Music for November 27, 2016 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Advent Processional – Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Jacobus Kloppers (b. 1937)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Emma Lou Diemer (b.1927)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• Hymn 56, st. 1-2 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (St, Stephen)
• Hymn 59, stanzas 1, 2, 5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
• Hymn 61 - Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us (Wachet auf)
• Psalm 122 - Lœtatus sum (ToneVIIIa)

There are two hymns which are usually sung on the first Sunday of Advent, and we will sing both of those today. One is a hymn which I introduced to Good Shepherd 19 years ago during my first Advent Season here. That is number 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending. (You can listen to it here, and you should, because it is just a grand way to start Advent. )The other is one that we have rarely sung, so I am going overboard on the tune in that I am playing three different contemporary settings of the tune. (I also play J. S. Bach's chorale setting of the tune, which, in my opinion, is one of the most perfect organ and choral pieces ever written. I often play it on this first Sunday of Advent, and I am giving it a bye this Advent, though, honestly, it is so perfect, I think it could be played every year. But I digress.)

Jacobus Kloppers

All three of these organ pieces are by living organists (no dead poets today!), and two of them are no strangers to these pages. (You can click on the names at the bottom of this post to see what other music we have done by Emma Lou Diemer and Wayne Wold.) The name that is both new to this blog and to me is Jacobus Kloppers. At first glance, I assumed this was another German organist - probably from the 18th century. I was wrong.

Jacobus Kloppers is a Canadian organist and composer in Edmonton, Alberta, where he's lived since 1976, when he moved from his native South Africa. He is organist/choirmaster at St. John the Evangelist (Anglican) in Edmonton. He served on the faculty of the Music Department at The King’s University College (currently The King’s University) in Edmonton until his retirement in 2013. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Keyboard at the University of Alberta (a position he has held since 1997). His compositions (around 70) include organ solo works for liturgical and concert use, an organ concerto, alto-saxophone concerto, as well as various anthems and choral music.

His setting of "Wachet Auf" (the German title of the choral, which basically means "wake up!" is much more lyrical than both the opening and closing voluntaries. The melody is presented in the right hand, using the oboe sound on the organ, accompanied by a flowing flute accompaniment in the left hand.

Music for December 6, 2015 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints – arr. Joel Martinson (b. 1962)

Instrumental Music

• Once He Came in Blessing – John Leavitt (b. 1956)
• Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah – Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954)
• Prepare the Way, O Zion – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 67 - Comfort, comfort ye my people (Psalm 42)
• Hymn R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn 53 - Once he came in blessing (Gottes Sohn ist kommen)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (Hyfrydol)
• Hymn R92 - Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion (Berenden vag for Herran)

In the Gospel reading today, we learn that somewhere near the year 29 A.D., John the Baptist began proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, 

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’

You will hear (and sing) those words several times this Sunday as we remember that prophecy.

St John the Baptist Preaching - Anastasio Fontebuoni

The only piece of music that does not directly tie into the theme of today's Gospel is the organ voluntary at communion by Wayne L. Wold. Wold is professor, organist, and chair of the music department at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and also director of music ministry at First Lutheran Church of Ellicott City, Maryland.  In 1984 Wold wrote an Advent hymn using the Yiddish tune Tif in Veldele (Deep in the Forest)as the melody. It's in A Minor, as typical of many Jewish folk tunes, and has a lovely, haunting quality about it. The hymn and this tune have since been included in 4 hymnals, two Lutheran hymnals, one Catholic, and the newest Presbyterian Hymnal, Glory to God. Each line begins with this simple statement.  

Light one (two, three, four) candle(s) to watch for Messiah: let the light banish darkness. 

What I find charming about this organ prelude based on the Yiddish melody is that Wold has written it in the style of César Franck's lyrical Prelude, Fugue, and Variation. I will be playing just the first (prelude) and last (variation) movements of the piece. 

Hymn Spotlight - Hymn R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (Forest Green)

The Prayerbook suggests a canticle as an alternative to the usual Psalm for the second Sunday of Advent. The Song of Zechariah (father to John the Baptist) is found at Luke 1:68-79. Carl Daw, an Episcopal priest now located at Boston University, wrote a hymn based on this canticle in 1989, and it is included in our Renew hymnal to the tune “Forest Green”  by the famous English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Music for December 14, 2014 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• God’s Great Lights – Helen Kemp (b. 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come – Wayne Wold (b. 1954)
• O Savior, Throw the Heavens Wide – Rolf Schweizer (b. 1936)

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

• Hymn 616 – Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R-92 – Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ)
• Hymn R-128 – Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Psalm 126 – tone  VIII.a

The choir's anthem for this Sunday is There Shall A Star by Felix Mendelssohn. This choral piece is from Mendelssohn's oratorio "Christus" (op 97), which was unfinished at his untimely death at the age of 38, when he died suddenly from a series of strokes. "Christus" is based upon biblical texts of Jesus and libretto by J.F. von Bunsun. The first part of the text comes from Numbers 24:7. The anthem is divided into four parts. In the first section, Mendelssohn supports the text with fluid, calm lines and ascending passages. He also supports the text with soft triplets in the instrumental accompaniment, giving a sense of movement. Each voice has a slightly independent line.

In the second section, the music becomes more intense and passionate as the chorus describes what the star from Jacob will do. The accompaniment continues with its rhythmic triplets. In the third section, Mendelssohn combines the ascending lines about the star of Jacob coming forth with the intense statements about vanquishing the enemy. That section returns to the texts and structure of the first section, with the ascending lines reaffirming the appearance of the King of Judaea.
Mendelssohn concludes the section with Bach's harmonization of  Philipp Nicolai’s (1556-1608) famous hymn, As bright the star of morning gleams (Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern). The chorus begins a cappella. Mendelssohn adds intermittent accompaniment in the same pattern as at the beginning of the movement. The selection concludes with soft, instrumental accompaniment. 

Helen Kemp

The St. Gregory Choir sings another anthem refering to Jesus as the morning star ("great light") with a lilting anthem by America's Grand Dame of Children's music, Helen Kemp. Mrs. Kemp was married to one of America's leading church musicians, and the mother of another (Michael Kemp), but it was her own work with children's choirs that garnered her fame as a director and composer. She understands the child's voice and writes music that will bring out the best in the child as well as the child's voice. She has worked with children and youth choirs for over 70 years!

The opening voluntary is a simple setting of the German Advent Chorale, Savior, of the Nations, Come, arranged for keyboard by Wayne Wold. Wold is the Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and an active church musician, composer, performer, author, and clinician. As an active composer, Wold has published many compositions for organ and choirs. He is also the author of numerous books including Tune My Heart to Sing, and Preaching to the Choir: The Care and Nurture of the Church Choir. This simple setting starts of with an ostinato in the bass which plays continuously throughout the first section of the prelude while the right hand plays the melody in the soprano part. The second entrance of the hymn-tune is in a new key in a simple four-part harmony setting, before returning to the first section with its bass ostinato.

• Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN) James Montgomery (1771-1854) led a thoroughly unremarkable life. The son of a Moravian minister, he tried business until settling down as a newspaper editor in Sheffield, England, where he also wrote poems and hymns. This hymn is his best psalm rendering. It is based on Ps. 72 and was originally written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements in the United Kingdom in 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm." The tune,  ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN, a German folk tune, and was first published in an early-seventeenth-century manuscript collection from Memmingen, Germany.
• Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON) This hymn was translated from a Latin hymn from the 5th century by Edward Caswall, a 19th century priest who left the Anglican church to become a Roman Catholic after his wife died. The text is perfect for the scriptures about the prophet "crying in the wilderness." The tune is by William H. Monk (1823-1889) who composed MERTON and published it in 1850. The tune has been associated with this text since the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune's title is thought to refer to Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College, Oxford, England.
• Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ) - This simple round from the Taizé community in France is much more lilting and upbeat than most of their quiet, contemplative refrains. It fits in quite nicely with the theme of the morning, the voice of one that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye a way for the Lord."
• Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN) -  Here we have a paraphrase of The Song of Zechariah, (Luke 1:68-79) by the contemporary American Episcopal priest, Carl P. Daw (b. 1944) He has written over 80 hymns which appear in over 20 hymnals since the mid 1980s. The tune is a lovely English folk tune arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams.