Music for January 11, 2015 + The First Sunday after Pentecost

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• The Blessed Son of God (from Hodie) - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Christ, Our Lord, to the Jordan Came – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Canzonetta – Dietrich Buxtehude 
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 339 - Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 29 - Simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome J. Meachem

This week we remember Christ's own baptism. One of the questions I have always had about this is if John baptized for repentance for sins, what did Jesus have to repent?  Why did he get baptized? I think it was part of Christ's way of being one of us. 

It was with that in mind that I chose today's anthem, The Blessed Son of God, from Ralph Vaughan Williams's last large work, Hodie. This was the fifth movement of that Christmas cantata, and is much simpler in form and performance forces than the rest of the work. Vaughan Williams employed a poem by Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), the English translator of the Bible, who had translated this poem previously penned by Martin Luther, "Gelobet seist du." The poem has seven stanzas, of which Vaughan Williams used three, each ending with the traditional Latin "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"). 

Ralph Vaughan Williams,
around the time of the composition of "Hodie"

What developed was a quiet, slow, unaccompanied choral: The blessed son of God only In a crib full poor did lie; humble, gentle, unassuming and as plain as music can be, it is the most completely anonymous tune Vaughan Williams ever composed, without any harmonies or musical phrase to give his identity away. The harmony is of the simplest hymnal kind. When you first hear it it seems almost too ordinary, but after some time it reveals itself as the most precious jewel in the whole of this splendid cantata. Time stands still and one listens to it with the breath held. 

The theme of the poem is God's mercy brought by the Christ child, who would exchange his swaddling cloth with our own fleshly sins so we could fully receive that mercy. According to Coverdale, Jesus came to earth to make himself one of us, so that, "we might live eternally" Along with this living sacrifice, Christ's gifts of munificence and mercy are also extolled in the poem Miles Coverdale wrote.

The blessed son of God only
In a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood
Was clothed that everlasting good.
Kyrieleison.

The Lord Christ Jesu, God's son dear,
Was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery,
That we might live eternally.
Kyrieleison.

All this did he for us freely,
For to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore,
And give him thanks for evermore.
Kyrieleison.

The organ music is a setting of an old Lutheran Chorale for Christ's Baptism by the Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude, written in the typical Baroque style of ornamenting the simple choral melody so that it becomes almost unrecognizable. The right hand plays the melody on a collection of stops called a cornet, while the left hand (and feet) accompany on soft flute sounds. The closing voluntary is what we call a free work - written without any hymn or chorale in mind. Canzonetta means "a little song."

All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) was chosen to highlight the Old Testament account of the creation. In the year 1225, completely blind and nearing death, St. Francis of Assisi arrived at the Convent of St. Damian to bid goodbye to his dear friend, Sister Clara, the first woman to follow the call of St. Francis and take vows of the Order. Clara built him a small reed hut in the garden of her little monastery. It’s said that at times St. Francis could be heard singing faint melodies from within the hut. It was at a meal with the sisters after having stayed for some time at the monastery that he wrote his famous text, “Canticle of the Sun,” later paraphrased into the beloved hymn we sing today. Ralph Vaughan Williams harmonized the tune.

When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR) This hymn for the season of Epiphany covers several topics; the Magi, Christ's baptism, the Wedding at Cana, ending with a doxological stanza praising the Trinity. The tune, from 16th century Germany, is one of the most used in our hymnody at Good Shepherd, as we sing it with at last four different texts.

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH) Our third (and final) German chorale this morning is the classic communion hymn. The first stanza of "Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele" by Johann Franck was published in Johann Crüger's Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien (1649). Crüger and C. Runge published the complete hymn in nine stanzas in their 1653 Gesangbuch. The hymn has since appeared in virtually all German hymnals and in 50% of English language ones since 1970. 

On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW) This is classified as an Advent hymn, but I am including it today as an opporunity for us to hear (and sing) again of John's ministry of baptism which Jesus today takes part.