Music for March 21, 2021 + The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

Create in Me a Clean Heart – Carl F. Mueller (1892-1982)
Hymn: As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (GIFT OF LOVE)

Instrumental Music

Praise to the Lord – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)
Called Home to Heaven – Fred Gramman (b. 1950)
This Is the Day– Susan Morris (b. 1951)
Grand Jeu – Pierre DuMage (1674-1751)

The Bells are ringing! For the first time since this pandemic began, the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild will be ringing in our morning worship services. We have actually been rehearsing since September, but the fall was spent focusing on music for Christmas, as we played at the live Nativity services. But now we get a chance to play in worship.

Because we are playing three numbers (the most we've ever played in one service) and because we are live-streaming our services, we are moving from the security and anonymity of the loft right down front of the congregation. This will offer you the rare opportunity to watch the entire choir in action. I believe that bell choir music is as interesting visually as it is aurally, so this should prove to be fascinating for the members of the congregation.

Anna Laura Page

The first piece is an arrangement of the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, by Anna Laura Page A native of Louisville, Kentucky, she received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kentucky. A widely published composer of choral and handbell music, she has been active in the promotion, composition, and publication of music for handbells, serving as the Handbell editor for Alfred Publishing for 11 years, and was also on the Music Committee for the 1991 Southern Baptist Hymnal. She currently resides in Sherman, Texas.

In this piece, listen for several idiomatic handbells techniques, including the martellato (where the bell is sounded by hitting the padded table), mart lift (similar to the martellato, but the bell is immediately lifted off the table to allow it to vibrate), staccato (the bell is rung normally, but with a thumb or finger on the bell to shorten the sound), and echo, where the bell is rung normally then touched lightly on the table to affect the sound (listen for a "wow-wow" effect).

Fred Gramman

At the offering we are playing a meditation on the hymn-tune HOLY MANNA, which is often used for the text "Brethren, we are met to worship." It was written by Fred Gramman, the organist at the American Church in Paris. He is a native of Washington state where he began organ studies with Dr. Edward Hansen of Seattle. He earned organ performance degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Michigan, moving to Paris in 1972 for organ study with Marie-Claire Alain and Maurice Duruflé. Since 1976, he has been Director of Music at the American Church in Paris where, in addition to his organist duties, he also conducts the Adult Choir, the ACP Bronze Ringers, and the Celebration Ringers

He wrote the piece for the community ensemble Music Made in Heaven, a handbell choir made up of parents who have lost children to death. The group was formed in 2004 as a continuing expression of the parent's love for God and their joy in the gift of their children. 

Gramman named the piece Called Home to Heaven, utilizing the last verse of the hymn Brethren We Have Met to Worship. The line, "Then He'll call us home to heaven" resonates with those who have lost children and other loved ones. 

HOLY MANNA is masterfully woven through this arrangement creating an enchanting setting of the traditional tune. The second verse is beautifully created, juxtaposing bells and chimes in a fugue-like style. It is followed by a majestic verse and prayerful conclusion.

Listen for the use of mallets , the Echo technique , and the Swing. (You'll see it at the very beginning.)

Susan Morris

The communion bell piece is an interpretation of Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." This gentle and inspirational work was written by Susan Morris for the Handbell Choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Music is an avocation for Morris. Even though she began taking piano lessons at the age of ten and soon after began composing her own music, her career was in science. She received a BS in Biology from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and then continued her studies at the University of Virginia, receiving a graduate degree in Medical Technology.  She now resides in Lynchburg, VA.

Music for November 8, 2015 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lord, Make Us Servants (hymn 593)– Lee Hastings Bristol (1923-1979)

Instrumental Music

• Processional Celebration – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)
• What a Friend We Have in Jesus – Linda R. Lamb (b. 1947?)
• Festival Piece – Craig Phillips (b. 1961)

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

• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (Nettleton)
• Hymn 429 - I’ll praise my maker while I’ve breath (Old 113th)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (Hollingside)
• Hymn R172 - In my life, Lord, be glorified (Lord, be glorified)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old their first fruits brought (Forest Green)

This Sunday we feature our Good Shepherd Handbell Choir in two works. The opening voluntary is an original composition by Anna Laura Page. Active as a composer, clinician and organist, she served on the Music Committee of the Southern Baptist 1991 Hymnal Committee and has received the ASCAP Standards Award for the past several years. She has taught organ as an adjunct faculty member at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and theory/organ as an adjunct faculty member at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. She served as director of the Austin Peay Community Children's Chorus in Clarksville, Tennessee for three years. She is married to Dr. Oscar C. Page, President of Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Processional Celebration was written in two parts - the first section is written with 4 lines of music. Each one enters after the preceding line is played once. It was designed to be played in procession from memory - which is why we are playing it

The communion voluntary is a setting of the old hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" by Linda R. Lamb. Lamb has been involved with handbells since 1992, as director, composer, and sometime ringer. She is the handbell director at Lexington Park Baptist Church, Lexington Park, Maryland, where she directs one adult choir and one youth quartet. She graduated from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, with a B. A. in sociology, and from Concordia University in Wisconsin with a Master of Church Music (emphasis in handbells).

This arrangement makes use of both our set of English Handbells and our smaller set of choir chimes, which Lamb uses on the second verse to highlight the melody.

The offertory anthem is a hymn setting of a poetic rendering of the famous Prayer of St. Francis by Lee Hasting Bristol. Though Bristol was studied music at Ham­il­ton Col­lege, Clin­ton, New York (BA); Trin­i­ty Col­lege of Mu­sic, Lon­don (or­gan stu­dies); and the In­sti­tute for In­ter­na­tion­al Stu­dies, Ge­ne­va, Switz­er­land (grad­u­ate stu­dies), he worked in New York for the Bris­tol-Me­yers Com­pa­ny (the fam­i­ly bus­i­ness) in ad­ver­tis­ing and pub­lic re­la­tions from 1948-62. From 1962-69, however, he served as pre­si­dent of West­min­ster Choir Col­lege, Prince­ton, New Jer­sey. In 1972, the Hymn So­ci­e­ty in the Unit­ed States and Ca­na­da made him a fel­low of the so­ci­e­ty.

Music for November 16, 2014 + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Almighty God, Which Hast Me Brought – Thomas Ford (1580-1648)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral– James D. Weatherald
• Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ – Michael Helman (20th C.)
• Praise to the Lord – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)

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

• S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Hymn R-152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R-172 - In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 561 - Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT)

Stained Glass image of Samuel Seabury

This Sunday is “Kirking of the Tartans” Sunday at Good Shepherd. It’s not found on any liturgical calendar. We do it every year around Samuel Seabury day, the first American Anglican bishop who was consecrated by the Scottish Bishops of the Anglican church during the Revolutionary War. (England was a bit perturbed with Americans, so they would have none of that!) Here is a link to my post from last year which explains the origins of the Kirkin O’ the Tartans. As usual, we’ll have bagpipes, hear Highland Cathedral, and sing “Amazing Grace.” (Not because it’s Scottish, but because it can be played by the pipes!)

The opening voluntary is a rousing handbell setting of a Jamaican tune which is best known around the world as the hymn “Let us talents and tongues employ.” Doreen Potter adapted the Jamaican melody as a hymn-tune for Fred Kaan’s text in 1975, and to date it is in 20 hymnals. You’ll recognize a Caribbean beat in the syncopation, even without steel drums! The arranger of the bell piece is Michael Helman, Director of Music and Organist at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral, an active composer of handbell, organ, and choral music with well over a hundred pieces in print.

Let us talents and tongues employ,
reaching out with a shout of joy:
bread is broken, the wine is poured,
Christ is spoken and seen and heard.
Jesus lives again; earth can breathe again.
Pass the Word around: loaves abound!

The anthem, Almighty God, who hast me brought, was written by Thomas Ford with a text by William Leighton. Now well-known as a church anthem, this piece was originally published in 1614 as a lute-song in a volume called The teares or lamentacions of a sorrowfull soule. Happy stuff, to be sure.

Ford was an English composer, lutenist, viol player and poet. He was attached to the court of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of James I, who died in 1612

The communion handbell voluntary is a setting of the familiar hymn Praise to the Lord, by Anna Laura Page. Page is a composer, clinician and organist who has taught organ at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and at Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. For three years she served as director of the Austin Peay Community Children's Chorus in Clarksville, Tennessee before moving to Sherman, Texas, where she lives with her husband, Dr. Oscar C. Page, President of Austin College.

Hymn Notes:
O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE) Considered one of the finest paraphrases written by Isaac Watts, O God, Our Help in Ages Past expresses a strong note of assurance, promise, and hope in the LORD as recorded in the first part of Psalm 90, even though the entire psalm has a recurring theme of lament. Watts wrote the paraphrase in nine stanzas around 1714. Our hymnal includes the most well-known stanzas. The first line, originally "Our God, our help … ," was changed to "O God, our help…" by John Wesley in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns. (1738). It has great stature in the British Commonwealth and virtually serves as a second national anthem.

Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG) William Pierson Merrill was an American Presbyterian clergyman, who served in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. Considered an outstanding preacher, he was also an author and a hymn writer. When an editor told Dr. Merrill that there was a need for more hymns on Christian brotherhood, he responded by writing Rise Up, O Men of God, a hymn that emphasizes human priorities and responsibilities. This hymn began to be criticized because it spoke only of men of God and not women, so to make it more inclusive, the term “Men” became “Saints.”

I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON) I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light  was written one sweltering hot summer by Kathleen Thomerson, an Episcopalian organist, who had moved to St. Louis, Missouri, the previous fall. That summer, her mother came from Houston, Texas, to visit. Because an airline strike cancelled her mother’s travel plans and a heat wave was making St. Louis unbearable, Thomerson decided to drive her mother back to Houston. This hymn came to her as she anticipated visiting her “brothers and sisters in Christ at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston.”  Hence, the tune name is HOUSTON.

In my life, Lord, be glorified (LORD, BE GLORIFIED) Singer-songwriter and producer Bob Kilpatrick tells this story about writing this standard contemporary chorus. "One evening at my mother-in-law's house I got the idea of writing a private prayer song for (wife) Cindy and me to sing before we would go on stage. While the rest of the family was in the family room I sat alone in the living room with my guitar and Bible and the song 'In My Life Lord Be Glorified' began to come. I had composed all of the melody and most of the counterpoint when Cindy came in. I told her about what I was writing and that it would be just for the two of us. It was Cindy that strongly suggested to me that I sing it publicly. I think she knew from the start that other people would want to sing it, too.”

Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT) The Reverend Dudley A. Tyng was a dynamic Episcopal priest known for his preaching. On, March 30, 1858, Tyng preached a sermon on Exodus 10:11, “Go now ye that are men and serve the Lord”, at a YMCA noon mass meeting to 5,000 men, with more than 1,000 of those men responded to the call. Just over a week later, Tyng lay dying as a result of a tragic accident. His final statement, whispered to friends and family, was “Let us all stand up for Jesus.”

The Sunday following Tyng's death, Presbyterian Pastor George Duffield preached a sermon as a tribute to the final words of his friend Tyng. He concluded his sermon with a six-stanza poem. The poem Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, has since become one of the most recognized hymns in all English-speaking Christendom.