Music for Sunday, June 19, 2022 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music 

• Litany to the Holy Spirit – Peter Hurford (1930-2019)
• Bruce Bailey, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Fanfare-Improvisation on "Azmon" – Alec Wyton (1921-2007)
• How Can I Keep from Singing? – arr. Lani Smith (1931-2015)
• Trumpet Tune in D – Sam Batt Owens (1928-1978)

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 (HANOVER)
• Hymn R37 Father, we love you (GLORIFY YOUR NAME)
• Hymn 658 As longs the deer for cooling stream (MARTYRDOM)
• Hymn 529 In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R9 As the deer pants for the water (Martin Nystrom)
• Hymn 493 O For a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)

Litany to the Holy Spirit

Peter Hurford

English organist Peter Hurford was one of the leading organists of his day, concertizing in places such as Royal Festival Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and St. Albans Cathedral, just north of London, where he started the St. Albans International Organ Festival in 1963. He was known for for his incisive, buoyant recordings of Bach’s complete organ works for Decca in the late 1970s and early ’80s.

But he was also the director of music at St. Alban's, where he was credited with raising the standard of the abbey choir to that of the best cathedral and collegiate choirs in the country. He also initiated a choir camp at Luccombe, Somerset, and in 1958 brought together parish choirs from Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire for the first biennial diocesan choirs’ festival. He also published choral music for the Anglican liturgy, notably the Litany to the Holy Spirit, to a text by Robert Herrick, which Bruce Bailey will be singing for us today.

The Litany is a lovely, simple hymn which was originally written for the treble choir at St. Alban's, but since then has become so popular that an arrangement for full choir has been produced.

Fanfare-Improvisation on "Azmon"

AZMON is the tune name for our closing hymn this morning. Alec Wyton has taken this tune and used it for this extended prelude on that tune. Upon hearing it, you won't immediately hear the melody you connect with the words "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing." Instead, the first thing you hear is a fanfare, followed by a leaping melodic line ("...and leap, ye lame, for joy." Pretty clever, huh?) that repeats over and over again. This is a compositional technique called ostinato (a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm). Then comes a slowly moving melodic line that is reminiscent of the tune for "O for a thousand tongues," but not quite. In fact, in won't be until the third time that the melody is played that it begins to follow the familiar tune, and then it comes in with several iterations. At one point, the manuals are playing the tune in one key while the feet are playing it in another!

Alec Wyton

Alec Wyton was a ground breaking Anglican musician who for twenty years was Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and Headmaster of the Cathedral Choir School. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians described him by saying, "Wyton has brought together and caused to flourish three separate traditions: English church music, American church music and music from outside the churches." In his obituary, The New York Times called him the "Organist who updated church music."

Wyton was born in London, England. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, London and Oxford University. In 1950 he moved to America to take a position as Organist Choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, MO. Four years later he to St. John the Divine, where he remained for the next twenty years. He served as President of the American Guild of Organists and was a part of the editorial team that produced the influential ECUMENCIAL PRAISE hymnal in 1977. From that collection came the tune SHORNEY which is tune is #369 in THE HYMNAL 1982 set to Isaac Watts Holy Trinity text "How Wondrous Great, How Glorious Bright." 

During his time at St. John the Divine, Wyton tried to incorporate a variety of musical traditions into the music of the church. He provided a performing platform for emerging artists as well as collaborated with such performers as Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, Leopold Stokowski, and the cast of “Hair.”

Trumpet Tune in D

The closing voluntary was written by another great Anglican musician, Sam Batt Owens, and like the opening voluntary, it is based on another great hymn tune, LOBE DEN HERREN ("Praise to the Lord, the Almighty").

Music for Sunday, June 12, 2022 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Missa Brevis No. 4 – Eleanor Daley (b. 1955)
• A Ukrainian Prayer – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Give Me – Carson P. Cooman (b. 1982)

Instrumental Music

• All Glory be to God on High – Georg Philipp Teleman (1681-1767)
• We All Believe in One True God – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA)
• Hymn S-236 - Canticle 13: Benedictus es, Domine - setting by John Rutter
• Hymn 371 - Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Jimmy Owens)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)

This Sunday is Music Sunday. Our music ministry will be honored as part of the worldwide Music Sunday Celebration of the RSCM (The Royal School of Church Music). 

There are so many special days in the calendar, but Music Sunday is a day to connect in spirit with the whole of the RSCM. It is heart-warming to know that churches around the country, and indeed the world, are focusing on the role of music in worship and the dedicated church musicians who lead this. 

Here at Good Shepherd, we will take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many people who work in music leadership in our church. We will also sing a Missa Brevis by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley and a new anthem by John Rutter, written as a prayer for the people of Ukraine.

Missa Brevis No. 4

The Service Music (Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) is the Missa Brevis No. 4 by Canadian composer Eleanor Daley. Missa Brevis means "brief mass," and was written for her own church choir. The three movements are written for a 4-part acapella choir. 

Born and raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, Daley received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and holds diplomas in piano and organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto and Trinity College, England. She has been the Director of Music at Fairlawn Heights United Church in Toronto, Ontario since 1982. During this time, she has established a thriving choral program for which much of her music has been composed, thanks to the continuing support and talent of her choirs.

A Ukrainian Prayer

The offertory anthem is a new work by the English composer John Rutter. Rutter was moved to write "A Ukrainian Prayer" when Ukraine was attacked by Russia. As Rutter says, "How can a composer respond to a global tragedy? By writing music is the most obvious thing. Like everybody, I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the events of recent days, and the first thing I wanted to do was write some music that would respond in my own way."

"I went to a late night service in my old college chapel, where they sang a setting of a lovely Ukrainian prayer. So, having encountered the text in another musical setting on Wednesday night, on Thursday, I wrote my own music. I hope the meaning of the text will resonate in people’s hearts."

The anthem is written in an acapella, Eastern Orthodox style. The text is an old Ukrainian prayer:

Боже, Україну храни

Дай нам силу, вірі, й надії

Отче наш, Отче наш

Амінь

A literal translation of the text is:

Good Lord, protect Ukraine.

Give her strength, courage, faith, hope. Amen.

Give Me

During communion, the choir will sing a round written by American composer Carson Cooman on a text by Khwaja Abdullah Ansari (1006–1088), a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century. The choir has been closing their rehearsals each week by singing this round as part of our closing prayers.

O God, give me a heart that I can pour out in thanksgiving.

Give me life that I can spend it working for the salvation of the world.

Music for June 3, 2022 + Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Veni Creator Spiritus – Stephen Sturk (b. 1950)
• Come, Holy Ghost – Thomas Attwood (1795-1838)
• Psalm 104:25-35, 37 – setting by William Crotch (1775-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Tongues of Fire (Pentecost Dance) – Alfred V. Fedak (b. 1953)
• Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Improvisation on “Veni Creator Spiritus” – Alfred V. Fedak

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

• Hymn 509 - Spirit divine, attend our prayers (NUN DANKET ALL UND BRINGET EHR)
• Hymn 20 - Now Holy Spirit, ever One (WAREHAM)
• Hymn - Through north and south (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (IVERSON)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (Traditional, Zimbabwe)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we commemorate the appearance of the Holy Spirit on the disciples after Christ ascended into heaven. It is considered the birthday of the church, and a major holiday in the history of the church.

One of the oldest and most widely used hymns in the Christian church is Veni, Creator Spiritus, with a text attributed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856) and a chant melody from around the same time. This text and/or tune permeates our music this morning.

Veni Creator Spiritus

This anthem by the California composer Stephen Sturk begins with the original chant in Latin, sung simply as is fitting for a chant. Interspersed with the hymn are verses of Psalm 36 set to the same chant, but this time in a rhythmic setting, much like a modern hymn.

Stephen Sturk is cofounder and artistic director of the Pacific Academy of Ecclesiastical Music (PACEM), music director at Saint Thomas of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Temecula, California, as well as composer in residence at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral and conductor of Cappella Gloriana in San Diego. He previously was artistic director of the San Clemente Choral Society, and from 1993 to 1997 he served on the faculty of the University of San Diego, where he was director of the Choral Scholars Program. Prior to settling in California in 1991, Sturk was music director of the New York Motet Choir and associate conductor of the choirs at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. From 1980 to 1983, he was director of The Juilliard Singers at The Juilliard School. 

Come, Holy Ghost

Thomas Attwood wrote this now classic English anthem in 1834, after he had left St. Pauls and begun teaching at the Royal Academy of Music. While the music is newly composed by Attwood, it uses a translation of the Latin text by Maurus.

The son of a musician in the royal band, Attwood was born in London. At the age of nine he became a chorister in the Chapel Royal. In 1783 he was sent to study abroad at the expense of the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV), who had been favorably impressed by his skill at the harpsichord. After two years in Italy, Attwood proceeded to Vienna, where he became a favorite pupil of Mozart. On his return to London in 1787 he held for a short time an appointment as one of the chamber musicians to the Prince of Wales. In 1796 he was chosen as the organist of St Paul's Cathedral, and in the same year he was made composer of the Chapel Royal. Soon after the institution of the Royal Academy of Music in 1823, Attwood was chosen to be one of the professors. He wrote an anthem for the coronation of William IV, and was composing a similar work for the coronation of Queen Victoria when he died on March 24, 1838. Attwood's funeral took place at St. Paul's Cathedral. He is buried in the Cathedral, in the crypt, under the organ.

Tongues of Fire (Pentecost Dance)
Improvisation on “Veni Creator Spiritus” 

The opening and closing voluntaries are by the American organist and composer Alfred Fedak. He recently retired as Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill in Albany, New York, but continues to teach at SUNY Schenectady. On June 1, 2021, he assumed the post of organist at First Reformed Church of Scotia, New York. 

The opening voluntary (Tongues of Fire) has a driving rhythm in the left hand, with the 'E' below middle C heard repeatedly throughout the entire piece. The first part is the dance movement, signifying the tongues of fire. Then the volume gets softer as the chant tune Veni Creator Spiritus appears, still as a dance.

Fedak uses the same chant tune in more traditional form in his Improvisation on “Veni Creator Spiritus” which I'm playing for the closing voluntary. Listen for a rippling melody which starts softly buts comes roaring into prominence before the plainchant enters in the pedals. It certainly sounds like a roaring fire!

Music for May 29, 2022 + The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• A Song to the Lamb – Donald Pearson (b. 1953)

Instrumental Music

• Sonata No. 8: Andante Sostenuto – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
• Sarabande (Concerto for Oboe in G Minor) – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• Llanfair – Robert J. Powell (b. 1932)

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

• Hymn 214 - Hail the day that sees him rise (LLANFAIR)
• Hymn R168 - If you believe and I believe (ZIMBABWE)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together on our knees (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn 460 - Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 97 – Tone IIa

Anthem: A Song to the Lamb

The American composer Donald Pearson wrote this setting of Canticle 18 while he was organist/choir master of St. John's Cathedral in Denver. Now a canticle (from the Latin canticulum, a diminutive of canticum, "song") is a hymn, psalm or other Christian song of praise with lyrics usually taken from biblical or holy texts. Canticles are used in Christian liturgy. You are probably most familiar with canticle 20 - we sing it most Sundays at the beginning of the service. (Glory to God in the Highest.) Other familiar canticles are the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, which are common at evening prayer services.

This setting starts of with a sparkling organ intro, which continues under the refrain which returns after each verse. The refrain was obviously meant for the congregation to sing, but today we will just leave it to the choir.

Opening Voluntary:  Sonata No. 8: Andante Sostenuto

Andante Sostenuto is the fourth movement of Alexandre Guilmant's Eight Sonata in A Major, Opus 9, completed at the composer's home in September 1906 and dedicated to Louis Herbette, a councilor of state. He later orchestrated the work as the Secondo Symphonie pour Orgue & Orchestra. It has some rich, thick chords which remind me of the opening of Camille Saint-Saens Organ Symphony which was written some 20 years earlier.

Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer who was well known both as a recitalist and as a composer. His organ repertoire includes his 18 collections of Pièces dans différents styles (pieces in differing styles), the more liturgical Soixante interludes dans la tonalité grégorienne (60 pieces in Gregorian tonality) and his 12 books of l'Organiste liturgique (the liturgical organist). He also wrote chamber music, vocal music, a sinfonia cantata (Ariane) as well a lyric scene (Bathsheba).

Communion Voluntary: Sarabande 

This is the third movement of Handel's Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor (HWV 287) composed  possibly in 1704-1705. It was arranged for organ by Edward Shippen Barnes, an American organist from the first half of the 20th century who was well known for his editions of organ transcriptions of orchestral works. 

Here is a recording of the Houston Early Music group, Ars Lyrica, performing this movement. (Don't listen to it in church!)

Closing Voluntary: Llanfair

The closing voluntary is a setting of our opening hymn by the living Episcopalian composer Robert J. Powell. He is known to our congregation if for no other reason than his setting of the Gloria (Canticle No. 20 - see above) that we have been singing each Sunday during Eastertide.

Music for May 22, 2022 + The Sixth Sunday of Easter

Vocal Music

• If Ye Love Me – Philip Wilby (b. 1949)
• God Help the Outcasts – Alan Menken (b. 1949)
• Celeste Wilson, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Lord, I Trust Thee – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• Graham Whitney, Will Soto, violins; Lauren Vogel, viola
• Chant Heroique - Gordon Young (1919-1998)

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

• Hymn 405 - All things bright and beautiful (ROYAL OAK)
• Hymn 292 - O Jesus, crowned with all renown (KINGSFOLD)
• Hymn R136 - Alleluia (ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works, God of Praise (LYONS)
• Psalm 67-Tone Va

Philip Wilby is an English composer.

Born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, Wilby was educated at the King's School and later at Leeds Grammar School, studying violin, organ and theory. He played violin with the National Youth Orchestra, where he came under the influence of Herbert Howells. This helped form his early decision to take composition seriously. Wilby then studied at Keble College, Oxford. He joined the Covent Garden Orchestra and later the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In 1972 he became senior lecturer at Leeds University. There he taught various composition, liturgy, directing, and score reading classes as well as co-founding the Leeds University Liturgical Choir.

His many compositions include works for keyboard, orchestra, educational music, chamber, and sacred choral music, but it is his music for concert band for which he is perhaps best known.

During communion, we have the pleasure of hearing one of our graduating seniors sing a song from the Disney musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. 

Music for the Fifth Sunday of Easter + May 15, 2022

Vocal Music

• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Partita on ‘Salzburg’ - Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706)
• Land of Rest – George Shearing (1919-2011)
• Fugue in D – Johann Pachelbel

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

• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord! O heavens adore him (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
• Psalm 148 – setting by Hal H. Hopson

John Rutter has written a beautiful little anthem based on an anonymous 15th century poem, Thy Perfect Love. Written in 1975, you'll hear the text and tune twice; first, in a solo soprano setting, then again with the full choir singing the text with a lot of suspensions and harmonies that just seem to "float." 

John Rutter

London-born John Rutter has written a large body of sacred music: anthems, carols, a Requiem and other choral works, as well as orchestral and other secular music. He has also made significant contributions as an arranger and editor.

Rutter studied at Cambridge and stayed on to found The Cambridge Singers in 1981. He still conducts this ensemble, which records on its own label, Collegium. For his services to music, Rutter was awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Music by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1996, and a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2007.

The opening and closing voluntaries are by the South German composer Johann Pachelbel. You know him by his celebrated Canon in D, which has been used at weddings and for diamond commercials ever since it was rediscovered in 1968, when the Jean-François Paillard chamber orchestra made a recording of the piece that would change its fortunes significantly.

But during his lifetime, Pachelbel was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. Much of Pachelbel's liturgical organ music, particularly the chorale preludes, is relatively simple and written for manuals only, no pedal is required. This is partly due to Lutheran religious practice where congregants sang the chorales. Household instruments like virginals or clavichords accompanied the singing, so Pachelbel and many of his contemporaries made music playable using these instruments. The quality of the organs Pachelbel used also played a role: south German instruments were not, as a rule, as complex and as versatile as the north German ones which J. S. Bach was accustomed to.

Johann Pachelbel

Chorales and chorale preludes constitute almost half of Pachelbel's surviving organ output, in part because of his organist post in Erfurt which required him to compose chorale preludes on a regular basis. Usually they were composed with one or two verses of the hymn, but today we have an example of a partita, or set of variations on the chorale. You'll hear the chorale first, followed by four different settings of the hymn tune. This is the familiar chorale, SALZBURG, which is used several times in our hymnal. Today we recall the Easter text that goes with it, At the Lamb's high feast we sing.

The communion voluntary is a setting of another hymn-tune, LAND OF REST, which we will sing with the text, I come with joy to meet my Lord. It is by the pianist George Shearing, a British jazz musician who rose to become something of a household name in the US. Blind from birth, Shearing had a natural flair for playing the piano (he started lessons at age five) and was able to memorize tunes he learned from listening to the radio. He studied music at Linden College, a residential school for blind children, where he stayed until he was 16, at which point he began working as pub pianist.

George Shearing

Shearing was much honored during his long career. He played for three different US presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan) and was awarded an OBE in 1996 before receiving a knighthood from the Queen in 2007. “In the quiet moments when I reflect on all this,” wrote Shearing in his autobiography, “I can’t help thinking, not bad for a kid from Battersea!”

Though Shearing became an American citizen in 1956, in later years he spent a lot of time at his home in the Cotswolds, England. A bad fall in 2004 put an end to his performing career and he died seven years later, on Valentine’s Day 2011, aged 91.

Music for May 8, 2022 + The Fourth Sunday of Easter: GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

Vocal Music

• Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep – Philip Ledger

Instrumental Music

• Jubilate – Julie C. Stitt
• Rondo Jubilee – Brenda Austin
• Jesus, Meine Zuversicht – Anton Wilhelm Leupold (1867-1940)

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

• Hymn 366 - Holy God we praise thy Name (GROSSER GOTT)
• Hymn R139 - Halle, halle, Hallelujah (CARRIBEAN)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (ST. AGNES)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 23 – setting by Hal H. Hopson

We feature music of two contemporary American female composers as our Handbell Choir plays this morning.

The first piece is a setting of a tune from the early 1800s called VESPER HYMN. It appeared in John A. Stevenson's Selection of Popular National Airs (1818) as a setting for "Hark! The Vesper Hymn Is Stealing." Some later hymnals attributed the tune to Dimitri Bortniansky, but no tune resembling this one has been found in that Russian composer's published works. Stevenson is generally recognized as being the arranger if not also the composer. In this arrangement, you will hear the melody not only in the top line of the bells, but sometimes in the middle of the bell choir, while the upper bells sound like a music box, and the lower bells are played with mallets.

This arrangement is by Julie Stitt, who is a middle school teacher in the northern Minneapolis Metro area. She is also the director of Handbells at at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

Stitt grew up in San Bernardino, CA where she began ringing handbells at an early age at First United Presbyterian Church. After completing a Master’s Degree from the University of Minnesota, she  began composing and arranging handbells.  . She has published handbell pieces in print with several publishing companies. Several pieces have been performed at area festivals around the United States. Her original composition, La Paix, was performed at the Loire Valley Handbell Festival in France in 2004 by Twin Cities Bronze. 

The communion voluntary is Rondo Jubilee. A rondo is a musical form that can be thought of as an extension of Binary and Ternary form. Binary form is AB and Ternary form is ABA, and a rondo takes this a step farther by adding other letters – it goes ABACADAEA. 

Brenda Austin

It essentially takes a principle theme, or refrain, and alternates it with one or more different themes, which are called episodes. So the refrain is the repeating “A” section, and the alternating episodes are the “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E”. In this piece, you will not only hear the bells but also our three octave hand chime set. We will use almost every technique known to humankind in this piece, which is the longest piece we have played to date. 

It is written by Brenda E. Austin, the Artistic Director for the Detroit Handbell Ensemble and Director of Worship and Music at First United Methodist Church in Eaton Rapids, MI, She is Handbell Editor for Agape, a major publishing company for church music.

She graduated with degrees in Vocal Performance from Western Michigan University and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri – Kansas City.  

The closing voluntary is a setting of the German Chorale JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT, which is used in our hymnal for the communion hymn "Let thy blood in mercy poured" (hymn 313), but in many churches is also used for the hymn "Jesus lives! Thy terrors now can no longer, death, appall us". (That text is also in our hymnal, but with different tunes.)

A. W. Leupold

The tune is by the early Baroque composer and Lutheran musician Johann Crüger, whom you might know better for his tunes for other hymns such as "Now thank we all our God", "Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness", "Ah, Holy Jesus", and "Christ, whose glory fills the skies." The setting is by the 20th century German composer Anton Leupold, but his arrangement is more 18th century than 20th. He uses the typical compositional style of Bach - use of counterpoint, harmony, and imagery that was common to that great Baroque master. For instance, running throughout the lower three voices is an instrumental motif made up of two short beats followed by a long beat—an anapaest—often used by Bach to signify joy - perfectly appropriate for this season of Easter!

Anton Wilhelm Leupold was the organist at the St. Petri Church in Berlin for almost forty years. He composed motets, sacred and secular songs, chamber music and organ works of all kinds. Leupold left around 200 organ preludes to almost all the melodies in the hymn book. His son Ulrich Leupold (1909-1970) was also a composer and was the editor of his father's music.