able to bring them all together in one voice to proclaim - The Strife is O'er, the battle won! We use their video as our hymn this Sunday.

The instrumental voluntaries were recorded by Jackson Hearn specifically for Sunday’s service. The opening voluntary are piano variations on Hymn 180, “He Is Risen! He Is Risen,’ arranged by Curt Oliver. 

Curt Oliver

A native of Minnesota, Oliver was the Director of Music and Organist at Macalester-Plymouth United Church, in St. Paul, Minnesota, for 42. From 1970-1993 he was the Music Director of KUOM Radio at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He was also the Director of the Prospect Park Community Choir. 

Oliver earned a B.A. in Music Theory and Composition at the University of Minnesota, and did further studies at the University of Minnesota, and Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, where he studied with Alice Parker, Joan Lippincott, James Litton, and Eric Routley. He was an Associate of the AGO, and Life Member of The Hymn Society.

Noel Goemanne

The closing voluntary is a toccata for organ on the class Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”. It is by Noël Goemanne, a Belgian-born American composer, organist and choral director who, for 42 years, was organist-choirmaster at Christ the King Catholic Church in Dallas. The name is pronounced "Whooo-mahn" in Belgium-and every other way possible in the United States.

His early music education occurred in his native Belgium, which led him to the Lemmens Institute where he studied with Flor Peeters, and to the Conservatoire Royal de Liège. Migrating to Texas, he continued his musical career with extensive church music ministry, no small part of which are three hundred sacred compositions.

Easter

April 12 + Easter

Good Shepherd Episcopal, Kingwood (Houston) Texas

Vocal Music

I Know That My Redeemer Liveth – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

Good Christians all, rejoice and sing! – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

ST. ALBINUS – Jesus Lives! (Hymn 194) – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)

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

Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Confitemini Domino - setting by Hal H. Hopson

Music for April 5, 2020 + Palm Sunday

Vocal Music

• The Holy City – Stephen Adams (Michael Maybrick) (1841-1913)
• Via Dolorosa - Billy Sprague (b. 1952) /Niles Borop (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory, Laud, and Honor - Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded - Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)

Congregational Music (from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 154 - All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)

Two completely different vocal solos will be featured in the services this Sunday, plus the hymn that many of us think of when we think of Palm Sunday.

First, we will hear Amy Bogan sing what we refer to as a chestnut, a musical piece that has oft been repeated to the point of staleness. The Holy City is a song that, much like the service on Palm Sunday, includes not only the triumphal entry but the crucifixion. The third stanza, however, goes on to detail the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. This will literally be heaven on earth. It is referred to in the Bible in several places (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:10; 12:22–24; and 13:14), but it is most fully described in Revelation 21. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate fulfillment of all God’s promises.

The song was written by Michael Maybrick, an English musician, best known today under his pseudonym Stephen Adams as the composer of The Holy City. He studied keyboard and harmony in Germany, but later decided to train as a baritone  in Milan. After gaining experience in Italian theaters, he appeared with great success at all the leading concert venues in London and the provinces, as well as in English opera. He even toured America to great success. The Holy City was his biggest hit. He sang it in concert much like Michael Crawford sang On Eagle's Wings when he concertized.

Now, here comes the fun part of today's story. Maybrick was a keen amateur sportsman, being a cricketer, a yachtsman and a cyclist, and a Captain in the Artists Rifles. His friends spoke of his charming personality, but others thought him arrogant and vain. In 1893 he married his forty-year-old housekeeper, Laura Withers, and retired with her on the Isle of Wight. They were joined there by the two children of his brother, James Maybrick, later a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, and whose wife Florence was convicted of his murder in 1889. (A re-examination of her case resulted in her release in 1904.) He died in 1913.

In October of 2015, screen writer Bruce Robinson published a huge tome called They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper. It was a culmination of 15 years of research in the study of the Jack the Ripper case. Based on his research (which some experts dispute), he points the accusing finger at Michael Maybrick (not his brother James) as detailed in this report.

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After the reading of the Passion Story, Bidkar Cajina will sing a song from a genre that doesn't often make it into our services. From the realm of contemporary Gospel Music (whatever that means) comes the song Via Dolorosa.

For many Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, one of the most meaningful things they will do while in the city is walk the Via Dolorosa, the route that Jesus took between his condemnation by Pilate and his crucifixion and burial. This "way of sadness" was the inspiration for the 1986 Dove Award winning song made famous by Sandi Patti. It was composed by Billy Sprague, an Oklahoma native who grew up in the Amarillo, Texas area. He earned a degree in English from Texas Christian University, did graduate work for two years in literature at the University of Texas, Austin, followed by twenty-five years of making music in Nashville, Tn. He is currently Worship Pastor (what we call a director of music) at Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater, Florida.