Music for January 14, 2018 + The Second Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Hush! Somebody’s Calling My Name – Brazeal Dennard (1929-2010)
• May My Light Shine – Lynn Bailey (b. 1955) and Becki Mayo (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Voluntary in A Minor – Maurice Greene (1696-1755)
• Communion – François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837 - 1924)
• Allegro in D Minor – John Stanley (1712-1786)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be consecrated (HOOLINSIDE)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM LORD)
• Hymn R147 - Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling (THOMPSON)
• Hymn 535 -  Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 139 Domine, probasti – David Hurd

Becki Slagle Mayo

The Coventry Choir is singing an anthem that is perfect for the season after Christmas and Epiphany. The text is inspired by the Star of Bethlehem, and the music and text both quote the refrain of "We Three Kings." (Star of Wonder, Star of Light...) This work is a collaboration between two composers, Becki Slagle Mayo and Lynn Shaw Bailey.

A graduate of Campbellsville College and Mankato State University, Mayo is director of youth and children's choirs at Alpharetta (Georgia) Presbyterian Church, and maintains a private piano studio in her home. As a composer and arranger, she has published over 50 compositions with 12 major publishing companies.

Lynn Shaw Bailey

Perhaps best known by her anthems for younger and developing voices, Bailey studied music at Oklahoma Baptist University and received OBU’s Alumni Profiles in Excellence Award. She also studied composition privately with Bob Burroughs, David Schwoebel, and Alice Parker. In addition, Lynn has degrees in journalism and nursing.

A native and resident of Georgia for most of her life, Bailey and her husband now live in Waco, Texas

The Good Shepherd Choir is singing an anthem we did exactly three years ago, so I am adding this link to what I said about Hush! Somebody's Calling My Name here.

Maurice Greene

The opening and closing voluntaries are connected by a musical lineage. Maurice Greene , the composer of the opening voluntary, was an English composer in London. His grandfather, John Greene, had been the Recorder in the City of London and his father, Thomas Greene, chaplain of the Chapel Royal and canon of Salisbury. Maurice Greene was the youngest of seven children and began his musical studies as a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral. His voice broke at the age of 14 and his musical tutoring was continued under Richard Brind, the Cathedral organist.

By the time he was but 40 years old, he held all the major musical appointments in the country,  namely Organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, Organist and Composer to the Chapel Royal, Professor of Music at Cambridge University and Master of the King's Musick. 

One of his students was the eight year old John Stanley, who, though blind from an accident since the age of two, studied "with great diligence, and a success that was astonishing" (1).  Stanley had begun his musical studies at seven with lessons from another organist  but the teacher/student partnership was not fruitful. However, under the guidance of Maurice Greene, he progressed so that by age nine he was playing the organ occasionally at All Hallows Church on Bread Street.

John Stanley

The organist at All Hallows at that time was the composer William Babell, a former pupil of Handel. Babell died on September 23rd, 1723 and exactly one month later the eleven year old Stanley was appointed organist to the church at a salary of £20 per annum!

At the age of fourteen he was chosen as organist at St. Andrew's, Holborn and at the age of seventeen became the youngest person ever to obtain the BMus degree at Oxford University. In 1734 he was appointed organist to the Temple Church - a position he held until his death. It was at the ancient Temple Church that his brilliant playing upon the organ and harpsichord attracted the attention of many fine musicians including Handel who regularly visited the church to hear him.

The English organ of this period was not as developed as the German organ of the same time, often having no pedals and only two keyboards, so the music of the period is not as complex as the music of Bach or Buxtehude. The piece I am playing today has been freely arranged for the modern organ by English organist Henry Coleman. It includes a pedal part and more manual (keyboard) changes.

(1) The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands and United Provinces, Charles Burney (1773)