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,