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