Music for February 5, 2023 + The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• The Mind of Christ – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Dialogue en trio du Cornet et de la Tierce – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Sonata 51: Cantabile – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
• Dialogue sur les Grands jeux – François Couperin

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of "This Little Light" which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 7 Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 488 Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 380 From all that dwell below the skies (OLD HUNDREDTH)
• Hymn This little light of mine (African-American Spiritual)
• Hymn 381 Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Psalm 112 Beatus vir - (simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachan)

The Mind of Christ

Birmingham, Alabama composer Lee Scott has taken the hymn "May the mind of Christ, my Savior" and set it to the tune BATTY for a lovely anthem.  The text is called a "catalog" hymn, which list different things the believer asks: "May the mind of Christ," the "word of God," the "peace of God," and the "love of Jesus." The hymn was first published in the London children's hymnbook Golden Bells (1925) and has gained popularity in recent hymnals.

This text is attributed to Kate Barclay Wilkinson, an English woman from the turn of the 20th century. Little is known about Wilkinson's life: a member of the Church of England, she was involved in a ministry to girls in London and a participant in the Keswick Convention Movement. She was married to Frederick Barclay Wilkinson.

The tune is a Moravian melody by the German composer Johann Christoph Kühnau

Organ Voluntaries

All the organ music for the morning comes from Messe pour les paroisses by the French Baroque composer François Couperin. This music was written to be performed during the Mass, alternating with the choir. In this so-called alternatim practice,  the organist plays when texts would otherwise have been sung. a term which indicates a type of liturgy where alternate sections of the Mass were performed by different forces. 

Today's movements all come from the second part of the mass, the Gloria. The titles have nothing to do with text, but with musical form; the Dialogue en trio du Cornet et de la Tierce is a three-part piece with the Cornet (Kor-nay) playing against the tierce, a mutation stop of 1-3/5' on the manuals, supporting the fifth harmonic, sounding approximately an E when played from a C key, seventeen scale steps higher. It is always played with a flute of the 8' pitch. The Dialogue sur les Grands jeux features each division of the organ (each different keyboard) in their full glory playing in dialogue with each other.

François Couperin, the most important member of the renowned Couperin dynasty, is the foremost composer of the French Baroque. A prodigiously talented keyboard player, he inherited the post of organist at the church of St Gervais in Paris when he was just eleven years old, subsequently dividing his time between the capital and Versailles upon becoming organiste du Roi in 1693. 

Music for Sunday, July 17, 2022 + The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Partita on “Liebster Jesu” – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Sonata in A – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
• Festive Trumpet Tune – David German (b. 1954)

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

• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖHE)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart (SLANE)
• Hymn R-266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn 344 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)

Partita on “Liebster Jesu” – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on the tune for our opening hymn. The tune, written in 1664 for text written by Tobias Clausnitzer in 1663, was a favorite of Johann Sebastian Bach and other Lutheran musicians.

There will be three settings. The first is in 4/4 time, and includes a running eighth  note figure. The second is in 6/8 time. Both settings follow the exact form of the hymn (AABB) and are written for the manuals only (no pedal). The third setting is in 6/8, but begins with a little fugue in the manuals before adding the straight melody in the pedals.

Sonata in A – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

The communion voluntary is one of the 555 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, the Italian -born composer born same year as Bach and Handel. His other compositions for opera and church pale in comparison to his keyboard works.

Scarlatti started off as an organist at the Royal Chapel in Naples when he was only sixteen years old.  He continued to work at the Royal Chapel until 1704. Then, in 1709, Scarlatti was commissioned for service to the exiled queen of Poland, Marie Casimire. This was where he met Handel. Scarlatti and Handel performed at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in a trial of skill. When Scarlatti was judged to be better than Handel at the harpsichord, word began to spread about the young composer. Scarlatti then went on to teach music to Maria Magdalena Barbara, a Portuguese princess, where he became the master of music for Maria’s household. When the princess was crowned Queen of Spain, Scarlatti served the Spanish Royalty till his death in 1757.

Due to the nature of his appointment to the Portuguese and Spanish courts, most of his music was published after his death. Still, the sonatas were highly regarded by musicians such as Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, Béla Bartók and Heinrich Schenker.

Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, Spain on July 23, 1757. His residence and his music have been preserved as part of Spanish Cultural Heritage. Many of his descendants still live in Madrid to this day.

Festive Trumpet Tune – David German

This festive trumpet tune (descriptive, if not original, title) was written by organist David German for his own wedding when he was director of music at Calvary Church in Charlotte. These days, he is director of music at Stephens Valley Church in Nashville. He attended  Moody Bible Institute, Olivet College, and Winthrop University. 

Music for January 28, 2018 + The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree – Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Wo soll ich fliehen hin? (Whether Shall I Flee?) – Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 694 (1685-1750) 
• Sonata No. 51 in B-flat Major – Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
• Praeludium and Fugue in E Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 533

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

• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn 536 - Open your ears, O faithful people (TORAH SONG)
• Hymn 380 - From all that dwells below the skies (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 111 – Confitebor tibi – Tone IVe

The anthem this morning is a simple but beautiful setting of an anonymous poem, The Apple Tree. We first sang this setting three years ago, and I wrote about it and its composer then, so if you want to read what I wrote, click here. It's worth it. I really did a good job. 😀

The opening voluntary is an early work of Johann Sebastian Bach on the Lutheran Chorale Wo soll ich fliehen hin, a hymn about the fearful sinner who diligently tries to escape the clutches of the devil, and finds redemption and peace in the blood of Jesus. Those happy Lutherans! Bach must not have been too keen on this arrangement, for he never tried to publish it, and it was only because one of his students, Johann Kirnberger, who discovered it among twenty-four organ compositions following Bach's death, that we even have access to it today.

The piece is a trio, meaning that there are three parts, or lines of music; two played by each of the hands, and the third, the chorale-melody, played by the feet.  "Above the doom-laden chorale melody in the pedal, which unfurls frightfully slowly and is therefore unrecognisable, the right hand plays a hurried escape motif. Nevertheless, the cheerful undertone in the left hand reveals that there will be a satisfactory outcome.melody." (1) Organist Leo van Doeselaar compares the two manual parts to a duel: "The two parts... are fighting out a duel, allowing each other no rest at all. Wide leaps, continuing musical lines, lots of syncopation, hard leaps... and that's all logical, because the text is so emotional: 'Where can I go, with all my sins?" (2)

Wo soll ich fliehen hin,
weil ich beschweret bin
mit vielen grossen Sünden ?
Wo kann ich Rettung finden ?
Wenn alle Welt herkäme,
mein Angst sie nicht wegnähme.

Where should I fly from here since I am burdened with many great sins? Where can I find rescue? If everybody in the world came to help, they would not take away my anguish. 

Another early work of Bach is his so-called "Little" Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, one of the best known and most widely played of Bach's early works. Mendelssohn was said to have introduced it to St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (Probably leading to its other nick-name, the "Cathedral.") It's form shows an immaturity, but that's overlooked by its strong spirit and drive. The work begins with a section of passage-work, which acts as an introduction and firmly sets the key. This is followed by a section of extended elaboration derived from the opening material. The second section, the fugue, contrasts with first by its thicker texture and stricter rhythm.

A contemporary of Bach named Domenico Scarlatti was living and writing music at the same time in Italy and Spain. Scarlatti churned out an enormous number of keyboard sonatas — more than 550.  If we believe the tales that are told, we have Scarlatti's gambling habit to thank for that number. One story has it that Scarlatti needed help from his patroness, the Queen of Spain, to pay off his gambling debts.  In return, she asked the composer to write down his improvised keyboard music.  The manuscripts containing the keyboard sonatas were given first to the queen and then, when the queen died in 1758, to the great singer Farinelli.  Soon thereafter, Scarlatti’s sonatas became known and loved across Europe.

Domenico Scarlatti

Scarlatti's sonatas all fall into the same form as the typical early 18th century keyboard sonata, the two-part binary form in two related sections, both of which are usually repeated. That is true of today's sonata, No. 51. The majority of Scarlatti's sonatas are brisk, energetic pieces, but since I am playing during communion, I've chosen one of his slower pieces marked Cantabile, which means "in a smooth singing style."

1. Bierman, Marloes. “Wo Soll Ich Fliehen Hin.” All of Bach, 15 May 2015, allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-694/. accessed 25 January 2018
2. van Doeselaar, Leo. “Wo Soll Ich Fliehen Hin.” All of Bach, 15 May 2015, allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-694/.