Music for February 24, 2019 + The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Vocal Music

• O Lord, I Will Praise Thee – Gordon Jacob (1895-1984)
• We Are Not Alone – Pepper Choplin (b. 1957)
• Praise the Lord – Natalie Sleeth (1930-1992)

Instrumental Music

• Do Not I Love Thee, O My Lord? – Gardner Read (1913-2005)
• Hymne – Evángelos Papathanassíou (b. 1943)
• Toccata on “Lobe den Herren” – Gordon Young (1919-1998)

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 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 295 - Sing Praise to Our Creator (CHRISTE, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 304 - I come with joy to meet my Lord (LAND OF REST)
• Hymn 657 - Love divine, all loves excelling (HYFRYDOL)

Natalie Sleeth

The Coventry Choir will sing this Sunday. Our first through fourth grade choir has been working on two anthems that they will sing today. The first is an anthem by Natalie Sleeth, an American composer of sacred songs and anthems. She wrote both text and tune of this fine praise hymn in 1975 when she worked with church school children and a junior choir at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Similar to Psalm 150 and Francis of Assisi's "All Creatures of Our God and King" (hymn 600), this text is a wonderful catalog of things, times, and places. All instruments and all occasions can be used to sing our praise to the Lord. Note that God's praise is warranted not only in the good times but also in "the time of sorrow" or in "the peace and quiet" (st. 2).

Pepper Choplin

The second anthem, which they will sing with the Good Shepherd Choir, is the song We Are Not Alone, an a cappella anthem that captures that confident thought and presents it in a straightforward, honest way.  The adult choir sings a gentle, rhythmic choral ostinati ("We are not alone, God is with us") that supports the smooth, sustained melody, sung by the Coventry Choir.

It was written Pepper Choplin, a full-time composer, conductor and humorist (with a name like "Pepper" I guess it's natural he should have a sense of humor!) who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. With a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Choplin went on to earn a Master of Music degree in composition from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Good Shepherd Choir will also sing an anthem with a text based on Isaiah 12:1-6, set to music by English musician Gordon Jacob. Though there is a lot of unison writing, and the organ doubles the voices quite a bit, there are just enough syncopated rhythms, harmonic shifts, and wide, angular melodic motives that make it challenging for a choir such as ours that is used to square, predictable harmonies of Bach and Handel or the flowing melodies of Mendelssohn or Brahms.

A native of London, Jacob studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers included Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir Hubert Parry and Herbert Howells. He taught briefly at other schools before returning to the Royal College as a lecturer in 1926; he was to remain there until his retirement in 1966.

The opening voluntary is an organ arrangement of a tune that first appeared in A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony in1820. The tune, DETROIT, is found in our hymnal at no. 674, Forgive Our Sins As We Forgive. The composer of the organ prelude is Gardner Read. Professor emeritus of composition at Boston University, Read was a prolific composer of orchestral, choral, and chamber works and pieces for piano, organ, and solo voice. In addition, he authored a number of texts on musical notation and composition.

Gardner Read

Between 1941 to 1948, Read headed the composition departments at the St. Louis Institute of Music, the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1948, he was appointed composer-in-residence and professor of composition at the School of Music, Boston University, retiring in 1978. In addition, Read served as principal conductor with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra in 1943 and 1944, and put in guest conducting appearances over the years with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Kansas City Philharmonic, and various university orchestras in performances of his own works.

Music for February 17, 2019 + The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Blessed Is the Man - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
• O How Amiable – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Instrumental Music

• Grazioso – Arnold B. Sherman (b. 1948)
• Partita on  Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten - Georg Böhm (1661–1733)
• Präludium in A Minor - Georg Böhm

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

• Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
• Hymn R191 - O Christ, the healer, we have come (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 635 - If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
• Hymn R127 - Blest are they, the poor in spirit (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn R224 - Healer of my soul (John Michael Talbot)
• Hymn 493  - O for a thousand tongues to sing (AZMON)

Two anthems by the choir, plus a work for Handbells, are featured in this Sunday's music. 

First is a work by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Known primarily for his symphonies, concertos and ballets, Tchaikovsky was also deeply interested in the music and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1878 he set the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom to music, followed by the All-Night Vigil and nine sacred songs. All of these were of seminal importance in the later interest in Orthodox music, which up until this time was highly controlled by the Imperial Chapel.

This anthem, Blessed Is the Man, is not the "Blazhen Muzh" (Blessed is the man - Psalm 1) from his All-Night Vigil, but is a creation by Gene Lowell, an American choral director active in the 1950s, who took a piano work of Tchaikovsky (In Church, the last number in his collection Album pour enfants, Op. 39) and added words based on two verses from Psalm 1.

 The offertory anthem is the grand work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the great English symphonist of the 20th century. Though he was described as "a cheerful agnostic," he was highly influential in the music of the Anglican church, not only writing some beautiful choral works, but serving as Musical Editor of the English Hymnal (1904) and writing two of our most beautiful and well-known hymntunes, SINE NOMINE (For all the Saints) and DOWN AMPNEY (Come Down, O Love Divine). His interest in folk songs and hymn tunes is evident in many of his works, including today's anthem. Terry Blaine, in his notes to the CD Anthem - Great British Hymns & Choral Works recorded by the Huddersfield Choral Society, wrote this about the anthem:

Simplicity is a keynote in Vaughan Williams’s O how amiable, and the reason is the circumstances in which it was composed. In 1934 the novelist E.M. Forster wrote “The Abinger Pageant”, a play about the history of England, performed to aid preservation work at a church near where he lived in Surrey. Vaughan Williams’s anthem was written to be sung by amateur performers as part of the festivities, and the mainly unison writing reflects this. It also emphasizes the communal nature of the pageant experience, as does the addition of a verse from the famous hymn “O God our help in ages past” at the conclusion. (c) 2016 by Terry Blaine

The Handbell piece at communion is a beautiful work written in memory of Norma Taubert Brown, a handbell ringer, who died of cancer in 1988. The music tells the story of Norma's life, her struggle with illness, and her ultimate journey to heaven.  Each section of the music reflects this journey.

It was commissioned by Area 10 of the Handbell Musicians of America right after Norma had been in Seattle to share the podium with Arnold Sherman, the composer of Grazioso. She was ill at that time but wanted to keep her commitment to conduct at the Greater Puget Sound Festival. When she was not conducting, she would lay on a couch  that had been moved into the gym. When it  was her turn to conduct, she  seemed to have extra strength to ascend the podium,  conduct her rehearsal as if she were in perfect health and then return to the couch after she had finished.  She passed away two weeks later.

Arnold Sherman is director of Music and Fine Arts at Pollard United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas as well as a free-lance composer and co-founder of Red River Music. His undergraduate work in music education was done at Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland, and Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Arnold was the founder and Director of the East Texas Handbell Ensemble. A clinician and guest conductor, he has led choral and handbell workshops, festivals, and reading sessions throughout the United States, Canada, England, Japan and the Bahamas. Arnold has over four hundred choral and handbell pieces in print and has been an active member of the AGEHR where he has served as Area IX Chairman.

Music for February 10, 2019 + The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• O, Praise God in His Holiness – Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)

Instrumental Music

• Variations on “Nicea” – Piet Post (1919-1979)
• Benedictus: Chromhorne en Taille (Mass for the Parishes) – François Couperin (1668-1733)
• Carillon on “St. Edmund” – Malcolm Archer

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

• Hymn 362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty (NICEA)
• Hymn - Tú has venido a la orilla (PESCADOR)
• Hymn 324 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence (PICARDY)
• Hymn R208  - Santo, santo, santo (UNKNOWN)
• Hymn R149 - I, the Lord of sea and sky (HERE I AM, LORD)
• Hymn R308 - Thuma Mina (Send Me, Lord)  (THUMA MINA)
• Hymn 537 - Christ for the world we sing (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 138:1-6, 8-9 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W.  Meachen

holy (adjective): exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." - Isaiah 6:1-3

This beautiful passage from the prophet Isaiah, used as the first scripture lesson this Sunday, was the inspiration for much of today's music. I look for any reason to sing the hymn "Holy, holy, holy," so it was a natural choice to begin the service, not only as the opening hymn, but also as the opening voluntary. 

I begin with four variations based on the tune NICAEA by contemporary Dutch composer Piet Post. He was the organist from 1949 to 1979 of the Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden.  After hearing a pretty straight-forward setting of the hymn, you will hear (I.) a lilting setting of the tune in a flowing 6/8 rhythm, (II.) a light, fantasy style movement outlining the melody with rapid flourishes using the 8' and 2' flutes in the swell, (III.) a variation featuring a 16th-note ostinato pattern accompanying the melody, played in the left hand on an oboe stop, and finally (IV.) a slow movement in 3/4 time with a steady, insistent quarter-note pulse provided by the pedal. The piece then concludes with a Finale which I will use to introduce the hymn.

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1922)
by Herbert Lambert

We continue to focus on the holiness of God with the anthem by English composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, O, Praise God in His Holiness, written for the 1953 Festival of the Federation of Essex Women's Institutes in honor of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is a festive setting of Psalm 150.

Gibbs studied at Cambridge and with Vaughan Williams at the RCM, where he taught (1921-39). His best works are his songs, especially to poems by de la Mare, but he also wrote much for choirs and chamber orchestras and achieved immense success with his slow waltz Dusk, which Queen Elizabeth requested for her 18th birthday.

Music for February 3, 2019 + The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• The Greatest Is Love – Allen Pote (b. 1945)

Instrumental Music

• Vater Unser (Our Father in Heaven) – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
• Praise the Name of Jesus – arr. Fred Bock (1939-1958)
• Wir Christenleut (We Christians Folk) – J. S. Bach

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

• Hymn 379 - God is Love, let heavens adore him (ABBOT’S LEIGH)
• Hymn 598 - Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth (MIT FREUDEN ZART)
• Hymn R7 - Praise the name of Jesus (HICKS)
• Hymn R218 - Broken for me (BROKEN FOR ME)
• Hymn R223 - Glory be to Jesus (WEM IN LEIDENSTAGEN)
• Hymn R226 - Ubi caritas (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm71:1-6 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome Meachen

Allen Pote

The choir sings an anthem based on today's Epistle lesson by the American composer Allen Pote. Pote is known nationally as a composer of sacred music as well as a clinician for festivals and workshops. Since 1975 his published choral works, which include twelve musicals for youth and children, have been widely performed.

For twenty two years he was Director of Music in churches in Texas and Florida, including a tenure at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church here in Houston. He is currently a full time composer living in Pensacola, Florida.

A contemporary of Potes was Fred Bock, a composer, church musician, and publisher who served as Minister of Music at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles for 14 years, then at Hollywood Presbyterian Church for 18 years. Bock was born in Great Neck, New York, playing the piano at age six and organ at age twelve. He attended Ithaca College, receiving his B.A. in Music Education. He earned his Masters and did Doctoral work in Church Music at the University of Southern California.

Back when he was just a college student, he self-published his first piece, an arrangement for band. From that simple beginning he formed several music publishing companies, including Gentry Publications, publishers of music for school and concert use and Fred Bock Music Company, publishers of church music. There are now over 600 compositions and arrangements of his in print. This includes his piano arrangement of today's presentation hymn, the contemporary chorus by Fred Hicks titled Praise the Name of Jesus, which I'm playing for the communion voluntary.

Serving as bookends for the service are two works from J. S. Bach's little organ book, Orgelbüchlein.  (I can be redundant in two languages!) The Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book") is a collection of 46 chorale preludes for organ written by Johann Sebastian Bach which serve a four-fold purpose: it is a collection of organ music for church services, a treatise on composition, a religious statement, and an organ-playing manual.

The prelude is a setting of the  Lutheran version of the Lord's Prayer, Vater unser im Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven). After the text and melody were written in 1539, many composers use the hymn in choral and organ compositions. including Dieterich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm. Bach himself used the chorale in four choral works and at least two other organ settings.

Albert Schweitzer won
the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1952. In addition to
being a Doctor, Missionary,
and Philosopher, he was
also an organist and noted
Bach scholar, giving
numerous organ concerts
in Europe to finance his
hospital in Africa.

In this setting the melody is in the soprano voice. The accompaniment in the inner parts and pedal is based on a four-note sixteenth note sighing motif preceded by a rest or "breath") and a longer eight-note version; both are derived from the first phrase of the melody. The two forms of the motif and their inversions pass from one lower voice to another, producing a continuous stream of sixteenth notes; semiquavers (sixteenths) in one voice are accompanied by eighth notes in the other two. The combined effect is of the harmonisation of a chorale by arpeggiated chords. Albert Schweitzer  described the accompanying motifs as representing "peace of mind"(quiétude).

The closing voluntary,  Wir Christenleut, is the last of the Christmas Chorales in the book. The text

We Christians may
Rejoice to-day,
When Christ was born to comfort and to save us;
Who thus believes
No longer grieves,
For none are lost who grasp the hope He gave us.

is not particularly picturesque (i.e., no shepherds, angels, or wise men were involved in this hymn), so I don't feel too out-of-sync by playing it in the season of Epiphany.

This prelude is written for single manual and pedal in four voices. Like today's opening voluntary, the unadorned melody is in the top voice. The accompaniment—striding eighth notes in the pedal (like an ostinato bass) and dance-like sixteenth notes in the inner parts—are formed from two short motifs. Both accompanying motifs serve to propel the chorale prelude forwards, the resolute striding bass having been seen by Albert Schweitzer as representing firmness in faith, a reference to the last two lines of the first verse "who thus believes no longer grieves, for none are lost who grasp the hope He gave us."

Music for January 27, 2019 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Teach Me, O Lord – Thomas Attwood (1765-1838)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale in E – César Franck (1822-1890)
• Andante from Sonata in A for Oboe – Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
• Psalm 19: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God – Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)

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 576 - God is love, and where true love is (MANDATUM)
• Hymn 632 - O Christ, the Word Incarnate (MUNICH)
• Hymn - One bread, one body (ONE BREAD ONE BODY)
• HymnR226 - Ubi Caritas (Jacques Berthier)
• Hymn 539 - O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling (TIDINGS)
• Psalm 19 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome J. Meachen

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus stands in his home synagogue and reads scripture: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." He tells them that he is the fulfillment of that word. It is fitting that the psalm appointed for today is Psalm 19. Psalm 19 begins "The heavens declare the glory of God," but it moves to a declaration of the beauty of God's Law.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes...

It ends with these beautiful words

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Thomas Attwood (artist unknown)

It's because of this thought that I chose today’s anthem with text from Psalm 119, a simple, direct rendering of the words "Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes." It was written by English composer and musician Thomas Attwood, who was very active in the musical life of England, holding posts as chamber musician to the Prince of Wales, organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, composer to the Chapel Royal and professor at the Royal Academy of Music.  His choral works, now mostly forgotten and seldom performed, reveal the influence of his teacher Mozart.

Benedetto Marcello

Psalm 19 was also the obvious inspiration for my choir of the closing voluntary, "Psalm 19: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God," by the Italian composer Benedetto Marcello.

Had Antonio Vivaldi not shot to fame when he was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century, we would undoubtedly be more familiar with the name of Benedetto Marcello. For Marcello’s reputation—unlike Vivaldi’s—did not wane during his own lifetime, and he enjoyed an international reputation which was to last for more than 250 years. Born a year after Johann Sebastian Bach into a prominent and respected Venetian family, he pursued a career not in music, but in law. This led him to occupy several major positions in the government of the Italian Republic. He did not, however, allow his public duties to keep him away from his pursuit of music, which he continued actively to cultivate as a nobile dilettante. Marcello’s works, and particularly his Psalm settings, were to exert a major influence on the musical culture of Italy and of other European countries throughout the whole of the 18th century and even into the 19th.

Marcello’s magnum opus is his Estro poetico-armonico. This work, which was published between 1724 and 1726, is a setting of the first fifty Psalms of David as paraphrased into Italian by the poet Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani. In addition to the subtle deployment of vocal resources, and his imaginative use of musical techniques to illustrate the texts, Marcello brought to these Psalms a peculiar quality of freshness and originality which unquestionably contributed to their becoming a major international success. Many of them, including today's closing voluntary, were transcribed as instrumental works. The version I am playing today was arranged by the 19th century French organist Theodore DuBois, and I think there is more Paris than Venice in the final product!

C

Music for January 20, 2019 + The Second Sunday after Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Instrumental Music

• Schönster Herr Jesu – Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984)
• Andante Sostenuto – Hermann Schroeder
• Poco Vivace – Hermann Schroeder

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

• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 440 - Blessed Jesus, at thy word (LIEBSTER JESU)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R90 - Spirit of the living God (SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD)
• Hymn R136 - Alleluia (ALLELUIA)
• Hymn 371- Thou, whose almighty word (MOSCOW)
• Psalm 36:5-10 - simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

These days when you go to a church wedding, you are apt to hear at least one (if not all) of these three pieces:

1. Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel
2. Trumpet Voluntary (or Prince of Denmark's March) by Jeremiah Clarke
3. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J. S. Bach

A forensic deconstruction of J. S. Bach. Working with a cast
of the composer's skull on loan from the Bach Museum
in Eisenach, Scottish anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson
created a 3-D representation of the face of the man who died in
1750 at the age of 65.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus goes to a wedding, so I thought it only fitting that he should hear at least one of these!
Jesu, Joy... was the obvious choice for the choir. It is taken from Bach's cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (which translates as ‘heart and mouth and deed and life’). It was written in 1723, the first year that Bach was the Cantor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Bach took up the position of Thomaskantor, the directorship of church music in Leipzig, after a thoroughly depressing and insulting application process. The head of the search committee, the councilman Abraham Christoph Plaz wrote, “since we cannot get the best," (Telemann and Graupner had declined the offer) "we will have to settle for average.”

Today no one knows who Graupner was, and Telemann is a little more than a relic of early music, but everyone knows Bach, and this movement from one of roughly 100 such works written in his first two years in Leipzig is one of his greatest hits. "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", shortened to simply "Joy", became a pop hit record in 1972 when covered by English studio group Apollo 100. It reached number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 during the winter of that year.

Today's organ music all comes from the pen of Hermann Schroeder. Schroeder is one of the most important German composers of the  20th century for organ. His music combines elements of the Middle Ages (fauxbourdon, ostinato technique, Gregorian modes), 20th-century polyphony and the linear, atonal writing of Hindemith. His chamber music for organ and other instruments constituted a special field of his musical activity.

While renowned in Germany, Schroeder is relatively unknown in the United States. His most widely regarded pieces are Kleine Praeludien und Intermezzi Op. 9 (1932) (Six Short Preludes and Intermezzos) and the chorale prelude Schönster Herr Jesu (1933) (Fairest Lord Jesus), both rather early works in his oeuvre.

I am playing two selections from his Op. 9 for communion and the closing voluntary, and his prelude on Schoenster Herr Jesu for the opening voluntary. I've listed the page number for this hymn in the service leaflet, in case you want to compare the melody you hear played on the oboe in the pedal part with the hymn in the hymnal. (Note: The text "Fairest Lord Jesus" has two tunes. The first one, ST. ELIZABETH, is the one we typically sing when we sing this text. The other, SCHONSTER HERR JESU, is the German tune originally used for this text in 1662. It is still quite popular in Germany. The Episcopal Hymnal 1940 was the first to use this tune with this text in America in modern times.

Music for January 10, 2019 + The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Vocal Music

• Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day – John Gardner

Instrumental Music

• Erhalt Uns, Herr – Gerald Near
• Schműcke dich – Gerald Near
• Salzburg – Gerald Near

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank, the baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 636 - How firm a foundation (FOUNDATION)
• Hymn 295 - Sing praise to our Creator (CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 510 - Come, holy Spirit, heavenly dove (ST. AGNES)
• Hymn 339 - Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMŰCKE DICH)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Psalm 29 -  simplified Anglican Chant by Jerome W. Meachen

This is the Baptism of Christ window here at Good Shepherd. It reminds us that this Sunday is the commemoration of Christ’s baptism. For that reason, I have chosen a setting of the old English carol, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, for the last stanza:

Then afterwards baptized I was;
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard I from above,
To call my true love to my dance.

The text is not set to the original, lilting carol tune, but is in a contemporary 20th century setting by John Gardner, an English musician who once tried to teach Paul McCartney the rudiments of music. In 1966 Gardner was asked by a mutual friend to help the Beatle with his composition, but the experience was not a great success. He discovered that McCartney “didn’t, in a sense, know anything [about composition]”, though he had somehow worked out for himself, by sheer musical instinct, compositional techniques which tested even classically-trained musicians. Gardner told him that he felt it would be better if they stopped the lessons so that McCartney  did not lose his creative spark.

Gardner had written today’s anthem one year prior for his students at St Paul’s Girls’ School . While his arrangement is beautifully melodic, it also throws in some mischief for the singers with its ever-changing time signature. One former student recalled how she and her colleagues sang it “obsessively in the locker rooms”. Even as Gardner experimented with modern music for the Church, he was despairing at the way many of his contemporaries were “lowering the brow”, adding: “It is probable that many of the attempts to bring the atmosphere of the Espresso bar to the chancel are as hypocritical as they are misguided.”

The organ music for this Sunday comes from the pen of Gerald Near, and are all settings of tunes which we will sing during the 10:15 service.