Music for June 11, 2023

Instrumental Music

• All Glory Be to God on High – James Coe (b. 1953)
• Jesu, Meine Freude – Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712)
• Postlude on “Hymn to Joy” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 493 O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HŐH)
• Hymn 558 Faith of our Fathers (ST. CATHERINE)
• Hymn 535 Ye servants of God (PADERBORN)
• Hymn 686 Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 376 Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (Hymn to Joy)
• Psalm 55 – Tone VIIIa

The choir is off for the summer.

All Glory be to God on High

The opening voluntary is another set of variations on the chorale  Allein Gott in der Hoh, which we are using as our hymn of praise (hymn 421) during June. As I told you last week, the hymn "Allein Gott" is the metrical setting of the Gloria, so it's use as the hymn of praise is entirely appropriate.

This set of variations is in four sections. The first movement is the straight-forward chorale, not unlike a four-part hymn setting. The second movement hovers around the notes of the chorale, giving you an impression of the hymn-tune without actually playing it. The third movement is in canon. You'll hear the melody in the top line (the soprano voice) then one measure later in the tenor line. The final movement has the melody in the alto line with the soprano line playing a dance-like counter melody, while the left hand employs a leaping bass line to propel the chorale forward.

These variations have been composed by Florida composer James Coe, who retired as organist/director of music at St. Luke's Lutheran Church and School, Oviedo, Florida after 46 years of service.

Jesu, Meine Freude

F. W. Zachow

The offertory and communion music come from another set of variations on a German Chorale, but this time by a baroque German organist, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Zachow was the organist of Liebfrauenkirche in Halle an der Saale, Germany, when a young boy, just under the age of seven, was brought to him for instruction in music. That boy was George Frederick Handel, and there can be no doubt that Zachow took great interest in his pupil, who, a biographer of Handel tells us, "pleased him so much that he never thought he could do enough for him."

 Handel always spoke of his old master with the deepest respect; visited him at Halle for the last time in 1710; and after his death sent frequent remittances' to Zachow's widow.

Jesu, Meine Freude is the tune for hymn 701 in our hymnal, "Jesus, all my gladness." The tune was written in 1750 by Johann Cruger for the text by Johann Franck. The text addresses Jesus as joy and support, versus enemies and the vanity of existence. 

Postlude on "Hymn to Joy"

Beethoven's hymn tune from the last movement of his last symphony is the basis of this grand postlude. It is a work I have been playing since I was a junior in high school. (Since I am retiring this summer, you can do the math.) It's not terribly difficult, and isn't complicated music to listen to, which is precisely why I think brides have been quick to choose this as a processional for their weddings. 

Gordon Young was the organist at First Presbyterian Church, Detroit, for many years while publishing many choir anthems and volumes of organ music which were tasteful, usable and popular with Protestant churches to this very day. We have sung his anthems at Good Shepherd.

In this setting of the famous hymn, he uses a "blue" note in the familiar melody, which I was always quick to point out to brides choosing music that it was NOT a wrong note, and I was playing it correctly. See if you can hear it in the first iteration of the tune.

Music for June 5, 2023 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound – Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• God Be in My Head – H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)

Instrumental Music

• Allein Gott in der Hőh – Andreas Armsdorff (1670 –1699)
• Christus, der ist mein Leben – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Allein Gott in der Hőh – 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 362 - Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
• Hymn 321 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HŐH)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn 295 - Sing Praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Canticle 13 - Glory to You (John Rutter)

Trinity Sunday

I understand that priests hate to preach on Trinity Sunday, for trying to preach on the mystery of the Holy Trinity is akin to tightrope walking, without a net, in a high wind. I mean, it's a mystery, right? As a musician, however, I love Trinity Sunday because there is a lot of great music for the day, including one of my favorite hymns, "Holy, holy, holy." I remember singing that in the Methodist Church when I was a boy on every first Sunday of the month when we had communion.

Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound

This setting of the hymn "Father of heaven, whose love profound," using the hymn tune ANGELUS, comes from the pen of the British-Canadian composer Healey Willan. The text is a hymn to the Trinity by the 19th century British priest Edward Cooper. The tune, which is found in our hymnal for an evening hymn (hymn 23), is a 17th century tune by the Silesian composer Georg Joseph who served at the court of prince-bishop of Breslau, Poland.

Though Healey Willan composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, he is best known for his church music. In 1913 he left his home in London and came to Toronto as head of the music theory department at the University of Toronto and organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Church. From 1921 until his death he was precentor at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He wrote adaptations of ancient service music, hymn tunes, faux-bourdons, newly composed service music, motets, symphonies, operas, cantatas, organ works, chamber music, songs, and incidental music for plays. The Hymnal 1982 includes the Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and Gloria in excelsis (S 91, S 114, S 158, and S 202) from his Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena.

God Be In My Head

Every week, at the end of the choir's rehearsal, we close with the singing of a short blessing in the form of an anthem, and the saying of compline, the service of night prayer. This year the choir has been singing this blessing from The Book of Hours, an early form of a prayer book prescribed for the monastic house at Salisbury, which was printed in London in 1514; one copy survives, at Clare College, Cambridge.

The music is by H. Walford Davies, an English composer, organist, and educator who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. Davies served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, during which he composed the Royal Air Force March Past, and was music adviser to the British Broadcasting Corporation, for whom he gave commended talks on music between 1924 and 1941. He was knighted in 1922.

As this is the last time the choir will sing before summer break, we close our season as we close our rehearsal, by singing this blessing.

Organ Voluntaries

The voluntaries this morning are all based on two of the hymns from our morning service, and they are all settings by Baroque German Composers. (The Baroque period was that period spanning from 1600-1750, ending in the death of J. S. Bach.)

The opening and closing voluntaries are settings of the Hymn of Praise we will be singing during the month of June. Hymn 421, "All glory be to God on high," is fitting for Trinity Sunday as it praises each person in the Godhead. It is also fitting to be sung in place of the Gloria, as it is a metrical setting of the canticle.

The closing voluntary is a trio by Bach, using the tune in the pedal. You'll also hear fragments of the melody in the music played on the manuals (keyboards). 

The opening voluntary is also a trio, but with the melody played in canon. First you hear the melody in the right hand, then several measures later the same melody is taken up in the pedal. This is by Andreas Armsdorff, a German composer and organist. He was born in Mühlberg, a town in Southern Germany, and studied music and law. At some point in his early life he moved to nearby Erfurt where he may have studied with Johann Pachelbel.

Johann Pachelbel was the preeminent organist in South Germany at the time. In addition to his famous Canon, he wrote church music, including several volumes of organ music. The music during the Eucharist is a partita on our presentation hymn ("Sing praise to our Creator," hymn 295), one of a set of four partitas (variations) on German chorales which he wrote.

NOT YOUR FATHER'S CHURCH MUSIC + Music for Sunday, May 28, 2023 + Pentecost Sunday

Vocal Music

• Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum (b. 1942)
• Down to the River to Pray – arr. Robert Lee (b. 1951)

Instrumental Music

• Shall We Gather at the River – Joe Utterback (b. 1944)
• Every Time I Feel the Spirit – Dennis Janzer (b. 1954)
• Ton-y-botel – Craig Curry
• Every Time I Feel the Spirit – Richard Elliot (b. 1957)

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

• Hymn R283 Creating Spirit, holy Lord (PUER NOBIS)
• Hymn 513 Like the murmur of the dove’s song (BRIDEGROOM)
• Hymn From north and south and east and west (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R248 Oh, let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Hymn R90 Spirit of the Living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn R168 If You believe and I believe (Traditional, Zimbabwe)
• Hymn 511 Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Psalm 104 - Alexander Peloquin

Spirit in the Sky

The Priest walks into the Music Director's office and asks, "What would you think about singing "Spirit in the Sky" on Pentecost Sunday?" The Music Director, aware of his role as support for the pastoral staff and always willing to please, says, "I don't know it, but I am sure we can do it if you think it will work." So, after the Priest leaves, the Music Director searches online, listens to the YouTube video of the original and thinks, "Oh Sweet Jesus, what have I agreed to?"

Thus how it happened that this Sunday, Pentecost, the choir is singing what The Rolling Stone Magazine refers to as Norman Greebaum's "immortal boogie-rock anthem," "Spirit in the Sky."

The song came out in the U.S. in January 1970. Propelled by a chugging, bluesy riff and featuring lyrics about befriending Jesus and preparing for death, it peaked at Number Three on Billboard’s Hot 100 and was certified gold.

In the 50 years since its release, “Spirit in the Sky” has never really gone away. The song has appeared in more than 30 commercials and 60 films, including Wayne’s World 2, Apollo 13, Remember the Titans, and I, Tonya. “I’ve got an audience that’s coming around again,” Greenbaum, now 77, says over the phone from his home in California. “The song started with kids’ grandparents and then their parents and then they hear it in all these movies. Now there’s a whole young generation that is into the song.(1)

Norman Greenbaum
Photo by Jeff Fasano Photography

"Spirit in the Sky" makes several religious references to Jesus, although Greenbaum himself is Jewish. In a 2006 interview with The New York Times, Greenbaum told a reporter he was inspired to write the song after watching Porter Wagoner singing a gospel song on TV. Greenbaum said: "I thought, 'Yeah, I could do that,' knowing nothing about gospel music, so I sat down and wrote my own gospel song. It came easy. I wrote the words in 15 minutes."

This is not our usual anthem. As I began to think about it, I realized that just using piano to accompany the choir would not be satisfying, so I asked Margie (VanBrackle) if she thought she and her husband Hans would play bass and guitar, respectively, to provide the accompaniment. They agreed, then I recalled another church member, Mark McGinn, who had said he could play drums anytime we needed it. So I contacted him, and he agreed. Yours truly is playing tambourine. I am WAY outside my comfort zone. So is the choir.

Some of us (me included) were uncomfortable with the third verse. Greenbaum explained:

I know the line “Never been a sinner / I never sinned” upset Christians. It did upset some people. When I said I can do this, that didn’t mean I could do it perfectly. It wasn’t my religion; I just did it. I didn’t think twice about it. I took some of the seriousness out of it, but I didn’t do it as a joke or against anyone. I guess people can take offense to almost anything. There was the song about the plastic Jesus on your dashboard. They liked that one. (ibid.)

According to the Rolling Stone, this song is a popular choice for funerals.

Down to the River to Pray

Made famous in the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, "Down to the River to Pray" is a traditional American song variously described as a Christian folk hymn, an African-American spiritual, an Appalachian song, and a Southern gospel song. The exact origin of the song is unknown.

I think it is an African American spiritual. The earliest known version of the song, titled "The Good Old Way," was published in Slave Songs of the United States in 1867. And the lyrics fill the bill for a slave song - one that has double meaning.

Aside from the obvious meaning of baptism ("..down to the river"), many songs sung by victims of slavery contained coded messages for escaping. When the enslaved people escaped, they would walk in the river because the water would cover their scent from the bounty-hunters' dogs. Similarly, the "starry crown" could refer to navigating their escape by the stars. And "Good Lord, show me the way" could be a prayer for God's guidance to find the escape route, commonly known as "the Underground Railroad."

This setting is arranged by Robert E. Lee. No, not that one, but the irony does not escape me. This Robert is an Alabama native and has been a church organist from age 16. With a BMusEd in organ performance from Samford University and a MEd in history from Mississippi College, Mr. Lee has worked as a choral director and history teacher for 25 years. He has been active with college and professional musical theater groups and is currently the assistant organist at St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Louisville, KY.

The Voluntaries

Just a few short notes about the instrumental music this Sunday. Since our choir music departs greatly from our usual genres, the organ and piano music, too, will take on different forms. The first voluntary at the beginning is by noted jazz organist Joe Utterback. This sounds more like theatre organ than church organ.

The second opening voluntary is a setting of the Spirit-focused spiritual, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit." This setting, by Memphis composer Dennis Janzer, is the most traditional of all the keyboard music this Sunday, as it is more like a Bach two-part invention than a spiritual.

The piano piece at communion is pure jazz, from it's rhythms to its harmonies. Craig Curry is a widely-published composer, arranger, pianist and  recording artist, and a former worship pastor and university music professor. The tune is TON-Y-BOTEL, found twice in our hymnal (look at 381 or 527). 

The closing voluntary is a spirited setting of the same spiritual which opened the service, only this time by the organist at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Richard Elliot. I hope you stay and listen!

 

(1) https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/norman-greenbaum-interview-spirit-in-the-sky-934508/

Music for May 21, 2023 + Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shepherd (1949 – 2021)
• I Will Not Leave You Comfortless – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père – Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Sonata in G Major: Adagio – Josef Hector Fiocco (1703-1741)
• Prelude on "Deo Gracias" – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

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 215 See the Conqueror mounts in triumph (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 450 All hail the power of Jesus’ name! (CORONATION)
• Hymn R37 Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! sing to Jesus! (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 68 – tone VIIc

Ascension Day commemorates the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Happening 40 days after Easter, on a Thursday, it is one of the ecumenical feasts of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of Easter and Pentecost.

We don't hold a separate service on Ascension Day, but we do acknowledge it on the Sunday after the Ascension with hymns and readings. The first reading from Acts is the story of Christ's departure. 

Prière du Christ montant vers son Père

Olivier Messiaen

French-Belgian composer Olivier Messiaen wrote an orchestral suite called L'Ascension in 1932-1933. The composer described the work as Four Symphonic Meditations and the sections are; 1) Majesty of Christ praying that His Father should glorify Him, 2) Serene Alleluias from a soul longing for Heaven, 3) Alleluia on the Trumpet, Alleluia on the Cymbal, and 4) Prayer of Christ ascending towards His Father. Messiaen arranged the suite for solo organ a year later. 

Our opening voluntary is that last movement, Prayer of Christ ascending to the Father. The subtitle is the words found in today's Gospel reading:

I have manifested Thy name unto men… And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. - John 17:6, 11

Messiaen is known for his unique composition style. Incorporating complex rhythms, harmony and melodies, Prière du Christ montant vers son Père is no exception to the composer's popular, distinctive style.  The extremely languorous tempo of the movement sustains the intense religious character of this work.

The Seven Joys of Mary

The Seven Joys of Mary is a traditional carol that tells of Mary’s joy at different points in Jesus’s life, probably inspired by the trope of the Seven Joys of the Virgin in the devotional literature and art of Medieval Europe. Though oft now heard in Lessons and Carol Services in December, it was not traditionally associated with the Christmas season. 

I chose to schedule it on this day because it ends with this stanza:

The next good joy that Mary had,

It was the joy of seven;

To see her own son, Jesus Christ

To wear the crown of heaven:

We believe Jesus now reigns in heaven, "that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with [God] and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting." (Collect for Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day, BCP p. 226)

I Will Not Leave You Comfortless.

This short motet from the pen of American organist, composer, and church musician Everett Titcomb.

His music was very popular within the Anglican church, particularly the Episcopal Church, in the first half of the 20th century.

A product of New England, Titcomb's association with church music and the Anglican faith began as a child. Although his family was associated with the Unitarians, Everett was brought into the Episcopal church very early. Through the pervasive influence of a neighbor, he joined the boy choir of St. James' Episcopal Church in Amesbury at the age of nine. Singing in the boy choir was a part of his musical education until a changing voice led him in a new direction, playing the organ for Sunday School.

By the time he was fourteen, he had become parish organist at St. James'.

After high school he began working at at the Church of the Messiah in Auburndale, a suburb of Boston. After seven years in Auburndale, Titcomb knew he needed a change and by the fall of 1909 he had

accepted an appointment at Christ Church, Andover, Massachusetts. He moved to a new apartment which was also near  the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boston, and in 1910 he was hired as organist-choir master at the church. Titcomb would serve this parish for fifty years, and this little church would become within two decades a leader in the United States in the revival of plainsong and of Renaissance polyphony.

The motet is an ABA form and opens quietly with the tenor section chanting the theme that is immediately taken up by the rest of the choir entering on a G minor chord to establish the key. The first section is set in a syllabic, chordal style while the florid B section consist of an imitative setting of the word “alleluia.” This florid style is typical for hallelujahs going back to the medieval plain chant settings. The Basses sing the plain chant tune Veni Creator Spiritus while the rest of the choir sings alleluias.

Everett Titcomb

I will not leave you comfortless made Titcomb well known in Anglican circles of the English-speaking world. The motet was chosen for performance at the Crystal Palace in London at the annual choir festival in 1936, where it was sung by a choir of 4000 members. The event marked the first time that a work by an American composer had been chosen for one of those festivals. 

Interesting note: Messiaen's Prière du Christ montant vers son Père and Titcomb's I Will Not Leave You were both written within two years of each other, but while Messiaen pushes the norms of harmony, rhythm and form, Titcomb reaches back to the music of the Renaissance. Both are still very much a part of sacred repertoire today.

Music for May 14, 2023 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Rogation Sunday)

Vocal Music

• Jesus Christ the Apple Tree – Sondra Tucker (b. 1957)
• Heidi Aulbach, flute
• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Instrumental Music

• Grazioso – Arnold B. Sherman (b. 1948)
• We Plow the Fields and Scatter – arr. Thomas Keesecker (b. 1956)
• Toccata – John Weaver (1937-2021)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 398 - I sing the almighty power of God (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 455 - O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 288 - Praise to God, Immortal praise (DIX)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Psalm 66 - setting by Richard Proulx

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

Today is Rogation Sunday on our liturgical calendar. The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning “to ask”, which reflects the beseeching of God for protection from calamities. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it: “Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God's blessing on agriculture and industry.” 

They originated in Vienne, France, in the fifth century when Bishop Mamertus introduced days of fasting and prayer to ward off a threatened disaster. In England they were associated with the blessing of the fields at planting. The vicar “beat the bounds” of the parish, processing around the fields reciting psalms and the litany. In the United States they have been associated with rural life and with agriculture and fishing. The propers in the BCP (pp. 207-208, 258-259, 930) have widened their scope to include commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation. (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/rogation-days/)

For this reason, I have chosen a couple of hymns which talk about the wonders of Creation, an instrumental piece based on a good hymn for Rogation Sunday, and this anthem by my good friend, Sondra Tucker.

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (also known as Apple Tree and, in its early publications, as Christ Compared to an Apple-tree) is a poem written in the 18th century. The first known publication, beginning The Tree of Life My Soul Hath Seen, was in London's Spiritual Magazine in August, 1761. This credits "R.H." as the submitter and presumed author. R.H. has been shown most likely to refer to Rev. Richard Hutchins, a Calvinist Baptist clergyman in Northamptonshire.

It has been set to music by a number of composers, most famously Elizabeth Poston and John Rutter. Sondra has set the words to an Scottish folk tune, O Waly, Waly. A flowing piano accompaniment and a lyrical flute part join together with the choir to make this an instant favorite among our choir.

The friendship between Sondra and me goes back over 26 years ago when we were both in Memphis. After I moved to Houston, her husband, Roger, got transferred to Houston, where they lived for many years. She was organist/choirmaster at Ascension Episcopal on the West side of Houston when Roger was transferred back to Memphis. Just this past week she described the horror and sadness when, in 2017, she saw on TV their neighborhood and former church under water from the flooding from Hurricane Harvey. She wrote this anthem for her former choir and their director, and it was published in 2022.

If Ye Love Me

Thomas Tallis was one of the greatest composers of Early English Music.  Most of his music was written for the church, which, at that time, did not use instrumental music, so almost all of his music is for singing without instruments. He composed music for all the Tudor kings and queens, except Henry VII (so he composed for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I). This can’t have been easy because different Tudor kings and queens had very different ideas about what church music should be like!

During the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) it was mandated that the services be sung in English, and that the choral music be brief and succinct "to each syllable a plain and distinct note." If Ye Love Me is the classic example of these new English anthems: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. Like many early Anglican anthems, it is cast in ABB form, the second section repeated twice.

Grazioso

The Handbell piece at communion is a beautiful work written in memory of Norma Taubert Brown, a handbell ringer, who died of cancer in 1988. The music tells the story of Norma's life, her struggle with illness, and her ultimate journey to heaven.  Each section of the music reflects this journey.

It was commissioned by Area 10 of the Handbell Musicians of America right after Norma had been in Seattle to share the podium with Arnold Sherman, the composer of Grazioso. She was ill at that time but wanted to keep her commitment to conduct at the Greater Puget Sound Festival. When she was not conducting, she would lay on a couch  that had been moved into the gym. When it  was her turn to conduct, she  seemed to have extra strength to ascend the podium,  conduct her rehearsal as if she were in perfect health and then return to the couch after she had finished.  She passed away two weeks later.

Arnold Sherman is director of Music and Fine Arts at Pollard United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas as well as a free-lance composer and co-founder of Red River Music. His undergraduate work in music education was done at Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland, and Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Arnold was the founder and Director of the East Texas Handbell Ensemble. A clinician and guest conductor, he has led choral and handbell workshops, festivals, and reading sessions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Japan and the Bahamas. Arnold has over four hundred choral and handbell pieces in print and has been an active member of the AGEHR where he has served as Area IX Chairman.

We Plow the Fields and Scatter

This setting of the hymn found in our hymnal (hymn 291), whose text affirms that, while we need to plow the land and sow the seed, it is God who provides the increase; he sends the rain and the sunshine to produce a harvest. God also sustains his creation, for "all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above." Thus praise bursts from our "humble, thankful hearts." It is a perfect hymn for Rogation Sunday.

This arrangement, by the American composer Thomas Keesecker, combines the tune in our hymnal with a Scottish Air. I am unaware if this folk tune is used as an alternate tune for the text, but it's still beautiful. So, there you have it!

Toccata

The closing voluntary is a toccata by the New York organist John Weaver, another giant among the organ world. For 35 years he was organist and director of music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, while simultaneously serving on as Head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1972-2003), and Chair of the Organ Department at The Juilliard School (1987-2004). His students perform and teach all over the world. Ken Cowan, organist at Rice University (and Palmer Memorial Episcopal) is a former student of his.

This Toccata was written by him in 1954, when he was 17. 

Music for May 7, 2023 + The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Together – Dennis and Nan Allen (21st C.)
• Thou Art God – Lionel Bourne (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Flute Solo – Thomas Arne (1710 – 1778)
• Kyrie from Missa della Domenica (Sunday Mass) – Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
• Toccata in G Major – William Walond (1719-1768)

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

• Hymn 47 - On this day, the first of days (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Hymn R33- We will glorify the King of kings (WE WILL GLORIFY)
• Hymn 288 - Praise to God, Immortal praise (DIX)
• Hymn R220 - Let the hungry come to me (ADORO TE DEVOTE)
• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)

Today the Coventry Choir, our early elementary children's choir, sings at both the family service and the 10:15 service. This is our final performance for the year, which is the first full season we have sung since 2019! Thanks to the nine children and their families for making this happen!

Together

The anthem the children are singing is a "pop" style anthem, with words and music by the husband and wife team, Dennis and Nan Allen. The Allens have been writing for close to 40 years, with over 1200 songs, musicals, and drama projects to their credit. They have received multiple nominations and are 3-time winners of the GMA Dove Awards for Musical of the Year. 

Nan has also written five books, including three Christian nonfiction works and two novels. Dennis and Nan are now retired from teaching at Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia and are back in the Nashville area resuming their writing careers.

Thou Art God

The anthem is a modern Celtic prayer set to music by Lionel Bourne, Organist and Master of Music at St John the Evangelist in London, after fourteen  years as Organist and Director of Music at St John the Divine, Kennington.  An experienced church musician, Lionel has held a number of organist posts over many years and has also enjoyed a career as teacher and BBC Music Researcher.

The prayer is from the book The Edge of Glory: Prayers in the Celtic Tradition, by Anglican priest David Adam (1936 – 24 January 2020). He was vicar of Danby-Castleton-Commondale in North Yorkshire for over 20 years, where he began writing prayers in the Celtic pattern. In the Celtic way of prayer, the divine glory was intertwined with the ordinariness of everyday events which hallows the everyday stuff of life, rather than irrelevances it in the way much church-centred spirituality does today. 

He later became rector of Holy Island, Lindisfarne, where he ministered to thousands of pilgrims and other visitors. He was made a canon of York Minster in 1989.

Organ Music

Ernest White was an American organist, choirmaster, organ designer, teacher, and music editor who flourished in the first half of the 20th century. For 25 years he was organist and/or music director at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City. He was a proponent of early music in an era when such music was ignored. In 1954 he published a book of such organ music called Graveyard Gems, so named as a nod to his friend Scott Buhrman, editor of The American Organist, who called pre-Bach music "Graveyard Music." The opening voluntary this morning is taken from that volume.

Flute Solo is actually the Allegro from Thomas Arne's Sonata in A Major. As the title implies, it is features the flute stop on the organ.

Thomas Arne was an English composer, best known for his tune, Rule, Britannia! Arne was the only native English composer of his day that was able to compete successfully with composers like George Frideric Handel who monopolized the British music scene during the eighteenth century.

The other organ music could also be categorized as "graveyard music." The communion voluntaries are three settings of the Kyrie from Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi's Fiori musicali (lit. 'Musical Flowers'), a collection of liturgical organ music first published in 1635. It contains three organ masses and two secular capriccios. Generally acknowledged as one of Frescobaldi's greatest works, Fiori musicali influenced composers during at least two centuries. Johann Sebastian Bach was among its admirers.

Frescobaldi was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player who is considered one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Frescobaldi was appointed organist of St. Peter's Basilica from 21 July 1608 until 1628 and again from 1634 until his death.

The closing voluntary is another from an English organist William Walond. Walond was an organist who lived and died in Oxford in the 18th century. In 1752 he published a set of six voluntaries for organ or harpsichord, generally designated Opus 1 to distinguish them from the second set published in 1758. 

Voluntary V in G Major Op. 1 was written to be played without pedals, as English organs of the day were not as advanced as the organs in Germany. But today I am playing an arrangement of the second half of the voluntary arranged by the famed organist E. Power Biggs which includes pedals.

Music for April 30, 2023 + The Fourth Sunday of Easter + Good Shepherd Sunday

Vocal Music

• The Lord Is My Shepherd – Howard Goodall (b. 1958)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on "Brother James's Air" - Searle Wright (1918-2004)
• Prelude on "St. Columba" – Sam Batt Owens (1928-1998)
• Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the middle hymn)

• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn  - Good Shepherd, you know us (GOOD SHEPHERD, KINGWOOD)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 23 – Tone V

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. That is not its official name, just a nickname given to the fourth Sunday of Easter taken from the opening collect of the day:

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It's the closest thing our congregation has to a patronal feast day. In honor of that, we feature several pieces of music about the Shepherd.

Good Shepherd, You Know Us

First, I want to talk about the middle hymn.

You may remember that back in September 2022, the choir surprised me with a newly-composed hymn in honor of my 25th anniversary at Good Shepherd. David Ashley White, former head of the music school at University of Houston and an internationally known composer, was commissioned to write the hymn tune, and he suggested a 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 choir sang it as an anthem back in October, and now we are going to sing it as a congregational hymn this Sunday. It's PERFECT for the day!

The Lord Is my Shepherd

I can't believe it's been over 10 years since we have sung this marvelous piece!

Devotees of the BBC comedy series, The Vicar of Dibley, will recognize this tune immediately. It is the theme song for the show, composed by one of Britain's leading contemporary composers, Howard Goodall.  Goodall is an EMMY, BRIT and BAFTA award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores. (You might not realize it, but film and television are very lucrative markets for classical composers!) 

Howard Goodall

He is also a distinguished music historian, writer and broadcaster. In recent years he has been England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, the Classical Brit Composer of the Year and was Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for 6 years. In the 2011 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music education.

Goodall's setting of Psalm 23, The Lord Is my Shepherd, has proved to be an extremely popular piece of music. His intention in writing the theme had always been to write a piece of church music which could have a life of its own, beyond the series, and this has certainly been fulfilled in Psalm 23.

“Anyone who thinks about the BBC programme The Vicar of Dibley, is likely to focus on one of two things: the dry wit and humor of Dawn French or the now instantly recognizable theme tune The Lord is my Shepherd by Howard Goodall. Accompanied by organ, the piece opens with a most lyrical, legato melody for solo soprano, repeated by tutti sopranos with simple yet effective harmonies for A, T and B, continuing in the warm, flowing style. A homophonic middle section, moving towards a more minor tonality, reflects the mood of the words ‘Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil’, and provides an effective contrast. A return to the original theme draws the work to a beautiful conclusion which, in the right circumstances, could provide a very spiritual moment.” 

George Adamson, ‘Music Teacher’ magazine October 2000.

Prelude on "St. Columba"

The Irish tune "St. Columba, found in our hymnal for the paraphrase of Psalm 23, "The King of Love my shepherd is," is given a pastorale setting by a late friend of mine, Sam Batt Owens. Sam was the organist/choirmaster at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal in Memphis for several years.

In this setting, he begins with what I like to think of as a flute solo, played by a lone shepherd on the hillside as he keeps watch over his flock by night. (Oh, wait, that's Christmas.) In any case, I hear the shepherd improvise on his flute as the melody comes in underneath the flute solo. After another, more straight-forward presentation of the tune, the piece ends with the flute solo once more. It is reminiscent of the opening and closing passages of the third movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, "Scène aux champs" (Scene in the country), where two shepherds dialogue back and forth on the English Horn and the (offstage) oboe.

Prelude on "Brother James' Air"

Searle Wright was an composer, organist, choir director, and teacher in organ playing, composition and improvisation. He influenced an entire generation of American church musicians through his teaching at Columbia University and as President of the American Guild of Organists.

"Brother James' Air" is a well-known hymn tune composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain (1840-1925), who was a healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James. It is used for a metrical setting of Psalm 23.

Music for April 23, 2023 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Instrumental Music

• Ach Bleib bei uns, Herr Jesus Christ, BWV 649 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Improvisation on Picardy – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Prelude in D Major, BWV 925 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 180 - He is risen, he is risen! (UNSER HERRSCHER)
• Hymn 296 - We know that Christ is raised (ENGLEBERG)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn R 229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R 233 - Glory be to Jesus (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (DUKE STREET)
• Psalm 116 – Hal Hopson

The Opening Voluntary:  Ach Bleib bei uns, Herr Jesus Christ

When you read the text of the chorale on which the opening voluntary is based, you become aware that this is actually an evening hymn. 

Ah Jesu Christ, with us abide,

For now, behold, ’tis eventide:

And bring, to cheer us through the night,

Thy Word, our true and only light.

But these lines are also based on scripture, the story of the disciples on their way to Emmaus when they meet their risen Lord.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. Luke 24

So you can see why I like to play Bach's setting of this evening hymn on the third Sunday of Easter. If you were to come across this piece on its own, for the first 30 seconds you’d be wondering what sort of piece it was. An exercise for just one hand? A work that’s survived incomplete? Or maybe a strange fugue with a theme that’s far too long? But when the second part enters, the bits of the puzzle soon fall into place with the chorale melody Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ: it’s a chorale arrangement! Like the other chorale arrangements from the Schübler-Choräle, this one too is an arrangement of an earlier work with a completely different instrumentation. Originally, Bach wrote almost identical notes as an aria for violoncello piccolo and soprano, as part of cantata BWV 6.

The Supper at Emmaus, Matthias Stom (ca. 1633 – 1639)
Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

The Anthem: Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing

This morning we repeat an anthem we sang last fall. (Think of this as the equivalent of one of episodes of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show which they would repeat after a busy week. We, like Johnny, were just too tired to prepare something new!) It is by twentieth-century American organist and choral and organ composer Gordon Young.  Dr. Young was awarded 18 consecutive annual composition awards from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. His works works total over 800, and a number of his church anthems such as this one have become standard repertoire.  These are Young's words which speak the praise of God within all our hearts expressed as “Alleluia”, an early Hebrew expression of praise which literally means "Praise to Yahweh" or "Praise God!"

Closing Voluntary: Prelude in D Major

This was actually scheduled to be played back in February, but Covid had other plans for my weekend.

This prelude is another spurious composition by J. S. Bach. It is found in Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a collection of keyboard music compiled by the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach for his eldest son and second child, Wilhelm Friedemann. 

Although numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the notebook were undoubtedly composed by J S Bach himself, it is possible that this prelude was actually written by W F Bach sometime in the 1720s, under the guidance of his father.

The music would originally have been played on harpsichord or on clavichord.

Music for April 16, 2023 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• An Easter Greeting – Martin How (1931-2022)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “O Filii et Filiae” – Pierre Dandrieu (1664-1733)
• That Easter Day with Joy was bright – Rudy Davenport
• Carillon ou Cloches– Pierre Dandrieu

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

• Hymn 193 That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NATUS)
• Hymn 206 O sons and daughters, let us sing! (O FILII ET FILIAE)
• Hymn 207 Sing we to our God above (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn R 271 Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks (ALLELUIA NO.1)
• Hymn R 91 Open our eyes, Lord (OPEN OUR EYES)
• Hymn R 258 To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Psalm 16 – simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

Martin How

Martin How, who wrote our offertory anthem this morning, spent a lifetime working in music, much of it with the Royal School of Church Music. 

The son of an Anglican priest, he was trained at Clare College, Cambridge, where is was also in charge of the Chapel Choir of men and boys as well as the choral society. After two years in the armed forces, he worked in a church for about four years before joining the staff of the Royal School of Church Music where spent the remainder of his career. 

He was known principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. Much of his music was written with the young or inexperienced singer in mind. Thus is certainly true of today's anthem, An Easter Greeting, which was written for just a two-part choir of children or adult voices.

He was awarded the MBE in 1993for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Years Honors List.

Pierre Dandrieu

Pierre Dandrieu (d'Andrieu) was a French priest , composer and organist. Little is known about his early years. After he studied with the famous French organist Nicolas Lebègue , he became the organist of Saint-Barthélemy church on the île de la Cité in Paris, for more than 40 years. Upon his death, his nephew Jean-François Dandrieu succeeded him.

Pierre Dandrieu published one book of carols and various pieces for the organ in 1714. It is in this volume that we find the organ voluntaries for this day. 

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on our middle hymn, O sons and daughters, let us sing. It tells the story of the apostle Thomas, who wanted to reach out and touch the wounded hands and feet of Jesus before he would believe that he was actually alive. I'm only play the first few variations; the whole work takes about 10 minutes!

The closing voluntary is Carillon ou Cloches. If you know French, you know that translates to Carillon or Bells. This short toccata-like piece is very imitative of a bell peal heard in the bell towers of French churches.

Music for Easter 2023

Vocal Music

• Christ, Victorious, Christ, Now Reigning - Stephen Caracciolo (b. 1962)
• Forth He Came at Easter - David H Williams (1919-2002)

Instrumental Music

• A Prelude for Easter Morning – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Symphony V: Toccata – Charles-Marie Widor (1844 – 1937)

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

• Hymn 207 Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 417 This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE)
• Hymn 210 The day of resurrection (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 174 At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG)
• Hymn I come to the garden alone (IN THE GARDEN)
• Hymn R237 Jesus, stand among us (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn 193 That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS)
• Hymn 179 “Welcome, happy morning!” (FORTUNATUS)
• Psalm 118 – Tone VIIIa, refrain by Hal H. Hopson

Christ, Victorious, Christ, Now Reigning

This is an original hymn-anthem that accesses the many and varied images of Christ as set forth in the lections for Christ the King Sunday, which also makes it a strong choice for Easter. It was  commissioned by Overbrook Presbyterian, Columbus, Ohio from Stephen Caracciolo, a nationally known composer and arranger whose choral works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe.

Caracciolo is the Artistic Director of the LancasterChorale, central Ohio’s premier all-professional chamber choir. He also performs as a professional bass at Washington National Cathedral where he  serves as a composer and substitute conductor for services. The chamber choir of Washington National Cathedral has recorded a CD of Caracciolo's choral music.

Forth He Came at Easter

This text, found at hymn 204 in our hymnal, is usually sung to the French Tune NOEL NOUVELET, but David H. Williams chose to use another French tune in his setting of the hymn by the English priest John Crum.  

David Henry Williams was an acclaimed church organist, choirmaster, and composer who was born in  Caerphilly, Wales but moved to America where he became a prolific composer of church music in the 50s and 60s. From 1966 until 1984, David served as Minister of Music, organist, choirmaster and composer-in-residence at Catalina United Methodist Church Tucson, Arizona.  William's published works are part of the repertoire of church and school libraries throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Prelude for Easter Day

A powerful organ work for Easter based upon the Gradual for Easter Day, Haec dies (This is the day) and the hymn O filii et filiae (O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing, hymn 206). It begins quietly and mysteriously but ends with full organ.

Gerald Near is considered one of the finest composers of church music writing today. He was born the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, where he was introduced to some of the finest choirs in America. He studied theory and composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago with Leo Sowerby, and continued those studies with Leslie Bassett at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While at the University of Michigan, he also studied organ with Robert Glasgow, published organ and choral music, and completed his Master's degree in orchestral conducting while studying under Gustav Meier.

Since then Near has held such positions as Organist/Choirmaster and then Canon Precentor at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, Texas; Composer in Residence at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado; and Music Director at The Church of Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is currently Director of Music and Organist at St. Francis in the Valley Episcopal Church in Green Valley, Arizona and a freelance composer.

Toccata, Symphony V

For some, it isn't Easter until they have heard the strains of the final movement of Charles-Marie Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony. Well, here it is. I hope you find joy in it! Although written as a finale, the Toccata stands alone as a popular piece suitable for joyous

occasions. Its perpetual 16th-note motion in the right hand, crisp repeated chords in the left hand, and octave-leaping melody in the pedals follow faithfully the distinctive elements of the French organ toccata, in an exhilarating and iconic way

Music for Holy Week

April 5 +Tenebrae Service (7 PM)

Vocal Music

• Tenebrae: A Service of Darkness – Hal H. Hopson

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 168 - O Sacred Head Sore Wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)
• Hymn 158 - Ah, holy Jesus (HERZLIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 474 – When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

April 6 + Maundy Thursday (7 PM)

Vocal Music

• Ave Verum – Camille Saint-Saens

Instrumental Music

• Adore te Devote - Charles Callahan
• Tantum Ergo - Charles Callahan

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

• Hymn 439 - What wondrous love is this, O my soul (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 602 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn R148 - Brother, let me be your servant (THE SERVANT SONG)
• Hymn R226 - Ubi caritas et amor (Taizé)
• Hymn 171 – Go to dark Gethsemane (PETRA)
• Song – Could you not watch? (Hal Hopson)
• Psalm 116 – Hal Hopson

April 7 + Good Friday (Noon)

Vocal Music

• Were You There? – Spiritual

Instrumental Music

• O Sacred Head - Johann Sebastian Bach
• O Traurigkeit, O Herzelied - Ethel Smyth

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 158 - Ah, holy Jesus (HERZLIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 168 - O Sacred Head Sore Wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)
• Hymn 474 – When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 441 – In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)

Music for April 2, 2023 + The Sunday of the Passion

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
• He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word – Spiritual, arr. William M. Schoenfeld (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory, Laud and Honor -arr. Cynthia Dobrinski (1950-2021)
• O Sacred Head – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Ah, Holy Jesus – Russell Hancock Miles (1895-1983)

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

• Hymn 154 All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 480 When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn 143 The glories of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R214 Your only son, no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 168 O sacred head, sore wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)

Two spirituals and two German chorales are featured in the music for Palm Sunday.

Ride On, King Jesus

The opening Palm Sunday liturgy will feature the solo Ride On, King Jesus, sung by Christine Donley. It was arranged by the African-American composer Hall Johnson. 

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Negro Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

He Never Said a Mumbalin Word

This Spiritual recalling Christ’s Passion provides poignant evidence of the eloquence and empathy born of shared suffering. The call-and-response singing style also provides a means of affirming the communal wisdom expressed in recurring phrases and refrains. The lines " They crucified my Lord, They nailed him to a tree, They pierced him in the side," etc, calls for the response, "and he never said a mumbalin' word."

This warm and gracious setting of this beloved melody, with a flowing piano accompaniment, is provided by William M. Schoenfeld, an American composer and arranger with degrees from  Cal-State, Hayward, California; the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California; and Master of Church Music from Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

Ah, Holy Jesus

I inherit a lot of organ music from the libraries of organist who have either retired or passed away. I am guessing that is where I got this short prelude on the hymn Herzliebster Jesu. It comes from a set ot two Lenten Chorale Preludes which are tied together by the use of the musical them "B-A-C-H." (The name of Bach can be spelled by playing the notes B (flat) A C and B (natural)

In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is named H and the B flat named B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.

The composer of the closing voluntary, Russell Hancock Miles, was for a long time a music professor at the University of Illinois. Though little known today in the organ world, the May 1944 edition of the organist's magazine The Diapason said, "A graduate of Syracus University, Professor Miles is one of the outstanding pupils of his father-in-law, Dr. William Berwald. As head of the organ department at the University of Illinois, professor of composition, concert and church organist, conductor of the university chorus and composer, Professor Miles has taken a high place."

An interesting side-note is that Russell Miles is the son of C. Austin Miles, Sr., the composer of the well-loved gospel hymn "In the Garden."

Tenebrae

I want to remind all of you of the Tenebrae service our choir will sing Wednesday Evening. The service of Tenebrae follows a tradition of the early church dating back to the eighth century, and commemorates the final hours of Christ's life on earth as He prepared for and suffered death on the cross. This exceptionally moving work features familiar hymns and spirituals, and has become a staple in Holy Week repertoire in churches throughout the country.

The Good Shepherd Choir will present Tenebrae: A Service of Darkness on the Wednesday of Holy Week, April 5, at 7 p.m. in the Nave.

Music for March 26, 2023 + The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Wondrous Love – Steve Pilkington, arr.

Instrumental Music

• Kyrie. Dialogue on the trompette and chromhorne – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Kyrie. Fugue on the jeux d'Aanches – François Couperin
• Kyrie. Recit de chromhorne – François Couperin

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 R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 143- The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I Adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 715 - When Jesus wept (WHEN JESUS WEPT)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus! (IN BABILONE)
• Psalm 130 - Tone IIa

Wondrous Love

Sometimes nothing can beat a simple, plaintive melody for its beauty. Such is my opinion of the Southern folk hymn, What wondrous Love Is This? In the version the choir sings this week, you never hear the voices in more than two-part harmony, and that is when they are singing in canon (The men echoing the women four beats later.) Their singing is accompanied on the piano with a flowing, eighth-note piano part.

It is the perfect hymn to sing during the Lenten season. (The congregation gets a chance to sing it on Maundy Thursday.) "What Wondrous Love Is This" captures our attention right from the beginning with its simplicity and persistence – "What wondrous love is this" sung three times. This repetition is not the sign of a weak poet who has a narrow range of expression, but a fellow traveler who has experienced profoundly the sacrificial love of Christ and can only express again and again – "What wondrous love is this." 

The arranger, Steve Pilkington, serves on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. as Associate Professor of Sacred Music. He also oversees all the music ministries at Christ Church United Methodist in  New York City, where he has been Director of Music and Organist since 1994. 

Couplets on the Kyrie

All the organ music for the morning comes from Messe pour les paroisses by the French Baroque composer François Couperin. This music was written to be performed during the Mass, alternating with the choir. In this so-called alternatim practice (a term which indicates a type of liturgy where alternate sections of the Mass were performed by different forces}, the organist plays when texts would otherwise have been sung. Those sections were call couplets

Today's movements all come from the first part of the mass, the Kyrie, which we normally only use during Lent. The titles have nothing to do with text, but with musical form; the Dialogue sur la trompette et le chromorne is a two-part piece with the trumpet stop playing against the krummhorn, an organ stop which imitates the double-reed wind instrument that flourished between the 15th century and about 1650. The Récit de chromorne features that same stop in an improvisatory solo for the krummhorn, while the Fugue sur les jeux d'anche is simply a fugue using nothing but the reed stops, which on an organ includes the trumpet stops.

François Couperin, the most important member of the renowned Couperin dynasty, is the foremost composer of the French Baroque. A prodigiously talented keyboard player, he inherited the post of organist at the church of St Gervais in Paris when he was just eleven years old, subsequently dividing his time between the capital and Versailles upon becoming organist to king Louis XIV in 1693. 

Music for March 19, 2023 + The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us – William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)

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

• Hymn 149 - Eternal Lord of love (OLD 124TH)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 143- The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN )
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Psalm 23 - Tone IIa

This Sunday I will be in Ireland with my family for Spring break, so I want to thank Karen Silva for playing the organ at the 10:15 service and Bernice Satterwhite for playing piano at the 8 AM service.

The things you learn writing (and researching) a blog about your music. For instance: this Sunday we are going to sing one of the anthems from Reverend Celeste's ordination service, a simple but beautiful piece by a friend of mine, Bill Roberts. I had met Bill several years ago at the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy and strengthened that friendship through the avenue of Facebook. It was not until looking up pertinent information about him  (read: his birth-year) that I learned he was a graduate of Houston Baptist University. The Rev. Dr. Roberts is the retired Professor of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary and Director of Chapel Music there, so you can imagine my surprise to find out that not only is he an alum of HBU, but had also been ordained as a Baptist minister! He is now, however, thoroughly Episcopalian, having served as music director of some of the country's largest and most active Episcopal congregations, and most recently ordained as an Episcopal priest!

We are singing his setting of the hymn text, Savior, like a shepherd lead us, which employs a lilting melody in compound triple meter.

Music for March 10, 2023 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Like as the Hart – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Instrumental Music

• Choral Dorien – Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
• Intermezzo in A Major – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Erhalt Un, Herr – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 143- The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 679 - Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn R9 - As the Deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 95 - Tone IIa

Like as a Hart

Today's anthem is based on Psalm 42, where the Psalmist asks God why his heart is so sad and why he feels so far from God. It is by Herbert Howells, an British composer who was one of a long line of 19th and 20th century English composers who wrote anthems and service music for the Church of England.

Herbert Howells

 In the opinion of many musicians today, Howells rises to the top of the whole list. His compositions have the impeccable craft of a master composer and, above all, an exceptional poetic beauty. For example, in today's anthem Howells sets the phrase “so longeth my soul after thee, O God” to a long, sustained melody that perfectly evokes an inner soul’s intense hunger and longing to reside in the beautiful presence of a loving God. Likewise, when the sopranos first sing “My tears have been my meat day and night,” we feel their sadness which obviously has been going on for quite some time. Even the simple, final three chords on the organ can conjure up a whole series of emotions to different listeners. 

Herbert Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucester and showed a keen interest in composition early in his life. At the age of eighteen, became a pupil of Herbert Brewer, Organist of Gloucester Cathedral. In 1912 he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied under Charles Villiers Stanford, Walter Parratt, Charles Wood and Hubert Parry.

Choral Dorien

Jehan Alain

The opening voluntary is a quiet piece written by the French organist Jehan Alain. Alain was the son of Albert Alain, one of the most influential organ builders and designers between the two world wars, wars, as well as a composer and organist himself. He was also the brother of organist Marie-Claire Alain, and she has spoken of how he influenced her own playing. In the Twenties and Thirties he attended the Paris Conservatoire, studying composition with Paul Dukas and Jean Roger-Ducasse and organ with Marcel Dupré. He won premiers prix in harmony, fugue, and organ. His marriage in 1935, birth of his children, and military service interrupted his studies, and he quickly began to earn a living as an organist, including a stint as an organist in a synagogue. Then World War II broke out, and he join the French Army, becoming a dispatch rider in the Eighth Motorized Armor Division. On 20 June 1940, he was assigned to reconnoiter the German advance on the eastern side of Saumur, and encountered a group of German soldiers at Le Petit-Puy. Coming around a curve, and hearing the approaching tread of the Germans, he abandoned his motorcycle and engaged the enemy. After using his machine gun to shoot several infantry soldiers who had ordered him to surrender, he fell mortally wounded. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery, and was provisionally buried at the place where he had died.

He left behind his wife, Madeleine Payan, his three children, and a body of compositions viewed by many to have been amongst the most original of the 20th century. His early compositions are mainly songs and piano works. One also finds a few chamber pieces and one orchestral scores (an orchestration of an organ work), but most writers agree that his great achievement resides in his organ music which includes such classics as his three chorales (Choral Dorien, Choral Cistercien, Choral Phrygian), Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin, Litanies, Monodie, and Trois danses  .

The Choral Dorien is one of Alain’s first published works, published when he was 24. It was not written in a major or minor key, but in one of the other harmonic modes used in the chants of the church. The word "choral" is the term used in French to mean " plain chant," so any French organist, accustomed as Alain was to the music of the Roman church, would understand thoroughly the "church modes."