HAPPY NEW YEAR (Among other things) January 1, 2023 + The Holy Name

Vocal Music

• New Year Carol - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Instrumental Music

• The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away - J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
• In Thee Is Gladness - Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

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

• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 250 - Now greet the swiftly changing year (SIXTH NIGHT)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (HEARN)
• Hymn 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (ST. PETER)

The Sundays between Christmas (December 25) and Epiphany (January 6) are usually called The First and Second Sundays after Christmas. Eight days after Christmas, on January 1st, is the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,  which commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as recounted in the Gospel read on that day, 

at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. - Luke 2:21

When the Feast of the Holy Name falls ON a Sunday, as it does this year, it supersedes all other lectionary readings. So we will focus on the Holy Name of Jesus with a nod to the passing year. 

The hymns all focus on the Holy Name, even hymn 250 - 

When Jesus came to wage sin's war,
The Name of names for us he bore.
Slovak, 17th cent.; Cithara Sanctorum, Levoca, 1636, Translator: Jaroslav J. Vajda

but our choral and instrumental music looks more toward the new year.

New Year Carol

Benjamin Britten was one of Britain's leading composers of the 20th Century. He composed in all the major genre - opera, orchestral, choral and vocal, and chamber music. "A New Year Carol" is from Friday Afternoons, a collection of twelve song settings by Benjamin Britten, composed 1933–35 for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn, Wales where his brother, Robert, was headmaster. (Two of the songs, "Cuckoo" and "Old Abram Brown", were featured in the film Moonrise Kingdom.) "A New Year Carol", also known as "Levy-Dew", is a British folk song of Welsh origin traditionally sung in New Year celebrations. It is associated with a New Year's Day custom involving sprinkling people with water newly drawn from a well. 

Here we bring new water from the well so clear,

For to worship God with, this happy New Year.

Chorus (after each verse):

Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew, the water and the wine,

The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her toe;

Open you the West Door and turn the Old Year go.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her chin;

Open you the East Door and let the New Year in.

The meaning of the words "levy-dew" in the original lyrics of the song is not certainly known. One line of speculation holds that the words represent the Welsh phrase llef ar Dduw or llef y Dduw, "a cry to God". Others connect it to Middle English levedy ("lady"). I like to think it refers to the French phrase levez à Dieu, "raise to God", which may in turn refer to the elevation of the Host in Christian liturgy, since it mentions the water and the wine. “The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine” refer to the golden strings of the harp and the trumpets of heaven, seven being 

Verses 2 and 3 describe letting go of the old year and bringing in the new. “Sing reign of Fair

Maid” refers to folk mythology and golden maidens who represent the rising and setting of the

sun, and therefore the turning of seasons and years. As for the West and East doors, it's a custom in the British Isles, particularly Ireland, to enter the house through the front door and leave through the back at the stroke of midnight. The old year goes out the back as the new year comes in the front.

The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away

In Thee is Gladness

Bach wrote an organ collection called Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ based on hymns for each part of the church year. There were three written for New Years Day, Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen [Help me to praise God's goodness], Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year now hath passed], and In dir ist Freude [In Thee Is Gladness]. I'm playing the second one as the prelude. The passing of the old year is mourned in twisting chromaticism throughout ‘Das alte Jahr vergangen ist’, despite that not being in keeping with the hymn text, a hymn of thanks for the past year and prayers for the coming year to Christ. Although primarily a supplication looking forwards to the future, the hymn also looks back at the past, reflecting on the perils facing man, his sins and his transitory existence.

Centuries later, in 1931, French organist Marcel Dupré wrote his own collection, 79 Chorals faciles pour orgue sur les mélodies des 79 vieux chorals dont Bach s’est servi dans ses Chorals-Préludes, based on the chorales used by Bach. Dupre prepared these short works, not as "another version" of the famous chorales and chorale preludes of Bach, but rather as a means of making the beginning organist aware of the beautiful chorale melodies and to prepare him or her for the study of Bach's works. This was an important pedagogical book while being at the same time a presentation of beautiful organ chorales. 

I am playing Dupré's setting of the third New Year chorale in Bach's Orgelbuchlein, In dir ist Freude. It is written in the style of a trio, with the melody heard in the right hand (treble) while the left hand inserts a quasi-ostinato based on the first four notes of the melody, played over another ostinato of the same four notes, this time in quarter notes.

NOEL! Music for Christmas 2022

December 24 4 PM – Family Service with the Coventry Choir

Vocal Music

• Christmas Bells Are Ringing – IsaBeall Hudson
• Alleluia! Emmanuel - Joanne LeDoux and Milton LeDoux
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 99 - Go Tell it on the mountain (GO TELL IT)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)

6:30 PM – Choral Eucharist with the Good Shepherd Choir

Vocal Music

• Run, Ye Shepherds – Michael Haydn
• There Is No Rose – Graham Ellis
• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shephard
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! The herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 79- O little town of Bethlehem (St. LOUIS)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

Christmas Day - 10 AM

Vocal Music

• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Johnny Marks
• Bruce Bailey, Baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 105 - God rest ye merry, gentlemen (GOD REST YE MERRY)
• Hymn 101- Away in a Manger (CRADLE SONG)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

MARY KNEW - Music for December 18, 2022 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Is No Rose – Graham J. Ellis (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• Three settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland! BWV 659, 660, and 661– Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 56 O come, O come, Emmanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 54 Savior of the nations, Come! (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R26 Jesus, name above all names (HEARN)
• Hymn 66 Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART)
• Psalm 80 – Tone VIIIa, refrain by Jackson Hearn

There Is No Rose

From the 15th Century comes this charming text extoling the Virgin Mary and her part in the incarnation. It is a macaronic text, meaning it uses a mixture of languages, in this case English and Latin. This is a setting by Graham Ellis, an organist and conductor who is presently conductor of the Liverpool Sinfonia. He has also worked for BBC radio and television and was Director of Music at Birkenhead School for 33 years, during which time its Chapel Choir gained an increasing reputation, performing in cathedrals throughout this country and in concert in France, Venice, Verona, Florence, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna and Northern Spain.

Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland

In the last ten years of his life, Bach gathered together and completed a series of chorale arrangements, presumably planning to have them published, just like the third part of the Clavier-Übung in 1739. It concerns a selection of his compositions from much earlier years, when he was working as an organist in Weimar, Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The collection became known as the 18 Choräle or Leipziger Choräle.

The  Leipziger Choräle include two ‘trilogies’: one based on Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, and one on the Advent hymn Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, which we are singing as our middle hymn this Sunday, hymn 54. Whereas Allein Gott concerns the Trinity, here it is all about Jesus, who has three roles in the catechism: sanctifier, redeemer and protector. 

BWV 660 (Opening Voluntary) REDEEMER

Many a preacher remarks at Christmas time how the Passion – the Christian promise of redemption – could never have come about without the birth of Jesus. The two poles are closely connected, and Luther refers to this in Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland with the contrast between light and dark. In his turn, Bach also leaves us in no doubt about it in BWV 660. The whole sombre work is pervaded with symbols of the cross.

In any case, this compact work leaves room for interpretation. The two well-matched bass parts are probably arrangements of viola da gamba and cello parts (the big chords at the end of each phrase are typical of gamba music), but at the same time they could symbolise God as the foundation, or even a duet between God and Jesus – equal yet different. In the curious ending, some people hear how God leaves his son, while others interpret the difficult harmonies as representing Jesus’ descent into hell, foretold in the Advent chorale, and the fulfilling of God’s commandment.

But it is the cross motifs that are easiest to hear. They begin in the bass lines, which in this performance are almost identical and therefore continually in one another’s register. Reading along in the score, you also discover the refined way in which Bach begins the melody – not in one part, but divided over both. And by slightly raising the third note of the melody (on the word ‘der’), the interval to ‘Heiden’ becomes smaller and dissonant. It is no coincidence that this is the same interval as in Lass’ Ihn kreuzigen and Komm süsses Kreuz in the St Matthew Passion.

BWV 659 (Communion) SANCTIFIER

Whatever the case, this chorale arrangement is full of mystical expectation. Although Bach borrowed the form from Buxtehude, in style BWV 659 would not be amiss as the middle movement of a concerto in Italian style. All the elements are present: a walking bass, a duet of middle voices (sometimes in canon and sometimes referring to the chorale melody) and a leading upper voice. In the arrangement of the melody in the upper voice, Bach goes much further than his predecessors. Each phrase grows out of the chorale into the most wonderful, spun-out coloratura. At the end of the third line of the verse, the world’s amazement is reinforced by a harmonic pause and an abrupt deceleration of the bass – everyone holding their breath – a trick often used by Bach when writing about the birth of Jesus.

BWV 661 (Closing Voluntary) PROTECTOR

Bach had no choice but to radiate when closing his trilogy on the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, especially as the organ had to remain silent for a while following the first Sunday in Advent. After a subdued arrangement (BWV 659) and rather tormented one (BWV 660), the hopeful story was finished off, as it were, with this jubilant version. As so often in Bach’s trilogies, the chorale is given in the bass here, as the foundation of a loud plenum. For all its variety, the trilogy forms such a wonderful unity that Bach’s pupil Johann Christian Kittel used it in his own lessons as an example, and he was certainly not the only one to do so.

Before the bass introduces the melody in its full glory, Bach constructs a varied fugue. You can just make out the outlines of the choral melody in the theme, which keeps recurring in two ways: rectus (‘normal’) and inversus (in reverse – all the steps of the original melody that ascended now descend, and vice versa). This occurs for the first time just after the second chorale phrase, followed by a repeat of earlier material, which is also ‘upside down’. Above the last sentence of the chorale, we even hear the ‘upright’ and the reversed versions of the theme together, maybe in order to express the light in the phrase ‘Der Glaub’ bleibt immer im Schein’.

I am indebted to the website of the Netherland Bach Society (https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en) for their copious notes on Bach's chorale preludes today.

MAGNIFY THE LORD Music for December 11, 2022 + Advent III

Vocal Music

• How Lovely Are the Messengers – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Magnificat in G Major – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
• Of the Father’s love begotten – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)
• Once He Came in Blessing - John Leavitt (b. 1956)
• Blest Be the King Whose Coming – Alexandre Guilmant

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

• Hymn 76 On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn S 242 Canticle 15: The Song of Mary - Tonus Peregrinus
• Hymn 615 “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R278 Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 74 Blest be the King whose coming (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)

How Lovely Are the Messengers

How lovely are the messengers is a movement from St. Paul, the first oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, composed in 1836. In 1831 Mendelssohn was commissioned by Johann Schelble, conductor of the Cecilia Choir and Orchestra of Frankfurt, to compose an oratorio. Mendelssohn knew his Bible extremely well and invariably turned to it for inspiration when considering a new choral piece. 

The text of the oratorio is based very largely on the Acts of the Apostles. After a lengthy overture, Part I opens with the martyrdom of Stephen and Saul’s persecution of the Christians. This is followed by the conversion of Paul, his baptism and ordination as a minister by Ananias. Part II finds Paul and Barnabas becoming the ambassadors of the Church. Their duet is followed by one of the oratorio’s best-loved choruses, ‘How lovely are the messengers.' The text comes from Romans 10:15,18 (paraphrased)

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

During the austere post-war period there was a considerable reaction against Mendelssohn’s music. To what extent this was an after-effect of the rampant German anti-Semitism of the 1930s and 40s is difficult to determine, but the generally held view, particularly in some sections of the musical establishment, was that his life had been too easy and too comfortable, and that as a consequence his music, with its classical elegance and understated emotion, was superficial and distinctly inferior. Thankfully, in recent years there has been a more balanced attitude to Mendelssohn, avoiding both the excessive adulation which surrounded him during his lifetime and the equally absurd denigration that he suffered later.

Magnificat

The lectionary provides two options to be used for the psalm this Sunday. One is the usual Psalm, while the other is canticle The Magnificat, or The Song of Mary. The prelude this morning is three versets from an interpretation of Mary's Magnificat, composed by 19th-century French organist Alexandre Guilmant. These versets were probably composed to be played in alternatim with verses of the chant, as was typical in French churches. I am playing the first, third, and fifth variations, Allegro, Duo Pastorale, and Fugue. These organ miniatures are very baroque in their form and style, especially  the fugue

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was the organist of La Trinité  in Paris from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was appointed as Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896.

Valet will ich

The closing voluntary is also a work by Guilmant. You know the tune because of its association with the text :"All glory laud and honor," which we sing on Palm Sunday, but the tune, VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN, was composed by Melchior Teschner in 1615 for "Valet will ich dir geben," Valerius Herberger's hymn for the dying. Here is the original text:

Valet will ich dir geben

Du arge, falsche Welt;

Dein sündlich böses Leben

Durchaus mir nicht gefällt.

Im Himmel ist gut wohnen,

Hinauf zieht mein Begier;

Da wird Gott herrlich lohnen

Dem, der ihm dient allhier.

I want to bid you farewell,

You evil, false world

Your sinful, wicked life

It is not all pleasing to me.

In heaven it is good to dwell,

My longing is set on what is above

There God will reward forever

The person who serve him here.

Since the tune is also used in our hymnal for Advent hymn 74, Blest be the King whose coming, which we are singing as our closing hymn, I will also use it as the closing voluntary.

Communion music

The two short organ voluntaries during communion are by two contemporary composers (both born in 1956) which are based on two hymns - first is the hymn Of the Father's Love Begotten, a doctrinal hymn based on the Latin poem "Corde natus" by the Fourth Century Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius, from his Liber Cathemerinon. It is generally considered more of a Christmas hymn (it is No. 82 in the Christmas section of our hymnal), but I wanted to play it because the second voluntary, a setting of the Advent hymn (no. 53) Once He came in blessing, includes the melody DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, the melody to Of the Father's love begotten, in the accompaniment to the tune GOTTES SOHN IST KOMMEN. 

PREPARE THE WAY! Music for December 4, 2022 + Advent II

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints – arr. Joel Martinson (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• The Lion and the Lamb – David Nevue (b. 1965)
• Comfort, Comfort Ye My People – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684 –1748)
• Comfort, Comfort Ye My People – Johann Christoph Oley (1738–1789)

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

• Hymn 616 Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVŐGELEIN)
• Hymn 67 Comfort, comfort ye my people (PSALM 42)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R 92 Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 65 Prepare the way, O Zion (BEREDEN VAG FOR HERRAN)
• Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 – Tone Ib

By All Your Saints

Did you know there is one hymn in our hymn with 25 different stanzas? Yeah, and you people thought last Sunday's opening hymn was too long! (It wasn't.)  The hymn, By all your saints still striving, is found in the section Holy Days and Various Occasions, and is meant to cover 22 individual saints in addition to All Saints Day. The disclaimer here is that 23 of those stanzas are meant as options for verse two out of three. We are using the stanza for St. John the Baptist, since the Gospel lesson introduces John to us as  "the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, 'The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" 

The Lion and the Lamb

The Old Testament reading is the familiar passage from Isaiah, prophesying a time of peace when "The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." I was looking for a piano piece to play this Sunday, and came upon this piece by the New Age composer David Nevue. Nevue is an internationally known pianist and composer from Oregon who majored in Communication Arts, but discovered along the way that he had a love for music and the piano. 

After college, Nevue got a job in the desktop publishing business and composed music on the side. Though largely self-taught, he worked diligently and recorded his first "album" - a cassette, actually, in 1992. He has recorded 17 albums since then, and has become one of the top artists in both the Amazon.com and iTunes music sales charts for his New Age. 

Comfort, Comfort Ye My People

Comfort, Comfort Ye My People is the perfect hymn for Advent II. It is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1-5, in which the prophet looks forward to the coming of Christ. More specifically, the coming of the forerunner of Christ – John the Baptist – is foretold. Though Isaiah's voice crying in the desert is anonymous, the third stanza ties this prophecy and one from Malachi (Malachi 4:5) to a New Testament fulfillment. “For Elijah's voice is crying In the desert far and near” brings to mind Jesus' statement, “'But I tell you that Elijah has already come, ….' Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” (Matthew 17:12, 13 ESV)

In addition to singing the hymn, I am also playing two settings of the chorale tune. Organists find preludes to this tune under GENEVAN 42 in Dutch works or under FREU DICH SEHR in German works. Our hymnal calls it PSALM 42. Louis Bourgeois composed or adapted this tune for Psalm 42 for the Genevan psalter in 1551. 

In the communion setting, the tune is soloed out in the right hand on the oboe, but J. G. Walther,  the composer, ornaments the chorale tune so highly that it is difficult to recognize it at first. 

The closing voluntary presents the tune much more clearly, though in a different meter than we use in our hymnal. (It is 4/4 time rather than 3/2 time.) It is also in a triple Canon, meaning you hear the melody first in the soprano (top) line, then in the pedal (bottom line) one measure later, then again in the tenor (middle) line 4 beats later. This keeps up through the entire song. This was written by another German composer, Johann Christoph Oley.

Oley
lived and worked just after the death of J. S. Bach, whose music Oley revered and often emulated. Oley had hand-copied many of the works of Bach, and he owned one of the four extant copies of the Schübler chorales with J.S. Bach’s corrections. His own works include a set of 14 keyboard variations and the four-volume Variirte Choräle which contains 77 settings for organ solo, two for solo oboe and organ, and six for organ and instrumental ensemble of flute, oboe, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola and cello. 

WAKE UP! Music for Sunday, November 27, 2022 + Advent I

Vocal Music

• People, Look East – arr. Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Larry Dalton (1946-2009)
• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)

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

• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning comes (ST. STEPHEN)
• Hymn 59 – Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R 152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 122 – Tone 1f

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, starting a new year in the church. We sing hymns and songs focusing on the coming of Christ.

People, Look East

"People, Look East" first appeared in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). The text was written by the same poet who wrote the popular hymn "Morning has broken," Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965). In England, she is beloved as the author of more than eighty children's books and poem collections, most notably Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard, and The Little Bookroom.

Key images of the season are abundant. "People, Look East" is the direction of the rising sun and, in the history of Christianity, the direction of the coming Messiah. In stanza two, the bare earth is waiting for the seed that will flourish in the reign of the Promised One. In stanza three, the stars that guided the Magi shape the "bowl" of the heavens, giving signs of hope beyond "the frosty weather." The angels' song, in stanza four, sets "every peak and valley humming," an oblique reference to Isaiah 40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. . ."

Except for one word that changes in the last two lines of each stanza, the poem and its musical setting give the sense of a refrain. "Love," in turn, is defined as "Guest," "Rose," "Star," and "Lord." 

The lively tune, a traditional French carol BESANÇON, which earlier appeared with the anonymous text, "Shepherds, shake off your drowsy sleep," provides a festive setting for this wonderful Advent text. In the last forty years, this hymn has gained increasing popularity, as evidenced by its appearance in a number of hymnals in the United States.

Sleepers, Wake!

The Gospel lesson from Matthew 24 warns us

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.(verse 42

I therefore had to choose the old Advent standby, “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us, for the organ voluntaries this Sunday. The opening voluntary is an arrangement of a movement from a Bach cantata (No. 140) arranged by J. S. Bach himself. The keystone of the work, in the middle of the cantata, it is a chorale for tenor. This, along with Sheep may Safely Graze and Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring must surely rank among the best known and most popular of Bach’s individual cantata movements.

The chorale melody is played with a minimum of embellishment on a trumpet sound while the principal, or basic organ sound, declaims the obbligato melody. One of the wonders of this movement is the manner in which the chorale and obbligato melodies appear to have virtually no connection with each other, and yet fit together perfectly. Julian Mincham, in his writings on Bach’s Cantatas (JSBachCantatas.com), says

It is possible that Bach saw this as a symbol of the earthly and the spiritual, seemingly apart, dissimilar and diverse and yet, by reason of the Ordained Natural Order, ultimately fitting together and perfectly complementing each other. Thus we might consider the chorale as representing matters spiritual and the foursquare, almost stolid string melody as earthly life and environment. Each may be depicted perfectly well independently but the fundamental message is that they have been conceived, by the Almighty, as the two parts of the same reality.

The closing voluntary is by a cousin and pupil of Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs.  His organ music is composed in the forms used by Bach and leans heavily on Bach’s style. It is technically very accomplished. Krebs also wrote trio sonatas, sonatas for flute and harpsichord, and some sacred vocal music.

HUMBLED FOR A SEASON: Music for November 20, 2022 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Jesus, King Most Wonderful – David Hogan
• Lord Jesus Christ, We Humbly Pray – Gilbert M. Martin

Instrumental Music

• At the Name of Jesus – Michael Burkhardt
• Concerto in D Minor: Adagio – Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Virgil Fox
• Toccata on “At the Name of Jesus” – Michael Burkhardt

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

• Hymn 494 Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn R128 Canticle 16: Blest be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HŐH)
• Hymn 495 Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 544 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

At the Name of Jesus

 

The last Sunday of the church year (remember, the church calendar begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which is next Sunday) is called Christ the King Sunday. Themes of this day are the glory and majesty of Christ, judgment, peace, eternal life, judgment, and mercy. Much festivity and solemnity is proper to this liturgy. However, with this year’s Gospel from the Passion account, it highlights the paradox of the benevolent shepherd-king, dying on the cross, offering Paradise to the repentant sinner.

With that in mind, I am playing two different settings of the hymn At the name of Jesus, written by a former classmate of mine at SMU, Michael Burkhardt. The text is perfect for this Sunday:

1 At the name of Jesus

ev'ry knee shall bow,

ev'ry tongue confess him

King of glory now;

'tis the Father's pleasure

we should call him Lord,

who from the beginning

was the mighty Word.

3 Humbled for a season

to receive a name

from the lips of sinners

unto whom he came,

faithfully he bore it

spotless to the last,

brought it back victorious

when from death he passed;

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the tune, KING'S WESTON, for this text. The tune's title refers to a manor house on the Avon River near Bristol, England. For the opening voluntary, I am playing Michael's setting which presents the tune in a quieter vein, with moving, hovering chords in the left hand and a pizzicato bass line on the pedals, the melody is presented in segments. It reminds me of a journey, much like the one Christ endured while on earth. (see stanza three.)

The closing voluntary is much more dramatic  with a blazing perpetual motion in the manuals with the melody presented in the pedals. It is perfect for the last stanza

Christians, this Lord Jesus

shall return again

in his Father's glory,

with his angel train;

for all wreaths of empire

meet upon his brow,

and our hearts confess him

King of glory now.

Michael Burkhardt is presently is Artist-Professor of Organ at Eastern Michigan University, and Founder-Artistic Director of hearts, hands and voices Worship and Fine Arts Program for Children in Southeast Michigan. In addition, he is a prolific composer, writing for organ and choir.

O Jesus, King Most Wonderful

This is a new addition to our choir's library, written by the late composer David Hogan. David died much too young when he was flying back to France aboard TWA Flight 800 when it exploded off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board. At 47, Hogan was a serious composer of choral and theater music as well as an accomplished pianist, organist, tenor and teacher. His most conspicuous achievement in this country was his Festival Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, choral pieces composed for and performed at the consecration of Washington's National Cathedral in September 1990.

This piece was written for his church choir in San Francisco when he was living there. It is a setting of a hymn tune by the early American composer Joshua Leavitt. In 1831 he compiled and published The Christian Lyre, the first hymnal to print music (melody and bass) for every hymn. It is in this hymnal that we find this tune, named HIDING PLACE. 

I am not sure, but I would guess that David Hogan had a good men's section, but that they weren't adept at singing harmony, because in this setting of the tune, the men always sing the melody in unison while the sopranos and altos provide a counter-melody. (Apparently THEY could read music.)  Many early American hymn tunes are in a minor mode, and that is the case with HIDING PLACE. After the third stanza, he changes the tonality to a Major mode, and the anthem ends on a bright note.

Concerto in D Minor: Adagio

What we have here is Virgil Fox's arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement of a movement from a Violin concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. And what happens is a complete change in the tenor of the piece. What is originally a simple, light, transparent baroque adagio is turned into a sumptuous, poignant romantic aria. It is almost lugubrious. Here is a recording of the original. 

Video of the Vivaldi

Music for November 13, 2022 + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Like a Tree – Ruth Elaine Schram (b. 1956)
• He That Shall Endure to the End – Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847 )

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral – Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb, arr James Wetherald
• Elegy – John Carter (b. 1930)
• Traditional Bagpipe tunes – Stanley Fontenot, piper 

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

• Hymn R122 Canticle 9: Surely it is God who saves me (THE FIRST SONG OF ISAIAH)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R168 If you believe and I believe (IF YOU BELIEVE)
• Hymn 671 Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)

Like a Tree

Today marks the first time our children's choir has sung in church in over two years. I am delighted that the Coventry Choir will be singing this anthem inspired by Psalm 1 

Ruth Elaine Schram

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take

    or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - 

This song is by Ruth Elaine Schram, an American composer who specializes in choral music for church and school choirs. She wrote her first song at the age of twelve, and her first song was published twenty years later, in 1988. In 1992, she became a full‑time composer and arranger and now has over 2,000 published works. Over thirteen million copies of Schram's songs have been purchased in their various venues, and she has been a recipient of the ASCAP Special Award each year since 1990. In addition to Schram's choral music, her songs appear on thirty albums (four of which have been Dove Award finalists) and numerous children's videos. Schram's songs have also appeared on such diverse television shows as The 700 Club and HBO's acclaimed series The Sopranos.

Schram began piano and theory lessons at the age of five. She studied music at Lancaster Bible College and Millersville State College and taught Elementary Music in Pennsylvania for several years. Schram now lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Scott, and they have two grown daughters, Crystie and Celsie.

He That Shall Endure to the End

Felix Mendelssohn
painting by Eduard Magnus, ca 1845

This work from Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah, comes in the second half of the oratorio, which tells the life of the prophet Elijah which epitomized the evolution of Jewish faith from worship of the Babylonian pantheon of idols and myths to worshipping one monotheistic God. 

In the second half, we hear that God comforts those who follow his commandments. In ridding the land of Baal worship, Elijah has challenged King Ahab, ruler of Israel. His wife, Queen Jezebel, incites the crowd against Elijah. Disheartened, Elijah sings “It is enough.” 

Elijah awaits God on Mount Horeb, longing for death. Angels once again arrive to restore his spirit with the words, “Lift thine eyes to the mountains.” Elijah’s hope resurfaces, and the chorus sings this chorale, with words from Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew.

We are singing this today in response to the Gospel reading which ends, "By your endurance you will gain your souls."

Elegy

John Carter

Elegy was composed for piano solo in memory and in grief for the students and teachers of the Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas. It features a quiet, somber rhythm pattern with twenty-one bell-like tones, one for each person who perished on that awful day. It is quiet, somber, and dramatic.

Carter is Director of Music at University Baptist Church, Columbus, OH. He was born in Nashville, TN and received his B.M. from Trinity University in San Antonio and an M.M. from Peabody College in Nashville. John is a prolific composer with several hundred choral compositions to his credit as well as several musicals, an opera, and a dozen collections for keyboard and organ. He and his wife, Mary Kay Beall, often collaborate in composition.

SWINGING SAINTS! Music for November 6, 2022 + All Saints (Observed)

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints – Joel Martinson, arr. (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Morning Canticle – Sondra Tucker (b. 1957)
• How Can I Keep from Singing – Sondra Tucker, arr.
• Sine Nomine – John Weaver (1937-2021)

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

• Hymn 287 For all the saints, who from their labors rest (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 286 Who are these like stars appearing? (ZEUCH MICH, ZEUCH MICH)
• Hymn 618 Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LAAST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R127 Blessed are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 625 Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)

It's not your usual Sunday  (musically) at Good Shepherd. First, its the Sunday we observe All Saints Day (which is on November 1st).  We remember those who have died and have "gone before," as they say. We usually use music by the "saints" of church music, (read "dead, white men") but today we also offer choral and instrumental music by a living white man AND a woman. We can feel the earth shake even as we write this. Read on.

By All Your Saints

For the offering, the choir will sing an setting of hymn 231, a poem by Horatio Nelson (a British politician and relative of the famous Naval hero Lord Nelson) set to a Finnish folk tune, NYLAND. It is arranged by Joel Martinson, director of Music Ministries and Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas.

Morning Canticle and How Can I Keep From Singing    

These two handbell pieces, played by our Good Shepherd Bell Choir, are by the Houston composer Sondra Tucker. Sondra and I have known each other since our days together in Memphis, over 25 years ago. She has served Presbyterian and Episcopal Congregations in both Memphis and Houston, and is currently the director of the Houston Bronze Ensemble, a professional handbell group in Houston (of which I am a member.) She is also acting as organist and choir director at First Congregational Church of Houston.

The prelude, Morning Canticle, is a bright, original tune which sparks an interesting match with the melody of "Holy Holy Holy", which is played by handchimes in the middle of the piece.

The communion piece is a lovely arrangement of the American Gospel hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing. The text and tune were both written by Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister who became a popular writer of gospel music in the mid- to late-19th century. His best-known hymns include "Shall We Gather at the River", "Christ Arose!", and "Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus". Despite his protestations that preaching was his main vocation and that music was merely a sideline, it is as a hymnwriter that Lowry is chiefly remembered. 

I think it's funny that I first heard this hymn not in church but on a CD of music by the New-Age singer/musician Enya, who changed some more overtly Christian lines.

In this arrangement we will also hear the handchimes playing the melody on the middle verse of the hymn.

Sine Nomine

Of all the music we are presenting this Sunday, the one I am most excited about is the closing voluntary, Sine Nomine. "SINE NOMINE is the tune name of the opening hymn this morning, the wonderful All Saints hymn, For all the saints, who from their labors rest. But did you know that SINE NOMINE is not the first, much less the only tune for that hymn? When the hymn was first published, it was sung to the melody SARUM, by the Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906 when Ralph Vaughan Williams, the editor of that hymnal, wrote a new tune which he called SINE NOMINE.  The tune's title means "without name" and follows the Renaissance tradition of naming certain compositions "Sine Nomine" if they were not settings for preexisting tunes.

What excited me about this organ piece is that it combines both the original tune SARUM with the later tune SINE NOMINE. But wait! THERE'S MORE! It also combines the Black spiritual, When the Saints Go Marching In with SINE NOMINE. And, if that is not enough, the whole piece is played in a Dixieland Jazz style! Yes, folks, you read that right. The hymn tune many consider to be the epitome of Anglican hymn tunes is given the Dixieland treatment. 

This genius "mash-up" was the brain child of American organist John Weaver. Weaver served as Organist and Director of Music at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church from 1970-2005. He also headed the Organ Department of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1972-2003 AND chaired the Juilliard School's Organ Department from 1987-2004.

Originally, this was the closing movement of a Hymn Sonata, commissioned by the Reuter Organ Company for the dedication recital at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in 1995. The style of a New Orleans Dixieland band infuses the entire piece, and Sine Nomine sounds unexpectedly right with dotted rhythms and jazz harmonies! The juxtaposition with Oh, When the Saints also draws attention to the fact that the opening of one tune is the inversion of the other.

A lyrical statement of SARUM, with its repeated notes and foursquare feel, essentially acts as a contrasting second subject. Following this there is another statement of SINE NOMINE as a jazz trumpet solo, after which SARUM and SINE NOMINE are combined. Finally, SINE NOMINE and Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In are grandly combined.

THE PERSONAL CONNECTION - Music for October 30, 2022 + The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Sought the Lord – David Ashley White
• Good Shepherd, You Know Us – David Ashley White

Instrumental Music

• Suite Gothic Op. 25 – Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)

1. Introduction – Chorale
2. Menuet Gothique
3. Prière à Notre Dame – Léon Boëllmann
4. Toccata – Léon Boëllmann

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

• Hymn 688  - A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Hymn - Blessed assurance (ASSURANCE)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn 607 - O God of every nation (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 119:137-144 – Tone VIIIa

Today we sing two pieces by the Houston composer David Ashley White with direct connections to Good Shepherd.

I Sought the Lord

25 years ago, when I first came to Good Shepherd, we had a young mother singing in our choir with a toddler. As the dad wasn't a church goer, she would bring the young boy with her to church on Sunday, and he would sit in the loft with us. People in the congregation down below began to look for his round, cherubic face pressed up against the glass which use to be in the choir loft rail. But life happened, and a divorce brought about a move from the suburb of Kingwood to the inner loop of Houston, and thus a move from Good Shepherd to Palmer Memorial. We missed young Thomas' growing up, and his subsequent battle with cancer, but we kept up through our friendship with his mother, Sarah and social media. Thomas won his battle with cancer, but lost his war with depression. He passed away in August of 2017.

Our mutual friend and church musician/composer, David Ashley White, wrote a beautiful anthem which he dedicated to Sarah Emes and her son, Thomas Oldrin. With a text by an anonymous poet, the anthem was premiered by the Palmer choir and published by Selah Publishing Co. in June 2018. Sarah gave copies of the anthem to Good Shepherd so that we, too, could sing in memory of Thomas.

Good Shepherd, You Know Us

When the congregation and choirs of Good Shepherd celebrated my 25th Anniversary at Good Shepherd on September 11, the celebration included a new hymn written for the occasion by David, which was sung by the choir. We've been practicing it to learn the harmonies, and will sing it again this Sunday during communion. 

Most people don’t realize that a hymn has two parts. One is the text. When Pam Nolting asked David about composing something, he immediately suggested a hymn text by one of his favorite writers, Christopher Idle, a priest in the Anglican Church. The text is perfect for our congregation:

Good Shepherd, you know us, you call us by name,

you lead us; we gladly acknowledge your claim.

Your voice has compelled us; we come at your call,

and none you have chosen will finally fall.

Good Shepherd, you warn us of robbers and thieves;

the hireling, the wolf, who destroys and deceives;

all praise for your promise on which we can stand,

that no-one can snatch us from out of your hand.

Good Shepherd, you lay down your life for the sheep;

your love is not fickle, your gift is not cheap.

You spend your life freely, you take it again;

you died, so we live - we are healed by your pain.

At one with the Father, you made yourself known:

'I am the Good Shepherd', at one with your own.

You loved us before we had heeded or heard;

by grace we respond to your life-giving word.

Christopher Idle b.1938, © Christopher Idle/ Jubilate Hymns

The second part of a hymn is the tune, and the tune has its own title. The tune name for this is, appropriately, Good Shepherd, Kingwood. 

Suite Gothique

In a non-liutrgical nod to All Hallows Eve, I am playing the complete Gothic Suite by French composer Léon Boëllmann. Boëllmann was born on September 25, 1862 in Ensisheim on the Upper Rhine. At the age of 9 he left his homeland and entered Louis Niedermeyer's École de Musique classique et religieuse in Paris. Among his teachers and patrons were the well-known organists Gustave Lefèvre and especially Eugène Gigout, who later even adopted him. In 1881 he graduated from the École with a diploma as an organist and another as a cantor, and became an organist at the Church of St. Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. He later got the position of first organist there. After the founding of the École d'orgue et d'improvisation by Gigout, Boëllmann worked simultaneously as an organist at St. Vincent-de-Paul, as a teacher at his adoptive father's school and as a composer. He also worked as a music critic. Léon Boëllmann died on October 11, 1897 at the age of 35.

His best-known work today is the Suite Gothique op. 25, especially the last movement, the Toccata. This four-movement suite opens with the Introduction in C minor, a chorale rendered in an archaic, neo-modal style. This is followed by the Menuet Gothique, a curious mixture of ecclesiatical-liturgical austerity and eighteenth-century elegance: It begins with a C major minuet, which in the running movement takes on increasingly modal traits through the use of flat sevenths in the harmonies. The contrasting middle section develops through a variety of new keys with a merrily ascending motif of broken chords, producing some brief reminiscences of the opening minute before a recapitulation of the first section rounds out the movement. 

The third movement, Prière à Notre Dame , is in A flat major. A recurring sinuous melody in the muted registers exudes a devotional atmosphere. This is answered by three passages based on a romantic progression of harmony in the unrelated keys of D flat major and E major.

The following Toccata in C minor is not without reason the most played movement from this suite. Brilliant manual figurations over a broad pedal theme create great effect. The somewhat macabre pedal theme rises in dotted rhythm to the flattened dominant, turning the harmonies to D flat major for a few bars. In contrast, a rhythmic, syncopated melody rises in the manual, accompanied by the semitone motif that can be heard at the beginning of the movement. Finally, after some repetitions of these elements in different keys, increasing in dynamism and intensity, the coda brings back the opening theme, played in pedal octaves in triple forte – the dynamic and effective climax to close the suite.

A NEW SONG: Music for October 23, 2022 + The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Oh, Sing to the Lord a New Song – John Leavitt (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on a Melody by Orlando Gibbons – Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Sonata IV: Andante – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Finale in D Minor – Eric H. Thiman (1900-1975)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 680 O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 686 Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 424 For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn 693 Just as I am (WOODWORTH)
• Hymn 636 How firm a foundation (FOUNDATION)
• Psalm 84:1-6 – Tone VIIIa

Oh, Sing to the Lord a New Song

This anthem is a departure from our usually sedate, organ-based fare. It is a contemporary setting of a contemporary paraphrase of Psalm 96. The composer of the piece is John Leavitt, a Kansas native who devotes himself full-time to composing and conducting. He is the artistic director and conductor of a professionally trained vocal ensemble known as The Master Arts Chorale and an associated children's choir, The Master Arts Youth Chorale, both in Wichita.

Born and raised in Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavitt did his undergraduate work is in Music Education at Emporia State University. After graduation, Leavitt moved to Wichita, Kansas where he worked in television for five years. At Wichita State University he pursued a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance with significant study in composition. While in Wichita he directed the parish music program at Immanuel Lutheran Church and served on the faculty at Friends University where he won the faculty award for teaching excellence in 1989.

He completed doctoral work in Choral Conducting at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. 

Chorale Prelude on a Melody by Orland Gibbons

The melody by Orlando Gibbons, an English composer who lived in last half of the 16th century and the first quarter of the 17th century, can be found in our hymnal at hymn 670. In addition to his instrumental and choral works, Gibbons also wrote many hymn tunes, 17 of which were included in George Withers' 'Hymnes and Songs of the Church', published in 1623.

It is arranged by Healey Willan, the Canadian organist, who spent most of his professional career at St. Mary the Virgin in Toronto. Though born in England, Willan moved to Canada in in13, when he was 33, and spent the rest of his life there, becoming known as "the Dean of Canadian composers." 

He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but his best known works are his church music.

Sonata in E Minor: II. Andante

The communion voluntary is the second movement of a Trio Sonata by J. S. Bach. Bach compiled six “sonatas” for organ, reworking and expanding upon various earlier pieces. The fourth of these is designated as a “Trio sonata” in E minor, BWV 528, which simply describes three-part music written for two manuals and pedal.

The middle Andante movement in B minor features imitative interplay between the two voices in the manuals, while the pedal provides the bass line.

Finale in D Minor

The closing voluntary is by one of the leading organ composers from England of the 20th century. Eric Thiman was born in 1900 in Ashford, Kent, and spent his life in or around London.

Though largely self-taught, he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists at twenty-one, and a Doctor of Music of London University at twenty-seven – at the time the youngest person ever to achieve that qualification.

From 1931 he was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music and was appointed Dean of the Music Faculty at London University in 1956. He was warmly respected and a gifted and patient teacher.

Unlike many of the well known organists in Great Britain, Thiman was not an Anglican. He was organist and Choir Director at two big non-conformist churches, Park Chapel, Hornsey (England) and City Temple in London. 

THESE ARE DIFFICULT TIMES - Music for Sunday, October 16, 2022 + Day School Sunday

Vocal Music

• Jesus, Jesus – Sunday School Song
• Shalom – Hebrew Melody

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Liebster Jesu” – Timothy Albrecht (b. 1950)
• Autumn – Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
• Serenade for Organ, Opus 22 – Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)

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

Hymn 372 - Praise to the living God! (LEONI)
Hymn 631 - Book of books, our people’s strength (LIEBSTER JESU)
Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

This Sunday we will hear from the children of Good Shepherd School, lead by their music teacher Karen Silva. You will be amazed at what children ages 3-5 can do when it comes to vocal and instrumental music. We  are very fortunate to have the school here at our church, and they are lucky to have Karen teaching them about pitch, rhythm, and instruments.

Autumn from The Four Seasons    

One of the most amazing things they'll be doing is an instrumental number arranged from the first movement of Vivaldi's AUTUMN from "The Four Seasons." Intead of strings (like the original), the children will be using chimes and Boomwhackers®, color-coded, plastic, pitched, percussion tubes, designed to be 'whacked' against any surface, for a focused sound. Imagine playing music on empty rolls of wrapping paper. 

Prelude on Liebster Jesu and Serenade

There is a meme floating around musical circles that says

THESE ARE DIFFICULT TIMES

Most beginner musicians start with the simple meter of common time, or four beats per measure.

For some reason (fate? masochism?) I have chosen not just one but TWO organ voluntaries written in something one could call 'difficult times.'  Take a look at the time signature for the opening voluntary, a prelude based on hymn 631:

That means 10 beats per measure, with the 8th note getting the beat. Here is how the composer, Timothy Albrecth, organist emeritus of Emory Universoty, explains it:

SO I need to feel it in a group of 1, a group of 2, a group of three, then a group of four. This makes for a fun time, let me tell you!

But that is nothing in comparison with the closing voluntary, a piece called Serenade. Look at this time signature:

It starts out as 3+3+2+3, but later on he changes it to 13 beats to a measure. The composer wrote this for his own wedding in 1965 to be played by the organist as the guests left the ceremony. Not wishing to allow them the luxury of proceeding in an orderly 2/4, the composer wrote the work in 11/8, and in case anyone felt too comfortable, he changed it to 13/8 in the middle! The work has now been released in a number of different orchestrations of the original version for organ. This delightful miniature has entered the repertoire throughout the world.

Music for Sunday, October 9, 2022 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Thee We Adore – T. F. H. Candlyn (1892-1964)

Instrumental Music

• Andante in D Major – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• The Infinite Meadows of Heaven – Paul Mealor (b. 1975)
• Praise to the Lord, the Almighty – Max Reger (1873-1916)

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

• Hymn 411 O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Hymn 644 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (ST. PETER)
• Hymn 295 Sing praise to our creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 390 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Hymn R 266 Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 397 Now thank we all our God (NUN DANLET ALLE GOTT)
• Psalm 111 – Tone VIIIa

Thee We Adore

This is an anthem based on a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas. The tune is in our hymnal, using a different translation of the original Latin text (hymn 314). 

The arrangement is by Thomas Frederick Handel Candlyn, English-born organist, composer and choirmaster who spent most of his professional career at two Episcopal Church congregations in New York. After graduating from Durham University in 1911 with  the Bachelor of Music degree, he was offered the position of organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Church, Albany, New York by its rector Dr. Roelif H. Brooks and he emigrated to the United States. He was to remain at St. Paul’s for twenty-eight years, with the exception of the period between September 21, 1917 and April 25, 1919 when he served with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I.

In 1943, Dr. Brooks (who had left Albany in 1926) offered Candlyn the position of organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York. where he worked until his retirement in 1954.

Although he composed two hundred works, primarily anthems, cantatas, service settings and organ solos, only three of his anthems ("Christ, whose glory fills the skies," "Thee We Adore," and "King of Glory, King of Peace") remain part of the standard repertoire of Episcopal church choirs in North America.

Andante in D Major

Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument had fascinated — one might almost say mesmerized — him from earliest youth, but aside from a year or so of formal training at the age of about 12 or 13, he was entirely self-taught. He never held a position as church organist, and never had any organ pupils. Nevertheless, the instrument played a uniquely important role in his personal life. In the course of his many travels, whether in major cities or tiny villages, he invariably gravitated to the organ loft, where he might spend hours playing the works of Bach or simply improvising. Although the piano clearly served Mendelssohn as an eminently practical instrument, the organ seems to have been his instrument of choice. He searched out an organ loft, not because he had to, but because he wanted to, because on the organ he could find catharsis. Indeed, as he once exclaimed to his parents after reading a portion of Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, “I must rush off to the monastery and work off my excitement on the organ!” 

Mendelssohn's public performance on the organ in Germany was rare, and he gave but one public recital: in the Thomas-Kirche in Leipzig in 1840. In England, however, he evidently felt more comfortable on the organ bench and played there often before large crowds. Indeed, he performed as Guest Organist twice at the Birmingham Music Festivals in 1837 and 1842. Given Mendelssohn's profound affinity for the organ, it is remarkable that he composed but relatively little for the instrument, and assigned an Opus number to only two works: his Three Preludes and Fugues for Organ (Op. 37) and his Six Sonatas for the Organ (Op. 65). A small number of organ works, plus sketches and drafts, were scattered among his musical papers; most of these only gradually found their way into print, and it was not until the late 20th century that an edition of his complete organ works was finally published. 

This Andante (1844) is one of them. It's a theme and variations on a very sweet melody

The Infinite Meadow of Heaven

Welsh composer Paul Mealor is one of the world’s most ‘performed’ living composers and has been described as, ‘the most important composer to have emerged in Welsh choral music since William Mathias’ (New York Times, 2001).

Born in St Asaph, North Wales in 1975, Paul Mealor studied composition privately as a boy with William Mathias and later with John Pickard, and at the University of York (BA Hons, 1997, PhD, 2002) and in Copenhagen with Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård. He was catapulted to international stardom in April 2011, when 2.5 billion people heard his motet, Ubi caritas, at the Royal Wedding Ceremony of His Royal Highness Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge) at Westminster Abbey. 

The Infinite Meadows of Heaven is a quote from H. W. Longfellow and this slow and expressive piece is very beautiful. It is underpinned by oscillating thirds in its outer sections that accompany a melody using the upper end of the keyboard. A low pedal octave also accompanies the first section. The middle section is more agitated but all returns to a blissful calm. It was commissioned and premiered by Iwan Llewelyn-Jones at the Wales International Piano Festival in 2016.

“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,

Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.”

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Music for Sunday, October 2, 2022

Vocal Music

• O Lord, Increase My Faith – Henry Loosemore (c.1600 - 1670) (fl. 1627-1670)

Instrumental Music

• An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the Waters of Babylon), BWV 653 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Ich ruf zu dir (I call on Thee, Lord Jesus Christ) – J. S. Bach
• Finale and Fughetta in C – Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746)

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

• Hymn R 49 Let the whole creation cry (LLANDFAIR)
• Hymn 535 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R 249 Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 551 Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Psalm 37:1-10 – Tone VIIIa

O Lord, Increase My Faith

In Sunday's Gospel, the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6)

The Good Shepherd Choir asks the same thing in this Sunday’s anthem.

O Lord, increase my faith,
strengthen me and confirm me in Thy true faith;
endue me with wisdom, charity, and patience,
in all my adversity, Sweet Jesu, say Amen.

Attributed for many years to the English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), modern scholarly research reveals the composer as Henry Loosemore, an English composer and organist. His father, John Loosemore, built the organ at Exeter Cathedral. Henry Loosemore served as the organist at King's College, Cambridge. In 1640, Loosemore was granted the degree of B.Mus by the University, on the supplication of King's College avowing that 'he had studied the art of musical composition for seven years, together with its practice, and has achieved approval of those skilled in the art.'

An Wasserflüssen Babylon

This chorale prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach is from a set known as The Great Eighteen, a set of chorale preludes for organ prepared by Bach in Leipzig in his final decade (1740–1750), from earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein (see below), the Schübler Chorales, the third book of the Clavier-Übung and the Canonic Variations, they represent the summit of Bach's sacred music for solo organ.

The hymn "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" is a paraphrase of Psalm 137, a lament in exile in Babylon. The gentle ritornellos of the accompanying parts in the two upper parts and pedal of this sarabande, anticipate the ornamented chorale in the tenor, evoking the mournful tone of the hymn, the "organs and harps, hung up on willow trees", based on Psalm 137. In a famous concert in 1720 on the great organ in St Catherine's Church in Hamburg, Bach had improvised for almost half an hour on the same hymn tune as a tribute to the church's organist Johann Adam Reinken and his celebrated fantasy on the same theme.

Ich ruf zu dir

At communion you will hear "Ich ruf zu dir" (BWV 639) from Orgelbüchlein by Bach, a famous collection of 46 Chorale Preludes for organ. The melodies of these Chorale Preludes are not by Bach, they are from the tradition of the Lutheran Church, but Bach works his magic on these miniatures. The music is in the key of F minor, described by J. P. Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach, as "the least pure, and thus the saddest."

The text was written by Johann Agricola (1494-1566) and published before 1530.

I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ!
I beg, hear my complaint!
Grant me grace at this time;
let me not despair!
The pure faith, Lord, I wish
that You would give me:
to live to You
to help my neighbor,
and to keep Your Word faithfully.

There are three voices - the bass line in the pedal, played as a steady, pulsating beat; the middle line, written in flowing 16th notes, imitative of the bowing style of a viola player, and the top line, playing the melody. The first half of the tune is somewhat ornamented, while the second half, curiously, is plain. This may be a signal to the performer to improvise similar ornamentation for the second half. On the other hand, it may be an intentional reflection of the shift of emphasis that occurs half way through the text, from a plaintive to a more sturdy and confident character. ("The pure faith..." "to keep your word faithfully.")

This work was included in the zero gravity scene in Andrej Tarkowski's movie "Solaris".

Finale and Fughetta

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer was a German composer who influenced composers in the generation before J.S. Bach. He composed Italianate vocal compositions, liturgical organ works in the German tradition, and orchestral and keyboard works. Fischer was responsible for bringing a French influence into German music.