Music for January 23, 2022 + The Third Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Whose Glory – Rachel Aarons (b. 1984)

Instrumental Music

• Psalm XIX: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)
• In Viam Pacis – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Intrada on “Abbot’s Leigh” – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)

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

• Hymn 475 - God himself is with us (TYSK)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 632 - O Christ, the Word Incarnate (MUNICH)
• Hymn R-226 - Ubi Caritas (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 539 - O Zion, haste (TIDINGS)
• Psalm 19 – Tone Va

This Sunday is a bit unusual in that of all the composers featured, only one is a dead white guy, and 50% of the composers are women!

Rachel Aarons

Let me start with telling you about the anthem. The familiar hymn Christ, whose glory fills the skies (no. 7 in our hymnal) has been given a new tune by Virginia composer Rachel Aarons. A native of Laramie, Wyoming, Aarons has played piano since the age of four. While in college, she studied piano, voice, and composition while pursuing a B.A. in French Language and Literature. Aarons composes for her church choir where she is happy to be a "Back Row Alto." She lives in Virginia with her husband, and her two dogs, and stays busy as a real estate agent.

In this setting, there are actually two different tunes. The first verse, sung by the trebles, is set to a jaunty tune in 6/8 time, one that would be easy to skip to. Verse two is totally different, in a restrained 4/4 meter, sung by the men. Then on the final stanza, the original tune reappears, this time in canon between the trebles and the basses. It is a refreshing take on these old words.

Rebecca Groom
te Velde

The other work by a female composer is the closing voluntary by Rebecca Groom te Velde. She is a third-generation professional organist, following both parents and her grandfather. She graduated summa cum laude from Seattle Pacific University where she studied organ and composition with her father, Lester H. Groom. In 1982, she received the M.Mus in organ literature and performance from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. For the academic year 1980-81 she received a full grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study with Michael Schneider at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. In 1991 she assumed her present position as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, OK. She is an active performer, composer, clinician, and adjunct instructor of music at Oklahoma State University.

te Velde has published several collections of works based on hymn tunes, including this "Intrada" or introduction to the tune ABBOT'S LEIGH (which we sing with the words "God is here, and we his people," "Lord, you give the great commission," and "God is Love, let heaven adore him," which we will sing at 10:15 next week.

Music for February 7, 2021 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies - Rachel Aarons (b. 1984) 
• One Thing I Ask of the Lord – Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
• Hymn – O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)

Instrumental Music

• Six Short Preludes and Intermezzos for Organ – Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984) 

VI. Poco Vivace
V. Andantino
IV. Allegretto
III. Allegro moderato
II. Andante Sostenuto
I. Maestoso

• Prelude in C, BWV 533 – attr. To J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

February is Black History Month, so I want to highlight the black composers who contribute so much to our worship life, not just in February, but all year long.

Take, for instance, the Sanctus and Fraction anthem which we have been singing since Christmas. As familiar as this music is to most of us, you may not know that it is written by an Black American Episcopal Musician. David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of awards, prizes, honors, and achievements, and immeasurable expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition.

From 1976 until 2015, David Hurd was a faculty member at The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City, first as Director of Chapel Music and later also as Professor of Church Music and Organist. He is the composer of dozens of hymns, choral works, settings of the liturgy, and organ works published by a number of major houses. He was one of the major contributors of new hymnody and liturgical settings for the Episcopal Church’s Hymnal 1982 and his music is seen in hymnals and choir libraries in churches of all religious denominations. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award. From 1998-2013 he was Music Director and Organist at Church of the Holy Apostles (Episcopal) in New York City. Dr. Hurd is now Organist/Choirmaster of the famed Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Times Square.

As a concert organist David Hurd enjoys instant recognition both at home and abroad. Since winning both first prizes (in performance and improvisation) of the 1977 International Congress of Organists, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, has been a featured artist at numerous national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists. 

He studied both at the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School and at Manhattan’s High School of Music and Art. Later he attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating with a music degree in 1971, and went on for further study at the University of North Carolina and, back in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers have included Bronson Ragan, Garth Peacock, Arthur Poister, and Rudolph Kremer.

The offertory anthem this Sunday is a setting of the hymn, Christ, whose glory fills the skies, written by the Wyoming native, Rachel Aarons. While in college, she studied piano, voice, and composition while pursuing a B.A. in French Language and Literature. Rachel composes for her church choir where she is happy to be a Back Row Alto. She lives in Virginia with her husband, and her two dogs, and stays busy as a real estate agent. 

She has written a new melody for the familiar lyrics - well, two melodies, actually. The first stanza is in a lilting, 6/8 meter, with a sparkling accompaniment. Stanza two is more subdued, in common 4/4 time (befitting the words, "dark and cheerless is the morn, unaccompanied by Thee." Stanza three sees the return of the first melody, this time in canon, with the tenor echoing the soprano. 

During communion we hear a setting of Psalm 27:4-5 from the Kleine geistliche Konzerte (1636) of the early baroque composer Heinrich Schutz. Eins bitte ich vom Herren (One thing I ask of the Lord) is for two equal voices, characterized by elegant vocal writing and wonderful harmonic movement which Schutz is known for.

Schütz was a German Lutheran composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before J.S. Bach, and, along with Monteverdi, often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century.

The opening voluntary is a collection of short pieces by German composer and a Catholic church musician Hermann Schroeder. His music is characterized by quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing similar to that of Paul Hindemith. This collect was not meant to be played as a suite, but as individual pieces, which is why I am NOT playing them in the order in which they are written. I'm starting at the BACK of the book, working my way toward the front!