FOLLOWING JESUS: Music for January 15, 2023 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• What Wondrous Love – Steven Pilkington (21st C.)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on “Salzburg” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Air on “Kelvingrove” – Matthew C. Corl (b. 1965)
• Premiere Suite: III. Fanfares – Jean Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (Lyons)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (Salzburg)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Assam)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (Galilee)
• Psalm 40:1-12 - Expectans, expectavi (simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachan)

Wondrous Love

Steve Pilkington

Sometimes nothing can beat a simple, plaintive melody for its beauty. Such is my opinion of the Southern folk hymn, What wondrous Love Is This? In the version the choir sings this week, you never hear the voices in more than two-part harmony, and that is when they are singing in canon (The men echoing the women four beats later.) Their singing is accompanied on the piano with a flowing, eighth-note piano part.

 

As we read the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry, I thought this anthem raised some valid questions to stimulate thought about why Jesus  would "lay aside his crown for (our) soul."

The arranger, Steve Pilkington, serves on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. as Associate Professor of Sacred Music. He also oversees all the music ministries at Christ Church United Methodist in  New York City, where he has been Director of Music and Organist since 1994. 

Chorale Prelude on "Salzburg"

Aaron David Miller

Aaron David Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. He has been a featured performer at four National Conventions for the American Guild of Organists since 1996, the most recent being the 2016 convention here in Houston. He also is a prolific composer, and Dr. Miller’s many solo organ, choral, and orchestral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Oxford University Press, Paraclete Press, ECS, Morning Star and Kjos Publishing House. 

One of his shorter compositions is the opening voluntary. It is a setting of our presentation hymn, Songs of thankfulness and praise. The tune in our hymnal is set in 4/4, or common time. In this setting, Miller sets the tune in 6/8 time, which gives it a lilting, dance-like feel. The melody is played with the left hand on the trumpet stop, while the right hand and pedal provide the flowing accompaniment.

Air on Kelvingrove

KELVINGROVE is a Scottish tune which has been used in recent years for the hymn "Will you come and follow me?" (also known as "The Summons.") Neither the text nor tune is in our hymnals, and when the text was included in the supplement to the Episcopal hymnal, Wonder, Love, and Praise, it was unfortunately set to another tune. Even the Renew Hymnal (which Good Shepherd bought before the publication of

Wonder, Love, and Praise) does not include the great hymn.

The text is by John Bell, a hymn writer and pastor in the Church of Scotland, who focuses on the renewal of the church’s worship. His approach is to compose songs within the identifiable traditions of hymnody that began to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal:

I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution.

This hymn is prophetic, using many words not usually found in traditional hymns. “The Summons” of Christ is to a radical Christianity. We are challenged to “leave yourself behind” and to “risk the hostile stare” (stanza two), “set the prisoner free” and “kiss the leper clean” (stanza three), and “use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around” (stanza four).

The organ arrangement is by Matthew Corl, Associate Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Florida where he is principal organist and directs several ensembles.

He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, 

Music for Sunday, September 5, 2021 + The Fifthteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come – Richard W. Gieseke (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• Jesus, be in My Heart - Arranged by Kim Robertson
• What Wondrous Love is This - Arranged by Carol Kappus:
• Dance of the Fairy Folk - Carol Kappus
• Ned of the Hill , Ireland, arranged by Kim Robertson
• Fantasy on “Nun Danket All” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Hymn 374, Come, let us Join Our Cheerful Songs

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

• Hymn 371 Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn R266 Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 493 O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Psalm 146 - Tone VIIa

folk lever harp

This Sunday we welcome Kingwood resident Miriam Freiter to our 10:15 service. Miriam is a folk harpist who will be playing the harp before the service and during communion.

The folk harp is smaller than it's cousin, the orchestral harp. It's what you often hear when listening to Celtic Music. That's why you'll be hearing several pieces this weekend from Ireland, or written in that style. The pieces Mim will be playing are written by two of America's leading folk harpists.

Kim Robertson  is an American Celtic harp player from Wisconsin. Classically trained on piano and orchestral harp, her work encompasses over 20 album projects, several volumes of harp arrangements, instructional videos, and an international itinerary of concerts and retreats. 

Carol Kappus  is an award-winning Celtic harper and singer specializing in Scottish music including traditional songs, songs of Robert Burns, and songs in Scots Gaelic. Based in Michigan, she gives performances, teaches private lessons, and leads workshops.

The choir will be singing an original setting of the hymn Oh Christ, the Healer, We Have Come. It is written by Missouri composer Richard W. Gieseke. Gieseke attended Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, studying under Dr. Carl Schalk and Dr. Richard Hillert. Now retired, he  has served in several Lutheran congregations with smaller church choirs, providing the opportunity to write for unison and three-part choirs. 

The closing organ voluntary is a bold, splashy arrangement of hymn 374 (Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs) by another midwestern composer, Aaron David Miller. Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. 

Aaron David Miller

Dr. Miller began his studies in organ performance under the guidance of Carlene Neihart in Kansas City and continued in Chicago with David Schrader. At this time, he attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he studied composition with Bruce Horst. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1995 from the Eastman School of Music, studying organ performance with David Craighead, Russell Saunders, David Higgs, and Michael Farris, and composition with Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner. Dr. Miller completed his graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, earning his Master of Music degree in 1997 and his Doctor of Musical Arts in 1999. He studied composition and organ performance with McNeil Robinson.

Music for June 9, 2019 + The Day of Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Be Joyful in the Lord – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
• O Thou Who Camest From Above – Philip Stopford

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy on “Nun Danket all” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Veni Creator Spiritus – Dom Paul Benoit (1893 – 1979)

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (SALVA FESTA DIES)
• Hymn 509 - Spirit divine, attend our prayers (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn R234 - Now Holy Spirit, ever one (WAREHAM)
• Hymn R248 - O Let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (ZIMBABWE)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOTT'S LEIGH)
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37 – setting by William Crotch

For our Pentecost celebration we are singing two anthems by the (relatively) young English composer, Philip Stopford. Stopford has quite the musical pedigree. He began his musical career as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey under the direction of both Simon Preston and Martin Neary. After winning a major Music Scholarship to Bedford School, while still a teenager, he became Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral. While in Truro, Stopford composed a setting of the Responses which later won the Federation of Old Choristers' Composition Prize.

Philip Stopford

After leaving Bedford School, Stopford studied music at Keble College, Oxford. Upon graduating, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral before moving to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 1999 to 2000 Stopford was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral, and then moved to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 2003, at the age of 25, Stopford was appointed Director of Music at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the youngest Anglican Cathedral Organist at the time.

In January 2016 Stopford was appointed Director of Music at Christ Church, Bronxville following a four month period as Composer in Residence, working with the Church Choir and Young At Arts children's choral and theatrical program.

Our offertory anthem, O Be Joyful, was composed for the Enthronement of the Bishop of Belfast Cathedral in 2007. While not strictly a piece for Pentecost, this setting of Psalm 100 from our Book of Common Prayer sparkles with radiance with its buoyant vocals and soaring phrases over the lively organ accompaniment.

The other anthem, a setting of O Thou That Camest From Above by Charles Wesley, is a prayer for the Holy Spirit. Its gentle, lilting melody begins in the men's voices. On stanza 2 the treble voices enter, building to a climax at the fourth stanza which resolves to a quiet, fervent amen.

The opening voluntary is a setting of this morning's hymn before the Gospel by Aaron David Miller organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. The tune, composed by early Baroque musician Johann Crüger, was first published in the 1647 edition of Crüger's hymnal, Praxis Pietatis Melica. The rhythmic structure of Crüger's tune has the second and fourth phrases beginning with a quarter rest and quarter note. This bit of syncopation has been emphasized in Miller's arrangement which begins with a bold fanfare and improvisation before heading into a dance-like treatment of the tune. It's perfect for the party we call Pentecost.

Miller was the featured artist at the National AGO convention held in Houston, in 2016. 

The closing voluntary is an improvisatory toccata on the traditional Pentecost chant, Veni Creator Spiritus, as played by the French monk and organist, Paul Benoit. Dom Paul lived as a member of the Benedictine community at the Abbey of St. Maurice et St. Maur, at Clervaux, in Luxembourg.  Largely self-taught, Benoit's compositions never leave the realm of tonality, albeit often modal. Dom Paul acknowledged the influence of the French impressionist works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel upon his organ compositions.  As a result, Dom Paul's works are somewhat unique for the organ in bearing a pervasive imprint of impressionism.

Music for February 11, 2018 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Upon the Mountain Stands – Robert W. Lehman (b. 1960) 
• Thanks be to God – Marty Haugen (b. 1950) 

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on Salzburg – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972) 
• Chorale Prelude on St. Elizabeth – Aaron David Miller 
• Toccata – Georgi Mushel (1909-1989) 

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

• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG) 
• Hymn R238 - He is exalted (HE IS EXALTED) 
• Hymn 529 - Fairest Lord Jesus (St. ELIZABETH) 
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) 
• Hymn 490 -  I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) 
• Hymn 314 - Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) 
• Hymn R 247 - Shine, Jesus, shine (SHINE JESUS SHINE)

As part of our Black History Month commemoration, I wanted to include the anthem, Thanks Be To God. The composer, Marty Haugen, is not an African-American. He is not even Episcopalian. He's a 67-year-old white guy from Minnesota who was raised as a Lutheran and is now a member the United Church of Christ. Despite being a non-Catholic, his music has found great favor in the Catholic church as well as other liturgical churches looking for newer expressions through music.

What makes this anthem relevant to Black History Month is its inclusion of that great anthem of the Civil Rights movement, "We Shall Overcome." Haugen presents that inspiring song as counterpoint to his own melody. It is fitting, as you can see in the text of his anthem:

Thanks be to God when people care, thanks be for friends and loved ones,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God for food and home, thanks be for health and laughter,
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Thanks be to God when hatred ends, thanks be for peace and safety.
Thanks be to God forever and ever 

Teach us the way of your peace, kindle your fire within us,
 Give us a vision of a world where people care for each other. 

 We shall overcome, We shall overcome,   Deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday. 

Thanks Be To God was written as part of a larger work, Agapé , a reflection on the Eucharist, with ancient stories & contemporary heroes. This was part of the section on Dr. King.

An interesting development in the clouded history of "We Shall Overcome" was made known just last month, as a federal district court in New York on Jan. 26 oversaw a negotiated settlement that places “We Shall Overcome” in the public domain, while giving due credit to the woman who wrote the original version of the song some 70 years ago.

Louise Shropshire 1913-1993

Louise Shropshire was the director of music at Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati when her minister asked her family to host a young minister, Martin Luther King, who was in Cincinnati to speak at a banquet. While there, she shared with a him a hymn she had written in 1942 (and later copyrighted in 1954) called. "If My Jesus Wills".  This is the likely source from which folk singer Pete Seeger derived the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” when he first heard it sung by striking African-American tobacco workers in the late 1940s. Her original text goes:

I'll overcome,
I'll overcome,
I overcome someday
If my Jesus wills,
I do believe,
I'll overcome someday. 

Music for January 15, 2017 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Wondrous Love – Steve Pilkington

Instrumental Music

• Ritournello on “Liebster Jesu, Wir sind Her” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1962)
• Soul, Adorn Yourself With Gladness – Ann Krentz Organ (b. 1960)
• Poco Vivace, Opus 9, No. 6  –Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (GALILEE)
• Psalm 40:1-11 - Expectans, expectavi

Sometimes nothing can beat a simple, plaintive melody for its beauty. Such is my opinion of the Southern folk hymn, What wondrous Love Is This? In the version the choir sings this week, you never hear the voices in more than two-part harmony, and that is when they are singing in canon (The men echoing the women four beats later.) Their singing is accompanied on the piano with a flowing, eighth-note piano part, with the addition of handbells playing growing chord clusters or ringing randomly during the last stanza. The text in the hymnal does not match exactly the text in our music, so here is the text for the solo stanza (stanza two) which will be sung by Bidkar Cajina.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of life
to lay aside his crown for my soul?

As we read the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry, I thought this anthem raised some valid questions to stimulate thought about why Jesus  would "lay aside his crown for (our) soul."

The arranger, Steve Pilkington, serves on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. as Associate Professor of Sacred Music. He also oversees all the music ministries at Christ Church United Methodist in  New York City, where he has been Director of Music and Organist since 1994. 

Aaron David Miller

Aaron David Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. He has been a featured performer at four National Conventions for the American Guild of Organists since 1996, the most recent being the 2016 convention here in Houston. He also is a prolific composer, and Dr. Miller’s many solo organ, choral, and orchestral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Oxford University Press, Paraclete Press, ECS, Morning Star and Kjos Publishing House. 

One of his shorter compositions is the opening voluntary. It is a setting of our hymn before the Gospel, hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (tune name: LIEBSTER JESU). A Ritournello (more commonly spelled Ritornello) is a Baroque form where a repeated section of music, the ritornello (literally, "the little thing that returns") alternates with freer episodes. You'll actually hear several fragments of melody returning in the organ prelude which alternates meters in a dance-like way.

Speaking of alternating meters, the closing voluntary is full of changing time signatures. If you are trying to clap along, have fun finding a steady beat!) This piece by German composer Hermann Schroeder, the only composer of those featured this morning to be neither American or living. He was born in Bernkastel and spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His activity as composer was supplemental to his career in education. 

Schroeder's main accomplishments as a composer were in Catholic church music, where he attempted to break free of the lingering monopoly held by Romantic music. His works are characterized by the employment of medieval elements such as Gregorian chant, modal scales, and fauxbourdon which he combined with quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing. In the work played this week, the last number in a collection of short preludes and intermezzi, you'll hear an initial Fanfare-like flourish characterized by octave leaps in the manuals and pedals.  In the middle section, linear, angular melodies are heard in each hand before returning to the initial fanfare section.