Music for Sunday, June 12, 2022 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Missa Brevis No. 4 – Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)
• A Ukrainian Prayer – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Give Me – Carson P. Cooman (b. 1982)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory be to God on High – Georg Philipp Teleman (1681-1767)
• We All Believe in One True God – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA)
• Hymn S-236 - Canticle 13: Benedictus es, Domine - setting by John Rutter
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)

This Sunday is Music Sunday. Our music ministry will be honored as part of the worldwide Music Sunday Celebration of the RSCM (The Royal School of Church Music). 

There are so many special days in the calendar, but Music Sunday is a day to connect in spirit with the whole of the RSCM. It is heart-warming to know that churches around the country, and indeed the world, are focusing on the role of music in worship and the dedicated church musicians who lead this. 

Here at Good Shepherd, we will take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many people who work in music leadership in our church. We will also sing a Missa Brevis by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley and a new anthem by John Rutter, written as a prayer for the people of Ukraine.

Missa Brevis No. 4

The Service Music (Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) is the Missa Brevis No. 4 by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley. Missa Brevis means "brief mass," and was written for her own church choir. The three movements are written for a 4-part acapella choir. 

Born and raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, Daley received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and holds diplomas in piano and organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto and Trinity College, England. She has been the Director of Music at Fairlawn Heights United Church in Toronto, Ontario since 1982. During this time, she has established a thriving choral program for which much of her music has been composed, thanks to the continuing support and talent of her choirs.

A Ukrainian Prayer

The offertory anthem is a new work by the English composer John Rutter. Rutter was moved to write "A Ukrainian Prayer" when Ukraine was attacked by Russia. As Rutter says, "How can a composer respond to a global tragedy? By writing music is the most obvious thing. Like everybody, I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the events of recent days, and the first thing I wanted to do was write some music that would respond in my own way."

"I went to a late night service in my old college chapel, where they sang a setting of a lovely Ukrainian prayer. So, having encountered the text in another musical setting on Wednesday night, on Thursday, I wrote my own music. I hope the meaning of the text will resonate in people’s hearts."

The anthem is written in an acapella, Eastern Orthodox style. The text is an old Ukrainian prayer:

Боже, Україну храни

Дай нам силу, вірі, й надії

Отче наш, Отче наш

Амінь

A literal translation of the text is:

Good Lord, protect Ukraine.

Give her strength, courage, faith, hope. Amen.

Give Me

During communion, the choir will sing a round written by American composer Carson Cooman on a text by Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088), a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century. The choir has been closing their rehearsals each week by singing this round as part of our closing prayers.

O God, give me a heart that I can pour out in thanksgiving.

Give me life that I can spend it working for the salvation of the world.

Music for Sunday, February 14, 2021 + The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O Splendor of God’s Glory Bright – Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
• Hymn 135: Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on ST. ELIZABETH – Carson P. Cooman (b. 1982)
• I. Theme
• II. Duo
• III. Gigue
• IV. Meditation
• V. Chorale
• Walk With Us – Alexis Ffrench (b. 1970)
• Fanfare and Chorale – Calvin Fuller (21st C.)

The music for this Sunday includes the music of two living Black composers, one living White composer, and one very dead White man. Since we are observing Black History month, let’s start with the two Black Composers.

I’m really happy and excited to be playing the piano piece during the eucharist by the British classical soul pioneer, composer, producer and pianist Alexis Ffrench (that’s not a typo – he spells his name with two ffs). Not only is Ffrench the UK's biggest selling pianist of 2020, he has headlined London's Royal Albert Hall, collaborated with fashion houses Miyake and Hugo Boss, played Latitude Festival, worked with Paloma Faith, composed several film scores and shares the same management team as Little Mix and Niall Horan.

Ffrench's music has amassed over 200 million streams and both albums Evolution and Dreamland reached No. 1 in the classical music charts. "Even calling yourself 'a classical artist' is a barrier of entry to many people. My music has a classical signature in its DNA, but it's borderless, a synthesis of many styles.”

Alexis Ffrench

Ffrench has been improvising on the piano since the age of four. Before his formal music education, at the age of seven Ffrench was appointed head organist at his local church in Surrey, becoming the UK's youngest church organist. Growing up in a household full of the music of Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and Ella Fitzgerald, Ffrench first honed his craft by playing the kitchen table aged four and writing his first pieces at five, his prodigious gifts convincing his parents to buy a second-hand piano. He received scholarships to study at The Purcell School for Young Musicians, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

His 2020 single "Walk With Us" pays homage to the Black Lives Matter movement. Like everyone else, he's watched the news of George Floyd unfold with a sense of horror, grief-stricken at events in the United States.

"From traumas, past and present, as we collectively breathe new life into urgent conversations and actions, I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: 'The problem can only be solved when there is a kind of coalition of conscience'. Only together can we meet the moment purposefully and move forward in positivity and love."

"I hope that by lending my musical voice to the Black Lives Matter movement through this video I can elevate the cause in some small way and entreat listeners to #walkwithus..."

The closing voluntary comes from much closer to home, as I repeat my friend Calvin Fuller’s bombastic Fanfare and Chorale which I first played during the virtual services this past summer. You can read about it here.

Carson P. Cooman

The opening voluntary is a set of short variations on the familiar hymn, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” by the young American organist, Carson Cooman. A native of Rochester, New York, he is a composer, concert organist, editor, and consultant. As an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms, from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes, his works have been performed on six continents and have been recorded on over 40 CDs. As a performer, over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD releases and more than 3,000 recordings available online.

Since 2006, Cooman has held the position of Composer in Residence at The Memorial Church, Harvard University. From 2008-11, he also served as Composer in Residence to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 2015, he has been Organ and Choral Editor for Lorenz Publishing Company and Sacred Music Press.

The anthem for this Sunday is an excerpt from a larger motet by the very dead Claudio Monteverdi, an Italian composer, singer, and priest from Cremona, Italy. Monteverdi is one of the most important composers in the history of Western music, whose music marked the transition from the late Renaissance to the new "Baroque" style, combining the brand-new basso continuo technique with formal counterpoint. He did much to develop the then-new genre, the opera, writing one of the very first operas, L'Orfeo (1607),  which is still performed regularly today. 

He was also a pioneer in music for the Church: his Vespero della Beata Vergine of 1610 is a landmark work for choir and orchestra that introduces, alongside archaic polyphony, such forward-looking techniques as concertato writing and ritornello forms to sacred music.