Music for Sunday, November 7, 2021 + The Commemoration of All Saints Day

Vocal Music

• Requiem – Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Instrumental Music

• Elegy – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• O Love, That Wilt Not Let Me Go – arr. Hal H. Hopson (b. 1933)
• Allegro Vivo e Maestoso - Paul Benoit (1893-1979)

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

• Hymn 287 -  For all the saints, who from their labors rest (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn R-276 -  Soon and very soon (SOON AND VERY SOON)
• Hymn 293 -  I sing a song of the saints of God (GRAND ISLE)
• Hymn 618 -  Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Psalm 24 - Simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachem

This Sunday is All Saints Sunday - All Saints is actually November 1, of course, but we can transfer the day anytime after within the week. We'll commemorate all the saints of God, and remember those of our church family who have joined the church eternal. 

The choir will sing a short work by Giacomo Puccini, called Requiem, which was written at the request of the Italian Music publisher G. Ricordi to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Guiseppi Verdi, who had died in 1901. Both Verdi and Puccini were composers whose operas were published by Ricordi, (Verdi: Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, and Aida; Puccini: La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, and Turandot.) Verdi was also idolized by the Italian People, who loved his operas as much as they loved his politics. He was a national hero.

Puccini at his piano

Puccini himself was the last of a musical dynasty that had been prominent in the life of Lucca for several generations. The fifth of seven children, he lost his father at the age of six. His maternal uncle taught him the rudiments of music, and he then continued his studies with Carlo Angeloni, director of the Istituto Musicale “Pacini”, and played the organ in churches in Lucca and the surrounding area. He did not tackle composition until he was about sixteen, but in 1876 he showed the progress he had made with a Preludio sinfonico, followed the next year by a cantata for solo voices and orchestra. 

His church background showed up in his next compositions, but it was the theatre that particularly attracted him (a performance of Aida in 1876 was a revelation for the young composer); he moved to Milan in 1880 in pursuit of a more intense musical life where he enrolled at the Conservatory. He graduated in 1883 with the Capriccio sinfonico whose theme he was later to use in La bohème.

In the same year he wrote his first opera, Le Villi, for a competition, but he did not win.  However, his friends put together a performance at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan the next year where the publisher Ricordi  immediately acquired the rights of the score, commissioned a second opera from Puccini for La Scala, and provided him with a monthly stipend of 200 lire for a year. After that, his career took off.

George Thalben-Ball

The opening voluntary is a work by the the English organist George Thalben-Ball. He was born in Australia, but lived in the UK for most of his life, becoming well-known as something of a “showman” recitalist in the grand late Victorian/Edwardian style. He became Director of Music at the Temple Church in London. He dedicated his Elegy, apparently conceived as an improvisation to fill in time at the end of a BBC-recorded service during the war, to Walford Davis who preceded him as organist at the Temple Church. 

This piece is quintessential English. It has a beautiful melodic line, beginning softly, building to full organ and then diminishing again; ending with a fragment of the melody in a whisper. It’s an appropriate piece for Remembrance or All Soul's services, and was played during Princess Diana’s funeral.

The Communion voluntary is based on a hymn not found in either of our hymnals. The hymn, "O Love that wilt not let me go" has appeared in 58 hymnals since 1979, and was written in 1883 by George Matheson, a minister in the Church of Scotland. The tune, ST. MARGARET, was written for this hymn for its inclusion in the Scottish Hymnal of 1884. The tune was arranged for piano and viola by Dallas composer Hal. H. Hopson.

The closing voluntary includes, as the theme in the pedal, the chant used at Vespers on All Saints Day in the Roman church. It is by Paul Marie-Joseph Benoit, OSB, a Benedictine monk, organist, and composer. Born in Nancy, France, Benoit first began to feel called to the vocation of a Benedictine monk during World War I,. After the Armistice of 1918, he entered a retreat at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Maurice and St. Maur, at Clervaux in Luxembourg, and he joined the abbey in 1919, taking his vows in 1921 and being ordained into priesthood in1926.

Music for September 11, 2016 + The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lord, for Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake – Richard Farrant (c.1530-1580) or John Hilton (1565-1708?)
• What Does the Lord Require? – Erik Routley (1917-1982)

Instrumental Music

• Elegy – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• Shalom (Peace) – Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
• Postlude in B-flat Major – John E. West (1863-1929)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (St. Denio)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (Beecher)
• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (Old 100^th)
• Hymn 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (St. Columba)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (Sicilian Mariners)
• Psalm 51:1-4, 7-8, 11 - Miserere mei, Deus (Tone VIIIb)

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I dare say that very few things in the past 50 years have shaken the country like that horrible day. But out of pain come acts of hope and beauty. Such is the piece that I play today for the communion voluntary.

Dan Locklair

Dan Locklair wrote his Æolian Sonata between late January and March for a recital celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Duke University Chapel’s Æolian pipe organ in June 2002. This was the last organ the Æolian Organ Company built before they merged with the E.M. Skinner Organ Co., forming the great American classic organ company,  Æolian-Skinner.

In three movements, The Æolian Sonata musically celebrates the heritage and continued use of the historic Æolian organ in Duke Chapel, but it also pays tribute to the spirit of the American people in the aftermath of the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks. The title for each movement is in a different language, symbolically paying tribute to the outpouring of support that Americans have felt from peace-loving people throughout the world. In a spiritual way, the music of each movement is a reflection on its title, with these words being indicative of a healing nation.

The second movement,  Shalom (Peace),  is marked “Serene and unhurried.” It is a quiet and simple movement that lyrically dialogues flute and clarinet sounds as it gently reflects on the Hebrew word for peace. Locklair prefaced this movement with the dedication:

In remembrance of the darkness of September 11 from which emerged hope for Peace and joy in Thanksgiving.

Locklair is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). He holds a Master of Sacred Music degree from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Presently, Dr. Locklair is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The choir's anthem is a choral setting of a sixteenth century prayer by Henry Bull, set to music by either Richard Farrant or John Hilton, both English composers of sacred music. Farrant was organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in the middle of the sixteenth century, while Hilton was known as a counter-tenor and organist, most notably at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the beginning, the music is in a simple, a capella, hymn-like style which befits the reflective and restful mood of the text, but at the words "that we may walk in a perfect heart" the choir has a chance to play around with the rhythms of the words and sing much more independently of each other, finally ending with a contrapuntal "amen."

The communion anthem is a hymn from our hymnal. Early in 1949 Albert F. Bayly wrote this text based on Micah 6:6-8 as one of a series of seventeen hymns he was writing on the Old Testament prophets. His objective was to present the prophets "in the light of the climax and fulfillment of the Old Testament revelation in the coming of Christ." "What Does the Lord Require" asks questions and states commands as if Micah were a modern-day prophet. The refrain line "Do justly. . ." subtly shifts from the imperative voice in stanzas 1 through 3 to a corporate confession in stanza 4. Erik Routley composed SHARPTHORNE in 1968 to be published as a setting for Bayly's text in a British hymnal. Sharpthorne is a village in Routley's native county of Sussex, England.

Don't forget the Concert of Remembrance and Peace tonight at Strawbridge United Methodist Church. Members from our choir will be a part of this event.

Music for June 28, 2015 + The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – arr. Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) - Richard Murray, soloist

Instrumental Music

• Tune in E (in the style of John Stanley) – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• Prelude in E-Minor (op.28 no. 4) - Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
• Tuba Tune in D – Craig Sellar Lang (1891-1971)

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 533 How wondrous and great (LYONS)
• Hymn R 23 The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases (THE STEADFAST LOVE)
• Hymn 411 O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS[WILLIAMS])
• Hymn R 281 Broken for Me (BROKEN FOR ME)
• Hymn 610 Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

From A Land Down Under 

George Thalben-Ball was an incredible force in the organ world of Great Britain. Though originally born in Australia, his family moved to England when he was four. He entered the Royal College of Music in London at the incredibly early age of 14, and upon graduation, the young man was asked to deputise as organist at London's Temple Church by its then organist, Sir Henry Walford Davies. In 1923, he succeeded Walford Davies as organist and director of the Temple Church choir, a post he held for nearly 60 years. Under his direction, the choir attracted such a following that queues for services often spilled out of the Temple into Fleet Street. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967 and knighted in 1982.

He was also well known as a virtuoso organist, playing on the daily BBC radio broadcasts. He could sight-read, transpose and improvise in any style and at any length to the highest standard without perceptible effort. The opening voluntary today is a piece he wrote in the style of John Stanley, an 18th century English organist and composer. It's really rather stylized, and romantic in its idea of what the music of Stanley was like, but it's still a lovely, stately piece. It's in three parts, with the first and last being almost identical.

Likewise, 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.

Hymn of the Day

Lord, whose love through humble service

Albert F. Bayly wrote this text in response to a Hymn Society of America search for new hymns on social welfare in 1961. The text begins with recognition of Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the cross and then points to the continuing needs of the homeless, the hungry, the prisoners, and the mourners. Bayly's words remind us of modern refugees, AIDS patients, and famine victims who are as close as our doorstep or who are brought to our attention via the news media. The final two stanzas encourage us to move from Sunday worship to weekday service; such integrity in the Christian life is truly a liturgy of sacrifice, pleasing to God.

The tune BLAENHAFREN is a Welsh melody in a rounded barform (AABA), making it easy to learn and easy to sing. The rhythmic accents propel the melody forward, providing a fitting setting for this challenging text.