Music for May 22, 2016 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, whose love profound – Healey Willan (1888-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Come, Christians, Join to Sing (Madrid and Holy Manna) - Don Schlosser (21st C.)
• Reflections on "The Valley of Peace" - Albin C. Whitworth (b. 1938)
• Intermezzo - Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Praise! - Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941)

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 421 - All glory be to God on high (Allein Gott in der Hoh)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (Regent Square)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (Christus, der ist mein Leben)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (Glorify Your Name)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy  (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (Moscow)

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, where we focus on the mystery of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The choir will be singing a setting of the hymn Father of Heaven, whose love profound by the Canadian composer Healey Willan. With over 800 published compositions to his name, Willan is considered to be the dean of Canadian composers, even though he was born in England. He moved to Canada when he was 33 to become the organist-choirmaster of Toronto's largest church, St. Paul's, Bloor Street. In 1914 Willan was appointed Lecturer and Examiner in music at the University of Toronto. But it was his royalties as a church music composer which allowed him to leave "low church" St. Paul's in 1921 and to become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto. He remained there until his death. St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians.

All the other music today is from American composers of our time, with all but one still alive and working in church music. The opening voluntary is by Nashville composer Don Schlosser, Minister of Music at Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville. He has had a career in both music ministry and in the music publishing industry in Nashville. After 17 years as a full-time church choral director in three states, Schlosser worked for ten years for a local church-based publisher, producing music demos, and leading conferences. Don is also currently music director of Nashville in Harmony, Music City’s first and only chorus for LGBT persons and their straight allies. Don has written, arranged, and published choral music for adults, students, and children, as well as keyboard arrangements. Fluent in Spanish, he has also taught seminars and conducted choirs in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Costa Rica. Schlosser holds both a Bachelor of Arts in piano performance and a Master of Church Music in composition

The first communion voluntary is by Kentuckian Albin C. Whitworth is our Minister of Music & Worship/Organist.  Albin holds a B.A. and the D.C.M from Asbury University and a M.Ed. and Ed.S. from the University of Louisville.  For decades he was organist and choir director at the First United Methodist Church in Lexington, KY, leading a 100 voice choir from a massive pipe organ. Today he is organist at Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He and his wife, Katie, have two identical twin sons – Mark and Kent.  They also have 4 grandchildren – Tyler, Andrew, Mary Kathryn, and Margaret.  Albin and Katie enjoy traveling when they are not spending time with family and friends.

Many thanks to Jill Kirkonis for playing the organ this morning and Mac Jones for directing the choir in my absence. I am in Memphis for the wedding of my son, Paul, to Leigh Ann Battles. We covet your prayers for their joy and happiness!

Music for May 15, 2016 + Pentecost

Pentecost and Confirmation

Vocal Music

• Creator Spirit, by whose Aid - Carolyn Jennings (b. 1936)
• Come Thou, Holy Spirit, Opus 25, No. 10 – Pavel Tschesnokoff (1877-1944)

Instrumental Music

• Celebration and Grace – Michael Mazzatenta
• Deep River – Douglas E. Wagner
• Improvisation on Veni Creator Spiritus - Alfred V. Fedak

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (Salva festa dies)
• Hymn 513 - Like the murmur of the dove’s song (Bridegroom)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (Abbot’s Leigh)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (Iverson)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Traditional, Zimbabwe)
• Hymn R248 - Oh, let the Son of God enfold you (Spirit Song)
• Hymn 506 - Praise the Spirit in creation (Finnian)

I've always loved Pentecost, AKA: “Birthday of the Church” It's the Sunday fifty days after Easter ( Pentecost literally means “50”) that celebrates the day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, causing them to speak in tongues. (Here is a great article from PBS which is kind of a primer for Pentecost. Useful for explaining it to kids. Or Episcopalians.) The emphasis is on the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost. Another name for the Holy Spirit is Paraclete, which the choir has had a good time singing "parakeet" for "Paraclete." (And I don't mean the kids choirs, either.) Paraclete appears in the Gospel of John (14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7) where it may be translated into English as "counselor", "helper", encourager, advocate, or "comforter". The early church identified the Paraclete as the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,1:8,2:4,2:38).

Carolyn Jennings

You'll hear that word in the choral acclamation that the choir will sing both before and after the Gospel reading. It is sort of like a choral fanfare. The acclamation/fanfare was written by Carolyn Jennings, a retired professor of music from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she taught for many years and also served in administrative roles, including being Chair of the Music Department and Associate Dean for the Fine Arts. She also recently retired from St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield where she served as a church musician for over thirty years. Her husband, Kenneth Jennings, was also on the faculty of St. Olaf, directing the famed St. Olaf Choir.

The work starts off with trumpet fanfares which punctuate the choral setting of the hymn-text, "Creator Spirit, by whose aid," which is based on a ninth-century Latin hymn "Veni, Creator Spiritus."

The other choral offering is the communion anthem, Come Thou, Holy Spirit, by the Russian composer, Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov (Anglicized, Tschesnokoff). If you've ever sung in a college or university choir, you've sung his great anthem, Salvation Is Created. This anthem, originally titled Duh Tvoj blagi (or Let Thy Good Spirit) is along the same line. It is set for seven-part chorus a capella, beginning with a four part men's choir singing in alternation with three-part treble choir. After a brief section sung by the sopranos and altos alone, the opening is repeated, ending with quiet "Alleluias."

Pavel Chesnokov

Primarily a composer, Chesnokov composed over five hundred choral works. By the age of 30, he had completed nearly four hundred sacred choral works, but his proliferation of church music came to a standstill at the time of the Russian revolution. Under Stalin, no one was permitted to produce any form of sacred art. So in response, he composed an additional hundred secular works, and conducted secular choirs like the Moscow Academy Choir and the Bolshoi Theater Choir. In 1933, the Soviets destroyed the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Chesnokov had been the last choirmaster. This disturbed him so deeply that he stopped writing music altogether. Instead, he turned to writing, and in 1940 published, "Khor i upravlenie im" (The choir and how to direct it), which remains an encyclopedic handbook for Russian choral directors. 

You will also hear the last appearance of the Good Shepherd handbell Choir this Sunday, as they play the opening voluntary and the communion voluntary. The opening piece is in a Rondo form where the "Celebration" section -  a bright, lively, syncopated section -  forms the 'theme' of the piece which alternates with varying 'episodes' that contrast with the theme. That would be the "Grace" sections of this work. Listen for a quieter rhythm (not quite as perky) and the use of handchimes as well as the martellatto technique (rung on the table, producing a short, muffled sound). Celebration and Grace was composed by Michael Mazzatenta, an award-winning handbell composer who also performs as a concert organist, accompanist, and jazz pianist. He is an Adjunct Faculty member at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, AZ and Phoenix College, AZ. He resides with his wife Joan, also a musician, in Mesa, Arizona.

During Deep River, you'll hear our newest addition to the handbell ministry, our new octave of hand chimes which will give us three full octaves of chimes in addition to the five octaves of bells which we have. 

The closing voluntary is a little wild (much like the Holy Spirit herself!)  This improvisatory piece is from an oratorio by Alfred Fedak and Carl Daw. It begins with quick rolling, whole-tone scale patterns (depicting, I presume, the winds of the Spirit or perhaps the tongues of fire). This is followed by virtuosic, cadenza-like manual passages, interrupted by long held manual chords while each phrase of the ancient chant "Veni Creator Spiritus" (see the third paragraph above!) is played in the pedal. Each phrase takes an unexpected turn at the end, sending it to an unexpected resolution. It is NOT your usual organ postlude.

Music for the Sunday after Ascension Day + May 8, 2016

Vocal Music

• Communion Song – Barry McGuire (b. 1935), Mac Jones, arr. 
• The People that Walked in Darkness – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 557 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Bryn Calfaria: Lord, Enthroned In Heavenly Splendor – William Haller (b. 1940)

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

• Hymn 214 - Hail the day that sees him rise (Llanfair)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe)
• Hymn R58 - Alleluia, sing to Jesus! (Hyfrydol)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together (Let Us Break Bread)
• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name! (Coronation)

Barry McGuire,  late 1960s

Today's anthem is an acapella choral setting of one first from the contemporary Christian genre, arranged by one of our choir members, Mac Jones. "Communion Song" is by Barry McGuire, an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1965 hit song "Eve of Destruction." His fascinating story detailing his rise as a folk-rock artist to a pioneering singer and songwriter of contemporary Christian music can be found here on his web page.

The opening voluntary is from a volume that every beginning organist knows, owns, and plays, called Eight Little Preludes and Fugues (8 Kleine Präludien und Fugen) which may or may not have been written by Johann Sebastian Bach. People have debated his authorship for years, saying that, stylistically, it was not like any of Bach's other organ works. Some suggest they may be written by composed by one of Bach's pupils, possibly Johann Tobias Krebs or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs. Still others have suggested that the reason the compositional style of the Eight Little Preludes differ from Bach's other organ music is that this collection was conceived specifically for the pedal clavichord (a keyboard instrument similar to a very early piano), thereby making the stylistic claim of inauthenticity far less arguable.

Barry McGuire, today

Whatever the truth is, Bach scholar Philipp Spitta states that they bore the "stamp of commanding mastery."

Music for May 1, 2016 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

GOOD SHEPHERD SCHOOL SUNDAY
Music by the Day School Children

• Canon in D – Johann Pachelbel
• African American Rondo
• Song of Peace (Dona Nobis Pacem)
• Arise from 5 American Hymn Tunes

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

• Hymn 7 - Morning has broken, like the first morning (Bunessan)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise! (Lyons)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old their first fruits brought (Forest Green)
• Hymn R250 - O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder (O Store Gud)
• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (Lasst uns erfreuen)

This Sunday we will be celebrating education at Good Shepherd Church. Sunday School and our Preschool join forces to honor all of our amazing teachers. Included in this celebration will be music offered by the children of the Good Shepherd School under the direction of Karen Silva.  Not only will they be singing, but also performing instrumental music using percussion instruments, Orff instruments, and Boomwhackers. (You'll just have to come see and hear for yourself what a Boomwhacker is!)

Karen has done a great job with our dayschool kids. More than just having them match pitch and learn to keep a steady beat, she also introduces them to music history, musical form, musical instruments, musical genres - things that will help them appreciate music as they grow older. You'll be amazed at what these pre-school and kindergarten children can do!

Music for April 24, 2016 + The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• I Give You a New Commandment – Peter Nardone (b. 1965)
• The Call – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Adagio – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• Allegro marziale e ben marcato – Frank Bridge

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 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing (Gelobt sei Gott)
• Hymn R276 - Soon and very soon (Soon and Very Soon)
• Hymn 296 - We know that Christ is raised and dies no more (Engleberg)
• Hymn 576 - God is love and where true love is (Mandatum)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (Land of Rest)

Peter Nardone

The Gospel this week should be familiar - after all, we just heard it four weeks ago at Maundy Thursday. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." We sing this verse in an anthem by Scottish composer, organist, conductor, and singer Peter Nardone. In addition to being Organist & Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral, he is conductor of the Worcester Festival Choral Society and is Artistic Director of the Worcester Three Choirs Festival. In this anthem, an original melody for the Gospel text is juxtaposed with the ancient chant Ubi Caritas, pairing these two traditional Maundy Thursday texts. We are past Holy Week, obviously, but any Maundy Thursday text dealing with a new commandment would be super appropriate today. That is also why we are singing the hymn God is love and where true love is during communion this week. Heck, even the tune name of that hymn is super appropriate! ( Mandatum = mandate = commandment).

The communion solo is that beautiful, classic song, The Call, with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams based on a text by George Herbert.  Anyone who grew up with the hymnody of the Anglican Church will have grown up with George Herbert. ‘Let all the world in ev’ry corner sing’, ‘Teach me, my God and King’, ‘King of Glory, King of Peace’—these all helped to teach us, little though we might have been aware of it at the time, that good hymns could also be good verse. Vaughan Williams recognized this, and used five of Herbert's poems for his Five Mystical Songs, written in 1911 for the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester (see Peter Nardone, above!) The simple setting by Vaughan Williams reflects the hymnic stance and metre of the poem. It has, in fact, been used as a hymn in many modern hymnals, including ours. (see hymn 487).

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 April 10, 2016 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• A Song to the Lamb – Donald Pearson (b. 1953)
• Dona Nobis Pacem – traditional round

Instrumental Music

• Second Suite: Air – Jean Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)
• Premiere Suite: Rondeau – Jean Joseph Mouret

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 255 - We sing the glorious conquest before Damascus’ gate (Munich)
• Hymn R18 - Come, let us with our Lord arise (Sussex Carol)
• Hymn R202 - Sing alleluia to the Lord (Sing Alleluia)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (Paderborn)

Easter joy continues this Sunday with a festive anthem by Donald Pearson, Director of Music and Organist at St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Parish, Antioch, California. He had been Director of Music and Organist for the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Denver, Colorado for almost 25 years and had established a program of national and international prominence. It was for this choir that he wrote his setting of the canticle Dignus Est, which is based on the verses from Revelation that we will hear today in worship. Though written for congregational involvement, we are singing it as a choir anthem. Listen for the antiphon (refrain) which begins the piece and appears after every few verses. Handbells and finger cymbals give the anthem a truly festive touch.

Long-time fans of PBS's Masterpiece Theater will no doubt recognize the closing voluntary this Sunday. It is the theme song of that venerable series, often referred to as "Theme from Masterpiece Theatre." However, it's originally from one of the two Suites de symphonies (1729) by the French Baroque composer Jean Joseph Mouret. The first suite, renowned for its Masterpiece Theatre theme, is entitled "Fanfare for trumpets, timpani, violins, and oboes" and dedicated to the son of the Duchess of Maine, the Prince of Dombes.  The Second Suite contains the opening voluntary for this Sunday, a lyrical if unassuming piece simply entitled Air. Unlike the rich chords of the Rondeau, it is only in two parts, played on nothing but 8' and 2' flutes on contrasting manuals.

Mouret is an interesting subject. He had a career including vast popularity and a sudden fall from success. His father was a silk merchant and avid amateur violinist who saw to it that his son received complete instruction in music. Details of this education are unknown, but musical historians consider it likely that it occurred in the choir school of Notre Dame des Doms, an important regional church.

Mouret's family's wealth, his charm, and his lovely singing voice made him welcome in the best company. By 1707, he was in Paris, where he was appointed music master for the Marshall of Noailles. By 1709, he had the position of Director of music at the court of Sceaux. In 1714 to 1718, he was the orchestra director of the Paris Opéra and in 1717 he became director of the Italian Theater. In an age when Greek tragedies, pastoral romances, and historical operas were de rigeur, Mouret was bold enough to introduce comedy into his operas.

In 1718, he was given a royal privilege to publish music and in 1720 was appointed an ordinaire du Roy, as singer in the King's chamber. He was music director of the Concert Spirituel from 1728 to 1734. This appointment marked the beginning of the end of his great success, for the Concert Spirituel had financial and legal problems that affected him personally. In 1734, the troubled institution was taken over by the Académie Royale de Musique, which fired Mouret. In 1736, the Duke of Maine died and Mouret lost his position at Sceaux. In 1737, the Italian Theater had a change of policy that resulted in Mouret losing that job as well. Within four years, he had lost all sources of income and was essentially maintained as a charity case by the Prince of Carignan, who annually gave him a pension.

It is intriguing to note that George Frideric Handel went through periods of such reverses but was able to find a way to have a comeback. Mouret was not as fortunate or resilient; his spirit was progressively broken by all of these career misfortunes and in 1737, he began to go mad. Just after his 50th birthday, he was placed in the care of the Fathers of Charity at Charenton and died in that institution eight months later. (from the AllMusic.com biography by Joseph Stevenson.)