Music for July 16, 2017 + The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Aria di Chiesa: Pietà, Signore! Attributed to Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) - Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Tuba Tune in D Major – C.S. Lang (1891-1971)
• Andante in G – R. M. Stults (1861-1933)
• A Hymn of Glory - Edward Broughton (Lani Smith) (1934-2015)

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

• Opening Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy Word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Before Gospel Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (IVERSON)
• Offertory Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Communion Hymn R 248 - O let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Closing Hymn 535 -  Ye Servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 65 - Tone V

The offertory today is a solo work from the Italian repertoire; more specifically, it’s from the collection "Twenty-Four Italian Songs And Arias.” If you’ve ever studied voice, you probably began with this book. For well over a century, the G. Schirmer edition of 24 Italian Songs & Arias of the 17th and 18th Centuries has introduced millions of beginning singers to serious Italian vocal literature. In 2015, the pop-culture website Buzzfeed published a review of the 24 songs included in the collection. Here is what they had to say about this number:

This is a dark, churchy song for the guiltiest of souls. It's kind of a cosmic bummer. The next time you do something awful, like hooking up with your best friend's ex, blast this and beg for forgiveness. (1)

In this book, the music is attributed to Alessandro Stradella, an Italian composer of the middle Seventeenth century of some prominence. However, all indications point to another being the composer. In 1833, the Italian art song, "Se i miei sospiri", appeared in a Paris concert organized by François Joseph Fétis, a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. Fétis published the piece for voice and strings in 1838 and then again in 1843 for voice and piano with alternate lyrics ("Pietà, Signore"). It is these alternate lyrics with which the piece is now typically associated. Fétis attributed the song to Stradella and claimed to possess an original manuscript of the work but never produced it for examination. As early as 1866, musicologists were questioning the authenticity of the song, and when Fétis' library was acquired by the Royal Library in Brussels after his death, no such manuscript could be found. Owing to this and the fact that the style of the piece is inconsistent with Stradella's own period, the authorship of the piece is now typically attributed to Fétis himself.

François Joseph Fétis,

It's not completely unheard of for composers to write compositions themselves and then claim that it's the work of another composer--a kind of reverse plagiarism--Parisotti and Kreisler are among the list of composers who have done this. Some seem to do it as a prank, others to get attention to a work that they feel would be ignored otherwise, and there are probably still more reasons. In any case, this is not the first of such works, and doubtless won't be the last.

The heavy mood of this powerful and moving work is set by a fairly lengthy instrumental introduction, and then the voice enters with short, subdued phrases, which eventually pick up momentum and intensity. The lines vary in length, but always contribute to the sense of a highly structured piece.

Jackson Hearn is away this week, attending the annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians. This year the conference is at Winchester, England, where he will worship at and tour Winchester, Salisbury, and Chichester Cathedrals, attend workshops, and gather with other Episcopal Musicians from around the world. He would like to thank Jill Kirkonis and Richard Murray for leading the music while he is away.

REMINDER! We're having an Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing on  Friday, August 11 at 7 PM. Help us decide what hymns to sing!  You can give Jackson Hearn a list of your favorite hymns at church or in an email. (jacksonhearn@goodshepherdkingwood.org). Or, you can vote on your favorite hymns by going to http://doodle.com/poll/4gh2kpy5vwyeyxa4 (or use scan this QR code on your smart phone or table)

(1)   A Definitive Ranking Of "Twenty-Four Italian Songs And Arias" (February 20, 2015) retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/ninamohan/a-definitive-ranking-of-twenty-four-italian-songs-and-arias?utm_term=.aqxM3e5lz#.hcnG2E7eW