MID CENTURY MODERNS Music for January 29, 2023 + The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Servants of Peace – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Suite Liturgique Entrée: – Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
• Suite Liturgique:Communion – Denis Bédard
• Suite Liturgique: Sortie – Denis Bédard

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 441 - In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R127 – Blest are they (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn R258 – To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Psalm 15 - Domine, quis habitabit? (simplified Anglican Chant)

Today I feature music by two North American composers both born in 1950

Servants of Peace

A contemporary setting of the traditional prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi is the text of the anthem this Sunday, which is a perfect match for the readings this week. (Micah 6:1-8 and the Beatitudes.) The  Prayer of St. Francis is a famous prayer which first appeared around the year 1915 A.D., and which embodies the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi's simplicity and poverty.

According to Father Kajetan Esser, OFM, the author of the critical edition of St. Francis's Writings, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis is most certainly not one of the writings of St. Francis. According to Father Schulz, this prayer first appeared during the First World War. It was found written on the back of a holy card of St. Francis. The prayer bore no name; but in the English speaking world, on account of this holy card, it came to be called the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.

The music is by Alabama native K. Lee Scott. He is widely known throughout the United States as a conductor and composer of choral music. His more than 250 published compositions, arrangements, and editions are represented in the catalogues of 15 publishing companies. In addition to many choral works, he has written an opera and has published works for organ, solo voice, and brass.

A graduate of the University of Alabama School of Music with two degrees in choral music under the tutelage of Frederick Prentice, Scott has served as an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Alabama School of Music and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music. His appearances as guest conductor and clinician have taken him throughout the United States, to Canada, and Africa. 

Suite Liturgique 

All of today's organ music is from a Suite by the Canadian composer Denis Bédard. He has composed more than 170 works, including chamber music, orchestral and vocal music and many organ works. He has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Québec Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Canadian College of Organists and various professional musicians in Canada, England, France, Switzerland and the U.S. 

He studied first at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in his hometown of Québec, before going to Europe to pursue studies in Paris with André Isoir (organ) and Laurence Boulay (harpsichord) and in the Netherlands to study piano, harpsichord, and organ with Gustav Leonhardt.

For 20 years he was organist and music director of Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, B.C. until his retirement in 2021.

The three movements I have chosen from the suite include the opening (Entrée), the commion voluntary (Communion) and the closing piece (Sortie)

CONFIRMED: Music for January 22, 2023 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Andante Moderato in C Minor – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• Prelude on “Kelvingrove” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major – Frank Bridge

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of Will You Come and Follow Me which is from other sources.)

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERRN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 513 - Like the murmur of the dove’s song (BRIDEGROOM)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn – Will you come and follow me? (KELVINGROVE)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 27:1, 5-13 - Dominus illuminatio (simplified Anglican Chant)

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

The choir sings one of our favorite anthems this Sunday, the beautiful Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by the British composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. This hymn, now one of England’s favorites, began life as the ballad of Meshullemeth (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’) in Act I of Judith, Parry's oratorio of 1888. It was only after Parry’s death that permission was granted by Novello and Parry’s estate to allow George Gilbert Stocks, the head of music at Repton School, to adapt the music to this text for the school’s hymn book, at which time the melody became known as REPTON.  It was also published in 1941 as the hymn-anthem (which we are singing today) in which much of the original music of the aria was restored.

Ironically, the author of this beautiful and much-loved hymn deeply disapproved of singing in church. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) was an American Quaker who firmly believed that God was best worshipped in silent meditation and who deplored the histrionics associated with both the High Church and the Evangelical movement.

He did, however, allow these verses to be used in a hymn book published in 1884. They are drawn from an interlude in his long and eccentric poem called The Brewing of Soma, which describes in shocked terms the Vedic Hindu habit of drinking hallucinogenic concoctions as a way of whipping up religious enthusiasm. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, tell's of the hymn's origins here.

Whittier advocated waiting instead for "the still small voice of calm" – an injunction beautifully suggested in the climax to this tune composed by Parry.

Parry was head of the Royal College of Music from 1895 until his death at age 70 in 1918. His 1916 composition, Jerusalem (And did those feet in ancient times), is belted out at sports events and is often called the unofficial English national anthem. 

Prelude on "Kelvingrove"

If you read my blog last week, you might remember that I played an organ setting of this same tune. Even though we weren't singing the hymn, I chose it to go along with the Gospel story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when Father Bill used the text of that hymn in his sermon, recalling how this hymn was popular with young people in the days when he was working with youth. 

Since the Gospel this week continues the story of Jesus calling his disciples, I decided to include that hymn as a piano voluntary as well as a congregational hymn during communion. The piano voluntary is by Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts who is well-known as an award-winning composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist, and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Frank Bridge

The opening and closing voluntaries are organ works by Frank Bridge, an English composer, violist and conductor of the first half of the twentieth century. Underappreciated, underplayed, and still little known even in his native England, Bridge is most frequently recognized today as the teacher of the young Benjamin Britten, who acknowledged his teacher's influence in a popular early work, Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge.

Although he was not an organist, nor personally associated with music of the English Church, his short pieces for organ have been among the most performed of all his output. This Sunday I will play two of them,  the Andante Moderato in C Minor and Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major. I have to say that I was surprised to learn he had no training as an organist, for his organ works are highly idiomatic for the instrument, and fit under the hands (and feet!) very comfortably.

FOLLOWING JESUS: Music for January 15, 2023 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• What Wondrous Love – Steven Pilkington (21st C.)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on “Salzburg” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Air on “Kelvingrove” – Matthew C. Corl (b. 1965)
• Premiere Suite: III. Fanfares – Jean Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (Lyons)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (Salzburg)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Assam)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (Galilee)
• Psalm 40:1-12 - Expectans, expectavi (simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachan)

Wondrous Love

Steve Pilkington

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.

 

As we read the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry, I thought this anthem raised some valid questions to stimulate thought about why Jesus  would "lay aside his crown for (our) soul."

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. 

Chorale Prelude on "Salzburg"

Aaron David Miller

Aaron David Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. He has been a featured performer at four National Conventions for the American Guild of Organists since 1996, the most recent being the 2016 convention here in Houston. He also is a prolific composer, and Dr. Miller’s many solo organ, choral, and orchestral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Oxford University Press, Paraclete Press, ECS, Morning Star and Kjos Publishing House. 

One of his shorter compositions is the opening voluntary. It is a setting of our presentation hymn, Songs of thankfulness and praise. The tune in our hymnal is set in 4/4, or common time. In this setting, Miller sets the tune in 6/8 time, which gives it a lilting, dance-like feel. The melody is played with the left hand on the trumpet stop, while the right hand and pedal provide the flowing accompaniment.

Air on Kelvingrove

KELVINGROVE is a Scottish tune which has been used in recent years for the hymn "Will you come and follow me?" (also known as "The Summons.") Neither the text nor tune is in our hymnals, and when the text was included in the supplement to the Episcopal hymnal, Wonder, Love, and Praise, it was unfortunately set to another tune. Even the Renew Hymnal (which Good Shepherd bought before the publication of

Wonder, Love, and Praise) does not include the great hymn.

The text is by John Bell, a hymn writer and pastor in the Church of Scotland, who focuses on the renewal of the church’s worship. His approach is to compose songs within the identifiable traditions of hymnody that began to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal:

I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution.

This hymn is prophetic, using many words not usually found in traditional hymns. “The Summons” of Christ is to a radical Christianity. We are challenged to “leave yourself behind” and to “risk the hostile stare” (stanza two), “set the prisoner free” and “kiss the leper clean” (stanza three), and “use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around” (stanza four).

The organ arrangement is by Matthew Corl, Associate Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Florida where he is principal organist and directs several ensembles.

He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, 

BAPTISM, JESUS, AND YOU Music for January 8, 2023 + The Baptism of Christ

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – Samuel S. Wesley

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 616 - Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN)
• Psalm 29:2a,3-11 – Tone Vc, refrain by James E. Barrett

Baptism of Christ, 1475,
 Andrea del Verrocchio
and Leonardo da Vinci.

This Sunday commemorates the Baptism of Christ. In three of the Gospels we read of Jesus going to John the Baptist for baptism. But John’s is a baptism of repentance, and Jesus has nothing for which he needs to repent. Why then does Jesus insist on being baptized? Jesus tells John that His baptism is "fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness". Jesus is baptized as a symbol of giving His will up to His Father and the beginning of His earthly ministry. It is an act of humility.

As we reflect on Christ’s baptism, we are reminded of our own baptism. As part of the service, we will participate in the renewal of our baptismal vows. That is why most of the hymns this morning refer to Christ's baptism.

Lead Me, Lord

The anthem is a fitting prayer for us as we remember our baptismal vows. The text comes from two psalms, Psalms 5:8 and 4:8: 

Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness;

make thy way plain before my face.

For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord, only,

that makest me dwell in safety.

The anthem is an excerpt from a much longer anthem, Praise the Lord, O my soul, by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, an English organist and composer. The grandson of Charles Wesley, he was born in London, and sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal as a boy. He learned composition and organ from his father, Samuel, completed a doctorate in music at Oxford, and composed for piano, organ, and choir. He was organist at Hereford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester Cathedral, and Gloucester Cathedral. Wesley strove to improve the standards of church music and the status of church musicians; 

The original anthem was written in 1861, with this excerpt first published in 1905 in The Anthem Book, no. 8. But it was not until it was published in The Church Anthem Book in 1933 that it became quite popular. Now you can find this simple song in almost 30 hymnals, including the Episcopal book Lift Every Voice and Sing II, and the Renew hymnal which is in our pews.