Music for April 19, 2020 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• How Can I Keep from Singing – folk song, arr. Judith Herrington (21st Century) Christine Marku, soprano 

Instrumental Music

• Variations on Unser Herrsher (Hymn 180 – He is Risen, He Is Risen!) – arr. Curt Oliver (1943-2018)
• Easter Hymn – Noël Goemanne (1926-2010)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 208 – The strife is o’er (VICTORY)

Here’s what’s coming up on this week’s streaming worship service:

We have two pieces of music made possible by current technology: One is a 4-part setting of a hymn sung by just one person, and the other is a hymn performed by over 600 Episcopalians across this wide world, all in different locations.

First I’ll talk about the anthem. A couple of weeks into this Covid-19 physical distancing period, my friend, fellow musician, and Good Shepherd parishioner Christine Marku posted a video on her Instagram page of her singing an arrangement of the old hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing.” She used the app called Acapella. It has a simple concept: One person can record multiple videos, layering them to create harmonies a la Pitch Perfect.

She used an arrangement by Judy Herrington, a choral conductor from the Pacific Northwest. Herrington established her reputation through her conducting work with the Tacoma Youth Chorus. Later, her folk song arrangements became very popular. This a cappella arrangement of one of the great American hymns is another example of her excellent work.

The hymn is by 19th century Baptist clergyman Robert Lowry. He wrote many hymns and Gospel songs, the most famous being “Shall We Gather at the River.” When I heard Christine’s video, I knew that it would be a fitting hymn for us to hear as we worship together, but separate, via the internet.

This hymn is all about perspective. It opens with an assertion that the troubles of this world are nothing when compared to the new creation that is to come. By keeping our focus on our Lord – that He is our Rock and that He lives – we can follow the admonition of the apostle James: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2 ESV).

My life flows on in endless song;
above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the real, though far off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing? 

What though the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness 'round me closed,
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

Robert Lowry, 1826-1899, arr. Judith Herrington

The other “modern miracle” of music in this service is Hymn 208 from our hymnal, The Strife Is O’er. When it became apparent that we would not be able to worship together in our churches on Easter, the national church sent out a plea for volunteer musicians to submit videos singing or playing (on their instruments) to a pre-recorded track that the church sent out. Combining nearly 800 submissions from more than 600 participants all around the world, technicians were able to bring them all together in one voice to proclaim - The Strife is O'er, the battle won! We use their video as our hymn this Sunday.

The instrumental voluntaries were recorded by Jackson Hearn specifically for Sunday’s service. The opening voluntary are piano variations on Hymn 180, “He Is Risen! He Is Risen,’ arranged by Curt Oliver. 

Curt Oliver

A native of Minnesota, Oliver was the Director of Music and Organist at Macalester-Plymouth United Church, in St. Paul, Minnesota, for 42. From 1970-1993 he was the Music Director of KUOM Radio at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He was also the Director of the Prospect Park Community Choir. 

Oliver earned a B.A. in Music Theory and Composition at the University of Minnesota, and did further studies at the University of Minnesota, and Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, where he studied with Alice Parker, Joan Lippincott, James Litton, and Eric Routley. He was an Associate of the AGO, and Life Member of The Hymn Society.

Noel Goemanne

The closing voluntary is a toccata for organ on the class Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”. It is by Noël Goemanne, a Belgian-born American composer, organist and choral director who, for 42 years, was organist-choirmaster at Christ the King Catholic Church in Dallas. The name is pronounced "Whooo-mahn" in Belgium-and every other way possible in the United States.

His early music education occurred in his native Belgium, which led him to the Lemmens Institute where he studied with Flor Peeters, and to the Conservatoire Royal de Liège. Migrating to Texas, he continued his musical career with extensive church music ministry, no small part of which are three hundred sacred compositions.