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.