Music for January 1, 2017 + The Holy Name of Jesus

There will be no choir this Sunday

Instrumental Music

• Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year now hath passed away] BWV 614 – Johann Sebastian Bach
• Jesus, Name Above All Names/O, How I Love Jesus – arr. Mark Hayes
• Praise the Name of Jesus – arr. Fred Bock
• In dir ist Freude [In Thee Is Gladness] BWV 615 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (St. Peter)
• Hymn 250 - Now greet the swiftly changing year (Sixth Night)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (Hearn)
• Hymn R98 - How Majestic Is Your Name (How Majestic) 
• Hymn R28 - Emmanuel (McGee)
• Hymn R37 - Father, we love you (Glorify Your Name)
• Hymn 477 - All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine (Engleberg)

Jesus publicly received his Holy Name when he was presented
at the Temple and circumcised, under the Law

According to the liturgical calendar, the first of January, while still part of the twelve days of Christmas, is known as The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. The celebration is held eight days after Christmas to commemorate the naming of the child, because the Gospel of Luke tells us, "at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

I've included many hymns and songs this Sunday which exult the name of Christ. Two of the piano voluntaries are settings of contemporary songs extolling Jesus' name.

This is, of course, also New Year's Day. While not a liturgical feast day, there is indeed music written for the church's observance of the day. Two of the most famous pieces for New Year's Day come from Johann Sebastian Bach's Orgelbuchlein. I'll be playing both of them for this Sunday's single Eucharistic service at 10:15. The opening voluntary is rather melancholy, with its intensely chromatic, highly ornamented melody of the chorale Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year has passed] played slowly in the right hand on one keyboard while the left hand and feet accompany on another manual and the pedal board.

The other piece, played at the close of the service, is much more jubilant and bright. In Thee is Gladness is a hymn by  Johann Lindemann written for a balletto (dance tune) by Giovanni G. Gastoldi, a priest and composer from Mantua, Italy. Only the first four notes of the chorale are used as a recurring motif used as an ostinato during the piece, along with the "short-short-short-long" rhythm of the ultra short melodic fragment that also appears throughout the hymn. 

Music for Christmas Weekend 2016

December 24, 2016 – 4 PM

Pamela Saxon King, soloist
The Good Shepherd Bell Choir
The Good Shepherd Liturgical Dance Company

Vocal Music

• Mary, Did You Know? – Buddy Greene
• Do You Hear What I Hear? - Gloria Shayne Baker (1923 – 2008)

Instrumental Music

• Go, Tell It on the Mountain – Patricia A. Sanders
• Away in a Manger – Patricia A. Sanders
• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• V. Adagio
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 111 - Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99 - Go, tell it on the mountain (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 24, 2016 – 6:30 and 10 PM

The Good Shepherd Choir
Allison Gosney, soprano

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)
• What Is This Lovely Fragrance - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – Italian Carol, arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)
• Ding Dong, Merrily on High– French tune, arr. Charles Wood
• What Sweeter Musick - William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947)
• Ave Maria – César Franck (1822 – 1890)
• Christmas Joy - Mark Schweitzer (b. 1956)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale partita on From heaven above to earth I come – Paul Manz
• I. Theme
• II. Allegro
• III. Andante Sostenuto
• IV. Allegro Moderato
• VI. Toccata

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

• Hymn 86 - O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fidelis)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (Gloria)
• Hymn 87 - Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 79 - O little town of Bethlehem (St. Louis)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (Stille Nacht)
• Hymn 99- Go tell it on the mountain! (Go Tell It on the Mountain)

December 25, 2016 – 10:15 AM

Instrumental Music

• Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
• In the Bleak Midwinter—John Purifoy 
• O Little Town of Bethlehem – Jim Brickman (b. 1961)
• Prologue – Traditional, arr. Joseph W. Clokey (1890-1960)

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

• Hymn 107 - Good Christian friends, rejoice (In dulci jubilo)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (stanzas 1, 2, 3) (Gloria)
• Hymn 102 - Once in royal David’s city (Irby)
• Hymn 115 - What child is this? (Greensleeves)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world (Antioch )

Music for December 18 , 2016 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary – arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)

Instrumental Music

• Savior of the Nations, Come! – 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 475 - God himself is with us (Tysk)
• Hymn 56, st. 7-8 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 54 - Savior, of the nations, come! (Nun komm, der Heiden Heilend)
• Hymn 59, st. 3-5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (tune)
• Hymn 66 - Come, thou long expected Jesus (Stuttgart)
• Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18 - Qui regis Israel

Charles Wood

Before there was Mack Wilberg, (1), before there John Rutter (2), before there was David Willcocks (3), there was Charles Wood.

Charles Wood was an Irish composer and teacher. (His pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams at Cambridge and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music.) He is chiefly known, however, as an Anglican Church musician. His anthems, especially Expectans expectavi, O Thou, the Central Orb, and  Hail, gladdening light, are both frequently performed and recorded.


His four-part settings of traditional English and European Carols were in use before the compilation of the popular Oxford Book of Carols. Two of his carols are among the pieces that we are singing this year during the Advent and Christmas season. Hail, Blessed Virgin Mary, is a traditional carol from Italy first published in 1920. Anglican priest George Ratcliffe Woodward translated the original 17th century Italian verse depicting the Annunciation.

All the organ music today is by Bach, from his organ collection Clavierübung, and all are based on the same tune, Nun Komm Der Heiden Heilend.  Clavierübung literally means “keyboard practice,” - the pieces both provide an opportunity to develop skill, as well as demonstrate the technical and stylistic conventions of keyboard composition and performance.  It is considered Bach's most significant and extensive work for organ, containing some of his musically most complex and technically most demanding compositions for that instrument. The work is sometimes referred to as the German Organ Mass: between its opening and closing movements—the prelude and "St Anne" fugue—are 21 chorale preludes, setting parts of the Lutheran mass and catechisms. The chorale preludes range from compositions for single keyboard to a six-part fugal prelude with two parts in the pedal.

Nun Komm Der Heiden Heilend is a chorale derived from a chant.  The tune dates from a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Einsiedeln manuscript. The adaptation of the tune, presumably by Johann Walther, was published in 1524. J. S. Bach used the tune for three preludes in the Clavierübung as well as the Orgelbüchlein and in his cantatas 36 and 62.

This hymn establishes that the Savior of the world came not only to Jews, but to “Heiden”—literally to the heathen. However, “Heiden” does not carry a negative connotation; it is simply a reference to the Gentiles. In this hymn text as a prayer, we bid our Savior, our coming King Jesus, to come and give us hope by His grace.

(1) Mack Wilberg, the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is a composer/arranger well known for his Christmas Music.

(2) John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer/arranger well known for his original Christmas carols and arrangements of traditional carols.

(3) David Willcocks CBE MC was a British choral conductor, organist, composer who compiled Carols for Choirs I, II, III and IV, volumes which became the quintessential Christmas Choral collection.

Music for December 11, 2016 + The Third Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• How Lovely Are the Messengers – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Instrumental Music

• Fantasy on “Veni Emmanuel” – Robert C. Lau (b. 1943)
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – Cathy Moklebust (b. 1958)
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Robert Powell (b. 1932)

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

• Hymn R128 - Bless’d be the God of Israel (Forest Green)
• Hymn 56, st. 5-6 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 615 - “Thy Kingdom come!” (St. Flavian)
• Hymn 59, st. 3-5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R278 - Wait for the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (Winchester New)
• Psalm 146 - Lauda, anima mea

The anthem this Sunday is the beautiful chorus from Mendelssohn's oratorio St. Paul. (I wrote about it in January when we sang this anthem in church. You can read about it here.) We are singing it again this Sunday because the Gospel reminds us that Jesus said that John the Baptist was the one about whom it was written,

‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’

The opening and closing voluntaries are based on the well-loved Advent hymn, Veni, veni, Emmanuel. (You remember your Latin I, right? Veni, vidi, vici? "I came, I saw, I conquered.") This is the hymn that we have been singing in place of the Gloria each Sunday in Advent. Both of these settings, by contemporary composers, are more paraphrases of the melody than a single exposition of the tune. You hear bits and pieces, or snippets of the melody, instead of a complete presentation of each phrase.

Robert C. Lau

The opening voluntary is by Robert Lau, recently retired as director of music and organist at Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where he held the post for over 25 years. He has degrees from Lebanon Valley College, the Eastman School of Music and The Catholic University of America.  A former member of the faculty at Lebanon Valley College where he taught music theory and chaired the Music Department, Dr. Lau also served as Adjunct Professor of Music at Penn State Harrisburg, teaching in the School of Humanities.

He has written more than 250 choral and keyboard works which have been published by the leading music publishing companies in the United States, and he has been commissioned to write choral, keyboard and vocal works for a variety of institutions, churches and individuals.  For his work in published choral and keyboard works he has won 15 Special Awards from ASCAP.  In 2010 Paraclete Press published his book A Practical Approach to Improvisation for the Church Organist.

In his setting of Veni Emmanuel, he employs an improvisatory style. I think he had verse one in mind while writing this work.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

The work begins with rather desolate harmonies, sparse chords spread out over the keyboard using a thin, stringy sound. The melody comes in the pedal, employing a plaintive oboe-like sound. At the "rejoice!" section, instead of the typical "rejoice" refrain, we hear a new chant like melody on the full Swell, rolling around, like a pot approaching full boil, until huge, screaming chords call us to rejoice, take heart, take courage, for the promise of the Messiah. I think that is why the piece doesn't resolve without a fight (listen for the struggles in the harmonies as the organ builds.) Finally, the dust settles, and the familiar "rejoice" melody comes in, but not loudly, but with a quiet hope, trusting in the arrival of Emmanuel, God with us.

The Good Shepherd Handbells are playing a gorgeous arrangement of the communion hymn, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. It is a setting by Cathy Moklebust, a composer from South Dakota, whose compositions for handbell are influenced by her over forty-six years as a handbell musician and her background as a percussionist.

Music for December 4, 2016 + The Second Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Adam Lay Ybounden – Richard Shephard (b. 1949)

Instrumental Music

• Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People – Gerald Near (b. 1942)
• Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People – Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
• 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 616 Hail to the Lord’s anointed (Es flog ein kleins Waldvogelein)
• Hymn 56, st. 3-4 O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 67 Comfort, comfort ye, my people (Psalm 42)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn R92 Prepare the way of the Lord (Taizé)
• Hymn 65 Prepare the way, O Zion (Berenden vag for Herran) 
• Psalm 72 - Deus, judicium – tone VIIIa

Adam Lay Ybounden is a poem from the 15th Century by an anonymous British poet. It's commonly heard around Christmas time as it extols the reason Christ was born.

Adam lay ybounden, bounden in a bond,
Four thousand winter thoughte he not to long;
And al was for an appil, and appil that he tok,
As clerkes fyndyn wrytyn, (wrytyn) in hire book.
Ne hadde this apple taken been, this apple taken been,
Ne hadde nevere Oure Lady (ybeen)* (hevene) Queen.
Blessed be this time that apple taken was:
Therfore we mown  singen Deo Gratias.

(here is a loose modernization of the text)
Adam lay bound up, bound by his sin

Four thousands years was not too long,

and it was all because of the apple that he took.
as clergy find it written in their book (Bible)
Had never the apple been taken,
then never would our Lady (Mary) had been the queen of heaven.
Blessed be the time this apple was taken!
Therefore we can sing Deo Gracias! (Thanks to God!)

It is a popular text to accompany the reading of the first lesson (about Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden) read in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols made famous by the choir of King's College Cambridge. Most often it is a setting by Boris Ord, the director of the choir from 1929 until 1957, that is sung, but other musical settings by Benjamin Britten and Peter Warlock are in common usage, too. The music we are singing today was written by English composer and organist Richard Shephard for Robert Delcamp and the University Choir, Sewannee, Tennessee, for their Lessons and Carol service sung each year at the University of the South.

Richard Shephard, MBE

Shephard was educated at The King’s School, Gloucester and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was formerly Headmaster of the Minster School in York from 1985-2004 and now serves as Chamberlain of York Minster and Director of Development for the Minster, responsible for raising funding for conservation work at the cathedral. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Music Department of the University of York. 

His compositions include operas, oratorios and orchestral works but it is perhaps for his church music that he is best known. His anthems and service settings are sung widely in the cathedrals and churches of the UK and they have a considerable following in the USA. He holds the Lambeth Doctorate of Music from Oxford University and two Honorary Doctorates from the University of the South (Sewanee, TN) and the University of York (York, UK).

Music for November 27, 2016 + The First Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• Advent Processional – Richard Proulx (1937-2010)

Instrumental Music

• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Wayne L. Wold (b. 1954)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Jacobus Kloppers (b. 1937)
• “Sleepers, Wake!” A Voice Astounds Us – Emma Lou Diemer (b.1927)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• Hymn 56, st. 1-2 - O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)
• Hymn 73 - The King shall come when morning dawns (St, Stephen)
• Hymn 59, stanzas 1, 2, 5 - Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (Merton)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
• Hymn 61 - Sleepers, wake!” A voice astounds us (Wachet auf)
• Psalm 122 - Lœtatus sum (ToneVIIIa)

There are two hymns which are usually sung on the first Sunday of Advent, and we will sing both of those today. One is a hymn which I introduced to Good Shepherd 19 years ago during my first Advent Season here. That is number 57 - Lo! he comes with clouds descending. (You can listen to it here, and you should, because it is just a grand way to start Advent. )The other is one that we have rarely sung, so I am going overboard on the tune in that I am playing three different contemporary settings of the tune. (I also play J. S. Bach's chorale setting of the tune, which, in my opinion, is one of the most perfect organ and choral pieces ever written. I often play it on this first Sunday of Advent, and I am giving it a bye this Advent, though, honestly, it is so perfect, I think it could be played every year. But I digress.)

Jacobus Kloppers

All three of these organ pieces are by living organists (no dead poets today!), and two of them are no strangers to these pages. (You can click on the names at the bottom of this post to see what other music we have done by Emma Lou Diemer and Wayne Wold.) The name that is both new to this blog and to me is Jacobus Kloppers. At first glance, I assumed this was another German organist - probably from the 18th century. I was wrong.

Jacobus Kloppers is a Canadian organist and composer in Edmonton, Alberta, where he's lived since 1976, when he moved from his native South Africa. He is organist/choirmaster at St. John the Evangelist (Anglican) in Edmonton. He served on the faculty of the Music Department at The King’s University College (currently The King’s University) in Edmonton until his retirement in 2013. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Keyboard at the University of Alberta (a position he has held since 1997). His compositions (around 70) include organ solo works for liturgical and concert use, an organ concerto, alto-saxophone concerto, as well as various anthems and choral music.

His setting of "Wachet Auf" (the German title of the choral, which basically means "wake up!" is much more lyrical than both the opening and closing voluntaries. The melody is presented in the right hand, using the oboe sound on the organ, accompanied by a flowing flute accompaniment in the left hand.

Music for Thanksgiving Service + Wednesday, November 23 at 6:30

Instrumental Music

• Now Thank We All Our God – Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679 – 1735)
• Now Thank We All Our God – Rudy Davenport (b. 1948)
• Thanksgiving – George Winston (b. 1949)
• Now Thank We All Our God – Paul Manz (1919-2009)

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. Georges, 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)
• Psalm 100 - tone VIIIg