Music for September 15, 2019

Vocal Music

• I Sought the Lord – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Sonata II: Ruhig Bewegt – Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
• Messe pour les Convents: X. Chromhorne sur la Taille – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Sonata II: Lebhaft – Paul Hindemith

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

• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn R 217 - You satisfy the hungry heart (GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT)
• Hymn R 277 - What wondrous love is this? (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Psalm 51:1-11 (1-4, 7-8, 11a)- Tone VIIIb

Thomas Jackson Oldrin
August 10, 1996 ~ August 6, 2017

22 years ago, when I first came to Good Shepherd, we had a young mother singing in our choir with a toddler. As the dad wasn't a church goer, she would bring the young boy with her to church on Sunday, and he would sit in the loft with us. People in the congregation down below began to look for his round, cherubic face pressed up against the glass which use to be in the choir loft rail. But life happened, and a divorce brought about a move from the suburb of Kingwood to the inner loop of Houston, and thus a move from Good Shepherd to Palmer Memorial. We missed young Thomas' growing up, and his subsequent battle with cancer, but we kept up through our friendship with his mother, Sarah and social media. Thomas won his battle with cancer, but lost his war with depression. He passed away in August of 2017.

Our mutual friend and church musician/composer, David Ashley White, wrote a beautiful anthem which he dedicated to Sarah Emes and her son, Thomas Oldrin. With a text by an anonymous poet, the anthem was premiered by the Palmer choir and published by Selah Publishing Co. in June 2018. Sarah gave copies of the anthem to Good Shepherd so that we, too, could sing in memory of Thomas.

The Opening and closing voluntaries are from the second organ sonata of Paul Hindemith, one of the principal German composers of the first half of the 20th century and a leading musical theorist. He sought to revitalize tonality—the traditional harmonic system that was being challenged by many other composers—and also pioneered in the writing of Gebrauchsmusik, or “utility music,” compositions for everyday occasions. He regarded the composer as a craftsman (turning out music to meet social needs) rather than as an artist (composing to satisfy his own soul). As a teacher of composition he probably exerted an influence on most of the composers of the generation that followed him. He was one of the first composers to offer classes in Film Music

In 1935 at the invitation of the Turkish government, Hindemith moved to Turkey to oversee the organization of musical life there. It was during this time that he helped Jewish musicians escape to Turkey. At the outbreak of World War II, he emigrated to the USA. After a series of lectures at Yale University, he became a part of the permanent faculty, where he founded the Yale Collegium Musicum for historically based performances. He became a US citizen in 1946.

Hindemith was not an organist, and found the instrument uninspiring because it could not "breathe." Nevertheless, his three Sonatas, with their mastery of counterpoint, clarity of form, bold harmonic language and deeply expressive treatment of melody, are recognised as among the great works of modern organ literature.