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)