Music for May 14, 2023 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Rogation Sunday)

Vocal Music

• Jesus Christ the Apple Tree – Sondra Tucker (b. 1957)
• Heidi Aulbach, flute
• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Instrumental Music

• Grazioso – Arnold B. Sherman (b. 1948)
• We Plow the Fields and Scatter – arr. Thomas Keesecker (b. 1956)
• Toccata – John Weaver (1937-2021)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 398 - I sing the almighty power of God (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn 455 - O Love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 288 - Praise to God, Immortal praise (DIX)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Psalm 66 - setting by Richard Proulx

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

Today is Rogation Sunday on our liturgical calendar. The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning “to ask”, which reflects the beseeching of God for protection from calamities. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it: “Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God's blessing on agriculture and industry.” 

They originated in Vienne, France, in the fifth century when Bishop Mamertus introduced days of fasting and prayer to ward off a threatened disaster. In England they were associated with the blessing of the fields at planting. The vicar “beat the bounds” of the parish, processing around the fields reciting psalms and the litany. In the United States they have been associated with rural life and with agriculture and fishing. The propers in the BCP (pp. 207-208, 258-259, 930) have widened their scope to include commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation. (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/rogation-days/)

For this reason, I have chosen a couple of hymns which talk about the wonders of Creation, an instrumental piece based on a good hymn for Rogation Sunday, and this anthem by my good friend, Sondra Tucker.

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (also known as Apple Tree and, in its early publications, as Christ Compared to an Apple-tree) is a poem written in the 18th century. The first known publication, beginning The Tree of Life My Soul Hath Seen, was in London's Spiritual Magazine in August, 1761. This credits "R.H." as the submitter and presumed author. R.H. has been shown most likely to refer to Rev. Richard Hutchins, a Calvinist Baptist clergyman in Northamptonshire.

It has been set to music by a number of composers, most famously Elizabeth Poston and John Rutter. Sondra has set the words to an Scottish folk tune, O Waly, Waly. A flowing piano accompaniment and a lyrical flute part join together with the choir to make this an instant favorite among our choir.

The friendship between Sondra and me goes back over 26 years ago when we were both in Memphis. After I moved to Houston, her husband, Roger, got transferred to Houston, where they lived for many years. She was organist/choirmaster at Ascension Episcopal on the West side of Houston when Roger was transferred back to Memphis. Just this past week she described the horror and sadness when, in 2017, she saw on TV their neighborhood and former church under water from the flooding from Hurricane Harvey. She wrote this anthem for her former choir and their director, and it was published in 2022.

If Ye Love Me

Thomas Tallis was one of the greatest composers of Early English Music.  Most of his music was written for the church, which, at that time, did not use instrumental music, so almost all of his music is for singing without instruments. He composed music for all the Tudor kings and queens, except Henry VII (so he composed for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I). This can’t have been easy because different Tudor kings and queens had very different ideas about what church music should be like!

During the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553) it was mandated that the services be sung in English, and that the choral music be brief and succinct "to each syllable a plain and distinct note." If Ye Love Me is the classic example of these new English anthems: mainly homophonic, but with brief moments of imitation. Like many early Anglican anthems, it is cast in ABB form, the second section repeated twice.

Grazioso

The Handbell piece at communion is a beautiful work written in memory of Norma Taubert Brown, a handbell ringer, who died of cancer in 1988. The music tells the story of Norma's life, her struggle with illness, and her ultimate journey to heaven.  Each section of the music reflects this journey.

It was commissioned by Area 10 of the Handbell Musicians of America right after Norma had been in Seattle to share the podium with Arnold Sherman, the composer of Grazioso. She was ill at that time but wanted to keep her commitment to conduct at the Greater Puget Sound Festival. When she was not conducting, she would lay on a couch  that had been moved into the gym. When it  was her turn to conduct, she  seemed to have extra strength to ascend the podium,  conduct her rehearsal as if she were in perfect health and then return to the couch after she had finished.  She passed away two weeks later.

Arnold Sherman is director of Music and Fine Arts at Pollard United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas as well as a free-lance composer and co-founder of Red River Music. His undergraduate work in music education was done at Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland, and Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Arnold was the founder and Director of the East Texas Handbell Ensemble. A clinician and guest conductor, he has led choral and handbell workshops, festivals, and reading sessions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Japan and the Bahamas. Arnold has over four hundred choral and handbell pieces in print and has been an active member of the AGEHR where he has served as Area IX Chairman.

We Plow the Fields and Scatter

This setting of the hymn found in our hymnal (hymn 291), whose text affirms that, while we need to plow the land and sow the seed, it is God who provides the increase; he sends the rain and the sunshine to produce a harvest. God also sustains his creation, for "all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above." Thus praise bursts from our "humble, thankful hearts." It is a perfect hymn for Rogation Sunday.

This arrangement, by the American composer Thomas Keesecker, combines the tune in our hymnal with a Scottish Air. I am unaware if this folk tune is used as an alternate tune for the text, but it's still beautiful. So, there you have it!

Toccata

The closing voluntary is a toccata by the New York organist John Weaver, another giant among the organ world. For 35 years he was organist and director of music at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, while simultaneously serving on as Head of the Organ Department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1972-2003), and Chair of the Organ Department at The Juilliard School (1987-2004). His students perform and teach all over the world. Ken Cowan, organist at Rice University (and Palmer Memorial Episcopal) is a former student of his.

This Toccata was written by him in 1954, when he was 17. 

SWINGING SAINTS! Music for November 6, 2022 + All Saints (Observed)

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints – Joel Martinson, arr. (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Morning Canticle – Sondra Tucker (b. 1957)
• How Can I Keep from Singing – Sondra Tucker, arr.
• Sine Nomine – John Weaver (1937-2021)

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

• Hymn 287 For all the saints, who from their labors rest (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 286 Who are these like stars appearing? (ZEUCH MICH, ZEUCH MICH)
• Hymn 618 Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LAAST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R127 Blessed are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 625 Ye holy angels bright (DARWALL’S 148TH)

It's not your usual Sunday  (musically) at Good Shepherd. First, its the Sunday we observe All Saints Day (which is on November 1st).  We remember those who have died and have "gone before," as they say. We usually use music by the "saints" of church music, (read "dead, white men") but today we also offer choral and instrumental music by a living white man AND a woman. We can feel the earth shake even as we write this. Read on.

By All Your Saints

For the offering, the choir will sing an setting of hymn 231, a poem by Horatio Nelson (a British politician and relative of the famous Naval hero Lord Nelson) set to a Finnish folk tune, NYLAND. It is arranged by Joel Martinson, director of Music Ministries and Organist at The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas.

Morning Canticle and How Can I Keep From Singing    

These two handbell pieces, played by our Good Shepherd Bell Choir, are by the Houston composer Sondra Tucker. Sondra and I have known each other since our days together in Memphis, over 25 years ago. She has served Presbyterian and Episcopal Congregations in both Memphis and Houston, and is currently the director of the Houston Bronze Ensemble, a professional handbell group in Houston (of which I am a member.) She is also acting as organist and choir director at First Congregational Church of Houston.

The prelude, Morning Canticle, is a bright, original tune which sparks an interesting match with the melody of "Holy Holy Holy", which is played by handchimes in the middle of the piece.

The communion piece is a lovely arrangement of the American Gospel hymn, How Can I Keep From Singing. The text and tune were both written by Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister who became a popular writer of gospel music in the mid- to late-19th century. His best-known hymns include "Shall We Gather at the River", "Christ Arose!", and "Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus". Despite his protestations that preaching was his main vocation and that music was merely a sideline, it is as a hymnwriter that Lowry is chiefly remembered. 

I think it's funny that I first heard this hymn not in church but on a CD of music by the New-Age singer/musician Enya, who changed some more overtly Christian lines.

In this arrangement we will also hear the handchimes playing the melody on the middle verse of the hymn.

Sine Nomine

Of all the music we are presenting this Sunday, the one I am most excited about is the closing voluntary, Sine Nomine. "SINE NOMINE is the tune name of the opening hymn this morning, the wonderful All Saints hymn, For all the saints, who from their labors rest. But did you know that SINE NOMINE is not the first, much less the only tune for that hymn? When the hymn was first published, it was sung to the melody SARUM, by the Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906 when Ralph Vaughan Williams, the editor of that hymnal, wrote a new tune which he called SINE NOMINE.  The tune's title means "without name" and follows the Renaissance tradition of naming certain compositions "Sine Nomine" if they were not settings for preexisting tunes.

What excited me about this organ piece is that it combines both the original tune SARUM with the later tune SINE NOMINE. But wait! THERE'S MORE! It also combines the Black spiritual, When the Saints Go Marching In with SINE NOMINE. And, if that is not enough, the whole piece is played in a Dixieland Jazz style! Yes, folks, you read that right. The hymn tune many consider to be the epitome of Anglican hymn tunes is given the Dixieland treatment. 

This genius "mash-up" was the brain child of American organist John Weaver. Weaver served as Organist and Director of Music at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church from 1970-2005. He also headed the Organ Department of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1972-2003 AND chaired the Juilliard School's Organ Department from 1987-2004.

Originally, this was the closing movement of a Hymn Sonata, commissioned by the Reuter Organ Company for the dedication recital at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in 1995. The style of a New Orleans Dixieland band infuses the entire piece, and Sine Nomine sounds unexpectedly right with dotted rhythms and jazz harmonies! The juxtaposition with Oh, When the Saints also draws attention to the fact that the opening of one tune is the inversion of the other.

A lyrical statement of SARUM, with its repeated notes and foursquare feel, essentially acts as a contrasting second subject. Following this there is another statement of SINE NOMINE as a jazz trumpet solo, after which SARUM and SINE NOMINE are combined. Finally, SINE NOMINE and Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In are grandly combined.

Music for May 9, 2021 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Come Down, O Love Divine – arr. Fernando Ortega (b. 1957)
• Harrison Boyd, solo

Instrumental Music

• Christ the Lord Is Risen Again – Sondra K. Tucker
• Be Thou My Vision – arr. Julie Turner
• Trumpet Prelude – Johann Helmich Roman (1694-1758)

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

• Canticle Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn 413 New Songs of celebration render (RENDEZ à DIEU)
• Hymn 297 Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 610 (stanzas 1,2,4) Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

It seems like I have been excited about the music each Sunday ever since the choir has been been back, and this Sunday is no exception, except this week it is because the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild is back to play for us! We are playing two pieces, both of which are based on hymn tunes. 

The opening voluntary is a setting of the old German Easter chorale Christ ist erstanden (hymn 184). The tune is from 1533, so it is akin to a Renaissance dance.  The use of tambourine and flute enhance this vibrant setting of the ancient Easter hymn. We are still in the Easter Season, so it is still appropriate! 

Sondra Tucker

It is arranged by my friend Sondra Tucker. She and I were musicians in Memphis together, then we both moved to Houston. She then moved back to Memphis before returning back to Houston! In fact, she has been playing with our group this Spring, and we are thrilled to call her a friend of our bell choir. Sondra is a well-known composer for handbells, for choir, for organ, and for flute ensemble.  Since 2013 Sondra has served as Handbell Editor for Alfred Publishing Company.  She is in demand as a conductor and clinician, having served on the faculty of numerous local, area, and national events. She is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and the University of Memphis. Away from music, Sondra is an avid knitter, swimmer, and motorcycle rider.  She is married to Roger, who has also played with us this Spring.

The other handbell work is a setting of the beloved Irish hymn Be Thou My Vision (hymn 488), paired with another tune, THAXTED," a melody by the English composer Gustav Holst. Holst's air is based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of his orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where Holst lived much of his life. He adapted the tune in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country."  You'll hear that melody in the middle of the piece, played on the bells while accompanied by the handchimes.

Julie Turner

This medley is a product of Julie Turner, a musician from Tennessee who specializes in Handbell music. Since 2006, Turner has been the Associate Conductor, Composer in Residence and a Board Member of Music City Bronze, Nashville's advanced community handbell group. She has also been the handbell director at her church in Nashville since 1999. She holds a B.A. in Music from Cumberland University and was a contract music engraver for the United Methodist Publishing House for nine years. Julie has over 30 published handbell arrangements and compositions and was named Composer of the Year in 2009 by Jeffers Handbell Supply. Julie and her husband Jim have lived in Nashville since 1986, where they raised their two children.

The choir is not singing an anthem this week. Instead, we will hear a solo by Harrison Boyd, who will be leaving this week to continue his education with an internship in Iowa. Harrison has chosen an arrangement of the hymn Come Down, O Love Divine (hymn 516) by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It is in an arrangement by Fernando Ortega, a contemporary Christian Musician from New Mexico who now works in an Anglican church. He has produced 20 albums of sacred music in both contemporary and more traditional hymnody since 1999, and has won three Dove Awards. He's become known for his contemporary take on traditional hymns. You might find interesting his 2016 blog entry where he discusses the difference between upbeat worship songs that "were always so corny and utterly forgettable," and the hymn which Harrison sings for us today.

Music for November 22, 2015 + Christ the King Sunday + The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Sing We Merrily Unto God Our Strength – Sidney Campbell (1909-1974)
• O Bone Jesu – attr. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (16th C.)/probably by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (1547-1592)

Instrumental Music

• Come, Ye Thankful People, Come – Ron Boud/Don Hustad (20th C.)
• Prelude on Picardy – Sondra Tucker (21st C.)
• Suite Gothique: IV. Tocatta – Léon Boëllmann (19th C.)

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 488    Be thou my vision (Slane)
• Hymn 544    Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (Duke Street)
• Hymn 324    Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
• Hymn 598    Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (Mit Freuden zart)

Today we have two widely different anthems for the last Sunday of the Christian year, Christ the King Sunday, officially known as the last Sunday after Pentecost. The offertory anthem is a mid-century piece by the British composer Sidney Campbell. Campbell was organist and master of the choristers at Canterbury Cathedral when he wrote this piece in 1960 just before going to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where he remained until his death. This anthem features an independent organ accompaniment with much syncopation and a driving rhythm which supports the rather athletic choral part. Several words are set to long melismas (several notes to one syllable), such as God, noise, and merrily.

The second anthem is an Italian renaissance motet O Bone Jesus. This hauntingly simple setting  has often been attributed to Palestrina but is now generally recognized to have been the work of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was close friends with Pope Gregory XIV, who was intimately involved with the reforms of the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, and this influence is present in his music, which usually shows the simplification and clarity of the Palestrina style. His masses are simple, short, and relatively homophonic, often outdoing Palestrina for clarity and simplicity.

The opening voluntary is out of the ordinary for us Anglicans. One of our church members, Jill Kirkonis, retired this past year as organist from First Baptist Church of Porter after a long association with the church. She's since played for us here at Good Shepherd, and she brought an arrangement of the hymn Come, Ye Thankful People, Come to my attention. It was arranged for organ and piano by Don Hustad and Ron Boud. Don Hustad was the long-time organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team, and Ron joined him at the piano in later years. In the small-world category, Ron Boud ended his full-time career as organ professor at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, the Baptist School in the same town as Lambuth College, where I got my undergraduate degree. His last church job before retirement was at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, where I had my first church job after leaving SMU.

To further the small world/West Tennessee connection, the Communion Voluntary is a setting of the familiar hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence for organ and handbells by my friend Sondra Tucker, who now serves as organist at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Collierville, TN. Holy Apostles is the church I served before moving to Kingwood.

Music for April 19, 2015 + The Third Sunday of Easter

Music Appreciation Sunday

Vocal Music

• Hymn of Promise – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)
• Sing to the Lord – Ken Medema (b. 1943)

Instrumental Music

• Christians, We Have Met to Worship – arr. Sondra Tucker
• Beside Quiet Waters – Dan R. Edwards
• Choral Song - S.S.Wesley

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

• Hymn 492 Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 440 Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 295 Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R 202 Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 182 Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)

This Sunday, the church is honoring the music ministry of Good Shepherd with a Music Appreciation Day. It is humbling to be honored in such a way for the work that we do, week by week, to glorify our God and King. For this weekend, I have the St. Gregory Choir and the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild joining the Good Shepherd Choir in the music for Sunday. The St. Gregory Choir will sing an anthem of praise by Ken Medema, the composer of our Spring Music, The Story-Tellin' Man II, which we will present on May 10. Then the Good Shepherd Choir will join them in one of the kid's favorite anthems, Hymn of Promise, by Natalie Sleeth.

Ken Medema is a singer/pianist who has published many works for choirs, soloists, and pianists. Born nearly blind, he began playing the piano when he was five years old, and three years later began taking lessons in classical music through braille music, playing by ear and improvising in different styles. Through his work as a music therapist, he started writing songs while at Essex County Hospital. "I had a bunch of teenagers who were really hurting," he says, "and I started writing songs about their lives. Then I thought, 'Why don't you start writing songs about your Christian life?' So I started doing that, and people really responded."

In his anthem Sing to the Lord, you'll hear the main theme presented in a pop-rock style, before going to a new theme (the B section). He returns to the first theme (A section), and when it is sung, you are introduced to more musical material in the C section of the piece. The entire anthem ends with one more visit to the A section before ending with a coda, the last line of music sung three times. The text for the anthem is a compilation of familiar verses from several psalms.

The anthem Hymn of Promise, a favorite of our choir, was first conceived as an anthem in 1985 for a festival concert on Natalie Sleeth's music at the Pasadena Community Church, St. Petersburg, Florida. Since then, it has been included in at least 17 hymnals, with the number growing each year.

Sleeth was as native of Evanston, Illinois. She began piano study at the age of four and gained much of her musical experience by singing in choral ensembles during her earlier years. Studying music theory, piano, and organ at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she received her B.A. in 1952.

Married to Ronald E. Sleeth, a United Methodist clergyman and professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas in the late 60s and 70s, she served as music secretary at Highland Park United Methodist Church from 1969-1976. During this time, she studied music theory with Jane Marshall and audited a course in choral arranging taught by Lloyd Pfautsch at SMU. Her choral works for all ages number more than 200.

Sleeth had the ability to compose both texts and music. Hymn of Promise was written at a time when the author states that she was "pondering the ideas of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Inspired by a T.S. Eliot line, the germ of the hymn grew from the idea "in our end is our beginning," the phase that begins the third stanza of the hymn.

While it carries the promise of spring and the hope of Easter in its beautiful metaphors, it is a very appropriate hymn for funeral and memorial services. Shortly after its composition, the composer’s husband was diagnosed with what turned out to be a terminal malignancy. Ronald Sleeth requested that Hymn of Promise be sung at his funeral service.

Michael C. Hawn, distinguished professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology, writes,

A wonderful child-like simplicity permeates "Hymn of Promise." Natalie Sleeth had a gift for composing texts on complex theological ideas that were still accessible to children. Her melodies seemed totally natural and therefore effortless for people to learn. "Hymn of Promise" is one of the most memorable hymns written by an American United Methodist in the last part of the twentieth century, and it promises to be sung for many years to come.

The Good Shepherd Handbell Choir will end it's choir season by playing two distinctly different pieces by two American composers. My friend Sondra Tucker has written an energetic piece for bells and percussion combining two Early American hymn-tunes, HOLY MANNA (Christians, We Have Met to Worship) and FOUNDATION (How Firm a Foundation). After a brief introduction you hear HOLY MANNA , then FOUNDATION as the drum drops out and the music becomes less rhythmic and more flowing. When the opening motif returns along with the drum, the two tunes are combined and played together. It's what the youth call a "mash-up."

• Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN) Though it first appeared in 1870 and was included in several hymnals of the time, our hymnal is the only major contemporary book that includes it. The tune was written in 1975 by Christopher Dearnley, an English organist, who served in Salisbury Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral.
• Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU) In this hymn, we acknowledge our need for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to fully understand God’s message to us. We also recognize and claim the promise of Christ concerning this help: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 ESV).
• Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN) Set to a tune from the 1500s, this hymn was written by Omer Westendorf, one of the leading Roman Catholic hymn writers since Vatican II. Born in 1916, Omer first got interested in church music after World War II, when he discovered the new Mass settings in Holland.
• Sing alleluia to the Lord (SING ALLELUIA) Immensely popular, this praise chorus has been included in hundreds of songbooks, both in North America and in other continents. Linda L. Stassen-Benjamin originally composed it rather instantaneously (while she was in the shower!) in June 1974. Following oral tradition, the Renew Hymnal joins Stassen's stanza with four other stanzas derived from early Christian liturgies and the "Easter Canticle," which quotes from 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 and 15:20-22.  
• Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO) Brian A. Wren wrote the hymn during April of 1968. It was written for Easter Sunday, two weeks after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Wren wrote: "I could not let Easter go by without speaking of this tragic event which was on all our minds. . . . The hymn tries to see God's love winning over tragedy and suffering in the world. . . . There is tension and tragedy in these words, not just Easter rejoicing."