Music for July 22, 2018

Vocal Music

• God, Our Ever Faithful Shepherd – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Christine Marku, soprano

Instrumental Music

• Toccata and Variations on The Lord is My Shepherd (CRIMOND) – Barbara Harbach (b. 1946)
• Prelude on “Evan” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)
• Grande Jeu – Pierre DuMage (1674-1751)

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 518 - Christ has made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
• Hymn 645 - The King of love my shepherd is (ST. COLUMBA)
• Hymn 343 - Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless (ST. AGNES)
• Hymn 708 - Savior, like a shepherd lead us (SICILIAN MARINERS)
• Hymn 693 - Just as I am, without one plea (WOODWORTH)
• Hymn 493 - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)

We get to hear one of J. S. Bach's most beloved works for the offertory today. It is the ninth movement from Cantata No. 208, Schafe können sicher weiden,  also known as "Sheep May Safely Graze."

The Cantata is really not a sacred work. It is a secular cantata, written for the birthday of Duke Christian of Sachsen-Weissenfels, in 1713. This aria is not a hymn to the Good Shepherd but rather a celebration of benevolent despot (Duke Christian). 

Sheep may graze safely where there’s a good shepherd who stays awake and where there’s a good nobleman watching over a blissful nation.

Bach was the court musician at Weimar at the time, but he knew which side his bread was buttered. He received at least two more commissions directly from the court at Weissenfels. 

As is so often the case, Jesus gets worked into the translation, and this purely secular work becomes a mainstay in the sacred genre. We use it today in reference to the Old Testament reading Jeremiah 23:1-6:

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

The Gospel lesson continues that theme, as Jesus sees a crowd and has compassion for them, because they were like "sheep without a shepherd." For that reason, Psalm 23 is chosen as the psalm of the day.

We will sing the hymn setting of the twenty-third psalm, set to the Irish tune ST. COLUMBA, for the psalm. I will admit that this is a long hymn, so the third stanza will be a solo organ stanza. Read the text while the organ plays a setting of the hymn by the English composer Kenneth Leighton, who captures the line "perverse and foolish oft I strayed" by not only straying from the melody, but even confusing things a bit with a canon between the right hand and the left hand.

Barbara Harbach

In addition to ST. COLUMBA, I will feature two other hymn-tunes associated with Psalm 23 for organ voluntaries. The opening voluntary is a set of variations on the tune CRIMOND (see hymn 663) by the Missouri composer and organist, Barbara Harbach. She is a professor of music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and has written a large body of works including symphonies, operas, musicals, works for chamber ensembles, film scores, and modern ballet, as well as pieces for organ, harpsichord, piano, and choir.

In this work, you will hear a fanfare-like toccata at the beginning, with the melody rather hidden in the pedal line. Then she does something a little different with each variation. She changes the key with each movement. The melody is very clearly defined in each variation, but on the third variation, she combines the CRIMOND melody with the tune from "Amazing Grace," so you'll have to listen closely. The last variation presents each phrase of the tune in a different key, reminding me of my friend Gail who says (of her own singing), "I am not bound to one particular key."

The communion voluntary is based on a lesser-known tune from England named EVAN. It appears in over 280 hymnals to wide variety of texts, but the one Gordon Young had in mind when he made this lovely setting was "The Lord's My Shepherd, I'll Not Want." One can picture in one's mind that peaceful, pastoral hill side where sheep may safely graze.

Music for July 15, 2018

Jackson Hearn is away this weekend, playing for his college choir reunion weekend. In his absence, we are fortunate to have Rob Carty here to play for us.

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

• Hymn 436 - Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (TRURO) 
• Hymn 495 - Hail, thou once despised Jesus (IN BABILONE) 
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN) 
• Hymn 671 - Amazing grace! how sweet the sound (NEW BRITAIN) 
• Hymn R291 - Go forth for God, (OLD124th) 

Music for July 8, 2018

Instrumental Music

• Triptyque – Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
• No. 1 Ouverture 
• No. 2 Invocation
• No. 3 Toccatina 
• Variations on a Southern Hymn - Jackson Hearn (b. 1958)

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

• Hymn 388 - O worship the King (HANOVER)
• Hymn 536 - God has spoken to his people (TORAH SONG)
• Hymn 636 - How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord (FOUNDATION)
• Hymn R266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn R305 - Lord, you give the great commission (ABBOTT’S LEIGH)
• Psalm 123 - Ad te levavi oculos meos (Tone VIII)

Last Sunday was Canada Day, but we were celebrating our Independence Day, so I transferred my own Maple Leaf observance to this Sunday.

Most of today's organ music is by the Canadian composer Denis Bédard. He studied first at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in his hometown of Québec, before going to Europe to pursue studies in Paris with André Isoir (organ) and Laurence Boulay (harpsichord) and in the Netherlands to study piano, harpsichord, and organ with Gustav Leonhardt.

Denis Bédard

Since September 2001 he has been organist and music director of Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, B.C.

This suite, Triptyque, was the result of a commission by Karl Wilhelm for the inaugural recital by the composer of the organ at the First Congregational Church in Hudson, Ohio in 991. The Ouverture, in ABA form, uses a characteristic five beat rhythm. The contemplative Invocation consists of three harmonic sections interspersed with melodic passages inspired by Gregorian chant. The last movement, Toccatina, is a brilliant fantasia made up of alternating chords. In the final section a combined accelerando and crescendo leads to a dazzling conclusion.

The prelude to the offertory hymn (How firm a foundation) is a set of three variations on the tune FOUNDATION that I arranged for organ in 1980, when I was a senior at Lambuth College and my excitement and creativity had yet to be dulled by working in the real world. I later arranged it for concert band as an arranging assignment, when it was played by the Lambuth College band. After the opening theme (as harmonized by Carlton Young, editor of the 1966 Methodist Hymnal), you hear three variations. The first one is is a slow, meditative setting played on the string celestes on the swell. That movement seamlessly flows into the second variation after slipping into three-four time. The melody will be heard in the tenor range, played on the clarinet. The third and final movement, which will also serve as the introduction to the singing of the hymn, is in the style of a French Overture marked by stately dotted rhythms and suspensions.

Music for July 1, 2018

Vocal Music

• Ride On, King Jesus – Hall Johnson (1888-1970), arr.; Richard Murray, baritone

Instrumental Music

• O Beautiful for Spacious Skies – Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)
• Neo-Classique – Mark Hayes (b. 1953)
• Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing – Emma Lou Diemer

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

• Hymn 718 - God of our Fathers, whose almighty hand (NATIONAL HYMN)
• Hymn R23 - The steadfast love of the Lord (Edith McNeill)
• Hymn 707 - Take my life, and let it be (HOLLINGSIDE)
• Hymn 716 - God bless our native land (AMERICA)
• Hymn 773 - Heal me, hands of Jesus (SHARPE)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)

The Fourth of July (Independence Day) is one of the most American of Holidays, where we unabashedly celebrate our patriotism. Though it does not take precedence over the prescribed readings for the day, we can still celebrate America with truly American music and composers.

Hall Johnson

One truly American genre is the Negro Spiritual. Richard Murray will sing an upbeat spiritual arranged by Hall Johnson, a highly regarded African American choral director, composer, arranger, and violinist of the 20th century who dedicated his career to preserving the integrity of the Negro spiritual as it had been performed during the era of slavery.

Johnson was born in Athens, Georgia, taught himself to play the violin by reading a book about it, moved to New York City where he played in the orchestra of Broadway musicals, and set out to preserve the heritage of the Spiritual. He arranged spirituals for his own ensemble, the Hall Johnson Singers as well as soloists such as the famed Marion Anderson. He also provided the scores for several films, his last being “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 with Ethel Waters and Lena Horne.

Emma Lou Diemer

Another American treasure (who is still alive, by the way) is the composer Emma Lou Diemer. Born in Missouri to a family that valued arts and education (her father was a university president, he mother a church worker), she began piano lessons at a very early age and became organist in her church at age 13. Her great interest in composing music continued through College High School in Warrensburg, MO, and she majored in composition at the Yale Music School (BM, 1949; MM, 1950) and at the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D, 1960). She studied in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two summers of composition study at the Berkshire Music Center.

Through the years she has written many works of varying levels of difficulty from hymns and songs to concertos and symphonies. Her church music background is evidenced in her works for choir and organ.

The piano offertory is a piece written in a quasi Classical style ("Classical" meaning the period in Music History, as typified by Mozart and Haydn.) The Classical era was an era of formality and its music was characterized by careful attention to form and by elegance and restraint.

Classical music tends to be more homophonic and lighter in texture than that of the Baroque. Instead of a multi-voiced fugue, you'll find a single melody line over a choral accompaniment. You'll also find a slower harmonic movement. Baroque music is characterized by frequent harmonic changes, sometimes on every beat. Classical music changes chords much less frequently, giving it a more graceful sweep and lightness of phrasing than that created by the rapidly changing embellished chords. This is the effect that Mark Hayes has tried to emulate.
Hayes, like Diemer, is an internationally known and award-winning composer, arranger, and performer with over 1200 publications in print. And, like Diemer, he hails from Missouri, making his home in Kansas City.

Music for June 24, 2018

Instrumental Music

• Voluntary IX in G Major - John Stanley (1712-1786)
• Sent forth by God’s Blessing – Mark Knickelbein (21st C.)
• O God and Lord, BWV 714 – Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
• If Thou but suffer God to Guide Thee, BWV 642 – Johann Sebastian Bach

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 R194 - Jesus, what a friend for sinners (HYFRYDOL)
• Hymn 608 - Eternal Father, strong to save (MELITA)
• Hymn 325 - Let us break bread together  (LET US BREAK BREAD)
• Hymn 561- Stand up, stand up for Jesus (MORNING LIGHT)
• Psalm 107:1-3, 23-26, 27-31 - Confitemini Domino

Mark Knickelbein

The offertory this week is a piano piece based on the English tune THE ASH GROVE, which has been used for the hymn Sent Forth By God's Blessing  (Renew 307). It was arranged by Mark Knickelbein, editor of music/worship at Concordia Publishing House and an active composer and church musician, focusing on choral, piano, and organ church music. He has a Bachelor of Science in Education from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, MN and Master of Arts in Music from Concordia University Chicago. He previously served Trinity Lutheran in Kaukauna, Wisconsin.

John Stanley

John Stanley was a well known and popular organist in England during the 18th century. Organist at Temple Church for 52 years, where George Handel would often go just to hear Stanley play. Blind since age two, Stanley had a remarkable memory which helped him direct and accompany many of Handel's oratorios. If he had to play a new oratorio he would ask his sister-in-law to play it through just once – enough to commit it to memory. He also published much music for choir and keyboard.

It is from  Stanley's 1754 publication 10 Voluntaries, Op.7, we get our opening voluntary, Voluntary IX in G Major. Written for either organ or harpsichord, it starts with a slow, stately movement marked Largo Staccato, followed by a second movement marked Vivace (Lively). As one would expect from the Germans and their "prelude and fugue" form, this second movement is imitative, like a fugue, beginning with just the single musical line we can call the "subject."

Two chorale preludes by J. S. Bach are included in this Sunday's music. The communion voluntary is what one would call a relatively new work by Bach - meaning it was rediscovered at Yale University in the 1980s among 31 previously unknown early chorale settings by Bach. The second half of this chorale prelude is part of the Miscellaneous Choral Preludes collected by Ferdinand Roitzsch in the late 19th century; when it showed up in the Neumeister Collection in 1985, it served as an argument for the authenticity of both. The Neumeister version is preceded by a gorgeous French-style -stile-antico- prelude à 4.

This interesting prelude sets the hymn-tune in canon at the octave (between the soprano and tenor parts) with two motivic free parts; the central motive is scalar motion in four steps, the first four notes of the cantus firmus. The melody, whose first two lines are scales in opposite directions almost begs for canon, especially at the unison/octave, as Bach has set it.

The other Bach piece this week is from his popular collection, Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book"), a collection of 46 chorale preludes originally planned as a set of 164 chorale preludes spanning the whole liturgical year. The chorale preludes form the first of Bach's masterpieces for organ with a mature compositional style in marked contrast to chorales found in the Neumeister Collection mentioned above.

In Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten, the unadorned cantus firmus in 4/4 time is in the soprano voice. The two inner voices, often in thirds, are built on a motif made up of two short beats followed by a long beat—an anapaest—often used by Bach to signify joy. The pedal has a walking bass which also partly incorporates the joy motif in its responses to the inner voices. For Albert Schweitzer, the accompaniment symbolised "the joyful feeling of confidence in God's goodness."

Music for Sunday, June 17, 2018

Vocal Music

• Let There Be Peace on Earth – Mark Hayes (b. 1953), arr., Bruce Bailey, soloist

Instrumental Music

• Our Father in Heaven – Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Adagio from Fantasie in C – César Franck (1822-1890)
• Jubilee March – R. M. Stults (1861-1933)

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

• Hymn 525 - The Church’s one foundation (AURELIA)
• Hymn 558 - Faith of our fathers (ST. CATHERINE)
• Hymn R250 - O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder (O STOR GUD)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)
• Psalm 92 - Bonum est confiteri

This Sunday Bruce Bailey is singing the song Let There Be Peace On Earth, written in 1955 by the husband/wife team of Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller in 1955. It was initially written for the International Children's Choir of Long Beach, California, and is still their theme song.

This beautiful arrangement by the contemporary pianist Mark Hayes uses the updated lyrics which change the gender specific terms Father/He/Brother to gender neutral terms (where "father" is replaced with "creator", and "brother" is replaced with "family" or "each other"), The gender-neutral lyrics have been copyrighted by the original licensing agent of the song. 

You can read the lyrics and a brief history of the song by checking out the History of Hymns blog written by Michael Hawn, retired as professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology, SMU, in Dallas.

The communion voluntary is an excerpt 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 last section, Adagio, for communion. 

Unlike many musicians whose parents had other aspirations for their children, César Franck was encouraged by his father to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. But at the Paris Conservatoire he failed to achieve the necessary distinction as a performer, so he turned his attention to composition and the organ. (Can’t play piano? Be an organist!) It was a smart move, for he became famouse in Paris as organist at the newly built church of Ste Clotilde, with its Cavaillé-Coll organ. He drew to himself a loyal and devoted circle of pupils and in 1871 became organ professor at the Conservatoire.

As a composer, his best known orchestral works are the Symphonic Variations for solo piano and orchestra and the Symphony in D minor. Though he was best known in his day as a very distinguished organist, Franck wrote remarkably little for the instrument on which his improvisations had won him fame and pupils. The Organ pieces he did write, however, form the backbone of French Romantic organ literature, and have never gone out of style. 

I've talked before about my humble beginnings as organist at my home church, First United Methodist Church, in Tiptonville, Tennessee. I grew up across the street from the church, and spent many an hour roaming through the unlocked building. (Can you imagine letting youth have free access today, unsupervised in a public building?) 

I was always fascinated by the 1924 Möller pipe organ and the stacks of old music stashed on the floor of the choir room closet. Much of it was music purchased when the organ was new. One piece that caught my interest was a single page out of "The Organist" Magazine from 1928. It was the Jubilee March by R. M. Stults, an American composer of popular music in the late 19th century and early 20th century whose most popular work, The Sweetest Story Ever Told, was still popular for weddings into the middle of the 20th century. 

At the time it was built, our church was one of the larger public buildings in Tiptonville, and host to the local high school assemblies. Mae Peacock was organist at First Methodist at the time, and wrote in pencil at the top of the page, "T.H.S. graduation 1933."  The second half of the piece is missing, so several years ago I wrote a "B" section to extend the march, returning to the original to end the piece. 

Music for Sunday, June 10, 2018 + The Third Sunday after Pentecost

Congregational Music for June 10 (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of Hymn 822, which is from Wonder, Love, and Praise, and those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (LYONS)
• Hymn 421 - All glory be to God on high (ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH)
• Hymn 470 - There’s a wideness in God’s mercy (BEECHER)
• Hymn 822 - Through north and south (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
• Hymn R249 - Great is thy faithfulness (FAITHFULNESS)
• Hymn 594 - God of grace and God of glory (CWM RHONNDA)

I am away from Good Shepherd this Sunday. I would like to thank Karen Silva for playing the organ in my absence.

About the hymns:

How wondrous and great thy works Henry Ustick Onderdonk wanted to be a doctor, and studied in London and Edinburough to gain his degree. But after returning to New York, he began to study theology and was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1815. He was rector of St. Ann's, Brooklyn, in 1827 when he was elected bishop coadjutor of Pennsylvania, becoming diocesan in 1836 upon the death of Bishop White. His weakness for alcohol necessitated his resignation in 1844, but his life from then on was so exemplary that he was restored to his bishopric two years before his death in 1858. The tune, LYONS, named for the French city Lyons, was attributed to “Haydn.”  However, the tune was never found in the works of Franz Joseph Haydn or those of his younger brother Johann Michael Haydn. The Mormons love this Episcopal hymn!

All glory be to God on high is a poetic setting of the Gloria from the mass by the German Lutheran pastor, Nicolaus Decius ,in 1525. He was a student of Martin Luther, and  also served as church musician and preacher at the Königsberg court of Duke Albrecht of Prussia. Decius is also credited with German hymnic versifications of the other "ordinary" parts of the Mass-the Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, which he originally prepared to fit their corresponding chant tunes. The English translation in our Hymnal is primarily by Francis Bland Tucker, which he wrote for our hymnal in 1985.

The author of There’s a wideness in God’s mercy is Frederick W. Faber. Of Huguenot ancestry and strict training in Calvinism, Faber moved from priesthood in the Anglican Church to the Roman Catholic Church in 1846. He wrote 150 hymns, corresponding to the number of Psalms. This hymn is beautiful in its simplicity and evangelical fervor. Originally in 13 stanzas, the hymn was called "Come to Jesus" and began "Souls of men, why will ye scatter like a crowd of frightened sheep?"

Great is thy faithfulness - Unlike many hymns that have heart-wrenching stories behind them  "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is inspired by the simple realization that God is at work in our lives on a daily basis. Thomas Chisholm, the author, was born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1866, and he lived a pretty unremarkable life: he worked as a school teacher, a newspaper editor, and insurance agent, then he retired and spent his remaining days at the Methodist Home for the Aged in New Jersey. He wrote, "My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness." 

God of grace and God of glory was written while the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression between the two World Wars. Harry Emerson Fosdick was minister of Riverside Church in New York City. His stirring radio sermons and books established Riverside as a forum for the critique of the same wealth and privilege whose gifts had made possible the building of the church. 

In 1930 the congregation moved to a $5 million edifice made possible by a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr. The hymn was written in the summer of that year as Fosdick reflected on the construction of the new building, and was first sung as the processional hymn at the opening service on Oct. 5, 1930, and again at the dedication on Feb. 8, 1931. 

The language of the hymn is ultimately that of petition. “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage” concludes each stanza with the effect of a refrain. A petition begins stanza three with “Cure thy children’s warring madness,/ bend our pride to thy control.” The final stanza, equally prophetic, begins with “Save us from weak resignation/ to the evils we deplore.”