Music for August 20, 2017 + The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• This Is My Father’s World – arr. Richard Walters (21st C.)
• Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Berceuse – Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
• From God shall nought divide me  - Von Gott will ich nicht lassen,  BWV 658 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Carillon de Longpont – Louis Vierne

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

• Hymn 380 - From all that dwell below the skies (OLD 100TH)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy Faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn R173 - O Lord, hear my prayer (Taizé)
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 67 - Tone VIIIa

Last weekend at the Old Fashioned Hymn Sing, one of the requests was the hymn "This Is My Father's World," sung to the tune TERRA BEATA that is used in most hymnals. (For some reason the editors of The Hymnal 1982 chose a new tune which only appears in one other hymnal, making it fairly unattractive to ecumenical singing.) TERRA BEATA was originally a traditional English folk tune, a variant of which, entitled RUSPER, appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906.  In 1915, Franklin L. Sheppard arranged the tune for Maltbie D. Babcock's poem and published it in the Presbyterian church school hymnal Alleluia, edited by Sheppard (Babcock and Sheppard were friends). Since that time the text and tune has been published in 89 hymnals (except ours.)

Jade Panares, our soprano section leader, will be singing a setting of this hymn this weekend. Jade will be beginning her third year at the University of Houston, majoring in voice. In this arrangement, the simple melody has been left pretty much intact, with a lilting, syncopated piano accompaniment that the arranger describes as 'light rock.' (VERY light, in my opinion.) We chose to sing this hymn this week in light of the events of the past week here in the States. We refer to the last stanza (which also is NOT in The Hymnal 1982.)

This is my Father's world:
O let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad! 

The opening and closing voluntaries are from a collection of organ music 24 Pièces en style libre, Opus 31, Volume II, by Louis Vierne. The opening voluntary is No 19, Berceuse. A berceuse is a lullaby or cradle song.  It's dedicated to "à ma fille Colette" (to my daughter, Colette). But when it was published, Vierne had divorced from his wife who had quickly, while still married, fallen in love with Charles Mutin.. After seeing this dedication, Vierne's former wife wrote him: "A ta fille ? Elle n'est même pas de toi !" (to your daughter? But it's not YOUR daughter!"). How cruel, but still more cruel when one reads the dedication of  Vierne's 2nd symphony "A mon ami Charles Mutin" (To my friend Charles Mutin), written just after the Viernes were first married!

The closing voluntary is No 21, Carillon. It is based on the carillon of the Chapel of the Castle of Longpont, in Northern France.  Vierne was the organist at Notre-Dame in Paris, and good friends with the Montesquiou family, who would often invite him to spend August at the Castle. On August 15, 1913, he first heard the four bell chime (not really a carillon) play the now-famous air, and he was inspired to write this piece. Later he published it, dedicating it to the memory of his brother, René, who had been killed on May 29, 1918, by Austrian shrapnel, on the Plateau Branscourt (Marne), not far from Longpont.

It opens with full organ, the Carillon theme entering in an energetic ostinato in the pedals, above which powerful, detached chords appear. In the middle the volume drops and the carillon theme continues on the manuals. Striking features are the modulations, the highly effective staccato articulations, and the dynamic effects created by the swell box. A gradual crescendo leads into the reprise of the opening, ending with a coda.

The Communion voluntary is Von Gott will ich nicht lassen, a chorale prelude from the Great Eighteen Choräle Preludes, which J. S. Bach published in the last 10 years of his life, using earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. 

No. 7, From God shall nought divide me, is an example of the cantus firmus chorale: The melody of the chorale is sounded in long notes throughout the piece, in the pedal in this case. The ornate three-part keyboard accompaniment is derived from the opening notes of the hymn and a separate "joy motif" that permeates the piece, exquisitely "winding above and around [the chorale melody] like a luxurious garland of amaranth." [1]  Only four lines of the melody are heard in the pedal, the chorale prelude closing with a seemingly timeless bell-like coda over a pedal point, perhaps illustrating the final lines of the hymn, "after death we will be buried deep in the earth; when we have slept, we will be awoken by God." It is also interesting to note that in this "bell" coda, the note C sharp is heard 7 times consecutively, within a fourth voice, outside of the three accompaniment voices. This would seem to be indicative of the German funeral bell.

[1] Stinson, Russell (2001), J.S. Bach's Great Eighteen Organ Chorales, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-516556-X, p. 85

Music for August 13, 2017 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• It Is Enough from Elijah – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Kommst du nun, Jesu vom Himmel herunter auf Erden, BWV 650 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Sonatina from Cantata 106, God’s Time Is Best – Johann Sebastian Bach
• Maestoso, Opus 9, No. 1 – Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984)

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 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord! Ye heavens adore him (AUSTRIAN HYMN)
• Hymn - When the storms of life are raging, stand by me (STAND BY ME)
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Psalm 85:8-13 – Tone VIIIa

An organ transcription is an arrangement for the organ of a musical work that was originally written for another medium. Often it's an orchestra piece that has been arranged, but it could be a vocal work or even a piano piece that someone has arranged for use on the organ. Such music is often helpful for wedding use (think Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Ave Maria, or even [shudder!] the Wedding March. More often than not, it's not a terribly satisfying treatment of the piece (think Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel), but it's written because somebody [the Bride's Mother] really likes the music.

But all transcribed works for organ are not banal. In fact, Bach arranged some of his own music for solo organ. That wonderful Advent piece, Wachet Auf/Sleepers, Wake, is a transcription of the tenor aria from Cantata 140. And this morning's prelude is another transcribed setting of another movement of another cantata, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, BWV 137, movement 2 (alto solo). (You know LOBE DEN HERREN as the tune we use for our opening hymn this morning,) What is curious is that Bach renames the chorale to make it suitable for Advent: Are you coming , Jesus from heaven down to earth ? Why? I don't know. When I am playing it this morning, I am thinking of Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.

The melody is played in the pedal on a 4' trumpet stop, so it sounds higher than that of the left hand (which is thus the true bass of the piece).  The melody only appears in isolated pockets of the prelude, each time rising up out of the flowing right hand's obbligato melody, itself built of such beautiful music that it continues for a full twelve measures after the cantus firmus has had its final say, finally winding down only at the final, rich cadence.

 Here is what the melody looks like, compared with the hymn-tune on top. (And remember, I am playing this with my feet!)

Edwin Arthur Kraft

The communion voluntary is another transcription of the Sinfonia (the opening movement) of Cantata 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is best). However, Bach did not make this arrangement. It was arranged from the original orchestration (two flutes, two violins, and continuo) by Edwin Arthur Kraft, an American organist and choir-director who was best known for being organist choirmaster at the Episcopal cathedral in Cleveland, and head of the Organ Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He finally retired from his position at the cathedral in 1959, after service continually (except for one year) since 1907.

In this work, marked Molto adagio,  you hear the obbligato alto recorders in the right hand, mournfully echo each other over a sonorous background of viola da gambas and continuo, played by the left hand and pedals.

The offertory solo is the beautiful aria from the second part of Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah. This solo precedes the Old Testament passage this morning, (and sometimes includes it.)
It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers! I desire to live no longer: now let me die, for my days are but vanity. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have broken Thy covenant, and thrown down Thine altars, and slain all Thy prophets, slain them with the sword. And I, even I only am left: and they seek my life to take it away! It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers! Now let me die, Lord, take away my life!

Music for August 6, 2017 + The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• Christ, upon the mountain stands - Robert W. Lehman (b. 1960)
• Bruce Bailey, Tenor

Instrumental Music

• Grand Plein Jeu on Deo Gracias – Mary Beth Bennett (b 1954)
• Prelude on Be Still – Ashley Grote (b 1982)
• Agincourt Hymn – John Dunstable (c.1390-1453), arr. E Power Biggs

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 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 366, st. 5 - Holy God, we praise thy name (GROSSER GOTT)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R33 - We will glorify the King of kings (WE WILL GLORIFY)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love (SHINE, JESUS, SHINE)
• Psalm 99:5-9 - Tone VIIIa

The sixth of August is the date on the church calendar when we commemorate the Feast of the Transfiguration. The transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in three of the Gospels and the Second Epistle of Peter.

In these accounts, Jesus and three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John, go to a mountain to pray. On the mountain, Jesus begins to shine with bright rays of light. Then the prophets Moses and Elijah appear next to him, speaking with him, when, for the second time, God the Father proclaims him his only-begotten and well-loved son.

Since August 6 rarely falls on a Sunday, we always end the season after Epiphany with this story, since it is the culminating point of his public life, as his Baptism is its starting point, and his Ascension its end. But when August 6 does fall on a Sunday, we celebrate it again.

One of the classic hymns for the Feast of the Epiphany is the hymn O wondrous sight! O vision fair.

O wondrous sight! O vision fair
of glory that the church shall share,
which Christ upon the mountain shows,
where brighter than the sun he glows!

The text is one of several that was brought into usage at Salisbury Cathedral in the late fifteenth century with its inclusion in The Sarum Breviary (1495). The tune that many churches  use (though not the Anglican Church) is DEO GRACIAS, a stirring, fifteenth-century tune often called "The Agincourt Hymn," as it originally accompanied a hymn-text celebrating Henry V's triumph over the French at Agincourt, on St. Crispian’s Day, October 25th, 1415. It is thought to be written by John Dunstable, one of the most influential composers of the early fifteenth century. The closing voluntary is supposed to be an example of his organ music, though there is probably more E. Power Biggs than John Dunstable in the actually music. Biggs, who was the leading organist in the mid-twentieth century, and an early champion of 'Early Music" (pre-J. S. Bach), wrote this about Dunstable.

One epitaph of John Dunstable describes him as “an astrologian, a mathematician, a musician, and what not.” A contemporary of Chaucer, little of Dunstable’s life is known, yet from his music we may honor this almost mythical Englishman as the first to write music of clear and pleasing contours, and we may credit him with the evolution of a melodious style and successful harmonious punctuation of musical sentences. Some writers call him the first contrapuntist. It is believed that Dunstable was in the service of the chapel Royal, and that he was the author of the famous hymn celebrating the victory of Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt... 1

This tune is also used as the Cantus Firmus of the opening voluntary by Virginia organist Mary Beth Bennett. She writes in a 18th Century style. The term Plein Jeu (“full chorus”) originated with the classical French organ (c1650-1790), and referred to a registration consisting of principals, flutes, mixtures, and reed pipes, at 16',8', 4' and 2' pitch. It also refers to a particular compositional form, such as what we have here, with the Grand Plein jeu registration drawn on the manuals and used to play a rather full, chordal texture. The Trompette of the pedal is used to play the melody against this in long note values.

Robert Lehman

Bruce Bailey will sing a new hymn for Transfiguration by the American conductor, organist, harpsichordist and composer, Robert Lehman. Lehman holds a BFA in organ performance from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a MM in church music from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, and a Doctorate from the Graduate Theological Foundation of South Bend, Indiana where his particular area of study was pre-Reformation English liturgy with an emphasis on the Sarum Use and the ecclesiastical music of the English Middle Ages.

Robert Lehman is director of music for the Church of St. Michael & St. George in St. Louis. He has served on the staff of several distinguished churches, including the Washington National Cathedral (of which he is a Fellow), the Princeton University Chapel, Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York City and the historic Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut where, under his leadership, the choir and music program gained an international reputation for excellence. 

His compositions are published by several American publishers and have been recorded by leading choirs around the globe.  His work is heard regularly over NPR and the BBC and he has been the recipient of many awards and honors.  

1. Biggs, E. Power, Treasury of Early Organ Music, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Mercury Music Company,  1947.

Music for July 30, 2017 + The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• The Holy City – Stephen Adams (Michael Maybrick) (1841 – 1913)
• Give Me Jesus – Moses Hogan, arr.
• Mitchell Hutchins, tenor

Instrumental Music

• Sonata – Ignazio Cirri (1711-1787)
• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 642 – 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 388 - O worship the King, all glorious above! (HANOVER)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy kingdom come!” (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn R145 - Lord, I want to be a Christian (I WANT TO BE A CHRISTIAN)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Psalm 119:129-136 Mirabilia – Tone VIII.a

Mitchell Hutchins singing with
The Kingwood Chorale, 2016

This Sunday we welcome back to Good Shepherd Mitchell Hutchins, a former choral Scholar and Staff Singer of Good Shepherd. Mitchell, who graduated from LoneStar College Kingwood and Stephen F. Austin, has been teaching choir in the Nacogdoches ISD. This fall he will have the opportunity to start his own Choir Program at Cleveland Middle School in Cleveland, Texas.

He will be singing two favorites of the congregation. The Holy City is often sung on Palm Sunday, but it is actually more appropriate at other times of the year. While it includes not only the triumphal entry but the crucifixion, the third stanza goes on to detail the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. This will literally be heaven on earth. It is referred to in the Bible in several places (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:10; 12:22–24; and 13:14), but it is most fully described in Revelation 21. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate fulfillment of all God’s promises.

(I wrote an interesting "rest of the story" article about the composer in March 2016, which I won't repeat now, but you can access it by clicking here.)

The other solo is a repeat of the solo he sang last year, which was a huge favorite of the congregation. It is Moses Hogan's setting of the spiritual, "Give Me Jesus." Using the piano as accompaniment, it repeats the refrain, "you may have all the world, give me Jesus."

The opening voluntary is a Sonata by Italian organist and composer Giacomo Matteo Ignazio Cirri He lived his entire life in Forlì (current Emilia-Romagna), Italy. He was a friend of Giovanni Battista Martini, who had a portrait of Ignazio Cirri among his valuable men's portraits. In 1759, Cirri became Maestro di cappella in the Cathedral of Forlì and he was admitted in the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna.

In 1770 he published his first works, Twelve Sonatas for Organ. As typical of the early Italian Baroque, these sonatas were in two parts, a slow movement followed by a faster second movement. Also typical of the Italian organ of the day, there is no pedal part, as the Italian organ was rather primitive compared to the German organ of the same time period.

Music for Sunday, July 23, 2017 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Finlandia – Jean Sibelius, Margie VanBrackle, Soprano

Instrumental Music

• All Glory Be to God on High– Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Let Us Break Bread Together – Richard Proulx (1937-2010)
• Psalm XIX: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

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

• Hymn 290 - Come, ye thankful people, come (ST. GEORGE’S, WINDSOR)
• Hymn 686 - Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn  - We are climbing Jacob’s ladder (JACOB’S LADDER)
• Hymn 344 - Lord dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23 Domine, probasti – Tone VIII.a

Thanksgiving in July? - Why are we singing "Come, ye thankful people, come?"

The Gospel this Sunday contains the parable of the weeds, where one person sows good seed, but another comes in the night and sows bad seed. (Who would do this? Is this the fore-runner of the modern internet virus?).  It's also known as the tares among the wheat. And here is where the opening hymn becomes relevant. Hear (or read, or SING) stanza two:

All the world is God's own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be. 

So there you have it!

I am back from my two week pilgimage to England and Wales, studying and listening to the Cathedral Choir music of the Anglican Church, and being edified in the faith by prayers and preaching. I will not bore you with it here, but if you would like particulars, ask me! I'll try to make it brief!

Music for July 16, 2017 + The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Aria di Chiesa: Pietà, Signore! Attributed to Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) - Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Tuba Tune in D Major – C.S. Lang (1891-1971)
• Andante in G – R. M. Stults (1861-1933)
• A Hymn of Glory - Edward Broughton (Lani Smith) (1934-2015)

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

• Opening Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy Word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Before Gospel Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (IVERSON)
• Offertory Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Communion Hymn R 248 - O let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Closing Hymn 535 -  Ye Servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)
• Psalm 65 - Tone V

The offertory today is a solo work from the Italian repertoire; more specifically, it’s from the collection "Twenty-Four Italian Songs And Arias.” If you’ve ever studied voice, you probably began with this book. For well over a century, the G. Schirmer edition of 24 Italian Songs & Arias of the 17th and 18th Centuries has introduced millions of beginning singers to serious Italian vocal literature. In 2015, the pop-culture website Buzzfeed published a review of the 24 songs included in the collection. Here is what they had to say about this number:

This is a dark, churchy song for the guiltiest of souls. It's kind of a cosmic bummer. The next time you do something awful, like hooking up with your best friend's ex, blast this and beg for forgiveness. (1)

In this book, the music is attributed to Alessandro Stradella, an Italian composer of the middle Seventeenth century of some prominence. However, all indications point to another being the composer. In 1833, the Italian art song, "Se i miei sospiri", appeared in a Paris concert organized by François Joseph Fétis, a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. Fétis published the piece for voice and strings in 1838 and then again in 1843 for voice and piano with alternate lyrics ("Pietà, Signore"). It is these alternate lyrics with which the piece is now typically associated. Fétis attributed the song to Stradella and claimed to possess an original manuscript of the work but never produced it for examination. As early as 1866, musicologists were questioning the authenticity of the song, and when Fétis' library was acquired by the Royal Library in Brussels after his death, no such manuscript could be found. Owing to this and the fact that the style of the piece is inconsistent with Stradella's own period, the authorship of the piece is now typically attributed to Fétis himself.

François Joseph Fétis,

It's not completely unheard of for composers to write compositions themselves and then claim that it's the work of another composer--a kind of reverse plagiarism--Parisotti and Kreisler are among the list of composers who have done this. Some seem to do it as a prank, others to get attention to a work that they feel would be ignored otherwise, and there are probably still more reasons. In any case, this is not the first of such works, and doubtless won't be the last.

The heavy mood of this powerful and moving work is set by a fairly lengthy instrumental introduction, and then the voice enters with short, subdued phrases, which eventually pick up momentum and intensity. The lines vary in length, but always contribute to the sense of a highly structured piece.

Jackson Hearn is away this week, attending the annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians. This year the conference is at Winchester, England, where he will worship at and tour Winchester, Salisbury, and Chichester Cathedrals, attend workshops, and gather with other Episcopal Musicians from around the world. He would like to thank Jill Kirkonis and Richard Murray for leading the music while he is away.

REMINDER! We're having an Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing on  Friday, August 11 at 7 PM. Help us decide what hymns to sing!  You can give Jackson Hearn a list of your favorite hymns at church or in an email. (jacksonhearn@goodshepherdkingwood.org). Or, you can vote on your favorite hymns by going to http://doodle.com/poll/4gh2kpy5vwyeyxa4 (or use scan this QR code on your smart phone or table)

(1)   A Definitive Ranking Of "Twenty-Four Italian Songs And Arias" (February 20, 2015) retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/ninamohan/a-definitive-ranking-of-twenty-four-italian-songs-and-arias?utm_term=.aqxM3e5lz#.hcnG2E7eW

Music for Sunday, July 9, 2017 + The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Shine, Jesus, Shine – Mark Hays, arr.

Instrumental Music - Jill Kirkonis, organist

• Make the Sounds of Praise - Robert J. Hughes (1916–1999)
• What Wondrous Love is This -Southern Harmony, 1843, arr. Cathy DeRousse (b. 1954)
• Song for a Feast Day - Hugh S. Livingston, Jr. (1945–2014)

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

• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 414 - God, my King, thy might confessing (STUTTGART)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 302 - Father, we thank thee (RENDEZ A DIEU)
• Hymn R147 - Softly and Tenderly Jesus is calling (THOMPSON)
• Hymn 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (ST. PETER)

The offertory this morning features a piano setting of a British contemporary hymn arranged by the American pianist Mark Hayes. It will feature a small group of choir members signing the words instead of singing them.

Cathy DeRousse

The organ communion voluntary is by a living Texas-born woman, Cathy DeRousse. Born in Dallas, Texas, she began piano studies at the age of eight and was accompanying choirs at school and church by the age of thirteen. She earned the bachelor of music degree in church music with an emphasis in piano at Oklahoma Baptist University, where she also studied composition with C.L. Bass, and the master of music degree in piano from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has served as a staff accompanist at several colleges, most recently at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas, where she also serves as College Organist and Director of the Bennett Technology Lab. She is also a member of Baroque Artists of Shreveport and is active as an adjudicator for piano festivals and competitions and as a clinician for church organists and pianists.   

Mrs. DeRousse lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, with her husband Paul, a minister of music. They have three grown sons.

Robert J. Hughes was born in Toronto, Canada. He held degrees in music from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), Trinity College of Music (London, England), and a doctorate from Oxford University (England). Hughes served as organist-choirmaster in Toronto and as bandmaster for the Royal Canadian Air Force Band during World War II.

Hugh S. Livingston, Jr. grew up in Tennessee, where he pursued his interest in music ministry, learned to play several instruments, and began composing original works. He served in music ministries in Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, providing his talents as a choral director, pianist, organist, and trumpeter. Even in his retirement, Hugh remained active as a church musician, and shared his musical gifts with hundreds of people in assisted living and nursing homes. He will always be linked with the Lorenz Publishing Company. For decades, his compositions and arrangements have been featured prominently in the Lorenz catalog, including a vast number of contributions to our keyboard and choral magazines as well as numerous anthems and keyboard collections. In all, he has published thousands of pieces.

Jackson Hearn is away this week and next, attending the annual conference of the Association of Anglican Musicians. This year the conference is at Winchester, England, where he will worship at and tourr Winchester, Salisbury, and Chichester Cathedrals, attend workshops, and gather with other Episcopal Musicians from around the world. He would like to thank Jill Kirkonis for leading the music while he is away.