Music for April 30, 2023 + The Fourth Sunday of Easter + Good Shepherd Sunday

Vocal Music

• The Lord Is My Shepherd – Howard Goodall (b. 1958)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on "Brother James's Air" - Searle Wright (1918-2004)
• Prelude on "St. Columba" – Sam Batt Owens (1928-1998)
• Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the middle hymn)

• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn  - Good Shepherd, you know us (GOOD SHEPHERD, KINGWOOD)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 23 – Tone V

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. That is not its official name, just a nickname given to the fourth Sunday of Easter taken from the opening collect of the day:

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It's the closest thing our congregation has to a patronal feast day. In honor of that, we feature several pieces of music about the Shepherd.

Good Shepherd, You Know Us

First, I want to talk about the middle hymn.

You may remember that back in September 2022, the choir surprised me with a newly-composed hymn in honor of my 25th anniversary at Good Shepherd. David Ashley White, former head of the music school at University of Houston and an internationally known composer, was commissioned to write the hymn tune, and he suggested a text by one of his favorite writers, Christopher Idle, a priest in the Anglican Church. The text is perfect for our congregation:

Good Shepherd, you know us, you call us by name,

you lead us; we gladly acknowledge your claim.

Your voice has compelled us; we come at your call,

and none you have chosen will finally fall.

Good Shepherd, you warn us of robbers and thieves;

the hireling, the wolf, who destroys and deceives;

all praise for your promise on which we can stand,

that no-one can snatch us from out of your hand.

Good Shepherd, you lay down your life for the sheep;

your love is not fickle, your gift is not cheap.

You spend your life freely, you take it again;

you died, so we live - we are healed by your pain.

At one with the Father, you made yourself known:

'I am the Good Shepherd', at one with your own.

You loved us before we had heeded or heard;

by grace we respond to your life-giving word.

Christopher Idle b.1938, © Christopher Idle/ Jubilate Hymns

The choir sang it as an anthem back in October, and now we are going to sing it as a congregational hymn this Sunday. It's PERFECT for the day!

The Lord Is my Shepherd

I can't believe it's been over 10 years since we have sung this marvelous piece!

Devotees of the BBC comedy series, The Vicar of Dibley, will recognize this tune immediately. It is the theme song for the show, composed by one of Britain's leading contemporary composers, Howard Goodall.  Goodall is an EMMY, BRIT and BAFTA award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores. (You might not realize it, but film and television are very lucrative markets for classical composers!) 

Howard Goodall

He is also a distinguished music historian, writer and broadcaster. In recent years he has been England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, the Classical Brit Composer of the Year and was Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for 6 years. In the 2011 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music education.

Goodall's setting of Psalm 23, The Lord Is my Shepherd, has proved to be an extremely popular piece of music. His intention in writing the theme had always been to write a piece of church music which could have a life of its own, beyond the series, and this has certainly been fulfilled in Psalm 23.

“Anyone who thinks about the BBC programme The Vicar of Dibley, is likely to focus on one of two things: the dry wit and humor of Dawn French or the now instantly recognizable theme tune The Lord is my Shepherd by Howard Goodall. Accompanied by organ, the piece opens with a most lyrical, legato melody for solo soprano, repeated by tutti sopranos with simple yet effective harmonies for A, T and B, continuing in the warm, flowing style. A homophonic middle section, moving towards a more minor tonality, reflects the mood of the words ‘Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil’, and provides an effective contrast. A return to the original theme draws the work to a beautiful conclusion which, in the right circumstances, could provide a very spiritual moment.” 

George Adamson, ‘Music Teacher’ magazine October 2000.

Prelude on "St. Columba"

The Irish tune "St. Columba, found in our hymnal for the paraphrase of Psalm 23, "The King of Love my shepherd is," is given a pastorale setting by a late friend of mine, Sam Batt Owens. Sam was the organist/choirmaster at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal in Memphis for several years.

In this setting, he begins with what I like to think of as a flute solo, played by a lone shepherd on the hillside as he keeps watch over his flock by night. (Oh, wait, that's Christmas.) In any case, I hear the shepherd improvise on his flute as the melody comes in underneath the flute solo. After another, more straight-forward presentation of the tune, the piece ends with the flute solo once more. It is reminiscent of the opening and closing passages of the third movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, "Scène aux champs" (Scene in the country), where two shepherds dialogue back and forth on the English Horn and the (offstage) oboe.

Prelude on "Brother James' Air"

Searle Wright was an composer, organist, choir director, and teacher in organ playing, composition and improvisation. He influenced an entire generation of American church musicians through his teaching at Columbia University and as President of the American Guild of Organists.

"Brother James' Air" is a well-known hymn tune composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain (1840-1925), who was a healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James. It is used for a metrical setting of Psalm 23.

THE PERSONAL CONNECTION - Music for October 30, 2022 + The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Sought the Lord – David Ashley White
• Good Shepherd, You Know Us – David Ashley White

Instrumental Music

• Suite Gothic Op. 25 – Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)

1. Introduction – Chorale
2. Menuet Gothique
3. Prière à Notre Dame – Léon Boëllmann
4. Toccata – Léon Boëllmann

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

• Hymn 688  - A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Hymn - Blessed assurance (ASSURANCE)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn 607 - O God of every nation (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 119:137-144 – Tone VIIIa

Today we sing two pieces by the Houston composer David Ashley White with direct connections to Good Shepherd.

I Sought the Lord

25 years ago, when I first came to Good Shepherd, we had a young mother singing in our choir with a toddler. As the dad wasn't a church goer, she would bring the young boy with her to church on Sunday, and he would sit in the loft with us. People in the congregation down below began to look for his round, cherubic face pressed up against the glass which use to be in the choir loft rail. But life happened, and a divorce brought about a move from the suburb of Kingwood to the inner loop of Houston, and thus a move from Good Shepherd to Palmer Memorial. We missed young Thomas' growing up, and his subsequent battle with cancer, but we kept up through our friendship with his mother, Sarah and social media. Thomas won his battle with cancer, but lost his war with depression. He passed away in August of 2017.

Our mutual friend and church musician/composer, David Ashley White, wrote a beautiful anthem which he dedicated to Sarah Emes and her son, Thomas Oldrin. With a text by an anonymous poet, the anthem was premiered by the Palmer choir and published by Selah Publishing Co. in June 2018. Sarah gave copies of the anthem to Good Shepherd so that we, too, could sing in memory of Thomas.

Good Shepherd, You Know Us

When the congregation and choirs of Good Shepherd celebrated my 25th Anniversary at Good Shepherd on September 11, the celebration included a new hymn written for the occasion by David, which was sung by the choir. We've been practicing it to learn the harmonies, and will sing it again this Sunday during communion. 

Most people don’t realize that a hymn has two parts. One is the text. When Pam Nolting asked David about composing something, he immediately suggested a hymn text by one of his favorite writers, Christopher Idle, a priest in the Anglican Church. The text is perfect for our congregation:

Good Shepherd, you know us, you call us by name,

you lead us; we gladly acknowledge your claim.

Your voice has compelled us; we come at your call,

and none you have chosen will finally fall.

Good Shepherd, you warn us of robbers and thieves;

the hireling, the wolf, who destroys and deceives;

all praise for your promise on which we can stand,

that no-one can snatch us from out of your hand.

Good Shepherd, you lay down your life for the sheep;

your love is not fickle, your gift is not cheap.

You spend your life freely, you take it again;

you died, so we live - we are healed by your pain.

At one with the Father, you made yourself known:

'I am the Good Shepherd', at one with your own.

You loved us before we had heeded or heard;

by grace we respond to your life-giving word.

Christopher Idle b.1938, © Christopher Idle/ Jubilate Hymns

The second part of a hymn is the tune, and the tune has its own title. The tune name for this is, appropriately, Good Shepherd, Kingwood. 

Suite Gothique

In a non-liutrgical nod to All Hallows Eve, I am playing the complete Gothic Suite by French composer Léon Boëllmann. Boëllmann was born on September 25, 1862 in Ensisheim on the Upper Rhine. At the age of 9 he left his homeland and entered Louis Niedermeyer's École de Musique classique et religieuse in Paris. Among his teachers and patrons were the well-known organists Gustave Lefèvre and especially Eugène Gigout, who later even adopted him. In 1881 he graduated from the École with a diploma as an organist and another as a cantor, and became an organist at the Church of St. Vincent-de-Paul in Paris. He later got the position of first organist there. After the founding of the École d'orgue et d'improvisation by Gigout, Boëllmann worked simultaneously as an organist at St. Vincent-de-Paul, as a teacher at his adoptive father's school and as a composer. He also worked as a music critic. Léon Boëllmann died on October 11, 1897 at the age of 35.

His best-known work today is the Suite Gothique op. 25, especially the last movement, the Toccata. This four-movement suite opens with the Introduction in C minor, a chorale rendered in an archaic, neo-modal style. This is followed by the Menuet Gothique, a curious mixture of ecclesiatical-liturgical austerity and eighteenth-century elegance: It begins with a C major minuet, which in the running movement takes on increasingly modal traits through the use of flat sevenths in the harmonies. The contrasting middle section develops through a variety of new keys with a merrily ascending motif of broken chords, producing some brief reminiscences of the opening minute before a recapitulation of the first section rounds out the movement. 

The third movement, Prière à Notre Dame , is in A flat major. A recurring sinuous melody in the muted registers exudes a devotional atmosphere. This is answered by three passages based on a romantic progression of harmony in the unrelated keys of D flat major and E major.

The following Toccata in C minor is not without reason the most played movement from this suite. Brilliant manual figurations over a broad pedal theme create great effect. The somewhat macabre pedal theme rises in dotted rhythm to the flattened dominant, turning the harmonies to D flat major for a few bars. In contrast, a rhythmic, syncopated melody rises in the manual, accompanied by the semitone motif that can be heard at the beginning of the movement. Finally, after some repetitions of these elements in different keys, increasing in dynamism and intensity, the coda brings back the opening theme, played in pedal octaves in triple forte – the dynamic and effective climax to close the suite.

Music for September 18, 2022 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Wash Me Throughly – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

• Sarabande – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• Be Thou My Vision – Larry Schackley (b. 1956)
• Tuba Tune in D Major, Op. 15 – C. S. Lang (1891-1971)

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 R258 - To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Psalm 113 – Tone VIIIa

Wash Me Throughly

In 1717, George Frederick Handel became the composer in residence at Cannons, the court of James Brydges, who became the First Duke of Chandos in 1719. As part of his responsibilities, he wrote eleven "anthems" for use in the chapel there, but these are more than just a simple anthem. They are multi-movement works which foreshadow the greatness found in his oratorios. Handel was limited in the resources available to him, so it was written for only three voices (soprano, tenor, and bass) with intimate instrumental forces of oboe, two violins, and basso continuo (usually the organ with the bass line doubled by an instrument). It is true chamber music.

G. F. Handel (without his wig)

The choir will sing the third movement of the third Chandos anthem, which is based on verses from Psalm 51. Originally written for alto and tenor, today the entire choir will be singing together. Handel himself chose the texts for all the Chandos Anthems, using primarily as his source the Psalter of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Sarabande

This expressive short organ work from David Ashley White combines a soaring, lyric melody with a lush accompaniment. The music builds to a full organ climax in the middle and then fades away to tranquility at the end. It was written for and dedicated to Yuri McCoy, a graduate of the organ program at Rice University and now organist at South Main Baptist Church in Houston

Be Thou My Vision

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, an old Irish folk tune associated with the ballad "With My Love on the Road" in Patrick W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909). It became a hymn tune when it was arranged by David Evans and set to the Irish hymn "Be Thou My Vision" published in the Church Hymnary (1927). SLANE is named for a hill in County Meath, Ireland, where St. Patrick's lighting of an Easter fire–an act of defiance against the pagan king Loegaire (fifth century)–led to his unlimited freedom to preach the gospel in Ireland.

Larry Shackley, a free-lance composer from Columbia, South Carolina, has written a lovely piano meditation on SLANE that I'll be playing at communion.

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.

Tuba Tune

C. S. Lang (known to his friends as Robin) was born in New Zealand but moved with his family to London where he also studied at The Royal College of Music. His best-known work is the Tuba Tune for organ, Opus 15, a favorite of recitalists. This dashing little piece, which owes its title to the boisterous melody sounded forth on the organ's tuba stop, begins in the style of Handel but, in its central section, has some brief key changes that could belong to no century except the 20th.

Music for Sunday, August 21, 2022 + The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• And Still the Bread Is Broken – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
• Jerusalem – Chris de Silva (21st Century)
• Carillon – Herbert Murrill (1909-1952)

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

• Hymn 8 - Morning is broken (BUNESSAN)
• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn 114 - Psalm 103:1-8, Jacques Berthier

O God, thou Faithful God

These two short chorale preludes for organ are written by Dame Ethel Smyth, one of the most significant English composers of her era. She wrote six operas, a Mass in D for chorus and orchestra, orchestral, choral, chamber and solo music.

Born into a middle-class London family, she was introduced to classical music by a governess who had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. This sealed her fate, and she too went to Leipzig to study music. She met and worked with some of the greatest musicians of the time, including Clara Schumann, Peter Tchailkovsky, Edvard Gried, Anton Dvorak, Gustav Mahler, and Johannes Brahms. Brahms refused to believe she actually wrote the music she shared with him because he didn't believe a woman could write music that was this good.

In her collection Short Chorale Preludes, Smyth melds the compositional styles of both Bach and Brahms. She set the chorale O GOTT DU FROMMER GOTT twice. The first setting uses an imitative four-note motif as part of the the accompaniment in the three lower voices, while the melody appears unadorned in the top voice. As the hymn itself is in AAB form (do you remember last week's discussion of form in hymns?), measures five through eight are an exact repeat of the first four bars, only played on a different keyboard. 

The second setting is in 12/8 time, as opposed to the common 4/4 time of the first prelude. In the second setting Smyth did NOT repeat the opening line of the melody as she did in the first chorale prelude, because the melody is repeated in a canon at the octave between the upper voice and the pedal. 

Jerusalem

The piano piece during the eucharist is a setting of the tune LAND OF REST. This tune is used several times in our hymnal, most notably for the text which we will sing immediately following the piano prelude. The title Jerusalem probably comes from the other text found in our hymnal, Jerusalem, my happy home. 

 Chris de Silva is a composer, arranger and church musician. He is is originally from Singapore and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He

has served as Director of Liturgy and Music at several churches in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and currently serves on the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music.

​

Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring. He also holds an M.A. in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Chris is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.

Music for Easter 2022

Vocal Music

• Tell the News – David Ashley White (b. 1948)
• Alleluia – Rick Sowash (b. 1950)
• I Know that My Redeemer Liveth (Messiah) – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

• Let Heaven and Earth Rejoice – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Prelude in G, BWV 541 – J. S. Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 179 - “Welcome, happy Morning!” (FORTUNATUS)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 180 - He is risen, he is risen! (UNSER HERRSCHER)
• Hymn - Doxology (LAAST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 193 - That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS)
• Hymn 210 - The day of resurrection (DIADEMATA)
• Psalm 118 – Tone VIIIa

My friend David Ashley White has written an Easter anthem for choir and organ that sounds like it came out of the 19th century shaped-note tradition. (We talked about that tradition several months ago, here.) It is a rugged original tune with an equally athletic organ accompaniment. This was commissioned by the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy in 2003

The communion anthem is an a cappella setting of the single word, "Alleluia." It was written by Cincinnati composer Rick Sowash, and published last year for choirs struggling to meet and rehearse in the pandemic. Written for two voices (women and men), it is an ingenious canon where the women begin with the melody, and men come 4 beats later, singing an exact duplication of the treble part. I thought it would be easy for the choir, but it has taken us one year to learn it! It is much harder than it looks!

The communion solo is that perennial favorite from Messiah, I Know that my Redeemer Liveth. Handel's masterpiece includes several movements that become required listening during the seasons of the church year. This beautiful soprano solo was last sung in 2020, at our virtual Easter service. Amy Bogan will again sing it in person for us this year.

I'm playing two pieces by Bach for Easter. The opening voluntary is actually an arrangement of a choral piece from his cantata for Trinity Sunday, but it's so festive and it's theme "Let Heaven and Earth Rejoice" is perfect for Easter. And the closing voluntary is the Prelude in G, with it's opening passage that just shoots upward like a rocket, reminding me of the resurrection.

Music for August 15, 2021 + Rally Day

Vocal Music

• For the Beauty of the Earth – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Galliard on Gather Us In – James Biery (b. 1956)
• I Have Decided to Follow Jesus – Arr. David Gale (21st c.)
• Carillon de Longpont – Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937)

Congregational Music (all numbered hymns are from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew. Everything else is from other sources)

• Hymn  Jesus in the morning (African-American Spiritual)
• Hymn R37  Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn Let  There Be Peace on Earth (WORLD PEACE)
• Hymn 711  Seek Ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn R147  Here I am, Lord (HERE AM I LORD)

The choir returns to our services after a brief summer break, singing a simple setting of a familiar hymn hymn with new music by Houston composer David Ashley White. David is Professor of Composition and the C. W. Moores, Jr. Endowed Professor of Music in the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, and Composer-in-Residence at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. He served as Director of the Moores School from 1999-2014.

He wrote this charming setting of For the Beauty of the Earth for his parent's 50th wedding anniversary. It includes a flute solo and handbells.

A galliard was a popular dance from the Renaissance period. It was an athletic dance, characterised by leaps, jumps, hops and other similar figures. Similarly, the music was just as athletic, providing an exuberant tune for dancing. The term is borrowed from the Anglo-French word gaillard, which means "vigorous, lively."

You can hear the lively vigor in today's opening voluntary, an arrangement of the contemporary hymn, Gather Us In, by Marty Haugen (b.1950) It is found in the Renew Hymnal at no. 14. Its energetic text is personified by a rolicking romp for organ and trumpet. Here are the words; they are perfect for Rally Day:

1. Here in this place new light is streaming,

Now is the darkness vanished away,

See in this space our fears and our dreamings,

Brought here to you in the light of this day.

Gather us in' the lost and forsaken,

Gather us in' the blind and the lame;

Call to us now, and we shall awaken,

We shall arise at the sound of our name.

2. We are the young' our lives are a myst'ry,

We are the old' who yearn for your face,

We have been sung throughout all of hist'ry,

Called to be light to the whole human race.

Gather us in' the rich and the haughty,

Gather us in' the proud and the strong;

Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,

Give us the courage to enter the song.

3. Here we will take the wine and the water,

Here we will take the bread of new birth,

Here you shall call your sons and your daughters,

Call us anew to be salt for the earth.

Give us to drink the wine of compassion,

Give us to eat the bread that is you;

Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion

Lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

4. Not in the dark of buildings confining,

Not in some heaven, light years away, 

But here in this place the new light is shining,

Now is the Kingdom, now is the day.

Gather us in and hold us for ever,

Gather us in and make us your own;

Gather us in' all peoples together,

Fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

Text: Marty Haugen, © 1982, GIA Publications, Inc.

For communion, I am playing a piano setting of the Indian folk tune, I have decided to follow Jesus. It is arranged by David Gale, a composer, arranger, pianist and choir director from Tucson, Arizona. His education includes a bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas Tech University, and a doctorate in music composition from Northwestern University. Retired from 26 years at Flowing Wells Junior High School, Dr. Gale is currently in his 24th year as music director for First Christian Church in Tucson, where he focuses on creating music for the church service including piano arrangements and choir pieces.

The closing voluntary is a carillon by Louis Vierne. At the beginning of the 20th century, Vierne was the organist of Notre Dame of Paris.  A great friend of the Montesquiou family, he was regularly invited to the Château in Longpont in the month of August.  The 15th August was an especially important religious festival.  There was a grand procession through the village, and through the grounds of the Château.  Louis Vierne naturally contributed to the festivities.  A harmonium (reed organ) was fixed to a cart pulled by two donkeys; safely installed on this mobile stage, he accompanied the singing, and added brilliant improvisations.

On hearing the church bells on the 15th August 1913, Louis Vierne was inspired to write the Carillon de Longpont.  It was later dedicated to his brother René Vierne, killed on the 29th May 1918, not far from Longpont. The pedal part is a repeated ostinato of eighth notes under big, crashing chords on the manuals.

Music for June 27, 2021 + The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• For the Beauty of the Earth – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

1. Hymn 518 Christ is made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
2. Hymn 707 Take my life and let it be consecrated (HOLLINGSIDE)
3. Hymn 493 O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
4. Psalm 30 – Tone VIIIa

This week I am on holiday visiting my children in Tennessee. Karen Silva has graciously agree to play the service, leading the choir through the anthem, a setting of the familiar text, For the Beauty of the Earth, by Houstonian David Ashley White.

It's a setting he wrote for his parents 50th anniversary. 

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 October 20, 2019

Vocal Music

• Let Us Go to the House of the Lord – Ellen McClune and Steve Taranto (The Coventry Choir)
• Without the Fire - David Ashley White
• Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Heart - Henry Purcell 

Instrumental Music

• Reflections on a Tune – David Ashley White
• Book of Book, Our People’s Strength – Timothy Albrecht
• Fanfare for Saint Anthony – David Ashley White

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 631 - Book of books, our people’s strength (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Zimbabwe)
• Hymn R173 - O Lord, hear my prayer (Jacques  Berthier)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

This Sunday we hear the story of the Widow and the Apathetic Judge.  The widow comes to the judge day after day, petitioning him to decide on her behalf, and despite his indifference to the justice of her cause, he relents simply to get her off his back. In contrast to the judge’s apathy, God is empathetic: God cares and God wants us to receive blessings.

The idea of God as an empathetic judge is what sparked the choice of the two anthems the Good Shepherd Choir is singing. The communion anthem, Henry Purcell's "Thou Knowest, Lord" from the Funeral music for Queen Mary II in 1695, could very well have been sung by the persistent widow:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
Shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
But spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy Judge eternal...

This anthem was sung at Purcell's very own funeral just eight months later in November, 1695.

 In the offertory anthem, we sing the phrase "Without the Judge, there is no Pleading," and we immediately thought of today's parable.

Rae Whitney, an English-born poet and hymn writer now living in Nebraska, has written a text, based on a few lines from Thomas á Kempis, that reflects on what we would be missing if there were no faith or resurrection. It has been set to music by Houston composer David Ashley White, whose music is familiar to us here at Good Shepherd just as it is to musicians and choirs throughout the world. He is the Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Houston.

This anthem is one of several that will be sung at the Diocese of Texas's annual Choral Festival next weekend at Christ Church Cathedral. It is a fine example of choral writing, with a beautiful melody, lush harmonies and changing meters of 4/2 to 3/2 that fit the rhythm of the words to create a powerful message. 

David writes more than just choral music, however. Organists are fortunate that he has written several lovely and interesting organ works. Two of those will be played today as the opening and closing voluntaries. The first, Reflections on a Tune, are his musings on his own hymn tune PALMER CHURCH, which is found at Hymn 327 in The Hymnal 1982. The name is in reference to White's home parish, Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church here in Houston.

Music for September 15, 2019

Vocal Music

• I Sought the Lord – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Sonata II: Ruhig Bewegt – Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
• Messe pour les Convents: X. Chromhorne sur la Taille – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Sonata II: Lebhaft – Paul Hindemith

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

• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn R 217 - You satisfy the hungry heart (GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT)
• Hymn R 277 - What wondrous love is this? (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Psalm 51:1-11 (1-4, 7-8, 11a)- Tone VIIIb

Thomas Jackson Oldrin
August 10, 1996 ~ August 6, 2017

22 years ago, when I first came to Good Shepherd, we had a young mother singing in our choir with a toddler. As the dad wasn't a church goer, she would bring the young boy with her to church on Sunday, and he would sit in the loft with us. People in the congregation down below began to look for his round, cherubic face pressed up against the glass which use to be in the choir loft rail. But life happened, and a divorce brought about a move from the suburb of Kingwood to the inner loop of Houston, and thus a move from Good Shepherd to Palmer Memorial. We missed young Thomas' growing up, and his subsequent battle with cancer, but we kept up through our friendship with his mother, Sarah and social media. Thomas won his battle with cancer, but lost his war with depression. He passed away in August of 2017.

Our mutual friend and church musician/composer, David Ashley White, wrote a beautiful anthem which he dedicated to Sarah Emes and her son, Thomas Oldrin. With a text by an anonymous poet, the anthem was premiered by the Palmer choir and published by Selah Publishing Co. in June 2018. Sarah gave copies of the anthem to Good Shepherd so that we, too, could sing in memory of Thomas.

The Opening and closing voluntaries are from the second organ sonata of Paul Hindemith, one of the principal German composers of the first half of the 20th century and a leading musical theorist. He sought to revitalize tonality—the traditional harmonic system that was being challenged by many other composers—and also pioneered in the writing of Gebrauchsmusik, or “utility music,” compositions for everyday occasions. He regarded the composer as a craftsman (turning out music to meet social needs) rather than as an artist (composing to satisfy his own soul). As a teacher of composition he probably exerted an influence on most of the composers of the generation that followed him. He was one of the first composers to offer classes in Film Music

In 1935 at the invitation of the Turkish government, Hindemith moved to Turkey to oversee the organization of musical life there. It was during this time that he helped Jewish musicians escape to Turkey. At the outbreak of World War II, he emigrated to the USA. After a series of lectures at Yale University, he became a part of the permanent faculty, where he founded the Yale Collegium Musicum for historically based performances. He became a US citizen in 1946.

Hindemith was not an organist, and found the instrument uninspiring because it could not "breathe." Nevertheless, his three Sonatas, with their mastery of counterpoint, clarity of form, bold harmonic language and deeply expressive treatment of melody, are recognised as among the great works of modern organ literature.

Music for May 12, 2019 + The Fourth Sunday after Easter

Good Shepherd Sunday
Vocal Music

• I am His Child – Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
• And Still the Bread Is Broken – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Brother James’s Air” – Searle Wright (1918-2004)
• In Green Pastures – Harold Darke (1888-1976)
• Trumpet Tune in D – David N. Johnson (1922-1987)

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

• Hymn 182  - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)
• Hymn 208 - Alleluia! The strife is o’er, the battle done (VICTORY)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn 297 - Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (ST. COLUMBA)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (ST. AGNES)
• Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
• Psalm 23 - Simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is called the Good Shepherd Sunday, because of the scripture readings (John 10:11 - “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep") and the use of the 23rd Psalm, so it is the closest thing our congregation has to a Patronal Feast Day.

The Coventry Choir, our younger elementary children's choir, will sing this Sunday for the last time this choir year. They are singing a song by New Orleans native Moses Hogan. Until his untimely death in 2003, Hogan was one of the most celebrated contemporary directors and arrangers of classic spirituals. In addition to spirituals, he also wrote some original numbers, such as today's anthem, I Am His Child.

A graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, Moses Hogan also studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His many accomplishments as a concert pianist included winning first place in the prestigious 28th annual Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in New York. Hogan was Artist In Residence at Loyola University in New Orleans.


Moses Hogan

In keeping with the Good Shepherd theme, I am opening the service with Searle Wright's setting of the tune BROTHER JAMES' AIR, which is most often used for the text, "The Lord's my shepherd." It was composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain, a Scottish healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James. This well-loved tune is in bar form (AAB) with an unusual final phrase that ends on a high tonic note instead of a low note.

Wright has arranged this folk-like melody in three stanzas. For the first stanza he uses manuals only, with the melody in the soprano. The string stops on the organ are used. For the next stanza, he keeps the strings for the accompaniment, but puts the melody in the pedal on the English Horn. After a developmental section that goes through several minor keys before coming back to A Major, he presents the tune very much like the beginning, adding the bass notes in the pedal for the first A section of the tune, then putting the cantus firmus (the melody)in the tenor ranger with the crommorne for last half of the stanza.

M. Searle Wright was a composer, teacher and master of both classic and theater pipe organ. He died in his hometown of Binghamton, N.Y. when he was 86.

The Organ voluntary at communion is a quiet little piece by the English composer Harold Darke. He is best known among church musicians for his 1911 setting of Christina Rosetti's poem "In the Bleak Mid-Winter", which has become one of the most widely performed and recorded Christmas carols ever written. In fact, this short work, with its haunting melody, has appeared on more than 100 recordings over the years, in performances given by some of the leading singers: Roberto Alagna, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Hampson, Jessye Norman, Kiri Te Kanawa, and many others.

Darke was perhaps better known in his lifetime as an organist than composer. He was regarded as one of the greatest organists of his time, and as such appeared regularly in concert, often performing his own works, works that were tonal, conservative but imaginative, and well-crafted. 

Music for November 29, 2018 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• Christ the Glory - Jean - François Lallouette (1651-1728)
• And Still the Bread is Broken – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Praeludium in A – Johann Krieger (1651–1735)
• The Peace May Be Exchanged – Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
• Praeludium from Suite in D Minor – Johann Krieger

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 57 - Lo, he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION)
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 544 - Jesus shall reign (DUKE STREET)
• Psalm 93 - Tone VIIIa

The last Sunday of the liturgical year is Christ the King Sunday, where we commemorate the Kingship of Christ. We'll sing many of your favorite hymns which refer to crowns and kingdoms.
The anthems, too, that Jesus is the King.

Lalouette

The offertory anthem refers to Jesus as the King of Glory. It is a work by a little known French composer of the Baroque period (ca. 1600–1750), Jean-François Lalouette. A very talented musician, he was a student of composition with the great opera composer Jean-Baptiste de Lully. Appointed as Lully’s assistant, Lully asked Lalouette to complete the internal parts of some of Lully’s opera, Isis. However, after Lalouette claimed credit for writing the better part of the opera, Lully fired him as his aide.

He must have been a difficult person with which to work, as he was fired from or denied opportunity to apply for several jobs during his lifetime. However difficult he must have been, he must have also been talented, as he won appointments at both the Cathedral in Rouen and Notre Dame in Paris, where he ended his career.

Born the same year as Lalouette, but in Germany, was the composer Johann Krieger. Krieger was renowned in his time, often put on par with J. S. Bach and Georg Frideric Handel. G.F. Handel himself confessed how much he owed to Krieger. Today, however, his fame fails in comparison to those great masters.

The Communion voluntary is a movement from Rubrics, a liturgical suite for organ in 5 movements by the North Carolina composer Dan Locklair. It was composed during the spring of 1988 in Winston Salem on a commission from the Organ Artist Series of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for their 10th anniversary year celebration, culminating in April 16, 1989 with the world premiere of Rubrics in Pittsburgh by the American organist, Mary Preston. The titles for each movement are from the instructions (rubrics) to the services for the book of common prayer. The Peace May Be Exchanged is from the Thanksgiving for the birth of a child, page 445. This lyrical Aria, featuring a solo diapason color parentheses accompanied by strings and double pedal throughout close parentheses, is based in D major.

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.

Music for Sunday, June 18, 2017 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major: I. Moderato – Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) Alex Philips, cellist
• Aria – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• Hymne – Vangelis (b. 1943) Evangelos Odysseus Papathanassiou
• Fanfare for St. Anthony - David Ashley White

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 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou font of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn R305 - Lord, you give the great commission (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Psalm 116  - Dilexi, quoniam

Composed between 1761 and 1765 for Joseph Weigl, a gifted cellist in Haydn's Esterházy orchestra, the Cello Concerto Number 1 was presumed lost until 1961, when it turned up the National Museum in Prague among documents originally from Radenin Castle. High virtuosity is demanded of the cellist, as in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth symphonies (in which Haydn provided solos especially for Weigl).

The first movement, marked Moderato, begins with a confident, courtly theme with dotted rhythms; in contrast, the second subject is softer and more sinuous, establishing a more lyrical mood. The mildly syncopated orchestral exposition ends with Lombardic rhythms at the conclusion of the orchestral introduction. When the cello enters and takes command of the themes, it launches the first theme with a resonant C major chord, eventually presenting each melody in an increasingly ornate manner. The development engages the cellist in intense passagework derived from the primary theme, while reappearances of the second subject allow the soloist to sing more expansively. Haydn works through the theme groups in sequence twice before reaching the cadenza and a brief coda derived from the movement's opening measures.

Haydn's C Major Cello Concerto has become a staple of the cello repertoire, after its 20th century premiere by Miloš Sádlo and the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, on 19 May 1962. Many famous artists, including Jacqueline du Pré, Yo-Yo Ma, Julian Lloyd Webber, Pierre Fournier, Truls Mørk, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pieter Wispelwey, Heinrich Schiff, Lynn Harrell, Christine Walevska, Sol Gabetta, Maximilian Hornung, Mischa Maisky, Steven Isserlis, and Sergei Istomin have recorded it.

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, known professionally as Vangelis, is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, and orchestral music. He is probably most well known for his Chariots of Fire (1981) and Blade Runner (1982) soundtracks or for the tracks used in the Cosmos (1980) television series.

Music for May 14, 2017 + The Fifth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• The Call – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• Quiet Praise – Dan R. Edwards (b. 1951) (HANDBELLS)
• Prelude on Adoro Te Devote – Jacob B. Webber (b. 1988) (HANDBELLS)
• Now the Green Blade Riseth – Mark Sedio (b. 1954)

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

• Hymn 2 - Father, we praise thee, now the night is over (CHRISTE SANCTORUM)
• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 379 - God is love, let heaven adore him (ABBOTT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 188 - Love’s redeeming work is done (SAVANNAH)
• Hymn R217 - You satisfy the hungry heart (GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT)
• Hymn R220 - Let the hungry come to me (ADORO TE DEVOTE)
• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one Foundation (AURELIA)
• Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 - In te, Domine, speravi – Mode 1

Contemporary American Composers.
(Living) Contemporary American Composers.
(Living) Contemporary American (Men) Composers.
(Living) Contemporary American (White) (Men) Composers: That's what the composers of all the vocal and instrumental music have in common this week. Everyone of the composers was born in the last half of the 20th century.

David Ashley White is Professor of Composition at Moores School of Music, with degrees from the University of Houston (B.M. and M.M.) and the University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A.). He served
as Director of the Moores School from 1999-2014.

David Ashley White

A seventh-generation Texan, White is an active member of the Houston arts community, serving on boards that include a mayoral appointment to the Houston Arts Alliance. He has recently been appointed composer-in-residence at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, his home parish. In addition, he has been designated the Distinguished Composer by the American Guild of Organists for its national convention held last year in Houston, where his anthem, With a Shining Like the Sun, was premiered.

His anthem, The Call, is a simple and moving setting of this famous text by George Herbert. (Come, my Way, my Truth, my Light.) It's a perfect anthem for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, where this text is almost mandated by the Gospel Reading. The most famous version of this text is the solo by Ralph Vaughan Williams (found as a hymn in our hymnal). White's setting is almost like a waltz.

The closing voluntary is a toccata-like setting of the French noel, NOEL NOUVELET, which was originally a Christmas carol (I mean, "NOEL"!) But the text that has become even more popular (at least in the States) with the tune is the Easter hymn, Now the Green Blade Riseth. Mark Sedio puts fragments of the melody all throughout his composition, most often in the pedal part. If you want to stay and listen to the whole piece, it won't take long; it's about 90 seconds to play. You will still get to Mother's Day brunch on time.

Mark Sedio

Sedio currently serves as Cantor at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis where his responsibilities are varied: organist, choirmaster, resident composer, worship planner and educator. In addition he has held teaching positions both at Augsburg College and Luther Seminary.

Born in Minneapolis, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education with choral and organ music concentrations in 1976. In 1979 he received a Master of Arts degree in choral conducting and literature from the University of Iowa. He also studied at Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary.

Dan Edwards

The Handbell Choir is playing the opening and communion voluntaries this Sunday, playing music by two different composers. They prelude is an original piece for bells by Dan Edwards.

Edwards was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and studied at Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. He has taught music in elementary and high schools and has worked as a church musician in a number of different denominations. He resides with his wife in Chesapeake, VA.

Jacob Webber

Jacob B. Weber wrote the communion bell piece on the Eucharistic hymn ADORE TE DEVOTE. He is a 2010 graduate from Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato, MN and is currently enrolled in the Masters of Church Music program at Concordia University Wisconsin.  He has studied organ with Dr. Kenneth Logan (Andrew’s University), Prof. Judith Kresnicka (Bethany Lutheran College), and currently with Dr. John Behnke (Concordia University Wisconsin).  

Having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Church Music, he presently serves as Kantor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church and School (LCMS) in Dearborn, MI, fulfilling worship planning, teaching and organ responsibilities.  He also directs numerous adult and children’s ensembles at Emmanuel, including the choir, handbells, and brass.

Music for April 16, 2017 + Easter

Vocal Music

• Tell the News! – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• Magdalen, Cease from Sobs and Sighs – Peter Hurford (b. 1930)
• Hallelujah (Messiah) – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

• Carillon de Westminster - Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
• Final (Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 14) – Louis Vierne

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

• Hymn 179 - “Welcome, happy morning!” (FORTUNATUS)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 174 - At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG)
• Hymn - Sing with all the saints in glory (HYMN TO JOY)
• Hymn R199 - This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE)
• Hymn R237 - Jesus, stand among us (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn R202 - Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 182 - Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Confitemini Domino - setting by Thom Pavlechko

David Ashley White

The offertory anthem is a new addition to the library of the Good Shepherd Choir. It was written by David Ashley White, a seventh-generation Texan who is on the faculty of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and is Composer-in-Residence at Houston’s Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. He wrote this anthem for the Mississippi Conference of Church Music and Liturgy, which I attend every year and where I first heard it. I was immediately drawn to its melody, a rugged tune full of life and celebration which sounds as if it were written during the time of the Revolutionary War. Combined with the sparkling organ accompaniment, it will work well as the 'big' anthem at our Easter eucharist.

Peter Hurford

The communion anthem is also new to our library, but is well known among church musicians. It is the arrangement of an Easter carol by the British organist Peter Hurford. Trained in both music and law, Hurford has enjoyed an enviable reputation for both his organ playing and his musical scholarship. He received an appointment as music master at St. Albans Abbey in 1958 where he began to attract the attention of other English organists unsatisfied with the traditional and often heavy-handed Baroque style customarily heard in English churches.  After two decades at St. Albans, Hurford resigned in 1978 to devote his time to solo performances. By that time, his recordings had made his name a familiar one even to those who had not heard him in live performance. He suffered a minor stroke in 1997, but recovered enough to resume his performing career seven months later. In early 2008, he was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's Disease, and formally retired from concertizing in 2009.

When it comes to showy organ music, nothing, nobody, can beat the French. One of the greatest organists of the first half of the 20th century was Louis Vierne, who was organist at Notre Dame in Paris. He wrote music for orchestra, choir, voice and piano, but it is his organ music that he is most remembered for today. He wrote 6 organ symphonies, four suites, two organ masses and numerous other pieces for the instrument.

From the third suite of Vierne’s four-suite set 24 pieces de fantaisie we find Vierne's most famous work, The Carillon de Westminster. The ubiquitous clock-tune of Westminster Abbey, heard every hour on-the-hour in cities and towns all over the planet, is here gradually transformed into a magnificent, transcendent celebration of time and eternity itself. It gradually builds in intensity toward its awesome and heaven-storming climax. Though not explicitly "Easter" in title, its celebratory feel is perfect for this day.

Vierne's first symphony, Symphony No. 1 for organ in D minor, Op. 14, was premiered in 1899. It had six movements but it is the last movement, or Final,which I am playing for the closing voluntary today. From the first note to the last, it is non-stop with the melody in the pedals and rapid accompaniment in the manual keyboards. This movement is loud, starting with full organ and getting even louder!

Were his music not dramatic enough, it's only topped by his death - dying at the console during a performance. (You can read about it here). That's the way to go!

Music for August 16, 2015 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• How Can I Keep from Singing – American Folk Song, arr. By Richard Walters (b. 1956), Leila Hays, mezzo-soprano

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Trumpet Tune in E – David N. Johnson (1922-1988)
• Two Reflections on Hymn Tunes – David Ashley White (b.1944)

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

• Hymn 688 A Mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)*
• Hymn R37 Glorify your name
• Hymn 662 Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE)*
• Hymn 335 I am the bread of life (I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE)*
• Hymn 680 O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)*

One of our newest choir members, Leila Hays, sings an arrangement of an old gospel hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing? by the 19th century Baptist preacher Robert Lowry (who also wrote Shall We Gather At the River). It is arranged by Richard Walters, managing editor of the concert music division at Hal Leonard Publishing and an extraordinary pianist, arranger, and orchestrator. I met Richard in New Orleans over 13 years ago, and our similar backgrounds (He's from Mississippi, I'm from Tennessee, we were both raised in the Methodist church and very active in its music ministries) caused us to develope a great friendship. Upon my return to Kingwood, I received a large box of music from Hal Leonard Publishing containing many volumes of his music, some of which he edited, and some of which he arranged. It is one of those pieces we are using today.

This hymn is a reminder of the joy of faith, especially in times of trial. It opens with an assertion that the troubles of this world are nothing when compared to the new creation that is to come. By keeping our focus on our Lord – that He is our Rock and that He lives – we can follow the admonition of the apostle James: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). This arrangement is rather quiet and has a peaceful mood.

Johannes Brahms, date unknown
(Library of Congress)

Johannes Brahms, composer of the opening voluntary, had no particular personal relationship with the organ - he was not a church musician and had not studied the instrument - so it is strange that he would turn to it for his last compositions. They were written in the summer of 1896 after his dear friend Clara Schumann’s death, and it is highly probable that Brahms was already aware of his own illness at that point.  The preludes are “settings” (albeit wordless) of religious texts--Lutheran hymns and their associated chorale melodies. Though not a particularly religious man, he may have found comfort in the hymns of his upbringing.  This may have influenced his decision to set, twice each, the chorales "Herzlich tut ich verlangen nach einem sel'gen End" (I sincerely wish for a happy end) and "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (O world, I must leave you). Indeed, the second of the two "O Welt" settings contains the last notes the composer ever wrote.

But it is not one of the funeral hymns that we hear today, but the chorale "O Gott, du frommer Gott" (O God, Thou faithful God), a prayer of faith, hope, and healing.

O God, Thou faithful God,
Thou Fountain ever flowing,
Without whom nothing is,
All perfect gifts bestowing,
A pure and healthy frame
O give me, and within
A conscience free from blame,
A soul unhurt by sin.

At communion I am playing two piano arrangements of hymn-tunes by David Ashley White, a Houston composer who retired as the director for the Moores School of Music in 2014. He's arranged the hymn-tune MARTYRDOM (Alas, and did my Savior bleed or, as in the case of our 1982 Hymnal, As longs the deer for cooling streams) and his own tune, GARDEN DISTRICT, which he wrote in 2005 after the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

* We continue our singing of the top 15 (though it turned out to be 17) favorite hymns from our Summer Hymn survey. The astute (and faithful) congregant will notice that once again we are singing I am the bread of life. That's because we are in Year B of the lectionary, and "B" stands for Bread. We are hearing six weeks of bread readings during the last days of summer. As one of my friends on twitter says,

Jesus describes himself as the bread of life.  I've spent my life being afraid of carbs. Hmmm. There's a sermon in that....   Daniel D. Brereton, @RevDaniel on Twitter) 

Perhaps that explains my disdain for this hymn. (But let it be noted that I still schedule hymns that I don't like as well as the ones I do!)

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE) is today's featured hymn. According to an edition of the British Weekly, in the late summer of 1847, after preaching his final sermon, knowing his time on earth was drawing to a close, Henry Francis Lyte

walked in the valley garden in front of the home, then down to the rocks, where he sat and composed. It was a lovely sunny day and the sun was setting over distant Dartmoor in a blaze of glory. On the left lay Brixham harbor like a pool of molten gold, with its picturesque trawling vessels lying peacefully at anchor. After the sun had set, Lyte returned to his study. His family thought he was resting, but he was putting the finishing touches to his immortal hymn. (Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns, 171). 

Later that fall, Lyte passed away, but his hymn has indeed endured through the years as a beloved hymn of peace and prayer in the face of change. Theodore L. Cuyler once relayed a story in which a dying woman recited this hymn as she lay in bed during her last hours. He writes,

As I came away from that room, which had been as the vestibule of heaven, I understood how the ‘light of eventide’ could be only a flashing forth of the overwhelming glory that plays for ever around the throne of God (Sankey, My Life and Sacred Songs, 57). 

What a beautiful image when we see the light of day ebbing – this light is only a shadow of the light of life that shines forth from Christ.

William H. Monk wrote the tune EVENTIDE for Lyte's text in ten minutes. As the story goes, Monk was attending a hymnal committee meeting for the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of which he was music editor. Realizing that this text had no tune, Monk sat down at the piano and composed EVENTIDE. The hymn was then published in that edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune has always been associated with this text.