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. 

Music for Sunday, May 23, 2021 + Pentecost

Vocal Music

• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585)
• Gracious Spirit, Dwell in Me – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Dearest Jesus, We Are Here – Johann L. Krebs (1713-1780)
• Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now – Johann G. Walther (1685-1748)
• Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist (Come God, Creator, Holy Ghost) BWV 667– Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 511 Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn R168 If you believe and I believe (Zimbabwean)
• Hymn R291 Go forth for God, go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 104 – tone VIIIa

Thomas Tallis was the preeminent composer of the English Renaissance. He was such an important  person during the Tudor period that he was one of the characters in the 2007 BBC television series The Tudors, though in a highly fictionalized version. A Catholic, he was able to survive the the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, and his music often displays characteristics of the turmoil. During Elizabeth I's reign, he wrote music using Latin texts, in a florid style. 

Henry VIII's break from the Roman Catholic church in 1534 and the rise of Thomas Cranmer noticeably influenced the style of music being written. Cranmer recommended a syllabic style of music where each syllable is sung to one pitch, as his instructions make clear for the setting of the 1544 English Litany. As a result, the writing of Tallis and his contemporaries became less florid, using English texts.

Today's anthem is an example of English text writing. If Ye Love Me was actually written during the reign of Elizabeth I, but it is a noted example of this Reformation compositional style, essentially homophonic but with some elaboration and imitation. Typically for Anglican motets of this period, it is written in an ABB form, with the second section repeated. It has become a favorite of English speaking choirs the world over. 

It was sung at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018.

The other anthem is a setting of a hymn by the 19th century English Congregational minister, Thomas T. Lynch. Lynch's hymn is set in this meter: 7.7.7.7.7.7 (seven syllables per line). But K. Lee Scott sets this text to the tune ADORE DEVOTE, a chant from the 13th century, which has the meter 6.5.6.5. D (Doubled). As you can imagine, some creative license has been used in fitting the 19th century text to the 13th century tune, including writing an entirely new 4th stanza written by the composer. Thankfully, it works. (The tune ADORE DEVOTE is in the Eucharist section of the hymnal as hymn 314: Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen, as well as the hymn 357, Jesus, Son of Mary, fount of life alone in the Burial section.)

All the organ music for this Sunday comes from the Baroque period, the period in music history that is roughly the years 1600-1750. It was the period where the organ truly was the king of instruments, especially in Germany, the home of all three of today's composers. The first piece is a piece by Johann Ludwig Krebs. Krebs studied under his father and was later a favorite pupil of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach at Leipzig. His music shows many of the same attributes found in Bach's music, and his best organ works equal anything by Bach. Bach (who had also instructed J. Ludwig's father) held Krebs in high standing. However, it was quite difficult for Krebs to obtain a patron or a post at any cathedral. This can be attributed to the fact that by this time the Baroque tradition was being left behind in favor of the new galant music style. This point in time also marked the transition to the classical music era, with composers such as Bach's son, C.P.E. Bach. 

Today's opening voluntary is one of a set of pieces for organ and wind instruments that Krebs wrote. The trumpet part is played by Sydney Peltier, our alto section leader. She came to us at the start of the year. She is a teacher in Houston ISD, after teaching for a couple of years as a middle school choir director in Humble ISD.

The next two opening voluntaries are by another contemporary of Bach, Johann Gottfried Walther. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of Johann Sebastian Bach, he was the famous composer's cousin.  Walther as a city organist of Weimar wrote exactly 132 organ preludes based on Lutheran chorale melodies. Two of those are the settings of the hymn Lord Jesus Christ, be Present Now which I'll be playing for the second half of the opening voluntary. (The same tune is used in our hymnal for No. 3,  Now that the daylight fills the sky and No. 310, O saving Victim, opening wide).

The first one is written for keyboard alone - no pedal and no trumpet. But the second one was written with the pedal part playing the melody, which today will be played on the trumpet.

The closing voluntary is the extended chorale setting of Come, God, Creator, Holy Ghost, from Bach's The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651–668. This chorale prelude on Martin Luther's hymn for Pentecost "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" consists of two variations linked by a bridging interlude: the first is a miniature chorale prelude almost identical to BWV 631 in the Orgelbüchlein, with an uninterrupted cantus firmus in the soprano line; in the second, the four lines of the cantus firmus are heard in the pedal, beneath a flowing imitative ritornello accompaniment on the keyboard.

It is one of the last things he ever wrote. In 1750 when Bach began to suffer from blindness before his death in July, BWV 666 and 667 were dictated to his student and son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol and copied posthumously into the manuscript. 

Music for May 21, 2017 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Rogation Sunday

Vocal Music

• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585)
• Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree – Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on Dunedin – David Dahl (b. 1937)
• The Infinite Meadows of Heaven – Paul Mealor (b. 1975)
• Earth and All Stars – arr. Keith Kolander (b. 1955)

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

• Hymn 405 - All things bright and beautiful (ROYAL OAK)
• Hymn 492 - Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness (FINNIAN)
• Hymn 455 - O love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old their first fruits brought (FOREST GREEN)
• Hymn R250 - O Lord my God (O STOR GUD)
• Hymn R54 - I sing the almighty power of God (Ellacombe)
• Psalm 66:7–18 - Jubilate Deo – Mode 2

In addition to being the Sixth Sunday of the Easter Season, today is Rogation Sunday. Rogation Sunday is the day when the Church has traditionally offered prayer for God’s blessing on the fruits of the earth and the labors of those who produce our food. The word “rogation” is from the Latin rogare, “to ask.” Historically, the Rogation Days (the three days before Ascension Day) were a period of fasting and abstinence, beseeching God’s blessing on the crops for a bountiful harvest. Few of us today directly derive our livelihood from the production of food, yet it is good to be reminded of our dependence upon those who do and our responsibility for the environment.

Elizabeth Poston

In recognition of this day, I have chosen the beautiful setting by Elizabeth Poston of the text, Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree. One of my choir members asked what an apple tree had to do with Jesus. I found a great meditation by Joan Halmo in The Hymn, the journal of the Hymn Society of America that had some great food for thought.

Trees have always been revered in every culture, as they bring shade to the earth, refuge for living creatures, food for our bodies as well as materials for home and every day living. Not only are they functional, but they are beautiful as well. Trees are also a sign of hope in the annual season of rebirth and renewal. As Dr. Halmo says, "The tree is in truth a bearer of life and of healing for humanity and the earth. (1)

The poet, Richard Hutchins, was a Calvinist Baptist minister who served at Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, England.  For years this text was thought to be by Anonymous, but the poem was attributed to "R.H." in The Spiritual Magazine, 1761 and collected into the book Divine, Moral, and Historical Miscellanies, in Prose and Verse... (London, 1761). Since The Spiritual Magazine was a magazine for Calvinistic Baptists, "R.H." contributed additional poems to this magazine, one of which identifies him as being from Long Buckby and as a minister by the name of Richard Hutchins served the Calvinist Baptist congregation in Long Buckby from about 1759-1765, it is likely that "R.H." refers to Richard Hutchins.

Hutchins was probably not well schooled in theology, yet he displays a keen vision of Christ as the tree of life, "laden with fruit and always green."

Paul Mealor

The piano piece at communion is a new piece by the Welsh composer Paul Mealor. He may not (yet) be the biggest name in classical music, but he has composed music for one of the biggest ceremonial events of the past decade, the marriage of Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton. Mealor's motet, a setting of Ubi Caritas et Amor, was commissioned by Prince William for his wedding at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, when it was sung by the Choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty's Chapel Royal during the signing of the registry.

Topping the Classical Charts for six weeks with his bestselling album, A Tender Light in November 2011, he also broke records by being the first classical composer to hold both the classical and pop chart No. 1’s at the same time in December 2011, securing the UK Christmas No. 1 with his piece for The Military Wives Choir and Gareth Malone, Wherever You Are. Wherever You Are entered the UK Pop Singles Chart at number 1 that same month, selling over 556,000 copies in one week, more than the rest of the Top 12 combined, and was nominated for Best British Single in the 2012 BRIT Awards. It has been named as the fastest selling single since Elton John’s Candle in the Wind. In April of 2012 Mealor was voted the nation’s favorite living composer during the UK Classic FM Hall of Fame.

The Infinite Meadows of Heaven is a quote from H. W. Longfellow.

Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels. Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie

This slow and expressive piece is underpinned by oscillating thirds in its outer sections that accompany a melody using the upper end of the keyboard. A low pedal octave also accompanies the first section. The middle section is more agitated but all returns to a blissful calm.

The opening voluntary is an organ interpretation of the hymn tune which we will be singing before the Gospel this morning. DUNEDIN is a tune written in 1971 by Vernon Griffiths, an English organist and teacher  who moved to New Zealand in 1926 to accept a position at the Christchurch Teachers' Training College. This tune, DUNEDIN, is named after the town where his second position at as music master at King Edward Technical College. (2)

This setting is from the Bayoubuchlein, the collection of organ preludes on hymn-tunes from the last 50 years that was compiled for the 2016 American Guild of Organists National Convention here in Houston. This prelude was debuted at a service at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston. It is in three parts: In the first verse the melody is played on a stopped called a Krummhorn (similar to a clarinet) while the right hand accompanies with a single flute stop. In verse two we find a canon at the octave between the two hands, playing on separate manuals (keyboards). The final stanza has the melody in the pedal on a trumpet and trombone sound while the right hand punctuates the musical phrases with fanfare-like chords.

David Dahl

David P. Dahl is Professor of Music and University Organist Emeritus from Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA, retiring in 2000 after thirty-five years of teaching. In August, 2010, he retired as Director Emeritus of Music Ministries at Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, where served for forty years. During his career he has been an active recitalist, including performances for national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. He is a published composer of organ music and has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Organ Historical Society, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Pacific Lutheran University. (3)

(1) Halmo, Joan, "Hymn Interpretation ['Jesus Christ the Apple Tree']", The Hymn, July 2002, Volume 53, Issue 3, Pages 52-54, print
(2) Rachael M. Hawkey. 'Griffiths, Thomas Vernon', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4g21/griffiths-thomas-vernon (accessed 19 May 2017)
(3) David Dahl biography (2016, June). Retrieved from http://agohouston2016.com/conference/composers/david-dahl

Music for February 12, 2017 + The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O For a Closer Walk With God – Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585)

Instrumental Music

• Air from Orchestral Suite in D – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Saraband on “Land of Rest” – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Allegro, Op. 105, No. 6 - C. V. Stanford 

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

• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn 674 -“Forgive our sins as we forgive” (DETROIT)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn R231 - How blessed are you (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 344 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)

Sometimes you just need to hear (or perform) a beautiful melody. That's the reason I am playing an organ transcription of J. S. Bach's lovely Air. Often called "Air on the G String," it was part of Bach's Third Orchestral Suite, written for Prince Leopold, Bach's employer in the little principality of Anhalt-Cothen between 1717 and 1723. This movement became popular over 100 year later, when German violinist August Wilhelm arranged the piece for violin and piano to be played on the evocative G-string of the violin .

The melody is typical of a melody from the Baroque period, as it winds its way all over the musical scale, leaping up and down the keyboard before wriggling back to whence it came. In my music appreciation class, this never fails to be the piece that captures the attention of people who may have never heard of Bach. One of the more unusual performances (and most striking) is this performance by Bobby McFerrin (a good Episcopalian, btw).

Bobby McFerrin Sings Bach

The offertory anthem is a setting of a of a hymn by the poet William Cowper. From the handbook to the Psalter Hymnal we learn that he wrote this text on December 9, 1769, during the illness of his long-time friend and housekeeper, Mrs. Unwin. "In a letter written the next day Cowper voiced his anxieties about her condition and about what might happen to him if she died. Saying that he composed the text "to surrender up to the Lord" all his "dearest comforts," Cowper added,

Her illness has been a sharp trial to me. Oh, that it may have a sanctifying effect!. . . I began to compose the verses yesterday morning before daybreak, but fell asleep at the end of the first two lines; when I awoke again, the third and fourth were whispered to my heart in a way which I have often experienced.

"Although Cowper frequently battled depression, doubt, and melancholy, this text speaks of a very intimate walk with the Lord. That walk is rooted in Scripture (st. 1), rejoices in conversion (st. 2-3), and denounces all idols that would usurp God's sovereignty (st. 4). The text concludes with a return to the prayer of the first stanza, but now that prayer is sung with increased confidence and serenity." -Psalter Hymnal Handbook

The tune, CAITHNESS, is Scottish, as was the arranger, Charles Villiers Stanford.

Music for October 23, 2016 + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• If Ye Love Me – Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude on “Fight On, My Soul” – Robert J. Powell (b. 1932)
• Ubi Caritas and Adoro Te Devote - Michael Larkin
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

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

• Hymn 557 Rejoice, ye pure in heart (Marion)
• Hymn 552 Fight the good fight with all thy might (Pentecost)
• Hymn 429 I'll praise my maker while I've breath (Old 113th)
• Hymn R122 Surely it is God who saves me (First Song of Isaiah)
• Hymn R188 Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord (Bob Hudson)
• Hymn 637 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (Lyons)
• Psalm 65 (Tone 5a)

I'm adding two new pieces to my organ repertoire this week, and both by living, American composers. And one of them (GASP!) is a woman! At this rate, no telling where gender equality goes. We might even have a woman run for president!

Let's talk about the closing voluntary first. It's an organ setting of the old hymn-tune EBENEZER, used for the Southern hymn Come thou Fount of Every Blessing. The composer, Emma Lou Diemer, has put the melody in the pedal for the first exposition of the melody, with the manuals accompanying with rippling 16th note broken chords. After one presentation of the hymn, the whole piece transposes to the key of F (from D), but a new element is added: the melody is now in a canon at the fourth, meaning the pedal plays the melody in F, and the top of note of the accompaniment is playing the melody in B-flat. What fun!

Emma Lou Diemer

Emma Lou Diemer is a native of Kansas City, Missouri. She studied piano from an early age, wrote little piano pieces as a child, and began to play the organ in church at age 13. She determined to be a composer about that time with a strong interest also in piano. Her degrees in composition are from the Yale School of Music (BM,1949; MM, 1950) and from the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D.,1960), and she studied composition further in Brussels on a Fulbright Scholarship and at the Berkshire Music Center.

From 1954-1965 she taught in several schools and was organist in area churches. In 1965 she joined the faculty of the University of Maryland as an assistant professor of theory and composition. In 1971 she was appointed to a similar position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and subsequently became a full professor and, since 1991, professor emeritus. Her present position as organist is at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara.

The opening voluntary is an organ setting of an old Southern Harmony hymn by J. P Reese from 1859, Fight on, my soul.

Fight on, my soul, till death
Shall bring thee to thy God

Robert Powell

Even if you knew this old tune, you might not recognize the melody as it is hidden in the left hand of the manual parts. It is not until the quieter B section that you can clearly hear the melody played by the oboe stop of the organ against a flute accompaniment. The rollicking open theme returns, but this time the melody is clearly stated in the pedal part with the trumpet. On the fourth repetition of the tune, the melody is a again heard in the top line as the full organ declaims the tune.

Robert J. Powell retired in 2003 as organist and choirmaster at Christ Church in Greenville, S.C., a position he had held since 1968. Previously he served as director of music at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H.; organist and choir director at St. Paul's Church in Meridian, Miss.; and associate organist at Cathedral of St. John the Divine in N.Y.C. Powell's music was first published in 1959, and he has written over 200 works for chorus, solo voice, organ and brass.

The life of Thomas Tallis is a mirror of the musical effects of the Anglican Reformation in England. He served in the Chapel Royal for some 40 years, composing under four Monarchs with widely differing religious practices. Tallis was among the first to set English words to music for the rites of the Church of England, although most of his vocal music was written in Latin. A composer of great contrapuntal skill, his works show intense expressivity and are cast in a bewildering variety of styles.

During the reign of King 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.

Music for October 11, 2015 + The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Hear the Voice and Prayer – Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on “St. Anne” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• I. Theme
• II. Adagio
• VI. Fugue/Finale
• Saraband and Interlude – Herbert Sumsion (1899-1995)

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

• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (I HAVE DECIDED)
• Hymn 408 - Sing praise to God who reigns above (MIT FREUDEN ZART)

The organ voluntaries at the beginning and ending of worship are from a Partita (or Variations) by Paul Manz. During his lifetime, he was one of the premier organists in the Lutheran Church, a denomination with a tradition of fine music and hymnody. Manz was well known for his improvisations on the hymns of the church, publishing volumes of his organ improvisations. As a performer, Manz was famous for his celebrated hymn festivals. Instead of playing traditional organ recitals, Manz would generally lead a "festival" of hymns from the organ, in which he introduced each hymn with one of his famously creative organ improvisations based on the hymn tune in
question. The congregation would then sing the hymn with his accompaniment. Sometimes he would play an improvisation between each sung stanza, as with these well-known variations on the tune, ST. ANNE, sung to the Isaac Watts text "Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past" with which he would traditionally end each festival. It is from this partita that I've selected the opening and closing voluntaries.
At the prelude we hear the tune in it's entirety, presented with no embellishments. It is followed by the first variation, which, like a chorale prelude of Bach or Buxtehude, presents the melody in a highly ornamented fashion, often flirting with the actual notes of the melody to give us an impression of the tune.
The closing voluntary is the finale from the partita, starting with a fugue with its original subject. It is not until we depart from the fugue that we hear the melody in the pedal with the hands playing a flashy accompaniment.

The hymn, O God, our help in ages past, is one of the biggies.  It is a standard that appears in most major hymnals and is often sung at funerals. The words are a paraphrase of Psalm 90:1-5.  (Today's Psalm is also from Psalm 90, but using the last five verses.) They were written by Isaac Watts in 1714, shortly before the death of Queen Anne of England. This was a time of great crises and turmoil, as the successor of Queen Anne was as yet undetermined, and the fear of a monarch who would reinstate the persecution of Protestants was great. King George I prevented such persecution, but the fear before Anne’s death was great. This was the context in which Watts wrote his powerful text, now lauded as “one of the grandest in the whole realm of English Hymnody” (Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns, 54).
The music was composed by William Croft in in 1708 when he was organist at St. Anne’s in Soho. The tune appears in many compositions by other composers, but the fact that the opening phrase sounds like the fugue subject in J. S. Bach’s Fugue in E-flat Major, (“St. Anne” Fugue) is probably a coincidence. I am using Bach's music as in introdution to the hymn, in an arrangement by George Thalben-Ball (which Thalben-Ball transposed to C Major just for this purpose.)