Music for December 20, 2015 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Gabriel's Message– arr. David Willcocks (1919-2015)
• Ave Maria – J. S. Bach/Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

Instrumental Music

• Savior, of the Nations, Come BWV 659, 661– J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982)

• Hymn 74 - Blest be the King whose coming (Valet will ich dir geben)
• Hymn 54 - Savior of the nations, come! (Nun komm der Heiden Heiland)
• Hymn 66 - Come, thou long expected Jesus (Stuttgart)
• Hymn 60 - Creator of the stars of night (Conditor alme siderum)
• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (Truro)

The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1896

The last Sunday in Advent focuses on the Annunciation, that moment in our story when the Angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she is going to be the Mother of the Christ. To keep with the Gospel story, the choir sings David Willcocks' lovely a cappella setting of the Basque Carol, Gabriel's Message. This carol is based on 'Birjina gaztettobat zegoen, collected by Charles Bordes and published in the series Archives de la tradition basque, 1895. The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, who wrote several novels and hymns (including 'Onward Christian soldiers) and who had spent a winter as a boy in Basque lands, translated the carol into English, reducing the original 6 stanzas to 4 and giving Gabriel the very beautiful and very Victorian 'wings as drifted snow'.

Sir David Valentine Willcocks

Sir David Willcocks, whom Britain's The Independent newspaper called "one of the most remarkable musicians of his generation," died this year at the age of 95. He became forever connected to Christmas when, in  1957 he became Organist of King's College, Cambridge, which already had a fine reputation courtesy of their annual Christmas Eve broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons And Carols. Over the coming years, this would be enhanced by greater television exposure and the newly emerging stereo LP. 

His connection to Christmas Choral music was further cemented in 1961 with the publication of the first of four volumes of choral music called Carols for Choir. His collaboration with John Rutter has influenced the course of choral music for Christmas for over 50 years. We'll be performing three of his carol arrangements on Christmas Eve (6:30 and 10 PM).

In 1853, French composer, Charles Gounod improvised a melody to Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major, which Bach published in 1722 as part of The Well Tempered Clavier - a book of clavier (keyboard) music Bach wrote to demonstrate the versatility of the 'new' even temperament method of tuning. Gounod's work was originally published for violin/cello with piano and harmonium, but in 1859, after receiving a request from Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann (Gounod's future father-in-law who transcribed Gounod's improvisation) Jacques Léopold Heugel released a vocal version with the melody set to the text of the Ave Maria prayer. Jade Panares, one of our choral scholars and a vocal performance major at the University of Houston, will sing this beautiful setting during communion today.

Music for December 13, 2015 + Advent III

Vocal Music

• O Thou, the Central Orb – Charles Wood
• When Jesus Came to Jordan - Attr. to William Walker (1809-1875)

Instrumental Music

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Larry Dalton (1946-2009)
• Savior, of the Nations, Come – Gerald Near
• Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding – Gerald Near 

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 kleins Waldvögelein)
• Hymn 679 - Surely it is God who saves me (Thomas Merton)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (Hearn)
• Hymn 59 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s ban the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New)

The Good Shepherd Choir is joined this Sunday in singing two anthems, one from the body of standard Anglican repertoire, and the other from the American Folk Hymn tradition. This Sunday we will hear the Gospel reading of John the Baptist's foretelling the coming of Jesus. Perhaps we are rushing things, but the choirs will sing the hymn When Jesus Came to Jordan to be Baptized by John, by Fred Pratt Green, the prolific British Methodist pastor and hymn writer. The Rev. Mr. Green wrote this text to help explain the "why" of Jesus' baptism. It has been paired with a tune from the American songbook Southern Harmony of 1854. We will be singing a simple, austere version of this hymn-tune with bells and an ostinato (a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm) sung by the men of the choir.

We sang the other anthem, O Thou, the Central Orb, back in October, so you can read about it here. The St. Gregory Choir will be singing the anthem as part of their choral festival in January, so we though we would sing it again with them, as it is perfect for Advent, too, with the line "Come, quickly come, and let thy glory shine."

The opening voluntary is a piano arrangement of the Advent hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. What is interesting to me is that it is arranged by Larry Dalton, a Pentecostal pianist. We typically don't think of Pentecostal musicians being interested in the same hymns that we sing. I feel this goes to prove the universality of this old - and I mean old - hymn. The text comes from a 7 verse poem that dates back to the 8th century. The melody was originally music for a Requiem Mass in a fifteenth-century French Franciscan Processional which was adapted by Englishman Thomas Helmore and published it in Part II of his The Hymnal Noted in 1854. The website Hymnary.org, a comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals, says that this hymn is found in 423 hymnals. (A Mighty Fortress is found in 586 hymnals, Amazing Grace in 1161!)

Larry Dalton was a world renowned pianist, conductor, composer and concert artist from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Big Stone Gap, VA, but he adopted Tulsa as his hometown when attending Oral Roberts University. During his college years, he traveled with the Oral Roberts ministry and later returned to serve as the Music Director for their TV ministry.

Larry was a Steinway Piano Artist, concertizing in over 40 countries, as well as arranging for many popular secular artists and Christian artists. His repertoire included music of every kind, including Southern Gospel, classical, and big band. 

He founded Living Sound, a contemporary Christian music group that ministered to the persecuted church in Poland, the USSR, Romania, East Germany and Yugoslavia. They also performed in great European cathedrals and at St. Peters in Rome hosted by Pope John Paul II.

Also, the keen eye will notice, in perusing the list of hymns and their tune names, that the tune name for the hymn Jesus, Name Above All Names is HEARN. It has nothing to do with me, but is named after the composer of the chorus, New Zealander Naida Hearn. I won't tell the whole story of how a 43 year old housewife came to write one of the most universal praise choruses today, but you can read the story here. 

Music for December 6, 2015 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• By All Your Saints – arr. Joel Martinson (b. 1962)

Instrumental Music

• Once He Came in Blessing – John Leavitt (b. 1956)
• Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah – Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954)
• Prepare the Way, O Zion – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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 R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn 53 - Once he came in blessing (Gottes Sohn ist kommen)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (Hyfrydol)
• Hymn R92 - Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 65 - Prepare the way, O Zion (Berenden vag for Herran)

In the Gospel reading today, we learn that somewhere near the year 29 A.D., John the Baptist began proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, 

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’

You will hear (and sing) those words several times this Sunday as we remember that prophecy.

St John the Baptist Preaching - Anastasio Fontebuoni

The only piece of music that does not directly tie into the theme of today's Gospel is the organ voluntary at communion by Wayne L. Wold. Wold is professor, organist, and chair of the music department at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and also director of music ministry at First Lutheran Church of Ellicott City, Maryland.  In 1984 Wold wrote an Advent hymn using the Yiddish tune Tif in Veldele (Deep in the Forest)as the melody. It's in A Minor, as typical of many Jewish folk tunes, and has a lovely, haunting quality about it. The hymn and this tune have since been included in 4 hymnals, two Lutheran hymnals, one Catholic, and the newest Presbyterian Hymnal, Glory to God. Each line begins with this simple statement.  

Light one (two, three, four) candle(s) to watch for Messiah: let the light banish darkness. 

What I find charming about this organ prelude based on the Yiddish melody is that Wold has written it in the style of César Franck's lyrical Prelude, Fugue, and Variation. I will be playing just the first (prelude) and last (variation) movements of the piece. 

Hymn Spotlight - Hymn R128 - Blessed be the God of Israel (Forest Green)

The Prayerbook suggests a canticle as an alternative to the usual Psalm for the second Sunday of Advent. The Song of Zechariah (father to John the Baptist) is found at Luke 1:68-79. Carl Daw, an Episcopal priest now located at Boston University, wrote a hymn based on this canticle in 1989, and it is included in our Renew hymnal to the tune “Forest Green”  by the famous English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Music for November 29, 2015 + Advent I

Vocal Music

• Advent Message – Martin How

Instrumental Music

• Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 850 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• I want to walk as a Child of the Light – arr. James Biery
• Fantasy on Veni, Veni, Emmanuel – Marilyn Biery

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

• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (St. Stephen)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy kingdom come!” on bended knee (St. Flavian)
• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• Hymn 301 - Bread of the world, in mercy broken (Rendez à Dieu)
• Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (Houston)
• Hymn 56 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)

This Sunday marks the first Sunday of the church calendar, also known as the First Sunday of Advent. (Liturgy refresher: Advent is the season that occurs four weeks prior to Christmas. It is a time of reflection, waiting and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. Our liturgical color is blue. During the Middle Ages, when blue was an expensive color to reproduce, purple was often used instead. This is why you still see some churches using purple in Advent. Also, purple was used by churches that followed the Roman rite as opposed to the Sarum Rite. Theologically, however, blue is the proper color for this season, because Blue is the color of the Blessed Virgin, and Advent is all about Mary as we await with her the arrival of the Incarnate God. Blue is the color of hope, expectation, confidence, and anticipation. These are all adjectives which describe the season of Advent.

Music for Thanksgiving, 2015

Instrumental Music

Variations on “The President’s Hymn” – William H. Muhlenberg
Now Thank We All Our God – Charles Callahan
Now Thank We All Our God – Jacob B. Weber

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

• Hymn 290 - Come, ye thankful people, come (St. George’s Windsor)
• Hymn 288 - Praise to God, immortal praise (Dix)       
• Hymn 433 - We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing (Kremser)   
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (Give Thanks)
• Hymn 397 - Now thank we all our God (Nun danket Alle Gott)

Thanksgiving in the United States has been observed on various dates throughout history. From the time of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln, the date Thanksgiving was observed varied from state to state. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a presidential proclamation stating Thanksgiving to be the final Thursday in November in an attempt to foster a sense of American unity between the Northern and Southern states. Inspired by this, Episcopal priest William Augustus Muhlenberg wrote a hymn for the occasion with the text

Give thanks all ye people, give thanks to the Lord,
Alleluias of freedom with joyful accord;
Let the East and the West, North and South roll along,
Sea and mountain and prairie, one thanksgiving song.

According to a letter to the editor of The New York Times, he asked President Lincoln permission to call it "The President's Hymn," which became its official title.

It is variations of that hymn tune by Muhlenberg that we use as an opening voluntary tonight. The hymn is introduced in a simple setting with full organ, then three variations of that hymn are played. The third variation imitates the sound of fife and drum while the melody is being played, and the last variation includes The Star Spangled Banner, played on the pedals of the organ while the hymn is played on the manuals.

Appearing in over 560 hymnals, Now Thank We All Our God is the quintessential Thanksgiving hymn. The text was written by Martin Rinkart, a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. In the midst of these horrors, it’s difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God, and yet, that’s exactly what Rinkart did. Sometime in the next twenty years, he wrote the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” originally meant to be a prayer said before meals. Rinkart could recognize that our God is faithful, and even when the world looks bleak, He is “bounteous” and is full of blessings, if only we look for them. Blessings as seemingly small as a dinner meal, or as large as the end of a brutal war and unnecessary bloodshed are all reasons to lift up our thanks to God, with our hearts, our hands, and our voices. (from www.hymnary.org)

Music for November 22, 2015 + Christ the King Sunday + The Last Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Sing We Merrily Unto God Our Strength – Sidney Campbell (1909-1974)
• O Bone Jesu – attr. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (16th C.)/probably by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (1547-1592)

Instrumental Music

• Come, Ye Thankful People, Come – Ron Boud/Don Hustad (20th C.)
• Prelude on Picardy – Sondra Tucker (21st C.)
• Suite Gothique: IV. Tocatta – Léon Boëllmann (19th C.)

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

• Hymn 494    Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn 488    Be thou my vision (Slane)
• Hymn 544    Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (Duke Street)
• Hymn 324    Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
• Hymn 598    Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (Mit Freuden zart)

Today we have two widely different anthems for the last Sunday of the Christian year, Christ the King Sunday, officially known as the last Sunday after Pentecost. The offertory anthem is a mid-century piece by the British composer Sidney Campbell. Campbell was organist and master of the choristers at Canterbury Cathedral when he wrote this piece in 1960 just before going to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where he remained until his death. This anthem features an independent organ accompaniment with much syncopation and a driving rhythm which supports the rather athletic choral part. Several words are set to long melismas (several notes to one syllable), such as God, noise, and merrily.

The second anthem is an Italian renaissance motet O Bone Jesus. This hauntingly simple setting  has often been attributed to Palestrina but is now generally recognized to have been the work of Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, an Italian composer of the late Renaissance. He was close friends with Pope Gregory XIV, who was intimately involved with the reforms of the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, and this influence is present in his music, which usually shows the simplification and clarity of the Palestrina style. His masses are simple, short, and relatively homophonic, often outdoing Palestrina for clarity and simplicity.

The opening voluntary is out of the ordinary for us Anglicans. One of our church members, Jill Kirkonis, retired this past year as organist from First Baptist Church of Porter after a long association with the church. She's since played for us here at Good Shepherd, and she brought an arrangement of the hymn Come, Ye Thankful People, Come to my attention. It was arranged for organ and piano by Don Hustad and Ron Boud. Don Hustad was the long-time organist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team, and Ron joined him at the piano in later years. In the small-world category, Ron Boud ended his full-time career as organ professor at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, the Baptist School in the same town as Lambuth College, where I got my undergraduate degree. His last church job before retirement was at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, where I had my first church job after leaving SMU.

To further the small world/West Tennessee connection, the Communion Voluntary is a setting of the familiar hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence for organ and handbells by my friend Sondra Tucker, who now serves as organist at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Collierville, TN. Holy Apostles is the church I served before moving to Kingwood.

Music for November 15, 2015 + The Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost + The Kirking of the Tartans

Vocal Music

• Arise, My Soul, Arise – Dale Wood (1934-2003)
• Day by Day – Martin How (b. 1931)

Instrumental Music

• Highland Cathedral – James D. Wetherald, arr., Stanley Fontinot, piper
• The Saints Delight – Dale Wood

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

• Hymn 51 - We the Lord’s people, heart and voice uniting (Decatur Place)
• Hymn 282 - Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (Caelites plaudant)
• Hymn 665 - All my hope on God is founded (Michael)
• Hymn 571 - All who love and serve your city (Charleston)
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (New Britain)
• Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (Shine Jesus Shine)

This Sunday is our annual "Kirking of the Tartans" service at Good Shepherd, a Sunday where we honor our Scottish heritage. (If you really get into history, you can read more about our annual tradition, as well as the beginnings of "Kirking" here.) As usual, we will have a piper here to play Highland Cathedral and Amazing Grace on the bagpipe.

Highland Cathedral is a popular melody for the great highland bagpipe, so it might surprise you that the melody was composed by German musicians Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb in 1982 for a Highland games held in Germany! It has become so popular in such a relatively short time that it has been proposed as the Scottish national anthem to replace unofficial anthems Scotland the Brave and/or Flower of Scotland.

The offertory anthem is by the renowned composer, organist, and choral director Dale Wood, who was best known for his church music compositions.  Wood's career as a composer was launched at the age of 13 when he became the winner of a national hymn-writing competition for the American Lutheran Church. His first choral anthem was accepted for publication one year later.

Dale Wood at his home, October 2002.
Photo courtesy Ivan de la Garza.

Wood has served as organist and choirmaster for Lutheran and Episcopal churches in Hollywood, Riverside, and San Francisco, California. Hymns and canticles composed by Dale Wood are found in every major hymnal except ours!

Wood's musical activities have not been limited to sacred music. While still a college student, he entertained as organist at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles and appeared on television shows produced in Hollywood. In 1975, he was employed by the Royal Viking Line to entertain passengers on a 70-day cruise of the South Pacific and Orient.

Wood used the Finnish folk tune NYT YLÖS, SIELUNI as the basis for the anthem "Arise, My Soul, Arise," with text by Swedish writer Johan Kahl. The anthem was written in 1976 based on a Finnish folk tune. The sturdy tune is first sung in unison before being sung in canon on the second stanza. Wood's creative compositional style is evident in the accompaniment of this verse, which at first seems unrelated to the melodic material the choir sings, but up closer examination you realize that it is actually the original tune, but in augmentation, a compositional device where a melody is presented in longer note-values than were previously used. During the third line of that stanza, the whole choir sings the tune in augmentation, without accompaniment. The third stanza returns to the original rhythm and feel with an abrupt but strong ending.

The Good Shepherd Choir is joined by the St. Gregory Choir at the communion anthem, Day by Day, using a prayer ascribed to the 13th-century English bishop Saint Richard of Chichester as its text. The music was composed by Martin How, a British composer and organist. (He is the son of the late Most Revd J C H How, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church - another Scottish connection!)

Martin How

Born in Liverpool, where his father was Rector of St Nicholas Church. The family then moved to Brighton, where Martin's father was Vicar at St Peters Parish Church. The family then moved to Glasgow just before the second world war, and Martin spend most of his childhood there.

Trained in music at Repton School and Clare College, Cambridge, he was in the Army for two years before taking a post as Organist and Choirmaster at Grimsby Parish Church in Lincolnshire. But it was at the Royal School of Church Music where How spent most of his career, principally as a choir trainer specializing in the training and motivation of young singers. In this capacity he initiated and developed the RSCM Chorister Training Scheme which has since been used in various forms in many parts of the world. 

Has traveled widely as a choral conductor, accompanist, lecturer and adjudicator. In this capacity he has worked in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Appointed MBE for 'Services to Church Music' in the 1993 New Year Honors List.