Music for January 22, 2017 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – C. H. H. Parry (1848-1918)

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God– Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
• How Brightly Shines the Morningstar – Andreas Armsdorff (1670–1699)
• Improvisation on “Praise to the Lord” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 321 - My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn R102 - The Lord is my light (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 27:1, 5-13 - Dominus illuminatio (simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome Meachem)

The choir sings one of our favorite anthems this Sunday, the beautiful Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by the British composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.  This hymn, now one of England’s favorites, began life as the ballad of Meshullemeth (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’) in Act I of Judith, Parry's oratorio of 1888. It was only after Parry’s death that permission was granted by Novello and Parry’s estate to allow George Gilbert Stocks, the head of music at Repton School, to adapt the music to this text for the school’s hymn book, at which time the melody became known as REPTON.  It was also published in 1941 as the hymn-anthem (which we are singing today) in which much of the original music of the aria was restored.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Ironically, the author of this beautiful and much-loved hymn deeply disapproved of singing in church. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) was an American Quaker who firmly believed that God was best worshipped in silent meditation and who deplored the histrionics associated with both the High Church and the Evangelical movement.

He did, however, allow these verses to be used in a hymn book published in 1884. They are drawn from an interlude in his long and eccentric poem called The Brewing of Soma, which describes in shocked terms the Vedic Hindu habit of drinking hallucinogenic concoctions as a way of whipping up religious enthusiasm. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, tell's of the hymn's origins here.

Whittier advocated waiting instead for "the still small voice of calm" – an injunction beautifully suggested in the climax to this tune composed by Parry.

It will also be sung as a congregational hymn at the Hymn Festival this Sunday night. Make plans to come!

Music for January 15, 2017 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Wondrous Love – Steve Pilkington

Instrumental Music

• Ritournello on “Liebster Jesu, Wir sind Her” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1962)
• Soul, Adorn Yourself With Gladness – Ann Krentz Organ (b. 1960)
• Poco Vivace, Opus 9, No. 6  –Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (GALILEE)
• Psalm 40:1-11 - Expectans, expectavi

Sometimes nothing can beat a simple, plaintive melody for its beauty. Such is my opinion of the Southern folk hymn, What wondrous Love Is This? In the version the choir sings this week, you never hear the voices in more than two-part harmony, and that is when they are singing in canon (The men echoing the women four beats later.) Their singing is accompanied on the piano with a flowing, eighth-note piano part, with the addition of handbells playing growing chord clusters or ringing randomly during the last stanza. The text in the hymnal does not match exactly the text in our music, so here is the text for the solo stanza (stanza two) which will be sung by Bidkar Cajina.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of life
to lay aside his crown for my soul?

As we read the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry, I thought this anthem raised some valid questions to stimulate thought about why Jesus  would "lay aside his crown for (our) soul."

The arranger, Steve Pilkington, serves on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. as Associate Professor of Sacred Music. He also oversees all the music ministries at Christ Church United Methodist in  New York City, where he has been Director of Music and Organist since 1994. 

Aaron David Miller

Aaron David Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. He has been a featured performer at four National Conventions for the American Guild of Organists since 1996, the most recent being the 2016 convention here in Houston. He also is a prolific composer, and Dr. Miller’s many solo organ, choral, and orchestral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Oxford University Press, Paraclete Press, ECS, Morning Star and Kjos Publishing House. 

One of his shorter compositions is the opening voluntary. It is a setting of our hymn before the Gospel, hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (tune name: LIEBSTER JESU). A Ritournello (more commonly spelled Ritornello) is a Baroque form where a repeated section of music, the ritornello (literally, "the little thing that returns") alternates with freer episodes. You'll actually hear several fragments of melody returning in the organ prelude which alternates meters in a dance-like way.

Speaking of alternating meters, the closing voluntary is full of changing time signatures. If you are trying to clap along, have fun finding a steady beat!) This piece by German composer Hermann Schroeder, the only composer of those featured this morning to be neither American or living. He was born in Bernkastel and spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His activity as composer was supplemental to his career in education. 

Schroeder's main accomplishments as a composer were in Catholic church music, where he attempted to break free of the lingering monopoly held by Romantic music. His works are characterized by the employment of medieval elements such as Gregorian chant, modal scales, and fauxbourdon which he combined with quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing. In the work played this week, the last number in a collection of short preludes and intermezzi, you'll hear an initial Fanfare-like flourish characterized by octave leaps in the manuals and pedals.  In the middle section, linear, angular melodies are heard in each hand before returning to the initial fanfare section.

Music for January 8, 2016 + The First Sunday after the Epiphany

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• Christmas Joy – Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Christ Our Lord to Jordan Came, BuxWV 180 – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• When Christ’s Appearing Was Made Known,– attributed to Dietrich Buxtehude
• Præludium in C Major BuxWV 137 – Dietrich Buxtehude

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 R157 - We believe in God Almighty (DIVINUM MYSTERIUM)
• Hymn 135, st. 1&2 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn - Shall we gather at the river (HANSON PLACE)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)

The first Sunday after the Epiphany is the Sunday when we remember Christ's own baptism. It marks the beginning of his ministry on earth, and reminds us of our own call to be his followers. Epiphany itself marks the end of the Christmas Season. It is fitting and proper to remove all Christmas decorations.

But the spirit of Christmas should not be taken down. That's why we are singing this beautiful anthem by composer, author, and publisher Mark Schweitzer, using a text by African-American author, theologian, and educator Howard Thurman. He served as dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University from 1932 to 1944 and as dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 1953 to 1965. It was his theology of radical nonviolence that influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr. The text  follows:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky has withdrawn,
When the kings see their prophesy rightly fulfilled,
When the princes and shepherds have gone;

 Then the true work of Christmas begins.

To find the lost,
To heal the broken hearts,
To feed the hungry,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among all brothers,
To make music in the heart.

All of the organ music today is by Dietrich Buxtehude, the North German organist who served as an inspiration to a young Johann Sebastian Bach.
Two of the pieces are based on German chorales that refer to Christ's baptism. The communion voluntary is based on a hymn that is not well known among Episcopalians, but is in our hymnal. You'll discover the tune and a contemporary translation of the hymn at number 139 in the Hymnal 1982. The other hymn is also in our hymnal, but is better known among us Anglicans. Hymn 132, When Christ's appearing was made known, is set to the tune ERHALT UNS, HERR, which we also use for the Lenten hymn The glory of these forty days (hymn 143) and the baptism hymn Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (hymn 297).
The setting which I am playing has been attributed to Buxtehude, but many authorities doubt that claim, thinking it may by by Samuel Scheidt or another long-forgotten church musician.

Music for January 1, 2017 + The Holy Name of Jesus

There will be no choir this Sunday

Instrumental Music

• Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year now hath passed away] BWV 614 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• Jesus, Name Above All Names/O, How I Love Jesus – arr. Mark Hayes
• Praise the Name of Jesus – arr. Fred Bock
• In dir ist Freude [In Thee Is Gladness] BWV 615 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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

• Hymn 450 - All hail the power of Jesus’ name (Coronation)
• Hymn 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (St. Peter)
• Hymn 250 - Now greet the swiftly changing year (Sixth Night)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (Hearn)
• Hymn R98 - How Majestic Is Your Name (How Majestic) 
• Hymn R28 - Emmanuel (McGee)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (Glorify Your Name)
• Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (Engleberg)

Jesus publicly received his Holy Name when he was presented
at the Temple and circumcised, under the Law

According to the liturgical calendar, the first of January, while still part of the twelve days of Christmas, is known as The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The celebration is held eight days after Christmas to commemorate the naming of the child, because the Gospel of Luke tells us, "at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

I've included many hymns and songs this Sunday which exult the name of Christ. Two of the piano voluntaries are settings of contemporary songs extolling Jesus' name.

This is, of course, also New Year's Day. While not a liturgical feast day, there is indeed music written for the church's observance of the day. Two of the most famous pieces for New Year's Day come from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbuchlein. I'll be playing both of them for this Sunday's single Eucharistic service at 10:15. The opening voluntary is rather melancholy, with its intensely chromatic, highly ornamented melody of the chorale Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year has passed] played slowly in the right hand on one keyboard while the left hand and feet accompany on another manual and the pedal board.

The other piece, played at the close of the service, is much more jubilant and bright. In Thee is Gladness is a hymn by  Johann Lindemann written for a balletto (dance tune) by Giovanni G. Gastoldi, a priest and composer from Mantua, Italy. Only the first four notes of the chorale are used as a recurring motif used as an ostinato during the piece, along with the "short-short-short-long" rhythm of the ultra short melodic fragment that also appears throughout the hymn. 

Music for Christmas Weekend 2016

December 24, 2016 – 4 PM

Pamela Saxon King, soloist
The Good Shepherd Bell Choir
The Good Shepherd Liturgical Dance Company

Vocal Music

• Mary, Did You Know? – Buddy Greene
• Do You Hear What I Hear? - Gloria Shayne Baker (1923 – 2008)

Instrumental Music

• Go, Tell It on the Mountain – Patricia A. Sanders
• Away in a Manger – Patricia A. Sanders
• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• V. Adagio
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 24, 2016 – 6:30 and 10 PM

The Good Shepherd Choir
Allison Gosney, soprano

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)
• What Is This Lovely Fragrance - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – Italian Carol, arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• Ding Dong, Merrily on High– French tune, arr. Charles Wood
• What Sweeter Musick - William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)
• Ave Maria – César Franck (1822 – 1890)
• Christmas Joy - Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 79 - O little town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99- Go tell it on the mountain! (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 25, 2016 – 10:15 AM

Instrumental Music

• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
• In the Bleak Midwinter—John Purifoy 
• O Little Town of Bethlehem – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• Prologue – Traditional, arr. Joseph W. Clokey (1890-1960)

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

• Hymn 107 - Good Christian friends, rejoice (In dulci jubilo)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (stanzas 1, 2, 3) (Gloria)
• Hymn 102 - Once in royal David’s city (Irby)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world (Antioch )

Music for December 18 , 2016 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come! – 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 475 - God himself is with us (Tysk)
• Hymn 56, st. 7-8 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 54 - Savior, of the nations, come! (Nun komm, der Heiden Heilend)
• Hymn 59, st. 3-5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (tune)
• Hymn 66 - Come, thou long expected Jesus (Stuttgart)
• Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 - Qui regis Israel

Charles Wood

Before there was Mack Wilberg, (1), before there John Rutter (2), before there was David Willcocks (3), there was Charles Wood.

Charles Wood was an Irish composer and teacher. (His pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams at Cambridge and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music.) He is chiefly known, however, as an Anglican Church musician. His anthems, especially Expectans expectavi, O Thou, the Central Orb, and  Hail, gladdening light, are both frequently performed and recorded.


His four-part settings of traditional English and European Carols were in use before the compilation of the popular Oxford Book of Carols. Two of his carols are among the pieces that we are singing this year during the Advent and Christmas season. Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary, is a traditional carol from Italy first published in 1920. Anglican priest George Ratcliffe Woodward translated the original 17th century Italian verse depicting the Annunciation.

All the organ music today is by Bach, from his organ collection Clavierübung, and all are based on the same tune, Nun Komm Der Heiden Heilend.  Clavierübung literally means “keyboard practice,” - the pieces both provide an opportunity to develop skill, as well as demonstrate the technical and stylistic conventions of keyboard composition and performance.  It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his musically most complex and technically most demanding compositions for that instrument. The work is sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass: between its opening and closing movements—the prelude and "St Anne" fugue—are 21 chorale preludes, setting parts of the Lutheran mass and catechisms. The chorale preludes range from compositions for single keyboard to a six-part fugal prelude with two parts in the pedal.

Nun Komm Der Heiden Heilend is a chorale derived from a chant.  The tune dates from a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Einsiedeln manuscript. The adaptation of the tune, presumably by Johann Walther, was published in 1524. J. S. Bach used the tune for three preludes in the Clavierübung as well as the Orgelbüchlein and in his cantatas 36 and 62.

This hymn establishes that the Savior of the world came not only to Jews, but to “Heiden”—literally to the heathen. However, “Heiden” does not carry a negative connotation; it is simply a reference to the Gentiles. In this hymn text as a prayer, we bid our Savior, our coming King Jesus, to come and give us hope by His grace.

(1) Mack Wilberg, the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is a composer/arranger well known for his Christmas Music.

(2) John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer/arranger well known for his original Christmas carols and arrangements of traditional carols.

(3) David Willcocks CBE MC was a British choral conductor, organist, composer who compiled Carols for Choirs I, II, III and IV, volumes which became the quintessential Christmas Choral collection.

Music for December 11, 2016 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

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

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy on “Veni Emmanuel” – Robert C. Lau (b. 1943)
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – Cathy Moklebust (b. 1958)
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Robert Powell (b. 1932)

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

• Hymn R128 - Bless’d be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn 56, st. 5-6 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy Kingdom come!” (St. Flavian)
• Hymn 59, st. 3-5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New)
• Psalm 146 - Lauda, anima mea

The anthem this Sunday is the beautiful chorus from Mendelssohn's oratorio St. Paul. (I wrote about it in January when we sang this anthem in church. You can read about it here.) We are singing it again this Sunday because the Gospel reminds us that Jesus said that John the Baptist was the one about whom it was written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’

The opening and closing voluntaries are based on the well-loved Advent hymn, Veni, veni, Emmanuel. (You remember your Latin I, right? Veni, vidi, vici? "I came, I saw, I conquered.") This is the hymn that we have been singing in place of the Gloria each Sunday in Advent. Both of these settings, by contemporary composers, are more paraphrases of the melody than a single exposition of the tune. You hear bits and pieces, or snippets of the melody, instead of a complete presentation of each phrase.

Robert C. Lau

The opening voluntary is by Robert Lau, recently retired as director of music and organist at Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where he held the post for over 25 years. He has degrees from Lebanon Valley College, the Eastman School of Music and The Catholic University of America.  A former member of the faculty at Lebanon Valley College where he taught music theory and chaired the Music Department, Dr. Lau also served as Adjunct Professor of Music at Penn State Harrisburg, teaching in the School of Humanities.

He has written more than 250 choral and keyboard works which have been published by the leading music publishing companies in the United States, and he has been commissioned to write choral, keyboard and vocal works for a variety of institutions, churches and individuals.  For his work in published choral and keyboard works he has won 15 Special Awards from ASCAP.  In 2010 Paraclete Press published his book A Practical Approach to Improvisation for the Church Organist.

In his setting of Veni Emmanuel, he employs an improvisatory style. I think he had verse one in mind while writing this work.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

The work begins with rather desolate harmonies, sparse chords spread out over the keyboard using a thin, stringy sound. The melody comes in the pedal, employing a plaintive oboe-like sound. At the "rejoice!" section, instead of the typical "rejoice" refrain, we hear a new chant like melody on the full Swell, rolling around, like a pot approaching full boil, until huge, screaming chords call us to rejoice, take heart, take courage, for the promise of the Messiah. I think that is why the piece doesn't resolve without a fight (listen for the struggles in the harmonies as the organ builds.) Finally, the dust settles, and the familiar "rejoice" melody comes in, but not loudly, but with a quiet hope, trusting in the arrival of Emmanuel, God with us.

The Good Shepherd Handbells are playing a gorgeous arrangement of the communion hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. It is a setting by Cathy Moklebust, a composer from South Dakota, whose compositions for handbell are influenced by her over forty-six years as a handbell musician and her background as a percussionist.