Music for March 20, 2022 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Love the Lord – J. P. Reese, arr. Mark Schweizer (1956-2019)

Instrumental Music

• Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• (O God, Be Merciful to Me) 
• Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley – David Gale (21st C.)
• Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 648 - When Israel was in Egypt’s land (GO DOWN, MOSES)
• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 149 - Eternal Lord of Love, behold your Church (OLD 124TH)
• Psalm63:1-8, Tone IIa

Our anthem today is an arrangement of a hymn out of the old shaped-note songbook, The Sacred Harp (1844), the best-known songbook of the shape-note tradition. Many people contributed tunes to this book, which feature rugged tunes and rough, often modal harmonies with imperfect harmonization techniques. One such composer is John P. Reese, an itinerant preacher, who wrote 21 tunes for the collection, including today's anthem. 

The texts were often eighteenth-century English hymns by such poets as Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, William Cowper, or John Newton. Some of these texts, as modified by nineteenth-century American singers, have acquired choruses in the camp-meeting spiritual style. That's what has happened here with the familiar text by Isaac Watts, "Alas, and did my Savior bleed?" with the "new" chorus: 

O who is like Jesus? Christ, our savior,

Praise ye the Lord!

There's none like Jesus, Christ, our savior,

Love and serve the Lord!

It has been arranged, once again, by Mark Schweizer, who also arranged the anthems from the last two weeks.

The opening and closing voluntaries are by J.G. Walther and J.S Bach. Not only were they almost exact cotemporaries, they were also cousins. In 1707, Walther was made organist at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Weimar. Bach became the Capellemeister at the court of the Duke of Weimar. The two became friends, and on September 27, 1712 Bach stood godfather to Walther’s son.

The chorale prelude that opens the service is a setting of the hymn “Erbarm’ dich mein, O Herre Gott,” which is a translation of Psalm 51, making it perfect for the season of Lent. This setting is in the form of a “Gapped” Chorale, in which one line of music, in this case the top line, presents the chorale phrases relatively slowly, while the other lines of music are moving in faster imitative polyphony.

This imitative polyphony is continuous throughout the piece.

For the closing voluntary I am playing the "little" Fugue in G Minor of J.S. Bach. It is one of Bach's best known fugues and has been arranged for other media, including an orchestral version by Leopold Stokowski. Early editors of Bach's work attached the title of "Little Fugue" to distinguish it from the later Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, which is longer in duration.

I am playing it in honor of Bach's 337th birthday on Monday, March 21st.

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 Sunday, July 18, 2021 + The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Adagio in E Major – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• God Is My Shepherd – BROTHER JAMES AIR, arr. David Gale (21st C.)
• Prelude on “St. Columba” – Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
• Trumpet Tune in E – 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 48 O day of radiant gladness (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Hymn 708 Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn R307 Sent forth by God’s blessing (THE ASH GROVE)
• Psalm 23 – Tone VIIIa

The psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 23. Two of the pieces I am playing this Sunday are based on hymn tunes associated with metrical versions of this psalm. 

At the offering, I am playing a piano piece based on the hymntune, BROTHER JAMES' AIR. This tune was composed by James Leith Macbeth Bain, the healer, mystic, and poet known simply as Brother James. The tune was first published in his volume The great peace: being a New Year's greeting ... (1915).

Born in a devout Christian home, Bain came to doubt the faith but later regained a mystical belief with the aid of the Christo Theosophic Society. He founded the Brotherhood of Healers, and he and his fellow healers often sang to their patients during healing sessions. In the latter years of his life he worked among the poor in the slums of Liverpool. He published a book on healing entitled The Brotherhood of Healers ... (1906).

In 1934, the British composer Gordon Jacob published an arrangement of this tune with the text "The Lord's my shepherd, I’ll not want" which has become the best known pairing of text for this tune. In our hymnal, the tune is paired with another Psalm paraphrase, How lovely is thy dwelling place (hymn 517)

 

This well-loved tune is in bar form (AAB) with an unusual final phrase that rises to a high tonic cadence.

The piano piece 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 other hymn-tune setting is much older. Charles Villiers Stanford, the Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era, published several organ works, including two sets of short preludes and postludes, which included this setting of the Irish folk tune, ST. COLUMBA. You can find this in our hymnal at hymn 645, "The King of Love my shepherd is." It's s simple setting with the tune interspersed with original music by Stanford.