June 28, 2020 + The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• All Good Gifts from Godspell – Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

Instrumental Music

• The Morning Trumpet – Michael J. James (1947-2019)
• Pisgah – Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)

44 years ago this past week, Godspell opened on Broadway after first showing up Off-broadway five years earlier. It was the first big show for song writer Stephen Schwartz, who was 23 years old when he first took on the task of writing the music for a show that had already been in production.

Godspell began as a project by drama students at Carnegie Mellon University and then moved Off-Off-Broadway. Instead of writing a script which the actors memorized, Godspell’s actors, began rehearsing with parables and stories from the Bible that were brought in by the show’s conceiver and director, John-Michael Tebelak. The methods of working with the material essentially emerged by way of an improvisational process. They shaped various spiritual lessons into a stylized piece of musical theater under Tebelak’s guidance. Whether they played charades, came up with a Three Stooges type of response, or found some other way to communicate an idea, it was largely invented during rehearsals.

The songs for Godspell originally came from the Episcopal Hymnal 1940. With Stephen Schwartz, the show was rescored for an Off-Broadway production, which became a long-running success.

This Sunday, Amy Bogan will sing All Good Gifts. In most Godspell productions, during the instrumental break the actor playing Jesus speaks a few lines from Matthew chapter 6 about not storing up treasures on earth.

Composer Stephen Schwartz with publisher Marty Ostrow
and Managing Editor Irv Lichtman
(Photo:Sony Music Photo Archive)

When John-Michael Tebelak was first piecing together the college production of Godspell, he remembered a harvest song in the Episcopal hymnal that is sometimes performed at Thanksgiving services, “We Plow the Fields, and Scatter.” Tebelak asked his friend Duane Bolick to write music to go with the words so the song could be used in Act I of the new musical. Bolick wrote a slow ballad that would be accompanied by a rock band.

In 1971, Stephen Schwartz prepared his version of the music for the final incarnation of Godspell at the Cherry Lane Theatre. He used the same lyrics but wrote his own music. He says he was inspired, in part, by the introductory chords to James Taylor’s song “Fire and Rain.”

The instrumental music on Sunday comes from the tradition of the Sacred Harp, a uniquely American tradition that brings communities together to sing four-part hymns and anthems. Technically, that style of singing is “shape note singing” because the musical notation uses noteheads in 4 distinct shapes to aid in sight-reading, but it is often called “Sacred Harp” singing because the books that most singers use today are called “The Sacred Harp."

The opening voluntary is a piano duet on the tune THE MORNING TRUMPET, written in 1844 by Benjamin F. White, coeditor of the original The Sacred Harp, for the text by John Leland, an American Baptist Minister.

O, when shall I see Jesus and reign with him above,
and shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning,
and from the flowing fountain drink everlasting love,
and shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning?

Both parts of this duet are played by me (Jackson Hearn), thanks to modern technology!

The closing voluntary is an organ piece by Dale Wood from his Organ Book of American Folk Hymns.  The tune is PISGAH, which is usually paired with the hymn "When I can read my title clear." It's an earlier tune than THE MORNING TRUMPET, coming from a song book called Kentucky Harmony (1816).

Music for June 21, 2020 + The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• God Help the Outcasts from The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Alan Menken (b. 1949), Camryn Creech, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Faith of Our Fathers/Precious Lord, Take My Hand/ God Will Take Care of You/We Shall Overcome – Bernice Satterwhite, pianist
• Poco Vivace – Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984)

Congregational Music (The hymn is from Lift Every Voice and Sing. The Gloria is from the Hymnal 1982, and the Sanctus is from Wonder Love and Praise.)

• Hymn - Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine (BLESSED ASSURANCE)
• Song of Praise - Glory to You (Canticle 13) – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Sanctus 858 - Holy, holy, holy (LAND OF REST)

Bernice Satterwhite, who regularly plays piano at our 8 AM service (in the good old days!), plays a medley of hymns and spiritual songs appropriate to the events and people we remember this weekend. 

Sunday is, of course, Father's Day, so she opens with the hymn Faith of our Fathers.  Precious Lord, Take My Hand and God Will Take Care of You remind us that, during these troubling, trying times, we have a God who will take our hand and take care of us through all of this. And Friday, June 19th, is Juneteenth, the day celebrated annually throughout the United States to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were now free. We Shall Overcome reminds us that we have a way to go before all are truly free.

This week we have another example of the works of musical theatre composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, whose works, including his first big hit, Godspell, contain more than a hint of the Gospel (which is pretty good for a Jewish man from New York City).

Sunday we'll hear Camryn Creech sing the song God Help the Outcasts from the Disney animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I remember the first time I heard this song, thinking that it would make a great church piece.

God help the outcasts, hungry from birth
Show them the mercy they don't find on Earth
The lost and forgotten, they look to you still
God help the outcasts, or nobody will
I ask for nothing, I can get by
But I know so many less lucky than I
God help the outcasts, the poor and downtrod
I thought we all were the children of God (1)

There are still so many that are considered outcasts in our country, state, and community. Some are outcast because of homelessness, mental health, race, or sexuality. I pray that we can be moved by God to help the outcast, too.

(1) God Help the Outcasts lyrics © Walt Disney Music Co. Ltd., Walt Disney Music Company, Trunksong Music Ltd., Menken Music, Heelstone Parc Prod., Wonderland Music Co. Inc., Wonderland Music Company Inc., Wonderland Music Company Inc, Wonderland Music Co., Inc., Walt Disney Music Co Ltd

Music for June 14, 2020 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music:

• Simple Song from “Mass” – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• There Is a Spirit That Delights to Do No Evil – Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
• Intrada on “Abbot’s Leigh” – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of hymn 780, which is from Wonder, Love and Praise, the supplement to the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 780 Lord, you give the great commission (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn S-280 - Glory to God in the highest - Robert Powell (b. 1932)

We continue this week using music with texts or tunes by Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz. Last week we heard his text set to his own music (When You Believe, from Prince of Egypt). This week we hear his set to music by Leonard Bernstein. The song is Simple Song, from Bernstein's Mass.

Bernstein with the 23-year old Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz was only 23 years old when he was approached to write the lyrics for Mass. He had just finished Godspell, and had acquired an agent, Shirley Bernstein, who was the older sister of Leonard Bernstein. When Bernstein wanted a lyricist for his Mass, Shirley brought the two men together. Stephen and Lenny became personal friends, closing the circle that began when Schwartz heard Candide on WQXR as a schoolboy.

“He had a commission to do a piece for the opening of the Kennedy Center in September of 1971, and it was May, and he was getting increasingly desperate. It was a mammoth, major, gigantic piece and Lenny had nothing done. There were all these little shreds and starts of pieces, and two lines here, and a bit of a tune there, and three months to go to do a piece with 200 singers and dancers. Needless to say, Lenny was relatively panicky at that point. I wrote lyrics to music that he had, and reworked lyrics that he had written.” (1)

Some of the words haven’t aged well — phrases like “I’m so freaky-minded” — while others are clever, like “They can fashion a rebuttal that’s as subtle as a sword / But they’re never gonna scuttle the Word of the Lord.” But the text for Simple Song is timeless, for parts come straight from the Psalms of the Hebrew Testament:

I will sing the Lord a new song
To praise Him, to bless Him, to bless the Lord.
I will sing His praises while I live
All of my days.

Blessed is the man who loves the Lord,
Blessed is the man who praises Him.
Lauda, Lauda, Laudē
And walks in His ways.

I will lift up my eyes
To the hills from whence comes my help
I will lift up my voice to the Lord
Singing Lauda, Laudē.

For the Lord is my shade,
Is the shade upon my right hand
And the sun shall not smite me by day
Nor the moon by night

I wrote more on this fascinating work two years ago, when it was sung during one of our services, and you can read that here.

The organ opening voluntary is also another stunningly simple (at first glance) musical work. Ned Rorem, the American composer, wrote an large scale organ work called A Quaker Reader. Rorem, who was raised a Quaker, wrote organ works based on lines from the works of various Quaker writers. This work, "There is a Spirit Who Delights to Do No Evil," comes from the writings of James Nayler, an English Quaker leader from the 17th century who was part of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries who preached against enclosure and the slave trade.

There is a Spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatsoever is of nature contrary to itself; it sees to the end of all temptations. As it bears no evil in itself so it conceives none in thoughts to any other. If it be betrayed it bears it,b for its ground and spring is the mercies and forgiveness of God. (2)

Rebecca Te Velde

The wistful melody is first heard with simple chords as accompaniment. After a key change, it is heard in canon, with the left hand echoing the tune. Another key change, and the pedal part is added, ascending almost to the top of the pedal board.

The closing voluntary is a brief "intrada" (introduction) to the hymn-tune "Abbot's Leigh" which is used as our hymn of the day. It is arranged by Rebecca Groom Te Velde, a third generation professional organist who serves as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, OK. She is an active performer, composer, clinician, and adjunct instructor of music at Oklahoma State University where her husband, John, is associate professor of German.

1. https://theculturalcritic.com/stephen-schwartz-at-mid-career/, accessed June 11, 2020.
2. Several Papers of Confessions, Prayer, and Praise; by James Nayler, London, 1659.

Music for June 7, 2020 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt - Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948) Emily VanNostrand, soloist

Instrumental Music

• We All Believe in One True God – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Prelude on “Nicea” – Flor Peeters (1903-1986)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 362 -  Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
• Hymn 421 - All Glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH)
• Hymn S-236 -  Canticle 13: A Song of Praise – John Rutter

It’s been 22 years since the animated feature film The Prince of Egypt debuted and won an Oscar for the ballad When You Believe, written by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. But its availability on DVD and streaming services has kept it in the eye and ear of the public. That's why when trying to think of a song for Emily VanNostrand to sing, the 10-year old could easily suggest When You Believe.

Stephen Schwartz

For those of you without a child (or grandchild) in the house, The Prince of Egypt is based on the Book of Exodus and follows the story of Moses and his brother, the Pharaoh Ramses. The movie has since been recrafted as a stage musical, premiering in California in 2017. (It had just had its London premiere at the end of February before becoming another casualty of Covid-19).


The lyrics as well as the music are by Stephen Schwartz. We decided that When You Believe would be a perfect song for us living through one of the most trying times of our recent history.

Many nights we've prayed,
With no proof anyone could hear.
In our hearts a hopeful song we barely understood.
Now we are not afraid,
Although we know there's much to fear.
We were moving mountains long before we knew we could

There can be miracles when you believe.
Though hope is frail it's hard to kill.
Who knows what miracles you can achieve
When you believe, somehow you will,
You will when you believe.

In this time of fear, when prayer so often proved in vain.
Hope seemed like the summer birds
Too swiftly flown away.
Yet now I'm standing here,
With heart so full I can't explain.
With heart so full,
Seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say.

If you listen closely, after the second verse, you'll hear a fragment of the old hymn "There Is A Happy Land Far, Far Away." I don't know if it was Schwartz or the arranger of the music who decided to add this hint of hope to the music, but you'll hear it again in the piano part at the very end of the solo.

The opening voluntary is J. S. Bach’s setting of the chorale, “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott (We all believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), the Lutheran version of the Catholic CREDO. All Bach’s skills converge in this setting to make it a perfect example of his fundamental appeal. The hands are playing a fughetta which begins on the offbeat, creating total rhythmic uncertainty with the syncopation maintained throughout .This is  against a recurrent pedal line which is  stamping up an octave in thirds and then bounding stepwise downward this utterly memorable shape. Edward Elgar likened it to “tumbling down stairs.” This recurs six times plus one wonderful final intensification.

I like to play this on Trinity Sunday, the day we meditate on the mystery of the God-head, one in three persons (though there is nothing meditative about this piece!).

The quintessential hymn for Trinity Sunday is "Holy, Holy, Holy," and not only are we singing that hymn in the service, but my closing voluntary is a short prelude based on the hymn's tune, NICEA, written by Flor Peeters, a Catholic organist from Belgium. He was organist at the same church, the National Cathedral in Mechelen, from the 1920s until his death in 1986.

Flor Peeters

My friend and colleague, Dr. Linda Patterson, at St. Andrew's in Bryan, Texas, wrote her dissertation on the music of Peeters. She told me that he excelled in settings of the Gregorian chant, and after it was successful, he took on the enormous Op. 100 collection (the largest collection of organ chorales by a single composer) based on tunes that were provided to him through his publisher, C. F. Peters, compiled by American Lutheran musician Walter Buzsin who knew which tunes would be the most-often-used in American churches.  That collection is in 24 volumes, with over 213 chorales!

He toured the US many times, giving 300 recitals in American venues, and did a yearly Church Music Conference at Boys' Town, Nebraska.