Music for December 6, 2020 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Prepare the Royal Highway – arr. Thomas Gieschen (1931-2006)
• An Advent Prayer – Allen Pote (b. 1945)
• Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Partita on  "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Meditation on “Winchester New" from An Advent Triptych – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Improvisation on “Bereden väg för Herran” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

This Sunday's scripture readings includes the beautiful passage from Isaiah

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” - Isaiah 40

There are two hymns which we always sing on the second Sunday of Advent. Those are hymn 67 – Comfort, comfort ye, my people, and hymn 65 – Prepare the Way, O Zion. This year, you are invited to read the words to hymn 67 while I play Johann Pachelbel's Partita on the tune, "Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” (The Hymnal 1982 identifies it as PSALM 42, but it is the same tune.)

Christine Marku will sing a version of hymn 65 during the preparation of the communion elements using an arrangement by the Lutheran Composer Thomas E. Gieschen. A Native of Wisconsin, Gieschen was a professor of music for 40 years at Concordia University in River Forest, where he served as department chair and head of the Music Department. He earned a B.S. in Education from Concordia Teachers College, and a master's and doctorate in music from Northwestern University in Chicago.

He was also a published composer, arranger and organ recitalist, and a member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians and the American Guild of Organists.

Another Lutheran, Paul Manz, improvised an organ setting of the same tune, the Swedish tune Bereden väg för Herran (Make way for the Lord). It was transcribed (written out) and published, and I will be playing it for the closing voluntary.

During Communion, Christine will sing an Advent anthem by the American Composer Allen Pote.  Pote is a nationally knowns composer of sacred music as well as a clinician for festivals and workshops. Since 1975 his published choral works, which include twelve musicals for youth and children, have been widely performed by choirs the world over, including the Chorister Choir here at Good Shepherd. Born in Halstead, Kansas, Pote earned a diploma in Church Music from Texas Christian University. He studied in Brussels on a Fulbright scholarship and took advanced work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. For a while in the 80s he was director of music at Memorial Drive Presbyterian in Houston.