Music for January 27, 2019 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Teach Me, O Lord – Thomas Attwood (1765-1838)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale in E – César Franck (1822-1890)
• Andante from Sonata in A for Oboe – Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Psalm 19: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

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

• Hymn 475 - God himself is with us (TYSK)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 632 - O Christ, the Word Incarnate (MUNICH)
• Hymn - One bread, one body (ONE BREAD ONE BODY)
• HymnR226 - Ubi Caritas (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 539 - O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling (TIDINGS)
• Psalm 19 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome J. Meachen

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus stands in his home synagogue and reads scripture: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." He tells them that he is the fulfillment of that word. It is fitting that the psalm appointed for today is Psalm 19. Psalm 19 begins "The heavens declare the glory of God," but it moves to a declaration of the beauty of God's Law.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes...

It ends with these beautiful words

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Thomas Attwood (artist unknown)

It's because of this thought that I chose today’s anthem with text from Psalm 119, a simple, direct rendering of the words "Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes." It was written by English composer and musician Thomas Attwood, who was very active in the musical life of England, holding posts as chamber musician to the Prince of Wales, organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, composer to the Chapel Royal and professor at the Royal Academy of Music.  His choral works, now mostly forgotten and seldom performed, reveal the influence of his teacher Mozart.

Benedetto Marcello

Psalm 19 was also the obvious inspiration for my choir of the closing voluntary, "Psalm 19: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God," by the Italian composer Benedetto Marcello.

Had Antonio Vivaldi not shot to fame when he was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century, we would undoubtedly be more familiar with the name of Benedetto Marcello. For Marcello’s reputation—unlike Vivaldi’s—did not wane during his own lifetime, and he enjoyed an international reputation which was to last for more than 250 years. Born a year after Johann Sebastian Bach into a prominent and respected Venetian family, he pursued a career not in music, but in law. This led him to occupy several major positions in the government of the Italian Republic. He did not, however, allow his public duties to keep him away from his pursuit of music, which he continued actively to cultivate as a nobile dilettante. Marcello’s works, and particularly his Psalm settings, were to exert a major influence on the musical culture of Italy and of other European countries throughout the whole of the 18th century and even into the 19th.

Marcello’s magnum opus is his Estro poetico-armonico. This work, which was published between 1724 and 1726, is a setting of the first fifty Psalms of David as paraphrased into Italian by the poet Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani. In addition to the subtle deployment of vocal resources, and his imaginative use of musical techniques to illustrate the texts, Marcello brought to these Psalms a peculiar quality of freshness and originality which unquestionably contributed to their becoming a major international success. Many of them, including today's closing voluntary, were transcribed as instrumental works. The version I am playing today was arranged by the 19th century French organist Theodore DuBois, and I think there is more Paris than Venice in the final product!

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