Music for April 23, 2023 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Instrumental Music

• Ach Bleib bei uns, Herr Jesus Christ, BWV 649 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Improvisation on Picardy – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Prelude in D Major, BWV 925 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 180 - He is risen, he is risen! (UNSER HERRSCHER)
• Hymn 296 - We know that Christ is raised (ENGLEBERG)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn R 229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R 233 - Glory be to Jesus (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (DUKE STREET)
• Psalm 116 – Hal Hopson

The Opening Voluntary:  Ach Bleib bei uns, Herr Jesus Christ

When you read the text of the chorale on which the opening voluntary is based, you become aware that this is actually an evening hymn. 

Ah Jesu Christ, with us abide,

For now, behold, ’tis eventide:

And bring, to cheer us through the night,

Thy Word, our true and only light.

But these lines are also based on scripture, the story of the disciples on their way to Emmaus when they meet their risen Lord.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. Luke 24

So you can see why I like to play Bach's setting of this evening hymn on the third Sunday of Easter. If you were to come across this piece on its own, for the first 30 seconds you’d be wondering what sort of piece it was. An exercise for just one hand? A work that’s survived incomplete? Or maybe a strange fugue with a theme that’s far too long? But when the second part enters, the bits of the puzzle soon fall into place with the chorale melody Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ: it’s a chorale arrangement! Like the other chorale arrangements from the Schübler-Choräle, this one too is an arrangement of an earlier work with a completely different instrumentation. Originally, Bach wrote almost identical notes as an aria for violoncello piccolo and soprano, as part of cantata BWV 6.

The Supper at Emmaus, Matthias Stom (ca. 1633 – 1639)
Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

The Anthem: Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing

This morning we repeat an anthem we sang last fall. (Think of this as the equivalent of one of episodes of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show which they would repeat after a busy week. We, like Johnny, were just too tired to prepare something new!) It is by twentieth-century American organist and choral and organ composer Gordon Young.  Dr. Young was awarded 18 consecutive annual composition awards from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. His works works total over 800, and a number of his church anthems such as this one have become standard repertoire.  These are Young's words which speak the praise of God within all our hearts expressed as “Alleluia”, an early Hebrew expression of praise which literally means "Praise to Yahweh" or "Praise God!"

Closing Voluntary: Prelude in D Major

This was actually scheduled to be played back in February, but Covid had other plans for my weekend.

This prelude is another spurious composition by J. S. Bach. It is found in Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a collection of keyboard music compiled by the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach for his eldest son and second child, Wilhelm Friedemann. 

Although numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the notebook were undoubtedly composed by J S Bach himself, it is possible that this prelude was actually written by W F Bach sometime in the 1720s, under the guidance of his father.

The music would originally have been played on harpsichord or on clavichord.

Music for Holy Week

April 5 +Tenebrae Service (7 PM)

Vocal Music

• Tenebrae: A Service of Darkness – Hal H. Hopson

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 168 - O Sacred Head Sore Wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)
• Hymn 158 - Ah, holy Jesus (HERZLIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 474 – When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

April 6 + Maundy Thursday (7 PM)

Vocal Music

• Ave Verum – Camille Saint-Saens

Instrumental Music

• Adore te Devote - Charles Callahan
• Tantum Ergo - Charles Callahan

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

• Hymn 439 - What wondrous love is this, O my soul (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 602 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn R148 - Brother, let me be your servant (THE SERVANT SONG)
• Hymn R226 - Ubi caritas et amor (Taizé)
• Hymn 171 – Go to dark Gethsemane (PETRA)
• Song – Could you not watch? (Hal Hopson)
• Psalm 116 – Hal Hopson

April 7 + Good Friday (Noon)

Vocal Music

• Were You There? – Spiritual

Instrumental Music

• O Sacred Head - Johann Sebastian Bach
• O Traurigkeit, O Herzelied - Ethel Smyth

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 158 - Ah, holy Jesus (HERZLIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 168 - O Sacred Head Sore Wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)
• Hymn 474 – When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 441 – In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)

CONFIRMED: Music for January 22, 2023 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Andante Moderato in C Minor – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• Prelude on “Kelvingrove” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major – Frank Bridge

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of Will You Come and Follow Me which is from other sources.)

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERRN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 513 - Like the murmur of the dove’s song (BRIDEGROOM)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn – Will you come and follow me? (KELVINGROVE)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 27:1, 5-13 - Dominus illuminatio (simplified Anglican Chant)

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

The choir sings one of our favorite anthems this Sunday, the beautiful Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by the British composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. This hymn, now one of England’s favorites, began life as the ballad of Meshullemeth (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’) in Act I of Judith, Parry's oratorio of 1888. It was only after Parry’s death that permission was granted by Novello and Parry’s estate to allow George Gilbert Stocks, the head of music at Repton School, to adapt the music to this text for the school’s hymn book, at which time the melody became known as REPTON.  It was also published in 1941 as the hymn-anthem (which we are singing today) in which much of the original music of the aria was restored.

Ironically, the author of this beautiful and much-loved hymn deeply disapproved of singing in church. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) was an American Quaker who firmly believed that God was best worshipped in silent meditation and who deplored the histrionics associated with both the High Church and the Evangelical movement.

He did, however, allow these verses to be used in a hymn book published in 1884. They are drawn from an interlude in his long and eccentric poem called The Brewing of Soma, which describes in shocked terms the Vedic Hindu habit of drinking hallucinogenic concoctions as a way of whipping up religious enthusiasm. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, tell's of the hymn's origins here.

Whittier advocated waiting instead for "the still small voice of calm" – an injunction beautifully suggested in the climax to this tune composed by Parry.

Parry was head of the Royal College of Music from 1895 until his death at age 70 in 1918. His 1916 composition, Jerusalem (And did those feet in ancient times), is belted out at sports events and is often called the unofficial English national anthem. 

Prelude on "Kelvingrove"

If you read my blog last week, you might remember that I played an organ setting of this same tune. Even though we weren't singing the hymn, I chose it to go along with the Gospel story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when Father Bill used the text of that hymn in his sermon, recalling how this hymn was popular with young people in the days when he was working with youth. 

Since the Gospel this week continues the story of Jesus calling his disciples, I decided to include that hymn as a piano voluntary as well as a congregational hymn during communion. The piano voluntary is by Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts who is well-known as an award-winning composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist, and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Frank Bridge

The opening and closing voluntaries are organ works by Frank Bridge, an English composer, violist and conductor of the first half of the twentieth century. Underappreciated, underplayed, and still little known even in his native England, Bridge is most frequently recognized today as the teacher of the young Benjamin Britten, who acknowledged his teacher's influence in a popular early work, Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge.

Although he was not an organist, nor personally associated with music of the English Church, his short pieces for organ have been among the most performed of all his output. This Sunday I will play two of them,  the Andante Moderato in C Minor and Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major. I have to say that I was surprised to learn he had no training as an organist, for his organ works are highly idiomatic for the instrument, and fit under the hands (and feet!) very comfortably.

Music for Sunday, September 25

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (10:15)

Vocal Music

• Praise God in His Holiness – Geoffrey Shaw (1879-1943)

Instrumental Music

• Grand jeu – Pierre du Mage (1674 – 1751)
• Suite du premier ton No. 3 Récit – Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
• Rigaudon – André Campra (1660-1744)

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

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 429 - I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath (OLD 113TH)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn R - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 625 - Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)
• Psalm 146 – Tone VIIIa

St. Michael and All Angels (5 PM)

Vocal Music

• God Be In My Head – H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)
• Ave Verum Corpus – W. A. Mozart 

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Picardy – Charles Callahan
• Ye Holy Angels Bright – Charles Callahan

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

• Hymn 618 - Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LAAST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 282 - Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (CAELITES PLAUDANT)
• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord, O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (TUNE)
• Hymn 625 - Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)
• Psalm x – Tone VIIIc

Praise God in His Holiness

The composer of today's anthem, the English organist, music educator, and composer Geoffrey Shaw, was the younger brother of the organist and composer Martin Shaw. As a boy, Geoffrey was a chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral in London under Sir George Martin. Later he was organ scholar at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied under Sir Charles Stanford and Dr. Chas. Wood.

From 1902 to 1910 Geoffrey Shaw was music master at Gresham's School, Holt. In 1920 he was named his brother's successor as organist at St. Mary's, Primrose Hill, London. He also served as inspector of music to the Board of Education from 1928 until his retirement in 1942. In this post he devoted himself to the furtherance of popular organisations, both in the schools and training colleges and by means of such unofficial activities as summer schools for teachers and competitive festivals. In 1932 he was awarded the honorary Lambeth degree of D.Mus. In 1947 the Geoffrey Shaw Memorial Fund was established to assist musically talented children.

Geoffrey Shaw composed a ballet, All at Sea, orchestral works, and chamber pieces, as well as partsongs and unison songs. He also co-operated with his brother in editing song books.

An interesting fact is that his son, Sebastian Shaw, was an actor who was chosen for the small but crucial role of redeemed, unmasked and dying Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, the third and final film in the original Star Wars trilogy. 

Music for Sunday, August 28, 2022 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Christ Has No Body Now but Yours – David Ogden (b. 1966)

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
• Prelude on “Michael” (hymn 665) – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Voluntary on “Was Lebet” (Hymn 568) – Christopher Tambling (1964 - 2015)

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Hymn - From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 321- My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (ENGLEBERG)
• Psalm 112 – Tone IIa

Christ Has No Body Now But Yours

Such a long, unwieldy title for simple tune. It's actually just the first line of the prayer attributed to Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish noblewoman who was called to be a nun in the 16th century. She wrote this prayer

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

It has been set to music by David Ogden, a professional conductor and composer based in Bristol, U.K. He is Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol where he trains and directs three choirs of young people and adults as part of the church’s active music program. In addition, he conducts the vocal ensemble Celestia, Exultate Singers, City of Bristol Choir, workplace choirs at Airbus, Arval and Bristol Beacon, and in his post of Head of the Bristol Choral Centre, he organizes and directs the 140 strong Bristol Youth Choirs in association with Bristol Music Trust.

One of the things that most fascinates me the most is that he was the Religious Music Adviser for the PBS series Call The Midwife. It is one of my most favorite shows, and I always admired how the sacred music employed on the show fit the storyline so well.

Aria

Flor Peeters was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, He retired in 1968 and was given the assignment of an International Masterclass in the cathedral of Mechelen by the Ministry of Flemish Culture. He fulfilled this task until his death. He was organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986. Each Sunday after High Mass, between 1968 and 1986, he performed a short recital for friends and tourists. He kept his large repertoire in good condition and this playing was a necessity for him as a mean of communicating beauty to others.

Flor Peeters was made doctor honoris causa in music by the Catholic University in Washington (1962) and by the Catholic University of Louvain (1971).Also in 1971 King Baudouin of the Belgians gave him the title of baron. A few weeks before his death he received the State Award for an artistic career from the Belgian Government.

Prelude on "Michael" and Voluntary on "Was Lebet"

Two of the hymns that were appropriate for the scripture readings this Sunday but remain unfamiliar to our congregation are hymns 665 (All our hope on God is founded, sung to the tune MICHAEL) and 568 (Father all loving, who rulest in majesty, sung to the German chorale WAS LEBET.) The text for hymn 665 is a translation of a German hymn from the 17th cenutry, but set to a tune from the 20th century. The text for 568 is a contemporary text from the 20th century but set to a German tune from the 18th century.

Music for February 13, 2022 + The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Blessed Is the Man – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Instrumental Music

• If Thou But Trust in God to Guide Thee – Georg Böhm (1661–1733)
• Hymn 635 in The Hymnal 1982
• Holy Manna – arr.Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Hymn 580 in The Hymnal 1982
• Erhalt Uns, Herr – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Hymn 191 in Renew

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

• Hymn 48 - O day of radiant gladness (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Psalm 1 – Tone Va

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was arguably, one of Russia's greatest composers. After his triumphant tour of America in 1891, and being awarded an honorary doctorate at Cambridge University in 1893, he was accepted as a world figure, not a merely national composer but one of universal significance. In 1891 the Carnegie Hall program booklet proclaimed him, together with Brahms and Saint-Saëns, to be one of the three greatest living musicians, while music critics praised him as "a modern music lord".

He wrote several works which still enjoy popularity, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. But he also wrote many smaller works, including an Album for the Young, op. 39. Robert Schumann wrote a similar book some years earlier, under the same title. Schumann wrote his collection because there wasn’t much good piano material at an easier level, and Tchaikovsky likely wrote his own collection for the same reasons.

In this collection, Tchaikovsky wrote pieces inspired by Russia, his travels, dances, and various children’s concepts (like "The Sick Doll"). It’s a really diverse collection both in emotion and content.

Today's anthem is an adaptation of one of those pieces, titled "In Church." The text comes from different scripture sources, including the psalm appointed for today, Psalm 1.

All of the organ music today is based on hymn tunes, two of which are being sung in the service today. The opening voluntary is a set of two variations of the tune WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT, which we will sing at the presentation of the offering. The hymn in our hymnal is in 3/4 time, while the setting by the German composer Georg Böhm, is in 4/4 time.

Georg Böhm was one of the leading organists and organ composers in North Germany in the years around 1700. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach. The opening voluntary is from one of his chorale partitas, large-scale compositions consisting of several variations on a particular chorale melody. He effectively invented the genre, writing several partitas of varying lengths and on diverse tunes. Later composers also took up the genre, most notably 

Bach. Böhm's chorale partitas feature sophisticated figuration in several voices over the harmonic structure of the chorale. His partitas generally have a rustic character and can be successfully performed on either the organ or the harpsichord.

Music for January 23, 2022 + The Third Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Whose Glory – Rachel Aarons (b. 1984)

Instrumental Music

• Psalm XIX: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)
• In Viam Pacis – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Intrada on “Abbot’s Leigh” – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)

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

• Hymn 475 - God himself is with us (TYSK)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 632 - O Christ, the Word Incarnate (MUNICH)
• Hymn R-226 - Ubi Caritas (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 539 - O Zion, haste (TIDINGS)
• Psalm 19 – Tone Va

This Sunday is a bit unusual in that of all the composers featured, only one is a dead white guy, and 50% of the composers are women!

Rachel Aarons

Let me start with telling you about the anthem. The familiar hymn Christ, whose glory fills the skies (no. 7 in our hymnal) has been given a new tune by Virginia composer Rachel Aarons. A native of Laramie, Wyoming, Aarons has played piano since the age of four. While in college, she studied piano, voice, and composition while pursuing a B.A. in French Language and Literature. Aarons composes for her church choir where she is happy to be a "Back Row Alto." She lives in Virginia with her husband, and her two dogs, and stays busy as a real estate agent.

In this setting, there are actually two different tunes. The first verse, sung by the trebles, is set to a jaunty tune in 6/8 time, one that would be easy to skip to. Verse two is totally different, in a restrained 4/4 meter, sung by the men. Then on the final stanza, the original tune reappears, this time in canon between the trebles and the basses. It is a refreshing take on these old words.

Rebecca Groom
te Velde

The other work by a female composer is the closing voluntary by Rebecca Groom te Velde. She is a third-generation professional organist, following both parents and her grandfather. She graduated summa cum laude from Seattle Pacific University where she studied organ and composition with her father, Lester H. Groom. In 1982, she received the M.Mus in organ literature and performance from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. For the academic year 1980-81 she received a full grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study with Michael Schneider at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. In 1991 she assumed her present position as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, OK. She is an active performer, composer, clinician, and adjunct instructor of music at Oklahoma State University.

te Velde has published several collections of works based on hymn tunes, including this "Intrada" or introduction to the tune ABBOT'S LEIGH (which we sing with the words "God is here, and we his people," "Lord, you give the great commission," and "God is Love, let heaven adore him," which we will sing at 10:15 next week.

Music for January 2, 2021 + The Second Sunday after Christmas

Vocal Music

• Christ Be With Me – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019)

Instrumental Music

• The Old Year Away Hath Fled – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Let all mortal flesh keep silence – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• In Thee Is Joy – Johann Sebastian Bach 

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 109 - The first Nowell the angel did say (THE FIRST NOWELL)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH)
• Hymn 127 - Earth has many a noble city (STUTTGART
• Hymn 480 - When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn 119 - As with gladness men of Old (STUTTGART)

This Sunday is the second Sunday after Christmas day. Between this Sunday and the next, the church calendar includes the Epiphany, January 6, the day the Magi discovered the newborn King. Since we don't have a service on Epiphany, we acknowledge this with some Epiphany hymns this Sunday. And since Sunday is so close to the beginning of the new year, I'm also throwing in a couple of organ preludes Bach included in his collection Orgelbüchlein, which tracks the liturgical year with a set of chorale preludes starting in Advent, advancing through Christmas to Pentecost; these two pieces are included in the section for New Year's Day. The first is evident: The Old Year Now Away Hath Fled.

The second is not overtly written for New Year, but it's infectios joy is perfect for the week after Christmas. In Thee Is Gladness (In dir ist Freude) is constructed around an extremely brief five-note motif from the first five notes of the chorale. Bach sticks teasingly to these five opening notes, of which two are even the same note. It is only by degrees that we get to hear the whole melody, but even then the little motif keeps popping up.

The anthem is a setting of St. Patrick's prayer, Christ be With Me, which is a perfect for a new year.

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort me and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. Amen.

Noel Rawsthorn

It is written by Noel Rawsthorne, a British organist and composer who was organist at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral from 1955 until 1980. He had begun there as a chorister at age 10.

After stepping down from the cathedral in 1980, he worked with the music publisher Kevin Mayhew on arrangements for the organ of well-known classical works. Volume followed volume, covering every possible occasion. Likewise, numerous collections of simple voluntaries were published, each being cleverly and precisely imagined, their structures handled with great care. 

Music for Sunday, November 14, 2021 + The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – C. H. H. Parry (1848-1918)

Instrumental Music

• Mensch, Willst Du Leben Seliglich – Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637 – 1707)
• Prelude on Michael – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• “Little” Prelude and Fugue in G Minor – attr. J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

Hymn 51- We the Lord’s People (DECATUR PLACE)
Hymn 686 - Come, thou font of every blessing (NETTLETON)
Hymn 301 - Bread of the world in mercy broken (RENDEZ À DIEU)
Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
Psalm 16 Tone II, refrain by James E. Barrett

The choir sings one of the beautiful hymn anthems arranged from the British composer Charles H. H. Parry. We are singing it this afternoon as part of the Diocese of Texas' Choral Festival, which I am directing. You can learn more about this anthem by reading this post from January 2020 when we last sang it.

Buxtehude

The opening voluntary is one of the lesser known chorale preludes of  Dietrich Buxtehude, but a very fine one. The melody and text of this hymn, Mensch, willst du leben seliglich, are probably from Martin Luther. The text is referring to the ten commandments. Buxtehude puts the beautiful melody in the center and creates a fine, lyrical piece from it. The English translation is roughly, "Man, do you want to live happily?" That just doesn't sound very poetic, so I left it in German.

The communion voluntary is an organ arrangement of Herbert Howell's hymn tune, MICHAEL. It was originally called 'A Hymn Tune for Charterhouse' but when Howells' son Michael died of polio at the age of nine in 1935, Howells re-named it after him. 

The text, "All My Hope on God is Founded" is an English translation, by the poet Robert Bridges, of a German hymn,  "Meine Hoffnung stehet feste" written around 1680 by Joachim Neander. Here is the text. It is a beautiful marriage of text and tune, and one that deserves to be better known.

1 All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone
calls my heart to be his own.

2 Mortal pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God's power, hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

And I am continuing my (almost) montly series of playing the so-called "8 Little Preludes and Fugues" by (supposedly) J. S. Bach. Though they are included in the Bach catalogue (BW 553-560), it is presumed today that Johann Sebastian Bach did not compose the "eight." Composition of the eight have been attributed to one or more of Bach's students, including both JohannTobias Krebs or his son Ludwig [Krebs], or Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer. 

Today you will hear the sixth installment, the Prelude and Fugue in G Minor. The conventional formulaic cadences and simple one-bar sequences over a basso continuo seem like a composer "consciously creating a series of samples". The subject of the fugue is composed of three separate motifs, all of which can be found in canzonas and ricercars. The 19th-century Bach scholar Philipp Spitta praised the fugue, particularly its modulations. Contemporary Bach scholar Peter Williams has suggested that "perhaps the imaginative penultimate bar was inspired by J. S. Bach"

Music for Sunday, October 31, 2021 + + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Give to You a New Commandment – Peter Nardone (b. 1965)

Instrumental Music

• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637 – 1707)
• Let Us Break Bread Together – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 688 - A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn 602 - Jesus, Jesus, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God! (FESTAL SONG)

There are three things we are focusing on musically today. First is the Gospel reading. In Mark 12:28-31we read, 

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

This reminded me of the passage in John 13 where Jesus gives a new commandment, that we love one another as Jesus has loved us. I therefore looked to Peter Nardone's anthem setting of that scripture which pairs those words with an original tune with the Roman Catholic chant, Ubi Caritas.

Where charity and love are, there God is.

The love of Christ has gathered us into one.

Let us exult, and in Him be joyful.

Let us fear and let us love the living God.

And from a sincere heart let us love each other.

You'll hear the tenors and basses sing that chant in Latin while the trebles sing the scripture.

Peter Nardone is a free-lance conductor, singer and composer who has sung with the Monteverdi Choir, The King’s Consort and the Tallis Scholars. He has been Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral and was subsequently Organist and Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral.

The second thing we focus on today is the Reformation. Today is Reformation Day, a Protestant Christian religious holiday celebrated on October 31st in remembrance of the onset of the Reformation. According to Philip Melanchthon, All Hallows' Eve 1517 was the day German monk Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony. His famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is considered to be the great Reformation hymn. We will sing the hymn at the opening of the service, preceded by Dietrich Buxtehude's elegant chorale prelude based on the hymn. Just don't expect to recognize the melody in Buxtehude's setting

The third thing we focus on today (at the end of the service) is All Hallows' Eve, better known as Halloween. It is liturgical in as far as the day is the Eve of All Hallows' Day (or All Saints' Day). It's roots are Christian, but it's modern reflection is more secular, or at least Pagan. And of all the music for organ, the pièce de résistance is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Whenever I meet new people and tell them I am an organist, more often than not they will ask "Can you play the Phantom of the Opera?" - meaning, "can you play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565?" Whatever. It's a fun piece to play, and if I'm ever going to play it in church, today is the day. 

me, practicing this Sunday's closing voluntary.

Music for July 4, 2021 + Independence Day

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “God Save the Queen” (America) – Charles Wesley (1757-1834)
• Meditation on "Finlandia"- Brenda Portman (b. 1980)
• Improvisation on “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• The Stars and Stripes Forever – John Philips Sousa (1854-1932)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers, whose almighty hand (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn 599 - Lift every voice and sing (LIFT EVERY VOICE)
• Psalm 145:1-9 – Tone VIIIa

It's a rare day when the fourth of July falls on a Sunday. The Book of Common Prayer has readings and prayer for Independence Day in the lectionary, and while it is not supposed to supersede the Propers for the day, we are taking the liberty to assert our independence and observe the day in our worship services.

This gives me the opportunity to schedule hymns and music with a more patriotic bent. The hymns all work together to focus on our reliance on God and in recognition of his blessings on us individually and as a people. Some of the more overtly patriotic hymns will be sung at the church picnic after the 10:15 service ("My country, tis of thee", "O beautiful for spacious skies"*). The hymns sung this morning are truly American, however.

Take the first hymn, which is called "The National Hymn." Daniel C. Roberts wrote this patriotic hymn in 1876 for July 4 centennial celebrations in Brandon, Vermont, where he was rector at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Originally entitled "God of Our Fathers," this text was later chosen as the theme hymn for the centennial celebration of the adoption of the United States Constitution. It was published in the Protestant Episcopal Hymnal of 1892.

Many American patriotic hymns extol the beauty and worth of the United States first, and treat God almost as an afterthought, which makes it difficult for some Christians to be comfortable singing them in the context of a worship service. This hymn puts God first, and is constantly addressed to Him as a prayer for the nation, without reference to American superiority. The second and third stanzas allude to a nation's need for God's law and guidance to maintain peace.

The hymn God bless our native land is a translation of a German hymn written in 1815 by writer Siegfried A. Mahlmann. It is set to the tune AMERICA, which is also the English National Anthem, “God save the Queen." It's this tune that we hear for the opening voluntary, a set of variations by the English musician Charles Wesley. He was the son of Sarah and Charles Wesley (the great hymn-writer and one of the founders of Methodism), and the brother of Samuel Wesley, also an organist and composer. He is usually referred to as "Charles Wesley junior" to avoid confusion with his more famous father. 

Although Charles Wesley junior is much less well known than his brother Samuel Wesley, he was, like Samuel, regarded as a musical prodigy in childhood, and he was playing the organ before the age of three. He became a professional musician in adulthood, and the European Magazine of 1784 reported that "his performance on the organ has given supreme delight". However he did not enjoy public performance, and worked mainly as a private organist, at one time to the Prince Regent; he was connected with the royal family through much of his life, having first played at the Queen's House at the age of 18.

For communion I have chosen a setting of the hymn tune FINLANDIA, which is taken from a tone poem of the same name by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki. Later, Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland. 

With different words, it is also sung as a Christian hymn, "Be Still, My Soul" and the text which I had in mind when I chose it for today. The American poet Lloyd Stone wrote "This Is My Song" in 1934, when he was 22. It was paired with FINLANDIA by an editor at Lorenz Publishing Company as the anthem "A Song of Peace: A Patriotic Song." He wrote the stanzas for inclusion in the collection, Sing a Tune. During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations—“for lands afar and mine.” I love how Stone acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations.

Brenda Portman

The second stanza begins by alluding to the blue skies, the ocean, sunlight, “cloverleaf and pine” of Stone’s own country, but then acknowledges that in other countries, “skies are everywhere as blue as mine.” The stanza concludes: “O hear my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for their land and for mine.”

The arranger of this piece, composer Brenda Portman, is currently Resident Organist at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church in Cincinnati where she also serves as Executive Director of the church's renowned Organ Concert Series. She is also Adjunct Organ Instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of Wheaton College, Northwestern University, and University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. 

Meditation on Finlandia was featured in the  AAM Virtual Conference Evensong at Washington National Cathedral; Thomas Sheehan, organist, on June 14th of this year.

I end the service as I do every year that Sunday and Independence Day collide with E. Power Bigg's arrangement of John Philip Sousa's stirring march,
The Stars and Stripes Forever! Feel free to clap along!

*I'll play this one for the offertory on Sunday.

Music for June 20, 2021 + The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• We Shall Be Delivered – Sea Chanty, arr. Sanford Dole

Instrumental Music

• Fantaisie en ut - César Franck (1822-1890)
• Humbly I Adore Thee – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• March Pontificale – Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881)

Congregational Music (hymns from the Hymnal 1982, or Renew (marked “R”) or Lift Every Voice and Sing II (marked *)

• Hymn R194 - Jesus, what a Friend for sinners (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn* - When the storms of life are raging (STAND BY ME)
• Hymn 608 - Eternal Father, strong to save (MELITA)
• Psalm 107– Tone VIIIa

We all know sea shanties. A sea shanty (chantey or chanty) is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. They were found mostly on British and other European ships, and some had roots in lore and legend. These songs were simple, rhythmic melodies that were easy to learn and easy to sing. There is usually lots of repetition, either of lyrics or a refrain. The most commonly known is probably “What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor.” The Gilligan’s Island theme song is written in the style of a sea shanty.

 
Sea shanties resurfaced in popular culture. In 2009 a BBC Radio presenter was in Cornwall on holiday and came across homemade CDs of some local fishermen. An agent travelled to Port Isaac and negotiated a recording contract worth £1 million for them with Universal Music Group, who, taking quite a gamble, signed them to a recording deal. To everyone’s surprise, Fisherman’s Friends and their album reached number 9 in the charts and achieved Gold Record status.

 
Then early this year, a Scotland-based postman named Nathan Evans posted a rendition of the New Zealand shanty "Soon May the Wellerman Come," on TikTok. Nathan’s incredible rendition of The Wellerman exploded on the platform and has even become something of a TikTok challenge.

Using the TikTok duet feature - which lets you record a video alongside another TikTok user - users are layering their harmonies over Nathan’s original video, including the renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. To date, over 17.5 million people have watched the original video.

Taking that same song, “Soon May the Wellerman Come,” some Episcopal church musicians in California have rewritten the words to fit this Sunday’s Gospel lesson.

One day our Lord, his sermon over, said, “Let’s go off to the other shore.”
So each disciple took an oar and they began their voyage.
The boat set out for the other side and for an hour did gently ride,
but then the watchman loud did cry, “A storm is coming in!”
Then how the wind did blow, the waves did over the gunwales flow,
strong as the crew did row, the ship was close to found’rin’.

I have to admit, it’s a fun song to sing, and I hope it will help cement the lesson in our hearts as well as our minds.

All of the hymns reinforce the theme that Jesus calms our troubled seas. The opening hymn is Jesus, What a Friend of Sinners by the great Presbyterian evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman. The hymn includes these two stanzas:

Jesus! what a help in sorrow!

While the billows o'er me roll,

even when my heart is breaking,

he, my comfort, helps my soul.

    Refrain:

Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Hallelujah, what a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

he is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a guide and keeper!

While the tempest still is high,

storms about me, night o'ertakes me,

he, my pilot, hears my cry. [Refrain]

The opening and closing voluntaries are works by two Belgian organist who live at the same time, César Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck, who was based in Paris most of his adult life, and Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, who studied in Paris and Germany before returning to Belgium. 

Music for April 18, 2021 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain – R. S. Thatcher (1888-1957)
• Come, Risen Lord – Alfred Morton Smith (1879-1971)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on Middlebury – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Hymn 213 - Come Away to the Skies
• Hornpipe – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the canticle which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Canticle Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 182 Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO) (stanzas 1,2,5)
• Hymn 180 He is risen, he is risen! (UNSER HERRSCHER) (stanzas 1,2,4)

The anthem this Sunday morning is by Reginald Thatcher, an English musician and educator who lived in the first part of the 20th century. From all accounts, he was an unassuming man, though he held leadership positions at several fine schools before becoming principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1944. He was also the assistant director of music for the BBC during the early war years in the late 30s until 1943. 

His anthem, Come, Ye Faithful, was written when he was director of the Harrow School, one of the most prestigious schools for boys in the world. It uses the text by eighth-century Greek poet John of Damascus (c. 675- c. 754) who is especially known for his writing of six canons for the major festivals of the church year. (A canon is a form of Greek hymnody based on biblical canticles. Greek canons demonstrate how Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ's resurrection.) This text was written around 750 and inspired by the Song of Moses in Exodus 15.

The communion motet is simply a hymn straight from our hymnal. I’ve chosen it because it is perfect for today’s Gospel and the celebration of the Eucharist. It is a fine text which celebrates the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. Stanzas 1 and 4 allude to the part of the Emmaus story (Luke 24:28-35) in which the two disciples invite Jesus to be their guest, but then Jesus becomes their host. Stanza 2 focuses on our partaking of the sacrament and stanzas 3 and 4 on the oneness we share with all believers in this world and in heaven.

Originally written as "Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest," the text by George W. Briggs (1875 -
1959) was first published in the original edition of the British hymnbook Songs of Praise (1925). Briggs was a well-known twentieth-century hymn writer. A clergyman in the Church of England, he served a number of parishes and was a chaplain in the Royal Navy. He was especially interested in promoting meaningful worship in the British schools and consequently wrote Prayers and Hymns for Use in Schools (1927) and Prayers and Hymns for Junior Schools (1933). Briggs was a founding member of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

This tune was written by the Rev. Alfred M. Smith, an Episcopal priest from Pennsylvania whose avocation was music. He has written three hymn-tunes, two of which are in our hymnal.

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.

Music for September 6, 2020 + The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• The Lord is My Light – Mary Frances Allitsen (1848 – 1912)

Instrumental Music

• Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV 646 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Hymn to Joy; Finale – Charles Callahan (b. 1952)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 376 Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (TUNE)
• Song of Praise S-280 Glory to God – Robert Powell

This Sunday we are so very fortunate to have one of the bright stars of Houston classical music singing for us during our virtual worship. Todd Miller is the driving force behind the music department at Lone Star College, Kingwood, where he has been on the faculty since 1994. Todd earned a Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Louisville. He also obtained a Master of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Arizona. In addition, he holds a doctoral degree in voice performance and conducting from the University of Houston.

As a singer he has performed with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Choral Society, Houston Chamber Choir, Greenbriar Consortium, the San Antonio Symphony, and Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera in the Heights, and Carnegie Hall.

He is probably best known in Kingwood as the director of the Kingwood Chorale, which he has conducted since 1996, and as director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Kingwood. Since both churches are yet to meet live, it made it possible for us to collaborate for the music this Sunday.

I often joke when someone asks what music we will be doing on Sunday and say "Something by some dead white man." 

The names of women and people of color are sorely lacking when you look at the list of music so often sung in most congregations. So when Todd gave me a choice between two songs, I chose "The Lord Is My Light," by the British composer Mary Frances Allitsen. So this Sunday I get to talk about a dead white WOMAN!

Frances Allitsen was born as Mary Bumpus in London, but her family moved to a small village where Frances felt isolated and lonely. She said of that time, "It was impossible to go out walking of an afternoon without it being imputed that I was going to see the young men come in on the train, where the chief subject of conversation was garments, and the most extravagant excitement sandwich parties." Her family did not support her interest in music and as a result she was discouraged from seeking a formal education in the subject.

She began her musical career as a singer, but her voice failed and she ended her singing career and turned to voice coaching and composing. She took some of her compositions to Thomas Henry Weist Hill, principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and he expressed his regret that she had put off serious study till so late. She began to apply herself to her musical studies with determination, but because she had to teach in order to support herself, and, at that time, this required travelling to her pupils' residences on trains and buses, she had to confine her studies to the night hours, in a state of fatigue. Later, on tour in America to promote her music, she told Etude magazine that, looking back, she scarcely knew how she lived through those days.

Allitsen published over fifty songs in many different styles, the most successful being the setting of Psalm 27 which we will hear this Sunday.

She also wrote two overtures, entitled Undine and Slavonique, a Funeral March, and a Tarantella, (which were performed by the Royal Artillery Band and by the Crystal Palace orchestra), and other piano pieces.

The opening voluntary is one of Bach's Schübler Chorales, "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" ("Whither shall I flee?")  Named after its publish, Johan Georg Schübler, the original title was Sechs Chorale von verschiedener Art: auf einer Orgel mit 2 Clavieren und Pedal vorzuspielen (lit. 'six chorales of diverse kinds, to be played on an organ with two manuals and pedal')

At least five preludes of the compilation are transcribed from movements in Bach's church cantatas, mostly chorale cantatas he had composed around two decades earlier. The only questionable one is the one I'm playing today. There is no extant model from which the chorale prelude may have transcribed. Most scholars assume that the source cantata is one of the 100 or so believed to have been lost. 

The trio scoring of the movement suggests the original may have been for violin, or possibly violins and violas in unison (right hand), and continuo (left hand), with the chorale (pedal) sung by soprano or alto.

Music for March 8, 2020 + Lent II

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Goss (1800-1880)

Instrumental Music

• Wär Gott nicht mi tuns diese Zeit – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• (Had God Not Been With Us This Time)
• Contemplation on “Beautiful Savior” – Matthew Compton (b. 1994) 
• Good Shepherd Handbell Guild
• Lift High the Cross – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)

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

• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn R 132 - As Moses raised the serpent up (GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn 691 - My faith looks up to thee (OLIVET)
• Hymn 313 - Let thy Blood in mercy poured (JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)
• Psalm 121 – tone IIa

Sir John Goss, looking for all
the world like Franz Schubert.

This Sunday's anthem is a setting of a verse from Sunday's Gospel reading, a verse that is probably the most well known and memorized verse from the Bible. Most choirs know and sing John Stainer's setting of God So Loved the World, but few know the setting by Stainer's teacher and predecessor, Sir John Goss, who was an English organist, composer and teacher.

Born to a musical family, Goss was a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, London, and later a pupil of Thomas Attwood, organist of St Paul's Cathedral. After a brief period as a chorus member in an opera company he was appointed organist of a chapel in south London, later moving to more prestigious organ posts at St Luke's Church, Chelsea and finally St Paul's Cathedral, where he struggled to improve musical standards.

As a composer, his best-known compositions are his hymn tunes "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" and "See, Amid the Winter's Snow". The music critic of The Times described him as the last of the line of English composers who confined themselves almost entirely to ecclesiastical music.

From 1827 to 1874, Goss was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, teaching harmony. He also taught at St Paul's. Among his pupils at the academy were Arthur Sullivan, Frederic Cowen and Frederick Bridge. His best-known pupil at St Paul's was John Stainer, who succeeded him as organist there.

Goss was noted for his piety and gentleness of character. His pupil, John Stainer, wrote, "That Goss was a man of religious life was patent to all who came into contact with him, but an appeal to the general effect of his sacred compositions offers public proof of the fact." His mildness was a disadvantage when attempting to deal with his recalcitrant singers. He was unable to do anything about the laziness of the tenors and basses, who had lifetime security of tenure and were uninterested in learning new music.

I can relate.

Music for Sunday, February 2, 2020 + The Presentation of Our Lord

Vocal Music

• When to the Temple Mary Went – Johannes Eccard (1553–1611)

Instrumental Music

• Improvisation on the hymntune “Rustington” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Lord God, Now Unlock Your Heaven, BWV 617 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Epiphany Suite: III. Postlude (based on “Ratisbon”) – Charles Callahan

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

• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO)
• Hymn 497 - How bright appears the Morning Star (WIE SCHON LEUCHTET)
• Hymn 278 - Sing we of the blessed Mother (RUSTINGTON)
• Hymn R 229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R 295 - Lord, bid your servant go in peace (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 84 – setting by Hal Hopson

This Sunday is Candelmas, or the Feast of the Presentation, when we remember the presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple when the priest Simeon saw him and exclaimed, “My eyes have seen thy salvation.”  The anthem is a German Renaissance setting of a text telling that story, written in 6 parts by Johannes Eccard. It is in two verses, with the same music on for each stanza. The German title was Maria wallt zum Heiligtum from the Erster Theil der preussischen Fest-Lieder, first published in 1642. In the 1800s, John Troutbeck, an English clergyman, wrote this translation which has been used ever since.

Johannes Eccard

Johannes Eccard was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia in 1553, and died in Berlin in 1611. Like most musicians of the time, he started his musical life as a chorister. He sang in the chapel of the Weimar court from age 14 until the chapel was disbanded four years later, when he went to the Bavarian Hofkapelle in Munich. In Munich he was lucky enough to be taken as a pupil by the great Orlando di Lassus, whose influence is clearly heard in Eccard’s music. At 26, Eccard entered the Hofkapelle of the Margrave Georg Friedrich of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and there he rose through the ranks, from singer to vice-Kapellmeister and finally Kapellmeister. I

Eccard was one of the most significant Protestant composers of chorale motets (motets using German hymn tunes, or chorales) of his day. Eccard composed both pieces that used the Lutheran chorale in the top part and a simple harmonization below it and elaborate polyphonic pieces that freely incorporated the chorale within the texture. Today's anthem is of the last set, clearly showing the influence of his teacher Lassus, as well as Eccard's ability to realize the full implications of his text through the relationship of words to music and in terms of texture.

In the 19th century Eccard’s music was regarded as the epitome of the a cappella ideal, and in an age of Protestant revival, he was seen as the counterpart to Palestrina. Brahms is said to have prized Eccard’s music

The communion voluntary is Bach’s setting from his Orgelbuchlein on the German Chorale based on that Canticle from Luke. It is the second of the chorales based on the Song of Simeon. The texture of this work is reminiscent of paintings that depict Heaven and earth in separate "layers" of activity. The right hand plays the melody in two voices, similar to a soprano and alto singing together, in 4/4. or common time, while the left hand plays a meandering 16th note line in 12/8 time. The pedal part almost dances as both feet play large, jumping intervals.

Music for January 19, 2020 + The Second Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – S. S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Instrumental Music

• Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word – Gerald Near
• Meditation on “Kingsfold” – Charles Callahan
• Roulade – Gerald Near

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 439 – What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• 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)

S. S. Wesley

The choir (still recovering from Christmas break) sings an extract from a larger anthem by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the grandson of Charles Wesley. The popular short anthem Lead me, Lord is an extract from Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Famous in his lifetime as one of his country's leading organists and choirmasters, he composed almost exclusively for the Church of England. He was appointed organist at Hereford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, and Gloucester Cathedral.

He was the illegitimate son of the composer Samuel Wesley's and his teenage housemaid Sarah Suter, with whom he had seven children after separating from his wife Charlotte. His middle name derived from his father's lifelong admiration for the music of Bach.

Considering his love of Bach, I should have included a piece by Bach, but instead, I've focused on two living musicians who many consider among the most prominent, if not most prolific, church musicians in America today.

Gerald Near has written much organ music, including many settings of hymns and chants for the church. The opening voluntary is a highly ornamented arrangement of the Chorale Liebster Jesu, which we find in our hymnal at hymn 440: Blessed Jesus, at thy Word.

The closing voluntary is one of Gerald Near's earliest pieces from 1965. Culinarily speaking, a Roulade is a slice of meat rolled around a filling and cooked. It comes from the French word rouler: to roll. Musically, roulade is an embellishment consisting of a rapid run of several notes sung to one syllable. So Near's Roulade is a rapid, light piece.

Music for August 4, 2019

Vocal Music

• O Be Joyful – Philip Stopford (b. 1977), Bruce Bailey, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Prelude on Michael – Charles Callahan
• Prelude and Fugue in C – attr. J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn R 49 - Let the whole creation cry (LLANFAIR)
• Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn - One bread, one body (ONE BREAD ONE BODY)
• Hymn R 136 - Alleluia (ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 49:1-11 - Tone VIIIa

Bruce Bailey is singing the offertory this Sunday, using an anthem that the choir sang back in June. Click here to read about the piece composed by the English composer Philip Stopford who now lives and works in New Jersey.

Stopford

Two of the organ works come from the pen of Charles Callahan, an extremely prolific American composer of sacred music for organ and choir. He has a way of writing a piece that sounds as if it is being improvised at the spot. The piece for communion is based on the hymn-tune MICHAEL by Herbert Howells. It's a tune (and text!) that I want our congregation to learn and embrace.

Callahan

The tune was written in 1930 by Howells in response to a request from his friend, Dr Thomas Percival (TP) Fielden, looking for a new tune for the text "All my hope on God is founded." In 1935, Howell's son, Michael, died unexpectedly at age nine from spinal meningitis. When Felden published the hymnal The Clarendon Hymn Book in 1936, he chose to include the hymn with Howells' tune. In tribute Howells rechristened the tune MICHAEL. The hymn's popularity increased in consequence as it became more widely known, and it is now found in over 60 hymnals, including ours.

Here are the first two lines of the hymn by Joachim Neander in 1680 and translated from German by Robert Bridges in 1899.

1 All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone
calls my heart to be his own.

2 Mortal pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God's power, hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

The closing voluntary is a short prelude and fugue which has for centuries been attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, but are now believed to have been composed by one of Bach's pupils, possibly Johann Tobias Krebs or his son Johann Ludwig Krebs. Since we don't know for sure, I'm just going to leave it as attributed to...

Bach

Music for June 30, 2019

There is one service this morning at 10:15

Instrumental Music

• Meditation on ‘Melita’ “ – R. Wolf 
• Improvisation on ‘Materna’ – Charles Callahan 
• God Of Our Fathers – John M. Rasley 

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOHE)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ARRAM)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)

I will be out of town this week at the Association of Anglican Musicians Conference in Boston. Rob Carty will be playing the organ for us, and for that I am grateful.

Since I am out of town this weekend, we will not be singing our usual medley of patriotic songs at the church picnic, so I am including a couple in our worship this morning, though they have nothing to do with the scriptures being read. If you listen carefully, closely, and critically, you will hear that the word spoken and read is a call to follow God. Matthew Henry, a Bible Scholar from the 1700s, wrote, "It is easy for us to say, Come, see our zeal for the Lord! and to think we are very faithful in his cause, when we are seeking our own objects, and even doing harm instead of good to others."