Music for the Triduum 2017

Maundy Thursday, April 13
7:00 PM

Vocal Music

• As In that Upper Room – Carl Haywood (b. 1949)
• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio  (1560-1614)

Instrumental Music

• O Lamb of God, Most Holy (BWV 656) - J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness (BWV 654) - J.S. Bach

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

• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus  (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn R289 - Jesu, Jesus, 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)
• Hymn R170 - Stay here, and keep watch with me (TAIZÉ)
• Psalm 116:1, 10-17 – Tone IIa

Good Friday, April 14

noon

Vocal Music

• It Is Enough – Felix Mendelssohn 
• Were You There? – Spiritual
• Richard Murray, solist

Instrumental Music

• As Jesus Stood Beside the Cross - Samuel Scheidt

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 .)

• Hymn 158 - Ah, holy Jesus, how has thou offended? (HERZLIEBSTER JESUS)
• Hymn 441 - In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)          
• Hymn 474 - When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

Easter Vigil, April 15

7:00 PM

Vocal Music

• Hallelujah (Messiah) - George Frederic Handel
• An Easter Greeting - Martin How

Instrumental Music

• Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands – Georg Böhm
• Good Christians all, rejoice and sing – Paul Manz

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

• Hymn 385 - Many and great, O God, are thy works  (DAKOTA INDIAN CHANT)  
• Hymn 648 - When Israel was in Egypt’s land (GO DOWN, MOSES)
• Hymn R-122  - Surely it is God who saves me (THE FIRST SONG OF ISAIAH)
• Canticle -  Christ our Passover (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 174 - At the Lamb’s high fest we sing (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 199 - Come, ye faithful, raise the strain (ST. KEVIN)

Triduum: A period of three days of preparation for a feast day. The term is most frequently used for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, the three days prior to Easter Sunday that are the concluding days of Holy Week, also known as the Easter Triduum. Other usage for the Easter Triduum reckons the days from the evening of Maundy Thursday through the evening of Easter Day. The term may indicate any three-day period of preparation for a feast.

We have three major services (and several small ones) in the three days leading up to Easter, and here is a list of music for all three.

Of particular interest (to me, at least) are the following pieces:

As In That Upper Room is a hymn set to a tune by Carl W. Haywood. Dr. Haywood is about to retire after 42 years on the faculty of Norfolk State University, where he originally got his undergraduate degree. Like me, he received his Master of Sacred Music (organ) at Southern Methodist University as well as the Master of Music in choral conducting (unlike me). Dr. Haywood then received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California.

He has written several original hymns as well as a mass, Mass for Grace, written for Grace Episcopal Church in Norfolk, where he was organist/choirmaster for 26 years. He has served on the Liturgical Commission for the Diocese of Southern Virginia, the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music for the Episcopal Church of America and as Director of Music for the Union of Black Episcopalians.

The two organ chorales used at the Maundy Thursday Service are from Bach's monumental collection, The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651-668. Bach compiled this collection in his final decade (1740-1750), from earlier works composed when he was court organist in Weimar, (1708-1717). The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schübler Chorales and the third book of the Clavier-Übung, they represent the summit of Bach’s sacred music for solo organ.

The first thirteen chorale preludes BWV 651–663 were added by Bach himself between 1739 and 1742, supplemented by BWV 664 and 665 in 1746–7. In 1750 when Bach began to suffer from blindness before his death in July, BWV 666 and 667 were dictated to his student and son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol and copied posthumously into the manuscript.

The extended opening voluntary, O Lamm Gottes unschuldig [O innocent Lamb of God], is a 3 verse chorale partita. The first verse of this Good Friday hymn, is a subdued prelude in four parts based on the melody, which appears explicitly in the soprano line over the flowing eighth-note accompaniment; in the second verse the tune moves to the alto line and the eighth-note figures become more lively; in the final verse, the pedal finally appears to take up the cantus firmus, beneath a four part fugal counter-subject in triplets, first in a forthright angular figuration, then in hammered repeated notes leading to an anguished chromatic passage, indicative of the crucifixion, and finally in peaceful flowing eighth-notes.

The communion voluntary is the great communion hymn Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele [Deck thyself, my soul with gladness], for two keyboards and pedal. The soberly ornamented, melismatic chorale in the soprano (right hand) alternates with the dance-like ritornellos of the two intertwining lower
parts in the left hand above a pedal bass; the unearthly counterpoint between the four different parts creates an air of great serenity, a “rapturous meditation” on the rite of communion. The adornment in the title is illustrated by the French-style ornamentation of the upper parts.  (Thanks to St. Thomas Church, New York City, for providing the program notes to John Scott's 2014 recital of the Great 18 Chorales)

Music for April 9, 2017 + The Sunday of the Passion

10:15 Morning Service

Vocal Music

• Hosanna in the Highest – Anon (16th C.)
• Behold, the Lamb of God – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• Via Dolorosa - Billy Sprague (b. 1952) /Niles Borop (b. 1956)

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 R235 - O sacred head, now wounded (PASSION CHORALE)
• Hymn R214 - Your only Son no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 474 - When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

6:30 P.M. A Service of Passion Readings and Music

Vocal Music

• Into the Woods - Richard Shephard
• Wondrous Love - Steven Pilkington
• Hosanna in the Highest – Anon (16th C.)
• Behold, the Lamb of God – G. F. Handel
• When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - Alfred V. Fedak
• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio 
• Surely He Bore All of My Grief - Michael Guimont

Instrumental Music

• Wondrous Love - arr. Sondra Tucker

Congregational Music

• Hymn 168 - O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded (PASSION CHORALE)

Lots of Music this weekend, both for the morning service of the Palms and the Passion, and the evening service of music and readings for the passion. I hope you are at both.

At the early service, Bidkar Cajina will sing a song during communion from a genre that doesn't often make it into our services. From the realm of contemporary Gospel Music (whatever that means) comes the song Via Dolorosa.

For many Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, one of the most meaningful things they will do while in the city is walk the Via Dolorosa, the route that Jesus took between his condemnation by Pilate and his crucifixion and burial. This "way of sadness" was the inspiration for the 1986 Dove Award winning song made famous by Sandi Patti. It was composed by Billy Sprague, an Oklahoma native who grew up in the Amarillo, Texas area. He earned a degree in English from Texas Christian University, did graduate work for two years in literature at the University of Texas, Austin, followed by twenty-five years of making music in Nashville, Tn. He is currently Worship Pastor (what we call a director of music) at Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater, Florida.

Going to the other extreme, the Good Shepherd Choir will be singing the dramatic chorus from Messiah, Behold the Lamb of God. This is the chorus that begins the 2nd part of Messiah (which is referred to as "Part the Second.") Part the Second is divided into two great sections – the first telling the story of the human suffering of Christ, interestingly set to words entirely from the Old Testament; and the second celebrating "His divine aspect spreading over the world with a crescendo of glorious righteousness:"1 it ends with Hallelujah (which you will hear NEXT weekend!)

We will also sing a short 16th century motet by an anonymous composer on the great Palm Sunday text, "Hosanna in the highest." It is an excellent example of polyphony, the musical form that combines a number of distinct vocal lines, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other.

1. Dallas Bach Society, Messiah program notes, 02/12/2015

Music for April 2, 2017

Vocal Music

• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio (1560-1614)

Instrumental Music

• O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622– Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Prélude au Kyrie (Hommage à Frescobaldi)  –Jean Langlais (1907-1991)

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

• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I Adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 715 - When Jesus wept (WHEN JESUS WEPT)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 130 - Tone IIa

There are only two people who have ever held the post of composer to the Papal choir. One of them was Giovanni de Pierlugi Palestrina and the other was Felice Anerio. Christus factus est is a perfect example of why his fellow musicians held him in such esteem. Its text is from the Epistle to the Philippians which is used in the Gradual for Maundy. It’s a beautifully simple homophonic work that eschews modality and ornamentation in favour of a simple but oh so effective directness. The chromatic harmonic touches show an influence of early baroque madrigal style not found in Palestrina.

O Mensch bewein dein sunde gross, BWV 622 (O Man, Bewail your Great Sins), is a piece from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) by Johann Sebastian Bach, a collection of 46 preludes for organ almost exclusively written during the 1708-1717 period, while Bach was court organist in Weimar. The collection is defined by Bach himself in the title page as '[a book] in which a beginning organist receives given instruction as to performing a chorale in a multitude of ways while achieving mastery in the study of the pedal, since in the chorales contained herein the pedal is treated entirely obbligato'. Many consider it a collection also for the liturgical year, as the layout of the book begins with Advent and Christmas hymns and then works its way through the life of Christ, and thus the liturgical year.

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross  is a traditional Passiontide chorale, or hymn, whose melody and text both date from around 1525. Bach's organ treatment of this simple E flat major melody could hardly be more lush -- indeed, this setting is one of the most thoroughly ornamented of all Bach's compositions; the melody as laid out in the top voice of the organ part is coloratura in the best and most original sense of the word. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Bach treatment (on top) of the first phrase of the original hymn melody (on bottom).

In addition to being the most elaborately decorated piece in the Orgelbüchlein, O Mensch, bewein  is probably the most chromatically adventuresome as well, especially in the final few bars (the last one is marked adagissimo by Bach, calling attention to the last line of text: "stretched out on the cross"), in which we are treated not only to a steadily rising chromatic bass line that moves with great conviction towards a shocking C flat major chord, but also to some wonderfully pungent G flat/F flat decoration in the top voice.

The idea of a musical composition as an homage honoring a great musician is nothing new. Maurice Ravel, composed Le tombeau de Couperin for solo piano between 1914 and 1917 and  Marcel Dupré wrote Le tombeau de Titelouze for organ in 1943.  In Hommage à Frescobaldi, Jean Langlais pays homage to the seventeenth-century Italian keyboard virtuoso and composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. Throughout the work Langlais perhaps purposefully exhibited some of Frescobaldi's idiosyncrasies, including startling harmonic shifts and the quotation of existing melody; but perhaps the most notable similarity is both composers' natural penchant for passionately mystical moments.

The first movement of the work, "Prelude au Kyrie," begins with a slowly-ascending melodic figure against suspended chords. When the opening material returns, halfway through, it is now accompanied by the pedal, which plays the chant theme from the Kyrie of the Mass "Cunctipotens genitor Deus."

Jean Langlais was a French composer and organist who wrote choral and  organ music, often based on Gregorian chant, enhanced by polymodal harmonies. Langlais became blind due to glaucoma when he was only two years old, and was sent to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children) in Paris, where he began to study the organ, with André Marchal. From there, he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ and studying composition with Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas.

It was as an organist that Langlais made his name, following in the footsteps of César Franck and Tournemire as organiste titulaire at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris in 1945, a post in which he remained until 1988. He was much in demand as a concert organist, and toured widely across Europe and the United States.

Langlais died in Paris aged 84.

Music for November 20, 2016 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• Christus Factus Est – Felice Anerio (c.1560-1614)
• The Crucifixion – Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Organ Concerto in A Minor BWV 593 after Vivaldi RV 522 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• I. Allegro
• II. Adagio
• Menuet Gothique from Suite Gothique, Op.25 – Léon Boëllmann (1862 – 1897)

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 R128 - Blest be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn R238 - We will glorify the King of kings (We Will Glorify)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 544 - Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (Duke Street)

This week it's Christ the King Sunday! And while you would think that the music would be all about Jesus seated on the throne, or Jesus in the clouds, or even Jesus riding triumphantly into Jerusalem, the vocal music has Jesus on the cross. What gives?

You can blame (?) it on the Lectionary; it chooses the passage from Luke, chapter 23, as the Gospel, where Christ is crucified, and the soldiers mock him, saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the thieves also being crucified asks Jesus to remember him, and Jesus tells him that they will be together in paradise. It certainly is a different way to begin one's reign.

So the choir's anthem is a setting in Latin of the verse from the second chapter of Philippians.

Christ was made for us obedient to death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place,
and gave Him the name above all names.

It is by the Italian composer Felice Anerio, a composer who came from a family of musicians. His father, Maurizio, was a trombonist at the Oratory of Santa Maria in Vallicella (Rome), and his younger brother, Giovanni Francesco, was a choirmaster and composer. The two brothers sang in the Papal Chapel choir under Giovanni de Pierlugi Palestrina, and when Palestrina died in 1594, Felice was appointed as composer to the Papal Chapel, the only other person to have been so named.

Christus factus est is notable for the striking dissonance of its opening, and for its effective use of suspensions as the main expressive device. This motet, for which Anerio is now most widely known, was not published in his lifetime along with his other sacred works.

The Gospel lesson is also the reason that we are hearing "The Crucifixion" from Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs. (well, that, and the reality that our soprano section leader, Jade Panares, (who is a sophomore voice major at the Moores School of Music at UH) learned it this semester!)

Samuel Barber

Barber was the American composer of whom music critic Donal Henahan said, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." He wrote a song cycle called Hermit Songs on a grant from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, using 10 anonymous Irish monastic poems. Soprano Leontyne Price, with the composer at the piano, premiered the cycle on October 30, 1953, at the Library of Congress. They have become a staple of the soprano repertoire ever since.

Here is the text of "The Crucifixion."

At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify Thee, O Swan!
Never shall lament cease because of that.
It was like the parting of day from night.
Ah, sore was the suffering borne
By the body of Mary's Son,
But sorer still to Him was the grief
Which for His sake
Came upon His Mother.