Music for May 17, 2020 + The Sixth Sunday after Easter

Vocal Music

• His Name So Sweet – arr. Hall Johnson (1888-1970), Camryn Creech, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Because He Lives – Bill Gaither (b. 1936), Bernice Satterwhite, pianist
• O That I had a Thousand Voices – Max Reger (1873-1916)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (Slane)

This Sunday, Camryn Creech will sing the solo for our virtual service. Camryn is the newest member of our choir, just joining in January, so she didn't get long to sing with us before the Corona virus hit. She is a senior at Kingwood High School, so it's fitting that she sing this Sunday, which is Senior Sunday. She is singing an arrangement of the spiritual, His Name So Sweet, written as a "concert Spiritual" by the groundbreaking American composer and musician, Hall Johnson.

Born Francis Hall Johnson but better known as just plain Hall Johnson, this important artist was equally known for his compositions, the formation of several world-famous choirs, and a series of superb publications concerning gospel and black music, in general. His first major influence in the subject of sacred choral music would have had to have been his father, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal church in Athens, Georgia. Another important early musical talisman who Johnson was fond of pointing out was his grandmother, a former slave whose interpretations of spirituals moved him deeply. But far from leaning only on oral tradition, Johnson studied at Atlanta University, Allen University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Juilliard School, and the University of Southern California.

In 1943, Johnson became music director for one of the first major all-black movies, Cabin in the Sky, where he worked with a cast of legends that included Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Lena Horne.

He was still at the helm of his choir and as creatively energetic as ever when he turned 80 in 1968. But just two years later, on April 30, 1970, Johnson died when a fire broke out in his New York apartment building. Marian Anderson delivered his eulogy,

I welcome Bernice Satterwhite, who plays the piano for the opening of this week's service. She'll be playing a very popular Gospel song by Bill and Gloria Gaither, Because He Lives. This hymn, perfect for the Easter season, has appeared in 41 hymnals since it first was published in 1971.