Music for July 21, 2019

Vocal Music

• Be Thou My Vision – arr. Richard Walters, Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• All Glory Be to God on High – Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718 – 1795)
• Jesus, All My Gladness – Friedrich Marpurg
• All Glory Be to God on High – Johann Pachelbel

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 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus! (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 711 - Seek ye first the kingdom of God (SEEK YE FIRST)
• Hymn R201 - Be still, for the Spirit of the Lord (BE STILL)
• Hymn R 10 - Be still and know that I am God (BE STILL AND KNOW)
• Hymn 344 - Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 15 - tone VIIIa

Hymns are the backbone of our worship. Next to the word of God, music deserves the highest praise. That's not original to me, unfortunately - I wish I could say something that deep. (Martin Luther gets the credit.) But it does echo my own feelings. Our hymnal is equal in importance to our prayer book. So it's fitting that everything we are doing this week is derived from our body of hymnody.

Look at the offertory solo that Harrison Boyd will be singing. It is an arrangement of the beloved Celtic hymn Be Thou My Vision by Richard (Rick) Walters. With a bachelor’s degree in piano from Simpson College and graduate study in composition at the University of Minnesota with Dominick Argento, Rick Walters is now vice president of classical and vocal publications at Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest source for printed music. In addition to his duties as an editor and publisher, he also finds time to compose and arrange music for singers.

Harrison Boyd with your organist

This will be Harrison's last Sunday singing with us before he heads off to Mississippi to start college at the University of Mississippi. As I said on Senior Sunday, he has been an asset to our choir, helping to the lead the basses with his mellow voice and excellent musicianship. We will miss him terribly, and wish him the best.

All the organ music is also based on hymns. The opening and closing voluntaries are settings of the hymn-tune we have been singing as the Song of Praise  at the 10:15 service all summer. Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (All glory be to God on high) is a Lutheran hymn from the 1500s,which was intended as a German version of the Gloria part of the Latin mass. As a hymn usually sung every Sunday, it was often the basis for chorale preludes. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote six settings alone! Other composers from the 18th century include Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Georg Böhm.

In the Pachelbel setting that I am using for the closing voluntary, the melody does not come in right away. It begins with a small fughetta employing a chipper, 16th-note melodic subject. After two pages, the melody enters in the pedal with a flourish in the manual parts. It is played in a slow duple meter, as opposed to the quick triple meter setting we sing on Sundays. For that reason the tune may appear only vaguely familiar.

The same may be said about the opening voluntary using the same tune. Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg begins with a triple meter setting, but only outlining the usual harmonies of the hymn. There is no out-right presentation of the cantus firmus (melody) until the second half,  when he presents the full chorale - but, like Pachelbel, in a duple meter: 4/4 time instead of 3/4. Even at a typical hymn tempo it sounds different than what we are accustomed to.

Marpurg was German musicologist just after Bach in the Age of Enlightenment. Best known for his treatises on music theory and as a music critic, he still found time to write a collection of choral preludes, including today's opening voluntary as well as the communion voluntary, based on another German Chorale, Jesu, Meine Freude. You can find that hymn in our hymnal at 701, Jesus, all my gladness. 

Music for July 14, 2019

Vocal Music

• How Great Thou Art – Stuart K. Hine

Instrumental Music

• Hyfrydol – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Sonata No. 1 in F minor (Adagio) – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Praise to the Lord – Paul Manz

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 609 - Where cross the crowded ways of life (GARDINER)
• Hymn R 266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart  (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 602 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with thy love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 25:1-9 - Tone VIIIa

This Sunday one of our choristers, Emily VanNostrand, sings a hymn that has become one of the favorite hymns of the last century, How Great Thou Art. It was voted the United Kingdom's favorite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise and was ranked second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001.

It is also one among challengers for least-liked hymns of many in the church. (I've discovered Amazing Grace is also a contender!) Many of those who sing this hymn throughout the world in countless translations have no idea of the duality of feeling that exists around it. Perhaps both sides would benefit from some historical perspective.

Carl Boberg

Carl Gustaf Boberg, a Swedish pastor, editor, and member of the Swedish parliament, was enjoying a nice walk when a thunderstorm suddenly appeared out of nowhere. A severe wind began to blow. After the storm was over, Mr. Boberg looked out over the clear bay. He then heard a church bell in the distance. And the words to How Great Thou Art begin to form in his heart

O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made

This poem, titled O Store Gud (O Great God) was published in 1891 in Witness of the Truth, the weekly newspaper that Boberg edited. The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first-known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888. Eight verses appeared with the music in the 1890 Sions Harpan. It was later translated in German. In 1927, it was published in a Russian version of the German text.

Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary to the Ukraine, heard the Russian version and sang it at an evangelistic meeting with his wife. He then translated the first three stanzas into English, which they sang at an evangelistic meeting in England during World War Two. He published the first three verses (in both English and Russian) in 1949 in Grace and Peace, a Russian evangelistic paper which Hine edited. He later wrote the fourth verse as a triumphant message of life eternal.

The hymn was introduced to American audiences during the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusades in the 1950s. The version sung by George Beverly Shea in the Graham Crusades is vastly different from that heard in Sweden. The Crusade rendition featured soaring lines with fermatas on the last phrase of the refrain. The Swedish version is much more understated and sung in strict rhythm.

Recordings by numerous popular recording artists may be found on YouTube, but perhaps none are as memorable as the rendition by Elvis Presley on his farewell tour in 1977 weeks before his death. This Sunday Emily sings the version made popular by Carrie Underwood.

Music for July 7, 2019 +

Vocal Music

• O Had I Jubal’s Lyre – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)

Anna Zhang, soprano
Instrumental Music

• Aria from Water Music – George Frederick Handel
• There Is a Fountain – Jean Langlais
• Postlude in G – George Frederick Handel

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

• Hymn R-270 - Join all the glorious names (DARWALL)
• Hymn 441 - In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn R305 - Lord, you give the great commission (ABBOT’S LEIGH)

The offertory this Sunday is the jubilant aria for soprano from Handel's opera, Joshua. Joshua tells the story of the Israelites from their passage over the Jordan River into Canaan and through the Battle of Jericho. This aria comes at the end of the oratorio. It will be sung by our soprano section leader this past year, Anna Zhang. Anna was a student at Lone Star College, and will be entering Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches in the fall.

If you were raised in the Baptist, Methodist or other southern denominations, chances are great that you will remember an old hymn called "There is a fountain filled with blood." This old revival tune was given a new treatment by the French organist Jean Langlais. The melody is played in the pedals, while a slow, modal accompaniment hovers above.

Music for June 30, 2019

There is one service this morning at 10:15

Instrumental Music

• Meditation on ‘Melita’ “ – R. Wolf 
• Improvisation on ‘Materna’ – Charles Callahan 
• God Of Our Fathers – John M. Rasley 

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our fathers (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOHE)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ARRAM)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)

I will be out of town this week at the Association of Anglican Musicians Conference in Boston. Rob Carty will be playing the organ for us, and for that I am grateful.

Since I am out of town this weekend, we will not be singing our usual medley of patriotic songs at the church picnic, so I am including a couple in our worship this morning, though they have nothing to do with the scriptures being read. If you listen carefully, closely, and critically, you will hear that the word spoken and read is a call to follow God. Matthew Henry, a Bible Scholar from the 1700s, wrote, "It is easy for us to say, Come, see our zeal for the Lord! and to think we are very faithful in his cause, when we are seeking our own objects, and even doing harm instead of good to others."

Music for June 23, 2019 + Pentecost 2

Vocal Music

• Let the Bright Seraphim – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759), Jade Panares, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Choral – Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
• Ayre – George Frederick Handel 
• Postlude – Louis Vierne 

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 529 In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn R9 As the deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn R218 One bread, one body, (ONE BREAD, ONE BODY,)
• Hymn 411 O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS (WILLIAMS))
• Psalm 42 -  Tone VIIIa

Music for June 16, 2019 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory Be To God on High - Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Adoration Antiphon (Holy, Holy) - Fred Bock (1939-1998)
• We All Believe in One True God - J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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 S-236 - Canticle 13: Benedictus es, Domine – setting by John Rutter
• Hymn 686 – Come, thou fount of every blessing (NETTLETON)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)

I understand that clergy-types don't particularly care for preaching on Trinity Sunday. There's nothing innately inspiring about the doctrine of the Three-in-One. But as a musician, I love Trinity Sunday, because we have such good music from which to choose to honor this day. Holy, holy, holy has to be one of my favorite hymns to play, partially because people will sing it, and partially because, as a little boy growing up Methodist in a small town, we sang it every first Sunday of the month, when we would have Communion.  (It was the closest thing we had to a Sanctus!) I could sing it from memory.

The anthem is by Healey Willan, an English musician who immigrated to Canada early in the 20th century to teach at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He was on faculty and staff there from 1913-1936, when he and the school parted ways. He had become organist at St. Mary Magdalene in 1921, and he remained there until his death in 1968.

Musically, he wrote in many different genres, including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano. He is best known today for his church music. Even in that he utilized disparate styles. For his choirs at St. Mary Magdalene he wrote music for the decidedly Anglo-Catholic congregation, with its more mystical approach. Willan's deep interest in plainsong and polyphonic, unaccompanied choral music is evident. But beginning in the 1950s he also began to write organ and choral music with a broader scope, using familiar hymn texts and tunes in his church music. The anthem today is an example of that. The text and tune are perhaps more familiar to Lutherans than Anglicans. The text is a prayer to the Trinity. Listen for this recurring phrase: Before thy throne we sinners bend....

There is also some good organ music based on the Trinity. One of my favorites is this sturdy chorale-prelude by Bach on the German chorale, Wir glauben all an einen Gott (We all believe in one God) The text is a paraphrase of the creed by Martin Luther, using a 15th century tune that Luther adapted for the text.  Bach use a fragment of the melody for the subject in his fughetta which I am playing as the closing voluntary.

I call it a fughetta because, unlike an actual fugue, the subject (melody) does not appear in the pedal. Instead, we find an ostinato passage which makes me feel like Sisyphus, for the pedal melody begins climbing up the pedalboard until it reaches an octave, then tumbles back down again, only to be repeated:

A contemporary of Bach's, Georg Philipp Telemann, wrote the opening voluntary, a two-part setting of the hymn we're singing as our hymn of praise, All Glory Be to God on High. It's a metrical setting of the Gloria which we sing every Sunday. In this organ piece, the melody is heard clearly in the upper voice, played by the right hand. The first verse is imitative, very much like a fugue, but with the melody played in half-notes above all accompaniment. The second setting returns to the usual rhythm of the hymn-tune while the left hand employs a playful dance-like motif.

Music for June 9, 2019 + The Day of Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Be Joyful in the Lord – Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
• O Thou Who Camest From Above – Philip Stopford

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy on “Nun Danket all” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Veni Creator Spiritus – Dom Paul Benoit (1893 – 1979)

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (SALVA FESTA DIES)
• Hymn 509 - Spirit divine, attend our prayers (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn R234 - Now Holy Spirit, ever one (WAREHAM)
• Hymn R248 - O Let the Son of God enfold you (SPIRIT SONG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (ZIMBABWE)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOTT'S LEIGH)
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37 – setting by William Crotch

For our Pentecost celebration we are singing two anthems by the (relatively) young English composer, Philip Stopford. Stopford has quite the musical pedigree. He began his musical career as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey under the direction of both Simon Preston and Martin Neary. After winning a major Music Scholarship to Bedford School, while still a teenager, he became Organ Scholar at Truro Cathedral. While in Truro, Stopford composed a setting of the Responses which later won the Federation of Old Choristers' Composition Prize.

Philip Stopford

After leaving Bedford School, Stopford studied music at Keble College, Oxford. Upon graduating, he was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral before moving to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 1999 to 2000 Stopford was appointed Organ Scholar at Canterbury Cathedral, and then moved to Chester Cathedral as Assistant Organist. In 2003, at the age of 25, Stopford was appointed Director of Music at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the youngest Anglican Cathedral Organist at the time.

In January 2016 Stopford was appointed Director of Music at Christ Church, Bronxville following a four month period as Composer in Residence, working with the Church Choir and Young At Arts children's choral and theatrical program.

Our offertory anthem, O Be Joyful, was composed for the Enthronement of the Bishop of Belfast Cathedral in 2007. While not strictly a piece for Pentecost, this setting of Psalm 100 from our Book of Common Prayer sparkles with radiance with its buoyant vocals and soaring phrases over the lively organ accompaniment.

The other anthem, a setting of O Thou That Camest From Above by Charles Wesley, is a prayer for the Holy Spirit. Its gentle, lilting melody begins in the men's voices. On stanza 2 the treble voices enter, building to a climax at the fourth stanza which resolves to a quiet, fervent amen.

The opening voluntary is a setting of this morning's hymn before the Gospel by Aaron David Miller organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. The tune, composed by early Baroque musician Johann Crüger, was first published in the 1647 edition of Crüger's hymnal, Praxis Pietatis Melica. The rhythmic structure of Crüger's tune has the second and fourth phrases beginning with a quarter rest and quarter note. This bit of syncopation has been emphasized in Miller's arrangement which begins with a bold fanfare and improvisation before heading into a dance-like treatment of the tune. It's perfect for the party we call Pentecost.

Miller was the featured artist at the National AGO convention held in Houston, in 2016. 

The closing voluntary is an improvisatory toccata on the traditional Pentecost chant, Veni Creator Spiritus, as played by the French monk and organist, Paul Benoit. Dom Paul lived as a member of the Benedictine community at the Abbey of St. Maurice et St. Maur, at Clervaux, in Luxembourg.  Largely self-taught, Benoit's compositions never leave the realm of tonality, albeit often modal. Dom Paul acknowledged the influence of the French impressionist works of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel upon his organ compositions.  As a result, Dom Paul's works are somewhat unique for the organ in bearing a pervasive imprint of impressionism.