Music for June 7, 2020 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt - Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948) Emily VanNostrand, soloist

Instrumental Music

• We All Believe in One True God – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Prelude on “Nicea” – Flor Peeters (1903-1986)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 362 -  Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
• Hymn 421 - All Glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH)
• Hymn S-236 -  Canticle 13: A Song of Praise – John Rutter

It’s been 22 years since the animated feature film The Prince of Egypt debuted and won an Oscar for the ballad When You Believe, written by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. But its availability on DVD and streaming services has kept it in the eye and ear of the public. That's why when trying to think of a song for Emily VanNostrand to sing, the 10-year old could easily suggest When You Believe.

Stephen Schwartz

For those of you without a child (or grandchild) in the house, The Prince of Egypt is based on the Book of Exodus and follows the story of Moses and his brother, the Pharaoh Ramses. The movie has since been recrafted as a stage musical, premiering in California in 2017. (It had just had its London premiere at the end of February before becoming another casualty of Covid-19).


The lyrics as well as the music are by Stephen Schwartz. We decided that When You Believe would be a perfect song for us living through one of the most trying times of our recent history.

Many nights we've prayed,
With no proof anyone could hear.
In our hearts a hopeful song we barely understood.
Now we are not afraid,
Although we know there's much to fear.
We were moving mountains long before we knew we could

There can be miracles when you believe.
Though hope is frail it's hard to kill.
Who knows what miracles you can achieve
When you believe, somehow you will,
You will when you believe.

In this time of fear, when prayer so often proved in vain.
Hope seemed like the summer birds
Too swiftly flown away.
Yet now I'm standing here,
With heart so full I can't explain.
With heart so full,
Seeking faith and speaking words I never thought I'd say.

If you listen closely, after the second verse, you'll hear a fragment of the old hymn "There Is A Happy Land Far, Far Away." I don't know if it was Schwartz or the arranger of the music who decided to add this hint of hope to the music, but you'll hear it again in the piano part at the very end of the solo.

The opening voluntary is J. S. Bach’s setting of the chorale, “Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott (We all believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), the Lutheran version of the Catholic CREDO. All Bach’s skills converge in this setting to make it a perfect example of his fundamental appeal. The hands are playing a fughetta which begins on the offbeat, creating total rhythmic uncertainty with the syncopation maintained throughout .This is  against a recurrent pedal line which is  stamping up an octave in thirds and then bounding stepwise downward this utterly memorable shape. Edward Elgar likened it to “tumbling down stairs.” This recurs six times plus one wonderful final intensification.

I like to play this on Trinity Sunday, the day we meditate on the mystery of the God-head, one in three persons (though there is nothing meditative about this piece!).

The quintessential hymn for Trinity Sunday is "Holy, Holy, Holy," and not only are we singing that hymn in the service, but my closing voluntary is a short prelude based on the hymn's tune, NICEA, written by Flor Peeters, a Catholic organist from Belgium. He was organist at the same church, the National Cathedral in Mechelen, from the 1920s until his death in 1986.

Flor Peeters

My friend and colleague, Dr. Linda Patterson, at St. Andrew's in Bryan, Texas, wrote her dissertation on the music of Peeters. She told me that he excelled in settings of the Gregorian chant, and after it was successful, he took on the enormous Op. 100 collection (the largest collection of organ chorales by a single composer) based on tunes that were provided to him through his publisher, C. F. Peters, compiled by American Lutheran musician Walter Buzsin who knew which tunes would be the most-often-used in American churches.  That collection is in 24 volumes, with over 213 chorales!

He toured the US many times, giving 300 recitals in American venues, and did a yearly Church Music Conference at Boys' Town, Nebraska.