Music for October 25, 2020 + The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• My Jesus, I Love Thee – Dan Forrest, arr. (b. 1978) Bruce Bailey, Baritone

Instrumental Music

• Suite du Premier Ton – Louis Nicolas Clérambault (1676 1749)
• Duo
• Trio
• Basse et Dessus de Trompette
• Récits de Cromorne et de Cornet Séparé
• Choral Partita on Werde Munter – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• Trumpet Tune in D – David N. Johnson (1922-1987)

Bruce Bailey is singing a hymn familiar to Protestant Christians, "My Jesus, I Love Thee." I think the story of this hymn is fascinating, as told on the website hymnary.org:

Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, William Featherstone most likely wrote this hymn at the age of sixteen on the occasion of his conversion and/or baptism. He sent the text to his aunt in Los Angeles, who sent it to friends in London, where it was published anonymously in the London Hymn Book to a now forgotten tune. Adoniram Judson Gordon found it, wrote a new tune for it, and also published it anonymously in The Service of Song for Baptist Churches. It wasn’t until around 1930, fifty years after its publication, that enough research had been done to establish Featherstone as the author, who had died at the young age of 28. Today, it is a much loved hymn of assurance and confession of faith, with words of comfort and peace. And perhaps bolstering the power of the text is Featherstone’s story itself. A young man with no connections, who simply wrote a poem one night about his own faith, has, unbeknownst to him, come to bless millions. God certainly works in mysterious ways to use the gifts and talents of his people.

Today's arrangement of the hymn is by the North Carolina composer Dan Forrest. Originally published in 2011 as a choir anthem, this setting of the well-loved hymn, with a piano countermelody floating over top of the traditional hymn tune, was written as a memorial piece for one of Forrest's friends. The memorial setting was the reason for the tender musical style, as well as the choice of stanzas, including “I’ll love Thee in life, I’ll love Thee in death” and the triumphant final stanza about heaven. Forrest reset the choral piece as a solo work in the last 24 months.

In the last decade, Dan’s music has become well established in the repertoire of choirs in the U.S. and abroad, through both smaller works and his major works Requiem for the Living (2013), Jubilate Deo (2016), and LUX: The Dawn From On High (2018). Dan holds graduate degrees in composition and piano performance, and is active as a composer, educator, publisher, editor, and pianist. 

The opening voluntaries are from a Suite for Organ by the French composer and church organist, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault. Like so many musicians of the 18th century, Clérambault came from a musical family. His training began at an early age, and soon he was organist at various churches in France, including St. Sulpice (Paris). This suite was the first of what was to be a cycle of pieces in all keys but Clérambault never completed the cycle.

You'll hear four of the seven pieces. The titles describe the compositional form and registration (sounds) to be used. "Basse et Dessus de Trompette" is simply a piece employing both the bass and soprano (treble) registers of the trumpet stop. A "récit" is a piece in which a single voice emerges soloistically above all others by means of special registration. This is indicated in the title, here it's a Récit de Cromorne AND a Cornet - a solo stop made up of five different ranks of flute sounds at different pitches.)

The Choral partita during communion is a set of variations on the German Chorale Werde munter, mein Gemüte, which most people would recognize as the tune used for the choral part of Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Originally used for an evening text, it is paired with a Eucharistic text in our hymnal, hymn 336 (Come with us, O blessed Jesus.) Even though we aren't able to sing this, the words will be printed in the bulletin for you to follow along. This is the third Sunday in a row I have played works by Johann Pachelbel. His music is so well suited for church! (And easy to play - usually!) You see, there is SO MUCH more to Pachelbel than his famous Canon in D!

Music for June 3, 2018 + Music Appreciation Sunday

Living Americans 

music by contemporary composers connected to the Episcopal Church or with connections to Texas and Houston

Vocal Music

• When In Our Music God Is Glorified – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• Nearer, My God, to Thee – arr. Dan Forrest (b. 1978)
• Lord, You have Searched Me – David Hurd (b. 1950)
• Mass for St. Philip’s – William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)

Instrumental Music

• Aria on a Chaconne – Joel Martinson (b. 1960)
• Strengthen for Service, Lord – Anne Krentz Organ (b. 1960)
• Festival Piece – Craig Phillips (b. 1961)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those without a number which are from Wonder, Love, and Praise: A Supplement to the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn - Through north and south (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn - Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

As I write this blog each week, I am acutely aware that much of what we sing, play, and hear in our worship is the work of dead white men. While I appreciate that we want to hear and perform music which has stood the test of time, I also have a yearning to experience music that is new, different, and indicative of the age in which we live. One day, while listening to SiriusXM's Symphony Hall channel, I heard a promo for their weekly series "Living Americans," and the idea of scheduling a service devoted to music of such people was planted in my head.

With the exception of two composers, all of the composers featured today have ties to the Episcopal Church. And though all the hymns are not by living composers, two of them (I want to walk as a child of the light and Heal me, hands of Jesus) are indeed written by composers who are still very much alive and connected to the Episcopal Church.
 

David Ashley White

When you think about hymns about worship and music, one of the first hymns that comes to mind is one written in 1971 by the British minister and hymn-writer, Fred Pratt Green. When In Our Music God Is Glorified , usually sung to the hymn tune ENGLEBERG. However, today we sing a setting of the text to the tune HAMMERLING by Houstonian David Ashley White, Professor of Composition and Composer-in-Residence at Houston’s Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. He served as Director of the Moores School from 1999-2014.  This festival setting owas commissioned by the Houston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for the 1988 National Convention, and was premiered at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston.

Dan Forrest

Nearer, My God, to Thee is by Dan Forrest, a free-lance composer living and working in South Carolina. Though he is a Presbyterian, his arrangement of the hymn Nearer My God to Thee was part of the prelude music for the funeral of Barbara Bush at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston in April. It is a beautiful arrangement with lovely harmonies which brings new life in this timeless hymn. It starts out in 6/8 time, but then reverts to the more familiar 4/4 time of the hymnal setting as it changes key on the second stanza. On the third stanza, we change keys again, not just once but twice before returning to the original key and gentle rhythm  of the beginning

David Hurd

The psalm for the day is David Hurd's Lord, You Have Searched Me Out. Dr. Hurd was Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary in New York City for 28 years. He is presently the Director of Music at The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Times Square, New York City. We often sing parts of his Intersession Mass at our services, particularly in Advent. This setting of Psalm 139, the appointed Psalm for today, is one of the choir’s favorites.

William Bradley Roberts

Mass for St. Philip’s is a setting of the mass by William Bradley Roberts, the Associate Professor of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary and an ordained Episcopal priest. He came to Virginia Seminary after serving at St. John's, Lafayette Square, Washington, and St. Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson, Ariz. His undergrad degree was from Houston Baptist University.  This Mass was written for the Tucson congregation while he was serving as their director of music.

The organ and piano music includes:

Joel Martinson

Aria on a Chaconne is a beautiful, meditative organ piece by Joel Martinson, director of music and organist at Church of the Transfiguration (Episcopal) in Dallas. The lyrical melody is heard in the right hand played on a solo flute stop, while the left hand plays an accompaniment of pulsating block chords. At one point, the right hand plays a duet with itself as the left hand continues the accompaniment. Joel is another well-known composer of organ and choral music in the Episcopal Church. He runs his own publishing company, Kessler Park Press.

Anne Krentz Organ

Strengthen for Service, Lord is a setting of a new hymn-tune by Robert Hobby, director of music for Trinity English Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana. The arrangement is by another Lutheran musician, Anne Krentz Organ, who serves as the Director of Music Ministries at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, IL. Contrary to her name, Anne holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Valparaiso University, a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Illinois, and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Church Music from Concordia University Chicago. She currently serves as the President of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

Craig Phillips

Festival Piece – Craig Phillips is Director of Music at All Saints’ Church, Beverly Hills. His organ compositions are heard in churches all across the continent, with many being featured at National and regional meetings of the American Guild of Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians.
After the service we will celebrate and honor all our musicians at Good Shepherd with an extended coffee hour to thank our choirs, music director and all those involved in the music program. This will be the choir’s final Sunday before summer break.

The public is invited to attend this service – guests are welcome.