June 28, 2020 + The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• All Good Gifts from Godspell – Stephen Schwartz (b. 1948)

Instrumental Music

• The Morning Trumpet – Michael J. James (1947-2019)
• Pisgah – Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)

44 years ago this past week, Godspell opened on Broadway after first showing up Off-broadway five years earlier. It was the first big show for song writer Stephen Schwartz, who was 23 years old when he first took on the task of writing the music for a show that had already been in production.

Godspell began as a project by drama students at Carnegie Mellon University and then moved Off-Off-Broadway. Instead of writing a script which the actors memorized, Godspell’s actors, began rehearsing with parables and stories from the Bible that were brought in by the show’s conceiver and director, John-Michael Tebelak. The methods of working with the material essentially emerged by way of an improvisational process. They shaped various spiritual lessons into a stylized piece of musical theater under Tebelak’s guidance. Whether they played charades, came up with a Three Stooges type of response, or found some other way to communicate an idea, it was largely invented during rehearsals.

The songs for Godspell originally came from the Episcopal Hymnal 1940. With Stephen Schwartz, the show was rescored for an Off-Broadway production, which became a long-running success.

This Sunday, Amy Bogan will sing All Good Gifts. In most Godspell productions, during the instrumental break the actor playing Jesus speaks a few lines from Matthew chapter 6 about not storing up treasures on earth.

Composer Stephen Schwartz with publisher Marty Ostrow
and Managing Editor Irv Lichtman
(Photo:Sony Music Photo Archive)

When John-Michael Tebelak was first piecing together the college production of Godspell, he remembered a harvest song in the Episcopal hymnal that is sometimes performed at Thanksgiving services, “We Plow the Fields, and Scatter.” Tebelak asked his friend Duane Bolick to write music to go with the words so the song could be used in Act I of the new musical. Bolick wrote a slow ballad that would be accompanied by a rock band.

In 1971, Stephen Schwartz prepared his version of the music for the final incarnation of Godspell at the Cherry Lane Theatre. He used the same lyrics but wrote his own music. He says he was inspired, in part, by the introductory chords to James Taylor’s song “Fire and Rain.”

The instrumental music on Sunday comes from the tradition of the Sacred Harp, a uniquely American tradition that brings communities together to sing four-part hymns and anthems. Technically, that style of singing is “shape note singing” because the musical notation uses noteheads in 4 distinct shapes to aid in sight-reading, but it is often called “Sacred Harp” singing because the books that most singers use today are called “The Sacred Harp."

The opening voluntary is a piano duet on the tune THE MORNING TRUMPET, written in 1844 by Benjamin F. White, coeditor of the original The Sacred Harp, for the text by John Leland, an American Baptist Minister.

O, when shall I see Jesus and reign with him above,
and shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning,
and from the flowing fountain drink everlasting love,
and shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning?

Both parts of this duet are played by me (Jackson Hearn), thanks to modern technology!

The closing voluntary is an organ piece by Dale Wood from his Organ Book of American Folk Hymns.  The tune is PISGAH, which is usually paired with the hymn "When I can read my title clear." It's an earlier tune than THE MORNING TRUMPET, coming from a song book called Kentucky Harmony (1816).

Music for February 23, 2020 + The Last Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• This Glimpse of Glory – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• The Gift to be Simple – Dale Wood (1934-2009)

Instrumental Music

• Adoration – Florence B. Price (1887–1953)
• Hyfrydol – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

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

• Hymn 427 - When morning gilds the skies (LAUDES DOMINI)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 328 - Draw nigh and take the Body of the Lord (SONG 46)
• Hymn 599 -  Lift Every Voice and Sing (LIFT EVERY VOICE)
• Psalm 99 - Hal H. Hopson

The last Sunday of Epiphany is also the last Sunday of Black History Month, and we end both with two pieces which represent a crucial point in music history.

Florence Beatrice Smith Price

The opening voluntary is an organ piece by Florence Beatrice Price, the first African-American woman to have had her work performed by a major symphony orchestra. In 1933 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered Price’s Symphony No. 1 in E minor. This was a time when very few women composers were given time on the concert programs. The fact that this young black woman from Arkansas had any training was pretty unique in itself.

Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was taught music by her mother from a young age after she was denied music education from the city. She then attended Boston's New England Conservatory in 1903 to study piano, organ, and composition, and returned to Arkansas with a teaching certificate to bring music education back to her hometown. However, after a series of violent, racially-charged events occurred in Little Rock, Price relocated to Chicago in 1927, where her music career greatly accelerated. She went on to have a prolific career, writing dozens of orchestral, vocal, instrumental, and chamber works, with a musical style influenced by composers such as Dvořák and Coleridge-Taylor as well as Negro spirituals and vernacular dances.

Price graduated as high school valedictorian at age 14. Her daughter once explained that Price really wanted to be a doctor, but no medical school would accept her application. So she became a composer instead! She had also been denied entry to higher musical learning in the south, so she left Little Rock in 1904 to attend the New England Conservatory and, after following her mother’s advice to present herself as being of Mexican descent, earned a bachelor of music degree in 1906, the only one of 2,000 students to pursue a double major (organ and piano performance).

Price continued to read medical journals and attended classes at local colleges and universities. She was a true lifelong learner. Music was her passion and became the field that offered her fulfillment, despite the struggles she encountered.

This simple organ work is from one of the several organ magazines of the 30s and 40s, and is more indicative of what was the norm for church music, rather than an example of Price's more sophisticated orchestral style.

James Weldon Johnson

Our Bishop, Andy Doyle, shared a post last week about the 120th anniversary of the great song of the African-Americans, Lift Every Voice and Sing. Written in 1900 as a poem honoring the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, it was first sung by a chorus of 500 school children. Within the next two decades, it became  known as the Negro anthem. And in 1919, though it rejected the idea of a separate “anthem” for African Americans, the NAACP declared Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing as its official song.

The poem was written by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, Rosamond. It's impact on Americans cannot be disputed.

Music for February 9, 2020 + The Fifth Sunday after Lent

Vocal Music

• Arise, My Soul, Arise – Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Instrumental Music

• Jesus, Thy Church with Longing Eyes – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Dialogue de flutes pour l’Elévation – Nicholas De Grigny (1672-1703)
• Tuba Tune – Norman Cocker (1889–1953)

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

• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 124 - What star is this? (PUER NOBIS)
• Hymn L221 - This little light of mine (Spiritual)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together on our knees (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn R 306 - We are marching (SIYAHAMBA)
• Psalm 112:1-9 – Mode Va

The offertory anthem is by the renowned composer, organist, and choral director Dale Wood, who was best known for his church music compositions.  Wood's career as a composer was launched at the age of 13 when he became the winner of a national hymn-writing competition for the American Lutheran Church. His first choral anthem was accepted for publication one year later.

Wood has served as organist and choirmaster for Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California. Hymns and canticles composed by Dale Wood are found in every major hymnal except ours!

Wood's musical activities have not been limited to sacred music. While still a college student, he entertained as organist at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and appeared on television shows produced in Hollywood. In 1975, he was employed by the Royal Viking Line to entertain passengers on a 70-day cruise of the South Pacific and Orient.

Wood used the Finnish folk tune NYT YLÖS, SIELUNI as the basis for the anthem "Arise, My Soul, Arise," with text by Swedish writer Johan Kahl. The sturdy tune is first sung in unison before being sung in canon on the second stanza. Wood's creative compositional style is evident in the accompaniment of this verse, which at first seems unrelated to the melodic material the choir sings, but up closer examination you realize that it is actually the original tune, but in augmentation, a compositional device where a melody is presented in longer note-values than were previously used. During the third line of that stanza, the whole choir sings the tune in augmentation, without accompaniment. The third stanza returns to the original rhythm and feel with an abrupt but strong ending.

Another good Lutheran chorale, this time from Germany, is the basis for the opening voluntary. The chorale O JESU CHRISTE, WAHRES LICHT, was used by Paul Manz with the Advent text, Jesus, Thy Church with Longing Eyes, in mind, but I choose to think of the text O Christ, Our True and Only Light this morning, as we continue our themes of light during Epiphany.  I love this sprightly arrangement, with the melody played in the left hand while the right hand plays a moving eighth note counter-melody, all while the pedal plays octave leaps, driving the rhythm forward. 

Music for August 26, 2018 + Rally Day

Vocal Music

• Jubilate Deo – Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Instrumental Music

• A Joyous Peal – Michael Bedford (b. 1949), Handbell Ensemble
• Lord, enthroned in Heavenly Splendor – Larry Shackley (b. 1956)
• Serenade for Organ - Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)

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

• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 548 - Soldiers of Christ, arise (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn R195 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn R218 - Broken for me (Janet Lunt)
• Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
• Psalm 34:15-22 – Tone VIIIa

We welcome the Good Shepherd Choir back to the loft this Sunday after their summer break. The choir celebrates Rally Day with the upbeat setting of a paraphrase of Psalm 100, Jubilate Deo, by the American composer Dale Wood. Wood was a highly respected composer of sacred music during the 20th century, with over 8 million copies of his music published in America and abroad. He was also an active organist-choirmaster, working in Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California.

Michael Bedford

A small ensemble from the Handbell Choir will be playing the opening voluntary. A Joyous Peal is by my friend Michael Bedford, Organist/Choirmaster Emeritus of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tulsa, where he served for over 25 years before retiring in 2015. He is now serving as national president of the American Guild of Organists. He has earned the BMus, BMusEd, and MMus degrees from Texas Christian University, and, in 1972-73, he studied organ with Michael Schneider at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1998 he earned the DMA degree in organ performance from the University of North Texas.

A peal is a loud ringing of a bell or bells. Often it implies a repetitive pattern of bells. This piece builds on a repeated motif, adding layers and notes as it progresses.

The British Isles have provided us with some simple and often haunting folk melodies. Many of these tunes have been matched with hymn texts and become a treasured part of our hymnody. This is true with the tune SLANE which we sang last week to the words "Be thou my vision." On the other hand, composers such as the Welshman William Owens wrote original tunes which are so close to their "folk" roots that it's easy to assume they are traditional melodies. Such is the case of Owen's tune BRYN CALFARIA which we have been learning this month. Ralph Vaughan Williams, editor of The English Hymnal (1906) first paired this tune with the text "Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor," a pairing that has perdured the test of time. Larry Shackley, a free-lance composer from Columbia, South Carolina, has written a lovely piano meditation on BRYN CALFARIA that I'll be playing at communion.

Larry Shackley

A native of Chicago, Shackley attended Eastman School of Music (M.M) and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A). He has had a varied career, from teaching at Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, to working at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, creating original music and producing radio programs for the Moody Broadcasting Network, to composing for over 30 films, videotapes, and radio dramas. He has also served churches such as Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois as well as several churches in South Carolina. Shackley is also an active studio musician, arranger, and orchestrator. Recently, he has devoted most of his composing to music for the church, writing over 450 keyboard arrangements and 250 choral pieces for a variety of publishers.

The closing voluntary is a fun piece by the English composer Derek Bourgeois. Bourgeois was born in Dulwich, South London, England, studied music at Cambridge, and lectured in music at Bristol University for some years before becoming Director of the National Youth Orchestra. As a composer his energy was directed into major forms such as the symphony, oratorio and sonata, but he also has time for a joke in the true Haydn tradition and a sense of joie de vivre. His less 'serious' works include a 'Wine' Symphony, a Cantata Gastronomica, and this work for organ.

Derek Bougeouis

Bourgeois wrote this Serenade for his own wedding, to be played by the organist as the Bridal party left the ceremony. Not wishing to allow them the luxury of proceeding in an orderly 2/4, the composer wrote the work in 11/8, and in case anyone felt too comfortable, he changed it to 13/8 in the middle! "As the number of beats in a bar becomes increasingly odd, the listener is left wondering whether the music was designed to amuse the composer's musical bride as she walked up the aisle, or confuse his eminent Director of Studies who was in the congregation. Certainly he would have been able to unravel a hint or two of a famous Bolero from the music." [1]
This piece has become very popular with brass bands.

[1] Ian Carson, liner notes to "Organ Fireworks, Vol. 2, Christopher Herrick," Hyperion, CDA66258, CD © 1988

Music for February 5, 2017 + The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Give Almes of Thy Goods – Christopher Tye (1505-1572)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on Slane – Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Let Us Break Bread Together – Dale Wood (1934-2003)
• Trumpet Tune in D – David N. Johnson (1922-1988)

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

• Hymn 372 - Praise to the Living God (LEONI)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart (SLANE)
• Hymn 380 - From all that dwell below the skies (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn R306 - We are marching in the light of the Lord (SIYAHAMBA)

The anthem this morning is by the 16th century composer Christopher Tye. Tye was the choirmaster at Ely Cathedral during the reign of Henry the VIII, and as such contributed new music for the Anglican church, including this anthem, Give Almes of thy Goods. (The word almes being an Middle English spelling and pronunciation of alms, or charitable gifts.)

Give Almes of thy Goods is a short setting of an offertory sentence which appeared in both the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer. This is an Tudor creation in every way. Constructed in the ABB form of the early English anthem, this four-voice piece is entirely syllabic, exactly as Thomas Cramner, the architect of the Book of Common Prayer, required: "to every syllable a note."

Northeast aspect of Ely Cathedral
by John Buckler

And, yes, the closing voluntary is the Trumpet Tune in D by David Johnson which was heard every Sunday for years on KUHF(KUHA) as the theme music for the Sunday morning program "With Heart and Voice" until the station was taken off the air. It was a sad day for music and the arts in Houston. 

Music for March 6 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of Our Hearts – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Instrumental Music

• Solemn Melody – H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)
• Aria for Handbells - Dale Wood (1934-2002)

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

• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (Faithfulness)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (Nettleton)
• Hymn 693 - Just as I am, without one plea (Woodworth)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (St. Thomas (Williams)

I was shocked (shocked, I tell you) when I noticed that I have not scheduled any music of Henry Purcell in the two-plus years I've been writing these notes on this blog. Born in 1659, Purcell is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until the 20th century's Edward Elgar.

Henry Purcell

His father (also named Henry) was master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey. Though dad died when young Henry was but five, music had already taken hold of the young boy, and he became a chorister at the Chapel Royal. It’s said that he began composing at the age of 9, with his earliest known work an ode for King Charles’ birthday in 1670. He began studying with John Blow at the Chapel Royal, and by 20 had succeeded him as organist at Westminster Abbey. Legend has it that the elder musician stepped aside in recognition of the greater genius, and it is true that on Purcell's death in 1695 Blow returned to the post, and would write a noble Ode on the Death of Purcell. Purcell is buried next to the Westminster Abbey organ.

Purcell wrote secular and sacred music - odes for chorus and orchestra, cantatas, songs, catches, anthems, Services, chamber sonatas, keyboard works and incidental music for 49 plays. The largest part of his theatre music was composed during the last years of his life. It was during this period that he composed the chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which is a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music. 

The anthem today is taken from the Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, written by Purcell, for the funeral of Queen Mary II in 1695. She had died in December 1694, but her funeral was not until March 1695. Purcell composed a setting of the sixth of the seven sentences of the Anglican Burial Service (Thou Knowest Lord) for the occasion.  The anthem was performed at his own funeral in November of the same year.

And as to the pronuncation of his name: Nicholas McGegan, the famed conductor, sets us straight:

For some reason, people often mispronounce Purcell’s name. It’s “PUR-cell.” It should rhyme with “rehEARsal"

Not "Pure HELL"

Sir Henry Walford Davies

Another Henry who makes his first appearance in this blog (though not in our services) is Sir Henry Walford Davies, an English musician who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. At various times in his 45-year career, Davies enjoyed wide recognition as a composer, teacher, organist, and lecturer and in the latter capacity, he became England's first popular radio personality on the subject of classical music. In 1926 the newly-formed British Broadcasting Corporation, in an effort to bring the very best in cultural information, began broadcasting his lectures on music on a program called Music and the Ordinary Listener, which lasted until the outbreak of war in 1939. and brought him great popularity with British radio audiences.

But as a composer he is represented only by a few short works including some church anthems, the World War I favorite R.A.F. March Past, and this morning's opening voluntary, Solemn Melody. It first appeared in 1908 in a version for organ with a version for cello and orchestra a year later. It is in a simple song form. The tune is rich, warm, and flowing, and avoids either a feeling of British pomp or a sense of religiosity.

Dale Wood

Finally I want to comment on the Aria for Handbells by Dale Wood. It is a lovely, quiet bell piece based on an old Finnish hymn by C. G. Liander called Via Delorosa. The text, like the melody, is perfect for Lent.

A way to Calvary leadeth from dark Gethsemane,
May every one behold him who weary walks that way.
The way doth lead to perfect bliss, but a way of pain it is

Music for November 15, 2015 + The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost + The Kirking of the Tartans

Vocal Music

• Arise, My Soul, Arise – Dale Wood (1934-2003)
• Day by Day – Martin How (b. 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral – James D. Wetherald, arr., Stanley Fontinot, piper
• The Saints Delight – Dale Wood

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

• Hymn 51 - We the Lord’s people, heart and voice uniting (Decatur Place)
• Hymn 282 - Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (Caelites plaudant)
• Hymn 665 - All my hope on God is founded (Michael)
• Hymn 571 - All who love and serve your city (Charleston)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (New Britain)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (Shine Jesus Shine)

This Sunday is our annual "Kirking of the Tartans" service at Good Shepherd, a Sunday where we honor our Scottish heritage. (If you really get into history, you can read more about our annual tradition, as well as the beginnings of "Kirking" here.) As usual, we will have a piper here to play Highland Cathedral and Amazing Grace on the bagpipe.

Highland Cathedral is a popular melody for the great highland bagpipe, so it might surprise you that the melody was composed by German musicians Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb in 1982 for a Highland games held in Germany! It has become so popular in such a relatively short time that it has been proposed as the Scottish national anthem to replace unofficial anthems Scotland the Brave and/or Flower of Scotland.

The offertory anthem is by the renowned composer, organist, and choral director Dale Wood, who was best known for his church music compositions.  Wood's career as a composer was launched at the age of 13 when he became the winner of a national hymn-writing competition for the American Lutheran Church. His first choral anthem was accepted for publication one year later.

Dale Wood at his home, October 2002.
Photo courtesy Ivan de la Garza.

Wood has served as organist and choirmaster for Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California. Hymns and canticles composed by Dale Wood are found in every major hymnal except ours!

Wood's musical activities have not been limited to sacred music. While still a college student, he entertained as organist at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and appeared on television shows produced in Hollywood. In 1975, he was employed by the Royal Viking Line to entertain passengers on a 70-day cruise of the South Pacific and Orient.

Wood used the Finnish folk tune NYT YLÖS, SIELUNI as the basis for the anthem "Arise, My Soul, Arise," with text by Swedish writer Johan Kahl. The anthem was written in 1976 based on a Finnish folk tune. The sturdy tune is first sung in unison before being sung in canon on the second stanza. Wood's creative compositional style is evident in the accompaniment of this verse, which at first seems unrelated to the melodic material the choir sings, but up closer examination you realize that it is actually the original tune, but in augmentation, a compositional device where a melody is presented in longer note-values than were previously used. During the third line of that stanza, the whole choir sings the tune in augmentation, without accompaniment. The third stanza returns to the original rhythm and feel with an abrupt but strong ending.

The Good Shepherd Choir is joined by the St. Gregory Choir at the communion anthem, Day by Day, using a prayer ascribed to the 13th-century English bishop Saint Richard of Chichester as its text. The music was composed by Martin How, a British composer and organist. (He is the son of the late Most Revd J C H How, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church - another Scottish connection!)

Martin How

Born in Liverpool, where his father was Rector of St Nicholas Church. The family then moved to Brighton, where Martin's father was Vicar at St Peters Parish Church. The family then moved to Glasgow just before the second world war, and Martin spend most of his childhood there.

Trained in music at Repton School and Clare College, Cambridge, he was in the Army for two years before taking a post as Organist and Choirmaster at Grimsby Parish Church in Lincolnshire. But it was at the Royal School of Church Music where How spent most of his career, principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. 

Has traveled widely as a choral conductor, accompanist, lecturer and adjudicator. In this capacity he has worked in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Appointed MBE for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Year Honors List.