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.