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.