Music for Sunday, October 24, 2021 + The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee – Glenn L. Rudolph (b. 1951)

Instrumental Music

• Messe de 8th Tone: Gloria - Duo – Gaspard Corrette  (c. 1671 – before 1733)
• Prelude on “London New” – Robert Groves (1912-1994)
• Messe de 8th Tone: Sanctus - Duo – Gaspard Corrette

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 410 Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Hymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn 773 Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia, sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 126 simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Webster Meachen

written in 1998 for Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 

Glenn L. Rudolph has been active in choral music in the Pittsburgh area since 1977. He began his church choir directing career at Freeport United Methodist Church in Freeport, PA, was a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh professional core from 1983 through 1991 and served as Conducting Assistant to Music Director, Robert Page for the 1990-1991 concert season. Mr. Rudolph joined The Pittsburgh Camerata in 1993 as a professional core member and served as Assistant Conductor to Artistic Director, Gayle Clark Kirkwood for the 1994-95 concert season. He was employed as tenor soloist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral from 1985 through 1994 and at Temple Rodef Shalom from 1993 through 2003.

Mr. Rudolph received his B.M. in Music Composition from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he graduated Magna cum Lauda in 1973. While at CCM, he studied voice throughout his undergraduate education, and was a member of the 32 voice Chamber Choir under the direction of Dr. Elmer Thomas. He was awarded a graduate scholarship in composition and a teaching assistantship in music theory at the College-Conservatory of Music. Mr. Rudolph studied composition with Paul Cooper and T. Scott Huston in Cincinnati, and with Lynn Purse and David Stock at Duquesne. He received his M.M. in Composition the Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University, in 2011.

Gaspard Corrette (c. 1671 – before 1733) was a French composer and organist. About his youth there is not so much to find but he was organist in a few churches in Rouen until in 1720 he left as many others did before him to Paris to try to catch the glamour. From that time on we lose track of him. He died around 1733 in Paris.

Father of the better-known Michel Corrette, Gaspard's surviving musical output is this one work, Messe du 8e Ton, published at the beginning of 1703. It is the last of the great French organ masses, a tradition that began in the 1660s and which has an impeccable pedigree that includes the composers Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Nicolas Lebègue and François Couperin. 

Corrette’s music is both erudite and colourful

Since he belongs to the classic French organ school we can expect the typical music although in contrast to the very known music (e.g. F. Couperin, N. Lebegue) his music is less severe... the typical modal parts makes it a bit nostalgic. His music suffers also from “nonchalance” but this style makes him different from other little French organ composers.