Music for May 2n 2021 + The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Unto Thee, O Lord – Virgil T. Ford (1922-2005)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on Gaudeamus Pariter – Jayson A. Snipes (b. 1983)
• Hymn 200: Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
• I. Theme
• II. Cantabile
• III. Allegro
• IV. Toccata
• Rhosymedre – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
• Sortie – Jâcques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881)

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

• Canticle* Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 379 God is love: let heaven adore him (ABBOTT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 529 In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Psalm 22:24-30 simplified Anglican chant by Jerome W. Meachen

Virgil Ford

Today’s anthem is a quiet, acapella setting of verses from the 25th Psalm: Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Show me thy ways, lead me in thy truth. Teach me thy paths, for thou are the God of my salvation. This setting, from 1960, is by American church musician Virgil T. Ford. An ordained minister of music in the United Methodist Church, he was active as a church organist/choirmaster for over 40 years at churches in Norfolk, Virginia and Eastern Massachusetts.

Ford was born in Norfolk, Virginia and started taking piano lessons at the age of 9. He attended The College of William & Mary and earned a B.A. Degree in 1943, and University Extension Conservatory of Chicago and earned a B. Music Degree (Composition) in 1955. He had over 250 published compositions that include anthems, cantatas, youth music collections and new hymn tunes.

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on the Easter hymn Come, ye faithful, raise the strain (Hymn 200), set to the tune GAUDEAMUS PARITER. It is by the contemporary American composer Jayson Snipes. He is a native of Winston-Salem, NC, and received a B.M. in Music Education, and M.M. in Choral Conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studied organ, voice, and conducting. Currently, he serves as Director of Traditional Music at Maple Springs United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, and is Artistic Director of Piedmont Chamber Singers.

The communion voluntary is Ralph Vaughan William’s luscious setting of the Welsh tune RHOSYMEDRE. This hymn tune was written by the 19th-century Welsh Anglican priest John David Edwards who named the tune after the village of Rhosymedre in the County Borough of Wrexham, Wales, where he was the vicar from 1843 until his death in 1885.

The hymn tune appears in a number of hymnals and is sung to a variety of texts. In our hymnal, it is set to a lovely text about the Christian family (“Our Father, by whose name”, hymn 587). However, I first associated the tune with the text “My song is Love Unknown, my Savior’s love to me,” and that’s the text I still associate with it. So, when reading the Epistle lesson for today about the love of God, this immediately came to mind.

This piece was originally written for pipe organ in 1920. As usual, in his arrangements of British folk music, Vaughan Williams succeeds here in turning an apparently simple tune into a work of profound emotional impact. In this short but sweet work Vaughan Williams crafts a wistful piece of great beauty. It has since been arranged for string orchestra, concert band, and other various instruments.

This prelude was played at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at the request of Lady Sarah McCorquodale. It was also played at the weddings of her two sons: Prince William (in April 2011) and Prince Harry (in May 2018). It is such a favorite of mine that I want it played at my memorial service, as well. (But not soon.)