Music for Sunday, September 22, 2019

Vocal Music

• Psalm 113 – Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
• I Choose Love – Mark A. Miller (21st Century)

Instrumental Music

• Solemn Melody – H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)
• Prelude in B-flat – Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
• Toccata in D Minor – Max Reger (1873-1916)

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 605 - What does the Lord require (SHARPETHORNE)
• Hymn R 255 - Give to our God immortal praise (DUKE STREET)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 676 - There is a balm in gilead (BALM IN GILEAD)
• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)

This Sunday the choir is singing a very simple but powerful anthem written by Mark A. Miller, a Associate Professor of Church Music and Composer In Residence at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Written in response to the tragic massacre at the Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015, this anthem represents our solidarity to love in the midst of pain, of war, of brokenness. We choose love. We choose community. What better way to share this message than through powerful song?  I have been humming the tune all week, and allowing the words to wash over me and nurture my soul. I hope they will do the same for you:

In the midst of pain, I choose love.
In the midst of pain, sorrow falling down like rain,
I await the sun again, I choose love.

In the midst of war, I choose peace.
In the midst of war, hate and anger keeping score,
I will seek the good once more, I choose peace.

When my world falls down, I will rise.
When my world falls down, explanations can’t be found,
I will climb to holy ground, I will rise.

In addition to his post at Drew, Miller is a Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale University and Minister of Music of Christ Church in Summit, New Jersey and Composer in Residence of Harmonium Choral Society in NJ. From 2002-2007 he was Director of Contemporary Worship at Marble Collegiate Church and from 1999-2001 was Assistant Organist and Music Associate at the Riverside Church, both in New York City. Since 1999 he has travelled to every part of the country delighting congregations with the power and joy of music making. Mark received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University and his Master of Music in Organ Performance from Juilliard.

Music for December 16, 2018 +The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music 

• Rejoice in the Lord Alway – 16th C. Anon. 

Instrumental Music 

• Veni Emmanuel -  Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
• Savior of the Nations, Come – Gerald Near 
• Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding – Gerald Near 

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

• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON) 
• Hymn R122 - Canticle 9 - The First Song of Isaiah (Jack Noble White) 
• Hymn R276 - Soon and very soon (Andrae Crouch) 
• Hymn 60 - Creator of the stars of night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM) 
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY) 
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé Community) 
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice, rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFLAN) 

The choir sings a setting of the words from today's Epistle reading, the fourth chapter of St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It is the anonymous sixteenth-century anthem Rejoice in the Lord alway which was formerly attributed to John Redford. The only known source of this anthem is in the Mulliner Book which is held in the British Library. The Mulliner Book is a historically important musical book compiled, probably between about 1545 and 1570, by Thomas Mulliner, about whom practically nothing is known, except that he is listed as modulator organorum of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1563.

The music—a careful setting of the words—varies between imitative passages and homophonic sections as, for example, at the words ‘Let your softness be known unto all men," where the entire choir sings the same words at the same time.

The text is appropriate for the third Sunday of Advent, which is known as Gaudete Sunday. Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Catholic Mass, which is the same as our Epistle reading.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

The color for the"Rejoice" Sunday is rose, a deviation from the blue we use on the other three Sundays of Advent.

My opening voluntary is the great Advent hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel, as set by the early 20th century English composer Edward Bairstow. Better known in his time as an organist, Bairstow is best remembered today for his Choral music, particularly for "Save Us, O Lord," "Blessed City," and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence." He also wrote much other sacred music and a handful of organ and piano compositions.

Edward Bairstow

Bairstow received his education at the University of Durham, where he studied organ and music theory, graduating in 1894. He obtained a doctorate degree in music from that university in 1901. He was organist at several parish churches until 1913, when he became organist at York Minster, a position he would retain for the rest of his life.

Bairstow accepted a professorship at Durham University in 1929, but remained a resident in York owing to the light teaching demands at his alma mater. Bairstow received knighthood in 1932.