Music for August 26, 2018 + Rally Day

Vocal Music

• Jubilate Deo – Dale Wood (1934-2003)

Instrumental Music

• A Joyous Peal – Michael Bedford (b. 1949), Handbell Ensemble
• Lord, enthroned in Heavenly Splendor – Larry Shackley (b. 1956)
• Serenade for Organ - Derek Bourgeois (1941-2017)

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

• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 548 - Soldiers of Christ, arise (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn R195 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn R218 - Broken for me (Janet Lunt)
• Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
• Psalm 34:15-22 – Tone VIIIa

We welcome the Good Shepherd Choir back to the loft this Sunday after their summer break. The choir celebrates Rally Day with the upbeat setting of a paraphrase of Psalm 100, Jubilate Deo, by the American composer Dale Wood. Wood was a highly respected composer of sacred music during the 20th century, with over 8 million copies of his music published in America and abroad. He was also an active organist-choirmaster, working in Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California.

Michael Bedford

A small ensemble from the Handbell Choir will be playing the opening voluntary. A Joyous Peal is by my friend Michael Bedford, Organist/Choirmaster Emeritus of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tulsa, where he served for over 25 years before retiring in 2015. He is now serving as national president of the American Guild of Organists. He has earned the BMus, BMusEd, and MMus degrees from Texas Christian University, and, in 1972-73, he studied organ with Michael Schneider at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne, Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1998 he earned the DMA degree in organ performance from the University of North Texas.

A peal is a loud ringing of a bell or bells. Often it implies a repetitive pattern of bells. This piece builds on a repeated motif, adding layers and notes as it progresses.

The British Isles have provided us with some simple and often haunting folk melodies. Many of these tunes have been matched with hymn texts and become a treasured part of our hymnody. This is true with the tune SLANE which we sang last week to the words "Be thou my vision." On the other hand, composers such as the Welshman William Owens wrote original tunes which are so close to their "folk" roots that it's easy to assume they are traditional melodies. Such is the case of Owen's tune BRYN CALFARIA which we have been learning this month. Ralph Vaughan Williams, editor of The English Hymnal (1906) first paired this tune with the text "Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor," a pairing that has perdured the test of time. Larry Shackley, a free-lance composer from Columbia, South Carolina, has written a lovely piano meditation on BRYN CALFARIA that I'll be playing at communion.

Larry Shackley

A native of Chicago, Shackley attended Eastman School of Music (M.M) and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A). He has had a varied career, from teaching at Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, to working at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, creating original music and producing radio programs for the Moody Broadcasting Network, to composing for over 30 films, videotapes, and radio dramas. He has also served churches such as Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois as well as several churches in South Carolina. Shackley is also an active studio musician, arranger, and orchestrator. Recently, he has devoted most of his composing to music for the church, writing over 450 keyboard arrangements and 250 choral pieces for a variety of publishers.

The closing voluntary is a fun piece by the English composer Derek Bourgeois. Bourgeois was born in Dulwich, South London, England, studied music at Cambridge, and lectured in music at Bristol University for some years before becoming Director of the National Youth Orchestra. As a composer his energy was directed into major forms such as the symphony, oratorio and sonata, but he also has time for a joke in the true Haydn tradition and a sense of joie de vivre. His less 'serious' works include a 'Wine' Symphony, a Cantata Gastronomica, and this work for organ.

Derek Bougeouis

Bourgeois wrote this Serenade for his own wedding, to be played by the organist as the Bridal party left the ceremony. Not wishing to allow them the luxury of proceeding in an orderly 2/4, the composer wrote the work in 11/8, and in case anyone felt too comfortable, he changed it to 13/8 in the middle! "As the number of beats in a bar becomes increasingly odd, the listener is left wondering whether the music was designed to amuse the composer's musical bride as she walked up the aisle, or confuse his eminent Director of Studies who was in the congregation. Certainly he would have been able to unravel a hint or two of a famous Bolero from the music." [1]
This piece has become very popular with brass bands.

[1] Ian Carson, liner notes to "Organ Fireworks, Vol. 2, Christopher Herrick," Hyperion, CDA66258, CD © 1988

Music for October 18, 2015 + Choir Dedication Sunday + The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Jubilate Deo – Michael Bedford (b. 1949)
• Oh, Sing to the Lord a New Song – John Leavitt (b. 1956)
• Bless, O Lord, Us Thy Servants – John Harper (b. 1947)

Instrumental Music

• Andantino – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Fugue in C Major, BWV 846 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Scherzo – Alan Ridout (1934-1996)

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

• Hymn 420 - When in our music God is glorified (ENGLEBERG)
• Hymn R 112 - You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (ON EAGLES WINGS)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn R 289 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)

Sunday, October 18 has been designated as Music Sunday by RSCM America. RSCM America is the branch of the Royal School of Church Music in the United States, whose goal is to uplift the spiritual life of religious communities through high quality choral music. On this day, we celebrate the music and musicianship that are a vital and beloved part of church life. On this day we will dedicate new choristers into our choir and reaffirm the ministries of those who have already been singing in the choir. Music Sunday is also a time when we offer a special prayer for our music and musicians--the young and old, professional and amateur, singer and instrumentalist, administrator and practitioner--most of whom work without expectation of recognition but who nonetheless deserve our awareness and thanks.

One of the anthems we will sing is a setting of The Chorister's Prayer.

Bless, O Lord, us Thy servants,
who minister in Thy temple.
Grant that what we sing with our lips,
we may believe in our hearts,
and what we believe in our hearts,
we may show forth in our lives.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Chorister's Prayer in its most common form was first published by the School of English Church Music (as the RSCM was then called) in 1934 in the Choristers' Pocket Book. It has origins which extend back at least to the 4th century, for the tenth canon of the fourth council of Carthage (c 398 AD) decrees that cantors should be blessed with the words Vide, ut quod ore cantas, corde credas, et quod corde credis, operibus comprobes (“See that what thou singest with thy lips thou dost believe in thine heart, and that what thou believest in thine heart thou dost show forth in thy works”)

John Harper

This prayer is used each week at the beginning of our Children's Choirs. We who pray these words weekly carry on a tradition of many centuries and hopefully we both ‘steadfastly fulfil’ and also ‘show forth’ the tenets of our faith in our lives and music.

John Harper composed this setting of The Chorister's Prayer for the 80th anniversary of the RSCM. It was sung at St Paul's Cathedral, London on Easter Monday 2007, to mark the beginning of the RSCM's 80th anniversary celebrations. Harper is RSCM Research Professor of Music and Liturgy, and Director of the new International Centre for Sacred Music Studies (ICSMuS) at Bangor University in Wales. He is Emeritus Director of The Royal School of Church Music.

John Leavitt

The other anthem the Good Shepherd sings this day is a contemporary setting of Psalm 96 with a rippling piano accompaniment with violin obbligato. It is by the American composer, choral director and teacher John Leavitt. A native of Kansas, Dr. Leavitt received the Kansas Artist Fellowship Award from the Kansas Arts in 2003 and in 2010 he was the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces to commission a new choral work in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the State of Kansas.  His music has been performed in 30 countries across the globe and his recordings have been featured nationally on many public radio stations. His compositions are represented by nearly every major music publisher in this country. In addition to his academic posts, he has served Lutheran churches in the Wichita area.

The St. Gregory Choir will sing an anthem by the Oklahoma composer and church music Michael Bedford. Bedford retired last year from St. John's Episcopal Church in Tulsa after a twenty-five year tenure as director of music and organist. This anthem, Jubilate Deo, is a setting of Psalm 100 in both Latin and in contemporary English.