Music for October 27. 2019

Vocal Music

• There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy – Maurice Bevan (1921-2006)
• Prayer – Lloyd Pfautsch (1921-2003)

Instrumental Music

• The Sixty-Fifth Psalm – Alec Rowley (1892-1958)
• Chromhorne sur la taille (Messe pour les Convents) - Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
• Offertoire sur les grands jeux (Messe pour les Convents) - Francois Couperin 

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 506 - Praise the Spirit in creation (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 552 - Fight the good fight with all thy might (PENTECOST)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Psalm 65 – Tone V 

I've sung the hymn, "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy," for years - all my life, really - using the tune BEECHER which our hymnal uses. But several years ago, Maurice Bevan, a British bass-baritone who sang with The Deller Consort, St Paul's Cathedral in London, and the BBC, wrote a beautiful new tune which has since gained popularity. One of the things that won my heart in this arrangement was the inclusion of a couple of couplets that are left out of most hymnals:

But we make his love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
With a zeal he would not own.

There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.

There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take him at his word;
And our lives would be all gladness
In the joy of Christ our Lord.

Maurice Bevan

The hymn was written  by the Catholic priest and poet, Frederick William Faber. Raised in the church of England, and ordained an Anglican priest, he was influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman. In 1845 Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church and served in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself. One of his best known, "Faith of Our Fathers."

Dag Hammarskjold

Our communion anthem also has a beautiful text. It is by Dag Hammarskjold, who was  Secretary-General of the United Nations until his death in a plane crash in 1961. He  gave the impression of being an agnostic humanist while he was serving at the UN, but after his death, his private papers were discovered which contained some notes entitled “negotiations with myself – and with God”. His prayers have a naked honesty which is deeply moving. This text is one of those.

Hammarskjold's words were set to a haunting, chant-like melody by Lloyd Pfautsch, composer and one-time Director of Choral Activities at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He was one of my teachers, and from him I learned much, including these two things.

Lloyd Pfautsch

1. WORDS MATTER -- Lloyd considered it important for those who sing great words of faith to consider, and carefully articulate them while singing them. For him, the choir’s diction was essential

in prompting the hearers’ informed response.

2. MUSIC MATTERS -- Lloyd taught all of us that when choosing worship music --- congregational, choral, instrumental or keyboard --- the liturgy should inform the appropriateness of the music, and, the music, particularly the music of hymns, should compliment the words. I try to do that every Sunday.

That's why I chose this week's opening voluntary, a Tone Poem by English composer Alec Rowley on Psalm 65, which is the Psalm of the day. It's a longer work than usual (almost 8 minutes), so I want you to listen for these themes found in the music: (The text is from the Coverdale translation of the Bible, which had been used as the Psalter in all Books of Common Prayer, back to the first in 1549, until 1979.

Verse 1: Thou, O God, art Praised in Zion - Majestic 3/4 time
Verse 3: My misdeeds prevail against me - Softer, lyrical section, melody in the oboe (a plaintive sound).
Verse 7: Who stilleth the raging of the sea and the madness of the peoples. -  The organ becomes more agitated, growing in volume, tempo, and intensity, until it relaxes into a feeling of peace.
Verse 9: Thou Visiteth the earth, and blessest it. -  A broad, sweeping, descending melody modulating downward through three different keys as it "visits the earth" (descending)
Verse 14: The Valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing. - The music growing in volume and breadth, "thick"