Music for October 16, 2016 + The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes – Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Trumpet Prelude – Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)
• Aria – Philip Baker (b. 1934)
• Prelude in G, BWV 568 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 372 - Praise to the living God! (Leoni)
• Hymn 631 - Book of books, our people’s strength (Liebster Jesu)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (East Acklam)
• Hymn 669 - Commit thou all that grieves thee (Passion Chorale)
• Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (Seek Ye First)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (Paderborn)
• Psalm 119:97-104 (Tone VIIc)

Leo Sowerby was the leading composer of American church music and many virtuoso organ works during the first half of the twentieth century and, at the same time, the most distinguished Anglican musician to be produced by the Protestant Episcopal Church in North America. During his career he would compose music in all genres, with the exception of opera, but it is in the field of church music that his life's major work was accomplished.

He was a largely self-taught musician, beginning his study of harmony and music theory from a textbook at age eleven and composing his first works shortly thereafter. His interest in choral music and the pipe organ date from as early as 1910, when he began to study the works of César Franck and Max Reger. By 1913 the eighteen-year old composer received his first major public recognition when the Chicago Symphony premièred his Violin Concerto. Three years later the Symphony would give an unprecedented all-Sowerby concert, beginning his relationship as resident composer which would last into the 1940's.

Sowerby served as bandmaster for the 332nd Field Artillery in the U. S. Army during World War I, during which time he completed his graduate work through the American Conservatory in Chicago and prepared several earlier works, including A Liturgy of Hope of 1917, for publication.

Between his discharge from the Army and his appointment in 1927 as organist/choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church (later Cathedral) in Chicago, Sowerby held a number of church jobs, including  Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, where he served as associate organist/choirmaster.

Leo Sowerby came of age at the same time as did American music. With a few isolated exceptions, American composers before the 1920s had merely tried to imitate the voices of their Central European teachers, but Sowerby's generation, led by such men as George Gershwin, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland,  and Walter Piston, took the old European forms and poured into them music which sounded distinctly American in its melody, harmony, and rhythm. You can hear that distinctive America sound in today's anthem, I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes. Sowerby's most popular work of all, it is a masterful expression of genuine religious faith. Taking Psalm 121 as his text, Sowerby avoids counterpoint, choosing a simple, unaffected melody with choral accompaniment, including a gentle whiff of blues-tinged harmony. What resulted has remained a repertory staple of church choirs for over 75 years.

Early on, a publisher had purchased the anthem outright for a one-time payment of $10. Much to the composer's great regret after the fact, he would receive no royalties on what was destined to become a "best seller."