MID CENTURY MODERNS Music for January 29, 2023 + The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Servants of Peace – K. Lee Scott (b. 1950)

Instrumental Music

• Suite Liturgique Entrée: – Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
• Suite Liturgique:Communion – Denis Bédard
• Suite Liturgique: Sortie – Denis Bédard

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

• Hymn 47 – On this day, the first of days (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Hymn 441 - In the cross of Christ I glory (RATHBUN)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn R127 – Blest are they (BLEST ARE THEY)
• Hymn R258 – To God be the glory (TO GOD BE THE GLORY)
• Psalm 15 - Domine, quis habitabit? (simplified Anglican Chant)

Today I feature music by two North American composers both born in 1950

Servants of Peace

A contemporary setting of the traditional prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi is the text of the anthem this Sunday, which is a perfect match for the readings this week. (Micah 6:1-8 and the Beatitudes.) The  Prayer of St. Francis is a famous prayer which first appeared around the year 1915 A.D., and which embodies the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi's simplicity and poverty.

According to Father Kajetan Esser, OFM, the author of the critical edition of St. Francis's Writings, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis is most certainly not one of the writings of St. Francis. According to Father Schulz, this prayer first appeared during the First World War. It was found written on the back of a holy card of St. Francis. The prayer bore no name; but in the English speaking world, on account of this holy card, it came to be called the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.

The music is by Alabama native K. Lee Scott. He is widely known throughout the United States as a conductor and composer of choral music. His more than 250 published compositions, arrangements, and editions are represented in the catalogues of 15 publishing companies. In addition to many choral works, he has written an opera and has published works for organ, solo voice, and brass.

A graduate of the University of Alabama School of Music with two degrees in choral music under the tutelage of Frederick Prentice, Scott has served as an adjunct faculty member at both the University of Alabama School of Music and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music. His appearances as guest conductor and clinician have taken him throughout the United States, to Canada, and Africa. 

Suite Liturgique 

All of today's organ music is from a Suite by the Canadian composer Denis Bédard. He has composed more than 170 works, including chamber music, orchestral and vocal music and many organ works. He has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Québec Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Canadian College of Organists and various professional musicians in Canada, England, France, Switzerland and the U.S. 

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.

For 20 years he was organist and music director of Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, B.C. until his retirement in 2021.

The three movements I have chosen from the suite include the opening (Entrée), the commion voluntary (Communion) and the closing piece (Sortie)

CONFIRMED: Music for January 22, 2023 + The Third Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• Dear Lord and Father of Mankind – Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918)

Instrumental Music

• Andante Moderato in C Minor – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
• Prelude on “Kelvingrove” – Charles Callahan (b. 1951)
• Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major – Frank Bridge

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982 with the exception of Will You Come and Follow Me which is from other sources.)

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERRN)
• Hymn 381 - Thy strong word did cleave the darkness (TONY-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 513 - Like the murmur of the dove’s song (BRIDEGROOM)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn – Will you come and follow me? (KELVINGROVE)
• Hymn 530 - Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
• Psalm 27:1, 5-13 - Dominus illuminatio (simplified Anglican Chant)

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

The choir sings one of our favorite anthems this Sunday, the beautiful Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by the British composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. This hymn, now one of England’s favorites, began life as the ballad of Meshullemeth (‘Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land’) in Act I of Judith, Parry's oratorio of 1888. It was only after Parry’s death that permission was granted by Novello and Parry’s estate to allow George Gilbert Stocks, the head of music at Repton School, to adapt the music to this text for the school’s hymn book, at which time the melody became known as REPTON.  It was also published in 1941 as the hymn-anthem (which we are singing today) in which much of the original music of the aria was restored.

Ironically, the author of this beautiful and much-loved hymn deeply disapproved of singing in church. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) was an American Quaker who firmly believed that God was best worshipped in silent meditation and who deplored the histrionics associated with both the High Church and the Evangelical movement.

He did, however, allow these verses to be used in a hymn book published in 1884. They are drawn from an interlude in his long and eccentric poem called The Brewing of Soma, which describes in shocked terms the Vedic Hindu habit of drinking hallucinogenic concoctions as a way of whipping up religious enthusiasm. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at SMU, tell's of the hymn's origins here.

Whittier advocated waiting instead for "the still small voice of calm" – an injunction beautifully suggested in the climax to this tune composed by Parry.

Parry was head of the Royal College of Music from 1895 until his death at age 70 in 1918. His 1916 composition, Jerusalem (And did those feet in ancient times), is belted out at sports events and is often called the unofficial English national anthem. 

Prelude on "Kelvingrove"

If you read my blog last week, you might remember that I played an organ setting of this same tune. Even though we weren't singing the hymn, I chose it to go along with the Gospel story of Jesus calling his first disciples. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when Father Bill used the text of that hymn in his sermon, recalling how this hymn was popular with young people in the days when he was working with youth. 

Since the Gospel this week continues the story of Jesus calling his disciples, I decided to include that hymn as a piano voluntary as well as a congregational hymn during communion. The piano voluntary is by Charles Callahan, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts who is well-known as an award-winning composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist, and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Frank Bridge

The opening and closing voluntaries are organ works by Frank Bridge, an English composer, violist and conductor of the first half of the twentieth century. Underappreciated, underplayed, and still little known even in his native England, Bridge is most frequently recognized today as the teacher of the young Benjamin Britten, who acknowledged his teacher's influence in a popular early work, Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge.

Although he was not an organist, nor personally associated with music of the English Church, his short pieces for organ have been among the most performed of all his output. This Sunday I will play two of them,  the Andante Moderato in C Minor and Allegro con spirito in B-flat Major. I have to say that I was surprised to learn he had no training as an organist, for his organ works are highly idiomatic for the instrument, and fit under the hands (and feet!) very comfortably.

FOLLOWING JESUS: Music for January 15, 2023 + The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Vocal Music

• What Wondrous Love – Steven Pilkington (21st C.)

Instrumental Music

• Chorale Prelude on “Salzburg” – Aaron David Miller (b. 1972)
• Air on “Kelvingrove” – Matthew C. Corl (b. 1965)
• Premiere Suite: III. Fanfares – Jean Joseph Mouret (1682-1738)

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 494 - Crown him with many crowns (Diademata)
• Hymn 533 - How wondrous and great thy works (Lyons)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (Salzburg)
• Hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus (Assam)
• Hymn 550 - Jesus calls us; o’er the tumult (Galilee)
• Psalm 40:1-12 - Expectans, expectavi (simplified Anglican chant by Jerome Meachan)

Wondrous Love

Steve Pilkington

Sometimes nothing can beat a simple, plaintive melody for its beauty. Such is my opinion of the Southern folk hymn, What wondrous Love Is This? In the version the choir sings this week, you never hear the voices in more than two-part harmony, and that is when they are singing in canon (The men echoing the women four beats later.) Their singing is accompanied on the piano with a flowing, eighth-note piano part.

 

As we read the Gospel lesson about Jesus beginning his ministry, I thought this anthem raised some valid questions to stimulate thought about why Jesus  would "lay aside his crown for (our) soul."

The arranger, Steve Pilkington, serves on the faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. as Associate Professor of Sacred Music. He also oversees all the music ministries at Christ Church United Methodist in  New York City, where he has been Director of Music and Organist since 1994. 

Chorale Prelude on "Salzburg"

Aaron David Miller

Aaron David Miller serves as the Director of Music and Organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and maintains an active recital schedule. He has been a featured performer at four National Conventions for the American Guild of Organists since 1996, the most recent being the 2016 convention here in Houston. He also is a prolific composer, and Dr. Miller’s many solo organ, choral, and orchestral compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress, Oxford University Press, Paraclete Press, ECS, Morning Star and Kjos Publishing House. 

One of his shorter compositions is the opening voluntary. It is a setting of our presentation hymn, Songs of thankfulness and praise. The tune in our hymnal is set in 4/4, or common time. In this setting, Miller sets the tune in 6/8 time, which gives it a lilting, dance-like feel. The melody is played with the left hand on the trumpet stop, while the right hand and pedal provide the flowing accompaniment.

Air on Kelvingrove

KELVINGROVE is a Scottish tune which has been used in recent years for the hymn "Will you come and follow me?" (also known as "The Summons.") Neither the text nor tune is in our hymnals, and when the text was included in the supplement to the Episcopal hymnal, Wonder, Love, and Praise, it was unfortunately set to another tune. Even the Renew Hymnal (which Good Shepherd bought before the publication of

Wonder, Love, and Praise) does not include the great hymn.

The text is by John Bell, a hymn writer and pastor in the Church of Scotland, who focuses on the renewal of the church’s worship. His approach is to compose songs within the identifiable traditions of hymnody that began to address concerns missing from the current Scottish hymnal:

I discovered that seldom did our hymns represent the plight of poor people to God. There was nothing that dealt with unemployment, nothing that dealt with living in a multicultural society and feeling disenfranchised. There was nothing about child abuse…,that reflected concern for the developing world, nothing that helped see ourselves as brothers and sisters to those who are suffering from poverty or persecution.

This hymn is prophetic, using many words not usually found in traditional hymns. “The Summons” of Christ is to a radical Christianity. We are challenged to “leave yourself behind” and to “risk the hostile stare” (stanza two), “set the prisoner free” and “kiss the leper clean” (stanza three), and “use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around” (stanza four).

The organ arrangement is by Matthew Corl, Associate Director of Music and Organist at First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Florida where he is principal organist and directs several ensembles.

He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, 

BAPTISM, JESUS, AND YOU Music for January 8, 2023 + The Baptism of Christ

Vocal Music

• Lead Me, Lord – Samuel S. Wesley

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 76 - On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (WINCHESTER NEW)
• Hymn 7 - Christ, whose glory fills the skies (RATISBON)
• Hymn 132 - When Christ’s appearing was made known (ERHALT UNS, HERR)
• Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
• Hymn 616 - Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN)
• Psalm 29:2a,3-11 – Tone Vc, refrain by James E. Barrett

Baptism of Christ, 1475,
 Andrea del Verrocchio
and Leonardo da Vinci.

This Sunday commemorates the Baptism of Christ. In three of the Gospels we read of Jesus going to John the Baptist for baptism. But John’s is a baptism of repentance, and Jesus has nothing for which he needs to repent. Why then does Jesus insist on being baptized? Jesus tells John that His baptism is "fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness". Jesus is baptized as a symbol of giving His will up to His Father and the beginning of His earthly ministry. It is an act of humility.

As we reflect on Christ’s baptism, we are reminded of our own baptism. As part of the service, we will participate in the renewal of our baptismal vows. That is why most of the hymns this morning refer to Christ's baptism.

Lead Me, Lord

The anthem is a fitting prayer for us as we remember our baptismal vows. The text comes from two psalms, Psalms 5:8 and 4:8: 

Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness;

make thy way plain before my face.

For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord, only,

that makest me dwell in safety.

The anthem is an excerpt from a much longer anthem, Praise the Lord, O my soul, by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, an English organist and composer. The grandson of Charles Wesley, he was born in London, and sang in the choir of the Chapel Royal as a boy. He learned composition and organ from his father, Samuel, completed a doctorate in music at Oxford, and composed for piano, organ, and choir. He was organist at Hereford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester Cathedral, and Gloucester Cathedral. Wesley strove to improve the standards of church music and the status of church musicians; 

The original anthem was written in 1861, with this excerpt first published in 1905 in The Anthem Book, no. 8. But it was not until it was published in The Church Anthem Book in 1933 that it became quite popular. Now you can find this simple song in almost 30 hymnals, including the Episcopal book Lift Every Voice and Sing II, and the Renew hymnal which is in our pews.

HAPPY NEW YEAR (Among other things) January 1, 2023 + The Holy Name

Vocal Music

• New Year Carol - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Instrumental Music

• The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away - J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
• In Thee Is Gladness - Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)

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 250 - Now greet the swiftly changing year (SIXTH NIGHT)
• Hymn R26 - Jesus, name above all names (HEARN)
• Hymn 644 - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds (ST. PETER)

The Sundays between Christmas (December 25) and Epiphany (January 6) are usually called The First and Second Sundays after Christmas. Eight days after Christmas, on January 1st, is the Feast of the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ,  which commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as recounted in the Gospel read on that day, 

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. - Luke 2:21

When the Feast of the Holy Name falls ON a Sunday, as it does this year, it supersedes all other lectionary readings. So we will focus on the Holy Name of Jesus with a nod to the passing year. 

The hymns all focus on the Holy Name, even hymn 250 - 

When Jesus came to wage sin's war,
The Name of names for us he bore.
Slovak, 17th cent.; Cithara Sanctorum, Levoca, 1636, Translator: Jaroslav J. Vajda

but our choral and instrumental music looks more toward the new year.

New Year Carol

Benjamin Britten was one of Britain's leading composers of the 20th Century. He composed in all the major genre - opera, orchestral, choral and vocal, and chamber music. "A New Year Carol" is from Friday Afternoons, a collection of twelve song settings by Benjamin Britten, composed 1933–35 for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn, Wales where his brother, Robert, was headmaster. (Two of the songs, "Cuckoo" and "Old Abram Brown", were featured in the film Moonrise Kingdom.) "A New Year Carol", also known as "Levy-Dew", is a British folk song of Welsh origin traditionally sung in New Year celebrations. It is associated with a New Year's Day custom involving sprinkling people with water newly drawn from a well. 

Here we bring new water from the well so clear,

For to worship God with, this happy New Year.

Chorus (after each verse):

Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew, the water and the wine,

The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her toe;

Open you the West Door and turn the Old Year go.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, with gold upon her chin;

Open you the East Door and let the New Year in.

The meaning of the words "levy-dew" in the original lyrics of the song is not certainly known. One line of speculation holds that the words represent the Welsh phrase llef ar Dduw or llef y Dduw, "a cry to God". Others connect it to Middle English levedy ("lady"). I like to think it refers to the French phrase levez à Dieu, "raise to God", which may in turn refer to the elevation of the Host in Christian liturgy, since it mentions the water and the wine. “The seven bright gold wires and the bugles that do shine” refer to the golden strings of the harp and the trumpets of heaven, seven being 

Verses 2 and 3 describe letting go of the old year and bringing in the new. “Sing reign of Fair

Maid” refers to folk mythology and golden maidens who represent the rising and setting of the

sun, and therefore the turning of seasons and years. As for the West and East doors, it's a custom in the British Isles, particularly Ireland, to enter the house through the front door and leave through the back at the stroke of midnight. The old year goes out the back as the new year comes in the front.

The Old Year Now Hath Passed Away

In Thee is Gladness

Bach wrote an organ collection called Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book), a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ based on hymns for each part of the church year. There were three written for New Years Day, Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen [Help me to praise God's goodness], Das alte Jahr vergangen ist [The old year now hath passed], and In dir ist Freude [In Thee Is Gladness]. I'm playing the second one as the prelude. The passing of the old year is mourned in twisting chromaticism throughout ‘Das alte Jahr vergangen ist’, despite that not being in keeping with the hymn text, a hymn of thanks for the past year and prayers for the coming year to Christ. Although primarily a supplication looking forwards to the future, the hymn also looks back at the past, reflecting on the perils facing man, his sins and his transitory existence.

Centuries later, in 1931, French organist Marcel Dupré wrote his own collection, 79 Chorals faciles pour orgue sur les mélodies des 79 vieux chorals dont Bach s’est servi dans ses Chorals-Préludes, based on the chorales used by Bach. Dupre prepared these short works, not as "another version" of the famous chorales and chorale preludes of Bach, but rather as a means of making the beginning organist aware of the beautiful chorale melodies and to prepare him or her for the study of Bach's works. This was an important pedagogical book while being at the same time a presentation of beautiful organ chorales. 

I am playing Dupré's setting of the third New Year chorale in Bach's Orgelbuchlein, In dir ist Freude. It is written in the style of a trio, with the melody heard in the right hand (treble) while the left hand inserts a quasi-ostinato based on the first four notes of the melody, played over another ostinato of the same four notes, this time in quarter notes.

NOEL! Music for Christmas 2022

December 24 4 PM – Family Service with the Coventry Choir

Vocal Music

• Christmas Bells Are Ringing – IsaBeall Hudson
• Alleluia! Emmanuel - Joanne LeDoux and Milton LeDoux
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 99 - Go Tell it on the mountain (GO TELL IT)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)

6:30 PM – Choral Eucharist with the Good Shepherd Choir

Vocal Music

• Run, Ye Shepherds – Michael Haydn
• There Is No Rose – Graham Ellis
• The Seven Joys of Mary – arr. Richard Shephard
• O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam
• Harrison Boyd, baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - 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, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 79- O little town of Bethlehem (St. LOUIS)
• Hymn 111- Silent night, holy night (STILLE NACHT)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

Christmas Day - 10 AM

Vocal Music

• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Johnny Marks
• Bruce Bailey, Baritone

Instrumental Music

• Two settings of Good Christian Friends, Rejoice – J. S. Bach
• All Is Quiet – Jean Hilbert

Congregational Music (all hymns from The Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 83 - O come, all ye faithful (ADESTE FIDELIS)
• Hymn 96 - Angels we have heard on high (GLORIA)
• Hymn 105 - God rest ye merry, gentlemen (GOD REST YE MERRY)
• Hymn 101- Away in a Manger (CRADLE SONG)
• Hymn 115 – What child is this, who, laid to rest (GREENSLEEVES)
• Hymn 100 – Joy to the world! The Lord is come (ANTIOCH)

MARY KNEW - Music for December 18, 2022 + The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Vocal Music

• There Is No Rose – Graham J. Ellis (b. 1952)

Instrumental Music

• Three settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland! BWV 659, 660, and 661– 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 56 O come, O come, Emmanuel (VENI, VENI, EMMANUEL)
• Hymn 54 Savior of the nations, Come! (NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND)
• Hymn 59 Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding (MERTON)
• Hymn R26 Jesus, name above all names (HEARN)
• Hymn 66 Come, thou long expected Jesus (STUTTGART)
• Psalm 80 – Tone VIIIa, refrain by Jackson Hearn

There Is No Rose

From the 15th Century comes this charming text extoling the Virgin Mary and her part in the incarnation. It is a macaronic text, meaning it uses a mixture of languages, in this case English and Latin. This is a setting by Graham Ellis, an organist and conductor who is presently conductor of the Liverpool Sinfonia. He has also worked for BBC radio and television and was Director of Music at Birkenhead School for 33 years, during which time its Chapel Choir gained an increasing reputation, performing in cathedrals throughout this country and in concert in France, Venice, Verona, Florence, Prague, Salzburg, Vienna and Northern Spain.

Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland

In the last ten years of his life, Bach gathered together and completed a series of chorale arrangements, presumably planning to have them published, just like the third part of the Clavier-Übung in 1739. It concerns a selection of his compositions from much earlier years, when he was working as an organist in Weimar, Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The collection became known as the 18 Choräle or Leipziger Choräle.

The  Leipziger Choräle include two ‘trilogies’: one based on Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, and one on the Advent hymn Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, which we are singing as our middle hymn this Sunday, hymn 54. Whereas Allein Gott concerns the Trinity, here it is all about Jesus, who has three roles in the catechism: sanctifier, redeemer and protector. 

BWV 660 (Opening Voluntary) REDEEMER

Many a preacher remarks at Christmas time how the Passion – the Christian promise of redemption – could never have come about without the birth of Jesus. The two poles are closely connected, and Luther refers to this in Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland with the contrast between light and dark. In his turn, Bach also leaves us in no doubt about it in BWV 660. The whole sombre work is pervaded with symbols of the cross.

In any case, this compact work leaves room for interpretation. The two well-matched bass parts are probably arrangements of viola da gamba and cello parts (the big chords at the end of each phrase are typical of gamba music), but at the same time they could symbolise God as the foundation, or even a duet between God and Jesus – equal yet different. In the curious ending, some people hear how God leaves his son, while others interpret the difficult harmonies as representing Jesus’ descent into hell, foretold in the Advent chorale, and the fulfilling of God’s commandment.

But it is the cross motifs that are easiest to hear. They begin in the bass lines, which in this performance are almost identical and therefore continually in one another’s register. Reading along in the score, you also discover the refined way in which Bach begins the melody – not in one part, but divided over both. And by slightly raising the third note of the melody (on the word ‘der’), the interval to ‘Heiden’ becomes smaller and dissonant. It is no coincidence that this is the same interval as in Lass’ Ihn kreuzigen and Komm süsses Kreuz in the St Matthew Passion.

BWV 659 (Communion) SANCTIFIER

Whatever the case, this chorale arrangement is full of mystical expectation. Although Bach borrowed the form from Buxtehude, in style BWV 659 would not be amiss as the middle movement of a concerto in Italian style. All the elements are present: a walking bass, a duet of middle voices (sometimes in canon and sometimes referring to the chorale melody) and a leading upper voice. In the arrangement of the melody in the upper voice, Bach goes much further than his predecessors. Each phrase grows out of the chorale into the most wonderful, spun-out coloratura. At the end of the third line of the verse, the world’s amazement is reinforced by a harmonic pause and an abrupt deceleration of the bass – everyone holding their breath – a trick often used by Bach when writing about the birth of Jesus.

BWV 661 (Closing Voluntary) PROTECTOR

Bach had no choice but to radiate when closing his trilogy on the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, especially as the organ had to remain silent for a while following the first Sunday in Advent. After a subdued arrangement (BWV 659) and rather tormented one (BWV 660), the hopeful story was finished off, as it were, with this jubilant version. As so often in Bach’s trilogies, the chorale is given in the bass here, as the foundation of a loud plenum. For all its variety, the trilogy forms such a wonderful unity that Bach’s pupil Johann Christian Kittel used it in his own lessons as an example, and he was certainly not the only one to do so.

Before the bass introduces the melody in its full glory, Bach constructs a varied fugue. You can just make out the outlines of the choral melody in the theme, which keeps recurring in two ways: rectus (‘normal’) and inversus (in reverse – all the steps of the original melody that ascended now descend, and vice versa). This occurs for the first time just after the second chorale phrase, followed by a repeat of earlier material, which is also ‘upside down’. Above the last sentence of the chorale, we even hear the ‘upright’ and the reversed versions of the theme together, maybe in order to express the light in the phrase ‘Der Glaub’ bleibt immer im Schein’.

I am indebted to the website of the Netherland Bach Society (https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en) for their copious notes on Bach's chorale preludes today.