Music for February 28, 2021 + The Second Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Take Up Your Cross – Ronald Corp (b. 1951)
• Lord, For Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake – Richard Farrant (c. 1525 – 1580)
• Hymn 401: The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on the hymn tune BOURBON – Don Michael Dicie (b. 1941)
• Hymn 675: Take up your cross, the Savior said
• Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho – arr. Fela Sowande (1905-1987)

The last day of February also brings us to the last Sunday of our series highlighting Black musicians who just happen to be/have been Anglicans. Today we focus on Fela Sowande.

Fela Sowande was a Nigerian organist and composer who was raised in the church. His father was Emmanuel Sowande, an Anglican priest and champion of Nigerian Church Music. 

Fela Sowande

His father, as well as the organist Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (dubbed the “Father of Nigerian church music”), were a big influence on Sowande’s early music education. Sowande studied organ with Phillips, and performed as a chorister at his father’s church. As a youth he traveled to London to study Civil Engineering, but along the way, he obtained a Bachelor of Music from City University in London and became a Fellow of Trinity College. 

Sowande was not confined to one style of music. He was a theatre organist for the BBC at the same time as being part of a piano duo with Fats Waller; he was a choirmaster at the prestigious Kingsway Hall at the same time as recording tracks for the likes of Vera Lynn and Adelaide Hall ; he was a band leader, and an in-demand keyboardist.

But his compositions showed a more serious side. He wrote extensively for choir and organ, combining the classical training he received at school with the rhythmic patterns and melodies of West Africa. In the 50s, he began to use the spirituals and gospel songs of African-Americans, and a grant from the U. S. Government allowed enabled Sowande to travel to the United States in 1957 and give organ recitals in Boston, Chicago and New York.  

The organ piece I chose for today is Sowande's setting of the spiritual, Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jericho. (The dialect is original to Sowande's publication.) While the tune is strictly that of the spiritual, you can also hear the classical influence in musical form (there is a fugal section in the middle at the return of the refrain), and in the use of tone painting (at the end, where the harmonies descend, getting lower and lower, at the point in the song where "the walls came a-tumblin' down." )

I have resisted playing any of the typical spirituals this year, as I did not want to reduce the Black musical contributions to just spirituals, as significant as they are to the history of American music. But this collection of African-American spirituals by a classically-trained Nigerian organist was too great to pass by. (And it's so much fun to play!) So, to give you a taste of a more traditional but still fresh musical composition by Fela Sowande, please listen to this recording of his best-known work, the African Suite for string orchestra. Listen here (but not while in church!)

Music for February 21, 2021 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days – Erik Meyer (b. 1980)

Instrumental Music

• Three Preludes on Erhalt uns, Herr (The Glory of These Forty Days)
• Johann Pachelbel (1653 –1706)
• Johann Gottfried Walther (1684 –1748)
• Johann Christoph Bach (1642 –1703)
• They Will Not Lend Me a Child – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
• “Little” Prelude in D Minor – attr. To J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

As we enter the season of Lent, we begin to visit those Psalms that are categorized as "Laments." A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. In Lent, we Christians lament over our sins and grief.

In searching for music that is appropriate for our worship and also observes the contribution that Black people have made to our culture during Black History Month, I turned to a favorite piano piece by a Black composer which, while not being explicitly "sacred," it certainly upholds the feeling of lament.

The British composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born to a father from Sierra Leone and a mother from England, who raised him as a single parent after the father returned to Africa. Coleridge-Taylor entered the Royal College of Music as a violinist when he was 15. He composed prolifically, at first producing a stream of chamber music, much of it redolent of Brahms (a favorite composer of his teacher, Charles Villiers Stanford), and by the turn of the century he produced imposing works for orchestra, chorus, and the stage.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Coleridge-Taylor became an admired conductor, leading the Westmoreland Festival from 1901 to 1904 and London’s Handel Society from 1904 until his death at 37. He made three visits to the United States, in 1904, 1906, and 1910. He impressed musical connoisseurs during these trips; the orchestral musicians of New York reportedly complimented his ability on the podium by dubbing him “the Black Mahler.”

When he was seventeen he became impassioned by the music of Dvořák, which led to an interest in American and African-American music, which Dvořák promoted. When Coleridge-Taylor toured the U.S. in 1904, the Boston firm of Oliver Ditson invited him to compose concert-style piano arrangements of twenty-four African-American songs. It published them in 1905, and it is in that collection that we find today's Communion voluntary. “They Will Not Lend Me a Child” is a lament, not from the southeastern United States, but from southeastern Africa.

In Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Anglo-Black Composer, 1875-1912, William Tortolano discusses this southeastern African lament "A ba boleki nwana!" and Samuel Coleridge Taylor's explanation of the meaning. "In countries where a childless married woman is considered less than nothing, it is only natural that such a one should try to borrow a child for adoption - a plan not, I believe, by any means unknown among more civilized peoples. Her lament on finding she is unable to discover a child is therefore literal in every sense of the word."

So while the song may not be composed for church use, I believe there is a sacred feel of lament inherent in the music. It's in the form of a theme and variations. There is more Brahms that Botswana in this piece.

The opening voluntaries are three different chorale preludes on a tune connected to one of the hymns for Lent in our hymnal, The glory of these forty days. All three composers were from Germany during the Baroque Period. Johann Christoph Bach was a cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The anthem is another Lenten Hymn from our hymnal, albeit with a different tune (the Hymnal 1980 uses the tune ST. FLAVIAN whereas this anthem uses the tune MORNING SONG, which is found in our hymnal twice - hymns 9 and 583).  MORNING SONG is a folk tune that has some resemblance to the traditional English tune for "Old King Cole." The tune appeared anonymously in Part II of John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music (1813).

It was composed by Erik Meyer a native of Collingswood, NJ, where he began his church music career at thirteen. He earned a BM and MM in organ from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He has performed numerous organ recitals throughout the world and duo recitals with his wife, Anna. Erik is the organist at Abingdon Presbyterian Church, Abingdon, Pennsylvania, after serving as Minister of Music at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Salem, NJ. In addition, he is adjunct faculty at Temple University, teaching Exploring Music and Music Theory and introductory music courses. Previously, he was Director of Music at Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia,

Music for Sunday, February 14, 2021 + The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O Splendor of God’s Glory Bright – Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
• Hymn 135: Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on ST. ELIZABETH – Carson P. Cooman (b. 1982)
• I. Theme
• II. Duo
• III. Gigue
• IV. Meditation
• V. Chorale
• Walk With Us – Alexis Ffrench (b. 1970)
• Fanfare and Chorale – Calvin Fuller (21st C.)

The music for this Sunday includes the music of two living Black composers, one living White composer, and one very dead White man. Since we are observing Black History month, let’s start with the two Black Composers.

I’m really happy and excited to be playing the piano piece during the eucharist by the British classical soul pioneer, composer, producer and pianist Alexis Ffrench (that’s not a typo – he spells his name with two ffs). Not only is Ffrench the UK's biggest selling pianist of 2020, he has headlined London's Royal Albert Hall, collaborated with fashion houses Miyake and Hugo Boss, played Latitude Festival, worked with Paloma Faith, composed several film scores and shares the same management team as Little Mix and Niall Horan.

Ffrench's music has amassed over 200 million streams and both albums Evolution and Dreamland reached No. 1 in the classical music charts. "Even calling yourself 'a classical artist' is a barrier of entry to many people. My music has a classical signature in its DNA, but it's borderless, a synthesis of many styles.”

Alexis Ffrench

Ffrench has been improvising on the piano since the age of four. Before his formal music education, at the age of seven Ffrench was appointed head organist at his local church in Surrey, becoming the UK's youngest church organist. Growing up in a household full of the music of Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and Ella Fitzgerald, Ffrench first honed his craft by playing the kitchen table aged four and writing his first pieces at five, his prodigious gifts convincing his parents to buy a second-hand piano. He received scholarships to study at The Purcell School for Young Musicians, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

His 2020 single "Walk With Us" pays homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. Like everyone else, he's watched the news of George Floyd unfold with a sense of horror, grief-stricken at events in the United States.

"From traumas, past and present, as we collectively breathe new life into urgent conversations and actions, I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: 'The problem can only be solved when there is a kind of coalition of conscience'. Only together can we meet the moment purposefully and move forward in positivity and love."

"I hope that by lending my musical voice to the Black Lives Matter movement through this video I can elevate the cause in some small way and entreat listeners to #walkwithus..."

The closing voluntary comes from much closer to home, as I repeat my friend Calvin Fuller’s bombastic Fanfare and Chorale which I first played during the virtual services this past summer. You can read about it here.

Carson P. Cooman

The opening voluntary is a set of short variations on the familiar hymn, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” by the young American organist, Carson Cooman. A native of Rochester, New York, he is a composer, concert organist, editor, and consultant. As an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms, from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes, his works have been performed on six continents and have been recorded on over 40 CDs. As a performer, over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD releases and more than 3,000 recordings available online.

Since 2006, Cooman has held the position of Composer in Residence at The Memorial Church, Harvard University. From 2008-11, he also served as Composer in Residence to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2015, he has been Organ and Choral Editor for Lorenz Publishing Company and Sacred Music Press.

The anthem for this Sunday is an excerpt from a larger motet by the very dead Claudio Monteverdi, an Italian composer, singer, and priest from Cremona, Italy. Monteverdi is one of the most important composers in the history of Western music, whose music marked the transition from the late Renaissance to the new "Baroque" style, combining the brand-new basso continuo technique with formal counterpoint. He did much to develop the then-new genre, the opera, writing one of the very first operas, L'Orfeo (1607),  which is still performed regularly today. 

He was also a pioneer in music for the Church: his Vespero della Beata Vergine of 1610 is a landmark work for choir and orchestra that introduces, alongside archaic polyphony, such forward-looking techniques as concertato writing and ritornello forms to sacred music.

Music for February 7, 2021 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies - Rachel Aarons (b. 1984) 
• One Thing I Ask of the Lord – Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
• Hymn – O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)

Instrumental Music

• Six Short Preludes and Intermezzos for Organ – Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984) 

VI. Poco Vivace
V. Andantino
IV. Allegretto
III. Allegro moderato
II. Andante Sostenuto
I. Maestoso

• Prelude in C, BWV 533 – attr. To J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

February is Black History Month, so I want to highlight the black composers who contribute so much to our worship life, not just in February, but all year long.

Take, for instance, the Sanctus and Fraction anthem which we have been singing since Christmas. As familiar as this music is to most of us, you may not know that it is written by an Black American Episcopal Musician. David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of awards, prizes, honors, and achievements, and immeasurable expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition.

From 1976 until 2015, David Hurd was a faculty member at The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City, first as Director of Chapel Music and later also as Professor of Church Music and Organist. He is the composer of dozens of hymns, choral works, settings of the liturgy, and organ works published by a number of major houses. He was one of the major contributors of new hymnody and liturgical settings for the Episcopal Church’s Hymnal 1982 and his music is seen in hymnals and choir libraries in churches of all religious denominations. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award. From 1998-2013 he was Music Director and Organist at Church of the Holy Apostles (Episcopal) in New York City. Dr. Hurd is now Organist/Choirmaster of the famed Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Times Square.

As a concert organist David Hurd enjoys instant recognition both at home and abroad. Since winning both first prizes (in performance and improvisation) of the 1977 International Congress of Organists, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, has been a featured artist at numerous national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. 

He studied both at the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School and at Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art. Later he attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating with a music degree in 1971, and went on for further study at the University of North Carolina and, back in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers have included Bronson Ragan, Garth Peacock, Arthur Poister, and Rudolph Kremer.

The offertory anthem this Sunday is a setting of the hymn, Christ, whose glory fills the skies, written by the Wyoming native, Rachel Aarons. While in college, she studied piano, voice, and composition while pursuing a B.A. in French Language and Literature. Rachel composes for her church choir where she is happy to be a Back Row Alto. She lives in Virginia with her husband, and her two dogs, and stays busy as a real estate agent. 

She has written a new melody for the familiar lyrics - well, two melodies, actually. The first stanza is in a lilting, 6/8 meter, with a sparkling accompaniment. Stanza two is more subdued, in common 4/4 time (befitting the words, "dark and cheerless is the morn, unaccompanied by Thee." Stanza three sees the return of the first melody, this time in canon, with the tenor echoing the soprano. 

During communion we hear a setting of Psalm 27:4-5 from the Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1636) of the early baroque composer Heinrich Schutz. Eins bitte ich vom Herren (One thing I ask of the Lord) is for two equal voices, characterized by elegant vocal writing and wonderful harmonic movement which Schutz is known for.

Schütz was a German Lutheran composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before J.S. Bach, and, along with Monteverdi, often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century.

The opening voluntary is a collection of short pieces by German composer and a Catholic church musician Hermann Schroeder. His music is characterized by quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing similar to that of Paul Hindemith. This collect was not meant to be played as a suite, but as individual pieces, which is why I am NOT playing them in the order in which they are written. I'm starting at the BACK of the book, working my way toward the front!