Music for Sunday, March 27, 2022

Vocal Music

• Lord, For Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake – Richard Farrant (c. 1525-1580)

Instrumental Music

• Rhosymedre – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
• My Song Is Love Unknown
• Prelude au Kyrie – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Cwm Rhondda – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 693 - Just as I am, without one plea (WOODWORTH)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Psalm 32 – tone IIa

The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams is the composer of this morning's opening voluntary. Vaughan Williams is one of the first composers who wrote in what you could call a “distinct English style”; he made a point of breaking away from the German style which had a profound influence on classical music forms like symphonies, concertos, and chamber music. His studies with Ravel likely had something to do with this. He was also interested in folk tunes of the British Isles, as evidenced by today's prelude.

"RHOSYMEDRE" is Vaughan Williams's best-loved work for organ. It is sometimes used for the Lenten hymn "My Song is Love Unknown." (Our hymnal uses the tune LOVE UNKNOWN.) Though originally written for pipe organ, it's been arranged for orchestra and almost every ensemble possible. (I've even heard it played by a saxophone quintet.) As usual, in his arrangements of British folk music, Vaughan Williams succeeds here in turning an apparently simple tune into a work of profound emotional impact. Renaissance cadences much in evidence, in this short but sweet work Vaughan Williams crafts a wistful piece of great beauty. It's one of my favorites, and one that I want played at my funeral one day.

Ralph Vaughan Williams in World War I

Vaughan Williams had a strong sense of integrity, in that he believed music should be accessible to everyone. He also believed in being of service to his fellow citizens, to the point that he signed up at age 42 when World War One broke out. He was an ambulance wagon driver and became a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, being sent to fight in France in 1918. The constant sound of guns damaged his hearing and lead to his deafness in his old age. The war had an impact on his music, culminating in his Dona nobis pacem (“Grant us peace”) completed in 1936, at a time there must have been speculation of another war brewing.

A humble man, Ralph Vaughan Williams declined the honor of a knighthood. His ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey.

The communion voluntary is part of a larger work by French composer Jean Langlais called Hommage à Frescobaldi, written in 1952. This is the first piece in that collection, entitled, appropriately enough, "Prélude au Kyrie." It begins with a slowly-ascending melodic figure against suspended chords. When the opening material returns, halfway through, it is now accompanied by the pedal, which plays the chant theme from the Kyrie of the Mass "Cunctipotens genitor Deus."

Born in La Fontenelle, Brittany, France, a small village near by the Mont Saint-Michel, Jean Langlais became blind from the age of two. At the age of eleven, he was sent to the Paris National Institute for the Young Blind where he studied piano, violin, harmony and organ. Later, he entered the Paris National Conservatory of Music, obtaining a First Prize in 1930. 

In 1945, he became the successor to Cesar Franck and Charles Tournemire at the prestigious Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He left that position in 1987 at the age of 80, having been organist for 42 years!

The closing voluntary is the well-known (at least among organists!) improvisation on our opening hymn this morning, CWM RHONNDA. (Guide me, O thou great Jehovah). It is by the American Lutheran composer Paul Manz. 

It's a little exuberant for the season of Lent, but today is Laetare Sunday, or the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration, within the austere period of Lent. It gets its name from the first few words of the traditional Latin Introit of the day from the Roman Catholic Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" ("Rejoice, O Jerusalem"). Hence, I don't feel too badly that the opening of the piece sounds a lot like Handel's "Hxllelujxh" from Messiah.