Music for March 4, 2018 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Teach Me, O Lord – Thomas Attwood (1765-1838) 
• Lord God of Abraham – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot'  BWV 679– J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein BWV 641 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR) 
• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIAN HYMN)
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY)
• Hymn 676 - There is a balm in Gilead (BALM IN GILEAD)
• Hymn 313 - Let thy blood in mercy poured (JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Psalm 19 - Tone IIa

This Sunday we have music by three different composers spanning almost two centuries, but all three are connected.
 The communion anthem is a staple in our repertoire, Teach Me, O Lord, (the way of thy statutes) by the English composer Thomas Attwood. We are singing it because of the Old Testament reading, which includes the Ten Commandments.

Thomas Attwood

Thomas Attwood was organist of St Paul's Cathedral in London and is buried there. His short anthem, Teach me, O Lord, has a successful simplicity which has stood the test of time. But this is not always the case with Attwood's works. In the earlier part of his life he was particularly interested in music for the stage; his output includes thirty-two operas.

At the end of the eighteenth century the deteriorating taste of English church music was reflected in the introduction of over-ornate solos in verse anthems, which, stylistically, were borrowed wholesale from opera. This is documented in A Short Account of Organs Built in Britain (1847) by Sir John Sutton who writes:

[The cathedral organist] considers himself as a first-rate performer, and persuades other people that he is so too, and on the strength of this he inflicts upon the congregation long voluntaries, interludes, which consist either of his own vulgar imagination, or selections from the last new opera.

Attwood was part of this tradition, although he had the sense to write simpler music too. The orchestral introduction to his coronation anthem I was glad contains the national anthem as a counter-melody, whilst that of O grant the king a long life contains more than a nodding acquaintance with Dr Arne's Rule, Britannia!
Attwood had many friends and was widely known as a gentleman. He was a pupil of Mozart and owned a large house on Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood in South London, where Mendelssohn, a good friend, was a visitor. (1)

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn made ten visits to Britain in his relatively short life. He had a strong following, including Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which enabled him to make a good impression on British musical life. In addition to conducting and playing his own works with orchestra, he also performed organ recitals at St. Paul's, often featuring the music of J. S. Bach. Bach's music had fallen into neglect after his death in 1750, and Mendelssohn was among those who revived interest in the music of the Baroque master. Mendelssohn also edited  the first critical editions of Bach's organ music for British publishers.

At the offertory, Richard Murray will sing Lord God of Israel, an aria from the great oratorio, Elijah, by Felix Mendelssohn. 

J. S. Bach wrote many great masterworks for organ, but his genius can also be seen in some miniatures. One such work is the communion voluntary, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein.

When in the hour of utmost need
We know not where to look for aid,
When days and nights of anxious thought
Nor help nor counsel yet have brought,
Then this our comfort is alone;
That we may meet before Thy throne,
And cry, O faithful God, to Thee,
For rescue from our misery.

J. S. Bach

The intimate, devotional nature of this text is expressed through a florid, serene melody which is one of the most elaborate ornamentation of a chorale tune in the whole of Bach's organ music. The tune stays within a fairly small range until it  soars upwards in the second last phrase, mirroring the words ‘And cry, O faithful God, to Thee’. The accompaniment constantly refers to the first four notes of the hymn tune.

The opening voluntary,  Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot' is the smaller of two settings of this chorale-tune from Martin Luther. The lively gigue-like fughetta has several similarities to the larger chorale prelude: it is in the mixolydian mode of G; it starts with a pedal point of repeated Gs; the number ten occurs as the number of entries of the subject (four of them inverted); and the piece ends on a plagal cadence. The liveliness of the fughetta has been taken to reflect Luther's exhortation in the Small Catechism to do "cheerfully what He has commanded." Equally well, Psalm 119 speaks of "delighting ... in His statutes" and rejoicing in the Law.

(1) Hyperion CD The English Anthem Vol. 4, St Paul's Cathedral Choir, John Scott (conductor), Andrew Lucas (organ) from notes by William McVicker © 1994