Music for Sunday, November 14, 2021 + The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

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

Instrumental Music

• Mensch, Willst Du Leben Seliglich – Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637 – 1707)
• Prelude on Michael – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• “Little” Prelude and Fugue in G Minor – attr. J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

Hymn 51- We the Lord’s People (DECATUR PLACE)
Hymn 686 - Come, thou font of every blessing (NETTLETON)
Hymn 301 - Bread of the world in mercy broken (RENDEZ À DIEU)
Hymn 307 - Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor (BRYN CALFARIA)
Psalm 16 Tone II, refrain by James E. Barrett

The choir sings one of the beautiful hymn anthems arranged from the British composer Charles H. H. Parry. We are singing it this afternoon as part of the Diocese of Texas' Choral Festival, which I am directing. You can learn more about this anthem by reading this post from January 2020 when we last sang it.

Buxtehude

The opening voluntary is one of the lesser known chorale preludes of  Dietrich Buxtehude, but a very fine one. The melody and text of this hymn, Mensch, willst du leben seliglich, are probably from Martin Luther. The text is referring to the ten commandments. Buxtehude puts the beautiful melody in the center and creates a fine, lyrical piece from it. The English translation is roughly, "Man, do you want to live happily?" That just doesn't sound very poetic, so I left it in German.

The communion voluntary is an organ arrangement of Herbert Howell's hymn tune, MICHAEL. It was originally called 'A Hymn Tune for Charterhouse' but when Howells' son Michael died of polio at the age of nine in 1935, Howells re-named it after him. 

The text, "All My Hope on God is Founded" is an English translation, by the poet Robert Bridges, of a German hymn,  "Meine Hoffnung stehet feste" written around 1680 by Joachim Neander. Here is the text. It is a beautiful marriage of text and tune, and one that deserves to be better known.

1 All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown, he alone
calls my heart to be his own.

2 Mortal pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
But God's power, hour by hour,
is my temple and my tower.

And I am continuing my (almost) montly series of playing the so-called "8 Little Preludes and Fugues" by (supposedly) J. S. Bach. Though they are included in the Bach catalogue (BW 553-560), it is presumed today that Johann Sebastian Bach did not compose the "eight." Composition of the eight have been attributed to one or more of Bach's students, including both JohannTobias Krebs or his son Ludwig [Krebs], or Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer. 

Today you will hear the sixth installment, the Prelude and Fugue in G Minor. The conventional formulaic cadences and simple one-bar sequences over a basso continuo seem like a composer "consciously creating a series of samples". The subject of the fugue is composed of three separate motifs, all of which can be found in canzonas and ricercars. The 19th-century Bach scholar Philipp Spitta praised the fugue, particularly its modulations. Contemporary Bach scholar Peter Williams has suggested that "perhaps the imaginative penultimate bar was inspired by J. S. Bach"

Music for Sunday, November 7, 2021 + The Commemoration of All Saints Day

Vocal Music

• Requiem – Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Instrumental Music

• Elegy – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• O Love, That Wilt Not Let Me Go – arr. Hal H. Hopson (b. 1933)
• Allegro Vivo e Maestoso - Paul Benoit (1893-1979)

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

• Hymn 287 -  For all the saints, who from their labors rest (SINE NOMINE)
• Hymn R-276 -  Soon and very soon (SOON AND VERY SOON)
• Hymn 293 -  I sing a song of the saints of God (GRAND ISLE)
• Hymn 618 -  Ye watchers and ye holy ones (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Psalm 24 - Simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachem

This Sunday is All Saints Sunday - All Saints is actually November 1, of course, but we can transfer the day anytime after within the week. We'll commemorate all the saints of God, and remember those of our church family who have joined the church eternal. 

The choir will sing a short work by Giacomo Puccini, called Requiem, which was written at the request of the Italian Music publisher G. Ricordi to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Guiseppi Verdi, who had died in 1901. Both Verdi and Puccini were composers whose operas were published by Ricordi, (Verdi: Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, and Aida; Puccini: La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, and Turandot.) Verdi was also idolized by the Italian People, who loved his operas as much as they loved his politics. He was a national hero.

Puccini at his piano

Puccini himself was the last of a musical dynasty that had been prominent in the life of Lucca for several generations. The fifth of seven children, he lost his father at the age of six. His maternal uncle taught him the rudiments of music, and he then continued his studies with Carlo Angeloni, director of the Istituto Musicale “Pacini”, and played the organ in churches in Lucca and the surrounding area. He did not tackle composition until he was about sixteen, but in 1876 he showed the progress he had made with a Preludio sinfonico, followed the next year by a cantata for solo voices and orchestra. 

His church background showed up in his next compositions, but it was the theatre that particularly attracted him (a performance of Aida in 1876 was a revelation for the young composer); he moved to Milan in 1880 in pursuit of a more intense musical life where he enrolled at the Conservatory. He graduated in 1883 with the Capriccio sinfonico whose theme he was later to use in La bohème.

In the same year he wrote his first opera, Le Villi, for a competition, but he did not win.  However, his friends put together a performance at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan the next year where the publisher Ricordi  immediately acquired the rights of the score, commissioned a second opera from Puccini for La Scala, and provided him with a monthly stipend of 200 lire for a year. After that, his career took off.

George Thalben-Ball

The opening voluntary is a work by the the English organist George Thalben-Ball. He was born in Australia, but lived in the UK for most of his life, becoming well-known as something of a “showman” recitalist in the grand late Victorian/Edwardian style. He became Director of Music at the Temple Church in London. He dedicated his Elegy, apparently conceived as an improvisation to fill in time at the end of a BBC-recorded service during the war, to Walford Davis who preceded him as organist at the Temple Church. 

This piece is quintessential English. It has a beautiful melodic line, beginning softly, building to full organ and then diminishing again; ending with a fragment of the melody in a whisper. It’s an appropriate piece for Remembrance or All Soul's services, and was played during Princess Diana’s funeral.

The Communion voluntary is based on a hymn not found in either of our hymnals. The hymn, "O Love that wilt not let me go" has appeared in 58 hymnals since 1979, and was written in 1883 by George Matheson, a minister in the Church of Scotland. The tune, ST. MARGARET, was written for this hymn for its inclusion in the Scottish Hymnal of 1884. The tune was arranged for piano and viola by Dallas composer Hal. H. Hopson.

The closing voluntary includes, as the theme in the pedal, the chant used at Vespers on All Saints Day in the Roman church. It is by Paul Marie-Joseph Benoit, OSB, a Benedictine monk, organist, and composer. Born in Nancy, France, Benoit first began to feel called to the vocation of a Benedictine monk during World War I,. After the Armistice of 1918, he entered a retreat at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Maurice and St. Maur, at Clervaux in Luxembourg, and he joined the abbey in 1919, taking his vows in 1921 and being ordained into priesthood in1926.

Music for Sunday, October 31, 2021 + + The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Give to You a New Commandment – Peter Nardone (b. 1965)

Instrumental Music

• A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637 – 1707)
• Let Us Break Bread Together – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 688 - A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Hymn 424 - For the fruit of all creation (EAST ACKLAM)
• Hymn 602 - Jesus, Jesus, fill us with your love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 551 - Rise up, ye saints of God! (FESTAL SONG)

There are three things we are focusing on musically today. First is the Gospel reading. In Mark 12:28-31we read, 

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

This reminded me of the passage in John 13 where Jesus gives a new commandment, that we love one another as Jesus has loved us. I therefore looked to Peter Nardone's anthem setting of that scripture which pairs those words with an original tune with the Roman Catholic chant, Ubi Caritas.

Where charity and love are, there God is.

The love of Christ has gathered us into one.

Let us exult, and in Him be joyful.

Let us fear and let us love the living God.

And from a sincere heart let us love each other.

You'll hear the tenors and basses sing that chant in Latin while the trebles sing the scripture.

Peter Nardone is a free-lance conductor, singer and composer who has sung with the Monteverdi Choir, The King’s Consort and the Tallis Scholars. He has been Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral and was subsequently Organist and Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral.

The second thing we focus on today is the Reformation. Today is Reformation Day, a Protestant Christian religious holiday celebrated on October 31st in remembrance of the onset of the Reformation. According to Philip Melanchthon, All Hallows' Eve 1517 was the day German monk Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony. His famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is considered to be the great Reformation hymn. We will sing the hymn at the opening of the service, preceded by Dietrich Buxtehude's elegant chorale prelude based on the hymn. Just don't expect to recognize the melody in Buxtehude's setting

The third thing we focus on today (at the end of the service) is All Hallows' Eve, better known as Halloween. It is liturgical in as far as the day is the Eve of All Hallows' Day (or All Saints' Day). It's roots are Christian, but it's modern reflection is more secular, or at least Pagan. And of all the music for organ, the pièce de résistance is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Whenever I meet new people and tell them I am an organist, more often than not they will ask "Can you play the Phantom of the Opera?" - meaning, "can you play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565?" Whatever. It's a fun piece to play, and if I'm ever going to play it in church, today is the day. 

me, practicing this Sunday's closing voluntary.

Music for Sunday, October 24, 2021 + The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee – Glenn L. Rudolph (b. 1951)

Instrumental Music

• Messe de 8th Tone: Gloria - Duo – Gaspard Corrette  (c. 1671 – before 1733)
• Prelude on “London New” – Robert Groves (1912-1994)
• Messe de 8th Tone: Sanctus - Duo – Gaspard Corrette

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 410 Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Hymn 679 Surely it is God who saves me (THOMAS MERTON)
• Hymn 773 Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia, sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 126 simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Webster Meachen

written in 1998 for Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, 

Glenn L. Rudolph has been active in choral music in the Pittsburgh area since 1977. He began his church choir directing career at Freeport United Methodist Church in Freeport, PA, was a member of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh professional core from 1983 through 1991 and served as Conducting Assistant to Music Director, Robert Page for the 1990-1991 concert season. Mr. Rudolph joined The Pittsburgh Camerata in 1993 as a professional core member and served as Assistant Conductor to Artistic Director, Gayle Clark Kirkwood for the 1994-95 concert season. He was employed as tenor soloist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral from 1985 through 1994 and at Temple Rodef Shalom from 1993 through 2003.

Mr. Rudolph received his B.M. in Music Composition from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he graduated Magna cum Lauda in 1973. While at CCM, he studied voice throughout his undergraduate education, and was a member of the 32 voice Chamber Choir under the direction of Dr. Elmer Thomas. He was awarded a graduate scholarship in composition and a teaching assistantship in music theory at the College-Conservatory of Music. Mr. Rudolph studied composition with Paul Cooper and T. Scott Huston in Cincinnati, and with Lynn Purse and David Stock at Duquesne. He received his M.M. in Composition the Mary Pappert School of Music, Duquesne University, in 2011.

Gaspard Corrette (c. 1671 – before 1733) was a French composer and organist. About his youth there is not so much to find but he was organist in a few churches in Rouen until in 1720 he left as many others did before him to Paris to try to catch the glamour. From that time on we lose track of him. He died around 1733 in Paris.

Father of the better-known Michel Corrette, Gaspard's surviving musical output is this one work, Messe du 8e Ton, published at the beginning of 1703. It is the last of the great French organ masses, a tradition that began in the 1660s and which has an impeccable pedigree that includes the composers Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers, Nicolas Lebègue and François Couperin. 

Corrette’s music is both erudite and colourful

Since he belongs to the classic French organ school we can expect the typical music although in contrast to the very known music (e.g. F. Couperin, N. Lebegue) his music is less severe... the typical modal parts makes it a bit nostalgic. His music suffers also from “nonchalance” but this style makes him different from other little French organ composers.

Music for Sunday, October 17, 2021 + Good Shepherd School Sunday

Vocal Music

• Seek To Serve – Lloyd Pfautsch
• Song of Peace – Donnelly and Strid
• Good Shepherd School Children

Instrumental Music

• Andante Tranquillo – Charles Villiers Stanford
• Cantabile – Alexandre Guilmant
• March in D Major – Alexandre Guilmant

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

• Hymn 376 - Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (HYMN TO JOY)
• Hymn R158 - Meekness and majesty (TUNE)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)

The composer of this morning's anthem is 20th Century composer, choral director, and teacher Lloyd Pfautsch, who was one of my professor's at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Lloyd Pfautsch

Born in a little Missouri town where the primary industry was the manufacture of corncob pipes, Pfautsch was raised within the rich cultural, musical and hymnic tradition of German Evangelical churches which then extended from Pennsylvania across the mid and upper Midwest.  His worship-song roots were the Lutheran-style chorale, and he often reminded his students and colleagues that music is a living voice of the Gospel, a gift from God never to be trivialized.

When teaching aspiring vocal professionals, Pfautsch challenged the frequent assumption that one's solo voice could be damaged by singing in choirs, proving that solo and choral singing need never be incompatible.  And to his students studying choral conducting he often said: “Your choirs can sing anything you can teach them.”

The music says the text is from the scriptures, but I cannot find any direct references. Dr. Pfautsch was an ordained minister, so he may have used his knowledge of scripture to put together this text with the theme of service. For the melody, he chose a chant from a twelfth century Latin mass to carry the words.

Music for Sunday, October 10, 2021 + The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O For a Closer Walk with God – Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on “St. Anne” – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• I. Theme
• II. Adagio
• IV. Presto
• V. Pastorale
• VI. Fugue-Finale

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

• Hymn 475 - God himself is with us (TYSK)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (ST. FLAVIAN)
• Hymn R114 - Bless the Lord, my soul (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 680 - O God, our help in ages past (ST. ANNE)
• Psalm 90:12-17 simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Webster Meachen

The offertory anthem is a setting of a of a hymn by the poet William Cowper. From the handbook to the Psalter Hymnal we learn that he wrote this text on December 9, 1769, during the illness of his long-time friend and housekeeper, Mrs. Unwin. "In a letter written the next day Cowper voiced his anxieties about her condition and about what might happen to him if she died. Saying that he composed the text "to surrender up to the Lord" all his "dearest comforts," Cowper added,

Her illness has been a sharp trial to me. Oh, that it may have a sanctifying effect!. . . I began to compose the verses yesterday morning before daybreak, but fell asleep at the end of the first two lines; when I awoke again, the third and fourth were whispered to my heart in a way which I have often experienced.

C.V.Stanford

"Although Cowper frequently battled depression, doubt, and melancholy, this text speaks of a very intimate walk with the Lord. That walk is rooted in Scripture (st. 1), rejoices in conversion (st. 2-3), and denounces all idols that would usurp God's sovereignty (st. 4). The text concludes with a return to the prayer of the first stanza, but now that prayer is sung with increased confidence and serenity." -Psalter Hymnal Handbook

The tune, CAITHNESS, is Scottish, but the arranger, Charles Villiers Stanford, was not. Stanford was born in Ireland and received his early musical training at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He studied composition in both England and Germany. He taught at both the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University, and among his students are such notable musicians as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge, Charles Wood, and Herbert Howells. His compositions include works for organ, piano, symphony orchestra, and chamber ensembles, as well as many works for Anglican church choirs. Stanford was knighted in 1902 and his ashes are buried beside Henry Purcell in Westminster Abbey. 

The Psalm for today is the last six verses of Psalm 90. The closing hymn is a paraphrase of the first five verses of Psalm 90. Thus we get to sing almost the entire Psalm. For this reason I have chosen to play  Paul Manz's partita (or variations) on ST. ANNE, which is the tune used for the hymn. Paul Manz was a Lutheran organist, who had a particular talent of improvising organ music based on hymns. These variations were probably improvised by Manz during a recital or one of his Hymn Festivals, and later published as Partita on St. Anne.

There are six movements which may or may not correspond to the six stanzas of Watt's hymn. I am playing five of those. The first movement is very straightforward, with an underlying rhythmic motive reminiscent of J. S. Bach's organ setting of the German Choral WER NUR DEN LIEBEN (BWV 642). The second movement also harkens back to music of Bach and German baroque composers with its ornamented solo line over an imitative accompaniment. You'll still be able to hear the melody if you listed closely.

The fourth movement is much lifelier, as you can tell by its title, Presto. The accompaniment will be in both hands, featuring a spinning counter-melody against a leaping part in the other hand. These melodic fragments bounce back and forth between the two hands while the feet play the melody.

One of the loveliest movements is the Pastorale (fifth movement), which I will play during communion. Pastorales are generally in 6/8 or 9/8 metre, at a moderate tempo, and this is no exception. The accompaniment has a lyrical melody which could stand alone by itself, without the addition of the hymn-tune that comes in, played by the left hand.

I'll play the last movement as the closing voluntary, for it's drive and excitement is perfect for music that should encourage us to leave this place with joy and commitment.

Music for Sunday, October 3, 2021 + The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• JLM – Bradley Phillips (b. 1955)

Instrumental Music

• Festival Piece – Craig Phillips (b. 1961)
• Prelude based on “Seelenbräutigam” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Now thank we all our 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 495 - Hail thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE)
• Hymn 480 - When Jesus left his Father's throne (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn R217 - You satisfy the hungry heart (GIFT OF FINEST WHEAT)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET ALLE GOTT)
• Psalm 26 – simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Webster Meachen

Cranach, Lucas, 1515-1586. Christ Blessing the Children,
from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved September 30, 2021].

What's one of the best-known, well loved children's hymns you can think of? Chances are it's Jesus loves me, that old Sunday School favorites by the gospel hymn writer William Bradbury.

Whenever I hear or read the passage from Mark where Jesus welcomes the little children, I always think of this hymn. Well, those words have taken on new life in an original tune by Atlanta composer Bradley Phillips, and we will sing it at the offertory this Sunday. (That's what the "JLM" in the title stands for - "Jesus Loves Me." List for a fragment of the familiar hymn-tune at the end when we sing, "the Bible tells me so."

A native Texan, Phillips studied oboe and organ at Baylor University (BM) and Florida State University (MM). He composes for both commercial and sacred spaces.

Another composer named Phillips wrote the opening voluntary this Sunday. Craig Phillips is the organist -director of music for All Saints Episcopal in Beverly Hills. A prolific composer, he was named the American Guild of Organists Distinguished Composer for 2012 — the seventeenth recipient of this special award, joining an illustrious list that includes past honorees Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Daniel Pinkham, Stephen Paulus, David Hurd and others. In 2015 Dr. Phillips was named an honorary canon of the Cathedral Center of St. Paul, Diocese of Los Angeles, at a gala event at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and in 2016 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Virginia Theological Seminary.

Dr. Phillips holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and the Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, where he studied with the great pedagogue Russell Saunders. His Bachelor of Music Degree is from Oklahoma Baptist University, and his early musical studies were at the Blair School of Music in Nashville. 

SEELENBRÄUTIGAM is a German hymn tune written by Adam Dreese, a 17th Century German pietist. It is most often heard with the words

Jesus, still lead on till our rest be won.
And, although the way be cheerless,
we will follow, calm and fearless;
guide us by Your hand to our Fatherland.

The American compose Gordon Young has written an impressionistic prelude based on the tune which doesn't express the complete tune but gives us fleeting hints of it. Neither the tune nor the text are found in our hymnal