GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD Music for March 5, 2023 + The Second Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)

Instrumental Music

• Jesus, meine Zuversicht – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Suite for Organ: III. Aria – Philip E. Baker (b. 1934)
• Aus Tiefer Not – Gerald Near

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

• Hymn 401 The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn R 132 As Moses raised the serpent up (THE GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 143 The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 691 My faith looks up to thee (OLIVET)
• Hymn R231 How blessed are you (Taizé)
• Hymn 473 Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)
• Psalm 121 – tone IIa

God So Loved the World

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as our offertory anthem today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

The Crucifixion: A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer. The work is dedicated "to my pupil and friend W. Hodge and the choir of Marylebone Church", who first performed it on 24 February 1887, the day after Ash Wednesday. There have been performances in Marylebone Church annually since then, and has been recorded several times.

Despite the popularity of God So Loved the World, critical opinion of the entire oratorio has not been kind. The composer Ernest Walker dismissed the work, writing in 1924 that "Musicians today have no use for The Crucifixion". Edmund Fellowes said: "It suffers primarily from the extreme poverty, not to say triviality, of the musical ideas dealing with a subject which should make the highest demand for dignity of treatment". Kenneth Long said that Stainer had a libretto "which for sheer banality and naïveté would be hard to beat". Stainer himself characterized his work as "rubbish."

Gerald Near

American composer Gerald Near is a composer with broad appeal to musicians in all liturgical denominations. With an extensive catalogue of compositions, he has added to the literature of organists, harpsichordists, and choirs. He is particularly adept at writing organ music based on hymn-tunes and chant-tunes. I play two such works today, using tunes appropriate for Lent, but not so well known to our congregation.

The first is the communion hymn, Let thy blood in mercy poured, found at hymn 313. The closing voluntary is a setting of the hymn 151, From deepest woe I cry to thee. Both tunes are German Chorale tunes. Both settings feature the melody played in the left hand using the trumpet stop, while the right hand and feet use fragments of the melody to provide the accompaniment. Of the two tunes, AUS TIEFER NOT is the most famous. Both the text and tune were written by Martin Luther in 1524 as a paraphrase of Psalm 130. Since then, the tune has been used by many musicians, most notably J. S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Max Reger. Georg Friedrich Handel quoted the characteristic intervals from the beginning of the chorale's tune several times at the end of the last aria of his oratorio Messiah, If God be for us, leading into the final chorus Worthy is the Lamb

Aria

The communion voluntary is by Philip Baker, organist and composer who was director of music at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas for many years, including those I spent at Southern Methodist University working on my masters. His Suite for Organ was published just before I moved to Dallas, and it includes one of the loveliest melodies of all time, and one of my personal favorite organ pieces to play, Aria. 

Since retiring from active music making, he and his wife Tissa have moved to Houston.

Music for March 14, 2021 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)
• Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing – Roland E. Martin (b. 1955)
• Hymn: Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound (NEW BRITAIN)

Instrumental Music

1. Prelude, Fugue, and Variation – César Franck (1822-1890).
   
2. “Little”Prelude in E Minor – attr. to J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as our offertory anthem today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

The Communion anthem is a repeat of an anthem that was sung as a duet back in July of 2020, but its theme of Grace works so well with this week's scripture readings (especially the Epistle) that I just had to schedule again. Read about it here.

César Franck

César Franck was one of the first well-known French organists of the 19th century. Born in Belgium, he moved to Paris when he was 13 to study organ, ultimately becoming a French citizen so that he could study at the Paris Conservatoire. Upon graduation, he made a brief return to Belgium before returning to Paris, where he embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a strong musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new organs built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. In fact, Franck’s improvisations after church services were so popular that he wrote some of them down, publishing them as Six Pieces in 1862. These exploited the power and colors of the Cavaillé-Coll organs to the fullest and did much to establish the distinctively French school of symphonic organ music.

The third of the Six Pieces is the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18, which was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns, himself an organist of considerable skill. The flowing B-minor Prelude has a gentle melancholy, opening with three repetitions of an asymmetrical five-bar phrase. The Fugue has its own little prelude and clean textures, the polyphony by no means hard to follow. Rounding the three-part work is the Variation, a repeat of the Prelude with a more active accompaniment, resolving to the hopeful key of B major.

For the closing voluntary, I am playing the third prelude of the so-called "Little" Prelude and Fugues which have been attributed to J. S. Bach. I've been playing one of these a month for three months now, so you can expect to hear the fourth one (which is in F Major) in April. The Major key, with its brightness and joy, will be appropriate for the Easter Season. But for now, it's Lent, and E Minor is perfect for our season of introspection and repentence.

Music for March 12, 2017 + The Second Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)

Instrumental Music

• From Deepest Woe I Cry to Thee – Max Drischner (1891-1971)
• Song Without Words: Andante espressivo – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

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

• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn 147 - Now let us all with one accord (BOURBON)
• Hymn 636 - How firm a foundation (FOUNDATION)
• Hymn R229 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R231 - How blessed are you (Taizé)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)
• Psalm 121 - Tone IIa

Church music must be like a good sermon that everyone can understand - Max Drischner

Max Drischner (composer of the opening voluntary) was a Polish/German composer, church musician, and organist whose life and career spanned two World Wars. He began studying theology in 1910 at 19, but in 1914 he decided to go against the will of his father and take up music. He was the first German student of the famed harpsichordist Wanda Landowska in Berlin.

In 1916 he volunteered for medical service in France, and during his service there lost the end of a finger on his right hand. After the war, he taught himself about early music, the music written before J. S. Bach, and became an authority on the subject. At a time when such music was hardly ever played, Drischner had music of approximately 120 early composers in his repertoire. His music cabinet would have been worth a fortune had the Russian army and later Polish looters not stolen everything. A clavichord, a gift from Albert Schweitzers, was also used as a target and was shot to pieces by Russian soldiers.

Max Drischner and his sister Margarete

Drischner's music is distinguished by its simple, quiet, particularly melodic splendor. Compared to music being written by the leading composers of the early part of the 20th century, his music was very conservative. He wrote music for his own use, or for the simple church musician. He hated to use the organ as a concert instrument out of the liturgical context. He called his concerts "organ celebrations".

Today's opening voluntary is a piece he wrote based on the Lutheran Chorale, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (From deepest woe I cry to you, No. 151, The Hymnal 1980), based on a paraphrase of Psalm 130.  It is in the form of a passacaglia, a musical form from the early seventeenth-century based on a bass-ostinato and often written in triple metre (though not in this case).

The opening eight notes of the chorale form the ostinato which the pedal plays repetitively:

You will first hear this refrain by itself before the manuals add their own variations on the implied harmonies. Each repetition gets louder as well as more complicated until the end where the full organ is playing.

Music for March 15, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)
• O God, Have Mercy – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Récit du chant Pange Linqua Gloriosum - Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703)

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 R 132 - As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (THE GIFT OF LOVE)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 690 - Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message  - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as the choir's communion motet today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

Portrait of Mendelssohn
by the English miniaturist
James Warren Childe, 1839

Richard Murray is also singing a fitting solo for the season of Lent, from the oratorio St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn. During his lifetime, St. Paul was a popular and frequently performed work. However, compared with such oratorios as Handel's Messiah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion or even Mendelssohn's own Elijah, it has failed to maintain its place in the choral repertory and is now infrequently performed in its entirety. I think that is a shame, as it is full of beautiful, dramatic music, and tells the story of Paul, beginning with the stoning of Stephen, the conversion of  Saul (Paul), and ending with the apostle’s subsequent career. This aria comes after Saul is left blinded by the light on the road to Emmaus, and he breathes out this prayer ("O God, have Mercy upon me").

The opening voluntary is a 17th century French organ work by Nicolas de Grigny. He died young and left behind a single collection of organ music, which together with the work of François Couperin, represents the pinnacle of French Baroque organ tradition. J.S. Bach so admired it that he transcribed (by hand!) the entire volume for his own use. As with most of de Grigny's music, this prelude is based on a familiar chant (No. 166 in our hymnal, Sing, My Soul, the Glorious Battle). His treatment of the melody, however, is so ornate and complex, that it would be hard to recognize it, regardless of how well known it might be!

As this is the fourth Sunday of Lent, otherwise known as Refreshment Sunday in England. On this day, the Lenten fast is allowed to be relaxed, so I am taking a break from the more somber Lenten chants and have chosen some well known hymns which still fit the readings of today quite well.

• Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON) In 1752, a young Robert Robinson attended an evangelical meeting to heckle the believers and make fun of the proceedings. Instead, he listened in awe to the words of the great preacher George Whitefield, and in 1755, at the age of twenty, Robinson responded to the call he felt three years earlier and became a Christian. Another three years later, when preparing a sermon for his church in Norfolk, England, he penned the words that have become one of the church’s most-loved hymns: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.”
• As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (THE GIFT OF LOVE) This is a poetic setting of John 3:14-17, part of Jesus' nighttime discourse with Nicodemus and includes that famous profession of faith "God so loved the world. . . ," one of the best-known and most frequently memorized verses in the entire Bible. Marie J. Post prepared the versification in 1985 for use with the tune O WALY WALY for the Christ­ian Re­formed Church’s Psal­ter Hymnal. She said this versification was one of her easiest assignments: “The lines simply fell into the music!” O WALY WALY is a traditional English melody which Hal H. Hopson adapted and arranged as an anthem in 1971 for his setting of 1 Corinthians 13, "Gift of Love"; his version became known as GIFT OF LOVE. 
• Amazing Grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN) When John Newton was just eleven, he joined his father and began a tumultuous life at sea, eventually becoming captain of a slave ship. In a period of four years, however, his life was drastically turned around: he nearly drowned, he married a very pious Mary Catlett, and he read through Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and joined forces with the great abolitionist, William Wilberforce. A number of years later, he was ordained for ministry, and soon after wrote this great text, declaring that we are saved only the grace of God. Newton wrote, “I can see no reason why the Lord singled me out for mercy…unless it was to show, by one astonishing instance, that with him 'nothing is impossible'”
• Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA) The great circuit-riding preacher/poet William Williams wrote the original Welsh text "Arglwydd, arwain trwy'r anialwch"–"Lord, Lead Me Through the Wilderness." It was published in 1745 with the title, "A prayer for strength to go through the wilderness of the world." Translated into some seventy-five languages, Williams's text has become universally popular in Christendom. The English translation by Peter Williams ("Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,") was published in 1771.   

The popularity of Williams's text is undoubtedly aided by its association with CWM RHONDDA, composed in 1905 by John Hughes during a church service for a Welsh Baptist song festival.  Hughes had little formal education, but he composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known.

Music for October 5, 2014 + The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• A Repeating Alleluia– Calvin Hampton (1938-1984)
• Everywhere I Go – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)
• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)

Instrumental Music

• Andante – John Stainer
• March in G – Henry Smart (1813-1879)

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

• Hymn 518 – Christ is made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
• Hymn 458 – My song is love unknown (LOVE UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R-173 – O Lord hear my prayer (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 495 – Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)

In many traditions, especially Catholic and Episcopal congregations, it is customary to sing an Alleluia before the reading of the Gospel. Most protestant churches sing a hymn instead. This morning we are using A Repeating Alleluia by Calvin Hampton. One of the most important composers of American church music in the twentieth century, Hampton was Director of Music at Calvary Episcopal Church, New York City, from 1963 to 1983. Before his untimely death from AIDS at the age of 46, he developed a unique compositional voice, which is heard in his extensive catalogue of hymn-tunes and works for choir and organ; A Repeating Alleluia features an imaginative set of variations on a repeating eight-bar theme which the congregation will sing while the choir provides the two counter melodies. 

Calvin Hampton

Hampton had an energetic and inimitable approach to music in the church.  He experimented with unusual instruments like the Ondes Martenot and the Moog synthesizer, and various styles, from the Baroque to Rock. He created the famous “Fridays at Midnight” organ concerts, noted to be a “fixture of Manhattan cultural life” in the 1970s. His Halloween events at Calvary, where Hampton dressed as a werewolf, as the Frankenstein monster, or another scary specter; and many unique musical events that he presented, brought a wide range of people into the church.  This playful approach to sacred music seemed to attract a wide and diverse audience, not least of which were children. I know that the children of our St. Gregory Choir, who are singing with the adults this Sunday on this anthem, have grown to love A Repeating Alleluia.

Sir John Stainer

In reading the Gospel story this week about the vineyard owner who sent his son to collect the produce of the harvest, only to have the tenants kill the son, I was reminded of the favorite scripture of John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son." I felt called to use the familiar anthem with that text by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as the choir's communion motet today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Pauls, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing. I am playing one of his organ works as an opening voluntary. His music was fairly conservative for the time, and today seems rather dated, but he has faired better than his contemporary Henry Smart, the composer of the closing voluntary, Smart was highly rated as a composer during his time, but is now remembered only by a few organists and choral singers. His many compositions for the organ were described as "effective and melodious, if not strikingly original" by the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica,

The offertory is an anthem for children's choirs by the 20th century composer Natalie Sleeth. The bright, cheery melody fits her own text of faith and assurance. 

Everywhere I go, the Lord is near me. If I call upon him, he will hear me. Never will I fear, for the Lord is near, everywhere I go.