Music for September 4, 2016 + The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• When Jesus Wept – William Billings (1746-1800), arr. by A. F. Schultz (b. 1942)

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy in C Major: Poco Lento - César Franck (1822-1890)
• Fantasy in C Major: Adagio - César Franck
• God of Grace and God of Glory - Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (Laast uns erfreuen)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (Bourbon)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be (Hollingside)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Indian Folk melody)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (Cwm Rhondda)
• Psalm 1 - Beatus vir qui non abiit (Tone V)

The musical term of today is Canon (as in Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.) The Oxford Dictionary defines canon as

 A piece in which the same melody is begun in different parts successively, so that the imitations overlap.

A piece of music in canon is written with different parts successively beginning the same melody. 

Today we have two musical selections which use this form. One is a true canon, the other includes a section in canon. First the canon.

William Billings -
an incredibly flattering portrait
of the early American composer.

Those keen on Bible Trivia know that "Jesus Wept" is the shortest verse in the King James Version of the Bible. (Can you cite chapter and verse? Answer below.) Something so short and simple requires a short, simple and elegant musical setting. William Billings - the first American Master Musician from Revolutionary War days - presents us with this short canon based on this scripture. Now, even the music of Taizé would require more words than just the two syllables of Jesus Wept, so Billings added his own text to give us 16 bars of what John Lienhardt of the University of Houston called "one of the most exquisite short canons we've ever heard." (Read his highly entertaining and informative piece about Billings here.)

The setting we are singing today presents the original text along with two verses from the hymn which we sing this Sunday as the Gospel hymn, Take Up Your Cross. We sing the second verse as a two-part canon, trebles followed by the tenors and basses. This is an arrangement by Alan Schultz, American organist, composer and conductor who is also past conductor and music director of The Southern Arizona Symphony and the Tucson Masterworks Chorale

Both the opening voluntary and the communion voluntary are excerpts from a large-scale organ work by the Belgian/French composer César Franck. The work, the Fantasy in C Major, is in three large parts separated by short transitional passages. I'm playing the first section, Poco Lento, for the opening and the last section, Adagio, for communion. It is in the opening voluntary that we find the other canon in today's music.

This selection is itself in three parts. The opening theme (or melody) is presented on the swell manual alone using all the 8' stops (save the trumpet stop). Then the pedal introduces a secondary theme which is echoed two measures later by the left hand (the canon). After the full exposition of the secondary theme, this theme is again presented but with the addition of a counter-melody in the right hand over the canon between the pedal and the left hand. At the end of this section, the original theme reappears with a fuller sound including the trumpet and the pedals.

The service ends with a congregational favorite, Paul Manz's improvisation on the equally loved Welsh hymn-tune, Cwm Rhondda. I think people like it because the opening bars of the piece sound like the opening phrase of the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. Whatever the reason, it's a great way to leave the service!

* John 11:35 - Jesus Wept.

Music for August 31, 2014 + The 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

When Jesus Wept – William Billings (1746-1800), arr. A. F. Schultz (b. 1942)

 Instrumental Music

Voluntary         If thou But Trust in God to Guide Thee – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Piano                Hymne – Vangelis (b. 1943)

Voluntary         Trumpet Prelude – Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)

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

Hymn 401        The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)

Hymn 421        All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOHE)

Hymn 635        If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN)

Hymn              I have decided to follow Jesus (Indian folk song)

Hymn R 226    Ubi caritas et amor (Taizé)

Hymn 450        All hail the power of Jesus’ name (coronation)

Psalm 26:1-8 - mode IV

The tune for the anthem today is a “fuguing tune,” or round, by the first American to achieve lasting fame and respect as a composer. William Billings of Boston, Massachusetts was born on October 7, 1746 with vision in only one eye and uneven legs. He started music lessons as a young boy with a local choirmaster, and by the late 1760’s had become America’s first professional composer. A leather tanner by trade, Billings began teaching a singing class in Stoughton, Massachusetts, which would later become the Stoughton Musical Society (America’s oldest music society and first singing school). He organized the first church choir in America. In 1770, Billings made history with the publication of the first hymnal in America, The New England Psalm Singer, which included this melody, When Jesus Wept.

Alan F. Schultz arranged the anthem, beginning with the entire choir singing the tune in unison, using the original text by Billings based on John 11:35. He then includes two stanzas of the hymn Take up thy cross, the Savior said, the first stanza being sung in canon, and the third stanza being sung in unison with a grand organ accompaniment. Schultz was for many years conductor and music director of The Southern Arizona Symphony and the Tucson Masterworks Chorale, as well as organist/choir master of St. Michael’s Episcopal in Tuscon. 

The opening voluntary is was originally an improvisation for organ on hymn 635, If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN),  by the Lutheran organist Paul Manz. Typical of his improvisational style, he begins with a ritornello, a section that is repeated throughout the piece, “returning” again and again as the name ritornello (Italian for return) would suggest. The ritornello uses a fragment of the opening of the German Chorale-tune as its basis, played by two different flute stops (sounds) on the organ, before playing a four-part setting of the hymn on the string stops of another manual.

The communion voluntary is a piano piece by the Greek composer of electronic orchestral music, Vangelis. Born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, he is best known for his Academy Award–winning score for the film Chariots of Fire. This is a simple, meditative melody in three quarter time.