WAKE UP! Music for Sunday, November 27, 2022 + Advent I

Vocal Music

• People, Look East – arr. Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Larry Dalton (1946-2009)
• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)

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

• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (HELMSLEY)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning comes (ST. STEPHEN)
• Hymn 59 – Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R 152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 122 – Tone 1f

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, starting a new year in the church. We sing hymns and songs focusing on the coming of Christ.

People, Look East

"People, Look East" first appeared in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). The text was written by the same poet who wrote the popular hymn "Morning has broken," Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965). In England, she is beloved as the author of more than eighty children's books and poem collections, most notably Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep, Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard, and The Little Bookroom.

Key images of the season are abundant. "People, Look East" is the direction of the rising sun and, in the history of Christianity, the direction of the coming Messiah. In stanza two, the bare earth is waiting for the seed that will flourish in the reign of the Promised One. In stanza three, the stars that guided the Magi shape the "bowl" of the heavens, giving signs of hope beyond "the frosty weather." The angels' song, in stanza four, sets "every peak and valley humming," an oblique reference to Isaiah 40:4, "Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. . ."

Except for one word that changes in the last two lines of each stanza, the poem and its musical setting give the sense of a refrain. "Love," in turn, is defined as "Guest," "Rose," "Star," and "Lord." 

The lively tune, a traditional French carol BESANÇON, which earlier appeared with the anonymous text, "Shepherds, shake off your drowsy sleep," provides a festive setting for this wonderful Advent text. In the last forty years, this hymn has gained increasing popularity, as evidenced by its appearance in a number of hymnals in the United States.

Sleepers, Wake!

The Gospel lesson from Matthew 24 warns us

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.(verse 42

I therefore had to choose the old Advent standby, “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us, for the organ voluntaries this Sunday. The opening voluntary is an arrangement of a movement from a Bach cantata (No. 140) arranged by J. S. Bach himself. The keystone of the work, in the middle of the cantata, it is a chorale for tenor. This, along with Sheep may Safely Graze and Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring must surely rank among the best known and most popular of Bach’s individual cantata movements.

The chorale melody is played with a minimum of embellishment on a trumpet sound while the principal, or basic organ sound, declaims the obbligato melody. One of the wonders of this movement is the manner in which the chorale and obbligato melodies appear to have virtually no connection with each other, and yet fit together perfectly. Julian Mincham, in his writings on Bach’s Cantatas (JSBachCantatas.com), says

It is possible that Bach saw this as a symbol of the earthly and the spiritual, seemingly apart, dissimilar and diverse and yet, by reason of the Ordained Natural Order, ultimately fitting together and perfectly complementing each other. Thus we might consider the chorale as representing matters spiritual and the foursquare, almost stolid string melody as earthly life and environment. Each may be depicted perfectly well independently but the fundamental message is that they have been conceived, by the Almighty, as the two parts of the same reality.

The closing voluntary is by a cousin and pupil of Bach, Johann Ludwig Krebs.  His 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.

Music for December 13, 2020 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Hark! A Herald Voice is Sounding – Roger Price (b. 1955)
• You Are Mine – David Haas (b. 1957)
• Camryn Creech, soprano, Harrison Boyd, baritone.

Instrumental Music

• Magnificat – Joseph Bonnet (1884-1944)
• Prelude on “Winchester New” – Malcolm Archer (b.1952)
• Chaconne – Louis Couperin (c. 1626-1661), transcribed for organ by Joseph Bonnet

The Canticle for this Sunday is Luke 1:46-55, known as The Magnificat, or "Song of Mary". It derives its name from the initial words of the Latin text, Magnificat anima mea Dominum. It was first spoken by Mary on the occasion of her visit to her cousin Elizabeth after the Annunciation. The western church has included it as the canticle at vespers at least since the 6th century, and it continues to be used so today.

Over the centuries all the great composers have supplied choral settings from the simple to the most elaborate. Our opening voluntary this week is The Magnificat by the French organist Joseph Bonnet, written for organ alone based on a theme in the fourth mode which resembles Psalm tone 4. I will perform it according to the ancient practice of alternation, whereby the odd-numbered verses are chanted by a cantor, and the even verses are played on the organ. It was first presented in that fashion for the chanting of the Magnificat by the choir of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago in the early 20th century during the tenure of Frederick Marriott as Chapel organist.

A student of Alexandre Guilmant, Bonnet served for 22 years as the organist of St Eustache, Paris. He extensively toured Europe and America as a concert organist. His organ compositions were very popular, and his six-volume Historical Organ Recitals, surveying centuries of organ music, was one of American organists’ sources of great music for several generations. It was in that collection that he published his arrangement of Louis Couperin’s Chaconne in G Minor. 

In his notes on the music, Bonnet wrote that the 1658 manuscript of the Chaconne was in the Bibliothè nationale in Paris, but he failed to mention that the manuscript was for harpsichord, not organ. Nevertheless, he treats it as a French-Classic Grand Chœur, beginning and ending on full organ, with three couplets, or interludes, played on a quieter sound.

Two duets will be sung by two of our college students home for Christmas. Harrison Boyd and Camryn Creech will sing the hymn Hark, a Thrilling Voice Is Sounding, set to an old Sacred Heart tune by Roger Price, Professor of Music at The University of Tulsa, and You Are Mine, a hymn by Catholic Composer David Haas.

Music for May 24, 2020 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Shelter Me – Jan Michael Joncas (b. 1951), Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• The Day of Resurrection – arr. Ovid Young (1940-2014)
• Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)

Congregational Music (from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 460 Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

This week Harrison Boyd sings a song / prayer which was written by American Roman Catholic priest and liturgical composer, Jan Michael Joncas in late March 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The text is a paraphrase of Psalm 23 (the Lord's my shepherd), especially the second verse which acknowledges the experience of “walking in the valley of the shadow of death.”

Fr. Jan Michael Joncas

Michael Joncas is a priest, liturgical theologian, and composer of contemporary Catholic music, best known for his hymn, "On Eagle's Wings". He received a Master of Arts degree in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame in 1978 and went on to study at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome.

He wrote this about the song, "Shelter Me":

These are difficult times for all of us, individually and globally. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life as normal and called for acts of corporate and individual heroism in the face of present suffering and an uncertain future. People of faith may be struggling to articulate their belief in an all-good and all-powerful God in this new era. “Shelter Me” is my attempt as a church composer to find God’s presence even in these fraught times. 

While the text is clearly in the first-person singular, reflecting the intimacy of Psalm 23, I believe that, like many spirituals also using “I” language, it can reflect our common experience when sung by an assembly sharing the same experiences.

This is the last Sunday of the season of Easter, so I open the service with a piano prelude based on the hymn tune ELLACOMBE, which we use for the hymn, "The Day of Resurrection." It was arranged by Ovid Young, a gifted organist and pianist in the Nazarene tradition who for many years was part of the piano duo, Nielson and Young. For more than forty years, the two performed around the world in an array of venues encompassing Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall; Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall; Coventry, England’s Cathedral of St. Michael; Chennai, India’s Academy of Music; Moscow’s Kremlin and Tschaikovsky Hall; Oberammergau’s Passionspiel Theatre; Bern, Switzerland’s Konzerthaus; and the Dallas/Fort Worth Meyerson Symphony Center and Bass Performance Hall. Beyond that, Nielson & Young were hosted for concerts at hundreds of churches and universities, appearing by themselves or with symphony orchestras from coast to coast in the United States and abroad.

Music for April 5, 2020 + Palm Sunday

Vocal Music

• The Holy City – Stephen Adams (Michael Maybrick) (1841-1913)
• Via Dolorosa - Billy Sprague (b. 1952) /Niles Borop (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory, Laud, and Honor - Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded - Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)

Congregational Music (from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 154 - All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)

Two completely different vocal solos will be featured in the services this Sunday, plus the hymn that many of us think of when we think of Palm Sunday.

First, we will hear Amy Bogan sing what we refer to as a chestnut, a musical piece that has oft been repeated to the point of staleness. The Holy City is a song that, much like the service on Palm Sunday, includes not only the triumphal entry but the crucifixion. The third stanza, however, goes on to detail the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. This will literally be heaven on earth. It is referred to in the Bible in several places (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:10; 12:22–24; and 13:14), but it is most fully described in Revelation 21. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate fulfillment of all God’s promises.

The song was written by Michael Maybrick, an English musician, best known today under his pseudonym Stephen Adams as the composer of The Holy City. He studied keyboard and harmony in Germany, but later decided to train as a baritone  in Milan. After gaining experience in Italian theaters, he appeared with great success at all the leading concert venues in London and the provinces, as well as in English opera. He even toured America to great success. The Holy City was his biggest hit. He sang it in concert much like Michael Crawford sang On Eagle's Wings when he concertized.

Now, here comes the fun part of today's story. Maybrick was a keen amateur sportsman, being a cricketer, a yachtsman and a cyclist, and a Captain in the Artists Rifles. His friends spoke of his charming personality, but others thought him arrogant and vain. In 1893 he married his forty-year-old housekeeper, Laura Withers, and retired with her on the Isle of Wight. They were joined there by the two children of his brother, James Maybrick, later a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, and whose wife Florence was convicted of his murder in 1889. (A re-examination of her case resulted in her release in 1904.) He died in 1913.

In October of 2015, screen writer Bruce Robinson published a huge tome called They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper. It was a culmination of 15 years of research in the study of the Jack the Ripper case. Based on his research (which some experts dispute), he points the accusing finger at Michael Maybrick (not his brother James) as detailed in this report.

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After the reading of the Passion Story, Bidkar Cajina will sing a song from a genre that doesn't often make it into our services. From the realm of contemporary Gospel Music (whatever that means) comes the song Via Dolorosa.

For many Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, one of the most meaningful things they will do while in the city is walk the Via Dolorosa, the route that Jesus took between his condemnation by Pilate and his crucifixion and burial. This "way of sadness" was the inspiration for the 1986 Dove Award winning song made famous by Sandi Patti. It was composed by Billy Sprague, an Oklahoma native who grew up in the Amarillo, Texas area. He earned a degree in English from Texas Christian University, did graduate work for two years in literature at the University of Texas, Austin, followed by twenty-five years of making music in Nashville, Tn. He is currently Worship Pastor (what we call a director of music) at Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater, Florida.

Music for March 1, 2020 + The First Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin – John Hilton (ca. 1599 – 1657), arr. Peter Crisafulli

Instrumental Music

• Forty Days and Forty Nights – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt, BWV 637– J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott – Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809)

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

• The Great Litany
• Hymn 147 - Now let us all with one accord (BOURBON)
• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICH)
• Hymn R 112 - You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (ON EAGLES WINGS)
• Hymn R 109 - You are my hiding place (Michael Ledner)
• Hymn 688 -  A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Psalm 32 – Tone II.a

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. We will sing the Great Litany, in procession, at the opening of the service, for nothing says "Oh God, I am miserable" like wandering around the church singing "We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." (BESEECH? Oh my goodness, we are a sorry lot, aren't we?)

John Donne

John Hilton

The anthem is a setting of hymn 140 in our hymnal. It's not known to our congregation, so it makes a perfect anthem. It's text is from the poem A Hymn to God the Father by the English Renaissance writer John Donne. John Hilton, an English composer living around the same time as Donne, set the poem to this tune which has since become known simply as DONNE. It is, in my opinion, a perfect match of text and tune.

If you don't have a hymnal nearby, you can read the entire poem here. You can see that Donne was convicted of his sin.

The communion voluntary is a short setting of the German Chorale, Durch Adams Fall (Through Adam's Fall All Mankind Fell). It is from Bach's collection Die Orgelbuchlein. (Little Organ Book). I felt it was particularly appropriate for the first Sunday in Lent, where we hear the Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 2:15 - 3:21. It's all about the fall of man.

Russell Stinson, in his book Bach, The Orgelbuchlein, says this chorale is "a work of great profundity and originality, especially in terms of textual-musical relationships". The text, which is all about the fall of man, has a particularly obvious musical motif depicting that fall.  There is a descending-seventh motif that occurs continuously throughout the pedal line. Philipp Spitta, a German music historian best known for his 1873 biography of  Bach, was the first to suggest that this pedal motif must represent Adam's fall from grace, not only in its descending motion, but also in its regular use of the diminished seventh, which was usually associated with grief.

The closing voluntary is by Johann Christian Kittel, a German organist, composer, and teacher who was one of the last students of Johann Sebastian Bach. This is the first year in 23 that I have included a closing voluntary during Lent. I decided to continue playing these voluntaries, but using shorter, simpler, and quieter organ works that I usually choose. I hope you like it.

Music for February 10, 2019 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O, Praise God in His Holiness – Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “Nicea” – Piet Post (1919-1979)
• Benedictus: Chromhorne en Taille (Mass for the Parishes) – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Carillon on “St. Edmund” – Malcolm Archer

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty (NICEA)
• Hymn - Tú has venido a la orilla (PESCADOR)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R208  - Santo, santo, santo (UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn R308 - Thuma Mina (Send Me, Lord)  (THUMA MINA)
• Hymn 537 - Christ for the world we sing (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 138:1-6, 8-9 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W.  Meachen

holy (adjective): exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." - Isaiah 6:1-3

This beautiful passage from the prophet Isaiah, used as the first scripture lesson this Sunday, was the inspiration for much of today's music. I look for any reason to sing the hymn "Holy, holy, holy," so it was a natural choice to begin the service, not only as the opening hymn, but also as the opening voluntary. 

I begin with four variations based on the tune NICAEA by contemporary Dutch composer Piet Post. He was the organist from 1949 to 1979 of the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden.  After hearing a pretty straight-forward setting of the hymn, you will hear (I.) a lilting setting of the tune in a flowing 6/8 rhythm, (II.) a light, fantasy style movement outlining the melody with rapid flourishes using the 8' and 2' flutes in the swell, (III.) a variation featuring a 16th-note ostinato pattern accompanying the melody, played in the left hand on an oboe stop, and finally (IV.) a slow movement in 3/4 time with a steady, insistent quarter-note pulse provided by the pedal. The piece then concludes with a Finale which I will use to introduce the hymn.

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1922)
by Herbert Lambert

We continue to focus on the holiness of God with the anthem by English composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, O, Praise God in His Holiness, written for the 1953 Festival of the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes in honor of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is a festive setting of Psalm 150.

Gibbs studied at Cambridge and with Vaughan Williams at the RCM, where he taught (1921-39). His best works are his songs, especially to poems by de la Mare, but he also wrote much for choirs and chamber orchestras and achieved immense success with his slow waltz Dusk, which Queen Elizabeth requested for her 18th birthday.

Music for November 13, 2016 + Kirking of the Tartan

Vocal Music

• Judge Eternal – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether - Jack H. Ossewaarde (1918-2004)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral - James D. Wetherald, arr., Richard Kean, piper
• In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified (A Sylvan Poeme) – Fred Bock (1939-1998)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (Ratisbon)
• Hymn S-204 - Glory be to God on High - Old Scottish Chant
• Hymn R276 - Soon and very soon (Soon and Very Soon)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be consecrated (Hollingside)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (St. Flavian)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! How sweet the sound (New Britain)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (Moscow)
• Canticle 9: The First Song of Isaiah (Ecce, Deus) Isaiah 12:2-6 – Tone VIIIg

Malcolm Archer has written a sprightly, rhythmic anthem on the text "Judge Eternal, throned in splendor." It's distinct trademark is the use of variable meter, alternating 7/8 time with 4/4 time throughout the melody. Other than that one (noticeable) characteristic, it is very much like a typical hymn. All four stanzas are set to the same tune, with treble voices singing the first stanza, tenors and basses singing the second stanza, and all voices singing the last stanza in unison. Only the the third stanza is sung in four parts, without organ, and in a different key. 

I decided to schedule this anthem this past summer, as the presidential election took an ugly turn. The text spoke to me as a Christian as well as a citizen of this great country. Several times in rehearsal choir members would remark that we should have sung this before the election. It will still bring healing and hope in it's presentation this Sunday.

Judge eternal, throned in splendor,
Lord of lords and King of kings,
with thy living fire of judgment
purge this land of bitter things;
solace all its wide dominion
with the healing of thy wings.

Still the weary folk are pining
for the hour that brings release,
and the city's crowded clangor
cries aloud for sin to cease;
and the homesteads and the woodlands
plead in silence for their peace.

Crown, O God, thine own endeavor;
cleave our darkness with thy sword;
feed all those who do not know thee
with the richness of thy word;
cleanse the body of this nation
through the glory of the Lord.

The text is by Henry Scott Holland, an English priest who was Canon of St. Paul's, London, for years. His hymn, "Judge eternal, throned in splendour" (Prayer for the Nation), first appeared in the Commonwealth for July 1902. It has since been included in over 95 hymnals.

Malcolm Archer is one of the leading church musicians in England today, having also served at St. Paul's, London as director of music.

Many of us have sung and loved Harold Friedell's wonderful anthem, Draw Us In the Spirit's Tether. As with many great texts, there are other musical settings. One of those is a short motet using just the first stanza written by Jack H. Osseraarde. Osserwaarde was Organist and Choir master at Calvary Church in New York City  before coming to Houston in 1953 to be Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral and organist and program annotator of the Houston Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stowkowski.

During his time in Houston, Ossewaarde wrote a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C, and “Hosanna to the Son of David.” His anthem Draw us in the Spirit’s tether was published during his tenure at the Cathedral, though it was actually written while he was still at Calvary Church, New York City.

He left Houston in 1958 to return to New York, this time as director of music at St. Bartholomew's in Manhattan.

I refer the reader to a previous post of mine about "Kirking of the Tartan." It's not on the official prayerbook liturgical calendar, but we have been observing the Sunday closest to the feast day of Samuel Seabury as "Kirking Sunday" for 19 years now. Some of the congregation still are at a loss why we do it.  Our piper this Sunday is Mr. Richard Kean, a professional piper and native of Scotland.

Mr. Richard Kean, piper

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 October 19, 2014 + The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Judge Eternal – Malcolm Archer (b. 1952)
• The Old Hundredth Psalm Tune – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Trio Sonata in E Minor: III. Un poco Allegro, BWV 528 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness, BWV 654 - Johann Sebastian Bach
• Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 - Johann Sebastian Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 408 – Sing praise to God who reigns above (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Psalm 96: 1-9 (Tone 1g )
• Hymn 377 – All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100th)
• Hymn 325 – Let us break bread together (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn 544 – Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

Today it's English Choral music and the organ music of J. S. Bach. First, let's talk about the choral music,

Malcolm Archer

Judge Eternal is a very rhythmic setting of a hymn from our hymnal (#596) which was written in 1902 by the English priest Henry Holland, Canon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. This setting is by a former Director of Music at St. Paul’s, Malcolm Archer, who is currently Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College in the heart of England, where conducts the choirs and teaches organ and composition. He has enjoyed a distinguished career in cathedral music, which has taken him to posts at Norwich, Bristol, and Wells Cathedrals, as well as St. Paul's. The first stanza is repeated at the end with the sopranos singing a soaring descant.


The hymn before the Gospel reading is the well known hymn All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100th) as arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, It was the only hymn used at the coronation, and this setting, with it's thrilling opening fanfares, has become loved and sung by choirs the world over. The fourth stanza is actually a harmonization by John Dowland, (1563?-1626) who was the most famous musician of his time.

Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams at their wedding in 1953. RVW was 81 at the time.

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is like scripture to me. In practicing the works of that great Baroque master I can find peace and solace akin to the feeling I get from struggling in prayer and studying the daily scripture readings. Sometimes I stumble, and put away a difficult piece. The opening voluntary was one of those pieces. Twenty plus years ago I began to learn the three-movement Trio Sonata in  E Minor by Bach. I learned the first two movements, but for some reason, I never got the third movement learned. This past Summer, I was looking through my volumes of Bach's organ music and came across the six trio sonatas (music Bach had written to train his own son how to play the organ) and decided to finish the work. I am playing it this Sunday with no little feeling of self-satisfaction. 

The "Trio Sonata" is a musical form that was popular in the 17th and early 18th centuries. A trio sonata was written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata. In the organ version, the right hand plays one melody line, the left hand plays the second melodic line, while the feet play the bass line. It's like rubbing your stomach and patting your head while dancing a jig.

The Communion voluntary is from the last volume of music that Bach worked on before going to his great reward. The so-called "Great Eighteen" was a collection of various chorales that he had written in previous years, but for some reason was never published. The first 15 of the chorales were copied in his own hand, but as his eyesight failed and his vitality diminished, he turned the pen over to his son-in-law to write down the last three. He never lived to see the book published.

There are three large arrangements with a florid, ornamented melody in the Eighteen Chorales. This setting of Hymn 339 in the Hymnal 1982 is one of those. Robert Schumann described it in a letter he wrote to Felix Mendelssohn  in 1840:

Around the cantus firmus (the melody) were hung gilded garlands, and such happiness had been poured into it that you yourself confessed to me that, if life were to deprive you of all hope and faith, this one chorale would restore them to you.

Bach expands the introduction and accompaniment into an independent music concept in opposition to the highly decorated melody.