Music for April 2, 2023 + The Sunday of the Passion

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
• He Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word – Spiritual, arr. William M. Schoenfeld (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory, Laud and Honor -arr. Cynthia Dobrinski (1950-2021)
• O Sacred Head – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Ah, Holy Jesus – Russell Hancock Miles (1895-1983)

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

• Hymn 154 All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 480 When Jesus left his Father’s throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn 143 The glories of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R214 Your only son, no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 168 O sacred head, sore wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)

Two spirituals and two German chorales are featured in the music for Palm Sunday.

Ride On, King Jesus

The opening Palm Sunday liturgy will feature the solo Ride On, King Jesus, sung by Christine Donley. It was arranged by the African-American composer Hall Johnson. 

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Negro Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

He Never Said a Mumbalin Word

This Spiritual recalling Christ’s Passion provides poignant evidence of the eloquence and empathy born of shared suffering. The call-and-response singing style also provides a means of affirming the communal wisdom expressed in recurring phrases and refrains. The lines " They crucified my Lord, They nailed him to a tree, They pierced him in the side," etc, calls for the response, "and he never said a mumbalin' word."

This warm and gracious setting of this beloved melody, with a flowing piano accompaniment, is provided by William M. Schoenfeld, an American composer and arranger with degrees from  Cal-State, Hayward, California; the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California; and Master of Church Music from Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

Ah, Holy Jesus

I inherit a lot of organ music from the libraries of organist who have either retired or passed away. I am guessing that is where I got this short prelude on the hymn Herzliebster Jesu. It comes from a set ot two Lenten Chorale Preludes which are tied together by the use of the musical them "B-A-C-H." (The name of Bach can be spelled by playing the notes B (flat) A C and B (natural)

In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature, in which the note B natural is named H and the B flat named B, it forms Johann Sebastian Bach's family name.

The composer of the closing voluntary, Russell Hancock Miles, was for a long time a music professor at the University of Illinois. Though little known today in the organ world, the May 1944 edition of the organist's magazine The Diapason said, "A graduate of Syracus University, Professor Miles is one of the outstanding pupils of his father-in-law, Dr. William Berwald. As head of the organ department at the University of Illinois, professor of composition, concert and church organist, conductor of the university chorus and composer, Professor Miles has taken a high place."

An interesting side-note is that Russell Miles is the son of C. Austin Miles, Sr., the composer of the well-loved gospel hymn "In the Garden."

Tenebrae

I want to remind all of you of the Tenebrae service our choir will sing Wednesday Evening. The service of Tenebrae follows a tradition of the early church dating back to the eighth century, and commemorates the final hours of Christ's life on earth as He prepared for and suffered death on the cross. This exceptionally moving work features familiar hymns and spirituals, and has become a staple in Holy Week repertoire in churches throughout the country.

The Good Shepherd Choir will present Tenebrae: A Service of Darkness on the Wednesday of Holy Week, April 5, at 7 p.m. in the Nave.

Music for Sunday, June 26, 2022 + The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
• Calvary – Paul Rodney (d. 1910)

Instrumental Music

• Hyfrydol – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Praise to the Lord – Paul Manz

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

• Hymn 525 - The church’s one foundation (Aurelia)
• Hymn R 37 - Father, we love you (Glorify Your Name)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Spiritual)
• Hymn - From North and South (Lasst uns erfreuen)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (Here I Am, Lord)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us o'er the tumult (Galilee)
• Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 – Tone IIa

This Sunday we are fortunate to have my friend Edward Gibson come to sing for us at the 10:15 service. Ed is also a graduate of the Sacred Music Program at Southern Methodist University, and has served churches in Texas, most recently at Christ United Methodist in the Woodlands. He is now an elementary music specialist in Conroe ISD. He will be singing two diverse pieces for us.

Edward Gibson

Ride On, King Jesus

This great Negro Spiritual is a favorite of our congregation, especially in this arrangement by Hall Johnson (You can read about him here in a previous post on this blog.)

Calvary

This is what we call an old chestnut. Written in 1887, it was a standard for many years in Protestant churches in the English speaking world. It was written by an man named Harry W. Hopkins, who wrote under the pseudonym of Paul Rodney. Though he was a popular writer of English Ballads, not much can be found about him other than he died in 1910. The lyrics are by Henry Vaughan.

The pilgrims throng thro' the city gates
While the night is falling fast;
They go to watch on Calvary's hill
Ere the twilight hours are past;
Though dark be the way, with eyes of faith,
They gaze on His Cross above;
And, lo! from each heart, The shadows depart,
As they list to His words of love,
As they list to His words of love.

"Rest, rest to the weary, Peace, peace to the soul;
Tho' life may be dreary, Earth is not thy goal,
O lay down thy burden, O come unto Me,
I will not forsake thee, I will not forsake thee,
I will not forsake thee, Tho' all else should flee."

Far, far, away, o'er the dream of years
They hear the voice of the King
Where, O Grave, where is thy victory,
And where, O Death is thy sting?
Captive He leads them for evermore;
While weary pilgrims rejoice;
For looking on high to the Cross He bore,
The faithful shall hear His voice,
The faithful shall hear His voice.

"Rest, rest to the weary, Peace, peace to the soul;
Tho' life may be dreary, Earth is not thy goal,
O lay down thy burden, O come unto Me,
I will not forsake thee, I will not forsake thee,
I will not forsake thee, Tho' all else should flee."

Music for April 10, 2022 + The Sunday of the Passion

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – arr. Hall Johnson (1888-1970)
• O Savior of the World – John Goss (1800-1880)

Instrumental Music

• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Ah, Holy Jesus – Johannes Brahms

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

• Hymn 154 - All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 435 - At the name of Jesus (KING’S WESTON)
• Hymn R235 - O sacred head, now wounded (HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN)
• Hymn R214 - Your only Son, no sin to hide (LAMB OF GOD)
• Hymn R227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
• Hymn 474 - When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)

Two composers of the Romantic era are featured in the 10:15 service this Sunday, one of them being arguably more famous than the other. Let's look at the music of the lesser known composer.

Sir John Goss was an English composer, chiefly of English cathedral music and hymnody. His position in the London musical world was an influential one as a teacher, writer, composer and critic.

Born to a musical family, Goss was a boy chorister of the Chapel Royal, London, and later a pupil of Thomas Attwood, organist of St Paul's Cathedral. After a brief period as a chorus member in an opera company he was appointed organist of a chapel in south London, later moving to more prestigious organ posts at St Luke's Church, Chelsea and finally St Paul's Cathedral, where he struggled to improve musical standards.

As a composer, Goss wrote little for the orchestra, but was known for his vocal music, both religious and secular. In The Hymnal 1982 his tune LAUDA ANIMA is used as the setting for the hymn "Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven" (#410). The music critic of The Times described him as the last of the line of English composers who confined themselves almost entirely to ecclesiastical music. One such composition is today's anthem, O Savior of the World. 

O Savior of the World uses as a text the prayer of adoration of the cross found in the Good Friday service (as well as the laying on of hands in the Ministration of the Sick in the Book of Common Prayer, p. 455). This had become one of the most popular Passiontide anthems, as much for congregations as for choirs. It has just the right combination of melodic interest and chordal structure, the later emphasising key words in such a way as to make the whole readily relevant to the listener. There is also just enough repitition of the words to emphasize the poignancy of "save us and help us."

The two organ voluntaries are settings of hymns commonly associated with the Passion, HERZLIEBSTER JESU (Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended, #158) and HERZLICH TUT MIR VERLANGEN (O Sacred head, sore wounded, #168), from Johannes Brahms's collection Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122. 

Brahms may well be the greatest composer of the Romantic period. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. He wrote symphonies, concerti, chamber music, piano works, choral compositions, and more than 200 songs. The only major form in which he did not write was opera.

Brahms was the great master of symphonic and sonata style in the second half of the 19th century. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven in a period when the standards of this tradition were being questioned or overturned by the Romantics.

Unlike the great classical masters, Brahms wrote several works for organ. The collection I am drawing from this morning, the Eleven Chorale Preludes, is a work written in 1896 at the end of the composer's life and published posthumously in 1902. They are based on verses of nine Lutheran chorales, two of them set twice, and are relatively short. 

The communion voluntary is the second of two variations on the PASSION CHORALE (O Sacred Head). This setting of the “passion” melody is remarkably uniform in texture.  The melody itself is placed in the pedals.  In the manuals, the almost hypnotic motion begins in an introduction.  The right hand, set in the tenor register, piano and molto legato, plays flowing, winding arpeggios in sixteenth notes.  The left hand has two voices, most notably a throbbing bass line with repeated notes. The changes of pitch in this bass line are slow and deliberate, but they actually reflect the notes, and even the rhythm, of the first line from chorale melody itself.  The upper left hand line is in longer notes.  

The closing voluntary is  based on hymn 158. The melody is heard in long, sustained notes on top, while the accompaniment has a three-note upbeat pattern throughout, while a shorter, downward leap pattern appears in the pedal. It is slow, majestic, and tragic.

Music for May 17, 2020 + The Sixth Sunday after Easter

Vocal Music

• His Name So Sweet – arr. Hall Johnson (1888-1970), Camryn Creech, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Because He Lives – Bill Gaither (b. 1936), Bernice Satterwhite, pianist
• O That I had a Thousand Voices – Max Reger (1873-1916)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (Slane)

This Sunday, Camryn Creech will sing the solo for our virtual service. Camryn is the newest member of our choir, just joining in January, so she didn't get long to sing with us before the Corona virus hit. She is a senior at Kingwood High School, so it's fitting that she sing this Sunday, which is Senior Sunday. She is singing an arrangement of the spiritual, His Name So Sweet, written as a "concert Spiritual" by the groundbreaking American composer and musician, Hall Johnson.

Born Francis Hall Johnson but better known as just plain Hall Johnson, this important artist was equally known for his compositions, the formation of several world-famous choirs, and a series of superb publications concerning gospel and black music, in general. His first major influence in the subject of sacred choral music would have had to have been his father, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal church in Athens, Georgia. Another important early musical talisman who Johnson was fond of pointing out was his grandmother, a former slave whose interpretations of spirituals moved him deeply. But far from leaning only on oral tradition, Johnson studied at Atlanta University, Allen University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Juilliard School, and the University of Southern California.

In 1943, Johnson became music director for one of the first major all-black movies, Cabin in the Sky, where he worked with a cast of legends that included Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Lena Horne.

He was still at the helm of his choir and as creatively energetic as ever when he turned 80 in 1968. But just two years later, on April 30, 1970, Johnson died when a fire broke out in his New York apartment building. Marian Anderson delivered his eulogy,

I welcome Bernice Satterwhite, who plays the piano for the opening of this week's service. She'll be playing a very popular Gospel song by Bill and Gloria Gaither, Because He Lives. This hymn, perfect for the Easter season, has appeared in 41 hymnals since it first was published in 1971.

Music for July 1, 2018

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970), arr.; Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• O Beautiful for Spacious Skies – Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)
• Neo-Classique – Mark Hayes (b. 1953)
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Emma Lou Diemer

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our Fathers, whose almighty hand (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn R23 - The steadfast love of the Lord (Edith McNeill)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn 773 - Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

The Fourth of July (Independence Day) is one of the most American of Holidays, where we unabashedly celebrate our patriotism. Though it does not take precedence over the prescribed readings for the day, we can still celebrate America with truly American music and composers.

Hall Johnson

One truly American genre is the Negro Spiritual. Richard Murray will sing an upbeat spiritual arranged by Hall Johnson, a highly regarded African American choral director, composer, arranger, and violinist of the 20th century who dedicated his career to preserving the integrity of the Negro spiritual as it had been performed during the era of slavery.

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

Emma Lou Diemer

Another American treasure (who is still alive, by the way) is the composer Emma Lou Diemer. Born in Missouri to a family that valued arts and education (her father was a university president, he mother a church worker), she began piano lessons at a very early age and became organist in her church at age 13. Her great interest in composing music continued through College High School in Warrensburg, MO, and she majored in composition at the Yale Music School (BM, 1949; MM, 1950) and at the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D, 1960). She studied in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two summers of composition study at the Berkshire Music Center.

Through the years she has written many works of varying levels of difficulty from hymns and songs to concertos and symphonies. Her church music background is evidenced in her works for choir and organ.

The piano offertory is a piece written in a quasi Classical style ("Classical" meaning the period in Music History, as typified by Mozart and Haydn.) The Classical era was an era of formality and its music was characterized by careful attention to form and by elegance and restraint.

Classical music tends to be more homophonic and lighter in texture than that of the Baroque. Instead of a multi-voiced fugue, you'll find a single melody line over a choral accompaniment. You'll also find a slower harmonic movement. Baroque music is characterized by frequent harmonic changes, sometimes on every beat. Classical music changes chords much less frequently, giving it a more graceful sweep and lightness of phrasing than that created by the rapidly changing embellished chords. This is the effect that Mark Hayes has tried to emulate.
Hayes, like Diemer, is an internationally known and award-winning composer, arranger, and performer with over 1200 publications in print. And, like Diemer, he hails from Missouri, making his home in Kansas City.

Music for June 12, 2016

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus! – Hall Johnson

Instrumental Music

• Suite Gothique III. Prière à Notre-Dame – Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)
• Suite Gothique IV. Toccata – Léon Boëllmann
• Farewell to Stromness– Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

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

• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (Blaenafren)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (Beecher)
• Hymn 691 - My faith looks up to thee (Olivet)
• Hymn 178 - Alleluia, alleluia! give thanks to the risen Lord (Alleluia No. 1)
• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (Lauda Anima)

We welcome home one of our former staff singers, Allison Gosney, to our worship this morning. She is back in Kingwood after her first year in the graduate program of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, studying vocal performance. You will be delighted to hear her singing the spiritual, Ride On, King Jesus, as arranged by Hall Johnson.

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Negro Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

Peter Maxwell Davies

I first heard Farewell to Stromness this Spring when it was played on the radio in honor of the life of Peter Maxwell Davies, the famed conductor and composer who died in March at age 81. The piano piece is one that is not explicitly religious, but when I heard it, all I could imagine were people quietly coming forward to communion. Stromness is a town on the largest island in Orkney, Scotland, which was threatened in the early 1970s when it was discovered that vast uranium deposits were underground. the South of Scotland Electricity Board wanted to mine the uranium to fuel a nuclear power plant. Once the islanders understood the ramifications of mining the island, they (and the Orkney Islands Council) opposed the initiative unilaterally. Davies, who is English, was moved to write The Yellow Cake Revue after a public examiner's report advised the Secretary of State for Scotland to deny the SSEB's request to mine. The first interlude, "Farewell to Stromness", has become one of Davies' most popular pieces, and has been arranged for various instruments.