Music for November 6, 2016 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Thou, Whose All-Redeeming Might – arr. David Blackwell (b. 1961)

Instrumental Music

• Les Vepres du Commun des Saints – J. Guy Ropartz (1865-1955)
• We run to you for your sweet fragrance. – Song of Solomon 1:3a
• Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone – Song of Solomon 2:11
• Shall We Gather at the River – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• For All the Saints – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 287 For all the saints, who from their labor rest (Sine Nomine)
• Hymn 625 Ye holy angels bright (Darwall’s 148th)
• Hymn 707  Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn R127 Blest are they, the poor in spirit (Blest Are They)
• Hymn 618 Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
• Psalm 149 – Tone VIIb

J. Guy Ropartz

The opening organ voluntaries are two selections from a collection of organ antiphons written for Vespers of the Common of Saints by a little known French composer, Joseph Guy Ropartz. These organ antiphons were to be played between the plainsong verses of the canticles for the vesper services. 

As a child, Ropartz played bugle, horn, and double bass in a local orchestra, but his father wanted him to prepare himself for life in a more secure profession. Therefore, he was given a Jesuit education, then studied law and literature, obtaining a degree from Rennes in 1885. Once he fulfilled his father's wishes, Ropartz then enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied music with Theodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, and Cesar Franck. Ropartz was a devout Catholic, and the influence of the modes of the plainsong chants he heard in church can be found in his music, both secular and sacred.

The anthem is a setting of a plainsong hymn arranged by British composer David Blackwell. The text was written in 1861 by the Rev. Richard M. Benson, a clergyman of the Church of England, for the Feast of St. Barnabas. He spent some time in 1870-71 in the United States, labouring with zeal and success in several dioceses

The communion and closing voluntaries are organ arrangements of two popular hymns by two popular composers for church music. The communion voluntary is based on the American Gospel hymn, Shall We Gather At the River.

 Yes, we'll gather at the river,
the beautiful, the beautiful river;
gather with the saints at the river
that flows by the throne of God.

It was arranged by Gordon Young, who was recognized as one of this country's leading composers of both organ and choral works in the last half of the 20th century, with many of his nearly 1000 works having entered the standard repertory. 

His undergraduate degree in music was earned at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas. Following that he was a scholarship pupil at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and then he received his Doctor of Sacred Music from Southwestern in 1964.

During the course of his career, he was a radio organist in Tulsa, a music critic and columnist for daily newspapers in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, and choirmaster in churches in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Mr. Young taught organ in conjunction with Wayne State University and for 15 years was organist and choir director at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit.

The closing voluntary is that great All Saints hymn with which we open today's service. It is arranged by  Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Mass., who is well known as an award-winning composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. Callahan’s compositions are performed frequently in church and concert. Like Gordon Young, Callahan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Catholic University of America, with additional study in England, France, Germany, and Belgium.