Music for September 25 + Pentecost XIX and St. Michael and All Angels

10:15 Eucharist

Vocal Music

• Fight the Good Fight – John Gardner (1917-2011)

Instrumental Music

• Voluntary in D – John Stanley (1712-1786)
• Symphonie No. 4: III. Andante cantabile - Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
• Trumpet Voluntary in D – John Stanley

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 429 - I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath (Old 113^th)
• Hymn 561 - Stand up, stand up for Jesus (Morning Light)
• Hymn 705 - As those of old their first fruits brought (Forest Green)
• Hymn 605 - What does the Lord require (Sharpthorne)
• Hymn 370 - God is love, let heaven adore him (Abbott’s Leigh)
• Psalm 146:2-9 - Lauda, anima mea (simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome Meachem)

St. Michael and All Angels

Choral Eucharist at 5 PM

Vocal Music

• Locus Iste – Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
• Hide Me Under the Shadow of thy Wings – John Ebenezer West (1863-1929)

Instrumental Music

• Archangel Suite – Craig Phillips (b. 1961)

1. Michael – “…there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.” – Rev. 12:7
2. Gabriel – Messenger of God – messenger of the Annunciation
3. Raphael – It is God who heals – Archangel of healing
4. Uriel – God is my light – Archangel of Light

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

• Hymn 282 - Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels (CAELITES PLAUDANT)
• Hymn R75 - Praise the Lord, let heavens adore hymn (Austrian Hymn)
• Hymn R114 - Psalm 103: Bless the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 618 - Ye watchers and ye holy ones (Lasst uns erfreuen)
• Hymn 625 - Ye holy angels bright (Darwall’s 148th)

This is a full Sunday for the Good Shepherd Choir, as we sing at the morning service at 10:15 as well as the Service dedicating the new Acolytes at 5 PM. Here are some thoughts about the music for both services.

John Gardner in rehearsal

I chose the anthem Fight the Good Fight to echo the themes of the Epistle reading for the day. ("Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. - 1st Timothy 6:12) That's also why we are singing that good old hymn, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.

The anthem was composed by John Gardner, an English organist and composer who once tried to teach Paul McCartney the rudiments of music! He was decidedly of the "old" school - much more romantic and traditional than other up and coming composers on the European continent after World War II. This anthem comes from a set of Five Hymns in Popular Style composed in 1966

At the Evening Service the choir sings the beautiful unaccompanied motet by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner, Locus Iste. The text, which is sung in Latin, translates to

This place was made by God,
a priceless sacrament;
it is without reproach. . 

I have chosen it because (A.) I like it. (B.) The choir likes it, and (C.) It reminds me of what Jacob said after he woke from his dream of angels climbing a ladder to heaven. ("“Surely the Lord is in this place...This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” - Genesis 28:16-17)

Bruckner was a composer of a number of highly original and monumental symphonies. He was also an organist and teacher who composed much sacred and secular choral music. He was a devout Catholic, but he was not without his quirks. Read the article that I have linked to above. (But not during the sermon. DEFINITELY not in church.)

I'm excited to be playing a (relatively) new work at the evening service specifically for St. Michael and All Angels. It is a suite written in 2011 by Craig Phillips, Archangel Suite is a collection of four movements which explore the contrasting characters of the four traditional archangels.

Craig Phillips

I'm using the first movement, "Michael" as the opening voluntary; It is martial trumpet-tune which portrays St. Michael, the chief angelic adversary of Satan. The second and third movement will come during communion. "Gabriel" is a quietly but steadily flowing 9/8 movement with a lyric melody in the pedals, sounding above a flowing accompaniment in the manuals; "Raphael" is a shimmering meditation for celestes and solo stops, depicting the archangel of healing. I will play the finale, dedicated to Uriel,the archangel of light, as a closing voluntary. "Uriel" is a dramatic and vivid toccata in the French style.

Craig Phillips has served as Director of Music at All Saints’ Church, Beverly Hills since 2009. He previously served for 20 years as the churches’ Associate Director of Music and Composer-in-Residence. His choral and organ music is heard Sunday by Sunday in churches and cathedrals across the United States, and many of his works have been performed in concert throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He was named the American Guild of Organists Distinguished Composer for 2012 — the seventeenth recipient of this special award.

Music for September 18, 2016 + The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• With a Voice of Singing – Martin Shaw (1874-1958)

Instrumental Music

• What Does the Lord Require? – arr. Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957)
• Be Thou My Vision – arr. Jason Tonioli (contemporary)
• Now Thank We All Our God, BWV 657 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

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

• Hymn 390 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Lobe den Herren)
• Hymn 605 What does the Lord require (Sharpthorne)
• Hymn 408 Sing praise to God who reigns above (Mit Freuden Zart)
• Hymn 488 Be thou my vision (Slane)
• Hymn 475 God himself is with us (Tysk)
• Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8 Laudate, pueri – Tone IVe

Martin Shaw

The anthem was composed by Martin Shaw, eminent English church musician, in 1923 for the Annual Festival of Church Choirs held in London. It has become a universal favorite of church choirs in the 90 years hence.  The bold opening unison declaration gives way to imitative entrances by the individual choral sections. This pattern continues throughout the short work. Mr. Shaw adds a final flourish for the organ as the choir sustains the final “Alleluia.”

Martin Shaw was a composer, educator, arranger and campaigner for renewal and revival of English church music during the early part of the 20th Century. In a career which spanned both World Wars, he felt: very strongly that

the great purpose of music should be to aid the cause of Humanity, and that we should regard it, therefore, as being in its nature at least as much social as artistic.

Michael Burkhardt

Last week the choir sang the hymn What does the Lord require using the tune SHARPTHORNE by Erik Routley. I will be playing a prelude based on that tune before the service today written by one of my SMU classmates, Michael Burkhardt. Michael has gone on to even greater things, becoming a world-class composer, arranger, and performer of organ and choral works. He is currently Director of Worship and the Arts at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Livonia, Michigan, Director of Worship and the Arts for the Southeast Michigan Synod of the ELCA, and Artistic Director of the Detroit Handbell Ensemble.  He has served on the faculty of Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, and Christ College Irvine, Irvine, CA, as well as Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, and Trinity Seminary, Columbus, OH, as Guest Lecturer in their Master of Sacred Music programs.

I'm playing this setting of the hymn to help familiarize the congregation with the tune so we may sing it with confidence later in the service. This hymn is one of the great hymns of the last part of the 20th century. “What Does the Lord Require?” was written in January 1949 by Albert Bayly, considered by many as a father of the Twentieth-Century Hymn Explosion. The hymn was based on the text from Micah 6:6-8 and was published along with 16 other hymns representing prophets from the Old Testament. The tune mostly associated with Bayly’s hymn is this one, SHARPTHORNE.

The text’s shortness and simplicity are by design. In an article “Writing Hymns for Our Times,” Bayly once wrote that “hymns may deal with the most profound ideas, but unless these are expressed in the simplest and clearest possible way they can be nothing but words to many of those who sing them.”

Jason Tonioli

Almost everybody loves the hymn tune Slane, which The Hymnal 1982 uses for the hymns Be Thou My Vision and Lord of All Hopefulness. I am playing a New Age piano arrangement at communion by the contemporary Mormon pianist Jason Tonioli. You can look him up on the internet if you would like to hear more New Age style arrangements of favorite, well-known hymn tunes.

The closing voluntary is Bach's setting Lobe den Herren, better known as Now Thank We All Our God. It is written in an imitative style, with the lower voices (alto line of the treble clef and the entire bass clef played by the left hand, with pedal part) forming sort of a fugal 'cloud' that the melody, played by the right hand on the trumpet stop, soars above. This is one of several treatments of this famous hymn that Bach composed during his church musician years. (He wasn't always a church musician. For a period of 6 years he was music director for the court at Köthen, where the prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period was secular.)

Music for September 11, 2016 + The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Lord, for Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake – Richard Farrant (c.1530-1580) or John Hilton (1565-1708?)
• What Does the Lord Require? – Erik Routley (1917-1982)

Instrumental Music

• Elegy – George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
• Shalom (Peace) – Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
• Postlude in B-flat Major – John E. West (1863-1929)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (St. Denio)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (Beecher)
• Hymn 377 - All people that on earth do dwell (Old 100^th)
• Hymn 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (St. Columba)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (Sicilian Mariners)
• Psalm 51:1-4, 7-8, 11 - Miserere mei, Deus (Tone VIIIb)

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I dare say that very few things in the past 50 years have shaken the country like that horrible day. But out of pain come acts of hope and beauty. Such is the piece that I play today for the communion voluntary.

Dan Locklair

Dan Locklair wrote his Æolian Sonata between late January and March for a recital celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Duke University Chapel’s Æolian pipe organ in June 2002. This was the last organ the Æolian Organ Company built before they merged with the E.M. Skinner Organ Co., forming the great American classic organ company,  Æolian-Skinner.

In three movements, The Æolian Sonata musically celebrates the heritage and continued use of the historic Æolian organ in Duke Chapel, but it also pays tribute to the spirit of the American people in the aftermath of the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks. The title for each movement is in a different language, symbolically paying tribute to the outpouring of support that Americans have felt from peace-loving people throughout the world. In a spiritual way, the music of each movement is a reflection on its title, with these words being indicative of a healing nation.

The second movement,  Shalom (Peace),  is marked “Serene and unhurried.” It is a quiet and simple movement that lyrically dialogues flute and clarinet sounds as it gently reflects on the Hebrew word for peace. Locklair prefaced this movement with the dedication:

In remembrance of the darkness of September 11 from which emerged hope for Peace and joy in Thanksgiving.

Locklair is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). He holds a Master of Sacred Music degree from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Presently, Dr. Locklair is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The choir's anthem is a choral setting of a sixteenth century prayer by Henry Bull, set to music by either Richard Farrant or John Hilton, both English composers of sacred music. Farrant was organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in the middle of the sixteenth century, while Hilton was known as a counter-tenor and organist, most notably at Trinity College, Cambridge. In the beginning, the music is in a simple, a capella, hymn-like style which befits the reflective and restful mood of the text, but at the words "that we may walk in a perfect heart" the choir has a chance to play around with the rhythms of the words and sing much more independently of each other, finally ending with a contrapuntal "amen."

The communion anthem is a hymn from our hymnal. Early in 1949 Albert F. Bayly wrote this text based on Micah 6:6-8 as one of a series of seventeen hymns he was writing on the Old Testament prophets. His objective was to present the prophets "in the light of the climax and fulfillment of the Old Testament revelation in the coming of Christ." "What Does the Lord Require" asks questions and states commands as if Micah were a modern-day prophet. The refrain line "Do justly. . ." subtly shifts from the imperative voice in stanzas 1 through 3 to a corporate confession in stanza 4. Erik Routley composed SHARPTHORNE in 1968 to be published as a setting for Bayly's text in a British hymnal. Sharpthorne is a village in Routley's native county of Sussex, England.

Don't forget the Concert of Remembrance and Peace tonight at Strawbridge United Methodist Church. Members from our choir will be a part of this event.

Music for September 4, 2016 + The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• When Jesus Wept – William Billings (1746-1800), arr. by A. F. Schultz (b. 1942)

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy in C Major: Poco Lento - César Franck (1822-1890)
• Fantasy in C Major: Adagio - César Franck
• God of Grace and God of Glory - Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of the communion hymn which is from Lift Every Voice and Sing II.)

• Hymn 400 - All creatures of our God and King (Laast uns erfreuen)
• Hymn 675 - Take up your cross, the Savior said (Bourbon)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life and let it be (Hollingside)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Indian Folk melody)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (Cwm Rhondda)
• Psalm 1 - Beatus vir qui non abiit (Tone V)

The musical term of today is Canon (as in Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.) The Oxford Dictionary defines canon as

 A piece in which the same melody is begun in different parts successively, so that the imitations overlap.

A piece of music in canon is written with different parts successively beginning the same melody. 

Today we have two musical selections which use this form. One is a true canon, the other includes a section in canon. First the canon.

William Billings -
an incredibly flattering portrait
of the early American composer.

Those keen on Bible Trivia know that "Jesus Wept" is the shortest verse in the King James Version of the Bible. (Can you cite chapter and verse? Answer below.) Something so short and simple requires a short, simple and elegant musical setting. William Billings - the first American Master Musician from Revolutionary War days - presents us with this short canon based on this scripture. Now, even the music of Taizé would require more words than just the two syllables of Jesus Wept, so Billings added his own text to give us 16 bars of what John Lienhardt of the University of Houston called "one of the most exquisite short canons we've ever heard." (Read his highly entertaining and informative piece about Billings here.)

The setting we are singing today presents the original text along with two verses from the hymn which we sing this Sunday as the Gospel hymn, Take Up Your Cross. We sing the second verse as a two-part canon, trebles followed by the tenors and basses. This is an arrangement by Alan Schultz, American organist, composer and conductor who is also past conductor and music director of The Southern Arizona Symphony and the Tucson Masterworks Chorale

Both the opening voluntary and the communion voluntary are excerpts from a large-scale organ work by the Belgian/French composer César Franck. The work, the Fantasy in C Major, is in three large parts separated by short transitional passages. I'm playing the first section, Poco Lento, for the opening and the last section, Adagio, for communion. It is in the opening voluntary that we find the other canon in today's music.

This selection is itself in three parts. The opening theme (or melody) is presented on the swell manual alone using all the 8' stops (save the trumpet stop). Then the pedal introduces a secondary theme which is echoed two measures later by the left hand (the canon). After the full exposition of the secondary theme, this theme is again presented but with the addition of a counter-melody in the right hand over the canon between the pedal and the left hand. At the end of this section, the original theme reappears with a fuller sound including the trumpet and the pedals.

The service ends with a congregational favorite, Paul Manz's improvisation on the equally loved Welsh hymn-tune, Cwm Rhondda. I think people like it because the opening bars of the piece sound like the opening phrase of the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. Whatever the reason, it's a great way to leave the service!

* John 11:35 - Jesus Wept.

Music for August 28, 2016 + The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Rally Day

Vocal Music

• Bread of the World – Carlton Young, arr. (b. 1926)

Instrumental Music

• Gather Us In – arr. Donald M. Verkuilen III (21st C.)
• Let Us Break Bread Together - Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Shine, Jesus, Shine – David Blackwell, arr. (b. 1961)

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 R37 - Father we love you  (Glorify your name )

Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (Mit Freuden zart)

Hymn 376 - Joyful, joyful, we adore thee (Hymn to Joy)

Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of Sea and Sky (Here I am, Lord)

Hymn R206 - Holy, holy (Holy holy)

Hymn R247 - Lord, the light of your love is shining (Shine, Jesus, Shine)

Psalm 112 - Beatus vir (Tone V)

For our first Sunday back after three months vacation we are singing a simple setting of a Southern melody. The tune CHARLESTON was first found in The United States Sacred Harmony in 1799; it's become very popular in the last 40 years as the tune for the text "All who love and serve your city," as found at hymn 571 in our hymnal. But it is the text for the communion hymn "Bread of the world in mercy broken," (Hymn 301 in our book) that Carlton Young pairs with this tune. He treats the first stanza with choir in unison, but on the second stanza, the tonality changes to a minor mode and the tenors and basses sing together in unison. The trebles join for the second half and at the conclusion of the second (and final) stanza, he has the choir return to the first stanza in the original major key in canon.

Carlton R. (Sam) Young

Carlton Young has had more influence on what the United Methodist have sung in the last half century than probably anyone since John and Charles Wesley started the movement in the 18th century. He has had the unique distinction of serving as editor of two revisions of the Methodist hymnal: THE METHODIST HYMNAL, 1966; and THE UNITED METHODIST HYMNAL, 1989. Dr. Young, known to his friends as "Sam", has served on the church music faculties at three major United Methodist Schools: Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University; Scarritt College; and Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Known more for his scholarly efforts than for his compositions, he has, however, arranged or written many hymns and choral pieces. His harmonization of "What Wondrous Love is This" is used in the accompaniment edition of our hymnal.

Donald Verkuilen III

The organ voluntaries today are proof that hymnody is not a dying tradition. I present two organ voluntaries on hymns written since 1980. Gather Us In is found in the Renew hymnal in our pews, and is a rollicking gathering song for worship. Marty Haugen, the writer of both tune and text, is an American who is a member of the United Church of Christ. His hymn is now in over 25 hymnals worldwide. This toccata is by Donald Verkuilen, the organist-choir master at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and was chosen for inclusion in Bayoubuchlein, a collection of organ works based on contemporary hymns published by and for the 2016 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists which was held here in Houston this past May.

The closing voluntary is an organ arrangement of one of our church's favorites, Shine, Jesus, Shine. It is arranged by the English organist and composer David Blackwell. He studied music at Edinburgh University, Scotland, and then pursued a career in music publishing, finishing his career as Head of Music Publishing at Oxford University Press. He now works as a freelancer composer, editor, and journalist.

Music for August 21, 2016 + The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Instrumental Music

• Trumpet Voluntary – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us – William Bradbury (1816-1868)
• The Wayfaring Stranger – Old Southern Melody
• Balm in Gilead – Negro Spiritual
• Praise Him! Praise Him! – Chester G. Allen (1838-1878)

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

• Hymn 8 - Morning has broken (Bunnessan)
• Hymn R250 - O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder (O Stor Gud)
• Hymn 368 - Holy Father, great Creator (Regent Square)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together on our knees (Let Us Break Bread)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (Azmon)
• Hymn 411-  Psalm 103, O bless the Lord, my soul (St. Thomas (Williams))       

This Sunday, being the last real Sunday of Summer (School starts back in Kingwood on the 22nd), I am taking the Sunday off to go on holiday. No AGO convention, no choir camp, no music conference, just four days with friends in Mexico. In my absence we are fortunate to have Jill Kirkonis to play the organ for us. I made it easy on her and told her I would not be having a soloist on this last Summer Sunday without the choir, just her, playing an organ offertory. She has chosen to play an arrangement of the hymn-tune BRADBURY, the melody which 80% of hymnals use for the words Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us. (Not us Episcopalians, however. We've used the tune SICILIAN MARINERS for the tune since 1916.)

BRADBURY was written by William Batchelder Bradbury, a Baptist organist and choir director who was well know throughout the Protestant churches in the first part of the 20th century. In the 1914 book Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers, J. H. Hall wrote

The churchgoing people of today are generally familiar with the name Wm. B. Bradbury. Many have cherished that name from childhood. Most of us began our musical experiences by singing his songs, and as early experiences are the most lasting, we will carry these melodies, with their happy associations, through life.
William Batchelder Bradbury was born at York, York County, Maine, October 6, 1816. He came of a good family. He spent the first few years of his life on his father's farm, and rainy days would be spent in the shoe-shop, as was the general custom in those days. He loved music, and would spend his spare hours in studying and practicing such music as he could find. In 1830 his parents removed to Boston, where he saw and heard for the first time a piano and organ, as well as various other instruments. The effect was to lead him to devote his life to the service of music. Accordingly he took lessons upon the organ, and as early as 1831: had achieved some reputation as an organist.
After some months he was asked to preside at the organ of a certain church at a salary of twenty-five dollars per annum. On trying the organ he found it to be one of those ancient affairs which required the keys to be pulled up as well as pressed down, and he suggested that his pay should be at least fifty dollars, since the playing required this double duty. It was not long till a better paying situation was offered him — that of one hundred dollars a year.

Later there came a call to take charge of the music of the First Baptist Church of Brooklyn, New York. There was some opposition to the organ among the members, but

he took pains to play it so well, and in such good taste, that he speedily won all to favor its use. After a year's work here the important era in his career began. He took charge of the choir and organ of the Baptist Tabernacle, New York City, and in addition started a singing class for the young.

William Bradbury

William B. Bradbury, along with Drs. Lowell Mason and George F. Root, was responsible for the popularity of the singing schools that sprang up in American churches and Sunday Schools in the 19th century. He was unceasingly active, having edited fifty-nine books of sacred and secular music, a large part of which were his own work.

Despite his immense popularity in his lifetime, and the number of hymns and Sunday School songs he wrote (close to 200) only one of his hymn-tunes is included in our hymnal, but it is universally well known. It is WOODBURY, known to all of us as Just as I am. He also wrote the music for Jesus Loves Me.

Chester G. Allen, who wrote the stirring Gospel tune that is used for today's closing voluntary,  was also known as a teacher, composer and musical writer., though at a much lesser degree than Bradbury. He taught music in Cleveland, Ohio public schools. He also edited and compiled collections of music for schools and churches, containing many of his own compositions.

Music for August 14, 2016 + The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• Open My Eyes – Clara H. Scott (1841-1897) Bruce Bailey, tenor

Instrumental Music 
Three Antiphons from Vêpres du commun des fêtes de la Sainte Vierge, Op.18 – Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971)

• Antiphon I: While the King sitteth at his table (Song of Solomon 1:12)
• Antiphon III: I am black but comely, O Ye Daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Solomon 7:6)
• Antiphon V: How Fair and how Pleasant art Thou (Song of Solomon 1:5)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 366 - Holy God, we praise thy Name (Grosser Gott)
• Hymn 537 - Open your ears, O faithful people (Torah Song)
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (In Babilone)
• Hymn 490 - I want to walk as a child of the light (Houston)
• Hymn 473 - Lift high the cross (Crucifer)
• Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18, Tone VIIIa, refrain by Jackson Hearn

A couple of weeks ago, Bruce Bailey came into my office inquiring about a hymn that he had sung growing up. Bruce and I share the same background of growing up in the Methodist Church, often singing out of the Cokesbury Worship Hymnal, a slim, brown hymnal from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South that contained many hymns and gospel songs that were popular in the middle of the twentieth century. (You can still buy a copy for $14!) The hymn in question was Open My Eyes, That I May See. I recalled that, as a teenager, we joked it was written by Fanny Crosby, a famous blind gospel song writer of the late nineteenth century. (And how a teenage boy in rural Tennessee knew about blind hymn writers of the 1800s is still a mystery.) My copy of the Cokesbury Hymnal lists Charles H. Scott as the composer. It turns out that is wrong.

Clara H. Scott

Open My Eyes, That I May See was written in 1895 by Clara H. Scott, a Midwesterner who taught music at the Ladies' Seminary, in Lyons, Iowa. She married Henry Clay Scott in 1861, and in 1882 published the Royal Anthem Book, the first volume of choir anthems published by a woman.

Horatio R. Palmer, an influential church musician in Chicago and later New York City, was a source of encouragement for Scott, and helped her publish many of her songs. This hymn first appeared in Best Hymns No. 2, by Elisha A. Hoffman & Harold F. Sayles in 1895. Three collections were issued before her untimely death, in a buggy accident cause by a runaway horse in Dubuque, Iowa.

Bruce will be singing it this Sunday in an arrangement of mine where I combine the melody by Scott with the accompaniment of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria, so if it sounds familiar when the piano starts, that's why. With some minor adjustments in harmony, the two go well together. Schubert will be turning over in his grave.

Marcel Dupré

The organ music is by the famed French organist, Marcel Dupré.  Dupré was the foremost French organ virtuoso of his time, an heir to the great tradition of Romantic French organ playing and composing. In addition to his technical prowess, Dupré was well known for his ability to improvise.

Ninety-seven years ago on August 15, 1919, Dupré was substituting for the regular organist at Notre Dame for Vespers. The office of Vespers includes five psalms, a hymn, and the Magnificat. An antiphon (a short scriptural text) is sung before each Psalm. Dupré improvised 15 organ responses to the Psalms, Ave maris stella, and Magnificat.

An Englishman, Claude Johnson, the General Managing Director of Rolls-Royce, was attending Vespers. A man of great vision and sensitivity, he was struck by the beauty of Dupré’s music and wanted to buy a copy of it.

On being told that it had been improvised, and therefore not written down, he at once persuaded Dupré to try to recapture his original inspiration and commissioned the set of 15 pieces. They appeared the following year. It is three of the five antiphons, based on verses from the Song of Solomon, that I am playing today.