HUMBLED FOR A SEASON: Music for November 20, 2022 + Christ the King Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Jesus, King Most Wonderful – David Hogan
• Lord Jesus Christ, We Humbly Pray – Gilbert M. Martin

Instrumental Music

• At the Name of Jesus – Michael Burkhardt
• Concerto in D Minor: Adagio – Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Virgil Fox
• Toccata on “At the Name of Jesus” – Michael Burkhardt

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 R128 Canticle 16: Blest be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HŐH)
• Hymn 495 Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 544 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

At the Name of Jesus

 

The last Sunday of the church year (remember, the church calendar begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which is next Sunday) is called Christ the King Sunday. Themes of this day are the glory and majesty of Christ, judgment, peace, eternal life, judgment, and mercy. Much festivity and solemnity is proper to this liturgy. However, with this year’s Gospel from the Passion account, it highlights the paradox of the benevolent shepherd-king, dying on the cross, offering Paradise to the repentant sinner.

With that in mind, I am playing two different settings of the hymn At the name of Jesus, written by a former classmate of mine at SMU, Michael Burkhardt. The text is perfect for this Sunday:

1 At the name of Jesus

ev'ry knee shall bow,

ev'ry tongue confess him

King of glory now;

'tis the Father's pleasure

we should call him Lord,

who from the beginning

was the mighty Word.

3 Humbled for a season

to receive a name

from the lips of sinners

unto whom he came,

faithfully he bore it

spotless to the last,

brought it back victorious

when from death he passed;

Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the tune, KING'S WESTON, for this text. The tune's title refers to a manor house on the Avon River near Bristol, England. For the opening voluntary, I am playing Michael's setting which presents the tune in a quieter vein, with moving, hovering chords in the left hand and a pizzicato bass line on the pedals, the melody is presented in segments. It reminds me of a journey, much like the one Christ endured while on earth. (see stanza three.)

The closing voluntary is much more dramatic  with a blazing perpetual motion in the manuals with the melody presented in the pedals. It is perfect for the last stanza

Christians, this Lord Jesus

shall return again

in his Father's glory,

with his angel train;

for all wreaths of empire

meet upon his brow,

and our hearts confess him

King of glory now.

Michael Burkhardt is presently is Artist-Professor of Organ at Eastern Michigan University, and Founder-Artistic Director of hearts, hands and voices Worship and Fine Arts Program for Children in Southeast Michigan. In addition, he is a prolific composer, writing for organ and choir.

O Jesus, King Most Wonderful

This is a new addition to our choir's library, written by the late composer David Hogan. David died much too young when he was flying back to France aboard TWA Flight 800 when it exploded off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 passengers and crew on board. At 47, Hogan was a serious composer of choral and theater music as well as an accomplished pianist, organist, tenor and teacher. His most conspicuous achievement in this country was his Festival Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, choral pieces composed for and performed at the consecration of Washington's National Cathedral in September 1990.

This piece was written for his church choir in San Francisco when he was living there. It is a setting of a hymn tune by the early American composer Joshua Leavitt. In 1831 he compiled and published The Christian Lyre, the first hymnal to print music (melody and bass) for every hymn. It is in this hymnal that we find this tune, named HIDING PLACE. 

I am not sure, but I would guess that David Hogan had a good men's section, but that they weren't adept at singing harmony, because in this setting of the tune, the men always sing the melody in unison while the sopranos and altos provide a counter-melody. (Apparently THEY could read music.)  Many early American hymn tunes are in a minor mode, and that is the case with HIDING PLACE. After the third stanza, he changes the tonality to a Major mode, and the anthem ends on a bright note.

Concerto in D Minor: Adagio

What we have here is Virgil Fox's arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's arrangement of a movement from a Violin concerto by Antonio Vivaldi. And what happens is a complete change in the tenor of the piece. What is originally a simple, light, transparent baroque adagio is turned into a sumptuous, poignant romantic aria. It is almost lugubrious. Here is a recording of the original. 

Video of the Vivaldi

Music for September 4, 2022 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Love You, O My God Most High – David Hogan (1949-1986)

Instrumental Music

• Trio in D Minor – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Ubi Caritas – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Praeludium in F Major – Johann Ludwig Krebs

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of "I can hear my Savior calling" which is from LEVAS II.)

• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn - I can hear my Savior calling (NORRIS)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (BOURBON)
• Psalm 1 – Tone VIIIa

I Love You, O My God Most High

I’m always moved by stories of talented people who are cut down in the prime of life. Such is the story of David Hogan, the composer of today’s anthem. Hogan was an American composer, teacher, and performer with ties to both the East and West Coasts. He had moved to France to teach at the American Conservatory at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris, and was flying back to Paris on July 17, 1996 on TWA Flight 800, when it suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. Thus ended a life dedicated to music.

A native of Virginia, Hogan graduated from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's degree in 1971, and would go on to earn a master's degree in voice in 1975. He enjoyed enormous success both as a composer and teacher and still found time to perform internationally as a concert tenor and pianist. For three years in a row, his students won first place in the Student Composers Competition of the Music Teachers National Association.

Dedicated to God as well as his craft, he had the distinction of being one of the two composers chosen to write new works for the Consecration of the Washington National Cathedral in 1989. Our kids choir learned his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis a few years ago for the Diocesan Youth Choral Festival. But he also wrote simple sacred music too, such as today’s anthem, written for his small choir at St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco.  It’s a simple setting of a traditional Irish melody, Daniel, arranged for two-part mixed choir. Simple but elegant, it uses the text by St Ignatius of Loyola, as translated by Edward Caswall.

I love you, O my Lord most high,

for first your love has captured me;

I seek no other liberty:

bound by your love, I shall be free.

May memory no thought suggest

but shall to your pure glory tend,

may understanding find no rest,

except in you, its only end.

All mine is yours: say but the word,

say what you will, it shall be done;

I know your love, most gracious Lord,

I know you seek my good alone.

Apart from you, nothing can be,

so grant me this, my only wish,

to love you, Lord, eternally,

you give me all in giving this.

Johann Ludwig Krebs

Wait, Who?

Krebs was an organist and composer from a highly musical family.  His father, both brothers, and his three sons all received formal musical training; his son Johann Gottfried was also an extremely prolific composer.

Best remembered as a pupil of Bach, Krebs was educated at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, as were his brothers.  The oft-repeated story that Bach punningly referred to him as the finest 'crab' in his "brook" (Krebs im Bach) is apocryphal, but Bach did provide a written testimonial as to his skill in composition and in playing the keyboard, lute, and violin.

Over his career Krebs held three organ posts, all in the viscinity of Leipzig: first at the St Marien church in Zwicken, then at the castles of Zeitz and, finally, Altenburg.

His status as a student of Bach tended to shade many of his compositions.  Although many of his works do stay very close to the outdated Bach model, with a conservative love of counterpoint, other compositions exhibit a more up-to-date style galant, a light and elegant free homophonic style of musical composition in the 18th century as contrasted with the serious contrapuntal style of the baroque era. 

In today's two organ pieces, the opening voluntary is an example of his mastery of Baroque counterpoint. The Trio in D Minor is written in three parts: two top parts played separately by the hands, and a bass line played by the feet. There is a lot of imitation between the two keyboard parts.

The closing volutary is an example of the more 'modern' style galant. This meant simpler, more song-like melodies, a decreased use of polyphony, short, periodic phrases, and a reduced harmonic vocabulary emphasizing tonic and dominant

. 

Music for May 29, 2016 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Love You, O My God Most High – David Hogan (1949-1996)

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Andante in D Major (Variations on a Theme) – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Fanfare– Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881)

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 421 - All glory be to God on high (Allein Gott in der Hoh)
• Hymn R74 - Cantad al Señor (Cantad al Señor)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise! (Lyons)
• Hymn 408 - Sing praise to God who reigns above (Mit Freuden zart)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer (Erhalt uns, herr)
• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (Austria)

H. David Hogan and his baby daughter
Hilary taken in the early '80s

I’m always moved by stories of talented people who are cut down in the prime of life. Such is the story of David Hogan, the composer of today’s anthem. Hogan was an American composer, teacher, and performer with ties to both the East and West Coasts. He had moved to France to teach at the American Conservatory at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris, and was flying back to Paris on July 17, 1996 on TWA Flight 800, when it suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. Thus ended a life dedicated to music.

A native of Virginia, Hogan graduated from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's degree in 1971, and would go on to earn a master's degree in voice in 1975. He enjoyed enormous success both as a composer and teacher and still found time to perform internationally as a concert tenor and pianist. For three years in a row, his students won first place in the Student Composers Competition of the Music Teachers National Association.

Dedicated to God as well as his craft, he had the distinction of being one of the two composers chosen to write new works for the Consecration of the Washington National Cathedral in 1989. Our kids choir learned his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis a few years ago for the Diocesan Youth Choral Festival. But he also wrote simple sacred music too, such as today’s anthem, written for his small choir at St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco.  It’s a simple setting of a traditional Irish melody, Daniel, arranged for two-part mixed choir. Simple but elegant, it uses the text by St Ignatius of Loyola, as translated by Edward Caswall.

I love you, O my Lord most high,
for first your love has captured me;
I seek no other liberty:
bound by your love, I shall be free.

May memory no thought suggest
but shall to your pure glory tend,
may understanding find no rest,
except in you, its only end.

All mine is yours: say but the word,
say what you will, it shall be done;
I know your love, most gracious Lord,
I know you seek my good alone.

Apart from you, nothing can be,
so grant me this, my only wish,
to love you, Lord, eternally,
you give me all in giving this.

The closing voluntary is by Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, a Belgian organist and composer who renewed the organ-player's art in Belgium. He went to Germany to learn Johann Sebastian Bach's tradition, (at the time Bach's organ works were not at all well known in France) and in 1852 he gave organ recitals in Saint Vincent de Paul, La Madeleine and Saint Eustache churches in Paris, where he stunned audiences with his technique. Particularly notable was his brilliant pedal-playing, which owed a good deal to his studies of Bach's music .

He had been appointed organ teacher at the Royal Brussels Conservatoire at the young age of 26, where he trained numerous young musicians, including two eminent Frenchmen, Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor. He wrote several volumes of organ music, including a two-volume set called École d'orgue basée sur le plain-chant romain (Organ Method based on the Roman Chant), published in 1862 (and still in print!). It includes this Fanfare.