Music for June 28, 2015 + The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – arr. Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) - Richard Murray, soloist

Instrumental Music

• Tune in E (in the style of John Stanley) – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• Prelude in E-Minor (op.28 no. 4) - Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
• Tuba Tune in D – Craig Sellar Lang (1891-1971)

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 533 How wondrous and great (LYONS)
• Hymn R 23 The Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases (THE STEADFAST LOVE)
• Hymn 411 O bless the Lord, my soul (ST. THOMAS[WILLIAMS])
• Hymn R 281 Broken for Me (BROKEN FOR ME)
• Hymn 610 Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

From A Land Down Under 

George Thalben-Ball was an incredible force in the organ world of Great Britain. Though originally born in Australia, his family moved to England when he was four. He entered the Royal College of Music in London at the incredibly early age of 14, and upon graduation, the young man was asked to deputise as organist at London's Temple Church by its then organist, Sir Henry Walford Davies. In 1923, he succeeded Walford Davies as organist and director of the Temple Church choir, a post he held for nearly 60 years. Under his direction, the choir attracted such a following that queues for services often spilled out of the Temple into Fleet Street. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967 and knighted in 1982.

He was also well known as a virtuoso organist, playing on the daily BBC radio broadcasts. He could sight-read, transpose and improvise in any style and at any length to the highest standard without perceptible effort. The opening voluntary today is a piece he wrote in the style of John Stanley, an 18th century English organist and composer. It's really rather stylized, and romantic in its idea of what the music of Stanley was like, but it's still a lovely, stately piece. It's in three parts, with the first and last being almost identical.

Likewise, 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.

Hymn of the Day

Lord, whose love through humble service

Albert F. Bayly wrote this text in response to a Hymn Society of America search for new hymns on social welfare in 1961. The text begins with recognition of Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the cross and then points to the continuing needs of the homeless, the hungry, the prisoners, and the mourners. Bayly's words remind us of modern refugees, AIDS patients, and famine victims who are as close as our doorstep or who are brought to our attention via the news media. The final two stanzas encourage us to move from Sunday worship to weekday service; such integrity in the Christian life is truly a liturgy of sacrifice, pleasing to God.

The tune BLAENHAFREN is a Welsh melody in a rounded barform (AABA), making it easy to learn and easy to sing. The rhythmic accents propel the melody forward, providing a fitting setting for this challenging text.

Music for June 21, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost + Confirmation

Confirmation Sunday

Vocal Music

• O Thou Who Camest from Above – Philip W. J. Stopford (b. 1977)
• Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Symphony No. 5: IV. Adagio– Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937)
• Symphony No.5: V. Toccata – Charles Marie Widor

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

• Hymn 688 A mighty fortress is our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
• Hymn 297 Descend, O Spirit, purging flame (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 608 Eternal Father, strong to save (MELITA)
• Hymn 535 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim (PADERBORN)

The choir makes a rare summer appearance this Sunday as Bishop Andy Doyle visits Good Shepherd to confirm new members to Christ's church.  We'll be singing two anthems based on hymns dealing with the Holy Spirit.

Our offertory anthem is a well-known text by Charles Wesley set to an original new tune by English composer Philip W. Stopford. Listen for the interval of a rising fourth (the same notes as "Here Comes the Bride") sung as an opening motif which is used throughout the piece. The men of the choir sing the first stanza in unison. The treble voices join the men on stanza two, still in unison, but in the second half of the piece you'll hear a deviation from the original melody, taking us to the feeling of a higher key. At the phrase "in humble prayer and fervent praise." the organ drops out and the choir sings in four-part harmony for the first time in this piece. Stanza three starts with the women singing the motif in unison to be joined by the men for four part harmony, a capella, while they modulate to a new key. The final stanza starts with choir in unison except for a soaring descant from the sopranos.

We sang this just a month ago, but are repeating it now as the third stanza speaks so well to the confirmands:

Jesus, confirm my heart's desire
to work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up thy gift in me.

K. Lee Scott wrote the communion anthem, a pairing of the text "Gracious Spirit, Dwell in Me" with the Gregorian chant tune "Adoro te devote."  We sang this anthem on Pentecost, but since it has great relevance to confirmation (and Pentecost was on Memorial Day weekend, when half of you weren't here), we are singing it again.

Scott was born in Langdale, Alabama and earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Choral Music from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He later became the Director of Choral Music there. Today he is still on the faculty at the university as a part-time instructor as his work as a freelance composer keeps him busy. He has had over 100 of his works published, through 11 different publishing companies.

Our opening hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, is often referred to as “the battle hymn” of the Reformation. Many stories have been relayed about its use. Albert Bailey writes,

It was, as Heine said, the Marseillaise of the Reformation…It was sung in the streets…It was sung by poor Protestant emigres on their way to exile, and by martyrs at their death…Gustavus Adolphus ordered it sung by his army before the battle of Leipzig in 1631…Again it was the battle hymn of his army at Lutzen in 1632…It has had a part in countless celebrations commemorating the men and events of the Reformation; and its first line is engraved on the base of Luther’s monument at Wittenberg…An imperishable hymn! Not polished and artistically wrought but rugged and strong like Luther himself, whose very words seem like deeds. (The Gospel in Hymns, 316)

As you can see, this is a hymn close to the hearts of Protestants and Lutherans, a source of assurance in times of duress and persecution. The text is not restricted, however, to times of actual physical battles. In any time of need, when we do battle with the forces of evil, God is our fortress to hide us and protect us, and the Word that endures forever will fight for us.

Music for June 14, 2015 + The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Be Still, My Soul – Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957), arr. Sally DeFord (b. 1959)

Instrumental Music

• Come, Holy Ghost, Lord God – Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Prayer/Prelude in E-flat Major – Michael Larkin (b. 1951)
• Prelude on “Hyfrydol” – Healey Willan (1880 -1968)

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

• Hymn 252  - The Church’s on foundation (AURELIA)
• Hymn 533 -  How wondrous and great (LYONS)
• Hymn 178 -  Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord (ALLELUIA NO. 1)
• Hymn R 206 - Holy, holy (HOLY HOLY)
• Hymn 657 -  Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)

Jean Sibelius, looking rather serious
(as usual)

Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957) was a Finnish violinist and composer from the first half of the 20th century who became the musical emblem of Finland. Meant by his family to become a lawyer, he switched to music in his twenties, mainly to become a violin virtuoso, but found himself increasingly drawn to composition. His music contributed to the development of a feeling of national identity in Finland where he is now celebrated as the country's greatest composer.

In 1899 Sibelius wrote a musical score for six historical tableaux in a pageant that celebrated and supported the Finnish press against Russian oppression. In 1900 Sibelius revised the music from the final tableau into FINLANDIA, a tone poem for orchestra. The chorale-like theme that emerges out of the turbulent beginning of this tone poem became the hymn tune FINLANDIA.

FINLANDIA was first used as a hymn tune in the Scottish Church Hymnary (1927) and the Presbyterian Hymnal (1933). This tune was  set to the hymn text of Katharina Von Schlegel, "Stille, mein Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen" (Be Still, My Soul, The Lord Is On Thy Side) which we hear today in a solo setting by Sally DeFord, an American composer from Eugene, Oregon. It will be sung by Bidkar Cajina.

2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sibelius.

The opening voluntary is two chorale preludes for manuals only (no pedals) by the German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann. A contemporary and friend of both G. F. Handel and J. S. Bach (he was god-father to one of Bach's sons), he was one of the most prolific composers in history. Like Sibelius, he entered the University of Leipzig to study law at his mother's insistence, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of the city's five main churches.

We open the service singing one of my most favorite hymns, The church's one foundation. In the mid-nineteenth century, Bishop John William Colenso of Natal raised a ruckus in the Catholic Church when he challenged the historicity and authority of many of the Old Testament books. Bishop Gray of Capetown wrote a stirring response of defense, which, in 1866, inspired Samuel Stone, to write this beloved hymn, basing his text on Article 9 of the Apostle’s Creed: “The Holy Catholic (Universal) Church; the Communion of Saints; He is the Head of this Body.” Now an affirmation of Christ as the foundation of our faith, we sing this hymn with those who have gone before us and with Christians around the world, declaring that beyond any theological differences, cultural divides, and variances in practice, we are all part of the same body, the body of Christ. 

The tune that most often accompanies this text is AURELIA, composed in 1864 by Samuel S. Wesley and first published as a setting for “Jerusalem the Golden.” It was paired with Stone’s text shortly after, to the chagrin of some: Dr. Henry Gauntlett was apparently very annoyed by this match-up, as he thought Wesley’s tune was “inartistic, secular twaddle.” Dr. Gauntlett was not to have the last word however, and the tune has stuck.

Music for June 7, 2015 + The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Gloria (from Heilemesse) – Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
• Thy Perfect Love – John Rutter (b. 1945)
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• Heilig – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Ave Verum Corpus – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Instrumental Music
Organ Concerto in F Major, Op. 4 No. 4 – George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
I. Allegro
II. Andante

   

Congregational Music

• Hymn 391 - Before the Lord’s eternal throne (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONDDA)

We usually end the choir year singing a mass setting by a major composer. In the past we have sung works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and others. This year, since we had already sung a Missa Brevis by Canadian Healey Willan and A Little Jazz Mass by Bob Chilcott, we decided to sing a few of our favorite anthems with strings. There will be lots of music this Sunday as we will have an eight piece string orchestra to accompany some well known sacred works as well as on organ concerto by Handel.

J. S. Bach

The most well known work we are singing is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, which is often heard this time of year in weddings. It is from Bach's Cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and mouth and deed and life), written in 1714 for an Advent Service and later expanded. It is the sixth and tenth movement of the cantata. The music's wide popularity has led to numerous arrangements and transcriptions, such as for the classical guitar and in Wendy Carlos' recording of Switched-On Bach on the Moog synthesizer in 1968. In 1973 the British group Apollo 100 recorded a version called "Joy" which peaked at number six on the Hot 100 and number two on the Easy Listening chart, and was featured in the film Boogie Nights (1997). Even The Beach Boys used the melody as a basis for the song "Lady Lynda", but without the words.

Franz Josef Haydn

At communion will sing Ave verum, a motet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus". Mozart wrote it in 1791 for Anton Stoll, the musical coordinator in the parish of Baden bei Wien while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was fewer than six months before Mozart's death. 

We will sing the Gloria from Haydn's Missa sancti Bernardi von Offida in B-flat major (or Heiligmesse) for the Song of Praise. This Mass was written in honor of St. Bernard of Offida, a Capuchin monk who devoted himself to helping the poor. The 'Sanctus' section of the mass is a setting of a then-popular Austrian tune to the German translation of Sanctus, Heilig. The Mass takes its popular German title, Heiligmesse, from this section. In the original mass, the Gloria was comprised of three sections. We are only singing the first section.

The Young John Rutter

The choir will also sing Thy Perfect Love by the British composer John Rutter. Rutter takes the anonymous 15th century text and writes a lyrical piece in 3/4 time. The strings start out accompanying a soprano soloist, who sings the entire text. Then, as the choir comes in, the strings drop out and the full choir sings the text again, to be joined by the orchestra as the choir hits the apex of the piece on the words "That I may reign in joy evermore with thee." Rutter wrote this piece in 1975 for the choir of Meopham Parish Church in the U.K.

Felix Mendelssohn

The only piece we are singing this Sunday without the strings is the 8 part acapella chorus by Felix Mendelsohn, Heilig. Sung in German, it is the text of the Sanctus, so we will sing it at that time. This may be on of the most challenging things we have sung to date at Good Shepherd. Composed as part of Three Sacred Pieces in 1846, towards the end of Mendelssohn's short life, it is a perfectly conceived miniature showing a sheer mastery of choral writing and effortless command of musical expression and structure.

The relatively brief Heilig, heilig ist Gott, der Herr Zebaoth is an extrovert call to rejoice. The opening, in particular, is unforgettable in the overlapping vocal entries combining to produce a glorious suspension at the final exhortations of ‘Heilig’. The dotted rhythms which dominate the remainder of the setting help to create a sense of strong forward movement towards the joyous final cadence.

Music for May 31, 2015 + Trinity Sunday

Vocal Music

• Father of Heaven, Whose Love Profound – Healey Willan (1880 -1968)
• Bist du bei mir - Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749)
• A Blessing – Martin Shaw (1875-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Wir Glauben Alle in einem Gott (We all believe in One God) BWV 1098 and 680 – 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 421 All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH)
• Hymn S-236 A Song of Praise: Glory to you (John Rutter)
• Hymn 371 Thou, whose almighty Word (MOSCOW)
• Hymn R-264 Abba, Father (Steve Fry)
• Hymn R-149 I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD) 
• Hymn 423 Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)

Many of the special days on the church calendar remember and celebrate events in the life of Christ (Christmas, Easter) or the church (Pentecost) or the Saints of God (All Saints), but this Sunday we'll observe the only day on the church calendar dedicated to a doctrine: the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. For that reason, we sing the great Trinitarian hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy.... God in three persons, blessed trinity."

The choir will sing Healey Willan's setting of the hymn, Father of heaven, whose love profound, with a text by the Rev. Edward Cooper. It is based on a litany and consists of 4 stanzas of 4 lines, the last stanza being a doxology to the "mysterious Godhead, three in one."

Father of heaven, whose love profound
a ransom for our souls has found,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy pardoning love extend.

Almighty Son, incarnate Word,
our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy saving grace extend.

Eternal Spirit, by whose breath
our souls are raised from sin and death,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
to us thy quickening power extend.

Thrice holy! Father, Spirit, Son,
mysterious Godhead, Three in One,
before thy throne we sinners bend,
grace, pardon, life to us extend.

Martin Shaw, left, and Healey Willan, right, were contemporaries and leading figures in Anglican Church Music in the mid-20th century.

The choir also sings A Blessing by English church musician Martin Shaw, using a prayer found in The Proposed Book of Common Prayer (1928) of the Church of England. No one has ever been credited with the composition of this prayer, but an educated guess would say it's by Walter Frere, who was highly involved in the preparation of the Proposed Prayer Book. Frere composed many prayers, and this charge/blessing, written for a confirmation service and based in scripture, is wholly in line with other works that we do know were written over his name. It did not appear in the final version in 1928, but when the Presbyterians were revising their The Book of Common Worship in 1932 they picked it up and in 1946 The Book of Common Worship provided it as the conclusion to the Confirmation service. Some Presbyterian pastors thought so much of those words that they began to use them at the conclusion of worship.

We think it is the perfect prayer for Senior Sunday.

Speaking of Senior Sunday, one of our seniors, Jade Panares, will sing the lovely aria Bist du bei Mir (Be Thou With Me),  found in Anna Magdelena Bach’s famous notebook. Because of its inclusion by his second wife, it was long assumed to be by J.S. Bach, but it is actually an aria in a now lost opera by Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, a very prolific composer of the Baroque era who some thought rivaled Bach's own work. Alas, today he is so little known, that not even a picture of him can be found on the internet.

Bach, however, lives on. In 1984 an exciting discovery was made by musicologists studying scores in the library of Yale University. A volume of organ music, copied by hand in the late 1700s by Johann Gottfried Neumeister (1757–1840), was found that contained eighty-two chorales, most of which were previously unknown, including 33 works by a young J. S. Bach.  Two were previously known only from fragments and the other thirty-one were heretofore unknown works (BWV 1090–1120) now identified as the Neumeister Chorales.

These chorales are considered on stylistic grounds to be early works, probably dating from 1703 to 1707, when Bach was active at Arnstadt, and possibly even earlier. They provide a new window on his formative years as a composer. I will be playing a setting of the Martin Luther's hymn We All Believe in One God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This chorale is a setting of the Nicene Creed, and is therefore very suitable for occasions such as Trinity Sunday.

I will also play the same hymn as arranged by Bach over 30 years later for his Clavier-Übung III. In this setting Bach writes a trio sonata for two manuals and pedal, which is both exuberant and triumphal. Bach used the first seven notes of the Luther’s melody, to which the words ‘Wir glauben all an einen Gott’ are sung, to form a jubilant theme, in which a buoyant downward leap generates a festive string of semiquavers. The material forms the basis for a dancy fugue that assures the listener that only one thing matters: faith.

Hymns for Sunday

• Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! (NICEA) In 325 AD, Church leaders convened in the town of Nicaea in Bithynia to formulate a consensus of belief and practice amongst Christians. What resulted was the Nicene Creed, a document passed on through the ages as one of the pillars of church doctrine. The primary function of this creed was to establish a firm belief in the divinity of Christ, countering the heresy of Arius, who believed that Jesus was not fully divine. It was this creed that inspired Reginald Heber to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter. The tune, composed by John B. Dykes for Heber’s text, is also titled NICAEA in recognition of Heber’s text. The words evoke a sense of awe at the majesty of God, and call on all of creation – humans, saints and angels, and all living things – to praise the Godhead three-in-one.
• All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HOH) The tune name ALLEIN GOTT derives from the opening words of Nikolas Decius's rhymed text in High German. Decius adapted the tune from a tenth-century Easter chant for his German setting of the Gloria text. Lutheran composers have written various chorale preludes on ALLEIN GOTT for organ. Bach himself used the hymn in four cantatas and composed about ten preludes on the tune. Typical of many Lutheran chorales, ALLEIN GOTT is in bar form (AAB).
• A Song of Praise: Glory to you (John Rutter) On some Sundays the Lectionary suggests certain canticles be sung instead of a Psalm. Canticle 13, Benedictus es, Domine, is especially appropriate for Trinity Sunday. We will sing a setting for Rite II by John Rutter, the leading composer of choral music throughout the world today. Be prepared for a short introduction!!
• Thou, whose almighty Word (MOSCOW) You may know the tune from the hymn Come, thou almighty King or Christ, for the world we sing. It's based on Genesis 1 (let there be light), but it is Trinitarian in its framework. Look for the theme of Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer in the first three stanzas, with a hymn to all three in the last stanza.
• Abba, Father (Steve Fry) Abba Father was written by Steven Fry in the seclusion of a church prayer room at the midnight hour when he was serving as a Youth Minister in the late 70s. He is now Sr. Pastor of The Gate Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee. The text is drawn directly from today's Epistle reading. 
• I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD) Another contemporary hymn, it was written in 1981 by Daniel Schutte, a Jesuit priest.  He was one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English as a result of the liturgical reforms initiated by Vatican II. 
• Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO) ST. DENIO is based on "Can mlynedd i nawr" ("A Hundred Years from Now"), a traditional Welsh ballad popular in the early nineteenth century. It was first published as a hymn tune in John Roberts's Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary, 1839). The tune title refers to St. Denis, the patron saint of France.Walter C. Smith based this text, written in 1867, on 1 Timothy 1: 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." 

Music for May 24, 2015 + The Day of Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Veni Creator Spiritus – Stephen Sturk (b. 1950)
• Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me – K. Lee Scott (b.1950)

Instrumental Music

• Choral varié sur le thème du 'Veni Creator', Op 4 – Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

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

• Hymn 225 - Hail thee, festival day (SALVE FESTA DIES)
• Hymn 20 - Now Holy Spirit, ever One (WAREHAM)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the Living God (Daniel Iverson)
• Hymn R168 - If You believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe)
• Hymn 511 - Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH)

This Sunday is Pentecost, the Sunday commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ (120 in all), as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church".  (You can read more about the origins of Pentecost here.)

Stephen Sturk with the San Clemente
Choral Society

Therefore, there will be a lot of singing about the Holy Spirit at church this Sunday. The first anthem the choir sings incorporates one of the earliest hymns of the church with its original Gregorian Chant. Veni Creator Spiritus has taken deeper hold of the Western Church than any other medieval hymn, with the exception maybe of the Te Deum. The choir will start the anthem singing in unison, in Latin, accompanied only by bells. Then a metrical version of the tune is used to sing parts of the Psalm, accompanied by the organ. This arrangement is by Stephen Sturk, director of music at St. Thomas of Canterbury, San Diego, composer-in-residence at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego, and conductor of Cappella Gloriana, San Diego’s professional chamber choir. A professional singer, he's also the only composer of anthems in our library who is on the soundtrack of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. (I don't know which part, though I highly suspect it was not Beauty.)

 Maurice Duruflé and his wife
Marie Madeleine Chevalier Durufle 

The organ voluntaries also use the Veni Creator plainchant. It is a set of variations on the chant by the great French Organist, Maurice Duruflé. Like Olivier Messiaen (whose music I played last week), Maurice Duruflé was a 20th century French organ virtuoso and composer trained at the Paris Conservatory, but unlike Messiaen, Duruflé united the church's unique language of plainsong  with the secular harmonies of the modern French school (as typified by Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas). He was not an innovator, but, like Bach, was a master at his craft.

The Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le thème du 'Veni Creator' was the first of his three major organ works. I will be playing the last part of the work, the theme and four variations. First you hear the theme (Allegro religioso) presented in full organ. Next comes Variation 1. Poco meno mosso. Written in four parts, the theme appears in the pedals whilst the right hand plays an elaboration of the theme. Variation 2. Allegretto is for manuals only, while Variation 3. Andante espressivo is a canon at the interval of the fourth.

I will play the final variation for the closing voluntary. Variation 4 'Final'. Allegro, is a brilliant toccata, introducing the theme in canon between right hand and pedals. The music winds up to a glorious climax; Duruflé saves his master-stroke for the coda marked ‘tempo poco più vivo’ when he presents the plainsong ‘Amen’ (only hinted at in the organ music until that point) in the pedals on full organ.

Sunday's hymns

• Hail thee, festival day (SALVE FESTA DIES) - This is the tune we have been singing each Sunday since Easter, but now we are singing the words that are specific to Pentecost. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed SALVE FESTA DIES as a setting for Venantius H. Fortunatus's famous text "Hail Thee, Festival Day." The tune, whose title comes from the opening words of that text, was published in The English Hymnal of 1906.
• Now Holy Spirit, ever One (WAREHAM) Here's another Pentecost hymn written by an founding father of the church (St. Ambrose) that has been translated into English for modern usage. The first two stanzas of this hymn were translated especially for use in our Hymnal, the Hymnal 1982, and then picked for inclusion in our other song book, Renew.
• Spirit of the Living God (Daniel Iverson) This composite hymn text is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to work renewal in the individual heart (st. 1) and to make these renewed people one in love and service (st. 2). Daniel Iverson wrote the first stanza and tune of this hymn after hearing a sermon on the Holy Spirit during an evangelism crusade in Florida in 1926. Michael Baughen, retired Bishop of Chester (Great Britain) added a second stanza in 1980. That stanza's emphasis on the Spirit moving “among us all,” provides a necessary complement to the first stanza's focus on the Spirit's work in the individual ("fall afresh on me"). 
• If You believe and I believe (Traditional Zimbabwe) The tune for this traditional Zimbabwe song is an English folksong which was taken by British colonizers to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where it was taken up by the local people and re-fitted with these words which were sung as an anti-colonial protest. The words which we today sing "...and set God's people free" would have been sung as "set Zimbabwe (or Namibia, or Africa) free."
• Holy Spirit, ever living (ABBOT’S LEIGH) This two stanza hymn is by Timothy Rees, a monk born in 1874 in Wales who became the first monastic in over 300 years to become a Bishop in the Anglican church in 1931. He has written two hymns in our hymnal (God is love, let heaven adore him and this one) and both of them are set to the same tune, ABBOT'S LEIGH. 

Music for May 17, 2015 + The Seventh Sunday after Easter and The Sunday after Ascension Day

Vocal Music

• Blessed is the Man – Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• O Taste and See - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Danket dem Herren (Thank the Lord) - Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
• Prière du Christ montant vers son Père ("Prayer of Christ ascending towards his Father") - Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
• Hyfrdol - Ralph Vaughan Williams

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

• Hymn 450 All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  (CORONATION)
• Hymn 494 Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA)
• Hymn 314 Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE)
• Hymn 460 Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL)

Known primarily for his symphonies, concertos and ballets, Pytor Tchaikovsky was also deeply interested in the music and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Though his sacred output was not large, it still included A Hymn to the Trinity (1877), the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (1878), an All-Night Vigil (1881), and 9 Sacred Pieces (1884–85). He published a book in 1875, A Short Course of Harmony adapted for the Study of Russian Church Music.

Interestingly, the anthem the choir sings today is not from one of his sacred works, but is an arrangement from his piano work Album for the Young, Op.39, subtitled "24 simple pieces à la Schumann". It is a cycle of piano pieces composed between May and July 1878, and No. 24., In Church, is the source for our anthem.  As a prelude to this short anthem, I will play the first number from that volume called Morning Prayers.

Olivier Messiaen in March, 1952.
He looks a LOT like my Aunt Bonnie.

Some composers labor for years before finding their own voice. But Olivier Messiaen, even in his earliest works, sounds like Messiaen and no one else. In his work L’Ascension, we see (or hear) Messiaen’s language emerge before our very eyes as passages influenced by his early models — chiefly Debussy and Stravinsky — begin to evolve in entirely new directions. One bedrock of Messiaen’s music was the composer’s Catholic faith, which is behind every note he composed.

Messiaen was only 25 when he completed L’Ascension. He had graduated from the Paris Conservatoire just three years earlier. Since 1931, he had been the organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Written for orchestra (he rewrote it for the organ a year later in 1933), it was his reflections on the Feast of the Ascension. Here, Christ’s reunion with His Father gives cause for joy, but also for the contemplation of a deep mystery. Messiaen prefaced each movement with a quote from the Bible or the Catholic liturgy to set the tone.

I will be playing movement four during communion today. Messiaen assigned this saying of Jesus to 4. Prayer of Christ Ascending to His Father.

Father . . . I have revealed Your name to humanity. . . . Now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you (John 17: 1, 6, and 11). 

The tempo is slow (Extrêment Lent – extrememly slow – is the tempo marking); the texture is homophonic, and the harmonies iridescent and otherworldly. The music climbs higher and higher (in keeping with the idea of Ascension) and ends on a resplendent dominant-seventh chord. According to Western musical conventions, this chord would call for resolution, but in this context, the lack of resolution is a perfect ending point for this quite extraordinary set of harmonies.

The opening voluntary is a short setting of an old Lutheran hymn which, loosely translated, is Thank the Lord. That’s the way I feel with summer quickly approaching. The closing voluntary is one of three works that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote for the organ. It is based on the closing hymn tune today.

• All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  (CORONATION) It is interesting that those who express the most eloquent praise are often the people we would deem the least likely to have the ability. Yet David, the adulterating, murdering, lying king of Israel wrote a good deal of the Psalms, which we still use today as our guide for worship. In the same way, all accounts show Rev. Edward Perronet (1721-1792) to be a sharp-tongued, difficult personality, who would rather pick a fight over theology than display brotherly love.  This one has been published in over 2,760 hymnals!
• Crown him with many crowns (DIADEMATA) Composed in 1868 for this text by Matthew Bridges, George J. Elvey named the tune DIADEMATA. “Diademata” is Latin, basically meaning “wearing a crown.” Almost 150 years later, this sturdy, rousing tune is still thouroughly connected to this text.  
• Humbly I adore thee (ADORO DEVOTE) One of the oldest hymns in our hymnal, it is part of a larger hymn written by St. Thomas Aquinas. We may not get to sing it this Sunday, due to the length of the communion voluntary.
• Alleluia! Sing to Jesus (HYFRYDOL) One of the favorite hymns of the Episcopal Church, it combines the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL with a text by William Chatterton Dix, who also wrote the words for As with Gladness Men of Old and What Child Is This? The second stanza is often left out, but we will sing it today, as we remember the ascension of Christ.