Music for May 10, 2015 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• The Story Tellin' Man II - Ken Medema 
• I Give You a New Commandment – Peter Aston (1938-2013)
• Give Ear unto Me – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

Instrumental Music

• Rejoice, Beloved Christians – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Praeludium in F Major – Johann Ludwig Krebs

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

• Hymn 400 All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 455 O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn R 226 Ubi caritas et amor (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 610 Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

Quick Pop Quiz: What is the greatest commandment?

• A. Thou Shalt honor thy father and mother.
• B. Love thy neighbor as yourself
• C. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.
• D. Thou shalt not wear white until after Memorial Day.

The answer is C, though B comes in a close second, and A has special relevance this Sunday. (It's Mother's Day - a gentle reminder from your music ministry.) We will make no comment about D.

I bring this up because this Sunday's Gospel from John 15 reminds us what Jesus said about commandments: If we love him, we will keep his commandments. “This is my commandment", he says, "that you love one another as I have loved you". It's about love. So all of our vocal music centers on that theme.

Peter Aston

The Good Shepherd choir sings a setting of a text from John 13 by English composer, Peter Aston. Though best known as a composer of church music, Aston's career combined teaching and conducting as well as composing. He held posts at the University of York and University of East Anglia,and conducted leading British orchestras and various international choirs. He was a founder of the Norwich Festival of Contemporary Church Music and was a Lay Canon of Norwich Cathedral. He died a month before his 75th birthday near Norwich, U.K., on September 13, 2013.

Benedetto Marcello

At communion the St. Gregory Choir will sing Benedetto Marcello's two part anthem Give Ear unto Me, with a text paraphrased from Psalm 17. Even this psalm concentrates on our following the commandments:

Give ear unto me, Lord, I beseech Thee,
for I have walked in Thy commandments,
Let me be judged with righteous judgment,
O let my sentence, come from Thy presence.

Marcello was an Italian composer, writer, and teacher, best known today for his church music and instrumental works. He was a younger contemporary of Antonio Vivaldi, and, indeed, his musical style closely resembles that of the Venetian master.

Ken Medema

However, the main musical offering this Sunday is the presentation of the musical, The Story Tellin' Man II, by Ken Medema. Every Spring the St. Gregory Choir presents a short musical presentation of a Biblical story in our 10:15 worship service.

One of the first musicals written in a contemporary vein for children was The Story Tellin' Man. Written in 1975, it was a collection of several of the parables, or stories, told by Jesus (the Story Tellin' Man) and has become a classic. Medema used several different musical styles to tell the different stories. Kids love singing the music, but the entire musical is 45 minutes long - we Episcopalians don't have patience for long sermons on Sunday morning, much less long musicals! - so I have devised a way to divide the work into TWO musicals - the first one focusing on the "lost" parables (lost coin, lost sheep, lost son) and the second one telling the story of the Good Samaritan. It's that story that we tell this Sunday as we hear the scripture about "Love One Another." I think it's a perfect fit.

Be sure to read about Ken Medema's inspiring story here.

The opening and closing voluntaries are by Johann Ludwig Krebs, German organist and composer noted for his organ music. He began his musical studies under his father and was later a favorite pupil of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach at Leipzig. (Bach held him in high regard, punning on both their names (Krebs [crab] and Bach [brook]) by saying "He is the only crab in my brook."
Krebs's organ music is composed in the forms used by Bach and leans heavily on Bach’s style. It is technically very accomplished. Krebs also wrote trio sonatas, sonatas for flute and harpsichord, and some sacred vocal music.

About the hymns:

• All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) We are singing this hymn, the "Canticle of the Sun" by St. Francis of Assisi, in a nod to Rogation Sunday, the sixth Sunday before Easter, the day when the Church has traditionally offered prayer for God’s blessings on the fruits of the earth and the labors of those who produce our food. The word “rogation” is from the Latin rogare, “to ask.” It is good to be reminded of our dependence upon those who produce our food and our responsibility for the environment. We will omit those stanzas with an asterisk.
• O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN) The love of God lies at the heart of the Christian message, and that love is not an abstract idea but an act of redemption. William Temple points out that the essence of Christianity is not "God is love" but "God so loved that he gave," and this love is the theme of Horatio Bonar's great hymn.
• Ubi caritas et amor (Jacques Berthier) One of the most loved and familiar of the songs from the Taizé Community in France, it was written by Jacques Berthier, the organist at St-Ignace, the Jesuit church in Paris from 1961 until his death in 1994.
• Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN) This hymn was written in 1961 and is a reminder that, as Christians, we should follow the example of Christ, whose life was spent serving others. Our worship in church is in vain unless it is followed by concerns for others.

Music for April 19, 2015 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Music Appreciation Sunday

Vocal Music

• Hymn of Promise – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)
• Sing to the Lord – Ken Medema (b. 1943)

Instrumental Music

• Christians, We Have Met to Worship – arr. Sondra Tucker
• Beside Quiet Waters – Dan R. Edwards
• Choral Song - S.S.Wesley

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

• Hymn 492 Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 440 Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 295 Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R 202 Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 182 Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)

This Sunday, the church is honoring the music ministry of Good Shepherd with a Music Appreciation Day. It is humbling to be honored in such a way for the work that we do, week by week, to glorify our God and King. For this weekend, I have the St. Gregory Choir and the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild joining the Good Shepherd Choir in the music for Sunday. The St. Gregory Choir will sing an anthem of praise by Ken Medema, the composer of our Spring Music, The Story-Tellin' Man II, which we will present on May 10. Then the Good Shepherd Choir will join them in one of the kid's favorite anthems, Hymn of Promise, by Natalie Sleeth.

Ken Medema is a singer/pianist who has published many works for choirs, soloists, and pianists. Born nearly blind, he began playing the piano when he was five years old, and three years later began taking lessons in classical music through braille music, playing by ear and improvising in different styles. Through his work as a music therapist, he started writing songs while at Essex County Hospital. "I had a bunch of teenagers who were really hurting," he says, "and I started writing songs about their lives. Then I thought, 'Why don't you start writing songs about your Christian life?' So I started doing that, and people really responded."

In his anthem Sing to the Lord, you'll hear the main theme presented in a pop-rock style, before going to a new theme (the B section). He returns to the first theme (A section), and when it is sung, you are introduced to more musical material in the C section of the piece. The entire anthem ends with one more visit to the A section before ending with a coda, the last line of music sung three times. The text for the anthem is a compilation of familiar verses from several psalms.

The anthem Hymn of Promise, a favorite of our choir, was first conceived as an anthem in 1985 for a festival concert on Natalie Sleeth's music at the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg, Florida. Since then, it has been included in at least 17 hymnals, with the number growing each year.

Sleeth was as native of Evanston, Illinois. She began piano study at the age of four and gained much of her musical experience by singing in choral ensembles during her earlier years. Studying music theory, piano, and organ at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she received her B.A. in 1952.

Married to Ronald E. Sleeth, a United Methodist clergyman and professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas in the late 60s and 70s, she served as music secretary at Highland Park United Methodist Church from 1969-1976. During this time, she studied music theory with Jane Marshall and audited a course in choral arranging taught by Lloyd Pfautsch at SMU. Her choral works for all ages number more than 200.

Sleeth had the ability to compose both texts and music. Hymn of Promise was written at a time when the author states that she was "pondering the ideas of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Inspired by a T.S. Eliot line, the germ of the hymn grew from the idea "in our end is our beginning," the phase that begins the third stanza of the hymn.

While it carries the promise of spring and the hope of Easter in its beautiful metaphors, it is a very appropriate hymn for funeral and memorial services. Shortly after its composition, the composer’s husband was diagnosed with what turned out to be a terminal malignancy. Ronald Sleeth requested that Hymn of Promise be sung at his funeral service.

Michael C. Hawn, distinguished professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology, writes,

A wonderful child-like simplicity permeates "Hymn of Promise." Natalie Sleeth had a gift for composing texts on complex theological ideas that were still accessible to children. Her melodies seemed totally natural and therefore effortless for people to learn. "Hymn of Promise" is one of the most memorable hymns written by an American United Methodist in the last part of the twentieth century, and it promises to be sung for many years to come.

The Good Shepherd Handbell Choir will end it's choir season by playing two distinctly different pieces by two American composers. My friend Sondra Tucker has written an energetic piece for bells and percussion combining two Early American hymn-tunes, HOLY MANNA (Christians, We Have Met to Worship) and FOUNDATION (How Firm a Foundation). After a brief introduction you hear HOLY MANNA , then FOUNDATION as the drum drops out and the music becomes less rhythmic and more flowing. When the opening motif returns along with the drum, the two tunes are combined and played together. It's what the youth call a "mash-up."

• Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN) Though it first appeared in 1870 and was included in several hymnals of the time, our hymnal is the only major contemporary book that includes it. The tune was written in 1975 by Christopher Dearnley, an English organist, who served in Salisbury Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral.
• Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU) In this hymn, we acknowledge our need for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to fully understand God’s message to us. We also recognize and claim the promise of Christ concerning this help: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 ESV).
• Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN) Set to a tune from the 1500s, this hymn was written by Omer Westendorf, one of the leading Roman Catholic hymn writers since Vatican II. Born in 1916, Omer first got interested in church music after World War II, when he discovered the new Mass settings in Holland.
• Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA) Immensely popular, this praise chorus has been included in hundreds of songbooks, both in North America and in other continents. Linda L. Stassen-Benjamin originally composed it rather instantaneously (while she was in the shower!) in June 1974. Following oral tradition, the Renew Hymnal joins Stassen's stanza with four other stanzas derived from early Christian liturgies and the "Easter Canticle," which quotes from 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 and 15:20-22.  
• Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO) Brian A. Wren wrote the hymn during April of 1968. It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Wren wrote: "I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God's love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing."