Music for Sunday, August 28, 2022 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Christ Has No Body Now but Yours – David Ogden (b. 1966)

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
• Prelude on “Michael” (hymn 665) – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Voluntary on “Was Lebet” (Hymn 568) – Christopher Tambling (1964 - 2015)

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Hymn - From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 321- My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (ENGLEBERG)
• Psalm 112 – Tone IIa

Christ Has No Body Now But Yours

Such a long, unwieldy title for simple tune. It's actually just the first line of the prayer attributed to Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish noblewoman who was called to be a nun in the 16th century. She wrote this prayer

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

It has been set to music by David Ogden, a professional conductor and composer based in Bristol, U.K. He is Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol where he trains and directs three choirs of young people and adults as part of the church’s active music program. In addition, he conducts the vocal ensemble Celestia, Exultate Singers, City of Bristol Choir, workplace choirs at Airbus, Arval and Bristol Beacon, and in his post of Head of the Bristol Choral Centre, he organizes and directs the 140 strong Bristol Youth Choirs in association with Bristol Music Trust.

One of the things that most fascinates me the most is that he was the Religious Music Adviser for the PBS series Call The Midwife. It is one of my most favorite shows, and I always admired how the sacred music employed on the show fit the storyline so well.

Aria

Flor Peeters was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, He retired in 1968 and was given the assignment of an International Masterclass in the cathedral of Mechelen by the Ministry of Flemish Culture. He fulfilled this task until his death. He was organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986. Each Sunday after High Mass, between 1968 and 1986, he performed a short recital for friends and tourists. He kept his large repertoire in good condition and this playing was a necessity for him as a mean of communicating beauty to others.

Flor Peeters was made doctor honoris causa in music by the Catholic University in Washington (1962) and by the Catholic University of Louvain (1971).Also in 1971 King Baudouin of the Belgians gave him the title of baron. A few weeks before his death he received the State Award for an artistic career from the Belgian Government.

Prelude on "Michael" and Voluntary on "Was Lebet"

Two of the hymns that were appropriate for the scripture readings this Sunday but remain unfamiliar to our congregation are hymns 665 (All our hope on God is founded, sung to the tune MICHAEL) and 568 (Father all loving, who rulest in majesty, sung to the German chorale WAS LEBET.) The text for hymn 665 is a translation of a German hymn from the 17th cenutry, but set to a tune from the 20th century. The text for 568 is a contemporary text from the 20th century but set to a German tune from the 18th century.

Music for Sunday, August 21, 2022 + The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• And Still the Bread Is Broken – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
• Jerusalem – Chris de Silva (21st Century)
• Carillon – Herbert Murrill (1909-1952)

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

• Hymn 8 - Morning is broken (BUNESSAN)
• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn 114 - Psalm 103:1-8, Jacques Berthier

O God, thou Faithful God

These two short chorale preludes for organ are written by Dame Ethel Smyth, one of the most significant English composers of her era. She wrote six operas, a Mass in D for chorus and orchestra, orchestral, choral, chamber and solo music.

Born into a middle-class London family, she was introduced to classical music by a governess who had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. This sealed her fate, and she too went to Leipzig to study music. She met and worked with some of the greatest musicians of the time, including Clara Schumann, Peter Tchailkovsky, Edvard Gried, Anton Dvorak, Gustav Mahler, and Johannes Brahms. Brahms refused to believe she actually wrote the music she shared with him because he didn't believe a woman could write music that was this good.

In her collection Short Chorale Preludes, Smyth melds the compositional styles of both Bach and Brahms. She set the chorale O GOTT DU FROMMER GOTT twice. The first setting uses an imitative four-note motif as part of the the accompaniment in the three lower voices, while the melody appears unadorned in the top voice. As the hymn itself is in AAB form (do you remember last week's discussion of form in hymns?), measures five through eight are an exact repeat of the first four bars, only played on a different keyboard. 

The second setting is in 12/8 time, as opposed to the common 4/4 time of the first prelude. In the second setting Smyth did NOT repeat the opening line of the melody as she did in the first chorale prelude, because the melody is repeated in a canon at the octave between the upper voice and the pedal. 

Jerusalem

The piano piece during the eucharist is a setting of the tune LAND OF REST. This tune is used several times in our hymnal, most notably for the text which we will sing immediately following the piano prelude. The title Jerusalem probably comes from the other text found in our hymnal, Jerusalem, my happy home. 

 Chris de Silva is a composer, arranger and church musician. He is is originally from Singapore and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He

has served as Director of Liturgy and Music at several churches in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and currently serves on the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music.

​

Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring. He also holds an M.A. in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Chris is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.

Music for August 14, 2022 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – Samuel S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Instrumental Music

• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 647 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Chorale Prelude on “Houston” – Rebecca Groom Te Velde (b. 1956)
• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 642 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 366 Holy God we praise thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
• Hymn 635 If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 490 I want to walk as a child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R 291 Go forth for God (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18 – Tone IIa

Welcome Back, Choir!

The Good Shepherd Choir makes its return to our 10:15 service this Sunday, singing one of the best known excerpts from an anthem by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. This short passage from the larger work Praise the Lord, O My Soul is known as Lead Me, Lord.

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was born 212 years ago this very day, Aug. 14, in London. Known as a composer and organist, he was one of the most distinguished English church musicians of his time. The grandson of Charles Wesley and the natural son of Samuel Wesley (his father had left his first wife and started a new family with another woman - but that's a post for another time!), he was a chorister of the Chapel Royal and held posts in London and at Exeter cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester cathedral, and Gloucester cathedral. He was prominent as a conductor of the Three Choirs Festival and was professor of organ at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Wesley's father was enamored with the music of Bach. In fact, he helped introduce the music of J.S. Bach into England, playing his music and publishing the an English edition of Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier). He was so infatuated with the German musician that he named his son Sebastian in Bach's memory. So perhaps it is fitting that I am playing two pieces by J. Sebastian Bach alongside the music of S. Sebastian Wesley.

If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee

One of the first pieces I studied on the organ when in college was Bach's setting of the chorale Wer nur den lieben Gott, which is in our hymnal at hymn 635. (We will also sing it today.) This setting, which I am playing as the closing voluntary, is from Bach's collection Orgelbuchlein. The hymn is in AAB form, meaning that the first two lines of music are identical, while the last line uses new material. The same can be said of Bach's setting. The first line is repeated twice before ending the piece. In this chorale prelude, the unadorned cantus firmus is in the soprano voice. The two inner voices, often in thirds, are built on a motif made up of two short beats followed by a long beat—an anapaest — often used by Bach to signify joy. The pedal has a walking bass which also partly incorporates the joy motif in its responses to the inner voices. For Albert Schweitzer, the accompaniment symbolized "the joyful feeling of confidence in God's goodness."

The opening voluntary follows the same AAB formula. What makes this interesting is that this is basically Bach's arrangement of the central duet from his cantata based on this hymn, Cantata 93, which Bach composed in 1728.  Bach published this setting for organ, BWV 647, around 1748 as part of his Six Chorales of Various Kinds, commonly known as the Schubler Chorales. All six works for organ are based on cantatas. They provided an approachable version of Bach's cantatas through the more accessible medium of keyboard music, and the fact that Bach chose to edit these (while the rest of his cantatas remained largely unpublished during his lifetime), says something about the musical statement that they represented. 

Music for August 7, 2022 + The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Simple Song – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
• Jim Sikorski, tenor, Grace Tice, oboe

Instrumental Music

• Impromptu on “Adoro te Devote” – Rachel Laurin (b. 1961)
• Gabriel’s Oboe – Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
• Quasi Allegro – César Franck (1822-1890)

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

• Hymn R5 God is here! (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖHE)
• Hymn 637 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (LYONS)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 68 Rejoice! rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 50:1-8 – Tone IIa

Simple Song

My friend Jim Sikorski is coming to Kingwood to sing for us this Sunday. He is singing "A Simple Song" from Leonard Bernstein's Mass. (For some background on why the Jewish Bernstein would write a setting of the Catholic Mass, see my notes from an earlier column here.)

Jim has been in Houston for over 40 years, and during that time, he has sung with the Houston Grand Opera chorus, Theatre Under the Stars, and, and 43 consecutive seasons, he has sung the National Anthem for the Houston Astros. (You can imagine how I feel about that! Go, 'Stros!)

Gabriel's Oboe

Another friend of mine is coming to play oboe on "A Simple Song," so while here, I thought I would get Grace Tice to play one of my favorite oboe pieces, Gabriel's Oboe, originally written by the composer Ennio Morricone for the film "The Mission." The score for that movie was nominated for an Oscar, and Morricone recieved a Golden Globe for his music for that film.

Since it's appearance in 1986, this tune has become a standard of instrumental and vocal repertoire. Sarah Brightman, Il Divo, Yo Yo Ma, and a host of others have recorded it. Our handbell choir played an arrangement of it in May of 2018. I'm sure you remember.

Impromptu on Adoro te Devote

Today I am playing an organ piece by one of the hottest names in organ music from Canada, the talented organist and composer Rachel Laurin. After her studies at the Montreal Conservatory, she became Associate Organist of Raymond Daveluy at St-Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal (1986-2002), and from 2002 to 2006, she was Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa. She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master classes and lectures.

She has performed organ recitals in major cities in Canada, the United States, and Europe (including the University of House), and has made more than twelve recordings, including two CDs devoted to her own compositions. She has composed hundreds of works for various solo instruments, voice, instrumental ensembles, choir, and orchestra. In 2020, the American Guild of Organists granted her the AGO “Distinguished Composer Award” in recognition of her important contribution to the organ repertoire.

Quasi Allegro

Last week I talked about the French Composer Cesar Franck, his 200th birthday, and his collection call "L'Organiste." Today I play another piece from that collection for the closing voluntary.