Music for January 19, 2020 + The Second Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – S. S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Instrumental Music

• Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word – Gerald Near
• Meditation on “Kingsfold” – Charles Callahan
• Roulade – Gerald Near

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 439 – What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (GALILEE)
• Psalm 40:1-12 - Expectans, expectavi (simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachan)

S. S. Wesley

The choir (still recovering from Christmas break) sings an extract from a larger anthem by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the grandson of Charles Wesley. The popular short anthem Lead me, Lord is an extract from Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Famous in his lifetime as one of his country's leading organists and choirmasters, he composed almost exclusively for the Church of England. He was appointed organist at Hereford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, and Gloucester Cathedral.

He was the illegitimate son of the composer Samuel Wesley's and his teenage housemaid Sarah Suter, with whom he had seven children after separating from his wife Charlotte. His middle name derived from his father's lifelong admiration for the music of Bach.

Considering his love of Bach, I should have included a piece by Bach, but instead, I've focused on two living musicians who many consider among the most prominent, if not most prolific, church musicians in America today.

Gerald Near has written much organ music, including many settings of hymns and chants for the church. The opening voluntary is a highly ornamented arrangement of the Chorale Liebster Jesu, which we find in our hymnal at hymn 440: Blessed Jesus, at thy Word.

The closing voluntary is one of Gerald Near's earliest pieces from 1965. Culinarily speaking, a Roulade is a slice of meat rolled around a filling and cooked. It comes from the French word rouler: to roll. Musically, roulade is an embellishment consisting of a rapid run of several notes sung to one syllable. So Near's Roulade is a rapid, light piece.