Music for May 21, 2023 + Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shepherd (1949 – 2021)
• I Will Not Leave You Comfortless – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père – Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Sonata in G Major: Adagio – Josef Hector Fiocco (1703-1741)
• Prelude on "Deo Gracias" – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

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

• Hymn 494 Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 215 See the Conqueror mounts in triumph (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 450 All hail the power of Jesus’ name! (CORONATION)
• Hymn R37 Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! sing to Jesus! (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 68 – tone VIIc

Ascension Day commemorates the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Happening 40 days after Easter, on a Thursday, it is one of the ecumenical feasts of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of Easter and Pentecost.

We don't hold a separate service on Ascension Day, but we do acknowledge it on the Sunday after the Ascension with hymns and readings. The first reading from Acts is the story of Christ's departure. 

Prière du Christ montant vers son Père

Olivier Messiaen

French-Belgian composer Olivier Messiaen wrote an orchestral suite called L'Ascension in 1932-1933. The composer described the work as Four Symphonic Meditations and the sections are; 1) Majesty of Christ praying that His Father should glorify Him, 2) Serene Alleluias from a soul longing for Heaven, 3) Alleluia on the Trumpet, Alleluia on the Cymbal, and 4) Prayer of Christ ascending towards His Father. Messiaen arranged the suite for solo organ a year later. 

Our opening voluntary is that last movement, Prayer of Christ ascending to the Father. The subtitle is the words found in today's Gospel reading:

I have manifested Thy name unto men… And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. - John 17:6, 11

Messiaen is known for his unique composition style. Incorporating complex rhythms, harmony and melodies, Prière du Christ montant vers son Père is no exception to the composer's popular, distinctive style.  The extremely languorous tempo of the movement sustains the intense religious character of this work.

The Seven Joys of Mary

The Seven Joys of Mary is a traditional carol that tells of Mary’s joy at different points in Jesus’s life, probably inspired by the trope of the Seven Joys of the Virgin in the devotional literature and art of Medieval Europe. Though oft now heard in Lessons and Carol Services in December, it was not traditionally associated with the Christmas season. 

I chose to schedule it on this day because it ends with this stanza:

The next good joy that Mary had,

It was the joy of seven;

To see her own son, Jesus Christ

To wear the crown of heaven:

We believe Jesus now reigns in heaven, "that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with [God] and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting." (Collect for Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day, BCP p. 226)

I Will Not Leave You Comfortless.

This short motet from the pen of American organist, composer, and church musician Everett Titcomb.

His music was very popular within the Anglican church, particularly the Episcopal Church, in the first half of the 20th century.

A product of New England, Titcomb's association with church music and the Anglican faith began as a child. Although his family was associated with the Unitarians, Everett was brought into the Episcopal church very early. Through the pervasive influence of a neighbor, he joined the boy choir of St. James' Episcopal Church in Amesbury at the age of nine. Singing in the boy choir was a part of his musical education until a changing voice led him in a new direction, playing the organ for Sunday School.

By the time he was fourteen, he had become parish organist at St. James'.

After high school he began working at at the Church of the Messiah in Auburndale, a suburb of Boston. After seven years in Auburndale, Titcomb knew he needed a change and by the fall of 1909 he had

accepted an appointment at Christ Church, Andover, Massachusetts. He moved to a new apartment which was also near  the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boston, and in 1910 he was hired as organist-choir master at the church. Titcomb would serve this parish for fifty years, and this little church would become within two decades a leader in the United States in the revival of plainsong and of Renaissance polyphony.

The motet is an ABA form and opens quietly with the tenor section chanting the theme that is immediately taken up by the rest of the choir entering on a G minor chord to establish the key. The first section is set in a syllabic, chordal style while the florid B section consist of an imitative setting of the word “alleluia.” This florid style is typical for hallelujahs going back to the medieval plain chant settings. The Basses sing the plain chant tune Veni Creator Spiritus while the rest of the choir sings alleluias.

Everett Titcomb

I will not leave you comfortless made Titcomb well known in Anglican circles of the English-speaking world. The motet was chosen for performance at the Crystal Palace in London at the annual choir festival in 1936, where it was sung by a choir of 4000 members. The event marked the first time that a work by an American composer had been chosen for one of those festivals. 

Interesting note: Messiaen's Prière du Christ montant vers son Père and Titcomb's I Will Not Leave You were both written within two years of each other, but while Messiaen pushes the norms of harmony, rhythm and form, Titcomb reaches back to the music of the Renaissance. Both are still very much a part of sacred repertoire today.

Music for May 28, 2017 + The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• Let Us With a Gladsome Mind – Alan Ridout (1934-1996)
• I will not leave you comfortless – Everett Titcomb (1884-1968)

Instrumental Music

• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père ("Prayer of Christ ascending towards his Father") - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song – James Biery (
• Toccata in G - Théodore Dubois (1837 –1924)

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

• Hymn 494 - Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn R37 - Glorify Your Name (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 214, omit st. 3 - Hail the day that sees him rise (LLANFAIR)
• Hymn 315 - Thou, who at thy first Eucharist didst pray (SONG 1)
• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus! (HYFRYDOL) 
• Psalm 68:1-10, 33-26 Exsurgat Deus – Tone VII

Everett Titcomb was an American composer of sacred choral and organ music who contributed a vast amount of works for the Episcopal Church in the first half of the twentieth-century.  A native of Massachusetts, he was largely self-taught, though he was influenced by many of the well-known composers stationed in the Boston area during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Eugene Thayer, Dudley Buck, George Chadwick, and Horatio Parker; yet at the same time he was keenly interested in plainchant and the polyphonic style of the 15th and 16th century Italians. For fifty years, Titcomb served the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boston as their organist and choirmaster.

His motet for Pentecost, I Will Not Leave You Comfortless (1934) reflects his interest in Renaissance polyphony. It begins with a broad, unfolding line and emphasizes the Veni, creator chant (Come, Holy Spirit) which forms a cantus firmus in the bass voice in the Alleluia section. This motet is among his best work, and one which has remained a part of sacred and university choral repertoire into the 21st Century. It is significant for its selection to be in the official program of the 1936 English Church Music Festival in London where it was performed by 4000 voices with Titcomb in attendance. It was the first time an American composer had been featured in the festival. Subsequently, it was made famous in the United States by its inclusion in several coast-to-coast radio broadcasts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In many ways, it launched his career as an internationally recognized composer of sacred music. (1)

The opening voluntary is the last movement of a suite written for Ascension Day by the French composer Olivier Messiaen which he arranged from his orchestral suite L'ascension. This movement is titled "Prière du Christ montant vers son Père", ("Prayer of Christ ascending to his Father"), and is accompanied by this quotation from this week's Gospel, John 17:6, 11.

I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world... And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

This piece represents the actual ascent of Christ, wafting slowly up into the heavens, into the light of the Father, with movement beginning in the bottom register of the organ and rising to the top.
Christ's ascension is extremely slow, solemn, and full of emotion. It is written for the tender sound of the string stops on the organ. As the piece begins, it is a little sad,  but comforting. It is the sadness of those left behind who have hope that they will again see their loved one.

From the middle of the piece onward, a marvelous transformation of emotion takes place - from the sadness of the beginning to an inner confirmation of profound faith - and, as we reach the end, which continues to crescendo, the light that radiates from heaven floods the observers of this miraculous ascension with hope and love. The end is ecstatic. When we reach that point (that is, when we can no longer hear any music), we are left with the feeling that Christ's journey through the firmament continues that he is so far away that we, still here on earth, are no longer able to observe his ascent. (2)

(1)  Online diary of William Harris (March 14, 2013) retrieved from http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/3/14/1194153/-Thursday-Classical-Music-Op-C109-Everett-Titcomb
(2) Gillock, Jon, Performing Messiaen's Organ Works: 66 Masterclasses. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2009, pp 47 

Music for May 17, 2015 + The Seventh Sunday after Easter and The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• Blessed is the Man – Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• O Taste and See - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Danket dem Herren (Thank the Lord) - Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père ("Prayer of Christ ascending towards his Father") - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Hyfrdol - Ralph Vaughan Williams

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 494 Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 314 Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

Known primarily for his symphonies, concertos and ballets, Pytor Tchaikovsky was also deeply interested in the music and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Though his sacred output was not large, it still included A Hymn to the Trinity (1877), the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (1878), an All-Night Vigil (1881), and 9 Sacred Pieces (1884–85). He published a book in 1875, A Short Course of Harmony adapted for the Study of Russian Church Music.

Interestingly, the anthem the choir sings today is not from one of his sacred works, but is an arrangement from his piano work Album for the Young, Op.39, subtitled "24 simple pieces à la Schumann". It is a cycle of piano pieces composed between May and July 1878, and No. 24., In Church, is the source for our anthem.  As a prelude to this short anthem, I will play the first number from that volume called Morning Prayers.

Olivier Messiaen in March, 1952.
He looks a LOT like my Aunt Bonnie.

Some composers labor for years before finding their own voice. But Olivier Messiaen, even in his earliest works, sounds like Messiaen and no one else. In his work L’Ascension, we see (or hear) Messiaen’s language emerge before our very eyes as passages influenced by his early models — chiefly Debussy and Stravinsky — begin to evolve in entirely new directions. One bedrock of Messiaen’s music was the composer’s Catholic faith, which is behind every note he composed.

Messiaen was only 25 when he completed L’Ascension. He had graduated from the Paris Conservatoire just three years earlier. Since 1931, he had been the organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Written for orchestra (he rewrote it for the organ a year later in 1933), it was his reflections on the Feast of the Ascension. Here, Christ’s reunion with His Father gives cause for joy, but also for the contemplation of a deep mystery. Messiaen prefaced each movement with a quote from the Bible or the Catholic liturgy to set the tone.

I will be playing movement four during communion today. Messiaen assigned this saying of Jesus to 4. Prayer of Christ Ascending to His Father.

Father . . . I have revealed Your name to humanity. . . . Now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you (John 17: 1, 6, and 11). 

The tempo is slow (Extrêment Lent – extrememly slow – is the tempo marking); the texture is homophonic, and the harmonies iridescent and otherworldly. The music climbs higher and higher (in keeping with the idea of Ascension) and ends on a resplendent dominant-seventh chord. According to Western musical conventions, this chord would call for resolution, but in this context, the lack of resolution is a perfect ending point for this quite extraordinary set of harmonies.

The opening voluntary is a short setting of an old Lutheran hymn which, loosely translated, is Thank the Lord. That’s the way I feel with summer quickly approaching. The closing voluntary is one of three works that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote for the organ. It is based on the closing hymn tune today.

• All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  (CORONATION) It is interesting that those who express the most eloquent praise are often the people we would deem the least likely to have the ability. Yet David, the adulterating, murdering, lying king of Israel wrote a good deal of the Psalms, which we still use today as our guide for worship. In the same way, all accounts show Rev. Edward Perronet (1721-1792) to be a sharp-tongued, difficult personality, who would rather pick a fight over theology than display brotherly love.  This one has been published in over 2,760 hymnals!
• Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) Composed in 1868 for this text by Matthew Bridges, George J. Elvey named the tune DIADEMATA. “Diademata” is Latin, basically meaning “wearing a crown.” Almost 150 years later, this sturdy, rousing tune is still thouroughly connected to this text.  
• Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) One of the oldest hymns in our hymnal, it is part of a larger hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas. We may not get to sing it this Sunday, due to the length of the communion voluntary.
• Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL) One of the favorite hymns of the Episcopal Church, it combines the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL with a text by William Chatterton Dix, who also wrote the words for As with Gladness Men of Old and What Child Is This? The second stanza is often left out, but we will sing it today, as we remember the ascension of Christ.