Music for August 1, 2021 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 522 Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 527 Singing songs of expectation (TON-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 690 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)

I am away this week on vacation with my family, so there will be no choir or organ music this Sunday. Thanks to Karen Silva for playing the piano for the voluntaries and accompanying the hymns.

There are three great hymns this week. Here are some notes on them, taken from the website Hymnary.org

John Newton

Our first hymn is Glorious things of thee are spoken, written by John Newton It is written on Isaiah 33:20-21, but there are plenty of clear references to other Scriptures, which Newton cited in footnotes, such as Psalm 87 (the first two lines of the hymn are nearly a direct quote of Ps. 87:3) and Isaiah 4:5-6 (which is closely paraphrased in the third stanza). This hymn has been called one of Newton's finest hymns, and it is certainly one of his most popular, along with “Amazing Grace” and “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.”

The most common tune for this text is Franz Joseph Haydn's famous melody AUSTRIA (which is also called AUSTRIAN HYMN, GERMAN HYMN, HAYDN, or VIENNA). This association was a very strong one until after World War II. The German national song “Deutschland über alles” (written in the mid-nineteenth century by Hoffmann von Fallersleben), paired to this tune, was used by the Nazis in World War II, and added some very painful associations to this music. The question of whether to banish this popular tune completely or retain it because of it pre-1940s history is well-answered by Paul Westermeyer: “Though it is … a tune that needs to be in hymnals for future generations, there are many circumstances where, because of its associations, this tune still should not and cannot be sung” (Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 700).

The popularity of  William Williams's text (Guide me, O thou great Jehovah) is undoubtedly aided by its association with CWM RHONDDA, composed in 1905 by Welshman John Hughes during a church service for a Baptist Cymanfa Ganu (song festival) in Capel Rhondda, Pontypridd, Wales. Hughes received little formal education; at age twelve he was already working as a doorboy at a local mining company in Llantwit Fardre. He eventually became an official in the traffic department of the Great Western Railway. Much of his energy was devoted to the Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd, where he served as both deacon and precentor. Hughes composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known.

At first widely disseminated in leaflet form, CWM RHONDDA gradually was adopted into various hymnals. The tune is named after the valley of the Rhondda River, a coal mining area in Wales. Though composed with simple melodic means, CWM RHONDDA is a vigorous melody in major tonality (contrary to the popular belief that most Welsh tunes are minor). 

The notion of “the unknown” is not an idea we’re overly fond of. Part of us would love to know how the future plays out - what to prepare for, what to let go because it won’t be successful anyway. C. S. Lewis alludes to this desire in Prince Caspian, in this conversation between Lucy and Aslan. “Please, Aslan!” said Lucy, “am I not to know?” “To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No, nobody is ever told that.” “Oh dear,” said Lucy.”

Not knowing what the future holds brings a certain uneasiness to our lives. And yet, in a strange kind of way, there is comfort in the fact as well. Whatever happens to us or our loved ones is out of our hands; we simply couldn’t know anything about it if we tried. There is a common phrase: “Let go, and let God.” In this hymn by William Williams, we are given the words to express our prayer that God would guide us as we walk through a life of unknowns. At the end of her conversation with Aslan, Lucy, her head previously buried into Aslan’s mane, suddenly sits up and says, “I’m sorry, Aslan…I’m ready now.” Let us pray that we are always ready to go with God wherever He takes us, songs of praises ever on our lips.

Music for Sunday, July 25, 2021 + The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I waited for the Lord – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Christine Marku and Matthew Donley, soloists

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in F – Attr. to J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Sonata Pathetique: II. Adagio cantabile – Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
• Sortie in E-flat – Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the middle hymn which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing.)

• Hymn 414 God, my King, thy might confessing (STUTTGART)
• Hymn Break thou the bread of life (TUNE)
• Hymn 304 I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Psalm 145 – Tone VIIIa

Felix Mendelssohn

In 1840 Germany was in the midst of preparations to celebrate the quadricentennial of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. Felix Mendelssohn was no exception, and he wrote his Lobgesang (Song of Praise), A Symphony-Cantata after words of the Holy Scripture.  It consists of three purely orchestral movements followed by 10 movements for chorus and/or soloists and orchestra.

The sixth movement, a duet for two sopranos with chorus, gained immense popularity as a standalone anthem in Victorian times in its English version, which we'll hear today as a soprano and tenor duet. The text is from Psalm 40.

J.S. Bach
(or is it?)

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that I have played several organ works during the first three months of the year that had been "attributed" to J. S. Bach. I had begun a monthly series of playing the "Eight Little Prelude and Fugues" which bear Bach's name but were probably written by his friend Krebs. I got interrupted in April, but I'm back on track with the fourth prelude and fugue in that collection in the key of F Major. It's bright and cheerful.

Lefébure-Wély

If you had been in attendance at mass at L'église de la Madeleine in Paris in the 1850s, you would no doubt heard the fabulous Cavaillé-Coll organ played by their organist, Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély. Lefébure-Wély was one of the leading organists of his day, with a reputation as a virtuoso. He was followed at la Madeleine by such renowned organists as Camille Saint-Saëns, Théodore Dubois, and Gabriel Fauré. He also was in charge of the music for the funeral of Frédéric Chopin, when he transcribed some of Chopin's piano works for the organ, attracting critical praise.

I'm playing his Sortie in E-flat for the closing voluntary. With this, you'll get an idea of the type of music the wealthy Parisian congregation would hear as they left the Sunday Service. It's definitely not somber!

Music for Sunday, July 18, 2021 + The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Adagio in E Major – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• God Is My Shepherd – BROTHER JAMES AIR, arr. David Gale (21st C.)
• Prelude on “St. Columba” – Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
• Trumpet Tune in E – David N. Johnson (1922-1987)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 48 O day of radiant gladness (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Hymn 708 Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn R307 Sent forth by God’s blessing (THE ASH GROVE)
• Psalm 23 – Tone VIIIa

The psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 23. Two of the pieces I am playing this Sunday are based on hymn tunes associated with metrical versions of this psalm. 

At the offering, I am playing a piano piece based on the hymntune, BROTHER JAMES' AIR. This tune was composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain, the healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James. The tune was first published in his volume The great peace: being a New Year's greeting ... (1915).

Born in a devout Christian home, Bain came to doubt the faith but later regained a mystical belief with the aid of the Christo Theosophic Society. He founded the Brotherhood of Healers, and he and his fellow healers often sang to their patients during healing sessions. In the latter years of his life he worked among the poor in the slums of Liverpool. He published a book on healing entitled The Brotherhood of Healers ... (1906).

In 1934, the British composer Gordon Jacob published an arrangement of this tune with the text "The Lord's my shepherd, I’ll not want" which has become the best known pairing of text for this tune. In our hymnal, the tune is paired with another Psalm paraphrase, How lovely is thy dwelling place (hymn 517)

 

This well-loved tune is in bar form (AAB) with an unusual final phrase that rises to a high tonic cadence.

The piano piece is arranged by David Gale, a composer, arranger, pianist and choir director from Tucson, Arizona. His education includes a bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas Tech University, and a doctorate in music composition from Northwestern University. Retired from 26 years at Flowing Wells Junior High School, Dr. Gale is currently in his 24th year as music director for First Christian Church in Tucson, where he focuses on creating music for the church service including piano arrangements and choir pieces.

The other hymn-tune setting is much older. Charles Villiers Stanford, the Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era, published several organ works, including two sets of short preludes and postludes, which included this setting of the Irish folk tune, ST. COLUMBA. You can find this in our hymnal at hymn 645, "The King of Love my shepherd is." It's s simple setting with the tune interspersed with original music by Stanford.

Music for July 11, 2021 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Christus, der ist mein Leben– Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• We pray now to the Holy Spirit—Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Strengthen for Service, Lord – arr. Anne Krentz Organ (b. 1960)
• Toccata in E Minor – Johann Pachelbel

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 686 Come, thou fount of every blessing (EBENEZER)
• Hymn 295 Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 671 Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Psalm85:8-13– Tone VIIIa

Years ago, before I began my work as a musician in the Episcopal Church, I had a short stint working at a Kinkos. I was tired of church music, and, since I loved paper and office supplies, I thought working at Kinkos might be fun. "Fun" might not be the best word to describe my two years there, but "interesting" sure fits.

Working those huge copiers gave me the opportunity to see a lot of documents. Some were so technical that I showed no interest. (Flight manuals for FedEx transport planes.) What really pique my interest were wedding service leaflets. My favorite to this day is the one which had a hand-drawn cover with the Bible verse on the front in calligraphy: "What God hath joined together let no man put us under." (sic) Another favorite was the one which listed the music, including the famous Canon in D by the composer Paco Bell. 

I thought about that this week as I was choosing music for the service, and Hymn 295, Sing praise to our Creator, wound up as one of my choices for hymns. I remembered Johann Pachelbel had written a partita (a set of variations) on the German chorale, Christus, der ist mein Leben, which is the tune used for hymn 295 in our hymnal. Since the partita doesn't include much pedal, I decided that it would be a great choice for this Sunday since I would be out of the office this week, with little time to practice the organ.

(Regular organ practice is essential to anyone who wants to play interesting and challenging literature on any musical instrument. You may not realize it, but two hours with an instrument a day is not unusual for an active musician. In fact, two hours is almost the minimum.)

Since I was playing a chorale-based selection of Pachelbel, I decided to choose one of his "free" organ works for the closing voluntary. The Toccata in E Minor is a serious if flashy organ work with little pedal work. It's got a great sense of forward motion which is perfect for the closing of the service as we are sent out to "do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord."

Pachelbel was an organist during the Baroque period who is credited with bringing the south German organ school to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era. 

During that same time, you have Dietrich Buxtehude, a Danish-born organist who spent the last 40 years of his life at Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) in Lubeck in Northern Germany. He was very well known and influential. Both G.F. Handel and J.S. Bach wanted to follow Buxtehude at St. Mary's, but neither one wanted to marry his daughter as that was a condition for the position. I'm playing another chorale-based work by him for the offertory.

Anne Krentz Organ

To balance all that Baroque organ music, I looked to the piano music of the contemporary American composer with the ironic name of Anne Krentz Organ. She is the Director of Music Ministries at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, IL. She  holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Valparaiso University, a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Illinois, and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Church Music from Concordia University in River Forest, IL. She is a leader in contemporary Lutheran Church music, having served on the staff of the Lutheran Summer Music Program as organist and handbell choir director, additionally teaching classes on church music and hymnody. Organ currently serves as the President of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

In today's Communion voluntary, Organ takes an original hymn tune of another Lutheran Composer, Robert Hobby, and crafts a beautifully meditative piano piece. The tune, BUCKHURST RUN, is paired with the text "Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands" (see The Hymnal 1982, #312) in the 2006 hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. BUCKHURST RUN is named after the street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Hobby family lives.

Music for July 4, 2021 + Independence Day

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “God Save the Queen” (America) – Charles Wesley (1757-1834)
• Meditation on "Finlandia"- Brenda Portman (b. 1980)
• Improvisation on “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• The Stars and Stripes Forever – John Philips Sousa (1854-1932)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers, whose almighty hand (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn 599 - Lift every voice and sing (LIFT EVERY VOICE)
• Psalm 145:1-9 – Tone VIIIa

It's a rare day when the fourth of July falls on a Sunday. The Book of Common Prayer has readings and prayer for Independence Day in the lectionary, and while it is not supposed to supersede the Propers for the day, we are taking the liberty to assert our independence and observe the day in our worship services.

This gives me the opportunity to schedule hymns and music with a more patriotic bent. The hymns all work together to focus on our reliance on God and in recognition of his blessings on us individually and as a people. Some of the more overtly patriotic hymns will be sung at the church picnic after the 10:15 service ("My country, tis of thee", "O beautiful for spacious skies"*). The hymns sung this morning are truly American, however.

Take the first hymn, which is called "The National Hymn." Daniel C. Roberts wrote this patriotic hymn in 1876 for July 4 centennial celebrations in Brandon, Vermont, where he was rector at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Originally entitled "God of Our Fathers," this text was later chosen as the theme hymn for the centennial celebration of the adoption of the United States Constitution. It was published in the Protestant Episcopal Hymnal of 1892.

Many American patriotic hymns extol the beauty and worth of the United States first, and treat God almost as an afterthought, which makes it difficult for some Christians to be comfortable singing them in the context of a worship service. This hymn puts God first, and is constantly addressed to Him as a prayer for the nation, without reference to American superiority. The second and third stanzas allude to a nation's need for God's law and guidance to maintain peace.

The hymn God bless our native land is a translation of a German hymn written in 1815 by writer Siegfried A. Mahlmann. It is set to the tune AMERICA, which is also the English National Anthem, “God save the Queen." It's this tune that we hear for the opening voluntary, a set of variations by the English musician Charles Wesley. He was the son of Sarah and Charles Wesley (the great hymn-writer and one of the founders of Methodism), and the brother of Samuel Wesley, also an organist and composer. He is usually referred to as "Charles Wesley junior" to avoid confusion with his more famous father. 

Although Charles Wesley junior is much less well known than his brother Samuel Wesley, he was, like Samuel, regarded as a musical prodigy in childhood, and he was playing the organ before the age of three. He became a professional musician in adulthood, and the European Magazine of 1784 reported that "his performance on the organ has given supreme delight". However he did not enjoy public performance, and worked mainly as a private organist, at one time to the Prince Regent; he was connected with the royal family through much of his life, having first played at the Queen's House at the age of 18.

For communion I have chosen a setting of the hymn tune FINLANDIA, which is taken from a tone poem of the same name by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki. Later, Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland. 

With different words, it is also sung as a Christian hymn, "Be Still, My Soul" and the text which I had in mind when I chose it for today. The American poet Lloyd Stone wrote "This Is My Song" in 1934, when he was 22. It was paired with FINLANDIA by an editor at Lorenz Publishing Company as the anthem "A Song of Peace: A Patriotic Song." He wrote the stanzas for inclusion in the collection, Sing a Tune. During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations—“for lands afar and mine.” I love how Stone acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations.

Brenda Portman

The second stanza begins by alluding to the blue skies, the ocean, sunlight, “cloverleaf and pine” of Stone’s own country, but then acknowledges that in other countries, “skies are everywhere as blue as mine.” The stanza concludes: “O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”

The arranger of this piece, composer Brenda Portman, is currently Resident Organist at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati where she also serves as Executive Director of the church's renowned Organ Concert Series. She is also Adjunct Organ Instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of Wheaton College, Northwestern University, and University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. 

Meditation on Finlandia was featured in the  AAM Virtual Conference Evensong at Washington National Cathedral; Thomas Sheehan, organist, on June 14th of this year.

I end the service as I do every year that Sunday and Independence Day collide with E. Power Bigg's arrangement of John Philip Sousa's stirring march,
The Stars and Stripes Forever! Feel free to clap along!

*I'll play this one for the offertory on Sunday.