Music for May 21, 2023 + Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shepherd (1949 – 2021)
• I Will Not Leave You Comfortless – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père – Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Sonata in G Major: Adagio – Josef Hector Fiocco (1703-1741)
• Prelude on "Deo Gracias" – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

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 215 See the Conqueror mounts in triumph (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 450 All hail the power of Jesus’ name! (CORONATION)
• Hymn R37 Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! sing to Jesus! (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 68 – tone VIIc

Ascension Day commemorates the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Happening 40 days after Easter, on a Thursday, it is one of the ecumenical feasts of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of Easter and Pentecost.

We don't hold a separate service on Ascension Day, but we do acknowledge it on the Sunday after the Ascension with hymns and readings. The first reading from Acts is the story of Christ's departure. 

Prière du Christ montant vers son Père

Olivier Messiaen

French-Belgian composer Olivier Messiaen wrote an orchestral suite called L'Ascension in 1932-1933. The composer described the work as Four Symphonic Meditations and the sections are; 1) Majesty of Christ praying that His Father should glorify Him, 2) Serene Alleluias from a soul longing for Heaven, 3) Alleluia on the Trumpet, Alleluia on the Cymbal, and 4) Prayer of Christ ascending towards His Father. Messiaen arranged the suite for solo organ a year later. 

Our opening voluntary is that last movement, Prayer of Christ ascending to the Father. The subtitle is the words found in today's Gospel reading:

I have manifested Thy name unto men… And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. - John 17:6, 11

Messiaen is known for his unique composition style. Incorporating complex rhythms, harmony and melodies, Prière du Christ montant vers son Père is no exception to the composer's popular, distinctive style.  The extremely languorous tempo of the movement sustains the intense religious character of this work.

The Seven Joys of Mary

The Seven Joys of Mary is a traditional carol that tells of Mary’s joy at different points in Jesus’s life, probably inspired by the trope of the Seven Joys of the Virgin in the devotional literature and art of Medieval Europe. Though oft now heard in Lessons and Carol Services in December, it was not traditionally associated with the Christmas season. 

I chose to schedule it on this day because it ends with this stanza:

The next good joy that Mary had,

It was the joy of seven;

To see her own son, Jesus Christ

To wear the crown of heaven:

We believe Jesus now reigns in heaven, "that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with [God] and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting." (Collect for Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day, BCP p. 226)

I Will Not Leave You Comfortless.

This short motet from the pen of American organist, composer, and church musician Everett Titcomb.

His music was very popular within the Anglican church, particularly the Episcopal Church, in the first half of the 20th century.

A product of New England, Titcomb's association with church music and the Anglican faith began as a child. Although his family was associated with the Unitarians, Everett was brought into the Episcopal church very early. Through the pervasive influence of a neighbor, he joined the boy choir of St. James' Episcopal Church in Amesbury at the age of nine. Singing in the boy choir was a part of his musical education until a changing voice led him in a new direction, playing the organ for Sunday School.

By the time he was fourteen, he had become parish organist at St. James'.

After high school he began working at at the Church of the Messiah in Auburndale, a suburb of Boston. After seven years in Auburndale, Titcomb knew he needed a change and by the fall of 1909 he had

accepted an appointment at Christ Church, Andover, Massachusetts. He moved to a new apartment which was also near  the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boston, and in 1910 he was hired as organist-choir master at the church. Titcomb would serve this parish for fifty years, and this little church would become within two decades a leader in the United States in the revival of plainsong and of Renaissance polyphony.

The motet is an ABA form and opens quietly with the tenor section chanting the theme that is immediately taken up by the rest of the choir entering on a G minor chord to establish the key. The first section is set in a syllabic, chordal style while the florid B section consist of an imitative setting of the word “alleluia.” This florid style is typical for hallelujahs going back to the medieval plain chant settings. The Basses sing the plain chant tune Veni Creator Spiritus while the rest of the choir sings alleluias.

Everett Titcomb

I will not leave you comfortless made Titcomb well known in Anglican circles of the English-speaking world. The motet was chosen for performance at the Crystal Palace in London at the annual choir festival in 1936, where it was sung by a choir of 4000 members. The event marked the first time that a work by an American composer had been chosen for one of those festivals. 

Interesting note: Messiaen's Prière du Christ montant vers son Père and Titcomb's I Will Not Leave You were both written within two years of each other, but while Messiaen pushes the norms of harmony, rhythm and form, Titcomb reaches back to the music of the Renaissance. Both are still very much a part of sacred repertoire today.

NOEL! Music for Christmas 2022

December 24 4 PM – Family Service with the Coventry Choir

Vocal Music

• Christmas Bells Are Ringing – IsaBeall Hudson
• Alleluia! Emmanuel - Joanne LeDoux and Milton LeDoux
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 99 - Go Tell it on the mountain (GO TELL IT)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)

6:30 PM – Choral Eucharist with the Good Shepherd Choir

Vocal Music

• Run, Ye Shepherds – Michael Haydn
• There Is No Rose – Graham Ellis
• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shephard
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - 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, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 79- O little town of Bethlehem (St. LOUIS)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

Christmas Day - 10 AM

Vocal Music

• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Johnny Marks
• Bruce Bailey, Baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 105 - God rest ye merry, gentlemen (GOD REST YE MERRY)
• Hymn 101- Away in a Manger (CRADLE SONG)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

Christmas Eve, 6:30

Vocal Music

• Ding Dong Merrily on High – Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• On Christmas Night – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
• Infant Holy, Infant Lowly – arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)
• Christmas Mass for St. William’s – Richard Shephard (1949-2021)
• Psalm 96 (based on "Vom Himmel Hoch") – Thomas Pavlechko (b. 1962)

Instrumental Music

• Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her– Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• In the Bleak Midwinter – Allen Orton Gibbs (1910-1996)
• Festive Flourish On 'Joy To The World' – Michael Dell (b. 1959)

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

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! The herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 101 - Away in a Manger (CRADLE SONG)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world (ANTIOCH)

This has been a tough year for the choir, rebuilding from the year of no rehearsals. We've lost people to sickness, retirement, or refusal to vaccinate. So the choir anthems are familiar carols from years past. New to us this year is a setting of the ordinary of the mass (Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) which is based on traditional but lesser known carols. (Besançon; Sussex Carol; Joseph Dearest; This Endris Night). 

Christmas Mass for St. William's was written by English composer Richard Shephard, who died this year. He is acclaimed as one of the most significant composers of church music today. Dr. Shephard was educated at The King’s School, Gloucester and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His anthems and service settings are sung widely in the cathedrals and churches of the UK and they have a considerable following in the USA. He held the Lambeth Doctorate of Music from Oxford University and two Honorary Doctorates from the University of the South (Sewanee, TN) and the University of York (York, UK).

Like the choral music, the organ works are all based on Christmas hymns. The first is based on a traditional German Chorale (text by Martin Luther) arranged by Johann Pachelbel of the Canon fame. It has two settings, actually. The first is a trio, with the pedal carrying the melody. The second begins as a fughetta, using the opening phrase of the hymn as its subject. It then turns into a brilliant toccata, again with the melody in the pedal.

The second organ prelude is on the tune Cranham by Gustav Holst. It is by Alabama composer Allen Orton Gibbs. She was a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory of Music (now the Music Department of Birmingham-Southern College), where she later became a member of the faculty. An organist and pianist, for many years she was organist at McCoy United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Her compositions include works in a variety of genres: choral anthems, organ works, vocal solos, hymn tunes, and music for handbells. Most of her compositions were written for her own use, or for friends and colleagues, or to fulfill commissions. Since her death in 1996, many of these have been published.

The closing voluntary is one of my favorite Christmas works for organ. Micahel Dell used Henri Mulet's toccata Tu Es Petra (Thou art the Rock) as an outline for his flourish on "Joy to the World." The melody can be heard as a canon, alternating between the hands and the feet

Music for January 7, 2018 + The First Sunday after the Epiphany

The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• The Holly and the Ivy – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• When Jesus Went to Jordan’s Stream – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• O Lamb of God, Most Holy – Johann Pachelbel
• Toccata in C – Johann Pachelbel

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

• Hymn 398 - I sing the almighty power of God (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TON-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R248 - O let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 616 - Hail to the Lord’s anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINES WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Psalm 29  Afferte Domino – Tone Vc, antiphon by James E. Barrett

This Sunday we remember the Baptism of Christ. The first Sunday after the Epiphany is always focused on Christ's baptism, and often we include an anthem setting of "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" which we may have just sung at Christmas. But this year we are serving up another Christmas left-over, the old English Carol "The Holly and the Ivy." The carol itself is a curiosity, for what is particularly sacred about Holly and Ivy? What is inherently Christmas about the two, either, other than the hardiness of the evergreen? In any case, we are singing it on this first Sunday of the new year, relishing in the reminder that " Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ To be our sweet Saviour."  (An interesting article about this carol is found on the gardening website TheSpruce.com. You can read it here.

The organ music is much more connected to the day's readings. The main Lutheran chorale dealing with the Baptism of Christ is the old hymn CHRIST UNSER HERR ZUM JORDAN KAM, which is found in our hymnal at number 139, albeit to a new translation of the text originally by Martin Luther. Both J. S. Bach and Dietrich Buxtehude wrote beautiful organ settings of the chorale, but today I am playing one by Johann Pachelbel, the greatest organist of the South German organ school of the baroque period. (Both Bach and Buxtehude were North German.) The melody of this setting is in the pedal, played on an 8' trumpet stop.

The communion voluntary is Pachelbel's setting of the Lenten chorale O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (Lamb of God, Most Holy). Why would I schedule a Lenten piece for the first Sunday of January? Because in the Gospel of John, John the Baptist declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" when he saw Jesus walking toward him.

This short setting of the chorale is in the form of a fughetta. Did you fughetta 'bout fughettas? I wrote about them in my Christmas post. (Fughetta: a short fugue that has the same characteristics as a fugue. Often the contrapuntal writing is not strict, and the setting less formal.) Just be glad there is no test.

Music for Christmas 2017

December 24 + The Eve of the Nativity + Family Service at 4 PM

Vocal Music – Kristen Herztenberg Satterwhite, soloist

• Ave Maria – Bach/Gounod
• O Holy Night – Adolphe Adam

Instrumental Music

• Noel X - Grand Jeu Et Duo* - Louis-Claude Daquin
• Glory to the Newborn King, Music for Bells and Organ – arr. Anna Laura Page
• Fughetta on “Antioch” – Richard Shephard

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O Come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 101 - Away in a manger (TUNE)
• Hymn 111 - Silent Night (STILLE NACHT)

December 24 + The Eve of the Nativity + Choral Eucharist 6:30 and 10 PM

Vocal Music

• The Holly and the Ivy - Richard Shephard
• Mass for the Nativity - Richard Shephard
• The Great God of Heaven- Richard Shephard
• I Wonder As I Wander - Richard Shephard
• Ave Maria – Luigi Cherubini, Allison Gosney, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Noel X - Grand Jeu Et Duo* - Louis-Claude Daquin
• Fughetta on “Antioch” – Richard Shephard

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

Hymn 83 - O Come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
Hymn 115 - What child is this (GREENSLEEVES)
Hymn 89 - It came upon a midnight clear (CAROL)
Hymn 100 - Joy to the world, the Lord is come (ANTIOCH)
Psalm 96 :1-4, 6-9  Cantate Domino  

December 25th + Christmas Day + Eucharist 10:00 AM

Instrumental Music

• In the Bleak Midwinter – Allen Orton Gibbs
• The First Noel – Jim Brickman
• Star Carol/Some Children See Him – Alfred Burt, arr. Mark Hayes
• Fughetta on “Antioch” – Richard Shephard

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 102 - Once in royal David’s city (IRBY)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world  (ANTIOCH)

Kristen Hertzenberg Satterwhite
soloist for 4 PM service

Soloist for the 4 PM service will be Kristen Hertzenberg Satterwhite, Kingwood native and daughter-in-law of our beloved Satterwhites. Best known for her role as Christine in the Las Vegas production of The Phantom of the Opera, Kristen Hertzenberg has proven her ability to sing anything in her concerts, performing music ranging from opera to Broadway to blues. In 2014, Nevada Public Radio-affiliated Desert Companion magazine named her Best Torch Singer in Las Vegas, describing her voice as "a dynamic instrument that goes from gritty blues to angelic peal at the drop of a Julie London record sleeve."

Raised in the Houston area, Hertzenberg studied at UT Austin and earned a master's degree in opera at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She also studied at the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria and was a first place winner in the National Opera Association competition. After touring Europe in the musical Hair, she moved to Las Vegas for Phantom where she spent five years in her dream role. She has also played Sophie in Terrence McNally's Master Class, Heidi in [title of show], and most recently starred as Dyanne in the Las Vegas production of the Tony award winning musical Million Dollar Quartet. Read more about her at her website, www.kristenhertzenberg.com.

Richard Shephard

Composer for most of the Choral music at the late services is Englishman Richard Shephard. Shephard (b. 1949) was educated at The King’s School, Gloucester and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is Chamberlain of Yorkminster, head of their development department, and Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Music Department of the University of York. His compositions include operas, oratorios and orchestral works but it is perhaps for his church music that he is best known. His anthems and service settings are sung widely in the cathedrals and churches of the UK and they have a considerable following in the USA. He holds the Lambeth Doctorate of Music from Oxford University and two Honorary Doctorates from the University of the South (Sewanee, TN) and the University of York (York, UK).

The service music (Gloria, Sanctus, and Fraction anthem) are taken from his Mass for the Nativity. Sung in Latin, it has been used at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass in York Minster, St. Thomas Church in New York City, and broadcast on BBC 4. This is a liturgical choral mass based on traditional carols (Bohemian, French, Basque, Spanish, German, English and Italian) for Choir and Organ.

The closing voluntary is his Fughetta on "Antioch" (Joy to the World). What the heck is a fughetta, you might be asking? I looked it up. Fughetta: a short fugue that has the same characteristics as a fugue. Often the contrapuntal writing is not strict, and the setting less formal. So there you have it! This is a mini-fugue for organ on "Joy to the World," though the very beginning sounds more like the German carol, While By My Sheep (How Great Our Joy!). Once the pedal comes in, though, there is no mistaking the familiar hymn.

* Bon Joseph, écoutez-moi (Good Joseph, Listen to Me)

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

10:15 Morning Service

Vocal Music

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

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

• Hymn 154 - All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 480 - When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn R235 - O sacred head, now wounded (PASSION CHORALE)
• Hymn R214 - Your only Son no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 474 - When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

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

Vocal Music

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

Instrumental Music

• Wondrous Love - arr. Sondra Tucker

Congregational Music

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

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

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

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

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

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

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