HAPPY NEW YEAR (Among other things) January 1, 2023 + The Holy Name

Vocal Music

• New Year Carol - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Instrumental Music

• The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away - J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
• In Thee Is Gladness - Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

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

• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name (CORONATION)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 250 - Now greet the swiftly changing year (SIXTH NIGHT)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (HEARN)
• Hymn 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (ST. PETER)

The Sundays between Christmas (December 25) and Epiphany (January 6) are usually called The First and Second Sundays after Christmas. Eight days after Christmas, on January 1st, is the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,  which commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as recounted in the Gospel read on that day, 

at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. - Luke 2:21

When the Feast of the Holy Name falls ON a Sunday, as it does this year, it supersedes all other lectionary readings. So we will focus on the Holy Name of Jesus with a nod to the passing year. 

The hymns all focus on the Holy Name, even hymn 250 - 

When Jesus came to wage sin's war,
The Name of names for us he bore.
Slovak, 17th cent.; Cithara Sanctorum, Levoca, 1636, Translator: Jaroslav J. Vajda

but our choral and instrumental music looks more toward the new year.

New Year Carol

Benjamin Britten was one of Britain's leading composers of the 20th Century. He composed in all the major genre - opera, orchestral, choral and vocal, and chamber music. "A New Year Carol" is from Friday Afternoons, a collection of twelve song settings by Benjamin Britten, composed 1933–35 for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn, Wales where his brother, Robert, was headmaster. (Two of the songs, "Cuckoo" and "Old Abram Brown", were featured in the film Moonrise Kingdom.) "A New Year Carol", also known as "Levy-Dew", is a British folk song of Welsh origin traditionally sung in New Year celebrations. It is associated with a New Year's Day custom involving sprinkling people with water newly drawn from a well. 

Here we bring new water from the well so clear,

For to worship God with, this happy New Year.

Chorus (after each verse):

Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew, the water and the wine,

The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her toe;

Open you the West Door and turn the Old Year go.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her chin;

Open you the East Door and let the New Year in.

The meaning of the words "levy-dew" in the original lyrics of the song is not certainly known. One line of speculation holds that the words represent the Welsh phrase llef ar Dduw or llef y Dduw, "a cry to God". Others connect it to Middle English levedy ("lady"). I like to think it refers to the French phrase levez à Dieu, "raise to God", which may in turn refer to the elevation of the Host in Christian liturgy, since it mentions the water and the wine. “The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine” refer to the golden strings of the harp and the trumpets of heaven, seven being 

Verses 2 and 3 describe letting go of the old year and bringing in the new. “Sing reign of Fair

Maid” refers to folk mythology and golden maidens who represent the rising and setting of the

sun, and therefore the turning of seasons and years. As for the West and East doors, it's a custom in the British Isles, particularly Ireland, to enter the house through the front door and leave through the back at the stroke of midnight. The old year goes out the back as the new year comes in the front.

The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away

In Thee is Gladness

Bach wrote an organ collection called Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ based on hymns for each part of the church year. There were three written for New Years Day, Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen [Help me to praise God's goodness], Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year now hath passed], and In dir ist Freude [In Thee Is Gladness]. I'm playing the second one as the prelude. The passing of the old year is mourned in twisting chromaticism throughout ‘Das alte Jahr vergangen ist’, despite that not being in keeping with the hymn text, a hymn of thanks for the past year and prayers for the coming year to Christ. Although primarily a supplication looking forwards to the future, the hymn also looks back at the past, reflecting on the perils facing man, his sins and his transitory existence.

Centuries later, in 1931, French organist Marcel Dupré wrote his own collection, 79 Chorals faciles pour orgue sur les mélodies des 79 vieux chorals dont Bach s’est servi dans ses Chorals-Préludes, based on the chorales used by Bach. Dupre prepared these short works, not as "another version" of the famous chorales and chorale preludes of Bach, but rather as a means of making the beginning organist aware of the beautiful chorale melodies and to prepare him or her for the study of Bach's works. This was an important pedagogical book while being at the same time a presentation of beautiful organ chorales. 

I am playing Dupré's setting of the third New Year chorale in Bach's Orgelbuchlein, In dir ist Freude. It is written in the style of a trio, with the melody heard in the right hand (treble) while the left hand inserts a quasi-ostinato based on the first four notes of the melody, played over another ostinato of the same four notes, this time in quarter notes.

Music for January 12, 2020 + The Baptism of Christ

Vocal Music

• My Dancing Day – Shaw/Parker (Alice Parker, b. 1925)

Instrumental Music

• When Jesus Went to Jordan’s Stream – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
• When Jesus Went to Jordan’s Stream – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Toccata in F – Dietrich Buxtehude

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

• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn R157 - We believe in God Almighty (DIVINUM MYSTERIUM)
• Hymn 135, - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn - Shall we gather at the river (HANSON PLACE)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Psalm 29 – Tone Vc, refrain by James E. Barrett

This Sunday we are doing our last repeat from Christmas Eve, as we sing the Robert Shaw/Alice Parker arrangement of the English carol, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.

As the choir began to review it this past Wednesday (rehearsing, mainly, as it was their first time together since Christmas), one of the basses asked, "Are we going to keep doing this until we get it right?"

"No," I answered. "We are going to keep doing it until it no longer fits the lessons for Sunday."

You see, this Sunday is the Sunday that we remember the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist. You'll notice references to Jesus' baptism in hymns 132 and 135, and a passing reference to the act in the opening hymn 76 and the communion hymn, Shall we gather at the river (which is not in The Hymnal 1982, but in the sister volume, Lift Every Voice and Sing.)

Alice Parker

The same holds true for My Dancing Day. Alice Parker, who was associated with many years with Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chorale, arranged the medieval carol, keeping the gentle dance-like rhythm. The text of the carol tells the story of Christ, whose life is repeatedly characterized as a dance. The original carol has 11 stanzas, but this setting ends with stanza 4, the verse about the baptism.

Then afterward baptized I was;
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard I from above,
To call my true love to my dance.
Sing, oh my love, this have I done for my true love.

The organ music is also based on a hymn for this occasion. This time it is a lesser known German Chorale which you'll find in the hymnal at hymn 139. If you are paying attention (or at church on time, for once), you'll hear me play the hymnal setting first during the opening voluntary, before playing Marcel Dupre's simple setting. You should be able to hear the melody clearly in this setting.

The same is not true about the communion voluntary, a chorale prelude on the same tune by the German composer Dietrich Buxtehude. He's treated the cantus firmus (the musicologist's way of saying melody) as a highly ornamented fashion, almost obliterating the tune until you really have to know what you are listening for in order to recognize it.

Music for December 1, 2019 + Advent I

Vocal Music

• Zion Hears the Watchman Singing – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Ecce Dominus Veniet – Marcel Dupre (1886-1971)
• Fugue in A Major – Johann Sebastian Bach

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 74 - Blest be the King whose coming (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn R 152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R 92 - Prepare the way of the Lord (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 68 - Rejoice! rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 122 – Tone 1f

One of my Facebook colleagues posted this week that if it’s Thanksgiving, Advent can’t be far behind. And it’s true this year, for many of us won’t be sick of turkey yet when we light the first candle on the Advent wreath this Sunday. And since this is year A of the lectionary cycle, we’ll hear these words from Romans13:11

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers… 

It just makes it easy when choosing music. One of the great Advent hymns is the German chorale, WACHET AUF, which you’ll find in our hymnal at hymn 61. It’s not that well known in our congregation, but so many composers from Bach’s time to today have arranged this hymn for choir or organ that I can use it several times, which is what I’m doing this Sunday.

First, you’ll hear it at the opening voluntary when I play J. S. Bach’s own organ transcription of his tenor solo from Cantata 140. It’s one of Bach’s most inspired melodies, and that’s just in the accompaniment! This casual, lyrical melody just goes alone, minding its own business, when suddenly, the watchman enters with his solemn warning, in the form of the chorale melody played on the trumpet stop. The two tunes don’t have anything to do with each other, yet they form to join a beautiful duet.

 The same chorale tune is used in the offertory anthem by a contemporary of Bach’s, Johann Gottfried Walther. Like Bach, Walther was an organist and composer of the Baroque era. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of J.S. Bach, he was the famous composer's cousin. He also studied organ with Bach’s second cousin, Johann Bernhard Bach.

In 1707 he was appointed organist at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Weimar.  Bach had been appointed to the Duke of Weimar’s ‘Capelle und Kammermusik’in 1708. In 1712 Bach was godfather to J.G. Walther’s son. In his biography of Bach, J. N. Forkel told a story of how J. G. Walther played a trick on Bach, to cure him of boasting that there was nothing he could not read at sight.

Johann Gottfried Walther wrote sacred vocal works and numerous organ pieces, consisting mostly of chorale preludes. In fact, today’s anthem is one of his organ preludes which Mark Schweitzer arranged for choir. (It must be noted that Schweitzer, a fine singer and composer in his own right, died this past November in North Carolina. His passing will be a great loss to church musicians.)

The communion voluntary is an organ work by the brilliant French organist Marcel Dupré. Dupré’s international fame developed soon after the First World War as the direct result of his skill as an improviser, specifically on plainsong themes. The Six Antiennes pour les temps de Noël, Op.48, written in 1952, take as their basis the plainsongs of the Christmas antiphons. The first is for Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent;

Ecce Dominus veniet, et omnes sancti ejus cum eo: et erit in die illa lux magna, alleluia.

"Behold the Lord will come, and all his saints with him, and there will be a great light in that day, Alleluia."

Music for December 17, 2017 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Rejoice in the Lord Alway – Anon. 16th C.

Instrumental Music

• Meine Seele erhebt den Herren, BWV 648 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Magnificat V (no. 14 from "Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge", op. 18)- Marcel Dupré (1886-1971).
• Fuga super: Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn (Magnificat), BWV 733 - J. S. Bach (J. L. Krebs?)

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

• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 59 - Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn R152 - I want to walk as a child of the light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 126 - In convertendo – Tone VIIIg

Mary's song of praise, called the Magnificat, is one of the traditional songs of Advent. It derives its
name from the first work of the Latin text

Magnificat anima mea Dominum;
My soul doth magnify the Lord.

The text of the canticle is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke (1:46–55) where it is spoken by Mary upon the occasion of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. Found only in Luke's Gospel, is one of four hymns, distilled from a collection of early Jewish-Christian canticles, which complement the promise-fulfillment theme of Luke's infancy narrative. The other songs are Zechariah's Benedictus (1:67–79); the angels' Gloria in Excelsis Deo (2:13–14); and Simeon's Nunc dimittis (2:28–32).
(The presentation hymn this morning is a metrical setting of the Benedictus.)

Though we are not singing a setting of the Magnificat this morning, I am playing organ music based on the Canticle of Mary.

In Germany, Martin Luther translated the Latin text to German and gave us what is now called "The German Magnificat." Originally sung to the chant Tonus peregrinus, (Latin: ‘wandering tone’), the chant was soon "straightened out" into what we recognized today as a metrical hymn tune, or chorale. Bach used this chorale melody in his cantata Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10, and today's opening voluntary is his organ transcription of the fifth movement of that work.

German Magnificat set to the Tonus Peregrinus

The Chorale tune used by Bach and Krebs.

In the fifth movement, "Er denket der Barmherzigkeit" (He remembers his mercy), the piece begins with a bass line of "emphatic downward semitone intervals" which Klaus Hofmann interprets as "sighs of divine mercy". [1] The melody is played by oboes and trumpet while accompanied by alto and tenor singing in imitation. The voices often sing in parallel thirds and sixths, which expressed mildness and compassion according to the Baroque idea that certain rhythmic and melodic motifs could express particular "affects."

The opening phrase of that hymn was also used as the subject (theme) of the Fugue I am playing for the closing voluntary. Once thought to be by Bach, prevailing scholarship suggests that the fugue is not actually by Bach, but by one of his students, Johann Ludwig Krebs. Discoveries of manuscripts from the time established the composer of the piece as Krebs.

While not up to the artistry usually displayed in the fugues of Bach, it is still an fine work.  Krebs presents the stately chorale theme in a somewhat dry fashion in the opening, but afterwards his subtle contrapuntal voicing enlivens the music, drawing in the listener. When he finally makes use of the pedal just past the midpoint of the work, the music suddenly takes on an epic air, a greater sense of religious grandeur. Throughout the piece, Krebs subtly employs a motif, as well as its inversion, which it derives from the work's countermelody, in the end demonstrating his mastery in development and contrapuntal writing.

This communion voluntary comes from a set of Assumption Day vesper improvisations that Marcel Dupré later committed to paper. He would play an improvisation on the Canticle between the singing of the verses. This slow, mysterious movement is based on the following verse:

- He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel; as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed foreve

[1] J.S. Bach - Cantatas, Vol.23 (BWV 10, 93, 178, 107) (CD). Åkersberga, Sweden: BIS. 2003. BIS-1331. Retrieved 31 May 2017. With English liner notes by Klaus Hofmann (p7)

Music for November 5, 2017 + All Saints Sunday

Vocal Music

• I Heard a Voice from Heaven – John Goss (1800-1880)

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare Flourish – Ron Mallory (B. 1973)
• Chant de Paix – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Placare Christe Servulis (O Christ Forgive Thy Servants) – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

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 labor rest (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 526 - Let saints on earth in concert sing (DUNDEE)
• Hymn 618 - Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 625 - Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)
• Hymn - Taste and See (James Moore) Paraphrase of Psalm 34:1-4, 8

The choral music of the English composer Sir John Goss is among the core works of Anglican choirs’ repertoire; our choir often sing his works and we sing his best known hymn tune, LAUDA ANIMA with the text, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven” (#410). Goss is best remembered for his vocal music and is one of the last English composers who devoted their work almost entirely to writing church music.

Sir John Goss, by unknown artist, circa 1835.

Born in Fareham, Hampshire, England, Goss was a descendant of a long line of English musicians. Several in his family were excellent singers, and his father was the organist of the parish church in Fareham. Goss was educated in London, sang as a chorister for the Chapel Royal, and studied organ with Thomas Attwood, organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Goss was appointed to several prestigious organist positions in London including Stockwell Chapel in South London, St. Luke’s Church in Chelsea, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, succeeding his former teacher there in 1838. While at St Paul’s, Goss had little influence over the music of the cathedral, and he struggled to improve musical standards there.

Goss was also an active teacher, serving as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music where he taught harmony from 1827 to 1874, and taught at St. Paul’s. His instructional book written in1833, An Introduction to Harmony and Thorough-Bass, was a standard music text of the era.

Goss was remembered by his students for his pious, religious life, patience and gentleness of character. Following years of poor health during the 1870s, Goss died in his home in Brixton. He is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Goss was knighted by Queen Victoria when he retired from St. Paul’s in 1872. In 1876, he received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Cambridge. Numerous posthumous memorials honoring Goss were erected in London and Fareham.

The closing voluntary is a wonderful work by Marcel Dupré on the chant Placare Christe Servulis which is traditionally sung at Vespers on the Feast of All Saints in the Roman Breviary. It is the last piece in Dupré's organ collection, Tombeau de Titelouze (16 Chorals sur des Hymnes liturgiques), Op 38. During an Organ Week held in Rouen in 1942, the Abbé Robert Delestre, Maître de Chapelle of Rouen Cathedral showed Dupré the unmarked grave of Jean Titelouze, the founding father of French organ music. It immediately inspired Dupré to compose this volume which he inscribed to the Abbé. Placare Christe servulis treats the hymn melody in the form of a toccata (D major, 12/8) for All Saints Day.

Music for Christmas Weekend 2016

December 24, 2016 – 4 PM

Pamela Saxon King, soloist
The Good Shepherd Bell Choir
The Good Shepherd Liturgical Dance Company

Vocal Music

• Mary, Did You Know? – Buddy Greene
• Do You Hear What I Hear? - Gloria Shayne Baker (1923 – 2008)

Instrumental Music

• Go, Tell It on the Mountain – Patricia A. Sanders
• Away in a Manger – Patricia A. Sanders
• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• V. Adagio
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 24, 2016 – 6:30 and 10 PM

The Good Shepherd Choir
Allison Gosney, soprano

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)
• What Is This Lovely Fragrance - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – Italian Carol, arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• Ding Dong, Merrily on High– French tune, arr. Charles Wood
• What Sweeter Musick - William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)
• Ave Maria – César Franck (1822 – 1890)
• Christmas Joy - Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 79 - O little town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99- Go tell it on the mountain! (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 25, 2016 – 10:15 AM

Instrumental Music

• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
• In the Bleak Midwinter—John Purifoy 
• O Little Town of Bethlehem – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• Prologue – Traditional, arr. Joseph W. Clokey (1890-1960)

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

• Hymn 107 - Good Christian friends, rejoice (In dulci jubilo)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (stanzas 1, 2, 3) (Gloria)
• Hymn 102 - Once in royal David’s city (Irby)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world (Antioch )

Music for August 14, 2016 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Open My Eyes – Clara H. Scott (1841-1897) Bruce Bailey, tenor

Instrumental Music 
Three Antiphons from Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge, Op.18 – Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971)

• Antiphon I: While the King sitteth at his table (Song of Solomon 1:12)
• Antiphon III: I am black but comely, O Ye Daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Solomon 7:6)
• Antiphon V: How Fair and how Pleasant art Thou (Song of Solomon 1:5)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy Name (Grosser Gott)
• Hymn 537 - Open your ears, O faithful people (Torah Song)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (In Babilone)
• Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (Houston)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (Crucifer)
• Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18, Tone VIIIa, refrain by Jackson Hearn

A couple of weeks ago, Bruce Bailey came into my office inquiring about a hymn that he had sung growing up. Bruce and I share the same background of growing up in the Methodist Church, often singing out of the Cokesbury Worship Hymnal, a slim, brown hymnal from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South that contained many hymns and gospel songs that were popular in the middle of the twentieth century. (You can still buy a copy for $14!) The hymn in question was Open My Eyes, That I May See. I recalled that, as a teenager, we joked it was written by Fanny Crosby, a famous blind gospel song writer of the late nineteenth century. (And how a teenage boy in rural Tennessee knew about blind hymn writers of the 1800s is still a mystery.) My copy of the Cokesbury Hymnal lists Charles H. Scott as the composer. It turns out that is wrong.

Clara H. Scott

Open My Eyes, That I May See was written in 1895 by Clara H. Scott, a Midwesterner who taught music at the Ladies' Seminary, in Lyons, Iowa. She married Henry Clay Scott in 1861, and in 1882 published the Royal Anthem Book, the first volume of choir anthems published by a woman.

Horatio R. Palmer, an influential church musician in Chicago and later New York City, was a source of encouragement for Scott, and helped her publish many of her songs. This hymn first appeared in Best Hymns No. 2, by Elisha A. Hoffman & Harold F. Sayles in 1895. Three collections were issued before her untimely death, in a buggy accident cause by a runaway horse in Dubuque, Iowa.

Bruce will be singing it this Sunday in an arrangement of mine where I combine the melody by Scott with the accompaniment of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, so if it sounds familiar when the piano starts, that's why. With some minor adjustments in harmony, the two go well together. Schubert will be turning over in his grave.

Marcel Dupré

The organ music is by the famed French organist, Marcel Dupré.  Dupré was the foremost French organ virtuoso of his time, an heir to the great tradition of Romantic French organ playing and composing. In addition to his technical prowess, Dupré was well known for his ability to improvise.

Ninety-seven years ago on August 15, 1919, Dupré was substituting for the regular organist at Notre Dame for Vespers. The office of Vespers includes five psalms, a hymn, and the Magnificat. An antiphon (a short scriptural text) is sung before each Psalm. Dupré improvised 15 organ responses to the Psalms, Ave maris stella, and Magnificat.

An Englishman, Claude Johnson, the General Managing Director of Rolls-Royce, was attending Vespers. A man of great vision and sensitivity, he was struck by the beauty of Dupré’s music and wanted to buy a copy of it.

On being told that it had been improvised, and therefore not written down, he at once persuaded Dupré to try to recapture his original inspiration and commissioned the set of 15 pieces. They appeared the following year. It is three of the five antiphons, based on verses from the Song of Solomon, that I am playing today.