Music for April 11th, 2021 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Doubting Thomas – arr. Mark Schweitzer (1956-2019)
• His Most Holy Lyfe – Carlton T. Russell (b. 1938)

Instrumental Music

• Rondeau: O Filii et Filiae - Jean-François Dandrieu (1682-1739)
• Prelude in Classic Style – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked * which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 490 - I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn 209 - We walk by faith and not by sight (ST. AGNES)
• Canticle -  *Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Psalm 33 - (Jerome W. Meachen)

The second Sunday of Easter is one of my favorite Sundays, because it focuses on the Apostle Thomas’ all-to-real reaction to hearing that Jesus was not dead, but alive. I can relate, because I, too, feel like I would want proof to such an outrageous claim.

The hymn and tune “O sons and daughters, let us sing,” or O FILII ET FILIAE, tells the story of the events just after Jesus’ resurrection: the women finding an empty tomb, the confusion and fear amongst the disciples, and Jesus’ appearance to Thomas and the other disciples. The Hymnal 1982 divides the original 12 stanzas between two hymns, both sung to the same tune: Hymn 203 which focuses on the women at the tomb, and Hymn 206, which focuses on Thomas’ doubts. It is this hymn Mark Schweitzer has arranged for choir and that we use for the anthem today. 

The opening voluntary today is also based on O FILII ET FILIAE, a set of variations by French Baroque composer Jean-François Dandrieu. These were actually drawn from a set of variations by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu, a Parisian priest and musician who lived from 1664 to 1733. Jean-François would revise and enlarge his uncle's volume of organ noëls, which was first published by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu in 1714 (rev. in the 1720s). Jean-François's book was published posthumously by sister, Jeanne-Françoise, in 1759.  This sounds like a musical soap-opera plot.

The communion motet is a setting of a prayer (collect) which Thomas Cranmer wrote for the first Book of Common Prayer (1549). Although the vast majority of the collects of Archbishop Cranmer are based on Latin originals, this one is among the few that were newly composed for the Prayer Book. It was originally the collect for the Second Sunday after Easter.

The composer of the motet is the Rev. Carlton T. Russell,  Professor of Music and College Organist, Emeritus at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he taught for 41 years. In 2006, after retiring to Maine, he and his wife Lorna S. Russell, also an organist, became ministers of music at St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church in Blue Hill. An Episcopal priest, Dr. Russell holds degrees from Amherst College, Princeton University, and The Episcopal Divinity School, and the Choirmaster (Ch.M.) certificate of The American Guild of Organists. 

Here is the text of that collect:

Almighty God, who hast given
thy only Son to be unto us
both a sacrifice for sin,
and also an example of godly life;
Give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
that his inestimable benefit,
and also daily endeavor ourselves
to follow the blessed steps
of his most holy life. Amen