Music for March 14, 2021 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)
• Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing – Roland E. Martin (b. 1955)
• Hymn: Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound (NEW BRITAIN)

Instrumental Music

1. Prelude, Fugue, and Variation – César Franck (1822-1890).
   
2. “Little”Prelude in E Minor – attr. to J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as our offertory anthem today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

The Communion anthem is a repeat of an anthem that was sung as a duet back in July of 2020, but its theme of Grace works so well with this week's scripture readings (especially the Epistle) that I just had to schedule again. Read about it here.

César Franck

César Franck was one of the first well-known French organists of the 19th century. Born in Belgium, he moved to Paris when he was 13 to study organ, ultimately becoming a French citizen so that he could study at the Paris Conservatoire. Upon graduation, he made a brief return to Belgium before returning to Paris, where he embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a strong musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new organs built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. In fact, Franck’s improvisations after church services were so popular that he wrote some of them down, publishing them as Six Pieces in 1862. These exploited the power and colors of the Cavaillé-Coll organs to the fullest and did much to establish the distinctively French school of symphonic organ music.

The third of the Six Pieces is the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18, which was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns, himself an organist of considerable skill. The flowing B-minor Prelude has a gentle melancholy, opening with three repetitions of an asymmetrical five-bar phrase. The Fugue has its own little prelude and clean textures, the polyphony by no means hard to follow. Rounding the three-part work is the Variation, a repeat of the Prelude with a more active accompaniment, resolving to the hopeful key of B major.

For the closing voluntary, I am playing the third prelude of the so-called "Little" Prelude and Fugues which have been attributed to J. S. Bach. I've been playing one of these a month for three months now, so you can expect to hear the fourth one (which is in F Major) in April. The Major key, with its brightness and joy, will be appropriate for the Easter Season. But for now, it's Lent, and E Minor is perfect for our season of introspection and repentence.