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 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 the Christmas Services

Monday, December 24: Christmas Eve

(4:00 PM) The Coventry Choir

Vocal Music

• What Child Is This? – English Carol, arr. Jackson Hearn (b. 1958)
• Candlelight, Burning Bright – Helen Kemp (1918-2015)
• How Far Is It to Bethlehem – arr. Jackson Hearn

Instrumental Music

• The Alfred Burt Carols – Arr. Mark Hayes (b. 1953)
• Caroling, Caroling
• The Star Carol
• Some Children See Him
• Come, Dear Children
• Bells of Christmas – arr. Patricia Sanders Cota (b. 1954)
• Come, All Ye Faithful
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• Away in a Manger
• Joy to the World
• Carillon On A Ukrainian Carol - Gerald Near (b. 1942-)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal.)

• Hymn 83 -  O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELES)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 100 -  Joy to the world! (ANTIOCH)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night  (STILLE NACHT)                     
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN)

(6:30 PM) The Good Shepherd Choir

Vocal Music

• My Dancing Day –Alice Parker (b 1925)
• A Great and Mighty Wonder – Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
• Ding Dong, Merrily on High – Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• And There Were Shepherds (from Christmas Oratorio) – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Lully, Lulla, Lullay – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
• Falan Tidings – Donald Pearson (b. 1959)
• The Little Road to Bethlehem – Michael Head (1900-1976), Allison Gosney, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Noel X – Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
• Lo, How a Rose Is Springing  – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Carillon On A Ukrainian Carol - Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 -  O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELES)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! (ANTIOCH)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night  (STILLE NACHT)                     
• Hymn 79  - O little town of Bethlehem (ST. LOUIS)
• Hymn 89 - It came upon a midnight clear (TUNE)
• Psalm 96  - (setting by Thomas Pavlechko)

British composer Philip Stopford composed this version of the Coventry Carol in 2008.

The original Coventry Carol dates from the 16th century and was traditionally performed in Coventry as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The rocking lullaby tells the story of the Massacre of the Innocents — when King Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two to be killed.

It's sung though from a mother's perspective, as a beautiful lament for her doomed child.

(10:00 PM) Allison Gosney, soprano

• Jesu Bambino – Pietro Yon (1886-1943)
• The Little Road to Bethlehem – Michael Head (1900-1976)

Instrumental Music

• Noel X – Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
• Lo, How a Rose Is Springing  – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Carillon On A Ukrainian Carol - Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal.)

• Hymn 83 -  O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELES)
• Praise 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 79 - O little town of Bethlehem (ST. LOUIS)
• Hymn 89 - It came upon a midnight clear (TUNE)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night  (STILLE NACHT)                     
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! (ANTIOCH)

Tuesday, December 25: Christmas Day (10:00 AM)

Organ music and hymns

Instrumental Music

• Noel X – Louis-Claude Daquin (1694-1772)
• Lo, How a Rose Is Springing  – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• The Alfred Burt Carols – Arr. Mark Hayes (b. 1953)
• I. Caroling, Caroling
• II. The Star Carol
• III. Some Children See Him
• IV. Come, Dear Children
• Carillon On A Ukrainian Carol - Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal.)

• Hymn 83 -  O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELES)
• Praise 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 89 - It came upon a midnight clear (TUNE)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (MENDELSSOHN)
• Hymn 100 - Joy to the world! (ANTIOCH)

Music for Easter - April 21, 2019

Vocal Music

• Achieved Is the Glorious Work – Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
• Magdalena – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Most Glorious Lord of Life – William H. Harris (1883-1973)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude in D Major, BWV 532 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Fifth Symphony: Toccata  – Charles-Marie Widor (1844 –1937)
• Prière à Notre-Dame – Léon Böellmann (1862 – 1897)

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

• Hymn 179 - “Welcome, happy morning” (FORTUNATUS)
• Hymn 207 - Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn - Sing with all the saints in glory (HYMN TO JOY)
• Hymn - I come to the garden alone (IN THE GARDEN)
• Hymn 174 - At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 193 - That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS)
• Hymn 210 - The day of resurrection (DIADEMATA)
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 - setting by Hal Hopson

Just a few notes about the music you will hear on Easter Sunday.

The first anthem is not really an Easter anthem. In fact, it is from Haydn's oratorio The Creation, found at the end of the third part, about the end of the sixth and final day of creation. It is a joyful and celebratory piece, and, as you can see from the text, not at all inappropriate for the service celebrating the Resurrection.

Achieved is the glorious work; The Lord beholds it and is pleased.
In lofty strains let us rejoice, Our song let be the praise of God.

The Offertory anthem is an English anthem by William H. Harris, who for years was organist and choirmaster at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He  was involved in the musical education of the teenage Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, while they spent the wartime period at Windsor Castle. The story goes that every Monday he would direct madrigal practice in the Red Drawing Room at Windsor, where the two Princesses sang alongside four of the senior choristers with the lower voices augmented by Etonians, Grenadier Guards and members of the Windsor and Eton Choral Society.

The communion anthem is a four-part acapella setting of a German Folk song by the great Romantic composer Johannes Brahms. It is interesting in that it focuses on Mary Magdalena's part in the resurrection story.

My opening voluntary is the great Prelude in D Major by Johann Sebastion Bach. I like to play it on Easter because it (1) is in the bright, celebratory key of D Major, and (2) it opens with the ascending D major Scale in the pedal, symbolizing (for me) the rising of the Son of God.

I am playing an organ work during communion as a musical dedication to the indomitable spirit of the Notre-Dame de Paris, and the Paris people. Though the title refers not to the church of Notre Dame, and the composer, though French, was never on staff at the Cathedral (he worked down the street at St. Sulpice), I still wanted to do something to express my concern and relief that the fire was not as bad as it could have been.

Music for April 8, 2019 + The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Ave Verum – Stephanie Martin (b. 1965)

Instrumental Music

• Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV 727 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• O Welt, ich muß dich lassen – Johannes Brahms, Op. 122, #10

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

• Hymn 398 - I sing the almighty power of God (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 474 - When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 678 - Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn 479 - Glory be to Jesus (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn 344 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 126  - Tone IIa

Today the choir sings two lovely works which fit the solemn Lenten season.

First is Johannes Brahms' lovely anthem, Geistliches Lied (Sacred Song), often called by the first line of the text by Paul Flemming, "Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren," or "Let nothing ever grieve thee." It was one of Brahms' earlier works, written when he was only 23 years old. What began as an exercise became one of his most loved shorter choral works.

What is fascinating to me about this work is the marriage of a hopeful Christian message with Brahms' masterful handling of the compositional technique known as the canon. A canon is a melody with one or more imitations of that melody played after a given duration (e.g., quarter rest, one measure, etc.). "Row, row, row your boat is a simple canon (or 'round.')  Here though we have not one melody but two different melodies, sung not in the same key, but in two different keys at the same time. with the tenor part imitating the soprano part four beats later at the unusual interval of a ninth, and then the bass doing the same with the alto using a different melody that fits in with the first. The imaginative organ interludes also incorporate quasi-canons at the ninth.  While accompanying the voices, the organ moves to a secondary role, but becomes active in the middle section.  All of the compositional complexities somehow come together in a piece of exceptional beauty, most notably in the final “Amen,” where the basses lead the altos instead of following them.

The other anthem is a new setting of the ancient communion hymn Ave Verum Corpus (Hail, true body) by the Canadian composer Stephanie Martin. We have sung settings of this same text by Mozart, Elgar, and Saint-Saens, so we are happy to have this acapella setting by Martin.

Stephanie Martin

She is one of the leaders in vocal music in Canada today, and deserves a bigger place internationally. At present she is associate professor of music at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design; director of Schola Magdalena (a women’s ensemble for chant, medieval and modern polyphony,) conductor emeritus of Pax Christi Chorale; and past director of music at the historic church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Toronto.

In addition to many shorter works for choir, she has written a Requiem for All Souls, which premiered in San Diego in November, 2017 and Missa Chicagoensis for St. John Cantius parish in Chicago, in June 2017. Her choral symphony Babel premièred at Wilfrid Laurier University in April 2016, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the WLU Faculty of Music. Martin’s current project with librettist Paul Ciufo is Llandovery Castle, an opera about the Canadian hospital ship torpedoed in the Atlantic in June 1918.

Music for August 5, 2018

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Bryn Calfaria” – William Haller (b. 1940)
• Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No.2 – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Improvisation on “Cwm Rhondda” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of “Taste and See,” which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
• Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ À DIEU)
• Hymn - Taste and See (James E. Moore, Jr.)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 78:23-29 - Tone VIII

The Land of Song - that is how Wales has traditionally been referred to since the 18th century, though the tradition of singing in parts has been around since the 12th century, when medieval chronicler Geraldus Cambrensis stated that the Welsh sang in as many parts as there were people, and even that quite small children could harmonize.[1]

The 18th century saw the rise of Methodism, and hymn singing was an important part of the movement. Congregational singing gained momentum in the early part of the 19th century, and annual festivals for singing were established.

Although there has been a decline in the number of people attending church, hymn singing remains popular in Wales, especially at rugby matches! Guide me, O thou great Jehovah is known as the Welsh National hymn, sung at many Welsh sporting occasions. Watch this clip here: and see Tom Jones, Max Boyce, and thousands ( I mean thousands) of happy Welshmen (read: drunk Welshmen) sing "Bread of Heaven."

Many Welsh hymn-tunes are favorites of American congregations, and that is true here at Good Shepherd. Here is a list of hymn-tunes from Wales that are in our hymnal, with many of them(+) sung here at Good Shepherd.

ABERYSTWYTH (349, 640, 699)
+BLAENHAFREN (610)
BRYN CALFARIA (307)
+CWM RHONDDA (594, 690)
+HYFRYDOL (460, 657)
+LLANFAIR (214)
LLANGLOFFAN (68, 607)
+ST. DENIO (423)
RHOSYMEDRE (587)
RHUDDLAN (621)
+TON-Y-BOTEL (381, 527)


Since hymn no. 307, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor, goes so well with the readings for the next four weeks, and our congregation, like so many, takes so well to the strong, vigorous tunes of Wales, I decided to focus on that hymn for the next four weeks. This Sunday, in addition to singing the hymn, I will play an opening voluntary composed by William Haller, the Professor of Organ and Organ Literature at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He received his DMA from North Texas State University and both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He is currently serving as Director of Music Ministry at Edgwood Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheeling, WV.


For communion, I will play Johannes Brahms' beautiful  Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2. Written in 1893 during Brahms' late period, this piece pulls us into a world of dreamy nostalgia, quiet longing, and majestic, serene beauty.

Blogger Timothy Judd describes it this way:

Listen to the way those unlikely first three notes set the entire piece in motion. As it unfolds and develops, you may sense that the music is “searching” for a way forward, attempting to find just the “right” note. Around the 1:06 mark, you’ll hear the opening motive return in the bass. The expansive middle section offers new adventures. As this section fades away, listen to the magical way we find our way back home to the original music. [2]

[1]  Aubrey, Graham (2011). The Ingenious Cornish – Inventions, Enterprises and Exploits: The Ethnicity Factor in Cornish Music Both at Home and Abroad. Wallaroo Town Hall during Kernewek Lowender 2011 Biennial Seminar: Cornish Association of South Australia Est. 1890. p. 18.

[2] Judd, Timothy (2018, June 1) Brahms Intermezzo in a major Op.118 No. 2,(http://thelistenersclub.com)

Music for February 18, 2018 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Lord Jesus, Think on Me – Raymond Haan (b. 1938)

Instrumental Music

• Intermezzo in A, Op. 118, No.  2  – Johannes Brahms (1833-1896)

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

• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH)
• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R223 - Soften my heart, Lord  (SOFTEN MY HEART)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (HOLY HOLY)
• Hymn 559 - Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us (DULCE CARMEN)
• Psalm 25:1-9 Tone IIa

Today's anthem, Lord Jesus, Think On Me, is an arrangement of the hymn that is found in over 111 hymns since the turn of the 20th century. Well over two-thirds of those hymnals use this tune, SOUTHWELL, written  in 1579 by William Daman, an Italian transplant to London  in 1566 as a servant of Sir Thomas Sackville. In 1576 he became a recorder player at the Court of Elizabeth I.

The text is one of the oldest in the hymnal, written by Synesius of Cyrene around A. D. 410. After marrying a Christian in 403, he was converted to Christianity and in 410 was made bishop of Ptolemais by popular demand. In spite of his dissent from some of the tenets of the church, his outstanding character alone made him acceptable. "Lord Jesus, Think On Me" is the last of ten hymns he wrote the year he was consecrated as a bishop.  The English translation was made by Allen William Chatfield, an Anglican minister in England.

The arrangement is by Raymond H. Haan, a Michigan native who was the Director of Music for the Cutlerville East Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids for over 50 years. He is a graduate of Calvin College and the University of Michigan. He is the composer of hundreds of compositions for organ, voice, choir, handbells, piano, and other instruments.

This anthem was written for Jonathan Tuuk and the choir of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids.

This will be the first Sunday of Lent, so the service begins differently than it usually does. We will not have an organ voluntary and opening hymn, but instead will begin with the Great Litany, an intercessory prayer in the form of a litany that includes an invocation of the Trinity; a series of petitions seeking deliverance from evil, spiritual harm, and natural calamities; a series of supplications pleading for the power of Christ in our deliverance; prayers of general intercession; and asking for mercy.

As is the custom at our church as well as many others across the globe, we will sing the Litany in procession around the church. ( The Litany's use in church processions was ordered by Henry VIII when England was at war with Scotland and France.) As the procession takes many turns and loops around the nave by the choir and altar party, it is often referred to as "The Holy Pretzel."

 As is my custom during Lent, I omit playing a festive closing voluntary, opting instead to let the Lenten worshiper leave the church in contemplative silence.

Music for January 21, 2018 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• They Cast Their Nets in Galilee – Michael McCabe (b. 1941)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Mit Freuden Zart” – T. Frederick H. Candlyn (1892-1964)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Grand Chœur – François-Clément Théodore Dubois (1837 - 1924)

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

• Hymn 408 - Sing praise to God who reigns above (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn R147 - Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling (THOMPSON)
• Hymn 660 - O Master, let me walk with thee (MARYTON)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us: o’er the tumult (GALILEE)
• Psalm 62:6-14 - setting by Thom Pavlechko

Vocation de Saint Jacques et de Saint Jean
Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836 – 1902)
Brooklyn Museum Collection

This Sunday we hear the Gospel story of the calling of the disciples. There are two hymns in our hymnal that speak directly this story, and we will sing (or hear) both of them. The best known is the hymn Jesus calls us: o'er the tumult. In the 1982 Hymnal, the editors decided to do away with the familiar tune GALILEE in favor of two other tunes which honestly have no history of being associated with the text. The first year I was here at Good Shepherd I dutifully chose the tune which I thought the congregation would have the best chance of singing. After the service I was castigated by congregation members who said

(cas·ti·gate [ˈkastəˌɡāt] verb formal: reprimand (someone) severely) 

 the real tune was the one in the 1940 Hymnal (and every other hymnal in the United States.) Henceforth I have always paired this text with the tune GALILEE. (So don't try to read the music out of the hymnal - I'll be playing another tune.)


The other hymn is one that is somewhat peculiar to the Episcopalians. “They cast their nets in Galilee” comes from the last four stanzas of a poem written in 1924 by attorney and poet William Alexander Percy (1885-1942), a native of Greenville, Mississippi, and a graduate of Sewanee. 

The words are simple in themselves, calling to mind “happy, simple fisherfolk” who leave their peaceful lifestyle for the Peace of God. As they soon learned, there is a cost of discipleship.

These verses entered the Hymnal 1940 with the tune composed by David McK. Williams, general music editor of that hymnal. He named the tune GEORGETOWN out of friendship for F. Bland Tucker, who was then rector of St. John's Church, Georgetown Parish, in Washington, D.C.

Michael McCabe

This hymn has been arranged by Michael McCabe, an organist and composer who had a 20 year military career. His various assignments provided McCabe with unique learning opportunities, such as study with such notable musicians as Leo Sowerby, Thomas Matthews, Dale Wood, and the composer of this hymn, David McK. Williams. He has served numerous church, including Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. As a published composer, McCabe was elected to ASCAP in 1972, and ASCAP credits include NBC Television, foreign and domestic recording, the Stockholm and Stuttgart Music Festivals.

This is a pretty straight-forward arrangement of the tune, with the choir singing in unison (or in canon) most of the time. On stanza three, McCabe comes up with a new melody which on the surface looks like the original, but is in an entirely new mode and tonality. Please pray that the tenors and basses (who sing this stanza) remembers the difference. We did not have choir rehearsal this week due to ice and general indifference.

T. Frederick H. Candlyn

The opening voluntary is a setting of our opening hymn. This is a piece I have had in my library since I was in high school. When I began playing the organ at age 15, I also began exploring the hymnal, learning many hymn-tunes that were new to me. One of those was Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above (MIT FREUDEN ZART). I have never heard a hymn that I thought was so grand, and it pained me that my small congregation in Tennessee did not know it. So I scoured a music catalogue (this was before the internet) and ordered this arrangement sight-unseen. I did not know the name of Thomas Frederick Handel Candlyn, nor the church from which he retired, St. Thomas Episcopal in Manhattan, but I loved the improvisatory style in which he wrote, and have loved playing it this 40+ years.  I hope the congregation gets something out of it, too.

Music for January 22, 2017 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – C. H. H. Parry (1848-1918)

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God– Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• How Brightly Shines the Morningstar – Andreas Armsdorff (1670–1699)
• Improvisation on “Praise to the Lord” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 321 - My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn R102 - The Lord is my light (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 27:1, 5-13 - Dominus illuminatio (simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome Meachem)

The choir sings one of our favorite anthems this Sunday, the beautiful Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by the British composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.  This hymn, now one of England’s favorites, began life as the ballad of Meshullemeth (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’) in Act I of Judith, Parry's oratorio of 1888. It was only after Parry’s death that permission was granted by Novello and Parry’s estate to allow George Gilbert Stocks, the head of music at Repton School, to adapt the music to this text for the school’s hymn book, at which time the melody became known as REPTON.  It was also published in 1941 as the hymn-anthem (which we are singing today) in which much of the original music of the aria was restored.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Ironically, the author of this beautiful and much-loved hymn deeply disapproved of singing in church. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) was an American Quaker who firmly believed that God was best worshipped in silent meditation and who deplored the histrionics associated with both the High Church and the Evangelical movement.

He did, however, allow these verses to be used in a hymn book published in 1884. They are drawn from an interlude in his long and eccentric poem called The Brewing of Soma, which describes in shocked terms the Vedic Hindu habit of drinking hallucinogenic concoctions as a way of whipping up religious enthusiasm. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, tell's of the hymn's origins here.

Whittier advocated waiting instead for "the still small voice of calm" – an injunction beautifully suggested in the climax to this tune composed by Parry.

It will also be sung as a congregational hymn at the Hymn Festival this Sunday night. Make plans to come!

Music for November 1, 2015 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• And I Saw a New Heaven – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• O Sacred Feast – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Blessed Are Ye Faithful Souls Departed – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Requiem Aeternum/In Paradisum – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Hymn Prelude on “Darwall’s 148th” – Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)

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 625 - Ye holy angels bright (Darwall’s 148th)
• Hymn 620 - Jerusalem, my happy home (Land of Rest)
• Hymn 618 - Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfrueun)

This Sunday is All Saints Day, a solemn holy day of the church celebrated annually on November 1. Originally, the Catholic church dedicated this day to the saints of the Church, that is, all those who were beatified by the church, and remembered all other faithful departed on All Souls' Day on November 2. As Anglicans, we view All Saints' Day as incorporating the observance of All Souls' Day and it serves to "remember those who have died", in connection with the theological doctrines of the resurrection of the body and the Communion of Saints. That is why we remember our family and friends who have died as well as all the saints at this service.

Our beautiful All Saints anthem is by the English composer Malcolm Archer, Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College in England, where he trains and conducts the choirs and teaches organ. He has enjoyed a distinguished career in cathedral music, which has taken him to posts at Norwich, Bristol, and Wells Cathedrals, as well as Director of Music at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

This anthem begins with the sopranos singing the first verse of Revelation 21, our Epistle reading for today:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. 

The rest of the choir joins the sopranos as they repeat that lovely, peaceful melody. At the words "And I, John, saw the holy city," the men of the choir take the melody. At the end of the anthem, the words "and the former things are passed away," are repeated section by section, like an echo that fades away.

Malcolm Archer at St. Paul's Cathedral, London

The communion anthem is a motet written by Healey Willan. It is the fourth of six motets he wrote in 1924 for his choir at the Church of St. Mary Magdalen in Toronto. The text is an English translation of the Latin hymn, O Sacrum Convivium. You may wonder what is the difference between an anthem and a motet. A motet a short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic and unaccompanied. An anthem is also a choral composition, often based on a biblical passage, for singing by a choir in a church service. It can be accompanied by organ or piano, and can sometimes be as long as ten minutes, as are the English verse anthems 17th and 18th centuries.

The opening voluntary is one of the The Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, that Johannes Brahms composed a year before he died. They were published posthumously in 1902.

The eleven pieces are relatively short and are based on selected verses of nine separate Lutheran chorales. They were written in the summer of 1896 after Clara Schumann’s death (some may have been conceived earlier), and it is highly probable that Brahms was already aware of his own illness at that point; several are associated with texts about death and eternity, such as our organ voluntary today. This setting, with its beautiful 12/8 flow and major/minor vacillation, is the shortest.  The prelude is mostly in D minor, but the first line is almost entirely in the “relative” major key of F.  The piece is mostly played on manuals only. The 12/8 meter creates a pastoral mood in the flowing voices under the chorale melody, which is heard in the soprano (top) voice.  Brahms marks it dolce (sweetly).

Blessed are ye, faithful souls departed;
Death awakened you to life immortal.
You are delivered
of all cares that hold the world in bondage.

(English Translation by Michel-Dmitri Calvocoressi)

Music for August 16, 2015 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• How Can I Keep from Singing – American Folk Song, arr. By Richard Walters (b. 1956), Leila Hays, mezzo-soprano

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• Trumpet Tune in E – David N. Johnson (1922-1988)
• Two Reflections on Hymn Tunes – David Ashley White (b.1944)

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

• Hymn 688 A Mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)*
• Hymn R37 Glorify your name
• Hymn 662 Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE)*
• Hymn 335 I am the bread of life (I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE)*
• Hymn 680 O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)*

One of our newest choir members, Leila Hays, sings an arrangement of an old gospel hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing? by the 19th century Baptist preacher Robert Lowry (who also wrote Shall We Gather At the River). It is arranged by Richard Walters, managing editor of the concert music division at Hal Leonard Publishing and an extraordinary pianist, arranger, and orchestrator. I met Richard in New Orleans over 13 years ago, and our similar backgrounds (He's from Mississippi, I'm from Tennessee, we were both raised in the Methodist church and very active in its music ministries) caused us to develope a great friendship. Upon my return to Kingwood, I received a large box of music from Hal Leonard Publishing containing many volumes of his music, some of which he edited, and some of which he arranged. It is one of those pieces we are using today.

This hymn is a reminder of the joy of faith, especially in times of trial. It opens with an assertion that the troubles of this world are nothing when compared to the new creation that is to come. By keeping our focus on our Lord – that He is our Rock and that He lives – we can follow the admonition of the apostle James: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). This arrangement is rather quiet and has a peaceful mood.

Johannes Brahms, date unknown
(Library of Congress)

Johannes Brahms, composer of the opening voluntary, had no particular personal relationship with the organ - he was not a church musician and had not studied the instrument - so it is strange that he would turn to it for his last compositions. They were written in the summer of 1896 after his dear friend Clara Schumann’s death, and it is highly probable that Brahms was already aware of his own illness at that point.  The preludes are “settings” (albeit wordless) of religious texts--Lutheran hymns and their associated chorale melodies. Though not a particularly religious man, he may have found comfort in the hymns of his upbringing.  This may have influenced his decision to set, twice each, the chorales "Herzlich tut ich verlangen nach einem sel'gen End" (I sincerely wish for a happy end) and "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen" (O world, I must leave you). Indeed, the second of the two "O Welt" settings contains the last notes the composer ever wrote.

But it is not one of the funeral hymns that we hear today, but the chorale "O Gott, du frommer Gott" (O God, Thou faithful God), a prayer of faith, hope, and healing.

O God, Thou faithful God,
Thou Fountain ever flowing,
Without whom nothing is,
All perfect gifts bestowing,
A pure and healthy frame
O give me, and within
A conscience free from blame,
A soul unhurt by sin.

At communion I am playing two piano arrangements of hymn-tunes by David Ashley White, a Houston composer who retired as the director for the Moores School of Music in 2014. He's arranged the hymn-tune MARTYRDOM (Alas, and did my Savior bleed or, as in the case of our 1982 Hymnal, As longs the deer for cooling streams) and his own tune, GARDEN DISTRICT, which he wrote in 2005 after the devastating Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

* We continue our singing of the top 15 (though it turned out to be 17) favorite hymns from our Summer Hymn survey. The astute (and faithful) congregant will notice that once again we are singing I am the bread of life. That's because we are in Year B of the lectionary, and "B" stands for Bread. We are hearing six weeks of bread readings during the last days of summer. As one of my friends on twitter says,

Jesus describes himself as the bread of life.  I've spent my life being afraid of carbs. Hmmm. There's a sermon in that....   Daniel D. Brereton, @RevDaniel on Twitter) 

Perhaps that explains my disdain for this hymn. (But let it be noted that I still schedule hymns that I don't like as well as the ones I do!)

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide (EVENTIDE) is today's featured hymn. According to an edition of the British Weekly, in the late summer of 1847, after preaching his final sermon, knowing his time on earth was drawing to a close, Henry Francis Lyte

walked in the valley garden in front of the home, then down to the rocks, where he sat and composed. It was a lovely sunny day and the sun was setting over distant Dartmoor in a blaze of glory. On the left lay Brixham harbor like a pool of molten gold, with its picturesque trawling vessels lying peacefully at anchor. After the sun had set, Lyte returned to his study. His family thought he was resting, but he was putting the finishing touches to his immortal hymn. (Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns, 171). 

Later that fall, Lyte passed away, but his hymn has indeed endured through the years as a beloved hymn of peace and prayer in the face of change. Theodore L. Cuyler once relayed a story in which a dying woman recited this hymn as she lay in bed during her last hours. He writes,

As I came away from that room, which had been as the vestibule of heaven, I understood how the ‘light of eventide’ could be only a flashing forth of the overwhelming glory that plays for ever around the throne of God (Sankey, My Life and Sacred Songs, 57). 

What a beautiful image when we see the light of day ebbing – this light is only a shadow of the light of life that shines forth from Christ.

William H. Monk wrote the tune EVENTIDE for Lyte's text in ten minutes. As the story goes, Monk was attending a hymnal committee meeting for the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of which he was music editor. Realizing that this text had no tune, Monk sat down at the piano and composed EVENTIDE. The hymn was then published in that edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune has always been associated with this text.

Music for January 11, 2015 + The First Sunday after Pentecost

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• The Blessed Son of God (from Hodie) - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Christ, Our Lord, to the Jordan Came – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Canzonetta – Dietrich Buxtehude 
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 339 - Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 29 - Simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome J. Meachem

This week we remember Christ's own baptism. One of the questions I have always had about this is if John baptized for repentance for sins, what did Jesus have to repent?  Why did he get baptized? I think it was part of Christ's way of being one of us. 

It was with that in mind that I chose today's anthem, The Blessed Son of God, from Ralph Vaughan Williams's last large work, Hodie. This was the fifth movement of that Christmas cantata, and is much simpler in form and performance forces than the rest of the work. Vaughan Williams employed a poem by Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), the English translator of the Bible, who had translated this poem previously penned by Martin Luther, "Gelobet seist du." The poem has seven stanzas, of which Vaughan Williams used three, each ending with the traditional Latin "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"). 

Ralph Vaughan Williams,
around the time of the composition of "Hodie"

What developed was a quiet, slow, unaccompanied choral: The blessed son of God only In a crib full poor did lie; humble, gentle, unassuming and as plain as music can be, it is the most completely anonymous tune Vaughan Williams ever composed, without any harmonies or musical phrase to give his identity away. The harmony is of the simplest hymnal kind. When you first hear it it seems almost too ordinary, but after some time it reveals itself as the most precious jewel in the whole of this splendid cantata. Time stands still and one listens to it with the breath held. 

The theme of the poem is God's mercy brought by the Christ child, who would exchange his swaddling cloth with our own fleshly sins so we could fully receive that mercy. According to Coverdale, Jesus came to earth to make himself one of us, so that, "we might live eternally" Along with this living sacrifice, Christ's gifts of munificence and mercy are also extolled in the poem Miles Coverdale wrote.

The blessed son of God only
In a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood
Was clothed that everlasting good.
Kyrieleison.

The Lord Christ Jesu, God's son dear,
Was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery,
That we might live eternally.
Kyrieleison.

All this did he for us freely,
For to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore,
And give him thanks for evermore.
Kyrieleison.

The organ music is a setting of an old Lutheran Chorale for Christ's Baptism by the Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude, written in the typical Baroque style of ornamenting the simple choral melody so that it becomes almost unrecognizable. The right hand plays the melody on a collection of stops called a cornet, while the left hand (and feet) accompany on soft flute sounds. The closing voluntary is what we call a free work - written without any hymn or chorale in mind. Canzonetta means "a little song."

All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) was chosen to highlight the Old Testament account of the creation. In the year 1225, completely blind and nearing death, St. Francis of Assisi arrived at the Convent of St. Damian to bid goodbye to his dear friend, Sister Clara, the first woman to follow the call of St. Francis and take vows of the Order. Clara built him a small reed hut in the garden of her little monastery. It’s said that at times St. Francis could be heard singing faint melodies from within the hut. It was at a meal with the sisters after having stayed for some time at the monastery that he wrote his famous text, “Canticle of the Sun,” later paraphrased into the beloved hymn we sing today. Ralph Vaughan Williams harmonized the tune.

When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR) This hymn for the season of Epiphany covers several topics; the Magi, Christ's baptism, the Wedding at Cana, ending with a doxological stanza praising the Trinity. The tune, from 16th century Germany, is one of the most used in our hymnody at Good Shepherd, as we sing it with at last four different texts.

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH) Our third (and final) German chorale this morning is the classic communion hymn. The first stanza of "Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele" by Johann Franck was published in Johann Crüger's Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien (1649). Crüger and C. Runge published the complete hymn in nine stanzas in their 1653 Gesangbuch. The hymn has since appeared in virtually all German hymnals and in 50% of English language ones since 1970. 

On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW) This is classified as an Advent hymn, but I am including it today as an opporunity for us to hear (and sing) again of John's ministry of baptism which Jesus today takes part.