Music for April 11th, 2021 + The Second Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• Doubting Thomas – arr. Mark Schweitzer (1956-2019)
• His Most Holy Lyfe – Carlton T. Russell (b. 1938)

Instrumental Music

• Rondeau: O Filii et Filiae - Jean-François Dandrieu (1682-1739)
• Prelude in Classic Style – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked * which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise.)

• Hymn 490 - I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn 209 - We walk by faith and not by sight (ST. AGNES)
• Canticle -  *Christ our Passover (Pascha nostrum) (SINE NOMINE)
• Psalm 33 - (Jerome W. Meachen)

The second Sunday of Easter is one of my favorite Sundays, because it focuses on the Apostle Thomas’ all-to-real reaction to hearing that Jesus was not dead, but alive. I can relate, because I, too, feel like I would want proof to such an outrageous claim.

The hymn and tune “O sons and daughters, let us sing,” or O FILII ET FILIAE, tells the story of the events just after Jesus’ resurrection: the women finding an empty tomb, the confusion and fear amongst the disciples, and Jesus’ appearance to Thomas and the other disciples. The Hymnal 1982 divides the original 12 stanzas between two hymns, both sung to the same tune: Hymn 203 which focuses on the women at the tomb, and Hymn 206, which focuses on Thomas’ doubts. It is this hymn Mark Schweitzer has arranged for choir and that we use for the anthem today. 

The opening voluntary today is also based on O FILII ET FILIAE, a set of variations by French Baroque composer Jean-François Dandrieu. These were actually drawn from a set of variations by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu, a Parisian priest and musician who lived from 1664 to 1733. Jean-François would revise and enlarge his uncle's volume of organ noëls, which was first published by his uncle, Pierre Dandrieu in 1714 (rev. in the 1720s). Jean-François's book was published posthumously by sister, Jeanne-Françoise, in 1759.  This sounds like a musical soap-opera plot.

The communion motet is a setting of a prayer (collect) which Thomas Cranmer wrote for the first Book of Common Prayer (1549). Although the vast majority of the collects of Archbishop Cranmer are based on Latin originals, this one is among the few that were newly composed for the Prayer Book. It was originally the collect for the Second Sunday after Easter.

The composer of the motet is the Rev. Carlton T. Russell,  Professor of Music and College Organist, Emeritus at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, where he taught for 41 years. In 2006, after retiring to Maine, he and his wife Lorna S. Russell, also an organist, became ministers of music at St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church in Blue Hill. An Episcopal priest, Dr. Russell holds degrees from Amherst College, Princeton University, and The Episcopal Divinity School, and the Choirmaster (Ch.M.) certificate of The American Guild of Organists. 

Here is the text of that collect:

Almighty God, who hast given
thy only Son to be unto us
both a sacrifice for sin,
and also an example of godly life;
Give us grace
that we may always most thankfully receive
that his inestimable benefit,
and also daily endeavor ourselves
to follow the blessed steps
of his most holy life. Amen

Music for Easter 2021

Vocal Music

• Now the Green Blade Riseth – Shirley McRae, arr. (1933-2018)
• Christ the Lord is Risen Today – John Ferguson, arr. (b. 1941)
• I Know that My Redeemer Liveth – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• Amy Bogan, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Improvisation on Good Christians All, Rejoice and Sing! - Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Carillon de Westminster, Opus 54, No. 6 – Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
• Rondo in G – John Bull (1562 or 1563 – 1628), arr. Richard Ellsasser (1926 - 1972)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 207 Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN)
• Hymn 178 Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord (ALLELUIA NO. 1)
• S-128 Sanctus - William Mathias
• S-151 fraction anthem (
• Psalm 118 – Hal H. Hopson

The music for Easter takes on an appropriately celebratory tone with the addition of two instruments you don't usually hear together except on a Revolutionary War battlefield.

At the time I was looking for music for Easter 2021, choirs were not yet permitted in our in-person services, so I needed some special music for our four-person Schola (1) that would be appropriately festive while not being over-powering for the small group. I remembered an arrangement of an Easter carol which was accompanied by piccolo and snare drum alone. It was a perfect choice. I paired it with another Easter carol arranged for two-part choir, flute, bells and tamborine, and was all ready for Easter. Then, when we got the word that the choir could sing, we were all set!

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today is arranged by John Ferguson, for many years the Elliot and Klara Stockdal Johnson Professor of Organ and Church Music and Cantor to the Student Congregation at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. His undergraduate work was completed at Oberlin College, his Masters degree from Kent State and the DMA diploma from The Eastman School of Music. He set the Charles Wesley Easter hymn to a Christmas Carol from 13th century France called ORIENTIS PARTIBUS. (You may remember the carol as "The Friendly Beasts.") It's a very simple setting for choir which is made more joyful by the addition of the spritely piccolo and crisp sound of the snare drum.

The other anthem is a setting of another Easter text set to another French Christmas carol. Anglican priest John MacLeod Campbell Crum wrote Now the Green Blade Riseth to be paired with the popular French carol melody NOËL NOUVELET. Michael Hawn, retired professor of church music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, wrote this about the text:

The vivid imagery of the hymn is biblically based: John 12:23-24: "And Jesus answered them, saying, the hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (KJV) In addition, 1 Corinthians 15:37-38 connects the image with the resurrection: "And that which sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." (KJV)

The connection of the Easter event - the rising of Jesus -- is unmistakable. The simple phrase "Now the green blade riseth" reminds us that Jesus is risen today just as he rose on that first Easter morning. In the third line, we find "Love" being used as a metaphor for Jesus. We are now reminded why Jesus came to the earth in the first place: "For God so loved the world…" (John 3:16). After speaking directly about Jesus' death and resurrection, Crum turns to our lifetime struggles. In the fourth stanza, Crum emphasizes that no matter what we are going through, "Jesus' touch can call us back to life again." (2)

This arrangement is by a one of my Memphis friends, Shirley W. McRae. Shirley was Professor Emerita in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music (University of Memphis), where she taught for 25 years and served as coordinator of music education. At the University, she taught courses in aural theory, children's choirs, hymnology, choral conducting, and music education. 

With a worldwide reputation in the specialized field of Orff Music, she was a composer, music clinician, children's choir conductor as well as the author of two textbooks, Directing the Children's Choir and Tutoring Tooters. Over her extensive career, she composed numerous choral works, both sacred and secular, for unison and mixed choirs as well as eight books of compositions and arrangements for Orff music classes. Her compositions and arrangements have been widely performed by school, university, community, and professional ensembles across the United States. Four of her compositions have been commercially recorded by groups including the Rhodes College Singers, the Denver Women's Chorus, and the Memphis Boychoir and Chamber Choir.


She has arranged this carol for choir, flute, handbells and percussion.

The opening voluntary at the 10:15 service is a toccata based on the famous bell peal, Westminster Chimes. Nearly everyone associates the Westminster chimes with the Clock Tower at the House of Parliament in London. Originally, however, they were fitted to the clock of the University Church, St Mary's the Great, in Cambridge, England. This is a fabulous organ piece, written by a great composer, Louis Vierne. He was almost completely blind after being born with cataracts, and composed in Braille or on large manuscript paper. From an early age he had a gift for music, and was able to pick out notes from a Schubert lullaby on the piano at the age of two.

The closing voluntary is the Rondo in G, attributed to John Bull but probably composed by Richard Ellsasser, an American organist active during the 1940s, 50's and 60's. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ellsasser was a musical prodigy who studied piano and organ, touring the eastern United States as an organist with various symphony orchestras at the age of 7. He made his New York organ debut in 1937. At the age of 19 he became the youngest person in history to have played, from memory, all 250+ organ works of J. S. Bach. At age 41, he suffered a stroke which forced him into retirement.

(1) Schola refers to a singing school especially for church choristers, and specifically: the choir or choir school of a monastery or of a cathedral. In a monastery, everyone was expected to sing the service. The Schola was a specialized group from out of the larger "choir" (Congregation) for special music.

(2) C. Michael Hawn https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-now-the-green-blade-riseth

Music for Holy Week 2021

Good Friday

Vocal Music

• Were You There – Spiritual
• Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded – J. S. Bach
• Prelude in E Minor – Frédéric Chopin

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “LEVAS” which are from Lift Every Voice and Sing.)

• Hymn 168 O Sacred Head, sore wounded (PASSION CHORALE)
• Hymn 474 When I survey the wondrous cross (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn LEVAS38 The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard)

Maundy Thursday

Vocal Music

• Ave Verum – W. A. Mozart
• And Still the Bread Is Broken – David Ashley White
• Psalm 116

Instrumental Music

• Pange Lingua – Charles Callahan

Congregational Music 

• Hymn 329 - Now, my tongue, the mystery telling (PANGE LINGUA)
• Schubert Sanctus and Agnus Dei
• Stay With Me (Jacques Berthier)
• Psalm 22

Music for March 28, 2021 + Palm Sunday

Vocal Music

• Ah, Holy Jesus – Robert Benson (b. 1942)
• My Song is Love Unknown – Mark Schweitzer (1956-2019)

Instrumental Music

• Crown Imperial – William Walton (1902-1983)
• Variation on Ah, Holy Jesus – Robert Benson (1942)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 154 All glory, laud, and honor (VALET WILL ICH DIR GEBEN)
• Hymn 435 At the name of Jesus (KING’S WESTON)

Just in time for Holy Week, the Good Shepherd Choir returns to sing for Palm Sunday. It's been over a year, but the choir will return to in-person services for this one Sunday. The Diocese of Texas has also allowed us to begin to include congregational singing, too. So this Sunday will be filled with music.

The choir will sing  the hymn Ah, Holy Jesus, a hymn by Lutheran pastor Johann Heerman who lived in Austria at the turn of the 17th century. He took his inspiration for "Ah, Holy Jesus" from a Latin text which was originally published in a fifteenth-century devotional book. 

Heerman's hymn version first appeared around 1630. He wrote it during the Thirty Years War, a time when many hymn writers became introspective. Writing during this time of uncertainty and trouble, Heerman's hymn emerged from a backdrop of his own personal suffering. In the lyrics, Heerman describes the afflictions of Jesus, and admits his own part in Jesus' death.

"Ah Holy Jesus" continues to challenge Christians today; pushing us to realize it was our personal sins that put Jesus on the cross. And beyond that, Heerman's hymn points us to a proper response, beautifully reminding us that Jesus' death for our salvation calls for us to adore and worship him. (1)

The hymn has been arranged for choir (with additional organ solos) by the Cincinnati organist and composer, Robert Benson.  His compositions for choir, organ and other instruments have been published by several reputable sacred music publishers. His works have been performed by the Cincinnati Camerata, the Miami University Men’s Glee Club and Collegiate Chorale as well as in churches. He is an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and Dean of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

The Schola will sing a setting of another great Holy Week hymn, My Song Is Love Unknown, with a new setting by Mark Schweitzer.

A native of Florida, Mark Schweizer received music degrees from Stetson University in Deland, Florida and the University of Arizona including a doctoral degree in vocal performance. He returned to teach at Stetson University from 1982 to 1985 followed by eight years on the music faculty of Louisiana College. Mark lived in North Carolina where he served as editor of St. James Music Press. He is the author of fifteen “Liturgical Mystery” novels, as well as other books, and several opera and musical librettos. His published musical compositions can be found in the catalogs of five different publishing houses in addition to St. James Music Press.

The opening voluntary is Crown Imperial, a march by the English composer William Walton. Walton derived the march's title from the line "In beawtie berying the crone imperiall" from William Dunbar's poem "In Honour of the City of London". Walton originally composed the march for the planned coronation of Edward VIII, but Edward abdicated in 1936. The coronation was held on the scheduled day, with Edward's brother being crowned instead, so it was premiered then. Crown Imperial was also performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It has been arranged for organ by Herbert Murrill.

The march falls into an ABABC form. The march opens in C major over Waltonesque long pedal points, which build energy. The following strain, an Elgarian trio section, moves into A-flat major. Then both march and trio reappear in C again and come to a conclusion in a small heroic coda.

The closing voluntary is a variation of the Offertory hymn subtitled, Partita IV: The Temple Veil Is Rent in Twain. Benson includes this program note:

At the terrible and sublime moment of Christ's death on the cross, the planet itself experiences the monumental event. An earthquake shakes the Temple in Jerusalem and causes the veil that separates the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple to be torn in two, announcing that the holy and sacred are no longer a separate realm apart from the human but fully integrated with it, a gift for which we humans did nothing but for which we must be eternally grateful.

(1) https://songsandhymns.org

Music for March 21, 2021 + The Fifth Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

Create in Me a Clean Heart – Carl F. Mueller (1892-1982)
Hymn: As Moses Raised the Serpent Up (GIFT OF LOVE)

Instrumental Music

Praise to the Lord – Anna Laura Page (b. 1943)
Called Home to Heaven – Fred Gramman (b. 1950)
This Is the Day– Susan Morris (b. 1951)
Grand Jeu – Pierre DuMage (1674-1751)

The Bells are ringing! For the first time since this pandemic began, the Good Shepherd Handbell Guild will be ringing in our morning worship services. We have actually been rehearsing since September, but the fall was spent focusing on music for Christmas, as we played at the live Nativity services. But now we get a chance to play in worship.

Because we are playing three numbers (the most we've ever played in one service) and because we are live-streaming our services, we are moving from the security and anonymity of the loft right down front of the congregation. This will offer you the rare opportunity to watch the entire choir in action. I believe that bell choir music is as interesting visually as it is aurally, so this should prove to be fascinating for the members of the congregation.

Anna Laura Page

The first piece is an arrangement of the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, by Anna Laura Page A native of Louisville, Kentucky, she received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kentucky. A widely published composer of choral and handbell music, she has been active in the promotion, composition, and publication of music for handbells, serving as the Handbell editor for Alfred Publishing for 11 years, and was also on the Music Committee for the 1991 Southern Baptist Hymnal. She currently resides in Sherman, Texas.

In this piece, listen for several idiomatic handbells techniques, including the martellato (where the bell is sounded by hitting the padded table), mart lift (similar to the martellato, but the bell is immediately lifted off the table to allow it to vibrate), staccato (the bell is rung normally, but with a thumb or finger on the bell to shorten the sound), and echo, where the bell is rung normally then touched lightly on the table to affect the sound (listen for a "wow-wow" effect).

Fred Gramman

At the offering we are playing a meditation on the hymn-tune HOLY MANNA, which is often used for the text "Brethren, we are met to worship." It was written by Fred Gramman, the organist at the American Church in Paris. He is a native of Washington state where he began organ studies with Dr. Edward Hansen of Seattle. He earned organ performance degrees from Syracuse University and the University of Michigan, moving to Paris in 1972 for organ study with Marie-Claire Alain and Maurice Duruflé. Since 1976, he has been Director of Music at the American Church in Paris where, in addition to his organist duties, he also conducts the Adult Choir, the ACP Bronze Ringers, and the Celebration Ringers

He wrote the piece for the community ensemble Music Made in Heaven, a handbell choir made up of parents who have lost children to death. The group was formed in 2004 as a continuing expression of the parent's love for God and their joy in the gift of their children. 

Gramman named the piece Called Home to Heaven, utilizing the last verse of the hymn Brethren We Have Met to Worship. The line, "Then He'll call us home to heaven" resonates with those who have lost children and other loved ones. 

HOLY MANNA is masterfully woven through this arrangement creating an enchanting setting of the traditional tune. The second verse is beautifully created, juxtaposing bells and chimes in a fugue-like style. It is followed by a majestic verse and prayerful conclusion.

Listen for the use of mallets , the Echo technique , and the Swing. (You'll see it at the very beginning.)

Susan Morris

The communion bell piece is an interpretation of Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it." This gentle and inspirational work was written by Susan Morris for the Handbell Choir of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Music is an avocation for Morris. Even though she began taking piano lessons at the age of ten and soon after began composing her own music, her career was in science. She received a BS in Biology from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and then continued her studies at the University of Virginia, receiving a graduate degree in Medical Technology.  She now resides in Lynchburg, VA.

Music for March 14, 2021 + The Fourth Sunday of Lent

Vocal Music

• God So Loved the World – John Stainer (1840-1901)
• Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing – Roland E. Martin (b. 1955)
• Hymn: Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound (NEW BRITAIN)

Instrumental Music

1. Prelude, Fugue, and Variation – César Franck (1822-1890).
   
2. “Little”Prelude in E Minor – attr. to J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

The Gospel reading this week is one of the most familiar pieces of scripture in the world. It sums up the Gospel message - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I felt called to once again use the familiar anthem by John Stainer, from his famous oratorio, The Crucifixion, as our offertory anthem today. Stainer had been the organist-choir master at St. Paul's, London in the late 1800s and wrote a large amount of organ and choral music, as well as a popular treatise on organ playing.

The Communion anthem is a repeat of an anthem that was sung as a duet back in July of 2020, but its theme of Grace works so well with this week's scripture readings (especially the Epistle) that I just had to schedule again. Read about it here.

César Franck

César Franck was one of the first well-known French organists of the 19th century. Born in Belgium, he moved to Paris when he was 13 to study organ, ultimately becoming a French citizen so that he could study at the Paris Conservatoire. Upon graduation, he made a brief return to Belgium before returning to Paris, where he embarked on a career as teacher and organist. He gained a reputation as a strong musical improviser, and travelled widely within France to demonstrate new organs built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. In fact, Franck’s improvisations after church services were so popular that he wrote some of them down, publishing them as Six Pieces in 1862. These exploited the power and colors of the Cavaillé-Coll organs to the fullest and did much to establish the distinctively French school of symphonic organ music.

The third of the Six Pieces is the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18, which was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns, himself an organist of considerable skill. The flowing B-minor Prelude has a gentle melancholy, opening with three repetitions of an asymmetrical five-bar phrase. The Fugue has its own little prelude and clean textures, the polyphony by no means hard to follow. Rounding the three-part work is the Variation, a repeat of the Prelude with a more active accompaniment, resolving to the hopeful key of B major.

For the closing voluntary, I am playing the third prelude of the so-called "Little" Prelude and Fugues which have been attributed to J. S. Bach. I've been playing one of these a month for three months now, so you can expect to hear the fourth one (which is in F Major) in April. The Major key, with its brightness and joy, will be appropriate for the Easter Season. But for now, it's Lent, and E Minor is perfect for our season of introspection and repentence.

Music for March 7, 2021 + The Third Sunday in Lent

Vocal Music

1. Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin – Peter Crisafulli (b. 1946)
2. Hymn: Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA)
3. Hymn: Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured (JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT))

Instrumental Music

• Dies sind die heilgen zehn Gebot, BWV  678, 679 –  J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• (These are the Holy Ten Commandments)
• Psalm XIX – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

Peter Crisafulli

Today's anthem is a setting of a text by the 16th century English poet John Donne, with a melody by his contemporary John Hilton, arranged for quartet in Elizabethan style by the American Composer Peter Crisafulli.

Born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, Peter Crisafulli earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from Northwestern University. His musical formation in the service of the church began at age seven as a chorister in the Men and Boys Choir of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. He has been serving as Minister of Music at All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, Maryland, since 1988. Many of his compositions were written for All Saints Church. 

The organ music choices for today were all inspired by our readings found in the Old Testament and the Psalm.

The opening voluntary is two chorale settings from the Clavier-Übung III of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Clavier-Übung is a collection of keyboard works written as "keyboard exercises," but the music goes far beyond being pure pedantic. Some of Bach's greatest music for keyboard (harpsichord as well as organ) are found in these four volumes.

At the heart of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III are some clever arrangements linked to the Lutheran Mass and the catechism. In this second group, the six parts of the Lutheran catechism – the principles of the religion – are each presented in a version with pedal and a version without. It begins with Luther’s little known ‘ten commandment chorale’ (Dies sind die heil'gen zehn Gebot') in ten verses (how else?), plus a conclusion and the following introduction: 

These are the holy ten commands,

Which came to us from God’s own hands,

By Moses, who obeyed His will,

On the top of Sinai’s hill.

Kyrieleis.’ 

It is a melody in five phrases, which Bach doubles to ten in a simple canon in the first chorale prelude.

A canon is like a round (think Row, row, row your boat). It is no coincidence that Bach uses the canonic technique in writing this prelude. The Greek word canon means ‘law’, so for that reason alone a composer can hardly avoid this technique in the case of this text. It is remarkable that the piece as a whole exudes a warm, pastoral atmosphere, rather than a purely technical one. The chorale melody, played in canon by the left hand, meanders smoothly between a melodically rich interwoven canon in the upper parts, notwithstanding a few harmonically exciting moments. This makes these ten commandments a peaceful counterpart to the one that follows. 

The second prelude is the smaller of two settings of this chorale-tune. The lively gigue-like fughetta has several similarities to the larger chorale prelude: it is in the mixolydian mode of G; it starts with a pedal point of repeated Gs; the number ten occurs as the number of entries of the subject (four of them inverted); and the piece ends on a plagal cadence. The liveliness of the fughetta has been taken to reflect Luther's exhortation in the Small Catechism to do "cheerfully what He has commanded." Equally well, Psalm 119 speaks of "delighting ... in His statutes" and rejoicing in the Law.

Benedetto Marcello

The closing voluntary is an organ arrangement of a vocal setting of Psalm 19 by Benedetto Marcello.  Marcello was an Italian composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher. He was a member of a noble family and was what 18th century chroniclers called a "dilettante"; an aristocrat who also pursued musical composition as a sideline, for, although he was a music student of Antonio Lotti and Francesco Gasparini, two well known and respected musicians of his day, Marcello's father wanted Benedetto to devote himself to law.

So Benedetto Marcello combined a life in law and public service with one in music. Marcello served the Venetian Republic as a magistrate from about 1708 until 1728. In 1730 he went to Pola as district governor. In 1738 Marcello was appointed to his final position as chief financial officer of the city of Brescia, but died after less than a year in this job on or around his 53rd birthday.

As a composer, Marcello was best known in his lifetime for his massively influential eight-volume publication Estro poetico-armonico, a collection of the first 50 Psalms as paraphrased in Italian by his friend G. Giustiniani. It is in this collection that we find today's closing voluntary, which was arranged by Theodore DuBois in the 1800s.