Music for Sunday, June 12, 2022 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Missa Brevis No. 4 – Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)
• A Ukrainian Prayer – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Give Me – Carson P. Cooman (b. 1982)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory be to God on High – Georg Philipp Teleman (1681-1767)
• We All Believe in One True God – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA)
• Hymn S-236 - Canticle 13: Benedictus es, Domine - setting by John Rutter
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)

This Sunday is Music Sunday. Our music ministry will be honored as part of the worldwide Music Sunday Celebration of the RSCM (The Royal School of Church Music). 

There are so many special days in the calendar, but Music Sunday is a day to connect in spirit with the whole of the RSCM. It is heart-warming to know that churches around the country, and indeed the world, are focusing on the role of music in worship and the dedicated church musicians who lead this. 

Here at Good Shepherd, we will take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many people who work in music leadership in our church. We will also sing a Missa Brevis by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley and a new anthem by John Rutter, written as a prayer for the people of Ukraine.

Missa Brevis No. 4

The Service Music (Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) is the Missa Brevis No. 4 by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley. Missa Brevis means "brief mass," and was written for her own church choir. The three movements are written for a 4-part acapella choir. 

Born and raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, Daley received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and holds diplomas in piano and organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto and Trinity College, England. She has been the Director of Music at Fairlawn Heights United Church in Toronto, Ontario since 1982. During this time, she has established a thriving choral program for which much of her music has been composed, thanks to the continuing support and talent of her choirs.

A Ukrainian Prayer

The offertory anthem is a new work by the English composer John Rutter. Rutter was moved to write "A Ukrainian Prayer" when Ukraine was attacked by Russia. As Rutter says, "How can a composer respond to a global tragedy? By writing music is the most obvious thing. Like everybody, I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the events of recent days, and the first thing I wanted to do was write some music that would respond in my own way."

"I went to a late night service in my old college chapel, where they sang a setting of a lovely Ukrainian prayer. So, having encountered the text in another musical setting on Wednesday night, on Thursday, I wrote my own music. I hope the meaning of the text will resonate in people’s hearts."

The anthem is written in an acapella, Eastern Orthodox style. The text is an old Ukrainian prayer:

Боже, Україну храни

Дай нам силу, вірі, й надії

Отче наш, Отче наш

Амінь

A literal translation of the text is:

Good Lord, protect Ukraine.

Give her strength, courage, faith, hope. Amen.

Give Me

During communion, the choir will sing a round written by American composer Carson Cooman on a text by Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088), a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century. The choir has been closing their rehearsals each week by singing this round as part of our closing prayers.

O God, give me a heart that I can pour out in thanksgiving.

Give me life that I can spend it working for the salvation of the world.

Music for the Fifth Sunday of Easter + May 15, 2022

Vocal Music

• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on ‘Salzburg’ - Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706)
• Land of Rest – George Shearing (1919-2011)
• Fugue in D – Johann Pachelbel

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

• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Psalm 148 – setting by Hal H. Hopson

John Rutter has written a beautiful little anthem based on an anonymous 15th century poem, Thy Perfect Love. Written in 1975, you'll hear the text and tune twice; first, in a solo soprano setting, then again with the full choir singing the text with a lot of suspensions and harmonies that just seem to "float." 

John Rutter

London-born John Rutter has written a large body of sacred music: anthems, carols, a Requiem and other choral works, as well as orchestral and other secular music. He has also made significant contributions as an arranger and editor.

Rutter studied at Cambridge and stayed on to found The Cambridge Singers in 1981. He still conducts this ensemble, which records on its own label, Collegium. For his services to music, Rutter was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1996, and a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2007.

The opening and closing voluntaries are by the South German composer Johann Pachelbel. You know him by his celebrated Canon in D, which has been used at weddings and for diamond commercials ever since it was rediscovered in 1968, when the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra made a recording of the piece that would change its fortunes significantly.

But during his lifetime, Pachelbel was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. Much of Pachelbel's liturgical organ music, particularly the chorale preludes, is relatively simple and written for manuals only, no pedal is required. This is partly due to Lutheran religious practice where congregants sang the chorales. Household instruments like virginals or clavichords accompanied the singing, so Pachelbel and many of his contemporaries made music playable using these instruments. The quality of the organs Pachelbel used also played a role: south German instruments were not, as a rule, as complex and as versatile as the north German ones which J. S. Bach was accustomed to.

Johann Pachelbel

Chorales and chorale preludes constitute almost half of Pachelbel's surviving organ output, in part because of his organist post in Erfurt which required him to compose chorale preludes on a regular basis. Usually they were composed with one or two verses of the hymn, but today we have an example of a partita, or set of variations on the chorale. You'll hear the chorale first, followed by four different settings of the hymn tune. This is the familiar chorale, SALZBURG, which is used several times in our hymnal. Today we recall the Easter text that goes with it, At the Lamb's high feast we sing.

The communion voluntary is a setting of another hymn-tune, LAND OF REST, which we will sing with the text, I come with joy to meet my Lord. It is by the pianist George Shearing, a British jazz musician who rose to become something of a household name in the US. Blind from birth, Shearing had a natural flair for playing the piano (he started lessons at age five) and was able to memorize tunes he learned from listening to the radio. He studied music at Linden College, a residential school for blind children, where he stayed until he was 16, at which point he began working as pub pianist.

George Shearing

Shearing was much honored during his long career. He played for three different US presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan) and was awarded an OBE in 1996 before receiving a knighthood from the Queen in 2007. “In the quiet moments when I reflect on all this,” wrote Shearing in his autobiography, “I can’t help thinking, not bad for a kid from Battersea!”

Though Shearing became an American citizen in 1956, in later years he spent a lot of time at his home in the Cotswolds, England. A bad fall in 2004 put an end to his performing career and he died seven years later, on Valentine’s Day 2011, aged 91.

Music for June 2, 2019 + The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• A Gaelic Blessing – John Rutter (b. 1945) 

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Deo Gracias” – Healey Willan (1880 – 1968) 
• Tribute – Craig Phillips (b. 1961) 
• Toccata on Hyfrydol – Craig Phillips 

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

• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name! (CORONATION) 
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) 
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus! (IN BABILONE) 
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (ZIMBABWE) 
• Hymn R136 - Alleluia (ALLELUIA) 
• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL) 

Do you know what a rune is? John Rutter has said that his composition, A Gaelic Blessing, is based on "an old Gaelic rune". Every time I put that in the service leaflet as source of the text, one of our proof-readers assumes that my typing is as accurate as my organ playing and changes it to "an old Gaelic tune."

Every time.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (I just looked at mine on my shelf, from my college days!), a rune is a poem or song. Usually it has Norse or Scandinavian ties, but I guess we could call this Gaelic verse a rune.

I found this description of Rutter's piece on the Classic FM website, the website of the British Classical FM station which, unfortunately, we can no longer listen to in the States. I'm sure it has something to do with Trump. I wish I could claim this witty opening as mine, but alas, it isn't.

Musicians are a mischievous lot – as evidenced by the nickname ascribed to John Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing. No sooner had it been composed in 1978 than it was being referred to as ‘A Garlic Dressing’.

Rutter is known for his beautiful simplistic choral miniatures – and this is the finest example of them all. Commissioned by an American Methodist church, the lush string accompaniment perfectly matches the serene text Rutter chooses to set. Although the words are filled with religious significance, it would be fair to expect the composer himself to hold deep religious beliefs. Rutter, however, describes himself as ‘An agnostic supporter of the Christian faith’.

Lasting under two minutes, A Gaelic Blessing is an enduring popular choice at weddings, christenings and funerals – not only for the deeply comforting words but for the equally tranquil and sensitive music Rutter sets them to.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/rutter/music/john-rutter-gaelic-blessing/

I will say that I resist writing "Garlic Dressing" on the choir whiteboard everytime we sing. It is hard, but I manage to resist.

 a painting of the Ascension
from the 'Jesus Mafa’ project of Cameroon:

My opening voluntary is Healey Willan's bold setting of the hymn tune DEO GRACIAS, which we find in our hymnal at 218, the Ascension hymn "A hymn of glory let us sing." The tune is called DEO GRACIAS because these are the first two words of the original song, a ballad commemorating the victory of King Henry V of England at Agin-court, France, in 1415. This "Agincourt Hymn," as it is often called, is one of the most famous old English songs. (It is also used for another text in our hymnal, O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High. You can look this one up yourself, using the index in the back of the hymnal.)

Music for May 5, 2019 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Inception – Jason W. Krug (b. 1978)
• Joyance – Ron Mallory (b. 1973)
• Processional – William Mathias (1934-1992)

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

• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)
• Hymn 374 - Come, let us join our cheerful songs (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
• Hymn R202 - Lift up your hearts unto the Lord (SING ALLELUIA)
• Hymn R232 - There is a Redeemer (GREEN)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 30 - Simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

This Sunday we will hear the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild play two selections in our 10:15 service, which brings their 2018-2019 season to a close. To say that I appreciate the talent and hard work these women bring to rehearsal each week would be a gross understatement, as I know personally the sacrifice and the commitment they show week in and week out. In a time where it is getting harder and harder to get people to commit to anything, these folks are always here. Not counting the time the spend on their own preparing their part, we figure more than 411 hours have been spent this year rehearsing and preparing the music that you hear at Church and the Live Nativity. Our members range from teenagers to women in their 60s. So take a minute this Sunday to say thanks to those who play our bells.

Jason Krug

The Handbells will begin the service with Jason Krug's exciting original work Inception. This up-tempo piece has a repeating rhythmic accompaniment played on the bells with mallets, supporting the spacious, soaring melody in the higher bells. Later, the upper bells take up that same motif while the lower bells carry the melody. Because of its intricate rhythms and bell changes, we are only using three of our five octaves.

Krug is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana.  He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000 with a degree in Music.  He is currently a freelance composer, arranger, clinician, and teacher. 

Krug's handbell career began in 2001 when he began ringing with and arranging music for the Wagner Memorial Bell Choir at Irvington United Methodist Church, and in 2005, he took over as the choir's director.  Since his first publication in 2006, he's had over 300 handbell compositions released, with more on the way.  His pieces have been featured at numerous local, state, and regional festivals and workshops, both in the United States and abroad, and he has been guest clinician at handbell events from coast to coast. 

Ron Mallory

The offertory, Joyance, is a winner of the Handbell Musicians of America Area 2 Festival Conference Composition Contest. Using all five octaves of bells and our 3 octaves of handchimes, this catchy and rhythmic original piece is a festive offertory for this Easter season. It is written by Ron Mallory, a church musician at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Bellevue, Washington.

Mallory has a master's degree in choral conducting from the University of Washington and a bachelor's degree in music composition from California State University, Long Beach. He has been playing, directing, and composing for handbells since his college days. He has published more than 100 handbell pieces and has won composition contests sponsored by Bells of the Sound and Handbell Musicians of America.

Music for October 28, 2018

Vocal Music

• Alleluia from Exultate Jubilate, K.165  – W. A. Mozart (1756-1791) Christine Marku, soprano
• Look at the World – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Declare the Maker's Praise - Joseph D. Daniel / arr. Tammy Waldrop
• Arioso from Cantata 156 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Sinfonia from Cantata 79: Wir Danken dir, Gott – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 693 - Just as I am, without one plea (WOODWORTH)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 126 – Tone VIIIa

There's only one service this Sunday as we begin our 2018 Stewardship emphasis. Because of this, we pull out most of the stops for music this week!

We'll start out with an opening voluntary played by the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild. These 10 women meet each Wednesday morning during the school year. It's an interesting mix of ages, as the the youngest is 13 (we have three home-schooled youth). There are two sets of mother/daughters and one set of sisters. We have people with over 20 years of playing experience down to those playing for the first time.

The piece is an original composition by Joseph Daniel, a free-lance musician living in Michigan, with degrees in music from Baylor and the University of Michigan.

Then the Good Shepherd Choir will be joined by the Coventry Choir in John Rutter's beautiful anthem, Look at the World. Rutter is considered one of the leading living composers of sacred music. His anthem is perfect for our Stewardship emphasis as it enumerates the natural beauties that God created in the world and for which we give thanks.

Every good gift, all that we need and cherish,
Comes from the Lord in token of his love.
We are his hands, stewards of all his bounty,
His is the earth and his the heavens above.

Praise to thee, O Lord for all creation,
Give us thankful hearts that we may see
All the gifts we share, and every blessing,
All things come of thee

Mozart, age 18

Venanzio Rauzzini
engraved by Samuel Freeman 

Then at the offertory, Christine Irwin Marku will sing the soprano show-piece, Alleluia, from Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate.

Mozart was just 16 when he wrote this. The man (yes, man) for whom Mozart wrote it, Venanzio Rauzzini, was the Italian soprano castrato of choice for the musical chattering classes of Milan. The composer and performer had been flung together to produce Mozart’s early opera, Lucio Silla, in which Rauzzini starred. The singer would eventually, after a couple more adulatory years wowing them in Italy, move permanently to the unlikely destination of Bath, England, living largely off his reputation by teaching and mounting subscription concerts.

Music for October 7, 2018

Vocal Music

• For the Beauty of the Earth – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Benediction – Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)
• Suite Liturgique: III. Communion– Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
• Now Thank We All Our God – Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew and "L" which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 376 - Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (HYMN TO JOY)
• Hymn R250 - O Lord, my God (O STOR GUD)
• Hymn 480 - When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn L218 - Jesus loves me, this I know (JESUS LOVES ME)
• Hymn R173 - O Lord, hear my prayer (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT)
• Psalm 8 – Tone VII

John Rutter (right), looking startled to be caught
standing next to your organist in 2017. We have
same haircut.

That John Rutter became one of the world’s most well-known composers of church music should surprise no one. He sang as a boy chorister at London’s prestigious Highgate School, and proceeded to study at Clare College, Cambridge, where he later became director of music. Rutter leapt to prominence in 1970, as co-editor of the second volume in Oxford University Press’s Carols for Choirs series. Since then, his name has become synonymous with English church music, especially for the Christmas season. He now lives near Cambridge, and conducts a professional choir, the Cambridge Singers.

This Sunday the choir sings one of his anthems with a Texas connection. Rutter wrote his setting of the nineteenth-century hymn, For the beauty of the earth, for Rosemary Heffley and the Texas Choral Directors Association in 1980. Foregoing the tune found in most hymnals (though not the Hymnal 1980!), Rutter crafted a lyrical, rising melody that joyfully concludes with an off-kilter rhythm and flamboyant turn. It has since become a standard in choir libraries, sung by choirs the world over. It's been  arranged for women's voices and men's voices in addition to the regular mixed voice choir, in addition to arrangements for concert band!

The author of the text is the otherwise neglected nineteenth-century English poet Folliott Pierpoint, who taught classics at Somersetshire College in southwest England. Much of Pierpoint’s poems deals with nature, and For the beauty of the earth is believed to have been a rhapsodic response to a springtime vista in the Somerset countryside when he was 29.

Two pieces by Sigfrid Karg-Elert open and close our 10:15 service. Karg-Elert was a German composer of considerable fame in the early twentieth century, best known for his compositions for organ and harmonium (reed organ). He was born as Sigfried Karg, but his concert-agent suggested early in his career that he add  a variant of his mother's maiden name (Ehlert) to his surname, and adopt the Swedish spelling of his first name.

Karg-Elert regarded himself as a musical outsider. Notable influences in his work include composers Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany), Edvard Grieg (Norway), Claude Debussy (France), Alexander Scriabin (Russia), and early Arnold Schoenberg (Austria). In general terms, his musical style can be characterized as being late-romantic with impressionistic and expressionistic tendencies.

I was interested to discover that, though Karg-Elert was well received and appreciated outside of Germany (especially in the US and the UK, where the Organ Music Society of London held a ten-day festival in his honor in 1930), the cultural climate in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was very hostile to the internationally oriented, French-influenced Karg-Elert. This is during the time that Adolph Hitler was on the rise, promoting his "Mach Deutschland wieder groß" (Make Germany Great Again) campaign.

Karg-Elert died in Liepzig in 1933 of complications from diabetes, at age 55.

Music for May 6, 2018 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Thanks be to God – Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611–1675)
• The Peace of God – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on Dunedin – David Dahl (b. 1937)
• Communion – Richard Purvis (1913-1994)
• Finale and Fughetta in C– Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656 – 1746)

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

• Hymn 8 - Morning is broken (BUNESSAN)
• Hymn 455 - O love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old their first fruits brought (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Psalm 98:1-6 Cantate Domino – Tone IIa

We have two totally different choral offerings this morning. The first is an extroverted, almost bouncy anthem of thanksgiving by the German Bohemian composer and organist Andreas Hammerschmidt. Musicologists regard Hammerschmidt as the most representative composer of middle 17th century German church music, but his works are hardly known today, as he is overshadowed by the towering figure of Heinrich Schütz, whom he greatly admired and who once wrote a laudatory poem for one of Hammerschmidt's publications.

Hammerschmidt was born in Brüx in Bohemia, where his family belonged to the Protestant community. During the Thirty Years War Bohemia became Catholic again, and Hammerschmidt's father decided to move to Freiberg in Saxony. Very little is known about his musical education.

This happy looking man is Andreas Hammerschmidt. He's still mad that Schutz gets more attention.

In 1635 Hammerschmidt was appointed organist at the Petrikirche, and in 1639 he moved to Zittau, where he became the organist of the Johanniskirche. It was his last position, and here he composed the largest part of his music. The position of organist was increasingly important, as he was responsible for composing and performing all church music and directing the soloists from the school choir and the instrumental ensemble of town musicians. His activities as composer and performer not only made him a man of reputation, but also brought him considerable wealth.  His tombstone calls him the Orpheus of Zittau.

The other anthem which will be sung at communion is the lovely, lyrical The Peace of God by the English composer John Rutter. His gift of melody and captivating harmonies is evident in this quiet little peace based on a prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

The peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.

The opening voluntary is the Chorale Prelude on DUNEDIN, by Washington composer David Dahl. I'm playing it because this is the tune of the hymn prior to the Gospel this morning. This work was commissioned in 2016 by the Houston American Guild of Organist's National Convention, and had its premier at Christ Church Cathedral in  Houston.

David P. Dahl

You'll hear the tune three times. First, it is played on the oboe stop (left hand) against a obbligato on the flute (right hand.) Then the tune is heard in canon (like a round) with the right hand playing on a combination of flute sounds at different pitches, and the left hand coming in a measure later using the principals. The third and final reiteration combines the melody, this time played by the feet on a loud trumpet sound, while the hands play bold, fanfare-like interjections.

David P. Dahl is Professor of Music and University Organist Emeritus from Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA, retiring in 2000 after thirty-five years of teaching. In August, 2010, he retired as Director Emeritus of Music Ministries at Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, where served for forty years. 

Here's a NERD ALERT. When I was a teenager, and first interested in the organ, my grandmother had a Reader's Digest Record Collection called "The Organ Plays Golden Favorites," four LPs of four well-known American organist of both the legit (classical) and theatre organ worlds. One of the artists I was introduced to was Richard Purvis, the long-time organist of Grace Cathedral in San Franciscon. One of the things that intrigued me about Purvis was the story on the album sleeve that, years ago, as a high school boy, he was well known as a theatre organist under the name "Don Irving." Don Irving dissappeared, but Richard Purvis went on to study at the Curtis Institue of Music in Philadelphia. It also said he was well known as a composer, particularly famous for two compositions, his setting of "Greensleeves" and "Communion." I've heard several people play "Greensleeves" over the years, but the only person I know that plays "Communion" is me!

"Communion" is a quiet, contemplative piece, with a melody in the style of Gregorian Chant, accompanied by sustained chords played on the strings. This work was no doubt written for the organ at Grace Cathedral, an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ with over 7000 pipes, with a string division larger than most normal-sized church organs!

Music for Sunday, July 2, 2017 + The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

There will  be one service at 10:15 AM

Vocal Music

• Hear My Prayer – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Pie Jesu – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Brooke Vance, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Eternal Father, Strong to Save – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• O Beautiful for Spacious Skies – Charles Callahan
• Marche nuptiale. No. 1, based on God Save the Queen – Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 713 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together on our knees (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn 608 - Eternal Father, strong to save (MELITA)

Brooke Vance

This Sunday we warmly welcome Brooke Vance to our service today. Brooke grew up in Good Shepherd, singing in the choirs from kindergarten through High School. She just graduated in May from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with a degree in vocal performance. This is her first time back to Kingwood for a Sunday Service since her family moved to New Braunfels after her graduation from Atascocita High School. 

She will also treat us to a short, mini-recital in the nave at 1 PM, following the picnic. 

In church she will sing two dramatic solos from Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer, a miniature cantata with three distinct, contrasting movements and a recitative. The piece begins with the simple pleading of the soprano, “Hear my prayer, O God.” Mendelssohn’s subtle changes of harmony and melody indicate alternating moments of optimism and loneliness. There is a middle movement and recitative where the fear and the despair rise to a climax. The work ends with the great final movement, “O for the wings of a dove!” This exceptionally beautiful music evokes a far-away place of peace and rest.

The other piece during communion is from John Rutter’s most popular Requiem. Since its debute in 1985 at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, it has become one of the most popular classical compositions of the last thirty years. Brook will sing the Pie Jesu (pee-eh yeh-zoo), a prayer to Jesus for rest for the departed. It begins with the soprano soloist singing with a very light accompaniment, with only slight involvement of a chorus echoing the words "Dona eis requiem, Dona eis sempiternam requiem" (Grant them rest, grant them rest eternal.)

Since it is the Sunday before Independence Day, the day of our annual Independence Day (indoors) picnic, and our priest has confided in me that he will deviate from the lectionary to acknowledge the holiday, I’m playing some organ music with a national slant. One piece, however, has an odd connection to our patriotic musical theme. 

The closing voluntary was written as a wedding march for H.R.H. The Duke of Albany, to  H.R.H. The Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the youngest son of Queen Victoria, who, at the suggestion of his mother, met Princess Helena and fell in love. The two were married in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on April 27, 1882, The wedding march included the national anthem, God Save the Queen. What I really find curious is that it was a Frenchman, not an Englishman, who wrote this processional. Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, best known today for his Ave Maria, based on Bach's Prelude in C from The Well-tempered Clavier, as well as his Funeral March of a Marionette, used as the theme of the Alfred Hitchcock TV program. His opera Faust is still oft performed, as is his opera Roméo et Juliette.

Music for February 26, 2017 + The Last Sunday After the Epiphany

The Transfiguration of Christ

Vocal Music

• The Lord is My Light and Salvation – Fred Gramman (contemporary)
• The Lord Bless You and Keep You – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugatoon “St. Elizabeth” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Christ Upon the Mountain Peak – Joyce Moon Stroble (contemporary)
• Shine, Jesus, Shine – David Blackwell, arr. (b. 1961)

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 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (St. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 328 - Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord (SONG 46)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (SHINE JESUS SHINE)
• Psalm 99 - Dominus regnavit (Tone V)

This Sunday we focus on the story of Jesus' Transfiguration - that time when Jesus, Peter, James and John went to the Mount of Transfiguration to pray, and Jesus began to shine with bright rays of light. The prophets Moses and Elijah appeared next to him and he spoke with them. The actual feast day is August 6, but the Revised Common Lectionary chooses to end the season after Epiphany with the telling of the Transfiguration story.

If we look at the collect for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany in our prayer book, we can see reasons why the Transfiguration of Our Lord is celebrated when it is:

O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Episcopal Church, 1979, page 217.)

We celebrate the revelation of Christ's glory "before the passion" so that we may "be strengthened to bear our cross and be changed into his likeness." The focus of the Lenten season is renewed discipline in walking in the way of the cross and rediscovery of the baptismal renunciation of evil and sin and our daily adherence to Christ. At Easter, which reveals the fullness of Christ’s glory (foreshadowed in the Transfiguration), Christians give themselves anew to the gospel at the Easter Vigil where they share the dying and rising of Christ.

In the biblical context, the synoptic gospels narrate the Transfiguration as a bridge between Jesus' public ministry and his passion. From the time of the Transfiguration, Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem and the cross.

The key words in the story of the transfiguration and, indeed, the entire season of Epiphany are light and glory. Much of the music today references those themes.

One of the few hymns specifically for Transfiguration is Christ, upon the mountain peak, written by contemporary English poet Brian Wren in 1962. Peter Cutts wrote the tune SHILLINGFORD specifically for that text, and both text and tune are in our hymnal (hymn 130). But it is not really the kind of tune that easily catches on, as most hymnals which have included this text use another tune. (In fact, even our hymnal includes another tune as an alternate.) It looks innocent enough on paper, but upon hearing it you become aware of a tonal ambiguity that frankly freaks out the average congregation singer.

But the recent publication, Bayoubuchlein*, published for the 2016 American Guild of Organist convention here in Houston, includes a setting of this hymn which I think works well during communion. 

Joyce Moon Strobel's arrangement begins with an undulating eighth note accompaniment in the right hand, with the melody coming in quietly in the left hand. Taking a cue from the adventuresome tonality of the melody, Strobel also ventures into new keys for each of the three times she presents the tune. A graduate of the Conservatory at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio and Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Joyce Strobel has served as Organist/Choir Director at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Scott Township, in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1986.

* Bayoubüchlein: New Choral Preludes for AGO Houston 2016

This distinctive new collection of organ music for the liturgical year was commissioned for the 2016 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Houston. The title refers to J. S. Bach’s volume of chorale-based organ works and Houston’s Gulf Coast waterways. Realizing that newer hymn tunes often lacked chorale preludes, the convention’s new music committee decided that each piece in this collection would be based on a hymn tune composed since 1960. The works chosen are a combination of pieces commissioned by the convention and pieces selected from an open “call for scores.” 

Music for February 14, 2016 + Lent I

Vocal Music

• Jesu, Grant Me This I Pray – C. H. Kitson (1874-1944)
• God be in my Head – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Jesus, All My Gladness – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Psalm 91:9-15 – Tone II.a
• Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (McKee)
• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (Aus der Tiefe rufe ich)
• Hymn R112 - You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (On Eagles Wings)
• Hymn 559 - Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (Dulce Carmen)

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when our liturgical actions change to reflect the meaning and purpose of Lent. This means the music changes, too. A time of penitence and quiet reflection cannot embrace music that jumps for joy and is all “happy-clappy!” The organ becomes quieter (or drops out altogether, such as the closing voluntary, which we omit during Lent), the service music changes to include a Kyrie (Lord, Have Mercy) and Agnus Dei (Jesus, Lamb of God.) And on the first Sunday of Lent, we'll dispense with the opening voluntary and hymn, and begin the service singing The Great Litany, an intercessory prayer of various petitions that are sung by the priest, with fixed responses by the congregation. It is sung in procession, and because we take a longer, circuitous route through the nave to give us time to sing the entire thing, it is often called "The Holy Pretzel."

Later in the service the choirs will sing a setting of a Lenten hymn by English poet and priest, Sir Henry W. Baker. Baker may be best known to us as the writer of the hymn setting of Psalm 23, "The King of Love my Shepherd Is," and "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven," as well as his translation of "O Sacred Head, Once Wounded." He was editor of the premier English hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1859.

C. H. Kitson combined Baker's hymn, Jesu, Grant me this I pray, with Orlando Gibbons' Song 13 to create a calm litany in today's anthem. It is simply set, with stanza one and three sung in a unison setting, and stanza four, the final stanza, presented as a simple, a capella hymn. The second stanza is the most intricate, with the lower three voice parts (alto, tenor, and bass) singing a flowing accompaniment in 12/8 time while the trebles sing the Gibbons melody.

Charles Herbert Kitson was an English organist and teacher, author of several books on harmony and counterpoint. He was better known as a educator than as a composer. He was born in Yorkshire, and attended school in Ripon. Intending originally to take holy orders, he took his BA and MA  at Cambridge, where he was also the organ scholar of Selwyn College. Between those dates, he also took the BMus and DMus degrees at Oxford.

His first important post was as organist at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, in 1913 – a post which he combined with the post of Professor of Theory at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. In 1920, he resigned both posts and returned to England, settling in London, where he joined the staff of the Royal College of Music.

a contemporary reconstruction of Bach's face based
on research of Scottish forensic experts.

During communion I am playing two short organ settings of the chorale, Jesu, Meine Freude, as written by the great Johann Sebastian Bach. Unlike his other great organ chorales, these short pieces are very simply set. The first one, BWV 1105, is from a relatively recent discovery (or re-discovery) of 31 of Bach's organ chorales in The Neumeister Collection,  a compilation of chorale preludes for organ assembled by Johann Gottfried Neumeister sometime after 1790. This handwritten manuscript included 31 compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1090–1120) that were uncatalogued until scholars rediscovered the manuscript in the 1980s. It has been suggested that the collection may have been copied from a single source, possibly a Bach family album put together in J.S. Bach's early years.  Some time after 1807 the manuscript passed to Christian Heinrich Rinck, whose library was bought by Lowell Mason in 1852. After Mason's death in 1873, his collection was acquired by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut,  where it was rediscovered "early in 1984" by musicologists.

The other setting, BWV 753, is from an unfinished arrangement which has been completed by Charles Callahan. It is for hands alone (no feet)

Music for January 31, 2016 + The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Suite Brève: Cantilene – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Variations on “Liebster Jesu” – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Suite Brève: Dialogue sur les mixtures – Jean Langlais 

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

• Hymn R49 - Let the whole creation cry (Llanfair)
• Hymn R155 - Though I may speak with bravest fire (Gift of Love)
• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (Liebster Jesu)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (Mandatum)
• Hymn R226 - Ubi Caritas (Taizé)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (Gott Sei Dank)

The English composer John Rutter writes wonderfully approachable and finely crafted choral music. Christmas could hardly happen without his settings of both traditional and original carols. And for decades church choirs have been singing his lyrical anthems on religious texts. One such anthem is this Sunday's offertory, Thy Perfect Love. Based on a 15th century English prayer, the anthem begins with a soprano soloist who presents the poem in its entirety. Then the whole choir sings the prayer in four part harmony, without organ. The hymn sounds easy, but the descending chromatic chords are tricky to sing in tune and on pitch! Pray for the choir.

Jean Langlais

The organ music comes from the Suite Brève by Jean Langlais. Born in great poverty in rural Northwest France, he was blind by age two, and his musical talent became evident when he sang in the choir of the local church. At ten he was sent to the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, where he began to study the organ. From there, he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ and composition. By 1945 he was organist at one of Paris's great churches, St. Clotilde. It was here that he wrote today's voluntaries in 1947.

The opening voluntary, the lyrical "Cantilene," is based on an original modal theme heard on a reed stop in the pedal and accompanied by soft chords., which reinforce the modal character (neither Major nor Minor key) of the melody. The next section plays of the melody canonically between high and low registers, simultaneously using the two melodies in the pedal. The third section has the melody once again in the pedal, but with an add flute obbligato in the treble register. It's not easy. Pray for the organist.

The last piece, "Dialogue sur les mixtures," has fast, repeated chords moving rapidly from the neutral key of C Major to A-flat and back again, with lively echoings between the different manuals (keyboards) of the organ.

Music for October 4, 2015 + The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• For the Beauty of the Earth – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• O Kind Jesus - Robert Hunter, arr. (1929-2001)

Instrumental Music

• Air - Gerre Hancock (1934-2012)
• Jesus Loves Me- Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Now Thank We All Our God - Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

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

• Hymn 376 - Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (HYMN TO JOY)
• Hymn 480 - When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus, stanzas 1-3 (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn - Jesus loves me, this I know (JESUS LOVES ME)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT)

Of the two choral offerings this Sunday, John Rutter's For the Beauty of the Earth is by far the best known. It's joyous text and infectious melody have made it a favorite among choirs throughout the world since it was first published in 1980, after he wrote it for The Texas Choral Director's Association. It incorporates several of Rutter's distinctive musical trademarks: an interesting, singable melody, several changes in key, and syncopated rhythms used in conjunction with smooth, straight legato lines. The accompaniment, which I will be playing on the piano, stands alone, supporting but not doubling what the choral parts do.


The other anthem, based on a simple Latvian folk tune, is arranged by Ralph Hunter. A choral conductor, educator, and arranger, Hunter was born in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1921. He began his musical career as a church organist at Newark, New Jersey’s First Reformed Church. He served in the Army during World War II and then attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1955, he became the conductor of New York’s Collegiate Chorale, the second conductor after founder Robert Shaw, and held that position until 1959. In the late 1950s, he was an arranger for Harry Belafonte, conducted the Radio City Music Hall Chorus, and formed his own group, the Ralph Hunter Choir, with whom he recorded five albums. In the 1960’s, he conducted a variety of groups, including a campaign chorus for Richard Nixon, called Voices for Nixon, as well as a chorus that performed on NBC television under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. From 1969-1987, he was a music professor at New York’s Hunter College, where he taught choral literature, conducting, and arranging. He conducted and arranged a wide variety of choral music, including the temperance songs we sing today. He is known for his arrangements and conducting of classical choral works by such early music composers as Thomas Tallis and Nicholas Porpora.

Sunday's Gospel lessons is about Jesus and divorce and and Jesus and the children. I've decided to focus on Jesus and the children. That's why we are singing these two anthems and today's hymns, especially Jesus Loves Me. Preceding the singing of Jesus Loves Me (in a rocking 6/8 setting by Dr. Horace Clarence Boyer as found in Lift Every Voice and Sing II, An African American Hymnal for the Episcopal Church), I will play an very improvisatory piano piece by Charles Callahan which quotes snippets of the tune while never playing the melody outright. \

Just this past week I watched an episode of "Call the Midwife" on Netflix (watch it, if you haven't yet!) where one of the characters dies tragically. His girlfriend laments that she cannot see God in this tragedy, and the head nun responds that God is not in the tragedy, God is in the response. That could be said about Martin Rinkart, the writer of our closing hymn.

Rinkart was a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. In the midst of these horrors, it’s difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God, and yet, that’s exactly what Rinkart did. Sometime in the next twenty years, he wrote the hymn, Now Thank We All Our God, originally meant to be a prayer said before meals. Rinkart could recognize that our God is faithful, and even when the world looks bleak, He is “bounteous” and is full of blessings, if only we look for them. Blessings as seemingly small as a dinner meal, or as large as the end of a brutal war and unnecessary bloodshed are all reasons to lift up our thanks to God, with our hearts, our hands, and our voices.

The closing voluntary is Sigfrid Karg-Elert's setting of that tune, but the melody is hidden even more than in the piano piece of Callahan's on Jesus Loves Me. I've put up a diagram showing how fragment of the opening line is used as a basis for the main theme of this organ masterpiece.

Music for June 7, 2015 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Gloria (from Heilemesse) – Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Heilig – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Ave Verum Corpus – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Instrumental Music
Organ Concerto in F Major, Op. 4 No. 4 – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
I. Allegro
II. Andante

   

Congregational Music

• Hymn 391 - Before the Lord’s eternal throne (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)

We usually end the choir year singing a mass setting by a major composer. In the past we have sung works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and others. This year, since we had already sung a Missa Brevis by Canadian Healey Willan and A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott, we decided to sing a few of our favorite anthems with strings. There will be lots of music this Sunday as we will have an eight piece string orchestra to accompany some well known sacred works as well as on organ concerto by Handel.

J. S. Bach

The most well known work we are singing is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, which is often heard this time of year in weddings. It is from Bach's Cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and mouth and deed and life), written in 1714 for an Advent Service and later expanded. It is the sixth and tenth movement of the cantata. The music's wide popularity has led to numerous arrangements and transcriptions, such as for the classical guitar and in Wendy Carlos' recording of Switched-On Bach on the Moog synthesizer in 1968. In 1973 the British group Apollo 100 recorded a version called "Joy" which peaked at number six on the Hot 100 and number two on the Easy Listening chart, and was featured in the film Boogie Nights (1997). Even The Beach Boys used the melody as a basis for the song "Lady Lynda", but without the words.

Franz Josef Haydn

At communion will sing Ave verum, a motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus". Mozart wrote it in 1791 for Anton Stoll, the musical coordinator in the parish of Baden bei Wien while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was fewer than six months before Mozart's death. 

We will sing the Gloria from Haydn's Missa sancti Bernardi von Offida in B-flat major (or Heiligmesse) for the Song of Praise. This Mass was written in honor of St. Bernard of Offida, a Capuchin monk who devoted himself to helping the poor. The 'Sanctus' section of the mass is a setting of a then-popular Austrian tune to the German translation of Sanctus, Heilig. The Mass takes its popular German title, Heiligmesse, from this section. In the original mass, the Gloria was comprised of three sections. We are only singing the first section.

The Young John Rutter

The choir will also sing Thy Perfect Love by the British composer John Rutter. Rutter takes the anonymous 15th century text and writes a lyrical piece in 3/4 time. The strings start out accompanying a soprano soloist, who sings the entire text. Then, as the choir comes in, the strings drop out and the full choir sings the text again, to be joined by the orchestra as the choir hits the apex of the piece on the words "That I may reign in joy evermore with thee." Rutter wrote this piece in 1975 for the choir of Meopham Parish Church in the U.K.

Felix Mendelssohn

The only piece we are singing this Sunday without the strings is the 8 part acapella chorus by Felix Mendelsohn, Heilig. Sung in German, it is the text of the Sanctus, so we will sing it at that time. This may be on of the most challenging things we have sung to date at Good Shepherd. Composed as part of Three Sacred Pieces in 1846, towards the end of Mendelssohn's short life, it is a perfectly conceived miniature showing a sheer mastery of choral writing and effortless command of musical expression and structure.

The relatively brief Heilig, heilig ist Gott, der Herr Zebaoth is an extrovert call to rejoice. The opening, in particular, is unforgettable in the overlapping vocal entries combining to produce a glorious suspension at the final exhortations of ‘Heilig’. The dotted rhythms which dominate the remainder of the setting help to create a sense of strong forward movement towards the joyous final cadence.

Music for February 8, 2015 + The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• A Gaelic Blessing – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• May the Peace of God – Israeli, arr. Geoff Weaver (b. 1943)

Instrumental Music

• Flourish and Chorale – Michael McCabe (b. 1941)
• The Peace May Be Exchanged (from Rubrics) – Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
• Toccata in Seven – John Rutter

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

• Hymn 423 Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn 529 In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn R191 O Christ, the healer (ERHALT UNS, HERR)

The 1940s is, by far, my favorite decade. I love 40s music. I love 40s movies. I love listening to 40s old-time radio programs. And, judging from today's music list, I love playing music by composers born in the the 40s. All of the choral and organ music this week is by composers born during that great decade. John Rutter, arguably one of the most performed choral composers of the past forty years, has written hundreds of small choral works and several larger works, several of  which have become part of the core concert repertoire the world over. We are singing his A Gaelic Blessing, which is a staple of choirs around the world. It was written as a parting gift for Mel Olsen, the beloved choir director of First United Methodist, Omaha, in 1978. A Gaelic Blessing has become a popular choice at christenings, weddings and funerals. (It was used at the Commendation at the Funeral Mass for Tip O'Neill.) Sometimes known as 'Deep Peace', this piece became a hit in 2003 when a recording of it by Aled Jones was released. The music says words are from an old Gaelic Rune, (an Old Norse word rune meaning 'letter', 'text' or 'inscription'), but there were no Gaelic runes - only Germanic ones - so it is safe to say it's just an old Gaelic blessing.

Dan Locklair, who appears to be as fond of pipe smoking
as he is of pipe organs.

Among the organ pieces today, a favorite is the communion voluntary by the North Carolina native Dan Locklair. This piece is the fourth movement of his liturgical suite for organ called Rubrics. Commissioned in 1988 for the Organ Artists Series of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, its extra-musical impetus and subsequent titles for each movement of Rubrics came the instructions (rubrics) to the services for The Book of Common Prayer.

Peter Hardwick, writing in The Diapason, has called Rubrics “one of the most frequently played organ works by an American composer.” Movements from Rubrics were not only heard at the Washington National Cathedral funeral service of President Ronald Reagan in 2004, but also as a part of the January 2009 Martin Luther King Jr. service in the same venue during the Presidential Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The fourth movement,  “The Peace may be exchanged,” is a lyrical piece, featuring a solo diapason color, accompanied by strings and double pedal throughout.

The opening voluntary, Flourish and Chorale, begins with, yes, a flourish - a trumpet fanfare - with an angular melody in the right hand accompanied by some pretty dissonant chords in the left hand. The flourish announces, so to speak, the arrival of the chorale, a much more lyrical, dignifed procession before it returns with more crashing chords at full organ. It is written by Michael McCabe, a man with two very distinct and varied professions. In addition to being an organist, composer, and teacher, he is also chief nurse anesthetist at the Omaha Surgical Center in Nebraska.

• Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO) A verse from 1st Timothy, ("Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.") is the basis for this hymn of pure praise. The rollicking anapestic rhythm of the Welsh melody rushes the singer along to the climactic poetic thought of God being invisible only because he is hidden by the splendor of light.
• In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE) The text was written by John Oxenham (the pen name for William Arthur Dunkerly) for a pageant in 1913, and is an example of a prophetic hymn - one that states the ideal to be achieved rather than the present situation. In our hymnal it is paired with a tune that has strong African-American roots, but according to a letter from Charles V. Stanford to Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (who arranged the tune for piano in his Twenty-Four Negro Melodies, 1905), MCKEE was originally an Irish tune taken to the United States and adapted by African American slaves. It became associated with the spiritual "I Know the Angels Done Changed My Name." 
• O Christ, the healer (ERHALT UNS, HERR) Here is a contemporary hymn that speaks to both individual and societal disease. F. Pratt Green's hymn does this beautifully, naming the link between personal and corporate life as "conflicts that destroy our health" and that find relief only when the healing wholeness of life in Christ "shall reach the whole of humankind." 

The youth of the St. Gregory choir will sing their rehearsal benediction, May the Peace of God, at the beginning of communion. The Israeli folk melody gives this simple song of blessing a haunting quality. It is arranged by Geoff Weaver, another British musician, whose lifelong passion has been teaching and spreading the music of God's people from all over the world. Through his work for the Church Mission Society, he has had teaching assignments in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Nigeria, and published two volumes of World Praise.