MAGNIFY THE LORD Music for December 11, 2022 + Advent III

Vocal Music

• How Lovely Are the Messengers – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Magnificat in G Major – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
• Of the Father’s love begotten – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)
• Once He Came in Blessing - John Leavitt (b. 1956)
• Blest Be the King Whose Coming – Alexandre Guilmant

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

• Hymn 76 On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn S 242 Canticle 15: The Song of Mary - Tonus Peregrinus
• Hymn 615 “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R278 Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 74 Blest be the King whose coming (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)

How Lovely Are the Messengers

How lovely are the messengers is a movement from St. Paul, the first oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, composed in 1836. In 1831 Mendelssohn was commissioned by Johann Schelble, conductor of the Cecilia Choir and Orchestra of Frankfurt, to compose an oratorio. Mendelssohn knew his Bible extremely well and invariably turned to it for inspiration when considering a new choral piece. 

The text of the oratorio is based very largely on the Acts of the Apostles. After a lengthy overture, Part I opens with the martyrdom of Stephen and Saul’s persecution of the Christians. This is followed by the conversion of Paul, his baptism and ordination as a minister by Ananias. Part II finds Paul and Barnabas becoming the ambassadors of the Church. Their duet is followed by one of the oratorio’s best-loved choruses, ‘How lovely are the messengers.' The text comes from Romans 10:15,18 (paraphrased)

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

During the austere post-war period there was a considerable reaction against Mendelssohn’s music. To what extent this was an after-effect of the rampant German anti-Semitism of the 1930s and 40s is difficult to determine, but the generally held view, particularly in some sections of the musical establishment, was that his life had been too easy and too comfortable, and that as a consequence his music, with its classical elegance and understated emotion, was superficial and distinctly inferior. Thankfully, in recent years there has been a more balanced attitude to Mendelssohn, avoiding both the excessive adulation which surrounded him during his lifetime and the equally absurd denigration that he suffered later.

Magnificat

The lectionary provides two options to be used for the psalm this Sunday. One is the usual Psalm, while the other is canticle The Magnificat, or The Song of Mary. The prelude this morning is three versets from an interpretation of Mary's Magnificat, composed by 19th-century French organist Alexandre Guilmant. These versets were probably composed to be played in alternatim with verses of the chant, as was typical in French churches. I am playing the first, third, and fifth variations, Allegro, Duo Pastorale, and Fugue. These organ miniatures are very baroque in their form and style, especially  the fugue

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was the organist of La Trinité  in Paris from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantorum de Paris. He was appointed as Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896.

Valet will ich

The closing voluntary is also a work by Guilmant. You know the tune because of its association with the text :"All glory laud and honor," which we sing on Palm Sunday, but the tune, VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN, was composed by Melchior Teschner in 1615 for "Valet will ich dir geben," Valerius Herberger's hymn for the dying. Here is the original text:

Valet will ich dir geben

Du arge, falsche Welt;

Dein sündlich böses Leben

Durchaus mir nicht gefällt.

Im Himmel ist gut wohnen,

Hinauf zieht mein Begier;

Da wird Gott herrlich lohnen

Dem, der ihm dient allhier.

I want to bid you farewell,

You evil, false world

Your sinful, wicked life

It is not all pleasing to me.

In heaven it is good to dwell,

My longing is set on what is above

There God will reward forever

The person who serve him here.

Since the tune is also used in our hymnal for Advent hymn 74, Blest be the King whose coming, which we are singing as our closing hymn, I will also use it as the closing voluntary.

Communion music

The two short organ voluntaries during communion are by two contemporary composers (both born in 1956) which are based on two hymns - first is the hymn Of the Father's Love Begotten, a doctrinal hymn based on the Latin poem "Corde natus" by the Fourth Century Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius, from his Liber Cathemerinon. It is generally considered more of a Christmas hymn (it is No. 82 in the Christmas section of our hymnal), but I wanted to play it because the second voluntary, a setting of the Advent hymn (no. 53) Once He came in blessing, includes the melody DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, the melody to Of the Father's love begotten, in the accompaniment to the tune GOTTES SOHN IST KOMMEN. 

Music for August 14, 2022 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – Samuel S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Instrumental Music

• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 647 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Chorale Prelude on “Houston” – Rebecca Groom Te Velde (b. 1956)
• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 642 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 366 Holy God we praise thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
• Hymn 635 If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 490 I want to walk as a child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R 291 Go forth for God (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18 – Tone IIa

Welcome Back, Choir!

The Good Shepherd Choir makes its return to our 10:15 service this Sunday, singing one of the best known excerpts from an anthem by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. This short passage from the larger work Praise the Lord, O My Soul is known as Lead Me, Lord.

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was born 212 years ago this very day, Aug. 14, in London. Known as a composer and organist, he was one of the most distinguished English church musicians of his time. The grandson of Charles Wesley and the natural son of Samuel Wesley (his father had left his first wife and started a new family with another woman - but that's a post for another time!), he was a chorister of the Chapel Royal and held posts in London and at Exeter cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester cathedral, and Gloucester cathedral. He was prominent as a conductor of the Three Choirs Festival and was professor of organ at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Wesley's father was enamored with the music of Bach. In fact, he helped introduce the music of J.S. Bach into England, playing his music and publishing the an English edition of Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier). He was so infatuated with the German musician that he named his son Sebastian in Bach's memory. So perhaps it is fitting that I am playing two pieces by J. Sebastian Bach alongside the music of S. Sebastian Wesley.

If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee

One of the first pieces I studied on the organ when in college was Bach's setting of the chorale Wer nur den lieben Gott, which is in our hymnal at hymn 635. (We will also sing it today.) This setting, which I am playing as the closing voluntary, is from Bach's collection Orgelbuchlein. The hymn is in AAB form, meaning that the first two lines of music are identical, while the last line uses new material. The same can be said of Bach's setting. The first line is repeated twice before ending the piece. In this chorale prelude, the unadorned cantus firmus is in the soprano voice. The two inner voices, often in thirds, are built on a motif made up of two short beats followed by a long beat—an anapaest — often used by Bach to signify joy. The pedal has a walking bass which also partly incorporates the joy motif in its responses to the inner voices. For Albert Schweitzer, the accompaniment symbolized "the joyful feeling of confidence in God's goodness."

The opening voluntary follows the same AAB formula. What makes this interesting is that this is basically Bach's arrangement of the central duet from his cantata based on this hymn, Cantata 93, which Bach composed in 1728.  Bach published this setting for organ, BWV 647, around 1748 as part of his Six Chorales of Various Kinds, commonly known as the Schubler Chorales. All six works for organ are based on cantatas. They provided an approachable version of Bach's cantatas through the more accessible medium of keyboard music, and the fact that Bach chose to edit these (while the rest of his cantatas remained largely unpublished during his lifetime), says something about the musical statement that they represented. 

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 June 14, 2020 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music:

• Simple Song from “Mass” – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• There Is a Spirit That Delights to Do No Evil – Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
• Intrada on “Abbot’s Leigh” – Rebecca Groom te Velde (b. 1956)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of hymn 780, which is from Wonder, Love and Praise, the supplement to the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 780 Lord, you give the great commission (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn S-280 - Glory to God in the highest - Robert Powell (b. 1932)

We continue this week using music with texts or tunes by Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz. Last week we heard his text set to his own music (When You Believe, from Prince of Egypt). This week we hear his set to music by Leonard Bernstein. The song is Simple Song, from Bernstein's Mass.

Bernstein with the 23-year old Schwartz

Stephen Schwartz was only 23 years old when he was approached to write the lyrics for Mass. He had just finished Godspell, and had acquired an agent, Shirley Bernstein, who was the older sister of Leonard Bernstein. When Bernstein wanted a lyricist for his Mass, Shirley brought the two men together. Stephen and Lenny became personal friends, closing the circle that began when Schwartz heard Candide on WQXR as a schoolboy.

“He had a commission to do a piece for the opening of the Kennedy Center in September of 1971, and it was May, and he was getting increasingly desperate. It was a mammoth, major, gigantic piece and Lenny had nothing done. There were all these little shreds and starts of pieces, and two lines here, and a bit of a tune there, and three months to go to do a piece with 200 singers and dancers. Needless to say, Lenny was relatively panicky at that point. I wrote lyrics to music that he had, and reworked lyrics that he had written.” (1)

Some of the words haven’t aged well — phrases like “I’m so freaky-minded” — while others are clever, like “They can fashion a rebuttal that’s as subtle as a sword / But they’re never gonna scuttle the Word of the Lord.” But the text for Simple Song is timeless, for parts come straight from the Psalms of the Hebrew Testament:

I will sing the Lord a new song
To praise Him, to bless Him, to bless the Lord.
I will sing His praises while I live
All of my days.

Blessed is the man who loves the Lord,
Blessed is the man who praises Him.
Lauda, Lauda, Laudē
And walks in His ways.

I will lift up my eyes
To the hills from whence comes my help
I will lift up my voice to the Lord
Singing Lauda, Laudē.

For the Lord is my shade,
Is the shade upon my right hand
And the sun shall not smite me by day
Nor the moon by night

I wrote more on this fascinating work two years ago, when it was sung during one of our services, and you can read that here.

The organ opening voluntary is also another stunningly simple (at first glance) musical work. Ned Rorem, the American composer, wrote an large scale organ work called A Quaker Reader. Rorem, who was raised a Quaker, wrote organ works based on lines from the works of various Quaker writers. This work, "There is a Spirit Who Delights to Do No Evil," comes from the writings of James Nayler, an English Quaker leader from the 17th century who was part of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries who preached against enclosure and the slave trade.

There is a Spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatsoever is of nature contrary to itself; it sees to the end of all temptations. As it bears no evil in itself so it conceives none in thoughts to any other. If it be betrayed it bears it,b for its ground and spring is the mercies and forgiveness of God. (2)

Rebecca Te Velde

The wistful melody is first heard with simple chords as accompaniment. After a key change, it is heard in canon, with the left hand echoing the tune. Another key change, and the pedal part is added, ascending almost to the top of the pedal board.

The closing voluntary is a brief "intrada" (introduction) to the hymn-tune "Abbot's Leigh" which is used as our hymn of the day. It is arranged by Rebecca Groom Te Velde, a third generation professional organist who serves 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 where her husband, John, is associate professor of German.

1. https://theculturalcritic.com/stephen-schwartz-at-mid-career/, accessed June 11, 2020.
2. Several Papers of Confessions, Prayer, and Praise; by James Nayler, London, 1659.