Music for August 22, 2021

Vocal Music

• Love the Lord – arr. Mark Schweizer (1956-2019)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in G – attr. J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Meditation on “Simple Gifts” – Michael Larkin (b. 1951)
• Rondeau – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

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 561 - Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT)
Hymn R232 - There is a Redeemer (Keith/Melody Green)
Hymn R233 - Glory be to Jesus (CASWALL)
Hymn 460 - Alleluia, sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
Psalm 34:15-22 - Tone VIIIa

I have programmed two pieces written by men born in the 1950s, and two men born in the last half of the 17th century. First the contemporary pieces.

Mark Schweizer

The choir sings a setting of a tune from the Sacred Harp, a ubiquitous and historically important tunebook, first published in 1844, which was the backbone of the Sacred Harp singing schools that originated in New England and later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The tune is both rugged and vigorous, changing between slow and quick sections. The text is one that we usually associate with Lent, but with the upbeat refrain which compares Jesus to no other, it is perfect for any time of the year.

This arrangement is by Mark Schweizer, a native of Florida who received music degrees from Stetson University in Deland, Florida and the University of Arizona including a doctoral degree in vocal performance. He returned to teach at Stetson University from 1982 to 1985 followed by eight years on the music faculty of Louisiana College. Mark lived in North Carolina where he served as editor of St. James Music Press. He is also the author of fifteen “Liturgical Mystery” novels, as well as other books, and several opera and musical librettos.

The communion voluntary is a meditation on another American folk tune from the Shaker tradition, "Simple Gifts." It is by the Delaware composer and musician, Michael Larkin, who serves as organist and director of music ministry at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delaware.  

The opening voluntary is the fifth installment of my playing the complete (so-called) Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, which were attributed for years to J.S. Bach, but now thought to be by one of his pupils. 

This week it's the Prelude and Fugue in G. The prelude is a "miniature toccata" which, after a stately, big chordal introduction, evolves into freely-composed improvisatory passages which just ripple over the keyboard. It reflects the musical influence of Johann Kuhnau, Johann Sebastian Bach, and J. K. F.. Fischer. 

The English composer Henry Purcell wrote incidental music for a revival of the play Abdelazer, or The Moor's Revenge in the summer of 1695, including the movement entitled Rondeau. A Rondeau is an instrumental musical form in which a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain") alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called "episodes." The form is outlined such as A - B - A - C - A.

Purcell's Rondeau was used by Benjamin Britten as the theme for his set of variations The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946).

Music for January 17, 2021 + The Second Sunday of the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O Jesus, Joy of Loving Hearts – Beverly Ward (b. 1935)
• The Summons – John Bell (b. 1949)
• Bidkar Cajina, baritone
• Hymn 707: Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)

Instrumental Music

• Suite for Organ – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
• Sinfonia
• Ayre
• Trumpet Tune
• Rondeau
• Trumpet Tune
• Adagio
• Trumpet Tune
• Trumpet Tune in D Major – Henry Purcell

This Sunday I have a Men's Schola leading the music. In monasteries, the name schola cantorum is often applied to certain selected monks whose duty it is to chant the more elaborate portions of the liturgical music, such as the graduals and alleluias at Mass, the rest of the community joining only in the simpler parts. These men from the Good Shepherd Choir will be singing a setting (in English paraphrase) of the Latin hymn Jesu dulcis memoria, retaining the traditional plainsong melody, with a lovely organ accompaniment and a canonic verse in the middle. It is arranged by Beverly Ward. I was happy to see this piece as I am trying to find and use more music written by women composers.

Mr. Ward, however, is not a woman.

Mr. Ward was the organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church, Hendersonville, NC, and St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Asheville, NC, from 1994 until 2003. Mr. Ward has also served as organist and choirmaster at St. James Cathedral, Chicago.  A graduate of Furman University, Eastman School of Music, he is also a graduate of the College of Church Musicians of Washington, an elite group who studied at Washington National Cathedral. Mr. Ward undertook advanced study at the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago, while teaching there. He was a composition student of Leo Sowerby. His works can be found in the catalogs of Flammer, H.W. Gray, Augsburg, and St. James Music Press.

During Communion you will hear Bidkar Cajina sing the beautiful hymn "The Summons" by Scotsman John Bell. I wrote about this hymn and John Bell when he last sang this in October, so please check out my post here.

The organ music is all music of Henry Purcell, the finest and most original composer of his day. Though he was to live a very short life (he died at age 36), he was able to enjoy and make full use of the renewed flowering of music after the Restoration of the Monarchy.

Henry Purcell

As the son of a musician at Court, a chorister at the Chapel Royal, and the holder of continuing royal appointments until his death, Purcell worked in Westminster for three different Kings over twenty-five years.

He is responsible for much choral music for the church, but also music for opera and theatre. While Purcell was known for being the organist at Westminster Abbey, the English organ was nowhere near the size nor as elaborate as the organ in Germany, so what little organ music Purcell wrote was rather inconsequential to the great body of organ literature. Thus, modern organists have had to turn to transcriptions of his orchestral works for their portion of music from Purcell.  The Suite I am playing for the opening voluntary is an arrangement of various works from his incidental music for the English stage.

Music for October 20, 2019

Vocal Music

• Let Us Go to the House of the Lord – Ellen McClune and Steve Taranto (The Coventry Choir)
• Without the Fire - David Ashley White
• Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of our Heart - Henry Purcell 

Instrumental Music

• Reflections on a Tune – David Ashley White
• Book of Book, Our People’s Strength – Timothy Albrecht
• Fanfare for Saint Anthony – David Ashley White

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

• Hymn 372 - Praise to the living God! (LEONI)
• Hymn 631 - Book of books, our people’s strength (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Zimbabwe)
• Hymn R173 - O Lord, hear my prayer (Jacques  Berthier)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

This Sunday we hear the story of the Widow and the Apathetic Judge.  The widow comes to the judge day after day, petitioning him to decide on her behalf, and despite his indifference to the justice of her cause, he relents simply to get her off his back. In contrast to the judge’s apathy, God is empathetic: God cares and God wants us to receive blessings.

The idea of God as an empathetic judge is what sparked the choice of the two anthems the Good Shepherd Choir is singing. The communion anthem, Henry Purcell's "Thou Knowest, Lord" from the Funeral music for Queen Mary II in 1695, could very well have been sung by the persistent widow:

Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts;
Shut not thy merciful ears unto our pray'rs;
But spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty.
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
Thou most worthy Judge eternal...

This anthem was sung at Purcell's very own funeral just eight months later in November, 1695.

 In the offertory anthem, we sing the phrase "Without the Judge, there is no Pleading," and we immediately thought of today's parable.

Rae Whitney, an English-born poet and hymn writer now living in Nebraska, has written a text, based on a few lines from Thomas á Kempis, that reflects on what we would be missing if there were no faith or resurrection. It has been set to music by Houston composer David Ashley White, whose music is familiar to us here at Good Shepherd just as it is to musicians and choirs throughout the world. He is the Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Houston.

This anthem is one of several that will be sung at the Diocese of Texas's annual Choral Festival next weekend at Christ Church Cathedral. It is a fine example of choral writing, with a beautiful melody, lush harmonies and changing meters of 4/2 to 3/2 that fit the rhythm of the words to create a powerful message. 

David writes more than just choral music, however. Organists are fortunate that he has written several lovely and interesting organ works. Two of those will be played today as the opening and closing voluntaries. The first, Reflections on a Tune, are his musings on his own hymn tune PALMER CHURCH, which is found at Hymn 327 in The Hymnal 1982. The name is in reference to White's home parish, Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church here in Houston.

Music for March 11, 2018 + The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• A Simple Song – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
• Thou Knowest, Lord – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Instrumental Music

• Meditation on “Valley” – Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941)

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

• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn R132 - As Moses raised the serpent up (GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (HANOVER)
• Hymn R189 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn R9 - As the deer pants for the water (Nystrom)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Tone IIa

This Sunday former choir member Kim Bollinger returns to Kingwood for the weekend to sing at our 10:15 service. Kim has been enjoying the peripatetic life of an Army wife, living in places such as Germany, Washington, Rhode Island, and now Georgia as her husband serves our country. 

I'm even more delighted because she is going to sing "A Simple Song" from Leonard Bernstein's Mass. His Mass was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy in memory of her late husband President Kennedy and was premiered in 1971 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Bernstein. a Jew, had already written his Symphony No. 3: Kaddish, dedicating it to the memory of Kennedy shortly after his assassination, so with this commissioned he turned to the form of the Catholic mass to honor the memory of Kennedy (a Roman Catholic).

The Mass has fascinated composers for centuries as a musical form, but Bernstein created something new, a "theatre piece for singers, players and dancers" combining not only different religious traditions (Latin liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and plenty of contemporary English lyrics) but also different musical styles, including classical and rock music.

As in any theater piece, there is a story and a conflict. Bernstein and his collaborator, Stephen Schwartz (who had already told the story of Jesus in his hit Broadway musical Godspell)

took the Tridentine Mass, a highly-ritualized Catholic rite meant to be recited verbatim, and applied to it a very Jewish practice of debating and arguing with God. The result was a piece that powerfully communicated the confusion and cultural malaise of the early 1970s, questioning authority and advocating for peace. (1)

Partly intended as an anti-war statement, it was originally a target of criticism from the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand and contemporary music critics who objected to its Broadway/populist elements on the other. (music critic Harold Schoenberg wrote of the premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS: “So this MASS is with it — this week? But what about next year?”) In the present day, it is perhaps seen as less blasphemous and more a piece of its era: in 2000 it was even performed in the Vatican.

Jaqueline Kennedy (center) and Leonard Bernstein (r)
at the premier of MASS (1971)

MASS begins with a cacophonous prelude of a pre-recorded 12-tone "Kyrie Eleison" played over four speakers, overlapping like people talking over one another at a cocktail party (or during my prelude last Sunday.)  Suddenly, the Celebrant cuts through this with his electric guitar, strumming the open strings to play a G and a D.("G - D," the traditional Jewish way of spelling the name of God without actually saying it.) As the composer Daron Hagen says in his deeply personal analysis of "A Simple Song," it is "a chord that anyone who can pick up the guitar can strum without knowing how to play. So begins a supposedly “simple” song: A Simple Song.

Jackson Hearn (your devoted organist, left) and the
effervescent Kimberly Livingston Bollinger (right) at
lunch on Lake Houston (2014)

(1) https://leonardbernstein.com/works/view/12/mass-a-theatre-piece-for-singers-players-and-dancers

Music for October 30, 2016 + The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Let thy blood in mercy poured – Johann Cruger (1598-1662)

Instrumental Music

• Praise to the King – Bill Ingram (contemporary)
• Riguadon – André Campra (1660-1744)
• Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Rondeau from Abdelazer - Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

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

• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (St. Thomas (Williams))
• Hymn 605 - What does the Lord require (Sharpethorne)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (East Acklam)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (Rendez a Dieu)
• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (Lauda anima)
• Psalm 32:1-8, Tonus Pergrinus, refrain by David Clark Isele

This Sunday, the Good Shepherd Bell Choir will ring for the first time this season. We have a great group of ringers this year, and are excited about the coming year. We will be ringing two pieces in worship. First is an original piece for bells by Texas composer Bill Ingram. Ingram is a native of Longview, Texas and a graduate of East Texas Baptist University. He began work as a minister of music in 1963 and served several Baptist churches in Texarkana, Dallas, and Pasadena, (all Texas) before residing in Baytown, Texas.

Now Ingram is a freelance composer and arranger and serves as handbell editor for two different publishers. He often serves churches in the Houston area as interim Minister of Music.

Mr. Ingram says, “I began writing for hand bells when we purchased bells at First Baptist Church, Baytown in 1975. My first compositions and arrangements were probably published in 1976. I have over 650 arrangements and compositions in print." In 1996, Jeffers Handbell Supply honored him as the “Composer of the Year” when “Do Lord” was the best seller that year.

The other piece we will play is an arrangement of the French baroque composer André Campra's Rigaudon from his opera Idoménée. Arguably his most familiar work, it is most often used as a wedding processional. It is in the form of a rondo, a work ,with one principal musical theme that is stated at least three times in the same key and to which return is made after the introduction of each subordinate theme.

Andre Campra. His hair was not
all he had in common with Henry Purcell

The most significant composer for the French stage between Lully and Rameau, Campra had his beginnings as a church musician. His father, an amateur violinist, provided him with his first music lessons, and at age 14 he joined the choir of St. Sauveur. At one point he nearly lost his place in the choir when he was caught giving unauthorized performances in secular theaters on the side. In August of 1681 he became the director of music at the church of Ste. Trophime in Arles, and two years later moved on to the same position at the Cathedral of St. Étienne in Toulouse. In 1694 he became choir master at Notre Dame. Until he arrived in Paris he had composed mostly sacred music, but even though he had reached a top position in the world of church music, the dramatic stage once again began to draw his creativity.

He began writing a new form of entertainment, the opéra-ballet, which he had published in his younger brother's name because he was afraid of losing his church appointment. His first three works were so successful, however, that he became confident in his ability to support himself with secular music. In 1700, he left Notre Dame and wrote his first of eight operas. Of these, only Tancrède (1702) and Idomenée (1712) have been performed with any regularity in the twentieth century.

The closing voluntary is an organ arrangement of a Rondeau by Henry Purcell. (Note the French spelling of the word Rondo.) The similarity of our handbell offertory by Campra and the organ voluntary is more than just the musical form, however. Both are arrangements of popular tunes from theatrical works by leading composers of the same time period.

The Rondeau is from the incidental music that Henry Purcell composed for the play Abdelazer, or the Moor's Revenge. One of Purcell’s last works, the play was staged in 1695, the year of Purcell's death. The Rondeau’s place in history was assured when the composer Benjamin Britten chose it for his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell (1946).

The choir will sing the four part hymn by Johann Cruger, Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured, as the communion motet. This is one of the top five hymns by Cruger, whose other hymns are much better known to modern worshippers.

• Ah, Holy Jesus, How Hast Thou Offended

• Now Thank We All Our God

• Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness

• Jesus, Priceless Treasure

• Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured

Cruger was the son of an innkeeper, born at Gross-Bressen, near Guben in Prussia. He studied theology at the University of Wittenberg but left early to be the cantor of St. Nicholas Church in Berlin and to teach at the Gymnasium of the Grey Friars.

A friend of Paul Gerhardt, Cruger composed melodies for many hymns by Gerhardt and others. He composed seventy-one sacred chorales and also created elaborate instrumental accompaniments for hymns, actively promoting congregational singing. He was also a musicologist and wrote about the theory and practice of music. His hymnals also included other famous tunes such as Praise to the Lord, the Almighty and O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.

I will follow the choir's singing of the hymn with an organ work based on the same hymn by the contemporary of J. S. Bach, the German organist Johann Gottlieb Walther.

Music for March 6 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Thou Knowest, Lord, the Secrets of Our Hearts – Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Instrumental Music

• Solemn Melody – H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)
• Aria for Handbells - Dale Wood (1934-2002)

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

• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (Faithfulness)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (Nettleton)
• Hymn 693 - Just as I am, without one plea (Woodworth)
• Hymn 411 - O bless the Lord, my soul (St. Thomas (Williams)

I was shocked (shocked, I tell you) when I noticed that I have not scheduled any music of Henry Purcell in the two-plus years I've been writing these notes on this blog. Born in 1659, Purcell is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until the 20th century's Edward Elgar.

Henry Purcell

His father (also named Henry) was master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey. Though dad died when young Henry was but five, music had already taken hold of the young boy, and he became a chorister at the Chapel Royal. It’s said that he began composing at the age of 9, with his earliest known work an ode for King Charles’ birthday in 1670. He began studying with John Blow at the Chapel Royal, and by 20 had succeeded him as organist at Westminster Abbey. Legend has it that the elder musician stepped aside in recognition of the greater genius, and it is true that on Purcell's death in 1695 Blow returned to the post, and would write a noble Ode on the Death of Purcell. Purcell is buried next to the Westminster Abbey organ.

Purcell wrote secular and sacred music - odes for chorus and orchestra, cantatas, songs, catches, anthems, Services, chamber sonatas, keyboard works and incidental music for 49 plays. The largest part of his theatre music was composed during the last years of his life. It was during this period that he composed the chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which is a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music. 

The anthem today is taken from the Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, written by Purcell, for the funeral of Queen Mary II in 1695. She had died in December 1694, but her funeral was not until March 1695. Purcell composed a setting of the sixth of the seven sentences of the Anglican Burial Service (Thou Knowest Lord) for the occasion.  The anthem was performed at his own funeral in November of the same year.

And as to the pronuncation of his name: Nicholas McGegan, the famed conductor, sets us straight:

For some reason, people often mispronounce Purcell’s name. It’s “PUR-cell.” It should rhyme with “rehEARsal"

Not "Pure HELL"

Sir Henry Walford Davies

Another Henry who makes his first appearance in this blog (though not in our services) is Sir Henry Walford Davies, an English musician who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. At various times in his 45-year career, Davies enjoyed wide recognition as a composer, teacher, organist, and lecturer and in the latter capacity, he became England's first popular radio personality on the subject of classical music. In 1926 the newly-formed British Broadcasting Corporation, in an effort to bring the very best in cultural information, began broadcasting his lectures on music on a program called Music and the Ordinary Listener, which lasted until the outbreak of war in 1939. and brought him great popularity with British radio audiences.

But as a composer he is represented only by a few short works including some church anthems, the World War I favorite R.A.F. March Past, and this morning's opening voluntary, Solemn Melody. It first appeared in 1908 in a version for organ with a version for cello and orchestra a year later. It is in a simple song form. The tune is rich, warm, and flowing, and avoids either a feeling of British pomp or a sense of religiosity.

Dale Wood

Finally I want to comment on the Aria for Handbells by Dale Wood. It is a lovely, quiet bell piece based on an old Finnish hymn by C. G. Liander called Via Delorosa. The text, like the melody, is perfect for Lent.

A way to Calvary leadeth from dark Gethsemane,
May every one behold him who weary walks that way.
The way doth lead to perfect bliss, but a way of pain it is