Music for April 16, 2023 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• An Easter Greeting – Martin How (1931-2022)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “O Filii et Filiae” – Pierre Dandrieu (1664-1733)
• That Easter Day with Joy was bright – Rudy Davenport
• Carillon ou Cloches– Pierre Dandrieu

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

• Hymn 193 That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NATUS)
• Hymn 206 O sons and daughters, let us sing! (O FILII ET FILIAE)
• Hymn 207 Sing we to our God above (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn R 271 Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks (ALLELUIA NO.1)
• Hymn R 91 Open our eyes, Lord (OPEN OUR EYES)
• Hymn R 258 To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Psalm 16 – simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

Martin How

Martin How, who wrote our offertory anthem this morning, spent a lifetime working in music, much of it with the Royal School of Church Music. 

The son of an Anglican priest, he was trained at Clare College, Cambridge, where is was also in charge of the Chapel Choir of men and boys as well as the choral society. After two years in the armed forces, he worked in a church for about four years before joining the staff of the Royal School of Church Music where spent the remainder of his career. 

He was known principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. Much of his music was written with the young or inexperienced singer in mind. Thus is certainly true of today's anthem, An Easter Greeting, which was written for just a two-part choir of children or adult voices.

He was awarded the MBE in 1993for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Years Honors List.

Pierre Dandrieu

Pierre Dandrieu (d'Andrieu) was a French priest , composer and organist. Little is known about his early years. After he studied with the famous French organist Nicolas Lebègue , he became the organist of Saint-Barthélemy church on the île de la Cité in Paris, for more than 40 years. Upon his death, his nephew Jean-François Dandrieu succeeded him.

Pierre Dandrieu published one book of carols and various pieces for the organ in 1714. It is in this volume that we find the organ voluntaries for this day. 

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on our middle hymn, O sons and daughters, let us sing. It tells the story of the apostle Thomas, who wanted to reach out and touch the wounded hands and feet of Jesus before he would believe that he was actually alive. I'm only play the first few variations; the whole work takes about 10 minutes!

The closing voluntary is Carillon ou Cloches. If you know French, you know that translates to Carillon or Bells. This short toccata-like piece is very imitative of a bell peal heard in the bell towers of French churches.

Music for May 1, 2022 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• An Easter Greeting – Martin How (b. 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Christ Lay in Death’s Strong Bands – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Chorale – Michael Larkin (b. 1951)
• Premier Suite: Rondeau – Jean Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)

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

• Hymn 374 Come, let us join our cheerful songs (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn 417 This is the feast of victory (FESTIVAL CANTICLE)
• Hymn 255 We sing the glorious conquest (MUNICH)
• Hymn R202 Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 535 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 30:1,3-6, 12-13– Tone Ib

Martin How

Easter is not just a day. It is a season, and we continue that season by singing An Easter Greeting by the modern English composer Martin How. How has spent most of his career with the Royal School of Church Music where he was known principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. Since his retirement from the RSCM he has returned to organ playing as an honorary member of the music staff at Croydon Minster.

The anthem today is evidence of his interest and devotion to writing music for young or beginning singers. While An Easter Greeting may be easy to put together as a choir, it is still quality music which is fun to sing and interesting to listen to.

The opening voluntary is Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 625, a selection from the Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Orgelbüchlein is a collection of 46 preludes for organ almost exclusively written during the 1708-1717 period, while Bach was court organist in Weimar. The collection is defined by Bach himself  as '[a book] in which a beginning organist receives given instruction as to performing a chorale in a multitude of ways while achieving mastery in the study of the pedal, since in the chorales contained herein the pedal is treated entirely obligatory'. 

The English translation of the title is "Christ lay in death's bonds." It's an Easter hymn by Martin Luther with a melody is by Luther and Johann Walter. The melody as set by Luther (with help from Walter) seems to have strong correlations with parts of the Easter chant, Victimae paschali laudes. It's in a minor key, but it's joyful 16th-note motif in the accompaniment helps to give this work a sort of dignified elation.

Michael Larkin

Michael Larkin, Director of Music Ministry St. Mary Anne's Episcopal Church in North East, MD, has written a contemplative piano piece called Chorale which I am using as a communion voluntary today. In addition to his church work, he is chairperson of the vocal/choral department and a voice teacher at the Wilmington Music School in Wilmington, DE. He also is founder and music director of the New Ark Chorale of Newark, DE. In addition, Dr. Larkin is Eastern Division Chairperson for Music and Worship for the American Choral Directors Association. He is known nationally as a clinician and adjudicator in various aspects of vocal/choral music as well as the church music profession, especially the subjects of liturgy, worship planning, and musical and professional concerns for the church musician.

While you may not recognise the name Jean-Joseph Mouret, you'll surely recognize his music. Mouret  was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country. Even though most of his works are no longer performed, Mouret's name survives today thanks to the popularity of the Rondeau from his first Suite de symphonies, which has been adopted as the signature tune of the PBS program Masterpiece and is a popular musical choice in many modern weddings. It is the closing voluntary this morning.

Music for February 6, 2022 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Day by Day – Martin How (b. 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Meditation on “How Bright Appears the Morning Star” – David Bednall (b. 1979)
• Von Gott will ich nicht lassen [I will not forsake the Lord], BWV 658 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Wie Schön Leuchtet – David Cherwein (b. 1957)

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 R269 - Let all that is within me (Melvin Harrell)
• Hymn - Santo, santo, santo (Unknown)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn 537 - Christ for the world we sing (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 138 – Tone Va

The anthem today is a setting of the prayer by Richard of Chichester, the 13th century bishop and saint, who wrote the prayer

Thanks be to thee, our Lord Jesus Christ,

for all the benefits which thou hast given us,

for all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for us.

O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,

may we know thee more clearly,

love thee more dearly,

and follow thee more nearly. Amen.

The prayer has been a hymn in the Episcopal church since its inclusion in The Hymnal 1940, though it's greater popularity has come from it's inclusion in the Broadway musical Godspell. Alas, the tune we are singing today is neither from the hymnal nor the musical, but a 1978 setting by Scottish-born organist Martin How. 

Martin How

The son of John How, a former Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway and the Primus of Scotland, Martin spent most of his career with the Royal School of Church Music where he was known principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. He also inaugurated the RSCM Southern Cathedral Singers, a group which has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio's Choral Evensong from Canterbury Cathedral and elsewhere. He was awarded the MBE for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Years Honours List. 

Since his retirement from the RSCM he has returned to organ playing as an honorary member of the music staff at Croydon Minster.

David Bednall

The opening and closing voluntary are both based on the same hymn, the German chorale Wie Schön Leuchtet, which is found in our hymnal as hymn 496, “How Bright Appears the Morning Star” In the opening voluntary, David Bednall has given it a rather mystical treatment, with a slow, flowing triplet pattern accompanying a slow presentation of the cantus firmus. (Latin for "fixed melody", used to designate a pre-existing melody.)

English organist David Bednall is one of the leading choral composers of his generation. He is a Teaching Fellow and Organist of The University of Bristol, Sub Organist at Bristol Cathedral and Director of The University Singers. David Bednall has been Organ Scholar at The Queen's College, Oxford and at Gloucester Cathedral where he also served as Acting Director of Music and Acting Assistant Organist and served Wells Cathedral as assistant organist.

David Cherwien

The closing voluntary is a brilliant toccata on the same tune by the American organist David Cherwien.  Cherwien is currently serving as Cantor at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, and in 2002 was appointed Artistic Director for the National Lutheran Choir, also based in the Twin Cities. He is a prolific composer with over 150 publications of choral and organ music, with several publishers including MorningStar Music, and is the 2007 winner of the Raabe Prize for Excellence in Sacred Composition for his piece, "The Souls of the Righteous."

The organ voluntary at Communion comes from J. S. Bach's great collection of 18 Chorale Preludes. The choral Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (I will not forsake God), BWV 658, set in the rare key of F minor (associated with tenderness and tranquility), harnesses with child-like innocence the Christian image of God. Bach sets the melody in the tenor voice (played in the pedal) sounding from within the flowing legato texture in the hands

Music for September 16, 2018

Vocal Music

• Day by Day – Martin How (b, 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Voluntary in G Major – William Boyce (1710-1779)
• Variations on Jesu, Meine Freude (Hymn 701) – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Sinfonia from “Sampson” – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “x” which are from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (BOURBON)
• Hymn 433 - We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing (KREMSER)
• Hymn L136 - I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM)
• Hymn L144 - I can hear my Savior calling (NORRIS)
• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Psalm 116:1-8 - tone VIIIa

I love Baroque music (music from @1600-1750), and particularly the well-defined musical forms of the period. In Germany one of the prevailing tendencies was pairing the Prelude and Fugue together. Stylistically, the prelude is improvisatory in nature with a small number of rhythmic and melodic motifs that recur through the piece, while a fugue is a sophisticated compositional technique of two or more voices, built on a musical theme that is introduced at the beginning, then imitated at different pitches and which recurring frequently during the composition.

In England, composers didn’t seem to pair the two forms as much as combine them into one piece called voluntaries. Originally, the term voluntary was used for a piece of organ music that was free in style and was meant to sound improvised (the word voluntary in general means "proceeding from the will or from one's own choice or consent"). [1] This probably grew out of the practice of church organists improvising after a service.

Later, the voluntary began to develop into a more definite form, like the today’s voluntary by William Boyce. It begins with an improvisatory section (prelude) before ending with a fugue – and in this instance, it’s a Double Fugue, with two subjects that are developed simultaneously.

William Boyce was the leading native-born composer in England during Eighteenth Century, second only in popularity to that German intruder, Georg Friedrich Händel (who later Anglicized the spelling of his name as George Frederick Handel.) He was known for his set of eight symphonies, his church anthems and his odes. He also wrote three operas and some chamber music.

At the age of 48, Boyce went deaf, and had to give up playing the organ. He devoted himself to editing the collection of church music which bears his name and completing the compilation Cathedral Music that his teacher Maurice Greene had left incomplete at his death. This led to Boyce editing works by the likes of William Byrd and Henry Purcell. Many of the pieces in the collection are still used in Anglican services today.

Boyce was largely forgotten after his death and he remains a little-performed composer today. The great exception to this neglect is his church music, which was edited after his death and published in two large volumes in 1780 and 1790.

The first movement (Allegro) of Boyce's Symphony No. 1 in B-flat was the first piece of music played during the procession of the bride and bridegroom at the end of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.

To balance the understated elegance of Boyce’s Voluntary, I will end the service with a transcription of a Sinfonia from the Oratorio Solomon by his greatest rival, Handel. This Sinfonia, which opens act 3, is more commonly known as "The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba.” It was featured at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony.

[1] "voluntary". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 14 September 2018.

Music for April 23, 2017 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• An Easter Greeting – Martin How

Instrumental Music

• O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing – Jean-François Dandrieu (c. 1682 - 1738)
• That Easter Day With Joy Was Bright – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Good Christians all, rejoice and sing! – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 205 - Good Christians all, rejoice and sing! (GELOBT SEI GOTT)
• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 206 - Alleuia! O sons and daughters, let us sing! (O FILII ET FILIAE)
• Hymn R258 - To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Hymn R271 - Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord (ALLELUIA NO. 1)
• Hymn R91 - Open our eyes, Lord (OPEN OUR EYES)
• Hymn 193 - That Easter Day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS)
• Psalm 116 – simplified Anglican Chant

If ever there was a hymn that was just perfect for a particular Gospel reading, it has to be this Sunday's hymn before the Gospel (and the inspiration for the opening organ voluntary. O Sons and Daughters, Let Us Sing. It is a version (in song) of today's Gospel reading.

The original hymn, which was in Latin, is usually attributed to a French cleric named Tisserand in the fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The first known publication of the text was in an untitled booklet in Paris between 1518 and 1536. Other Latin stanzas were also added at a later date. John Mason Neale translated the hymn into English in 1851.

This hymn tells the story of those who witnessed the resurrected Christ based on the gospel accounts, particularly that of John. After describing the scene at the tomb on Resurrection Sunday morning, the text narrates the disciples' responses, from the sudden appearance of Jesus in a locked room where a group of them were meeting (John 20:19-23) to the proof of Jesus' physical resurrection when He appeared to doubting Thomas (John 20:23-29).

This text appears in nine or ten stanzas in some hymnals, but ours divides these stanzas into two separate hymns because the first part of the hymn tells the story of the scene at the tomb on Resurrection Sunday, while the second part tells the story of the disciples' response to the news from John 20:19-29. A refrain of jubilant alleluias opens and closes the hymn.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, c.1601-1602, 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610)

The opening voluntary is a set of variations on the 15th cenutry French tune for "O Sons and Daughters, Let us Sing. The tune name comes from the original Latin text which began "O filii et filiae, Rex coelestis."  The composer of these variations is Jean-François Dandrieu, who, though largely forgotten today, was regarded as one of the finest composers of harpsichord music of his time. He came from a well-to-do family and showed rare musical talent in his early childhood. Before the age of 5, he gave a harpsichord concert for Princess Palatine Elisabeth-Charlotte of Bavaria and other royalty. Both he and his sister Jeanne Françoise were pupils of composer and keyboard player Jean-Baptiste Moreau. 

In July 1705, Dandrieu was formally installed as organist at St. Merry Church in Paris. In addition to this enviable position, he got a more prestigious post in 1721 he was installed as one of the organists at the royal chapel. Twelve years later he added yet another organist post to the two he already held, when he succeeded his uncle Pierre Dandrieu as organist at St. Barthelemy, upon the latter's death in 1733. It is likely that the busy Dandrieu delegated some of his duties at St. Merry and St. Barthelemy to his sister.

It's in his first book of organ pieces (ironically published after his death) that we find these variations of the Easter hymn we are singing today.

Music for November 15, 2015 + The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost + The Kirking of the Tartans

Vocal Music

• Arise, My Soul, Arise – Dale Wood (1934-2003)
• Day by Day – Martin How (b. 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral – James D. Wetherald, arr., Stanley Fontinot, piper
• The Saints Delight – Dale Wood

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

• Hymn 51 - We the Lord’s people, heart and voice uniting (Decatur Place)
• Hymn 282 - Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (Caelites plaudant)
• Hymn 665 - All my hope on God is founded (Michael)
• Hymn 571 - All who love and serve your city (Charleston)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (New Britain)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (Shine Jesus Shine)

This Sunday is our annual "Kirking of the Tartans" service at Good Shepherd, a Sunday where we honor our Scottish heritage. (If you really get into history, you can read more about our annual tradition, as well as the beginnings of "Kirking" here.) As usual, we will have a piper here to play Highland Cathedral and Amazing Grace on the bagpipe.

Highland Cathedral is a popular melody for the great highland bagpipe, so it might surprise you that the melody was composed by German musicians Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb in 1982 for a Highland games held in Germany! It has become so popular in such a relatively short time that it has been proposed as the Scottish national anthem to replace unofficial anthems Scotland the Brave and/or Flower of Scotland.

The offertory anthem is by the renowned composer, organist, and choral director Dale Wood, who was best known for his church music compositions.  Wood's career as a composer was launched at the age of 13 when he became the winner of a national hymn-writing competition for the American Lutheran Church. His first choral anthem was accepted for publication one year later.

Dale Wood at his home, October 2002.
Photo courtesy Ivan de la Garza.

Wood has served as organist and choirmaster for Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California. Hymns and canticles composed by Dale Wood are found in every major hymnal except ours!

Wood's musical activities have not been limited to sacred music. While still a college student, he entertained as organist at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and appeared on television shows produced in Hollywood. In 1975, he was employed by the Royal Viking Line to entertain passengers on a 70-day cruise of the South Pacific and Orient.

Wood used the Finnish folk tune NYT YLÖS, SIELUNI as the basis for the anthem "Arise, My Soul, Arise," with text by Swedish writer Johan Kahl. The anthem was written in 1976 based on a Finnish folk tune. The sturdy tune is first sung in unison before being sung in canon on the second stanza. Wood's creative compositional style is evident in the accompaniment of this verse, which at first seems unrelated to the melodic material the choir sings, but up closer examination you realize that it is actually the original tune, but in augmentation, a compositional device where a melody is presented in longer note-values than were previously used. During the third line of that stanza, the whole choir sings the tune in augmentation, without accompaniment. The third stanza returns to the original rhythm and feel with an abrupt but strong ending.

The Good Shepherd Choir is joined by the St. Gregory Choir at the communion anthem, Day by Day, using a prayer ascribed to the 13th-century English bishop Saint Richard of Chichester as its text. The music was composed by Martin How, a British composer and organist. (He is the son of the late Most Revd J C H How, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church - another Scottish connection!)

Martin How

Born in Liverpool, where his father was Rector of St Nicholas Church. The family then moved to Brighton, where Martin's father was Vicar at St Peters Parish Church. The family then moved to Glasgow just before the second world war, and Martin spend most of his childhood there.

Trained in music at Repton School and Clare College, Cambridge, he was in the Army for two years before taking a post as Organist and Choirmaster at Grimsby Parish Church in Lincolnshire. But it was at the Royal School of Church Music where How spent most of his career, principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. 

Has traveled widely as a choral conductor, accompanist, lecturer and adjudicator. In this capacity he has worked in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Appointed MBE for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Year Honors List.