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 February 16, 2020 + The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Consideration – Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993)
• Amy Bogan, soloist
• Ave Verum Corpus – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare and Alleluia – Douglas E. Wagner
• The Good Shepherd Handbell Choir
• 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 594 - God of Grace and God of Glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Spiritual- I will trust in the Lord (Negro Spiritual)
• Hymn R 291 - Go forth for God; go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 119:1-8 – Mode VI

Every year February and its emphasis on Black History encourages me to actively look for music from African-American composers. We've done several works by David Hurd, who is arguably one of the leading musicians in the Episcopal Church today. We've also sung many spirituals which always garner thanks and praise from the congregation. I was delighted last fall when our soprano section leader, Amy Bogan, brought to my attention a little known piece by the man many acknowledge to be the father of gospel music, Thomas A. Dorsey

The Father of Gospel Music

Dorsey is arguably the most influential figure ever to impact Gospel Music. A versatile composer whose material shifted easily from energetic hard gospel to gossamer hymns, he penned many of the best-known songs in the gospel canon, among them "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley". The founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, he was also a pioneering force in the renowned Chicago gospel community, where he helped launch the careers of legends including Mahalia Jackson and Sallie Martin.

Early Years

Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, GA on July 1, 1899 and raised in the Atlanta area; there, in addition to the traditional hymns, he also absorbed early blues and jazz. A child prodigy, he taught himself a wide range of instruments, and was playing blues and ragtime while still in his teens; under the stage name Georgia Tom, he was a prolific composer, authoring witty, slightly racy blues songs like the underground hit "It's Tight Like That."

From Blues to Jesus

Thomas A. Dorsey
As a young man, and later in life

Dorsey settled in Chicago in 1918, where he briefly enrolled at the city's College of Composition and Arranging; within months of his arrival, he began playing with area jazz bands including Les Hite's Whispering Serenaders. Dorsey also formed his own group, the Wildcats Jazz Band, which traveled in support of Ma Rainey. He later collaborated in a duo with Tampa Red, but in 1928, after suffering his second nervous breakdown before the age of 30, he opted to retire from the music business. A two-year recovery period followed, during which time a minister convinced Dorsey to return to music, albeit to move from the blues to the church. His first attempt at writing a gospel song, 1921's "If I Don't Get There," had met with some success, and he now returned with a renewed sense of purpose, renouncing secular music to devote all of his talents to the church circuit. Initially, Dorsey met with little success -- forced to reject blues jobs and with no gospel offers forthcoming, he soon resorted to peddling song sheets to make a living.

Rising from Despair

Dorsey's luck appeared to be on the upswing by 1932, the year he organized one of the first gospel choirs at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church; his pianist, Roberta Martin, would in a few years emerge among the top talents on the church circuit. That same year, he also founded the first publishing house devoted exclusively to selling music by Black gospel composers. However, a few months later -- while traveling with Theodore R. Frye to organize a choir in St. Louis -- tragedy struck when Dorsey discovered that his wife had died while giving birth to their son, who died two days later. Devastated, Dorsey locked himself inside his music room for three straight days, emerging with a completed draft of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," a song whose popularity in the gospel community is rivaled perhaps only by "Amazing Grace."

Mozart pays a debt, we reap the reward

In his short adult life, Mozart always seemed to have money trouble, often writing music as a way to get out of a debt. Today's anthem,  Ave verum corpus,  is a work that Mozart composed in the final year of his life as a payment to a friend. Anton Stoll was a chorus master at a small church in Baden and had often helped Mozart by making travel arrangements for his wife, Constanze. Despite having his money worries, Mozart still liked to make sure his wife had her restorative periods at Baden.

Simple yet Sublime

Writing very simply, Mozart was perhaps conscious of the limitations of a small-town choir, although, as the Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel once said of the work, it is ‘too simple for children, and too difficult for adults’. It was written to be performed on the Feast of Corpus Christi and contains the words sotto voce (meaning ‘subdued’) in Mozart’s hand on the score.

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 March 3, 2019 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, the Glory – Jean-François Lallouette (1651-1728)
• Alleluia, Song of Gladness – plainsong arr. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugato on “Crusader’s Hymn” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Prière – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019)
• 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 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (Daniel Iverson)
• Hymn R102 - The Lord is my light (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R291 - Go forth for God, go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 99 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

The Last Sunday after Epiphany, which observes the Transfiguration of Christ, is like one big final "Hurrah" before we enter the quiet, contemplative season of Lent (Ash Wednesday is March 6.) The Gospel tells of the time Christ reveals his true Glory upon the mountain just before his own passion begins. We remember that glory this Sunday.

We also say "farewell" to our alleluias. The liturgy of the medieval church forbade the use of alleluias from a period before Lent until Easter, a practice which we observe in our own Lenten discipline. Therefore, this Sunday the choir will sing a hymn with roots from the medieval church and tune from the 16th century which is often called “Farewell to Alleluia.” Here is a beautiful meditation on this hymn from the Lutheran blogger Marie Greenway

My communion voluntary is a quiet piece by the English organist Noel Rawsthorne, who died in January at the age of 89. Rawsthorne was Organist of Liverpool Cathedral for twenty-five years from 1955-1980 before becoming Organist Emeritus. After study at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now The Royal Northern College of Music), he won scholarships to study with on the continent with both Fernando Germani & Marcel Dupré. 

From 1980-1984 he was City Organist & Artistic Director at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, and travelled widely as a recitalist in U.K. Europe and USSR. In recognition of his many achievements, he was awarded a D.Mus from the University of Liverpool in 1994.

Music for April 17, 2016 + The Fourth Sunday of Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday

Vocal Music

• I Will Sing New Songs – Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
• The Lamb – John Tavener (1944-2013)

Instrumental Music

• A Chorale Prelude on "St. Columba" Op. 14 - Robin Milford (1903-1959) 
• Chorale – William Mathias (1934-1992)
• Jesus, Meine Zuversicht – Anton Wilhelm Leupold (1867-1940)

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

• Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy name (Grosser Gott)
• Hymn 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing (Gelobt sei Gott)
• Hymn 286 - Who are these like stars appearing? (Zeuch mich, zeuch mich)
• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (Old 100th)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (St. Agnes)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (Sicilian Mariners)

William Blake

This Sunday (The Fourth Sunday of Easter) is often called Good Shepherd Sunday for it always includes a Gospel Reading about Jesus, our Shepherd, as well as the beloved 23rd Psalm. This year, instead of an anthem based on the 23rd Psalm or one that directly refers to Jesus as Shepherd, I decided to go with an anthem setting of a poem by William Blake, the 19th century British poet and painter. He was an unusually sensitive boy, who began seeing visions at an early age. He was 10 when he allegedly saw the prophet Ezekiel under a tree and had a vision of "a tree filled with angels." Blake's visions would have a lasting effect on the art and writings that he produced. He was also heavily influenced by the Bible, and it would remain a lifetime source of inspiration, coloring his life and works with intense spirituality. The poem, "The Lamb," for instance, is based on his conception of God. In "The Lamb" Blake makes the traditional association between a lamb and the "Lamb of God," Christ:

For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild;
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb.

The poet sees God in terms a child  can understand. God is gentle and kind and very much like us. The close association between the "I," "child," and "lamb" suggests that all men share in the same spiritual brotherhood.

John Tavener

John Tavener, 20th century English composer who died in 2013 at age 69, used The Lamb in 1982 for the choral piece we wrote for his then 3-year old nephew, Simon. It was composed using only seven notes during a car ride from South Devon to London. “It came to me fully grown so to speak, so all I had to do was to write it down,”said Tavener. The Lamb has become a classic in its own time, and is recorded on over 37 different CDs. Blake's child-like vision perhaps explains The Lamb's great popularity in a world that is starved of this precious and sacred dimension in almost every aspect of life.

The communion voluntary is a simple, quiet piece by the composer of the Sanctus we sing every Sunday in Eastertide. William Mathias wrote Chorale during Eastertide fifty years ago, in 1966. It still sounds fresh and meditative.

Notes on a few of the hymns
It's easy to see why hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless and hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us are part of our hymn line up, as they specifically speak to Jesus as our shepherd. Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell is not as obvious. It is a poetic setting of Psalm 100, which of course has the line "we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture." In regards to Good Shepherd Sunday, hymn 286 - Who are these like stars appearing? is a little harder to figure out. It follows the reading from Revelation 7:9-17, and speaks directly to stanzas 13-16. The original hymn included one more stanza which would have made it perfect for Good Shepherd Sunday (and captures verse 17 from the Revelation passage):

Lo, the Lamb Himself now feeds them
On Mount Zion's pastures fair;
From His central throne He leads them
By the living fountains there;
Lamb and Shepherd, Good Supreme,
Free He gives the cooling stream.

Music For February 15, 2015 + The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• A Little Jazz Mass – Bob Chilcott (b. 1955)
• Be Thou My Vision – Bob Chilcott
• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – arr. Harry T. Burleigh (Richard Murray, baritone)

Instrumental Music

• Lotus – Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967), arr. Alec Wyton (1921-2007)
• Come Sunday – Duke Ellington (1899-1974), arr. Craig Curry (21st c.)
• 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 R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (SHINE, JESUS, SHINE)

"Every Man Prays In His Own Language" - Duke Ellington

It has been said that jazz is truly the most American of musical idioms. What originated in African American communities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries has spread throughout the world and over the years, evolving into a musical style that is as varied and hard to define as the Christian religion. This Sunday we will pray in the language of jazz, using a mass setting by an Englishman in the jazz idiom, and a couple of works by bona fide jazz musicians.

A Little Jazz Mass

First, let's talk about the jazz mass. The mass and the offertory anthem were written by Bob Chilcott, a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England. He started his music career as a boy, singing in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, then continuing as a university student.  In 1985 he joined the King's Singers, singing tenor for 12 years. He has been a composer since 1997.

Chilcott has always loved jazz. At the beginning of his composing career, he worked as an arranger for the BBC Radio Orchestra and, while a member of the King's Singers, performed with artists such as George Shearing, Richard Rodney Bennett, John Dankworth, Art Farmer and the WDR Big Band. These experiences and influences have had a major impact on the music he composes.

Chilcott's jazz influences truly come to the fore in A Little Jazz Mass: The Kyrie has real groove, the Gloria echos a 1960s Star Trek soundtrack, the Sanctus and Benedictus utilize "improvised" lines in the soprano parts, and the Agnus Dei draws inspiration from the Blues. The voices are underpinned by a characterful piano accompaniment which gives the flavor of an authentic improvising jazz pianist. (Of which Jackson is not!)

This highly effective setting of the Latin Missa brevis is one of Chilcott's most celebrated and popular choral works to date, and has received countless performances (both on the concert platform and as part of the sung liturgy in church services) across the world, perhaps most notably at St Paul's Cathedral, London.

A Little Jazz Mass was written for the massed choirs of the 2004 Crescent City Choral Festival, and received its premiere in St Louis Cathedral, New Orleans in June of that year.

Lotus and Come Sunday

Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington was an originator of Big Band Jazz in the 1930s. Born in Washington, D.C., he began taking piano lessons at 7, and started his own band in his 20s. He hit the top during the Forties with songs such as "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Solitude," and "Satin Doll."

Billy Strayhorn was a classically trained musician who joined the Duke Ellington organization in 1939. He'd written "Take the A Train" for Duke, who found it so thoroughly "Dukish" that he hired "Strays" on the spot. He was able to ease Ellington's burden as a composer and contribute many ideas, especially in harmony. The Strayhorn collaboration launched a productive recording period, regarded by many scholars to be the most significant and creative phase of Ellington's career. Strayhorn's training in long-form music became central to the orchestra. Together, the two composers teamed to write longer, more complex suites such as “Black, Brown and Beige,” an unprecedented 43-minute jazz work, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1943.

When Strayhorn  died of esophageal cancer in 1967, a devastated Ellington went into the studio to record a memorial album, And His  Mother Called Him Bill. When the session was over, Ellington went back to the piano. As he sat there alone, he began to play "Lotus Blossom," a tune that Strayhorn wrote in the 1940s. The recording equipment was still on as he played. Two of his band members quietly unpacked their instruments and sat in with Ellington on the second chorus. This became the last track on the album.

The inspiration for the song may have come from a place important to Strayhorn long before he wrote the song. Perhaps as an escape from his alcoholic father, Strayhorn spent a great deal of time in his grandmother's garden, which may have inspired "Lotus Blossom. Fittingly, when Ellington died in 1974, Alec Wyton reworked the song for the organ and he played it at Ellington's funeral at St. John the Divine in New York. It is that version that will open our service.

In the last decade of his life, Duke Ellington turned his attention to sacred music. In October 1962, the Reverend John S. Yaryan approached Ellington about performing at the new Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The cathedral was due to open in three to four years and all sorts of cultural events were to occur there in its first year. Ellington got to work, writing the music for the first concert, which premiered on September 16, 1965. One of those numbers was the song, "Come Sunday," which Jackson will play during communion.

The hymns for this Sunday reflect the readings for the last Sunday after the Epiphany.

Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL) This contemporary hymn, by the English composer/piano teacher David J. Evans, has made its way into nine hymnals since its publication in 1986. I chose it for this Sunday because its second stanza describes what the Apostles must have felt at the Transfiguration. (Mark 9:2-10)

Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) Another hymn about the glory of Christ, written by the great hymn writer Charles Wesley. This text was published in Hymns and Sacred Poems, compiled in 1740 by Wesley and his brother John. James Montgomery called it "one of Charles Wesley's loveliest progeny.”

Lord, the light of your love is shining (SHINE, JESUS, SHINE) A year after our opening hymn was first published, English hymn writer Graham Kendrick published this hymn which is now in over 17 hymnals. I like to use it in conjunction with the Mark 9 Transfiguration reading for it's imagery of light and glory. 

As we gaze on your kingly brightness,
So our faces display your likeness,
ever changing from glory to glory.
Mirrored here, may our lives tell your story.