Music for June 7, 2015 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Gloria (from Heilemesse) – Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Heilig – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Ave Verum Corpus – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Instrumental Music
Organ Concerto in F Major, Op. 4 No. 4 – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
I. Allegro
II. Andante

   

Congregational Music

• Hymn 391 - Before the Lord’s eternal throne (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)

We usually end the choir year singing a mass setting by a major composer. In the past we have sung works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and others. This year, since we had already sung a Missa Brevis by Canadian Healey Willan and A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott, we decided to sing a few of our favorite anthems with strings. There will be lots of music this Sunday as we will have an eight piece string orchestra to accompany some well known sacred works as well as on organ concerto by Handel.

J. S. Bach

The most well known work we are singing is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, which is often heard this time of year in weddings. It is from Bach's Cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and mouth and deed and life), written in 1714 for an Advent Service and later expanded. It is the sixth and tenth movement of the cantata. The music's wide popularity has led to numerous arrangements and transcriptions, such as for the classical guitar and in Wendy Carlos' recording of Switched-On Bach on the Moog synthesizer in 1968. In 1973 the British group Apollo 100 recorded a version called "Joy" which peaked at number six on the Hot 100 and number two on the Easy Listening chart, and was featured in the film Boogie Nights (1997). Even The Beach Boys used the melody as a basis for the song "Lady Lynda", but without the words.

Franz Josef Haydn

At communion will sing Ave verum, a motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus". Mozart wrote it in 1791 for Anton Stoll, the musical coordinator in the parish of Baden bei Wien while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was fewer than six months before Mozart's death. 

We will sing the Gloria from Haydn's Missa sancti Bernardi von Offida in B-flat major (or Heiligmesse) for the Song of Praise. This Mass was written in honor of St. Bernard of Offida, a Capuchin monk who devoted himself to helping the poor. The 'Sanctus' section of the mass is a setting of a then-popular Austrian tune to the German translation of Sanctus, Heilig. The Mass takes its popular German title, Heiligmesse, from this section. In the original mass, the Gloria was comprised of three sections. We are only singing the first section.

The Young John Rutter

The choir will also sing Thy Perfect Love by the British composer John Rutter. Rutter takes the anonymous 15th century text and writes a lyrical piece in 3/4 time. The strings start out accompanying a soprano soloist, who sings the entire text. Then, as the choir comes in, the strings drop out and the full choir sings the text again, to be joined by the orchestra as the choir hits the apex of the piece on the words "That I may reign in joy evermore with thee." Rutter wrote this piece in 1975 for the choir of Meopham Parish Church in the U.K.

Felix Mendelssohn

The only piece we are singing this Sunday without the strings is the 8 part acapella chorus by Felix Mendelsohn, Heilig. Sung in German, it is the text of the Sanctus, so we will sing it at that time. This may be on of the most challenging things we have sung to date at Good Shepherd. Composed as part of Three Sacred Pieces in 1846, towards the end of Mendelssohn's short life, it is a perfectly conceived miniature showing a sheer mastery of choral writing and effortless command of musical expression and structure.

The relatively brief Heilig, heilig ist Gott, der Herr Zebaoth is an extrovert call to rejoice. The opening, in particular, is unforgettable in the overlapping vocal entries combining to produce a glorious suspension at the final exhortations of ‘Heilig’. The dotted rhythms which dominate the remainder of the setting help to create a sense of strong forward movement towards the joyous final cadence.