Music for March 24, 2019 + Lent III

Vocal Music

• Create In Me A Clean Heart, O God – Carl F. Mueller

Instrumental Music

• Flûtes – Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
• Récit de Nazard – Louis-Nicolas Clérambault

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

• Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R141 - Come, ye sinners, poor and needy (ARISE)
• Hymn 439  - What wondrous love is this (WONDROUS LOVE)
• Hymn 685 - Rock of ages, cleft for me (TOPLADY)
• Hymn 244 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (TUNE)
• Hymn 149 - Eternal Lord of Love, behold your church (OLD 124TH)
• Psalm 63:1-8– Psalm tone IIa

Carl F. Mueller

The Good Shepherd choir sings verses from Psalm 51, set to music by the American composer Carl Frank Mueller. A native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he graduated from Elmhurst College in 1910 with the aim of becoming a concert organist. Subsequently, he was director of music at Grand Avenue Congregational Church and organ department head at the Milwaukee Institute of Music in Wisconsin. In 1927 he moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and served as organist-director of Central Presbyterian Church (1927-1953), taught at Montclair State College (1928-1954), and was founder-director of the Montclair A Capella Chorale (1931-1956). After summer study in choral music with John Finley Williamson at Westminster Choir College, he obtained a Fellowship there in 1937, and began composing choral music. He later served as organist-director at First Presbyterian Church in Red Bank, New Jersey (1953-1962), and taught at the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music. He received an honorary doctorate from the Strassberger Conservatory of Music in St Louis, Missouri. He is best known for today's anthem, Create in Me A Clean Heart, which has sold over 2 million copies.

The organ music today comes from the pen of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, a French organist and composer of the 18th century. He was organist at various churches including Church of the Grands-Augustins, Saint-Sulpice and the church of the Grands-Jacobins, where he was responsible for playing the organ and directing the choirs.

His important published work includes a large number of religious pieces with chants and choirs; 

more than 25 secular cantatas on subjects often inspired by Greco-Roman myths; sonatas for violin and basso continuo: a book of dance pieces for the harpsichord; and a book of organ pieces in two suites in which melodic charm wins out over religious spirit. These two suites seemed destined to begin a cycle of pieces in all keys but Clérambault never completed the cycle. Today's music comes from the second suite.

Music for March 17, 2019

Vocal Music

• Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive – 19th C. American Hymn

Instrumental Music

• Erbarm' Dich mein, o Herre Gott! BWV 721  (Be Merciful to Me, O Lord God) – J. S. Bach
• Londonderry Air – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-1919)

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

• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
• Hymn 455 - O love of God, how strong and true (DUNEDIN)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn R243 - You shall cross the barren desert (BE NOT AFRAID)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Psalm 27– Psalm tone IIa

Every five or six years St. Patrick's Day falls on a Sunday. Now I recognize that this is not an official Holy Day in the Episcopal Church, but I have always loved the Irish tune, Londonderry Air, played on the organ. (Probably because as a teenage I had two recordings of the melody played on Theatre organs by none other than Virgil Fox and Billy Nalle.) So I use this as an excuse every time St. Patrick's Day and Sunday occur together to play an arrangement.

This year the arrangement is by the English organist Noel Rawsthorne, who died just two months ago at the age of 89. Rawsthorne became organist of Liverpool Cathedral when he succeeded his teacher, Harry Goss-Custard, in 1955. He stayed at Liverpool until his retirement in 1980. The Liverpool organ is the largest pipe organ in the UK. You can read about it here. (Notice that the cathedral has only had four organists since the organ was installed in 1923!

The communion voluntary is an early work (perhaps 1703?) by Johann Sebastian Bach. The stately melody, in long, slow half notes, rises from a heavy, mournful bass line with repeated four and five-voice chords in quarter notes in the left hand. The melody is what is called a cantus firmus, a well known Lutheran choral theme. The title means "Be Merciful to Me, O Lord God" in German, and you can feel the pain and the guilt of the penitent through the cantus firmus, as he (or she) ascends and seeks pardon from God.

We see no models of this simple form in the complex North-German style of Buxtehude and his circle, although its somewhat archaic style is reminiscent of Johann Kuhnau.

In addition to the unusual texture of this work, it also has unusual harmonies. There are more minor 7th and 9th chords than usual; more chord progressions a 3rd apart than usual; and more untied suspensions than usual.  It truly is an oddity among the organ works of Bach, but one that has become a favorite of organists the world over.

An early printing of the Hymntune DETROIT, in shaped-notes, with the melody in the tenor.

The choir is singing a sparse acapella setting of the 19th century American tune, DETROIT. The text is from the 20th century. Rosamond E. Herklots wrote these words in 1966 after digging out weeds in her garden and thinking how bitterness, hatred, and resentment are like poisonous weeds growing in the Christian garden of life. "Forgive Our Sins" is a hymn about being ready to forgive others again and again-as Jesus said, seventy-times-seven times! We have many hymns about God's forgiveness of our sins, but this one adds a most helpful guide in forgiving others' sins. Herklots revised her own text into the second-person singular ("you") in 1967.

The hymn tune was very popular among Primitive Baptists, and in 1933, George Pullen Jackson included it among the "Eighty Most Popular Tunes" in his White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. It was only in the last half of the 20th century that it was included in mainline hymnals. Both The Hymnal 1982 and the RENEW hymnal include this pairing of text and tune.

Music for March 10, 2019 + The First Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

• Lord Jesus Christ, We Humbly Pray – Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941)

Instrumental Music

• Ach, was soll ich Sunder machen – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)

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

• The Great Litany S-67
• Hymn 147 - Now let us all with one accord (BOURBON)
• Hymn 150 - Forty days and forty nights (AUS DER TIEFE RUFE ICJ)
• Hymn R112 - You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord (ON EAGLES WINGS)
• Hymn R114 - Bless the Lord, my soul (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 142 - Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 - Tone IIa

It's the First Sunday in Lent this week, so you will notice some changes in the service.

1. There will be no prelude or opening hymn this week as we sing The Great Litany. 
1. The Great Litany in the Book of Common Prayer derives from the first English litany, compiled by Thomas Cranmer in 1544, drawing from the Sarum rite, the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and a Latin litany composed by Martin Luther. Because of its penitential tone, it is especially appropriate during Lent. The Great Litany includes an invocation of the Trinity; a series of deprecations which seek deliverance from evil, spiritual harm, and natural calamities; a series of supplications which plead the power of Christ's Incarnation, life, death, and resurrection for deliverance; and prayers of general intercession.
2. The Psalms will be sung to the unaccompanied plainsong chant tones.
3. The service music will be the setting by Franz Schubert, and will include the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.
4. There will be no closing voluntary. You are encouraged to leave quietly.

The choir's anthem is a chant-like setting of the communion hymn  by the American composer Gilbert M. Martin. Currently a free lance composer, he has composed more than 300 published pieces of sacred and secular choral, piano, organ, instrumental and ballet music. 

A native of Southbridge, Massachusetts, Martin now lives in Dayton, Ohio. He received a B. Mus. from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J., where he studied with Alexander McCurdy and George Lynn. He was recently honored at Westminster as a distinguished composer and graduate.

The communion voluntary is a partita based on the German chorale, O how great is Thy compassion. Written by Johann Pachelbel (of the famed Canon in D used in many weddings), the partita is a set of variations of the chorale tune, beginning simply with a four-part statement of the melody, with the variations getting more intricate as they progress.

Pachelbel was a German composer known for his works for organ and one of the great organ masters of the generation before Johann Sebastian Bach.

Pachelbel studied music at Altdorf and Regensburg and held posts as organist in Vienna, Stuttgart, and other cities, before being appointed organist at the St. Sebalduskirche in Nürnberg in 1695, where he remained until his death. He also taught organ, and one of his pupils was Johann Christoph Bach, who in turn gave his younger brother Johann Sebastian Bach his first formal keyboard lessons.

Of special importance are his chorale preludes, which did much to establish the chorale melodies of Protestant northern Germany in the more lyrical musical atmosphere of the Catholic south. His popular Pachelbel’s Canon was written for three violins and continuo and was followed by a gigue in the same key. His son, Wilhelm Hieronymous Pachelbel, was also an organist and composer.

Music for March 3, 2019 + The Last Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Christ, the Glory – Jean-François Lallouette (1651-1728)
• Alleluia, Song of Gladness – plainsong arr. Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugato on “Crusader’s Hymn” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Prière – Noel Rawsthorne (1929-2019)
• Processional – William Mathias (1934-1992)

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

• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 383 - Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (Daniel Iverson)
• Hymn R102 - The Lord is my light (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R291 - Go forth for God, go to the world in peace (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 99 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

The Last Sunday after Epiphany, which observes the Transfiguration of Christ, is like one big final "Hurrah" before we enter the quiet, contemplative season of Lent (Ash Wednesday is March 6.) The Gospel tells of the time Christ reveals his true Glory upon the mountain just before his own passion begins. We remember that glory this Sunday.

We also say "farewell" to our alleluias. The liturgy of the medieval church forbade the use of alleluias from a period before Lent until Easter, a practice which we observe in our own Lenten discipline. Therefore, this Sunday the choir will sing a hymn with roots from the medieval church and tune from the 16th century which is often called “Farewell to Alleluia.” Here is a beautiful meditation on this hymn from the Lutheran blogger Marie Greenway

My communion voluntary is a quiet piece by the English organist Noel Rawsthorne, who died in January at the age of 89. Rawsthorne was Organist of Liverpool Cathedral for twenty-five years from 1955-1980 before becoming Organist Emeritus. After study at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now The Royal Northern College of Music), he won scholarships to study with on the continent with both Fernando Germani & Marcel Dupré. 

From 1980-1984 he was City Organist & Artistic Director at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, and travelled widely as a recitalist in U.K. Europe and USSR. In recognition of his many achievements, he was awarded a D.Mus from the University of Liverpool in 1994.

Music for February 24, 2019 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Lord, I Will Praise Thee – Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)
• We Are Not Alone – Pepper Choplin (b. 1957)
• Praise the Lord – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)

Instrumental Music

• Do Not I Love Thee, O My Lord? – Gardner Read (1913-2005)
• Hymne – Evángelos Papathanassíou (b. 1943)
• Toccata on “Lobe den Herren” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

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 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 295 - Sing Praise to Our Creator (CHRISTE, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)

Natalie Sleeth

The Coventry Choir will sing this Sunday. Our first through fourth grade choir has been working on two anthems that they will sing today. The first is an anthem by Natalie Sleeth, an American composer of sacred songs and anthems. She wrote both text and tune of this fine praise hymn in 1975 when she worked with church school children and a junior choir at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Similar to Psalm 150 and Francis of Assisi's "All Creatures of Our God and King" (hymn 600), this text is a wonderful catalog of things, times, and places. All instruments and all occasions can be used to sing our praise to the Lord. Note that God's praise is warranted not only in the good times but also in "the time of sorrow" or in "the peace and quiet" (st. 2).

Pepper Choplin

The second anthem, which they will sing with the Good Shepherd Choir, is the song We Are Not Alone, an a cappella anthem that captures that confident thought and presents it in a straightforward, honest way.  The adult choir sings a gentle, rhythmic choral ostinati ("We are not alone, God is with us") that supports the smooth, sustained melody, sung by the Coventry Choir.

It was written Pepper Choplin, a full-time composer, conductor and humorist (with a name like "Pepper" I guess it's natural he should have a sense of humor!) who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. With a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Choplin went on to earn a Master of Music degree in composition from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Good Shepherd Choir will also sing an anthem with a text based on Isaiah 12:1-6, set to music by English musician Gordon Jacob. Though there is a lot of unison writing, and the organ doubles the voices quite a bit, there are just enough syncopated rhythms, harmonic shifts, and wide, angular melodic motives that make it challenging for a choir such as ours that is used to square, predictable harmonies of Bach and Handel or the flowing melodies of Mendelssohn or Brahms.

A native of London, Jacob studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry and Herbert Howells. He taught briefly at other schools before returning to the Royal College as a lecturer in 1926; he was to remain there until his retirement in 1966.

The opening voluntary is an organ arrangement of a tune that first appeared in A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony in1820. The tune, DETROIT, is found in our hymnal at no. 674, Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive. The composer of the organ prelude is Gardner Read. Professor emeritus of composition at Boston University, Read was a prolific composer of orchestral, choral, and chamber works and pieces for piano, organ, and solo voice. In addition, he authored a number of texts on musical notation and composition.

Gardner Read

Between 1941 to 1948, Read headed the composition departments at the St. Louis Institute of Music, the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1948, he was appointed composer-in-residence and professor of composition at the School of Music, Boston University, retiring in 1978. In addition, Read served as principal conductor with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra in 1943 and 1944, and put in guest conducting appearances over the years with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Kansas City Philharmonic, and various university orchestras in performances of his own works.

Music for February 17, 2019 + The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Blessed Is the Man - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• O How Amiable – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Grazioso – Arnold B. Sherman (b. 1948)
• Partita on  Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten - Georg Böhm (1661–1733)
• Präludium in A Minor - Georg Böhm

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn R224 - Healer of my soul (John Michael Talbot)
• Hymn 493  - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)

Two anthems by the choir, plus a work for Handbells, are featured in this Sunday's music. 

First is a work by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Known primarily for his symphonies, concertos and ballets, Tchaikovsky was also deeply interested in the music and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1878 he set the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom to music, followed by the All-Night Vigil and nine sacred songs. All of these were of seminal importance in the later interest in Orthodox music, which up until this time was highly controlled by the Imperial Chapel.

This anthem, Blessed Is the Man, is not the "Blazhen Muzh" (Blessed is the man - Psalm 1) from his All-Night Vigil, but is a creation by Gene Lowell, an American choral director active in the 1950s, who took a piano work of Tchaikovsky (In Church, the last number in his collection Album pour enfants, Op. 39) and added words based on two verses from Psalm 1.

 The offertory anthem is the grand work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the great English symphonist of the 20th century. Though he was described as "a cheerful agnostic," he was highly influential in the music of the Anglican church, not only writing some beautiful choral works, but serving as Musical Editor of the English Hymnal (1904) and writing two of our most beautiful and well-known hymntunes, SINE NOMINE (For all the Saints) and DOWN AMPNEY (Come Down, O Love Divine). His interest in folk songs and hymn tunes is evident in many of his works, including today's anthem. Terry Blaine, in his notes to the CD Anthem - Great British Hymns & Choral Works recorded by the Huddersfield Choral Society, wrote this about the anthem:

Simplicity is a keynote in Vaughan Williams’s O how amiable, and the reason is the circumstances in which it was composed. In 1934 the novelist E.M. Forster wrote “The Abinger Pageant”, a play about the history of England, performed to aid preservation work at a church near where he lived in Surrey. Vaughan Williams’s anthem was written to be sung by amateur performers as part of the festivities, and the mainly unison writing reflects this. It also emphasizes the communal nature of the pageant experience, as does the addition of a verse from the famous hymn “O God our help in ages past” at the conclusion. (c) 2016 by Terry Blaine

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.

Music for February 10, 2019 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O, Praise God in His Holiness – Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “Nicea” – Piet Post (1919-1979)
• Benedictus: Chromhorne en Taille (Mass for the Parishes) – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Carillon on “St. Edmund” – Malcolm Archer

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty (NICEA)
• Hymn - Tú has venido a la orilla (PESCADOR)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R208  - Santo, santo, santo (UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn R308 - Thuma Mina (Send Me, Lord)  (THUMA MINA)
• Hymn 537 - Christ for the world we sing (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 138:1-6, 8-9 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W.  Meachen

holy (adjective): exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." - Isaiah 6:1-3

This beautiful passage from the prophet Isaiah, used as the first scripture lesson this Sunday, was the inspiration for much of today's music. I look for any reason to sing the hymn "Holy, holy, holy," so it was a natural choice to begin the service, not only as the opening hymn, but also as the opening voluntary. 

I begin with four variations based on the tune NICAEA by contemporary Dutch composer Piet Post. He was the organist from 1949 to 1979 of the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden.  After hearing a pretty straight-forward setting of the hymn, you will hear (I.) a lilting setting of the tune in a flowing 6/8 rhythm, (II.) a light, fantasy style movement outlining the melody with rapid flourishes using the 8' and 2' flutes in the swell, (III.) a variation featuring a 16th-note ostinato pattern accompanying the melody, played in the left hand on an oboe stop, and finally (IV.) a slow movement in 3/4 time with a steady, insistent quarter-note pulse provided by the pedal. The piece then concludes with a Finale which I will use to introduce the hymn.

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1922)
by Herbert Lambert

We continue to focus on the holiness of God with the anthem by English composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, O, Praise God in His Holiness, written for the 1953 Festival of the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes in honor of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is a festive setting of Psalm 150.

Gibbs studied at Cambridge and with Vaughan Williams at the RCM, where he taught (1921-39). His best works are his songs, especially to poems by de la Mare, but he also wrote much for choirs and chamber orchestras and achieved immense success with his slow waltz Dusk, which Queen Elizabeth requested for her 18th birthday.