HUMBLED FOR A SEASON: Music for November 20, 2022 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Jesus, King Most Wonderful – David Hogan
• Lord Jesus Christ, We Humbly Pray – Gilbert M. Martin

Instrumental Music

• At the Name of Jesus – Michael Burkhardt
• Concerto in D Minor: Adagio – Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Virgil Fox
• Toccata on “At the Name of Jesus” – Michael Burkhardt

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 Canticle 16: Blest be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HŐH)
• Hymn 495 Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 544 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

At the Name of Jesus

 

The last Sunday of the church year (remember, the church calendar begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which is next Sunday) is called Christ the King Sunday. Themes of this day are the glory and majesty of Christ, judgment, peace, eternal life, judgment, and mercy. Much festivity and solemnity is proper to this liturgy. However, with this year’s Gospel from the Passion account, it highlights the paradox of the benevolent shepherd-king, dying on the cross, offering Paradise to the repentant sinner.

With that in mind, I am playing two different settings of the hymn At the name of Jesus, written by a former classmate of mine at SMU, Michael Burkhardt. The text is perfect for this Sunday:

1 At the name of Jesus

ev'ry knee shall bow,

ev'ry tongue confess him

King of glory now;

'tis the Father's pleasure

we should call him Lord,

who from the beginning

was the mighty Word.

3 Humbled for a season

to receive a name

from the lips of sinners

unto whom he came,

faithfully he bore it

spotless to the last,

brought it back victorious

when from death he passed;

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the tune, KING'S WESTON, for this text. The tune's title refers to a manor house on the Avon River near Bristol, England. For the opening voluntary, I am playing Michael's setting which presents the tune in a quieter vein, with moving, hovering chords in the left hand and a pizzicato bass line on the pedals, the melody is presented in segments. It reminds me of a journey, much like the one Christ endured while on earth. (see stanza three.)

The closing voluntary is much more dramatic  with a blazing perpetual motion in the manuals with the melody presented in the pedals. It is perfect for the last stanza

Christians, this Lord Jesus

shall return again

in his Father's glory,

with his angel train;

for all wreaths of empire

meet upon his brow,

and our hearts confess him

King of glory now.

Michael Burkhardt is presently is Artist-Professor of Organ at Eastern Michigan University, and Founder-Artistic Director of hearts, hands and voices Worship and Fine Arts Program for Children in Southeast Michigan. In addition, he is a prolific composer, writing for organ and choir.

O Jesus, King Most Wonderful

This is a new addition to our choir's library, written by the late composer David Hogan. David died much too young when he was flying back to France aboard TWA Flight 800 when it exploded off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board. At 47, Hogan was a serious composer of choral and theater music as well as an accomplished pianist, organist, tenor and teacher. His most conspicuous achievement in this country was his Festival Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, choral pieces composed for and performed at the consecration of Washington's National Cathedral in September 1990.

This piece was written for his church choir in San Francisco when he was living there. It is a setting of a hymn tune by the early American composer Joshua Leavitt. In 1831 he compiled and published The Christian Lyre, the first hymnal to print music (melody and bass) for every hymn. It is in this hymnal that we find this tune, named HIDING PLACE. 

I am not sure, but I would guess that David Hogan had a good men's section, but that they weren't adept at singing harmony, because in this setting of the tune, the men always sing the melody in unison while the sopranos and altos provide a counter-melody. (Apparently THEY could read music.)  Many early American hymn tunes are in a minor mode, and that is the case with HIDING PLACE. After the third stanza, he changes the tonality to a Major mode, and the anthem ends on a bright note.

Concerto in D Minor: Adagio

What we have here is Virgil Fox's arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement of a movement from a Violin concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. And what happens is a complete change in the tenor of the piece. What is originally a simple, light, transparent baroque adagio is turned into a sumptuous, poignant romantic aria. It is almost lugubrious. Here is a recording of the original. 

Video of the Vivaldi

Music for November 22, 2020 + Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• King of Glory, King of Peace – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950) 
• Jade Panares, Soprano

Instrumental Music

• Suite Gothique – Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)
• Introduction-Choral
• Menuet gothique
• Prière à Notre-Dame
• Toccata
• At the Name of Jesus – arr. Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)

Since the last Sunday of Pentecost (Advent begins next Sunday!) is called Christ the King Sunday, our solo and the communion voluntary are based on hymns which refers to Christ as King.

The text for the offertory solo is by George Herbert, a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England who was born on April 3, 1593 at Black Hall in Montgomery, Wales. His family on his father's side was one of the oldest and most powerful in Montgomeryshire, having settled there in the early 13th century and improving and consolidating its status by shrewd marriage settlements and continuous governmental service. 

George Herbert, 1593-1633

His father died when Herbert was three and a half years old so George's mother, Magdalen, who was by all accounts an extraordinary woman, moved the family first to Shropshire, then to Oxford, and then finally to a house at Charing Cross, London to facilitate the education of her ten children. George was tutored at home and then entered Westminster School, probably in 1604, a distinguished grammar school that not only grounded him in the study of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and music, but also introduced him to Lancelot Andrewes, one of the great churchmen and preachers of the time. From Westminster, Herbert went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609 and began one of the most important institutional affiliations of his life, one that lasted nearly 20 years.

Herbert wrote much of his poetry during his Cambridge years. He began, auspiciously enough, with a vow, made in a letter accompanying two sonnets sent to his mother as a New Year's gift in 1610, "that my poor Abilities in Poetry, shall be all, and ever consecrated to Gods glory." 

Herbert wrote poetry in English, Latin and Greek. Shortly before his death in 1633, he sent a literary manuscript to Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of a semi-monastic Anglican religious community at Little Gidding, reportedly telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul", otherwise to burn them. Later that year all of his English poems were published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. It was so popular that there were at least 11 editions of The Temple in the 17th century alone.

One of the poems which has become most loved is Praise, a seven stanza poem of 4 lines each, which contains the three stanzas which make up the text for today's solo. This hymn has been set to music by many composers. Today's solo, King of Glory, King of Peace,  was written by K. Lee Scott, an American composer born, raised, and still living in Alabama. Scott attended The University of Alabama School of Music, where he has since served as adjunct faculty as well as for Music departments or The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University. 

I am  delighted to have former choir member and staff singer Jade Panares sing for us this day. Jade is a graduate of Atascocita High School and the University of Houston School of Music.

The hymn At the Name of Jesus has been lovingly arranged by Lutheran organist Michael Burkhardt. Listen for an accompaniment that seems to hover above the melody which I will be playing on the oboe. We've put the text in the service leaflet so that you can read the words while listening (since we can't sing in church just yet!)

September 20, 2020 + The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Hear My Prayer – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Processional – William Mathias (1934-1992)
• Sunday Morning Fire - Jackson Berkey (b. 1942)
• Come, Labor On – Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “W” which are from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 660 - O Master, let me walk with thee (MARYTON)
• Song of Praise S-280 Glory to God – Robert Powell
• Sanctus W-858 (LAND OF REST)

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 is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with a degree in vocal performance. She'll be singing  part of Felix Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer, a miniature cantata with three distinct, contrasting movements. She will sing the first section, “Hear my prayer, O God.” Mendelssohn’s subtle changes of harmony and melody indicate alternating moments of optimism and loneliness. 

From The Musical Times, Feb. 1, 1891 by F. G. Edwards:

"Hear my Prayer" – "a trifle", as he modestly calls it – is one of Mendelssohn's most popular and widely-known choral works. It was written at the request of Mr. William Bartholomew for a series of Concerts given at Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street, in the "forties", by Miss Mounsey, who afterwards became Mrs. Bartholomew. The work was first performed at Crosby Hall on January 8, 1845, with Miss Mounsey at the organ, and was published in the same year by Messrs. Ewer and Co…

In 1843, William Bartholomew wrote to Mendelssohn requesting "one or two sacred solos with an organ accompaniment for some concerts we are to give at Crosby Hall, a renovated Gothic Structure which was once the palace of Richard the Third". The texts submitted were Judges 16: 23–31 (the ‘Death Prayer of Samson’) and a version of the opening of Psalm 55, which was accepted by Mendelssohn, and became Hear my prayer.

The first performance was in January of 1845, with Ann Mounsey playing the organ accompaniment on the new organ by Henry Cephas Lincoln, and the soprano solo by Elizabeth Rainforth, a well-known stage singer; according to a review of the performance published in Musical World, neither the soloist nor the chorus were ‘thoroughly at home’ and the new organ also met with little enthusiasm. The modern-day popularity of the work stems from the recording made in 1927 by boy soprano Ernest Lough which became EMI’s first million-selling classical recording.

Music for September 18, 2016 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• With a Voice of Singing – Martin Shaw (1874-1958)

Instrumental Music

• What Does the Lord Require? – arr. Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)
• Be Thou My Vision – arr. Jason Tonioli (contemporary)
• Now Thank We All Our God, BWV 657 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 390 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Lobe den Herren)
• Hymn 605 What does the Lord require (Sharpthorne)
• Hymn 408 Sing praise to God who reigns above (Mit Freuden Zart)
• Hymn 488 Be thou my vision (Slane)
• Hymn 475 God himself is with us (Tysk)
• Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8 Laudate, pueri – Tone IVe

Martin Shaw

The anthem was composed by Martin Shaw, eminent English church musician, in 1923 for the Annual Festival of Church Choirs held in London. It has become a universal favorite of church choirs in the 90 years hence.  The bold opening unison declaration gives way to imitative entrances by the individual choral sections. This pattern continues throughout the short work. Mr. Shaw adds a final flourish for the organ as the choir sustains the final “Alleluia.”

Martin Shaw was a composer, educator, arranger and campaigner for renewal and revival of English church music during the early part of the 20th Century. In a career which spanned both World Wars, he felt: very strongly that

the great purpose of music should be to aid the cause of Humanity, and that we should regard it, therefore, as being in its nature at least as much social as artistic.

Michael Burkhardt

Last week the choir sang the hymn What does the Lord require using the tune SHARPTHORNE by Erik Routley. I will be playing a prelude based on that tune before the service today written by one of my SMU classmates, Michael Burkhardt. Michael has gone on to even greater things, becoming a world-class composer, arranger, and performer of organ and choral works. He is currently Director of Worship and the Arts at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Livonia, Michigan, Director of Worship and the Arts for the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA, and Artistic Director of the Detroit Handbell Ensemble.  He has served on the faculty of Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, and Christ College Irvine, Irvine, CA, as well as Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, and Trinity Seminary, Columbus, OH, as Guest Lecturer in their Master of Sacred Music programs.

I'm playing this setting of the hymn to help familiarize the congregation with the tune so we may sing it with confidence later in the service. This hymn is one of the great hymns of the last part of the 20th century. “What Does the Lord Require?” was written in January 1949 by Albert Bayly, considered by many as a father of the Twentieth-Century Hymn Explosion. The hymn was based on the text from Micah 6:6-8 and was published along with 16 other hymns representing prophets from the Old Testament. The tune mostly associated with Bayly’s hymn is this one, SHARPTHORNE.

The text’s shortness and simplicity are by design. In an article “Writing Hymns for Our Times,” Bayly once wrote that “hymns may deal with the most profound ideas, but unless these are expressed in the simplest and clearest possible way they can be nothing but words to many of those who sing them.”

Jason Tonioli

Almost everybody loves the hymn tune Slane, which The Hymnal 1982 uses for the hymns Be Thou My Vision and Lord of All Hopefulness. I am playing a New Age piano arrangement at communion by the contemporary Mormon pianist Jason Tonioli. You can look him up on the internet if you would like to hear more New Age style arrangements of favorite, well-known hymn tunes.

The closing voluntary is Bach's setting Lobe den Herren, better known as Now Thank We All Our God. It is written in an imitative style, with the lower voices (alto line of the treble clef and the entire bass clef played by the left hand, with pedal part) forming sort of a fugal 'cloud' that the melody, played by the right hand on the trumpet stop, soars above. This is one of several treatments of this famous hymn that Bach composed during his church musician years. (He wasn't always a church musician. For a period of 6 years he was music director for the court at Köthen, where the prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period was secular.)