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 April 11th, 2021 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Doubting Thomas – arr. Mark Schweitzer (1956-2019)
• His Most Holy Lyfe – Carlton T. Russell (b. 1938)

Instrumental Music

• Rondeau: O Filii et Filiae - Jean-François Dandrieu (1682-1739)
• Prelude in Classic Style – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked * which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 490 - I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn 209 - We walk by faith and not by sight (ST. AGNES)
• Canticle -  *Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Psalm 33 - (Jerome W. Meachen)

The second Sunday of Easter is one of my favorite Sundays, because it focuses on the Apostle Thomas’ all-to-real reaction to hearing that Jesus was not dead, but alive. I can relate, because I, too, feel like I would want proof to such an outrageous claim.

The hymn and tune “O sons and daughters, let us sing,” or O FILII ET FILIAE, tells the story of the events just after Jesus’ resurrection: the women finding an empty tomb, the confusion and fear amongst the disciples, and Jesus’ appearance to Thomas and the other disciples. The Hymnal 1982 divides the original 12 stanzas between two hymns, both sung to the same tune: Hymn 203 which focuses on the women at the tomb, and Hymn 206, which focuses on Thomas’ doubts. It is this hymn Mark Schweitzer has arranged for choir and that we use for the anthem today. 

The opening voluntary today is also based on O FILII ET FILIAE, a set of variations by French Baroque composer Jean-François Dandrieu. These were actually drawn from a set of variations by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu, a Parisian priest and musician who lived from 1664 to 1733. Jean-François would revise and enlarge his uncle's volume of organ noëls, which was first published by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu in 1714 (rev. in the 1720s). Jean-François's book was published posthumously by sister, Jeanne-Françoise, in 1759.  This sounds like a musical soap-opera plot.

The communion motet is a setting of a prayer (collect) which Thomas Cranmer wrote for the first Book of Common Prayer (1549). Although the vast majority of the collects of Archbishop Cranmer are based on Latin originals, this one is among the few that were newly composed for the Prayer Book. It was originally the collect for the Second Sunday after Easter.

The composer of the motet is the Rev. Carlton T. Russell,  Professor of Music and College Organist, Emeritus at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he taught for 41 years. In 2006, after retiring to Maine, he and his wife Lorna S. Russell, also an organist, became ministers of music at St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church in Blue Hill. An Episcopal priest, Dr. Russell holds degrees from Amherst College, Princeton University, and The Episcopal Divinity School, and the Choirmaster (Ch.M.) certificate of The American Guild of Organists. 

Here is the text of that collect:

Almighty God, who hast given
thy only Son to be unto us
both a sacrifice for sin,
and also an example of godly life;
Give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
that his inestimable benefit,
and also daily endeavor ourselves
to follow the blessed steps
of his most holy life. Amen