Music for Sunday, October 2, 2022

Vocal Music

• O Lord, Increase My Faith – Henry Loosemore (c.1600 - 1670) (fl. 1627-1670)

Instrumental Music

• An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the Waters of Babylon), BWV 653 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Ich ruf zu dir (I call on Thee, Lord Jesus Christ) – J. S. Bach
• Finale and Fughetta in C – Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746)

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

• Hymn R 49 Let the whole creation cry (LLANDFAIR)
• Hymn 535 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R 249 Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 551 Rise up, ye saints of God (FESTAL SONG)
• Psalm 37:1-10 – Tone VIIIa

O Lord, Increase My Faith

In Sunday's Gospel, the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6)

The Good Shepherd Choir asks the same thing in this Sunday’s anthem.

O Lord, increase my faith,
strengthen me and confirm me in Thy true faith;
endue me with wisdom, charity, and patience,
in all my adversity, Sweet Jesu, say Amen.

Attributed for many years to the English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), modern scholarly research reveals the composer as Henry Loosemore, an English composer and organist. His father, John Loosemore, built the organ at Exeter Cathedral. Henry Loosemore served as the organist at King's College, Cambridge. In 1640, Loosemore was granted the degree of B.Mus by the University, on the supplication of King's College avowing that 'he had studied the art of musical composition for seven years, together with its practice, and has achieved approval of those skilled in the art.'

An Wasserflüssen Babylon

This chorale prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach is from a set known as The Great Eighteen, a set of chorale preludes for organ prepared by Bach in Leipzig in his final decade (1740–1750), from earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein (see below), the Schübler Chorales, the third book of the Clavier-Übung and the Canonic Variations, they represent the summit of Bach's sacred music for solo organ.

The hymn "An Wasserflüssen Babylon" is a paraphrase of Psalm 137, a lament in exile in Babylon. The gentle ritornellos of the accompanying parts in the two upper parts and pedal of this sarabande, anticipate the ornamented chorale in the tenor, evoking the mournful tone of the hymn, the "organs and harps, hung up on willow trees", based on Psalm 137. In a famous concert in 1720 on the great organ in St Catherine's Church in Hamburg, Bach had improvised for almost half an hour on the same hymn tune as a tribute to the church's organist Johann Adam Reinken and his celebrated fantasy on the same theme.

Ich ruf zu dir

At communion you will hear "Ich ruf zu dir" (BWV 639) from Orgelbüchlein by Bach, a famous collection of 46 Chorale Preludes for organ. The melodies of these Chorale Preludes are not by Bach, they are from the tradition of the Lutheran Church, but Bach works his magic on these miniatures. The music is in the key of F minor, described by J. P. Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach, as "the least pure, and thus the saddest."

The text was written by Johann Agricola (1494-1566) and published before 1530.

I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ!
I beg, hear my complaint!
Grant me grace at this time;
let me not despair!
The pure faith, Lord, I wish
that You would give me:
to live to You
to help my neighbor,
and to keep Your Word faithfully.

There are three voices - the bass line in the pedal, played as a steady, pulsating beat; the middle line, written in flowing 16th notes, imitative of the bowing style of a viola player, and the top line, playing the melody. The first half of the tune is somewhat ornamented, while the second half, curiously, is plain. This may be a signal to the performer to improvise similar ornamentation for the second half. On the other hand, it may be an intentional reflection of the shift of emphasis that occurs half way through the text, from a plaintive to a more sturdy and confident character. ("The pure faith..." "to keep your word faithfully.")

This work was included in the zero gravity scene in Andrej Tarkowski's movie "Solaris".

Finale and Fughetta

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer was a German composer who influenced composers in the generation before J.S. Bach. He composed Italianate vocal compositions, liturgical organ works in the German tradition, and orchestral and keyboard works. Fischer was responsible for bringing a French influence into German music.

Music for October 6, 2019

Vocal Music

• O Lord, Increase My Faith – Henry Loosemore (c.1600-1670)

Instrumental Music

• By the Water of Babylon, BWV 653 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Amazing Grace – George Shearing (1919-2011)
• Chaconne – Louis Couperin (1626-1661)

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

• Hymn R 49 - Let the whole creation cry (LLANFAIR)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace, how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 380 - Praise God from whom all blessings flow (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn 660 - O Master, let me walk with thee (MARYTON)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)

George Michael, who has nothing to do with this Sunday's music, but got your attention.

As George Michael said, "You Gotta Have Faith."

In Sunday's Gospel, the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17:5-6)

The Good Shepherd Choir asks the same thing in this Sunday’s anthem.

O Lord, increase my faith,
strengthen me and confirm me in Thy true faith;
endue me with wisdom, charity, and patience,
in all my adversity, Sweet Jesu, say Amen.

Attributed for many years to the English composer Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), modern scholarly research reveals the composer as Henry Loosemore, an English composer and organist. His father, John Loosemore, built the organ at Exeter Cathedral.  Henry Loosemore served as the organist at King's College, Cambridge.  In 1640, Loosemore was granted the degree of B.Mus by the University, on the supplication of King's College avowing that 'he had studied the art of musical composition for seven years, together with its practice, and has achieved approval of those skilled in the art.'

Psalm 137 is an alternate Psalm for the day. (We will be singing Psalm 37). The text,

1. By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2. On the willows there we hung up our harps.
3. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4. How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

describes the desperate situation of the Israelites in exile.

In 1525, Wolfgang Dachstein wrote a German Chorale based on the psalm, and many 17th century organists used the chorale in both organ and choral settings. J. S. Bach was one of those. In his collection known as the 18 Choräle or Leipziger Choräle, Bach included two different versions. One of them, BWV 653b, has five voices, and the melody sounds ethereally in the upper voice, against a sombre double pedal part. In the other version, BWV 653a, the ornamented melody in the middle voice is wedged between two upper voices and pedal. This is the version I will play as the opening voluntary.

This latter version was clearly Bach’s favourite, as he revised the material in his later years in Leipzig, by adding even more ornamentation to the melody and further accentuating the drawn-out rhythm as a slow sarabande (a slow, stately Spanish dance in triple time). In this way, he emphasised the point of this chorale, which is expressed in the later verses of the text, where the Israelites are forced to sing a song of praise. But how are they to sing in such hopeless circumstances? That is precisely what Bach conveys in this chorale prelude. Although the oppressors have got the exiles right where they want them, the timid middle voice keeps going courageously, and with all the ornamentation displays faith in a good outcome.(1)

The closing voluntary is also in an ancient dance form, this time the chaconne, a composition in a series of varying sections in slow triple time, typically over a short repeated bass theme. Originally a stately dance performed to a chaconne, popular in the 18th century, here we have an organ arrangement of a harpsichord piece by French composer Louis Couperin. Couperin moved to Paris in 1650–1651, where he worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court.

This arrangement is by the early 20th century French organist, Joseph Bonnet.

(1) A Somber Sarabande, Netherlands Bach Society, https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-653/