Music for September 18, 2022 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Wash Me Throughly – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Instrumental Music

• Sarabande – David Ashley White (b. 1944)
• Be Thou My Vision – Larry Schackley (b. 1956)
• Tuba Tune in D Major, Op. 15 – C. S. Lang (1891-1971)

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 R258 - To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Hymn 488 - Be thou my vision (SLANE)
• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Psalm 113 – Tone VIIIa

Wash Me Throughly

In 1717, George Frederick Handel became the composer in residence at Cannons, the court of James Brydges, who became the First Duke of Chandos in 1719. As part of his responsibilities, he wrote eleven "anthems" for use in the chapel there, but these are more than just a simple anthem. They are multi-movement works which foreshadow the greatness found in his oratorios. Handel was limited in the resources available to him, so it was written for only three voices (soprano, tenor, and bass) with intimate instrumental forces of oboe, two violins, and basso continuo (usually the organ with the bass line doubled by an instrument). It is true chamber music.

G. F. Handel (without his wig)

The choir will sing the third movement of the third Chandos anthem, which is based on verses from Psalm 51. Originally written for alto and tenor, today the entire choir will be singing together. Handel himself chose the texts for all the Chandos Anthems, using primarily as his source the Psalter of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Sarabande

This expressive short organ work from David Ashley White combines a soaring, lyric melody with a lush accompaniment. The music builds to a full organ climax in the middle and then fades away to tranquility at the end. It was written for and dedicated to Yuri McCoy, a graduate of the organ program at Rice University and now organist at South Main Baptist Church in Houston

Be Thou My Vision

The British Isles have provided us with some simple and often haunting folk melodies. Many of these tunes have been matched with hymn texts and become a treasured part of our hymnody. This is true with the tune SLANE, an old Irish folk tune associated with the ballad "With My Love on the Road" in Patrick W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909). It became a hymn tune when it was arranged by David Evans and set to the Irish hymn "Be Thou My Vision" published in the Church Hymnary (1927). SLANE is named for a hill in County Meath, Ireland, where St. Patrick's lighting of an Easter fire–an act of defiance against the pagan king Loegaire (fifth century)–led to his unlimited freedom to preach the gospel in Ireland.

Larry Shackley, a free-lance composer from Columbia, South Carolina, has written a lovely piano meditation on SLANE that I'll be playing at communion.

A native of Chicago, Shackley attended Eastman School of Music (M.M) and the University of South Carolina (D.M.A). He has had a varied career, from teaching at Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, to working at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, creating original music and producing radio programs for the Moody Broadcasting Network, to composing for over 30 films, videotapes, and radio dramas. He has also served churches such as Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois as well as several churches in South Carolina. Shackley is also an active studio musician, arranger, and orchestrator. Recently, he has devoted most of his composing to music for the church, writing over 450 keyboard arrangements and 250 choral pieces for a variety of publishers.

Tuba Tune

C. S. Lang (known to his friends as Robin) was born in New Zealand but moved with his family to London where he also studied at The Royal College of Music. His best-known work is the Tuba Tune for organ, Opus 15, a favorite of recitalists. This dashing little piece, which owes its title to the boisterous melody sounded forth on the organ's tuba stop, begins in the style of Handel but, in its central section, has some brief key changes that could belong to no century except the 20th.

Music for September 11, 2022

Vocal Music

• Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing – Gordon Young

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in D Minor – Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
• Prelude on St. Columba – Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Sinfonie from Cantata 29: We Thank Thee, God – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 410 - Praise, my soul, the King of heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 401 - The God of Abraham Praise (LEONI)
• Hymn 571 - Amazing grace (NEW BRITAIN)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Psalm 51:1-4, 7-8, 11 – Tone VIIIb

Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing

This morning we sing an anthem by twentieth-century American organist and choral and organ composer Gordon Young.  Dr. Young was awarded 18 consecutive annual composition awards from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. His works works total over 800, and a number of his church anthems such as this one have become standard repertoire.  These are Young's words which speak the praise of God within all our hearts expressed as “Alleluia”, an early Hebrew expression of praise which literally means "Praise to Yahweh" or "Praise God!"

Prelude and Fugue in D Minor

There are not many female composers, especially from the past. One of the few is Clara Schumann, the wife of the composer/pianist Robert Schumann. As a pianist, she was as good or better than Robert, but as a composer we will never know. He wrote over 150 pieces. She wrote only a fraction of that.

Though she had been encouraged by her father to compose as part of her musical education, she became more preoccupied with other responsibilities in life as she grew older, and found it hard to compose regularly. "I once believed that I possessed creative talent," she said, "but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?" Her husband also expressed his concern:

"Clara has composed a series of small pieces, which show a musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before. But to have children, and a husband who is always living in the realm of imagination, does not go together with composing. She cannot work at it regularly, and I am often disturbed to think how many profound ideas are lost because she cannot work them out."

The work you will hear today for the opening voluntary is a Prelude and Fugue which was originally written for piano, but I think it works equally well on the organ. The prelude and fugue form was an old compositional form, dating back to the days of Bach and Buxtehude. One can see in this composition that Clara was well-versed in music of other eras.

Sinfonie from Cantata 29: We Thank Thee, God, We Thank Thee

A concerto is a work for solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra, especially one conceived on a relatively large scale. Bach never wrote such a work for organ and orchestra, so the closest we can come is this Sinfonie (overture or prelude) to his Cantata 29 

This work may have a familiar sound to listeners who do not already know this cantata: it is an arrangement of the Prelude from the Partita in E major for unaccompanied violin: 

The treble of the obbligato organ part plays the famous partita tune, transposed here from E major down a step to D major. Bach added trumpet and drum parts here for punctuation, and to make the opening line even more festive than the mood created by the partita theme alone. String and oboe parts provided additional reinforcement. It is unusual to find an obbligato organ part – more importantly, an independent organ part which is separate from the continuo. Was this a showcase for Bach’s own organ virtuosity? Or did Bach serve as a conductor here for the larger than usual cantata ensemble, while someone else – one of his talented sons? – stood at the organ?

Music for September 4, 2022 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• I Love You, O My God Most High – David Hogan (1949-1986)

Instrumental Music

• Trio in D Minor – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Ubi Caritas – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Praeludium in F Major – Johann Ludwig Krebs

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of "I can hear my Savior calling" which is from LEVAS II.)

• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)
• Hymn - I can hear my Savior calling (NORRIS)
• Hymn 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (BOURBON)
• Psalm 1 – Tone VIIIa

I Love You, O My God Most High

I’m always moved by stories of talented people who are cut down in the prime of life. Such is the story of David Hogan, the composer of today’s anthem. Hogan was an American composer, teacher, and performer with ties to both the East and West Coasts. He had moved to France to teach at the American Conservatory at the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris, and was flying back to Paris on July 17, 1996 on TWA Flight 800, when it suddenly crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York. Thus ended a life dedicated to music.

A native of Virginia, Hogan graduated from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's degree in 1971, and would go on to earn a master's degree in voice in 1975. He enjoyed enormous success both as a composer and teacher and still found time to perform internationally as a concert tenor and pianist. For three years in a row, his students won first place in the Student Composers Competition of the Music Teachers National Association.

Dedicated to God as well as his craft, he had the distinction of being one of the two composers chosen to write new works for the Consecration of the Washington National Cathedral in 1989. Our kids choir learned his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis a few years ago for the Diocesan Youth Choral Festival. But he also wrote simple sacred music too, such as today’s anthem, written for his small choir at St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco.  It’s a simple setting of a traditional Irish melody, Daniel, arranged for two-part mixed choir. Simple but elegant, it uses the text by St Ignatius of Loyola, as translated by Edward Caswall.

I love you, O my Lord most high,

for first your love has captured me;

I seek no other liberty:

bound by your love, I shall be free.

May memory no thought suggest

but shall to your pure glory tend,

may understanding find no rest,

except in you, its only end.

All mine is yours: say but the word,

say what you will, it shall be done;

I know your love, most gracious Lord,

I know you seek my good alone.

Apart from you, nothing can be,

so grant me this, my only wish,

to love you, Lord, eternally,

you give me all in giving this.

Johann Ludwig Krebs

Wait, Who?

Krebs was an organist and composer from a highly musical family.  His father, both brothers, and his three sons all received formal musical training; his son Johann Gottfried was also an extremely prolific composer.

Best remembered as a pupil of Bach, Krebs was educated at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, as were his brothers.  The oft-repeated story that Bach punningly referred to him as the finest 'crab' in his "brook" (Krebs im Bach) is apocryphal, but Bach did provide a written testimonial as to his skill in composition and in playing the keyboard, lute, and violin.

Over his career Krebs held three organ posts, all in the viscinity of Leipzig: first at the St Marien church in Zwicken, then at the castles of Zeitz and, finally, Altenburg.

His status as a student of Bach tended to shade many of his compositions.  Although many of his works do stay very close to the outdated Bach model, with a conservative love of counterpoint, other compositions exhibit a more up-to-date style galant, a light and elegant free homophonic style of musical composition in the 18th century as contrasted with the serious contrapuntal style of the baroque era. 

In today's two organ pieces, the opening voluntary is an example of his mastery of Baroque counterpoint. The Trio in D Minor is written in three parts: two top parts played separately by the hands, and a bass line played by the feet. There is a lot of imitation between the two keyboard parts.

The closing volutary is an example of the more 'modern' style galant. This meant simpler, more song-like melodies, a decreased use of polyphony, short, periodic phrases, and a reduced harmonic vocabulary emphasizing tonic and dominant

. 

Music for Sunday, August 28, 2022 + The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Christ Has No Body Now but Yours – David Ogden (b. 1966)

Instrumental Music

• Aria – Flor Peeters (1903-1986)
• Prelude on “Michael” (hymn 665) – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Voluntary on “Was Lebet” (Hymn 568) – Christopher Tambling (1964 - 2015)

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Hymn - From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 321- My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
• Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (ENGLEBERG)
• Psalm 112 – Tone IIa

Christ Has No Body Now But Yours

Such a long, unwieldy title for simple tune. It's actually just the first line of the prayer attributed to Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish noblewoman who was called to be a nun in the 16th century. She wrote this prayer

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

It has been set to music by David Ogden, a professional conductor and composer based in Bristol, U.K. He is Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol where he trains and directs three choirs of young people and adults as part of the church’s active music program. In addition, he conducts the vocal ensemble Celestia, Exultate Singers, City of Bristol Choir, workplace choirs at Airbus, Arval and Bristol Beacon, and in his post of Head of the Bristol Choral Centre, he organizes and directs the 140 strong Bristol Youth Choirs in association with Bristol Music Trust.

One of the things that most fascinates me the most is that he was the Religious Music Adviser for the PBS series Call The Midwife. It is one of my most favorite shows, and I always admired how the sacred music employed on the show fit the storyline so well.

Aria

Flor Peeters was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, He retired in 1968 and was given the assignment of an International Masterclass in the cathedral of Mechelen by the Ministry of Flemish Culture. He fulfilled this task until his death. He was organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986. Each Sunday after High Mass, between 1968 and 1986, he performed a short recital for friends and tourists. He kept his large repertoire in good condition and this playing was a necessity for him as a mean of communicating beauty to others.

Flor Peeters was made doctor honoris causa in music by the Catholic University in Washington (1962) and by the Catholic University of Louvain (1971).Also in 1971 King Baudouin of the Belgians gave him the title of baron. A few weeks before his death he received the State Award for an artistic career from the Belgian Government.

Prelude on "Michael" and Voluntary on "Was Lebet"

Two of the hymns that were appropriate for the scripture readings this Sunday but remain unfamiliar to our congregation are hymns 665 (All our hope on God is founded, sung to the tune MICHAEL) and 568 (Father all loving, who rulest in majesty, sung to the German chorale WAS LEBET.) The text for hymn 665 is a translation of a German hymn from the 17th cenutry, but set to a tune from the 20th century. The text for 568 is a contemporary text from the 20th century but set to a German tune from the 18th century.

Music for Sunday, August 21, 2022 + The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• And Still the Bread Is Broken – David Ashley White (b. 1944)

Instrumental Music

• O God, Thou Faithful God – Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)
• Jerusalem – Chris de Silva (21st Century)
• Carillon – Herbert Murrill (1909-1952)

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

• Hymn 8 - Morning is broken (BUNESSAN)
• Hymn 522 - Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (REGENT SQUARE)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn 114 - Psalm 103:1-8, Jacques Berthier

O God, thou Faithful God

These two short chorale preludes for organ are written by Dame Ethel Smyth, one of the most significant English composers of her era. She wrote six operas, a Mass in D for chorus and orchestra, orchestral, choral, chamber and solo music.

Born into a middle-class London family, she was introduced to classical music by a governess who had studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. This sealed her fate, and she too went to Leipzig to study music. She met and worked with some of the greatest musicians of the time, including Clara Schumann, Peter Tchailkovsky, Edvard Gried, Anton Dvorak, Gustav Mahler, and Johannes Brahms. Brahms refused to believe she actually wrote the music she shared with him because he didn't believe a woman could write music that was this good.

In her collection Short Chorale Preludes, Smyth melds the compositional styles of both Bach and Brahms. She set the chorale O GOTT DU FROMMER GOTT twice. The first setting uses an imitative four-note motif as part of the the accompaniment in the three lower voices, while the melody appears unadorned in the top voice. As the hymn itself is in AAB form (do you remember last week's discussion of form in hymns?), measures five through eight are an exact repeat of the first four bars, only played on a different keyboard. 

The second setting is in 12/8 time, as opposed to the common 4/4 time of the first prelude. In the second setting Smyth did NOT repeat the opening line of the melody as she did in the first chorale prelude, because the melody is repeated in a canon at the octave between the upper voice and the pedal. 

Jerusalem

The piano piece during the eucharist is a setting of the tune LAND OF REST. This tune is used several times in our hymnal, most notably for the text which we will sing immediately following the piano prelude. The title Jerusalem probably comes from the other text found in our hymnal, Jerusalem, my happy home. 

 Chris de Silva is a composer, arranger and church musician. He is is originally from Singapore and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He

has served as Director of Liturgy and Music at several churches in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and currently serves on the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University as Associate Director of Music.

​

Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music where he studied Music Composition and Film Scoring. He also holds an M.A. in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Chris is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.

Music for August 14, 2022 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – Samuel S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Instrumental Music

• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 647 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Chorale Prelude on “Houston” – Rebecca Groom Te Velde (b. 1956)
• If Thou but Trust in God to Guide Thee, BWV 642 – J. S. Bach

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 635 If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 490 I want to walk as a child of the Light (HOUSTON)
• Hymn R 291 Go forth for God (GENEVA 124)
• Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18 – Tone IIa

Welcome Back, Choir!

The Good Shepherd Choir makes its return to our 10:15 service this Sunday, singing one of the best known excerpts from an anthem by Samuel Sebastian Wesley. This short passage from the larger work Praise the Lord, O My Soul is known as Lead Me, Lord.

Samuel Sebastian Wesley was born 212 years ago this very day, Aug. 14, in London. Known as a composer and organist, he was one of the most distinguished English church musicians of his time. The grandson of Charles Wesley and the natural son of Samuel Wesley (his father had left his first wife and started a new family with another woman - but that's a post for another time!), he was a chorister of the Chapel Royal and held posts in London and at Exeter cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester cathedral, and Gloucester cathedral. He was prominent as a conductor of the Three Choirs Festival and was professor of organ at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Wesley's father was enamored with the music of Bach. In fact, he helped introduce the music of J.S. Bach into England, playing his music and publishing the an English edition of Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier). He was so infatuated with the German musician that he named his son Sebastian in Bach's memory. So perhaps it is fitting that I am playing two pieces by J. Sebastian Bach alongside the music of S. Sebastian Wesley.

If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee

One of the first pieces I studied on the organ when in college was Bach's setting of the chorale Wer nur den lieben Gott, which is in our hymnal at hymn 635. (We will also sing it today.) This setting, which I am playing as the closing voluntary, is from Bach's collection Orgelbuchlein. The hymn is in AAB form, meaning that the first two lines of music are identical, while the last line uses new material. The same can be said of Bach's setting. The first line is repeated twice before ending the piece. In this chorale prelude, the unadorned cantus firmus is in the soprano voice. The two inner voices, often in thirds, are built on a motif made up of two short beats followed by a long beat—an anapaest — often used by Bach to signify joy. The pedal has a walking bass which also partly incorporates the joy motif in its responses to the inner voices. For Albert Schweitzer, the accompaniment symbolized "the joyful feeling of confidence in God's goodness."

The opening voluntary follows the same AAB formula. What makes this interesting is that this is basically Bach's arrangement of the central duet from his cantata based on this hymn, Cantata 93, which Bach composed in 1728.  Bach published this setting for organ, BWV 647, around 1748 as part of his Six Chorales of Various Kinds, commonly known as the Schubler Chorales. All six works for organ are based on cantatas. They provided an approachable version of Bach's cantatas through the more accessible medium of keyboard music, and the fact that Bach chose to edit these (while the rest of his cantatas remained largely unpublished during his lifetime), says something about the musical statement that they represented. 

Music for August 7, 2022 + The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Simple Song – Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
• Jim Sikorski, tenor, Grace Tice, oboe

Instrumental Music

• Impromptu on “Adoro te Devote” – Rachel Laurin (b. 1961)
• Gabriel’s Oboe – Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
• Quasi Allegro – César Franck (1822-1890)

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

• Hymn R5 God is here! (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖHE)
• Hymn 637 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (LYONS)
• Hymn From North and South (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 68 Rejoice! rejoice, believers (LLANGLOFFAN)
• Psalm 50:1-8 – Tone IIa

Simple Song

My friend Jim Sikorski is coming to Kingwood to sing for us this Sunday. He is singing "A Simple Song" from Leonard Bernstein's Mass. (For some background on why the Jewish Bernstein would write a setting of the Catholic Mass, see my notes from an earlier column here.)

Jim has been in Houston for over 40 years, and during that time, he has sung with the Houston Grand Opera chorus, Theatre Under the Stars, and, and 43 consecutive seasons, he has sung the National Anthem for the Houston Astros. (You can imagine how I feel about that! Go, 'Stros!)

Gabriel's Oboe

Another friend of mine is coming to play oboe on "A Simple Song," so while here, I thought I would get Grace Tice to play one of my favorite oboe pieces, Gabriel's Oboe, originally written by the composer Ennio Morricone for the film "The Mission." The score for that movie was nominated for an Oscar, and Morricone recieved a Golden Globe for his music for that film.

Since it's appearance in 1986, this tune has become a standard of instrumental and vocal repertoire. Sarah Brightman, Il Divo, Yo Yo Ma, and a host of others have recorded it. Our handbell choir played an arrangement of it in May of 2018. I'm sure you remember.

Impromptu on Adoro te Devote

Today I am playing an organ piece by one of the hottest names in organ music from Canada, the talented organist and composer Rachel Laurin. After her studies at the Montreal Conservatory, she became Associate Organist of Raymond Daveluy at St-Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal (1986-2002), and from 2002 to 2006, she was Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral, Ottawa. She now devotes herself to composition, recitals, master classes and lectures.

She has performed organ recitals in major cities in Canada, the United States, and Europe (including the University of House), and has made more than twelve recordings, including two CDs devoted to her own compositions. She has composed hundreds of works for various solo instruments, voice, instrumental ensembles, choir, and orchestra. In 2020, the American Guild of Organists granted her the AGO “Distinguished Composer Award” in recognition of her important contribution to the organ repertoire.

Quasi Allegro

Last week I talked about the French Composer Cesar Franck, his 200th birthday, and his collection call "L'Organiste." Today I play another piece from that collection for the closing voluntary.