Music for March 10, 2023 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Like as the Hart – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Instrumental Music

• Choral Dorien – Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
• Intermezzo in A Major – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Erhalt Un, Herr – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 143- The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 679 - Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn R9 - As the Deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 95 - Tone IIa

Like as a Hart

Today's anthem is based on Psalm 42, where the Psalmist asks God why his heart is so sad and why he feels so far from God. It is by Herbert Howells, an British composer who was one of a long line of 19th and 20th century English composers who wrote anthems and service music for the Church of England.

Herbert Howells

 In the opinion of many musicians today, Howells rises to the top of the whole list. His compositions have the impeccable craft of a master composer and, above all, an exceptional poetic beauty. For example, in today's anthem Howells sets the phrase “so longeth my soul after thee, O God” to a long, sustained melody that perfectly evokes an inner soul’s intense hunger and longing to reside in the beautiful presence of a loving God. Likewise, when the sopranos first sing “My tears have been my meat day and night,” we feel their sadness which obviously has been going on for quite some time. Even the simple, final three chords on the organ can conjure up a whole series of emotions to different listeners. 

Herbert Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucester and showed a keen interest in composition early in his life. At the age of eighteen, became a pupil of Herbert Brewer, Organist of Gloucester Cathedral. In 1912 he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied under Charles Villiers Stanford, Walter Parratt, Charles Wood and Hubert Parry.

Choral Dorien

Jehan Alain

The opening voluntary is a quiet piece written by the French organist Jehan Alain. Alain was the son of Albert Alain, one of the most influential organ builders and designers between the two world wars, wars, as well as a composer and organist himself. He was also the brother of organist Marie-Claire Alain, and she has spoken of how he influenced her own playing. In the Twenties and Thirties he attended the Paris Conservatoire, studying composition with Paul Dukas and Jean Roger-Ducasse and organ with Marcel Dupré. He won premiers prix in harmony, fugue, and organ. His marriage in 1935, birth of his children, and military service interrupted his studies, and he quickly began to earn a living as an organist, including a stint as an organist in a synagogue. Then World War II broke out, and he join the French Army, becoming a dispatch rider in the Eighth Motorized Armor Division. On 20 June 1940, he was assigned to reconnoiter the German advance on the eastern side of Saumur, and encountered a group of German soldiers at Le Petit-Puy. Coming around a curve, and hearing the approaching tread of the Germans, he abandoned his motorcycle and engaged the enemy. After using his machine gun to shoot several infantry soldiers who had ordered him to surrender, he fell mortally wounded. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery, and was provisionally buried at the place where he had died.

He left behind his wife, Madeleine Payan, his three children, and a body of compositions viewed by many to have been amongst the most original of the 20th century. His early compositions are mainly songs and piano works. One also finds a few chamber pieces and one orchestral scores (an orchestration of an organ work), but most writers agree that his great achievement resides in his organ music which includes such classics as his three chorales (Choral Dorien, Choral Cistercien, Choral Phrygian), Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin, Litanies, Monodie, and Trois danses  .

The Choral Dorien is one of Alain’s first published works, published when he was 24. It was not written in a major or minor key, but in one of the other harmonic modes used in the chants of the church. The word "choral" is the term used in French to mean " plain chant," so any French organist, accustomed as Alain was to the music of the Roman church, would understand thoroughly the "church modes." 

Music for August 23, 2016 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• All Who Hunger Gather Gladly – attr. to William Moore, 1825, Margie VanBrackle, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Tranquillo, ma con moto – Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
• Choral Dorian – Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
• Allegro impetuoso – Herbert Howells

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

• Hymn R250 How great thou art (O STOR GUD)
• Hymn 671 Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 324 Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn 562 Onward, Christian soldiers (ST. GERTRUDE)\

More Bread? Yes, please! This Sunday we hear the last of the Gospel of John's Bread passage, and in response, Margie VanBrackle will accompany herself on guitar as she sings Sylvia Dunstan's beautiful Eucharistic hymn, All Who Hunger, which draws on the 6th chapter of John as well as other scripture for its inspiration.

All who hunger, gather gladly;

holy manna is our bread.

Come from wilderness and wandering.

Here, in truth, we will be fed.

You that yearn for days of fullness,

all around us is our food.

Taste and see the grace eternal.

Taste and see that God is good.

All who hunger, never strangers;

seeker, be a welcome guest.

Come from restlessness and roaming.

Here, in joy, we keep the feast.

We that once were lost and scattered

in communion’s love have stood.

Taste and see the grace eternal.

Taste and see that God is good.

All who hunger, sing together;

Jesus Christ is living bread.

Come from loneliness and longing.

Here, in peace, we have been led.

Blest are those who from this table

live their lives in gratitude.

Taste and see the grace eternal.

Taste and see that God is good.

- Sylvia G. Dunstan, © 1991, GIA Publications, Inc.

The tune is an American tune from Columbian Harmony, 1825, a shaped-note hymnal compiled by William Moore, who is suspected to have written the tune. When Sylvia Dunstan, a United Church of Canada minister,  attended the Hymn Society of America's annual convocation in South Carolina in 1990, she was introduced to this melody, and later worked the text out in her head while strolling up and down the South Carolina coastline. 

The organ music is all 20th century organ works, with two little-known works by Herbert Howells book-ending the service. Howells was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.  He showed a keen interest in composition early in his life and, at the age of eighteen, began studying with the organist of Gloucester Cathedral. At twenty he received a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and studied under Charles Villiers Stanford, Walter Parratt, Charles Wood and Hubert Parry.

His focus on sacred music began with the Hymus Paradisi (1938) and continued into the 1940s with a series of compositions setting Mass texts and Canticles, most notably the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the Anglican Evensong service. The two organ works I'm playing today are from a posthumously published set of six small works for organ. He had begun work on these before his death, and students pieced together his notes and sketches to come up with these finished works. The opening voluntary title means "peacefully, but with motion."

The communion voluntary is a quiet piece by the short-lived French composer Jehan Alain, whose bright star on the organ-world's horizon was tragically cut short by the German offensive of May 1940. Alain took part in the struggle, displaying exceptional bravery and confidence, but neither faith nor music could help him. He was killed by enemy fire on 20 May 1940.

This Sunday's hymns includes 3 from our continuing review of the top 17 hymns chosen by the congregation this past June. There is no middle ground about these three hymns; you either love them or hate them. One parishoner told me she was going to the 5 PM service this Sunday so she would not have to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers." The militaristic tenor of this text causes many sincere, dedicated, peace-loving Christians to cringe. Tom Long, an ordained Presbyterian Minister who was on the faculty of Emory University's Candler School of Theology wrote an interesting article which shows both sides of this coin: I will not quote it, but give you the link so that you can read the entire inspiring article and the comments which follow. (I avoid reading comments on web pages. They often just give me heart-burn. These, however, are thought provoking.)