Music for November 15, 2020 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Partita on “St. Anne” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

                I. Theme
                II. Adagio
                III. Canon
                IV. Presto
                V. Pastorale
                VI. Fugue-Finale

• A Pleasant Thought – Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
• Mit Freuden Zart – Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Paul Manz

O God, our help in ages past, by Issac Watts, is one of the best paraphrases of the first six verses of Psalm 90. Since that is the psalm for this Sunday, I decided to play Paul Manz's partita (or variations) on ST. ANNE, which is the tune used for the hymn. Paul Manz was a Lutheran organist, who had a particular talent of improvising organ music based on hymns. These variations were probably improvised by Manz during a recital or one of his Hymn Festivals, and later published as Partita on St. Anne.

There are six movements which may or may not correspond to the six stanzas of Watt's hymn. The first movement is very straightforward, with an underlying rhythmic motive reminiscent of J. S. Bach's organ setting of the German Choral WER NUR DEN LIEBEN (BWV 642). The second movement also harkens back to music of Bach and German baroque composers with its ornamented solo line over an imitative accompaniment. You'll still be able to hear the melody if you listed closely.

In the third movement, Manz leaves the familiar realm of 18th century counterpoint and becomes more impressionist in style. The melody will be found in canon, with the right hand playing the melody in an undulating style in normal quarter-note rhythms, while the left hand plays the same melody, but in HALF-NOTE rhythms, and with some harmonies that we might find disconcerting. It sounds as if the two hands are playing two different songs in two different keys!

The fourth movement is much lifelier, as you can tell by its title, Presto. The accompaniment will be in both hands, featuring a spinning counter-melody against a leaping part in the other hand. These melodic fragments bounce back and forth between the two hands while the feet play the melody.

One of the loveliest movements is the Pastorale (fifth movement). Pastorales are generally in 6/8 or 9/8 metre, at a moderate tempo, and this is no exception. The accompaniment has a lyrical melody which could stand alone by itself, without the addition of the hymn-tune that comes in, played by the left hand.

I'll play the last movement as the closing voluntary, for it's drive and excitement is perfect for music that should encourage us to leave this place with joy and commitment.

During communion I'll play a simple melody by the African American composer, Florence B. Price. I discovered her in February when I was looking for non-idiomatic music by Black composers. She has a fascinating story, and I encourage you to review what I wrote about her here. 

During the preparation of the elements I will be playing Gerald Near's setting of the hymn tune MIT FREUDEN ZART. The order of service will have the words to the hymn Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth, Hymn 598 in The Hymnal 1982. It is especially appropriate to the Gospel reading this day.

Music for February 23, 2020 + The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• This Glimpse of Glory – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• The Gift to be Simple – Dale Wood (1934-2009)

Instrumental Music

• Adoration – Florence B. Price (1887–1953)
• Hyfrydol – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

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

• Hymn 427 - When morning gilds the skies (LAUDES DOMINI)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 328 - Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord (SONG 46)
• Hymn 599 -  Lift Every Voice and Sing (LIFT EVERY VOICE)
• Psalm 99 - Hal H. Hopson

The last Sunday of Epiphany is also the last Sunday of Black History Month, and we end both with two pieces which represent a crucial point in music history.

Florence Beatrice Smith Price

The opening voluntary is an organ piece by Florence Beatrice Price, the first African-American woman to have had her work performed by a major symphony orchestra. In 1933 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered Price’s Symphony No. 1 in E minor. This was a time when very few women composers were given time on the concert programs. The fact that this young black woman from Arkansas had any training was pretty unique in itself.

Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was taught music by her mother from a young age after she was denied music education from the city. She then attended Boston's New England Conservatory in 1903 to study piano, organ, and composition, and returned to Arkansas with a teaching certificate to bring music education back to her hometown. However, after a series of violent, racially-charged events occurred in Little Rock, Price relocated to Chicago in 1927, where her music career greatly accelerated. She went on to have a prolific career, writing dozens of orchestral, vocal, instrumental, and chamber works, with a musical style influenced by composers such as Dvořák and Coleridge-Taylor as well as Negro spirituals and vernacular dances.

Price graduated as high school valedictorian at age 14. Her daughter once explained that Price really wanted to be a doctor, but no medical school would accept her application. So she became a composer instead! She had also been denied entry to higher musical learning in the south, so she left Little Rock in 1904 to attend the New England Conservatory and, after following her mother’s advice to present herself as being of Mexican descent, earned a bachelor of music degree in 1906, the only one of 2,000 students to pursue a double major (organ and piano performance).

Price continued to read medical journals and attended classes at local colleges and universities. She was a true lifelong learner. Music was her passion and became the field that offered her fulfillment, despite the struggles she encountered.

This simple organ work is from one of the several organ magazines of the 30s and 40s, and is more indicative of what was the norm for church music, rather than an example of Price's more sophisticated orchestral style.

James Weldon Johnson

Our Bishop, Andy Doyle, shared a post last week about the 120th anniversary of the great song of the African-Americans, Lift Every Voice and Sing. Written in 1900 as a poem honoring the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, it was first sung by a chorus of 500 school children. Within the next two decades, it became  known as the Negro anthem. And in 1919, though it rejected the idea of a separate “anthem” for African Americans, the NAACP declared Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing as its official song.

The poem was written by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, Rosamond. It's impact on Americans cannot be disputed.