Music for September 17, 2017 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy – Maurice Bevan (1921-2006)

Instrumental Music

• Our Father, Who Art in Heaven – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Sonata No. 1 in F minor: Adagio – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Grand Chœur alla Handel – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

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

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 648 - When Israel was in Egypt’s Land (GO DOWN, MOSES)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT)
• Hymn R184 - “Forgive our sins, as we forgive” (DETROIT)
• Hymn R192 - God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name (FREELY, FREELY)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 114 – Tone VIIIa

Many hymnals have the hymn There's a Wideness in God's Mercy within their pages, often to the tune WELLESLEY, though our hymnal uses the tune BEECHER. When we sing this text this Sunday, however, we will be utilizing the relatively new hymn-tune, CORVEDALE, by the Englishman Maurice Bevan. What I absolutely love about this setting, other than its beautiful, expansive melody which seems to keep reaching newer heights, is that it contains some sobering words which, when I first heard them, helped me to "wake up" to the all-encompassing mercy and love of God. (The stanzas I have highlighted are not found in The Hymnal 1982.)

1 There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in his justice
which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgement given.

2 For the love of God is broader
than the measure of our mind,
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
But we make his love too narrow
by false limits of our own;
and we magnify his strictness
with a zeal he would not own. 

3 There is plentiful redemption
through the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.
There is grace enough for thousands
of new worlds as great as this;
there is room for fresh creations
in that upper home of bliss.

4 If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word;
and our lives would be all gladness
in the joy of Christ our Lord.

The three+ verses of this version speak of God’s “plentiful redemption” and “grace for thousands / of new worlds as great as this”

The composer,  Maurice Bevan, was the son, grandson and great-grandson of Anglican clergymen. Well known as a singer, he was a member for forty years of both the Deller Consort, one of the first professional groups to revive interest in early music, and the Vicars Choral of St. Paul Cathedral in London. I am not sure if he arranged this hymn-tune into the anthem version we are singing today, or if the anthem came first, and the hymn-tune came out of it. At any rate, it is now included in 5 hymnals in the United Kingdom.

If you are interested, (and are not sitting in church during the service while reading this) you can hear a recording of Bevan singing a Handel aria with the Deller Consort here.

Speaking of Handel, the closing voluntary is an organ piece written by a late-nineteenth century Frenchman in the style of a minuet of G. F. Handel. The composer, Felix Alexandre Guilmant, was one of the greatest organists in the late nineteenth century. Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France) he studied with Lemmens in Brussels and from 1871 to his death lived and worked in Paris. Guilmant was world famous in his day and made three concert trips to the United States. Many organ concerts were played by him, including very special series in the Palais de Trocadéro in Paris.

Guilmant was a great improviser and a well-known teacher. Like Felix Mendelssohn, he performed and published old music that had long been forgotten. His own body of work is large: 94 opus numbers and many unpublished or unnumbered works.