Music for February 1, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• The Apple Tree – Mark Schweizer (b.1956)

Instrumental Music

• Trio in D minor – Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780)
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Prelude in G Major, BWV 568 – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 493 O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)
• Hymn R115 Psalm 111: God’s holy ways are just and true (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 536 God has spoken to his people (TORAH SONG)
• Hymn 530 Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)

Mark Schweizer, the composer

There is a beautiful poem that has become popular as a text for Christmas Carols called "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree." Many composers have set this anonymous 18th century poem as a choral work, including Elizabeth Poston, whose setting was made famous by the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, with its inclusion in their yearly Christmas Lessons and Carols. Our choir has sung that one, but this week we are singing a simple a capella setting by Mark Schweizer. But more about him in a moment.

I've always found it curious that "The Apple Tree" was thought of as a Christmas Carol, when it mentions nothing about the incarnation or birth of Jesus. The text is, however, full of allusions to both the apple tree (such as in Song of Solomon 2:3 which has been interpreted as a metaphor representing Christ), and to Jesus' description of his life as a tree of life.There was an old English tradition of wassailing or wishing health to apple trees on Christmas Eve, so that may be where the Christmas connection came in.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,

Laden with fruit, and always green,

The trees of nature fruitless be,

Compar'd with Christ the appletree.

His beauty doth all things excel,

By faith I know, but ne'er can tell,

The glory which I now can see,

In Jesus Christ the appletree.

For happiness I long have sought,

And pleasure I have dearly bought;

I missed of all but now I see

'Tis found in Christ the appletree.

I'm wearied with my former toil,

Here I will sit and rest awhile;

Under the shadow I will be

Of Jesus Christ the appletree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,

It keeps my dying faith alive;

Which makes my soul in haste to be

With Jesus Christ the appletree.

Mark Schweitzer, the author

Mark Schweizer is an interesting man. A native of Florida, he received music degrees from Stetson University in DeLand and the University of Arizona including a doctorate in vocal performance. He went on to teach voice and perform professionally before starting his own publishing company which publishes church music AND murder mysteries. That sounds like an unusual combination, but if you've ever worked in a church, it makes perfect sense. Read more about him from his bio on the Goodreads page.

• O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON) “If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ with them all.” So said Peter Böhler to Charles Wesley, inspiring the first line of the classic hymn, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook.) Written to celebrate the one year anniversary of Charles’ conversion to Christianity, this declaration of Christ’s power and victory in his own life, rich in Biblical imagery of the Kingdom of God, becomes our own hymn of praise. We stand with the angels before the throne of God, lifting our voices as one church to glorify the one who “bids our sorrows cease.” (from Hymnary.org) I am using it today because of its reference to healing in the fifth stanza.
• Psalm 111: God’s holy ways are just and true (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) This is a relatively recent poetic paraphrase of Psalm 111 (the psalm appointed for this day) by Barbara Woollett (b.1937), a full-time housewife and mother as well as a hymn writer.  The tune for this Psalm setting is the great German chorale "Laast uns erfreuen."
• God has spoken to his people (TORAH SONG)  Catholic priest Willard Francis Jabusch (b. 1930) wrote this text for his congregation in Chicago in 1966, using the Israeli tune, TORAH SONG (or YISRAEL V'ORAITA, as it is known in other hymnals.) The tune is not in a typical major or minor key, but is instead in a strange mode which may sound foreign to our ears, but is prominent in the synagogue music of Eastern Europe, as well as Jewish folk and Hasidic music.
• Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK) This hymn expresses a worldwide concern for education and mission. Originally in German by J. F. Bahnmeaier with seven stanzas, the Catherine Winkworth translation of the first three stanzas made it into the hymnal, along with a new fourth verse  by modern hymnist F. Pratt Green.

Music for January 25, 2015 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• I Will Arise – Robert Shaw/Alice Parker (1916-1999/b. 1925)

Instrumental Music

• Choral – Joseph Jongen (1883-1953)
• Fanfare - Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823–1881)
• Suite on the Chorale Auf meinen lieben Gott (In God, My Faithful God) – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

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

• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise (LYONS)
• Hymn 469 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER)

In response to the Gospel reading where Jesus calls his first disciples, the offertory anthem today is a great setting of the old hymn, "I Will Arise and Go to Jesus." The refrain comes from Joseph Hart's 1759 hymn, "Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched" but today it is combined with stanzas from the hymn "Come, thou fount of every blessing." The tune the choir sings was arranged by Alice Parker with Robert Shaw, and it comes from William Walker's Southern Harmony of 1834. Since I wrote about another anthem that these two collaborated on which came from the same hymnal, I suggest you head over to that post for more information.

N. Jacques Lemmens

The organ music today features works of two Belgian organists of the 19th and  20th centuries. Belgian organ music had been very closely aligned with French organ music during the 19th century, but it was Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens who turned from the overly sentimental and trite Parisian style of organ playing to that which was more idiomatic to the instrument. I'll be playing one of his best known works, his Fanfare, as the closing voluntary. It's a showy toccata, which was included in his École d'Orgue (1862), an organ method book which became the leading method book at the Conservatories in Paris and Brussels.

Joseph Jongen

The other Belgian is Joseph Jongen, who, at the tender age of seven, was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire and spent the next sixteen years there. He began composing at the age of 13, and immediately exhibited exceptional talent in that field. Jongen composed a great deal, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and songs, but today, the only part of his music performed with any regularity is his output for organ, much of it solo, but one work, with orchestra, shines above them all. His monumental Symphonie Concertante of 1926 is a tour de force, considered by many to be among the greatest works ever written for organ and orchestra.

The opening voluntary is a very popular work by Jongen from his Opus No. 37, Choral. Just like the chorals of his fellow countryman César Franck, Jongen's Choral is not based on a hymn tune like the German Chorales of Bach and Buxtehude, but is a free-composed work. In it, the organ begins softly, building throughout the three pages of music until it ends with full organ roaring away. If you listen closely, you'll hear the melody in the soprano line played in canon by the feet in the bass line.

And speaking of a chorale based work, the communion voluntary is a odd little work by the celebrated German Dietrich Buxtehude. A common musical form among baroque composers was the keyboard suite, a collection of pieces for harpsichord or clavichord using various dance forms as basis for each movement, with the separate movements often thematically and tonally linked. Buxtehude did a strange thing by using the German chorale Auf meinen lieben Gott (In God, My Faithful God) as the unifying element. It's strange in that these dance suites were typically secular in nature. After all, who would expect to hear a jig (gigue) in church?
The movements you will hear this Sunday as I play the piano will be

1. Prelude
2. Double
3. Sarabande
4. Courante
5. Gigue

HYMNS

• How wondrous and great thy works, God of praise (LYONS) This hymn is by Henry Ustick Onderdonk, Bishop of Pennsylvania from 1827 to 1844, when his fondness for alcohol necessitated his resignation. He turned his life around, and from then on was changed that he was restored to his bishopric two years before his death on December 6, 1858. We sing this text to the tune LYONS, named for the French city Lyons.
• There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER) I'm not so crazy about this tune that our hymnal sets the text to, but it is well known by our congregation and has a strong tune with clean rhythms that are easily sung. Most hymnals use this tune for Love divine, all loves excelling.
• I have decided to follow Jesus (ASSAM) I've always thought this was a Negro Spiritual, but it in fact comes from India! (Hence the tune name, Assam, named after a region in northeastern India.) There are a variety of different stories about the origin of this hymn, but all of them agree that it was written in India by someone facing persecution for his or her faith. One of the more dramatic and widespread stories comes from the book Why God, Why? by Dr. P. P. Job, in which a Christian missionary first sang this song to an Indian folk song, probably from the Garo tribe, as he and his family were being murdered for their faith.
• Lift high the cross (CRUCIFER) We sing this grand hymn of the Anglican tradition in honor of the Daughters of the King, as this weekend we mark the anniversary of the founding of our local chapter. This is their official hymn. 

Music for January 18, 2015 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Hush! Somebody’s Callin’ My Name – arr. Brazeal W. Dennard (1929-2010)
• Lord, You Have Searched Me – David Hurd (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Galliard on “Gather Us In” – James Biery (b. 1956)
• Song of Peace – Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
• Postlude – Lionel Lackey (1910-1987)

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 707  - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 132 - All glory, Jesus, be to thee (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn 535 - Ye servants of God, your master proclaim (PADERBORN)

Hush, hush, somebody’s callin’ my name. Oh my Lord, oh my Lord, what shall I do?

Today we sing an anthem that I like to schedule whenever the Old Testament lesson is the story of the boy Samuel hearing the voice of God call his name. The boy thinks it is his mentor, Eli, but after the third time Eli suggests the boy respond by saying "Master, speak, thy servant heareth." It turns out God is calling Samuel's name.
I use this spiritual because I imagine, if I heard God calling my name out loud, I'd be saying "What am I going to do?!"

But here is a brief history of the spiritual. Dr. Rosephanye Powell says

 “Hush” is to tell those weeping for us during sickness or dying to stop weeping because there is joy in dying. The verse “soon one morning, death come creeping in my room” was something the slave longed for and welcomed because it meant freedom from slavery.
There is a verse that says “sounds like Jesus” and that refers to the fact that they are truly saved and Jesus is calling them home. Relative to slavery in a sociological context, “hush” was an indication to keep quiet and listen because a conductor in the Underground Railroad was in the area and whatever their signal was (whistling, barking, knocking, tapping on the window) was indicative to the slave’s name being called...  In this context, the verse “sounds like Jesus” is a way of letting those in the slave community know that a conductor or liberator was in the area.

Brazeal Dennard

This setting was arranged by Brazeal Dennard, an African-American singer, educator, choral director, and musical arranger who was a significant contributor in the preservation and revitalization of the spiritual musical form. His efforts helped moved the African-American spiritual beyond the confines of the church, exposing not only the beauty of this music, but also its historical importance to a wider audience.

Dennard was invited by the White House to become a member of a special committee to present White House Fellowships to highly motivated young Americans. He is perhaps best known for his work with the Brazeal Dennard Chorale (founded in 1972), a group of highly trained singers dedicated to developing the choral art to its highest professional level. Brazeal Dennard was supervisor of music for the Detroit Public Schools and served as adjunct faculty at Wayne State University. 

Last week, while driving to church, the Sunday morning choral music program on Sirius/XM's classical channel was playing sacred choral music by French composers in solidarity with the French Creative community which had been hit by terrorists. This Sunday I am including my own tribute by playing French organist Jean Langlais' composition, Chant du Paix (Song of Peace) at communion.

Who is Galliard, and why is he on "Gather Us In?"

Well, Galliard isn't a person, it's a dance form, a vigorous 16th-century European court dance with a six-beat pattern.

"Galliard dance pattern" by Hyacinth at the English language Wikipedia.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

James Biery used that pattern in writing our opening voluntary based on the contemporary hymn, Gather Us In, written by Marty Haugen, Haugen is a Catholic musician who has written a lot of music for the Roman church. (Many traditional musicians have issues with his compositions, even to the point of forming a Facebook page called Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas.) It is found in our Renew Hymnal at No. 14.
In Biery's composition, you'll first hear an introduction with the distinctive, rollicking rhythm of the galliard. This introduction actually becomes a ritournello, interspersed between each phrase of the melody. Then after the entire first verse is presented, there is a musical bridge with fragments of the tune in various keys, building in intensity and volume before coming back with another stanza of the hymn.
The galliard's four hopping steps and one high leap permitted athletic gentlemen to show off for their partners. When performing the galliard, couples danced the length of the ballroom either together, men leaping higher than women, or separately. Imagine that as the choir, acolytes, and servers process down the aisle this Sunday.

The closing voluntary is another work in rollicking 6/8 time, simply called Postlude. It is written by Lionel Lackey, who, in addition to his work on the English faculty of Baptist College of Charleston (now Charleston Southern University), was a composer and librettist primarily known for his short, one-act operas. In this rare organ work, he composed a theme in G minor which starts the piece. After that detached, angular theme is fully presented, a smoother, legato secondary theme is introduced against the primary theme in the left hand. After a short bridge, the first section is repeated again, but this time the secondary theme is in a major key.

• Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON) - Words by Charles Wesley, emphasizing the Epiphany theme of light out of darkness (like the first stanza of Gather Us In.)  The melody was adapted and harmonization written by William Henry Havergal, although we can only guess how closely it resembles the 1524 original.  This may be too short for a processional, so the choir better leap down the aisle quickly!
• Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE) -  This hymn is a beautiful prayer that God would both draw us closer to Himself, and use us to bring others to Him. God calls us to a life of discipleship, and our only response should be, “Here am I. Send me.” The rest of Christendom sings this hymn to another tune, but we Episcopalians sing it to this tune written by John Bacchus Dykes (of Holy, Holy, Holy fame.) Only three other hymnals use this tune, out of more than 80 modern hymnals.
• All glory, Jesus, be to thee (ERHALT UNS, HERR)  - This is the last stanza of the hymn we sang last Sunday. 
• I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD) - This hymn is a favorite among many in our congregation, and it comes from the same tradition as the hymn Gather Us In mentioned in the opening voluntary. It echoes the same sentiment as Take My Life and Let it Be.
• Ye servants of God, your master proclaim (PADERBORN) -  Charles Wesley is the author of this hymn text. He wrote it in 1744 for Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution in the section titled “Hymns to Be Sung in Tumult.” The occasion for writing was a time of persecution for Methodists in England. They were accused of disloyalty to the British Crown among other things, and were therefore subject to violent persecution.   The text originally had six stanzas, but two of them were quite specific to the Methodist persecution of the time, and are therefore omitted in modern hymnals. Otherwise, the text has been passed down in a very consistent form. The four stanzas elaborate on the theme of God's glory and victorious power. The last two stanzas allude to eschatological passages throughout Revelation.

Music for January 11, 2015 + The First Sunday after Pentecost

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• The Blessed Son of God (from Hodie) - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Christ, Our Lord, to the Jordan Came – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Canzonetta – Dietrich Buxtehude 
• Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 339 - Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 29 - Simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome J. Meachem

This week we remember Christ's own baptism. One of the questions I have always had about this is if John baptized for repentance for sins, what did Jesus have to repent?  Why did he get baptized? I think it was part of Christ's way of being one of us. 

It was with that in mind that I chose today's anthem, The Blessed Son of God, from Ralph Vaughan Williams's last large work, Hodie. This was the fifth movement of that Christmas cantata, and is much simpler in form and performance forces than the rest of the work. Vaughan Williams employed a poem by Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), the English translator of the Bible, who had translated this poem previously penned by Martin Luther, "Gelobet seist du." The poem has seven stanzas, of which Vaughan Williams used three, each ending with the traditional Latin "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"). 

Ralph Vaughan Williams,
around the time of the composition of "Hodie"

What developed was a quiet, slow, unaccompanied choral: The blessed son of God only In a crib full poor did lie; humble, gentle, unassuming and as plain as music can be, it is the most completely anonymous tune Vaughan Williams ever composed, without any harmonies or musical phrase to give his identity away. The harmony is of the simplest hymnal kind. When you first hear it it seems almost too ordinary, but after some time it reveals itself as the most precious jewel in the whole of this splendid cantata. Time stands still and one listens to it with the breath held. 

The theme of the poem is God's mercy brought by the Christ child, who would exchange his swaddling cloth with our own fleshly sins so we could fully receive that mercy. According to Coverdale, Jesus came to earth to make himself one of us, so that, "we might live eternally" Along with this living sacrifice, Christ's gifts of munificence and mercy are also extolled in the poem Miles Coverdale wrote.

The blessed son of God only
In a crib full poor did lie;
With our poor flesh and our poor blood
Was clothed that everlasting good.
Kyrieleison.

The Lord Christ Jesu, God's son dear,
Was a guest and a stranger here;
Us for to bring from misery,
That we might live eternally.
Kyrieleison.

All this did he for us freely,
For to declare his great mercy;
All Christendom be merry therefore,
And give him thanks for evermore.
Kyrieleison.

The organ music is a setting of an old Lutheran Chorale for Christ's Baptism by the Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude, written in the typical Baroque style of ornamenting the simple choral melody so that it becomes almost unrecognizable. The right hand plays the melody on a collection of stops called a cornet, while the left hand (and feet) accompany on soft flute sounds. The closing voluntary is what we call a free work - written without any hymn or chorale in mind. Canzonetta means "a little song."

All creatures of our God and King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN) was chosen to highlight the Old Testament account of the creation. In the year 1225, completely blind and nearing death, St. Francis of Assisi arrived at the Convent of St. Damian to bid goodbye to his dear friend, Sister Clara, the first woman to follow the call of St. Francis and take vows of the Order. Clara built him a small reed hut in the garden of her little monastery. It’s said that at times St. Francis could be heard singing faint melodies from within the hut. It was at a meal with the sisters after having stayed for some time at the monastery that he wrote his famous text, “Canticle of the Sun,” later paraphrased into the beloved hymn we sing today. Ralph Vaughan Williams harmonized the tune.

When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR) This hymn for the season of Epiphany covers several topics; the Magi, Christ's baptism, the Wedding at Cana, ending with a doxological stanza praising the Trinity. The tune, from 16th century Germany, is one of the most used in our hymnody at Good Shepherd, as we sing it with at last four different texts.

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH) Our third (and final) German chorale this morning is the classic communion hymn. The first stanza of "Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele" by Johann Franck was published in Johann Crüger's Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien (1649). Crüger and C. Runge published the complete hymn in nine stanzas in their 1653 Gesangbuch. The hymn has since appeared in virtually all German hymnals and in 50% of English language ones since 1970. 

On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW) This is classified as an Advent hymn, but I am including it today as an opporunity for us to hear (and sing) again of John's ministry of baptism which Jesus today takes part.

Music for December 21, 2014 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Maria Walks amid the Thorn - David Cherwein (b. 1957)
• The Provençal Carol - Donald Busarow (1934-2011)

Instrumental Music

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – arr. Larry Dalton (1946-2009)
• Ave Maria von Arcadelt – Franz Liszt
• Magnificat primi toni (BuxWV 203) – Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 56 – O come, O come, Emanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 54 – Savior of the nations, come (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 66 – Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART) 
• Canticle S-242: The Song of Mary (Magnificat) – Tonus Peregrinus

Two ancient Christmas melodies from two different countries provide the tunes for today's anthems. At the offertory you will hear the Minnesota composer David Cherwein's setting of the German Folk Song, Maria durch ein'n Dornwald ging, a sixteenth-century hymn traditionally sung in anticipation of Christmas during the Advent season. Although the melody is considered to be much older, its first appearances of lyrics and music together is the Gesangbuch of Andernach (1608) which claims that it was universally known and liked at that time.

Translated into English in the 1950s by Henry S. Drinker, the lyrics and hymn tune were introduced to Americans by Maria Augusta Trapp, (of Sound of Music fame) in her book, Around the Year with the Trapp Family (New York: Pantheon, 1955), who identifies this as a traditional Advent hymn.  

The lyrics combine the Greek text of the “Kyrie eleison” from the Ordinary of the Mass with a vernacular text (originally German, translated into English) that both tells of Mary’s pregnancy and her role as mother of Jesus,with the association of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the “spotless Rose”—a traditional image in German Christian hymnody.

The Annunciation. Fra Angelico c.1450. Fresco, 230 x 297. Museo di San Marco, Corridor, Florence, Italy

The other anthem is a setting of a Christmas Carol from the Provence region of France, arranged by the Lutheran composer, organist, and educator Donald Busarow. The tune first appeared in a collection of Provençal Noels in 1856, but Dr. Busarow wrote these lyrics suitable for the Gospel account of he Annunciation, in 1995. 

As this is the last Sunday of Advent, I like to include the well-known chant, Veni, Emmanuel. We'll sing it as a processional hymn, but I will also play a piano arrangement as the opening voluntary by a man known as Larry Dalton. He's unique among the composers I usually  play in that he is not Anglican, Lutheran or any other liturgical-based composer, but Pentecostal! In fact, he was once the music director for Oral Robert's Television program. The fact that this charismatic musician arranged and played this ancient chant is testimony to the popularity of this hymn, which appears in over fifty modern hymnals.

The communion voluntary is a piece by another talented pianist, Franz Liszt, though not for piano, but for the organ. Many people know that Liszt was known to be quite the ladies' man in his youth, with dashing good looks and a mesmeric personality and stage presence. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. He had several affairs with married women. But in later years, he retreated from public life and joined the monastery Madonna del Rosario, just outside Rome. He was ordained to the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte, and was often called Abbé Liszt.  He wrote several organ works for liturgical use during this time, often based on famous choral works of the day. This work is based on an Ave Maria by Jacob Arcadelt (c. 1507 – 1568) , a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance.

Hymns: 
Hymn 56: O come, O come, Emanuel  - The text for "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" comes from a 7 verse poem that dates back to the 8th century. It was used during the Advent evening, service. The original text created the reverse acrostic "ero cras," which means "I shall be with you tomorrow," and is particularly appropriate for the advent season. The tune, VENI EMMANUEL was originally music for a Requiem Mass in fifteenth-century France. In 1854, an Anglican priest, Thomas Helmore adapted this chant tune and published it in The Hymnal Noted.

Hymn 54: Savior of the nations, come - One of the oldest hymn texts in our hymnal, St. Ambrose wrote this hymn ("Veni, Redemptor gentium") in the fourth century. The text appears in a number of eighth- and ninth-century manuscripts. Martin Luther translated this text into German ("Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland") in 1523. Various English translations have come down through the years. Like VENI EMMANUEL, this tune is derived from a chant which was found in  a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Einsiedeln manuscript. The adaptation of the tune was published in 1524 in an early Lutheran Hymnal. Johann S. Bach used the tune for preludes in the Clavierübung and Orgelbüchlein and in his cantatas 36 and 62.

Hymn 66: Come, thou long expected Jesus - Charles Wesley wrote this Advent hymn and printed it in his Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord (1744). Like so many of Wesley's texts, "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" alludes to one or more Scripture passages in virtually every phrase. The double nature of Advent is reflected in this text, in which we remember Christ's first coming even while praying for his return. Our hymnal uses the tune STUTTGART, which is from Psalmodia Sacra (1715), one of the most significant hymnals of the early eighteenth century, which paired the tune STUTTGART to the text "Sollt' es gleich."
The tune title STUTTGART relates to a story about Rev. C. A. Dann's banishment from his pulpit at St. Leonard's Church in Stuttgart in the early nineteenth century. When Dann was eventually invited back to his church, his congregation greeted him with the singing of "Sollt' es gleich." ("It seems right" or something like that.)

Canticle S-242: The Song of Mary (Magnificat) – Tonus Peregrinus. Instead of the Psalm today, we are going with the other option of Mary's song of praise upon hearing the news that she would bear the savior of the world. Like the psalms in Advent, we will chant to text to a Psalm tone, this time the Tonus Peregrinus (or "wandering tone"), a so-called "deviant" Psalm-tone since it uses two different reciting tones (an A for the first part of the psalm verse and a G for the second half), unlike the first eight Psalm tones which use the same note for both halves of the psalm verse.

Music for December 14, 2014 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• God’s Great Lights – Helen Kemp (b. 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come – Wayne Wold (b. 1954)
• O Savior, Throw the Heavens Wide – Rolf Schweizer (b. 1936)

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

• Hymn 616 – Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN)
• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R-92 – Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ)
• Hymn R-128 – Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN)
• Psalm 126 – tone  VIII.a

The choir's anthem for this Sunday is There Shall A Star by Felix Mendelssohn. This choral piece is from Mendelssohn's oratorio "Christus" (op 97), which was unfinished at his untimely death at the age of 38, when he died suddenly from a series of strokes. "Christus" is based upon biblical texts of Jesus and libretto by J.F. von Bunsun. The first part of the text comes from Numbers 24:7. The anthem is divided into four parts. In the first section, Mendelssohn supports the text with fluid, calm lines and ascending passages. He also supports the text with soft triplets in the instrumental accompaniment, giving a sense of movement. Each voice has a slightly independent line.

In the second section, the music becomes more intense and passionate as the chorus describes what the star from Jacob will do. The accompaniment continues with its rhythmic triplets. In the third section, Mendelssohn combines the ascending lines about the star of Jacob coming forth with the intense statements about vanquishing the enemy. That section returns to the texts and structure of the first section, with the ascending lines reaffirming the appearance of the King of Judaea.
Mendelssohn concludes the section with Bach's harmonization of  Philipp Nicolai’s (1556-1608) famous hymn, As bright the star of morning gleams (Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern). The chorus begins a cappella. Mendelssohn adds intermittent accompaniment in the same pattern as at the beginning of the movement. The selection concludes with soft, instrumental accompaniment. 

Helen Kemp

The St. Gregory Choir sings another anthem refering to Jesus as the morning star ("great light") with a lilting anthem by America's Grand Dame of Children's music, Helen Kemp. Mrs. Kemp was married to one of America's leading church musicians, and the mother of another (Michael Kemp), but it was her own work with children's choirs that garnered her fame as a director and composer. She understands the child's voice and writes music that will bring out the best in the child as well as the child's voice. She has worked with children and youth choirs for over 70 years!

The opening voluntary is a simple setting of the German Advent Chorale, Savior, of the Nations, Come, arranged for keyboard by Wayne Wold. Wold is the Associate Professor of Music and College Organist at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and an active church musician, composer, performer, author, and clinician. As an active composer, Wold has published many compositions for organ and choirs. He is also the author of numerous books including Tune My Heart to Sing, and Preaching to the Choir: The Care and Nurture of the Church Choir. This simple setting starts of with an ostinato in the bass which plays continuously throughout the first section of the prelude while the right hand plays the melody in the soprano part. The second entrance of the hymn-tune is in a new key in a simple four-part harmony setting, before returning to the first section with its bass ostinato.

• Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEIN WALDVÖGELEIN) James Montgomery (1771-1854) led a thoroughly unremarkable life. The son of a Moravian minister, he tried business until settling down as a newspaper editor in Sheffield, England, where he also wrote poems and hymns. This hymn is his best psalm rendering. It is based on Ps. 72 and was originally written in eight stanzas for, and included in, a Christmas Ode which was sung at one of the Moravian settlements in the United Kingdom in 1821. It was published in the following year in the Evangelical Magazine and entitled "Imitation of the 72d psalm." The tune,  ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN, a German folk tune, and was first published in an early-seventeenth-century manuscript collection from Memmingen, Germany.
• Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON) This hymn was translated from a Latin hymn from the 5th century by Edward Caswall, a 19th century priest who left the Anglican church to become a Roman Catholic after his wife died. The text is perfect for the scriptures about the prophet "crying in the wilderness." The tune is by William H. Monk (1823-1889) who composed MERTON and published it in 1850. The tune has been associated with this text since the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune's title is thought to refer to Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College, Oxford, England.
• Prepare the way of the Lord (TAIZÉ) - This simple round from the Taizé community in France is much more lilting and upbeat than most of their quiet, contemplative refrains. It fits in quite nicely with the theme of the morning, the voice of one that crieth in the wilderness, "Prepare ye a way for the Lord."
• Blessed be the God of Israel (FOREST GREEN) -  Here we have a paraphrase of The Song of Zechariah, (Luke 1:68-79) by the contemporary American Episcopal priest, Carl P. Daw (b. 1944) He has written over 80 hymns which appear in over 20 hymnals since the mid 1980s. The tune is a lovely English folk tune arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Music for December 7, 2014 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Rejoice, Greatly (Messiah) – G. F. Handel (1685-1759)
• By All Your Saints - Joel Martinson (b. 1960)

Instrumental Music

• Lord Christ, the only Son of God – Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
• Lord Christ, the only Son of God, BWV 601 – 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 67 – Comfort, comfort ye my people (PSALM 42)
• Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion (BEREDEN VAG FOR HERRAN)
• Hymn R-278 – Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Psalm 85 – tone VIIIa

Marion Russell Dickson, soprano

The music for the second Sunday of the Advent Season features music of THE Baroque Masters, Bach and Handel, with a lesser known baroque composer thrown in.  The offertory anthem is Rejoice Greatly, that wonderful soprano aria from Handel's Messiah, sung by Kingwood resident and friend of the Good Shepherd Music Ministry, Marion Russell Dickson. She recently completed her doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Houston. This will be a busy weekend of performing for her as she is also the guest soloist with the Kingwood Pops Orchestra Friday and Saturday night.

The chorale Herr Christ, der einge Gottes-Sohn [Lord Christ, the only Son of God] is the basis of both the opening and closing voluntaries. In the opening voluntary by  J. G. Walther, you hear the melody presented in its entirety in the soprano (top) part of the manualiter (that's German for "Look, Ma, no feet!") while the lower three voices accompany the melody with a repetitive eighth-note pattern. The closing voluntary is from Bach's monumental organ collection Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book"), 46 chorale preludes for organ written by Bach during the period 1708–1717. The collection was originally planned as a set of 164 chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year. This is the third of four pieces for Advent, though it was probably the first written. Like the opening voluntary today, the melody (cantus firmus) is presented unadorned in the soprano line with the other three voices on the same keyboard and in the pedal. The accompaniment is derived from the suspirans pedal motif of three sixteenth notes followed by two eighth notes. For Albert Schweitzer, this particular motif signified "beatific joy", representing either "intimate gladness or blissful adoration." The mood expressed is in keeping with joy for the coming of Christ.  The motif, which is anticipated and echoed in the seamlessly interwoven inner parts, was already common in chorale preludes of the period. This motif figured in the earlier manualiter setting of the same hymn by Walther. Bach, however, goes beyond the previous models, creating a unique texture in the accompaniment which accelerates, particularly in the pedal, towards the cadences.

Interestingly, I played an opening and a closing voluntary by Walther and Bach last Sunday, too. This is not planned, just a happy coincidence. You can read what I said about those two here. 

The communion motet is a recycled anthem for All Saints Day based on the hymn in the hymnal, but with the stanza for John the Baptist inserted as verse two. Click HERE to see what I said about the anthem back in November (in case you have forgotten it!)

Hymn 67 – Comfort, comfort ye my people - This is a paraphrase of Isaiah 40:1-5, in which the prophet looks forward to the coming of Christ. More specifically, the coming of the forerunner of Christ – John the Baptist – is foretold. Though Isaiah's voice crying in the desert is anonymous, the third stanza ties this prophecy and one from Malachi (Malachi 4:5) to a New Testament fulfillment. “For Elijah's voice is crying In the desert far and near” brings to mind Jesus' statement, “'But I tell you that Elijah has already come, ….' Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” (Matthew 17:12, 13 ESV) The tune is called PSALM 42, because it was used for Psalm 42 in the French Genevan Psalter. J. S. Bach also used this tune in seven of his cantatas.
Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion  The text, having gone through a composite translation from Swedish and adapted from that, has bits and pieces of the most familiar Scripture that we hear during Advent.  The tune is very basic:  G major, 6/4 time, range of an octave.  Only the refrain adds some rhythmic interest.

Hymn R-278 – Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
Hymn 76 – On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry - Since this hymn explicitly calls us to make way for Christ, it is most fitting for the season of Advent. It references John the Baptist, a key figure in the narrative of Christ’s birth, to prepare the way or Christ’s second coming. Charles Coffin wrote this text in Latin for the Paris Breviary in 1736. In 1837 it was translated into English by John Chandler for his Hymns of the Primitive Church (Chandler mistakenly thought it was a medieval text). The text has since undergone many revisions, and today it is hard to find two hymnals in which the text is the same.

[Disclaimer: The organ has begun to act up again this week. Every time I practice, it behaves as if it were posessed of a ghost, and will instantly clear all my stops while I am practicing - or even worse, will add EVERY stop on the organ while I am in the midst of a quiet piece, to an utterly horrible sound. I have no control over it. Just remember this when you fill out your pledge card for the Capital Improvements Campaign!]