Music for February 16, 2020 + The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Consideration – Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993)
• Amy Bogan, soloist
• Ave Verum Corpus – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare and Alleluia – Douglas E. Wagner
• The Good Shepherd Handbell Choir
• Processional – William Mathias (1934–1992)

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

• Hymn 594 - God of Grace and God of Glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Spiritual- I will trust in the Lord (Negro Spiritual)
• Hymn R 291 - Go forth for God; go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 119:1-8 – Mode VI

Every year February and its emphasis on Black History encourages me to actively look for music from African-American composers. We've done several works by David Hurd, who is arguably one of the leading musicians in the Episcopal Church today. We've also sung many spirituals which always garner thanks and praise from the congregation. I was delighted last fall when our soprano section leader, Amy Bogan, brought to my attention a little known piece by the man many acknowledge to be the father of gospel music, Thomas A. Dorsey

The Father of Gospel Music

Dorsey is arguably the most influential figure ever to impact Gospel Music. A versatile composer whose material shifted easily from energetic hard gospel to gossamer hymns, he penned many of the best-known songs in the gospel canon, among them "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley". The founder of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, he was also a pioneering force in the renowned Chicago gospel community, where he helped launch the careers of legends including Mahalia Jackson and Sallie Martin.

Early Years

Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, GA on July 1, 1899 and raised in the Atlanta area; there, in addition to the traditional hymns, he also absorbed early blues and jazz. A child prodigy, he taught himself a wide range of instruments, and was playing blues and ragtime while still in his teens; under the stage name Georgia Tom, he was a prolific composer, authoring witty, slightly racy blues songs like the underground hit "It's Tight Like That."

From Blues to Jesus

Thomas A. Dorsey
As a young man, and later in life

Dorsey settled in Chicago in 1918, where he briefly enrolled at the city's College of Composition and Arranging; within months of his arrival, he began playing with area jazz bands including Les Hite's Whispering Serenaders. Dorsey also formed his own group, the Wildcats Jazz Band, which traveled in support of Ma Rainey. He later collaborated in a duo with Tampa Red, but in 1928, after suffering his second nervous breakdown before the age of 30, he opted to retire from the music business. A two-year recovery period followed, during which time a minister convinced Dorsey to return to music, albeit to move from the blues to the church. His first attempt at writing a gospel song, 1921's "If I Don't Get There," had met with some success, and he now returned with a renewed sense of purpose, renouncing secular music to devote all of his talents to the church circuit. Initially, Dorsey met with little success -- forced to reject blues jobs and with no gospel offers forthcoming, he soon resorted to peddling song sheets to make a living.

Rising from Despair

Dorsey's luck appeared to be on the upswing by 1932, the year he organized one of the first gospel choirs at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church; his pianist, Roberta Martin, would in a few years emerge among the top talents on the church circuit. That same year, he also founded the first publishing house devoted exclusively to selling music by Black gospel composers. However, a few months later -- while traveling with Theodore R. Frye to organize a choir in St. Louis -- tragedy struck when Dorsey discovered that his wife had died while giving birth to their son, who died two days later. Devastated, Dorsey locked himself inside his music room for three straight days, emerging with a completed draft of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," a song whose popularity in the gospel community is rivaled perhaps only by "Amazing Grace."

Mozart pays a debt, we reap the reward

In his short adult life, Mozart always seemed to have money trouble, often writing music as a way to get out of a debt. Today's anthem,  Ave verum corpus,  is a work that Mozart composed in the final year of his life as a payment to a friend. Anton Stoll was a chorus master at a small church in Baden and had often helped Mozart by making travel arrangements for his wife, Constanze. Despite having his money worries, Mozart still liked to make sure his wife had her restorative periods at Baden.

Simple yet Sublime

Writing very simply, Mozart was perhaps conscious of the limitations of a small-town choir, although, as the Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel once said of the work, it is ‘too simple for children, and too difficult for adults’. It was written to be performed on the Feast of Corpus Christi and contains the words sotto voce (meaning ‘subdued’) in Mozart’s hand on the score.