Music for April 2, 2023 + The Sunday of the Passion

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
• He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word – Spiritual, arr. William M. Schoenfeld (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory, Laud and Honor -arr. Cynthia Dobrinski (1950-2021)
• O Sacred Head – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Ah, Holy Jesus – Russell Hancock Miles (1895-1983)

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

• Hymn 154 All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 480 When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn 143 The glories of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R214 Your only son, no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 168 O sacred head, sore wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)

Two spirituals and two German chorales are featured in the music for Palm Sunday.

Ride On, King Jesus

The opening Palm Sunday liturgy will feature the solo Ride On, King Jesus, sung by Christine Donley. It was arranged by the African-American composer Hall Johnson. 

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Negro Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

He Never Said a Mumbalin Word

This Spiritual recalling Christ’s Passion provides poignant evidence of the eloquence and empathy born of shared suffering. The call-and-response singing style also provides a means of affirming the communal wisdom expressed in recurring phrases and refrains. The lines " They crucified my Lord, They nailed him to a tree, They pierced him in the side," etc, calls for the response, "and he never said a mumbalin' word."

This warm and gracious setting of this beloved melody, with a flowing piano accompaniment, is provided by William M. Schoenfeld, an American composer and arranger with degrees from  Cal-State, Hayward, California; the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California; and Master of Church Music from Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

Ah, Holy Jesus

I inherit a lot of organ music from the libraries of organist who have either retired or passed away. I am guessing that is where I got this short prelude on the hymn Herzliebster Jesu. It comes from a set ot two Lenten Chorale Preludes which are tied together by the use of the musical them "B-A-C-H." (The name of Bach can be spelled by playing the notes B (flat) A C and B (natural)

In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is named H and the B flat named B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.

The composer of the closing voluntary, Russell Hancock Miles, was for a long time a music professor at the University of Illinois. Though little known today in the organ world, the May 1944 edition of the organist's magazine The Diapason said, "A graduate of Syracus University, Professor Miles is one of the outstanding pupils of his father-in-law, Dr. William Berwald. As head of the organ department at the University of Illinois, professor of composition, concert and church organist, conductor of the university chorus and composer, Professor Miles has taken a high place."

An interesting side-note is that Russell Miles is the son of C. Austin Miles, Sr., the composer of the well-loved gospel hymn "In the Garden."

Tenebrae

I want to remind all of you of the Tenebrae service our choir will sing Wednesday Evening. The service of Tenebrae follows a tradition of the early church dating back to the eighth century, and commemorates the final hours of Christ's life on earth as He prepared for and suffered death on the cross. This exceptionally moving work features familiar hymns and spirituals, and has become a staple in Holy Week repertoire in churches throughout the country.

The Good Shepherd Choir will present Tenebrae: A Service of Darkness on the Wednesday of Holy Week, April 5, at 7 p.m. in the Nave.

Music for June 2, 2017 + Pentecost

Confirmation

Vocal Music

• Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove – Robert Powell (b. 1932)
• Dance: I’m goin’a sing When the Spirit Says Sing – arr. William Farley Smith (1941-1997)
• Dance: Spirit Song – John Wimber (1934 - 1997) 

Instrumental Music

• Exuberant Praise – Cynthia Dobrinski (b. 1950)
• Jubilate – Kris Anthony
• Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist  ("Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost") (BWV 667) – 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 225 - Hail thee, festival day! (SALVE FESTE DIES)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn R201 - Be Still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe)
• Hymn R280 - Like the murmur of the dove’s song (BRIDEGROOM)
• Hymn 506 - Praise the Spirit in Creation (FINNIAN)
• Baptism Hymn 297 – Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37 - Benedic, anima mea – Thomas Pavlechko

The choir anthem this Sunday is an arrangement of an ancient hymn and chant for Pentecost usually referred to as Veni Creator Spiritus. Robert Powell has taken this elegant text and tune and supplied an excellent setting for choir, handbells and organ, preserving the flowing modal character of the original sources. The first three stanzas are presented in typical chant style, progressing to a more chorale-like setting for the fourth and fifth stanzas, mirroring the evolution of the original chant to chorale which can be seen by comparing hymn 502 ("Veni Creator Spiritus") to hymn 501 ("Komm, Gott Schöpfer") in our hymnal. (Hymn 501 is the tune that Bach used for his piece that I am using for the closing voluntary this morning.)

Powell, who for thirty-five years was Director of Music and Organist of Christ Church Episcopal of Greenville, South Carolina, also wrote the musical setting of the Eucharist which we will be singing this summer. Although it hasn't been sung much in our parish, this setting of the Gloria and Sanctus is among the most well known of the Rite II musical settings in the Hymnal 1982.

This Sunday marks the last time the Good Shepherd Handbell Choir will play this 2016-2017 season. We will be playing two works by two contemporary Handbell composers. (OK, honestly, ALL handbell composers are contemporary, as the handbell choir hasn't really been around for all that long. Though the first set of handbells came to America in 1902, it wasn't until the early 1970s that handbell choirs began to take off in churches all across America.

Cynthia Dobrinski

Cynthia Dobrinski is one of the leaders in handbell composition. With more than 175 works in print, she has conducted about 350 handbell workshops and festivals internationally. Dobrinski earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Texas Christian University and her Master of Music degree in organ performance from Northwestern University. She was a Fulbright scholar and taught for 15 years at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Currently she is the Music Director & Organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Martinsville, Virginia.

I cannot find anything about the composer of the communion voluntary, Kris Anthony. The piece Jubilate (pronounced Yoo-bee-lah-teh, Latin for "Rejoice!") was published early on, in 1991, and though it sounds relatively simple, is actually one of the tougher pieces we've worked on, and I've joked with the choir that Kris Anthony was probably banished from the earth by his bell choir after they had to learn the piece. It is very linear in its compositional make-up, employing the technique of polyphony, the style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other. At one point you'll hear 4 different layers of music.