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!