Music for September 9, 2018

Vocal Music

• O God, My Heart Is Ready – Simon Lindley (b. 1948)

Instrumental Music

• Suite for Organ – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• I. Chaconne 
• II. Sarabande on “Land of Rest”
• III. Final 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew, and the communion hymn which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 429 - I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath (OLD 113TH)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn  - Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Psalm 146 - Tone VIIIa

Simon Lindley

The Good Shepherd Choirs sings a spirited anthem by the British composer Simon Lindley  who is retired as Organist of Leeds Parish Church and of Leeds Town Hall; He continues on Music Director of St Peter's Singers, one of England's leading Chamber Choir; and of the Sheffield Bach Society. He is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford and the Royal College of Music.

The anthem is based on verses from Psalm 108, and is perfect for the beginning of a new choir season. "O God, my heart is ready. I will sing, and give praise with the best member that I have." Though we have already sung two Sundays, it is still appropriate. It is described as a "carillon." I am not sure how he came about that denotation; A carillon is a set of  10 or more chromatically tuned bells, fixed in place and played by hammers (clappers) controlled from a keyboard. I suppose the accompanying ostinato pattern could be imagined as a peal being rung by bells.

All the organ music is from a Suite for organ by the prominent American composer of organ and church music, Gerald Near. He was a composition student of Leo Sowerby at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago before going to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he studied composition),  organ, and conducting. He continued his composition studies at the University of Minnesota under Dominick Argento .

After working as a choirmaster at the Calvary Church in Rochester, Minnesota, Near was musical director and organist at St. Matthew's Cathedral , Dallas, Texas, and Composer in Residence at the Cathedral of St. John, Denver, Colorado. Eventually he became choirmaster and cantor at the Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The suite opens with a chaconne, a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era which involves numerous variations on a repeated short harmonic progression, in this case a two measure repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which is the outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention.

The second movement is a sarabande on the familiar tune LAND OF REST. A sarabande was a old dance form in triple meter. There will be no dancing during communion, however, as I play this.