Music for November 19, 2017 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Draw Us In the Spirit’s Tether – Harold Friedell (1905-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Pastorale on St. Anne  (Partita on St. Anne, Op. 6) – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Devotion – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• O God, Our Help in Ages Past – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 9 - Not here for high and holy things (MORNING SONG)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R172 - In our lives, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Psalm 90:1-8, 12 - Tone VIIIa

Today's anthem was chosen not for its appropriateness to today's scriptures (that would be the hymns and the organ voluntaries), but for the fact that it has been in our folders since Hurricane Harvey and we just really needed to get it sung before the new (liturgical) year.  So it's now or never.

Not that I mind. It's long been one of the favorite anthems of mine and every choir with which I have worked. The melody is beautiful and the harmonies pleasing to sing, with just enough challenge and movement to make it interesting. The text is by Percy Dearmer, one of the most influential leaders in twentieth-century English hymnody who was a professor of ecclesiastical art at King’s College, London, and later served as canon of Westminster Abbey.

Percy Dearmer, c. 1890. Photograph by Frederick Hollyer
(From the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

He distinguished himself in the field of hymnology as the editor, with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, of The English Hymnal (1906). He also co-edited Songs of Praise (1925), The Oxford Book of Carols (1928) and Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). Editions of each of these works can still be found today in English churches.

This text of this anthem is full of imagery which captures the interest of the singer and links the singer with the disciples who gathered with Christ at the table (Matthew 18:20). We are joined by a “tether”—an archaic word but an appropriate image of the work of the Holy Spirit that links Christians of every time and place at the table.

In the final stanza, Dearmer makes a beautiful and powerful statement that “All our meals and all our living make as sacraments of thee.” Through “caring, helping, giving, we may true disciples be.”

Thus, the hymn begins in the upper room with the disciples and comes full circle as we join them around the table and are nourished to serve others in the world. Beautiful thoughts as many of us gather with our families around the Thanksgiving board.

This music was written 60 years ago by Harold Friedell, organist at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, and a professor at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.

The opening and closing voluntaries are based on the tune ST. ANNE which also serves as our processional hymn. The Psalm appointed for today is Psalm 90, and this is a splendid paraphrase of that Psalm by Isaac Watts, written around 1714 and first published the text in his Psalms of David (1719). "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90, even though the entire psalm has a recurring theme of lament.

Though no firm documentation exists, ST. ANNE was probably composed by William Croft, possibly when he was organist from 1700-1711 at St. Anne's Church in Soho, London, England. (According to tradition, St. Anne was the mother of the Virgin Mary.) The tune was first published in 1708 as a setting for Psalm 42. It was not until 1861 that ST. ANNE became a setting for "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" in Hymns Ancient and Modern, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Music for Christmas Weekend 2016

December 24, 2016 – 4 PM

Pamela Saxon King, soloist
The Good Shepherd Bell Choir
The Good Shepherd Liturgical Dance Company

Vocal Music

• Mary, Did You Know? – Buddy Greene
• Do You Hear What I Hear? - Gloria Shayne Baker (1923 – 2008)

Instrumental Music

• Go, Tell It on the Mountain – Patricia A. Sanders
• Away in a Manger – Patricia A. Sanders
• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• V. Adagio
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 24, 2016 – 6:30 and 10 PM

The Good Shepherd Choir
Allison Gosney, soprano

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)
• What Is This Lovely Fragrance - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – Italian Carol, arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• Ding Dong, Merrily on High– French tune, arr. Charles Wood
• What Sweeter Musick - William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)
• Ave Maria – César Franck (1822 – 1890)
• Christmas Joy - Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 79 - O little town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99- Go tell it on the mountain! (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 25, 2016 – 10:15 AM

Instrumental Music

• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
• In the Bleak Midwinter—John Purifoy 
• O Little Town of Bethlehem – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• Prologue – Traditional, arr. Joseph W. Clokey (1890-1960)

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

• Hymn 107 - Good Christian friends, rejoice (In dulci jubilo)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (stanzas 1, 2, 3) (Gloria)
• Hymn 102 - Once in royal David’s city (Irby)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world (Antioch )

Music for August 9, 2015 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music
Ave Maria – J. S. Bach/Charles Gounod
Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Devotion - Jim Brickman (b. 1961)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn, which is found in the Episcopal supplemental hymnals Lift Every Voice and Sing II and Wonder, Love and Praise.)

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) *
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY) *
• Hymn - Taste and See (TASTE AND SEE)
• Hymn 178 - Alleluia! alleluia! give thanks to the Lord (ALLELUIA NO. 1) *

* - denotes one of the top 17 favorite hymns of this congregation.

Here in the Episcopal Church, we follow the Lectionary, a three-year cycle of readings from the Bible that, each week, prescribes a reading from each of the Old Testament, Psalms, The Epistles, and the Gospels. I use these readings to help shape a theme of the day when choosing the hymns and other music for our Sunday worship. All my good intentions, however, fly out the window this month, as we sing the hymns you have chosen as the favorite hymns of the congregation. This list is as random a list as they come, so I'm just choosing the rest of the music to be as random.

Take the offertory this morning. Jade Panares, a recent choral intern in our choir, is going to sing "Ave Maria" in a setting by Charles Gounod. It's probably also a favorite of many in this congregation. I particularly like it because it uses the Prelude in C Major for clavier (keyboard) by J. S. Bach. The prelude is from a collection of 24 preludes and fugues in all 12 major keys and all twelve minor keys, something that was not possible to do in Bach's earlier years as a composer because up until that time, keyboard instruments were tuned to an unequal temperament, a temperament that keeps pure or nearly pure intonation in some keys but causes dissonances in the little-used keys, making them sound out of tune. The "equal tempered scale" was developed for keyboard instruments so that they could be played equally well (or badly) in any key. It is a compromise tuning scheme. Bach wrote this collection, called Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (or The Well-Tempered Clavier) in 1722.

131 years later, Charles Gounod is waiting for dinner with his fiancee and her parents. He's fiddling around with the Bach Prelude and improvising a lovely melody that his future father-in-law, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, notices and asks him to play again. Zimmermann hurried to note it, then some days later, had Gounod listen to it played with a violin, and supported with a small choir. And so was born " Consideration on Bach's prelude " which later became the famous Ave Maria. (Let us add that Zimmermann, who had signed up with a publisher, handed back to Gounod a sum two hundred francs for the purchase of the work.)

Hymn focus

Rock of ages, cleft for me.

No one was more surprised than me to see this hymn in the top 17 list. After all, it's a pretty old hymn, with a kind of sing-songy melody that we really don't sing much at Good Shepherd. I think, much like in American politics, that the older generation voted more in this poll! Regardless of how it got there, it actually is a very solid hymn.

1."Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! Let the Water and the Blood, From thy riven Side which flow'd, Be of Sin the double Cure, Cleanse me from its Guilt and Pow'r.

2.“Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy Law's demands: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for Sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone! 

3.“Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to thy Cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for Dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly : Wash me, Saviour, or I die! 

4."Whilst I draw this fleeting breath— When my eye-strings break in death— When I soar through tracts unknown— See Thee on thy Judgment-Throne— Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! 

The hymn appeared in the March 1776 issue of The Gospel Magazine following a pair of related articles. The first, which was attributed to “J. F.,” demonstrated by a series of questions and answers the magnitude of the British national debt, and how it could never be repaid. The second article, which was by AugustusToplady, used the same approach to demonstrate the magnitude of human sin, and how impossible it is for a human to achieve the righteousness of God for even one moment; hence, the need for Christ and his redemptive work on the cross. He then went on to say that Christ's redeeming work “will not only counter-balance, but infinitely over-balance, all the sins of the whole believing world” and concluded the article with the four stanzas of this hymn, which he titled “A living and dying Prayer for the holiest Believer in the World.”

Augustus Montague Toplady was an
Anglican cleric and hymn writer. He was
a major Calvinist opponent of John Wesley

Each stanza elaborates on a truth about salvation. The first stanza describes the redemption that can be found in Christ. The second lists various ways in which human effort is inadequate to atone for sin, and the third is a declaration of dependence on the Savior and a plea for His cleansing. The final stanza looks forward to heaven. Our hymnal combines the last of stanza two and the first of stanza three into one middle stanza. (denoted by the bold-faced type)