Musings

Monday, March 14, 2016

March 20, 2016 Palm Sunday

Each week, you may find information here about the music in the traditional worship services at First United Methodist Church in Lewisville, Texas. Some of this information is original; much of it is "borrowed" from other sources such as Wikipedia, GBOD, and hymnary.org. It is my hope that this information will enhance your understanding and enrich your worship experience.

About the Organ Music:

Lift Up the Gates of Praise – E. S. Lorenz

Mary E. Servoss (1849-1906) wrote over 100 hymns, many of which are found in I. D. Sankey’s Sacred Songs & Solos (1881) and the Sunday School Union Voice of Praise (1887). “Lift Up the Gates of Praise” was first published in Gates of Praise, by Isaiah Baltzell & Edmund S. Lorenz (1884). The text is based on Isaiah 60:18

Lift up the gates of praise, That we may enter in,
And o’er salvation’s walls proclaim That Christ redeems from sin.

God’s works reveal His might, His majesty and grace;
But not the tender Father’s love That saves a dying race.

Then let the voice of praise To heav’nly courts ascend,
Till with the songs the angels sing Our hallelujahs blend.

To Him that hath redeemed Our souls from sin’s dark maze;
The hope and Savior of mankind, Be everlasting praise.

Refrain

The stars may praise the hand That decks the sky above,
But man alone can tell the power Of Christ’s redeeming love.

The Lorenz family were Adventists, and emigrated from Messer, Russia (near Saratow), to America, and lived in Dayton, Ohio. Edmund Simon (1854-1942) attended Otterbein University, Union Biblical Seminary, Yale Theological Seminary, and the University of Leipzig. He served as pastor of the High Street United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio (1884-86), and as president of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania (1886-88). He later founded the Lorenz and Company music publishing house in Dayton, Ohio. He wrote 195 hymn texts, 40 hymn tunes, and published 22 hymnals and books on church music.

Christe, du Lamm Gottes – J. S. Bach

"Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Christ, you Lamb of God) is a Lutheran hymn, often referred to as the German Agnus Dei. Martin Luther derived the words as a translation of the Latin Agnus Dei from the liturgy of the mass, and the tune from an older model. The hymn was first published in 1528. It has been the basis for several musical settings by composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn and Hessenberg. It appears in the current German hymnals, both the Protestant Evangelisches Gesangbuch and the Catholic Gotteslob. When Luther introduced the Reformation, he tried to keep the much of the order of the mass, but in German. He published in 1526 Deutsche Messe, an alternative liturgy for a Gottesdienst (church service) in German, which was first sung in Advent of 1525. The hymn appeared with the tune first in in Bugenhagen's Braunschweig order of church service, printed in Wittenberg in 1528.

Ah! do not pass by; You, the salvation of all mankind,

have indeed appeared, to serve the invalid and not the healthy.
Therefore even I take my portion of Your power; I behold You upon this path,
upon which I was meant to be placed, even in my blindness.
I seize You and release You not without Your blessing.

All eyes wait, Lord, O all-powerful God, for You,
especially my own. Give them strength and light,
do not leave them forever in the darkness!
In the future Your sign alone shall be the darling pupil of all their doings,
until one day through death You shall consider closing them again.

Christ, Lamb of God, You who bear the sin of the world, have mercy on us!
Christ, Lamb of God, You who bear the sin of the world, have mercy on us!
Christ, Lamb of God, You who bear the sin of the world, grant us Your peace. Amen.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg concertos, the Mass in B minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than 300 cantatas, of which nearly 100 cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the nineteenth century. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Bach was recognized by several prominent composers. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Felix Mendelssohn were among his admirers; they began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being exposed to Bach's music. Beethoven described him as "Urvater der Harmonie", the "original father of harmony". He is now generally regarded as one of the main composers of the Baroque period and as one of the greatest composers of all time. A highly devout Christian, Bach signed all of his compositions “soli Deo Gloria” (to God alone be the glory).

Vexilla Regis – Healey Willan

The "Vexilla Regis" is a Latin hymn in long metre by the Christian poet Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers. Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (c. 530–c. 600/609) was a Latin poet and hymnodist in the Merovingian Court, and a Bishop of the early Catholic Church. He was never canonised (no saint was canonised till Saint Ulrich of Augsburg in 993), but he was venerated as Saint Venantius Fortunatus during the Middle Ages.

Venantius Fortunatus wrote eleven surviving books of poetry in Latin in a diverse group of genres including epitaphs, panegyrics, georgics, consolations, and religious poems. A major genre of Fortunatus’ poetry is the panegyric. He wrote four major panegyrics to four Merovingian Kings: Sigibert and Brunhild, Charibert, Chilperic, and Childebert II and Brunhild. The first was also his debut into the Merovingian Court in Gaul, at Metz, in honour of the marriage of Sigibert and Brunhild. Fortunatus wrote panegyrics and other types of poems, including praise, eulogies, personal poems to bishops and friends alike,^] consolations and poems in support of political issues. His verse is important in the development of later Latin literature, largely because he wrote at a time when Latin prosody was moving away from the quantitative verse of classical Latin towards the accentual meters of medieval Latin. His style sometimes suggests the influence of Hiberno-Latin, in learned Greek coinages that occasionally appear in his poems.

His hymns are used extensively in the Hymnal 1982 of the Episcopal Church. One of his hymns was set to music by the modern composer Randall Giles. Another hymn as translated from the Latin (Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall say) celebrates Easter with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Fortunatus is best known for two poems that have become part of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, the Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis ("Sing, O tongue, of the glorious struggle"), a hymn that later inspired St Thomas Aquinas's Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium. He also wrote Vexilla Regis prodeunt ("The royal banners forward go"), which is a sequence sung at Vespers during Holy Week. This poem was written in honour of a large piece of the True Cross, which explains its association also with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The relic had been sent from the Byzantine Emperor Justin II to Queen Radegund of the Franks, who after her husband Chlotar I's death had founded a monastery in Poitiers. The Municipal Library in Poitiers houses an 11th-century manuscript on the life of Radegunde, copied from a 6th-century account by Fortunatus. The hymn was first sung in the procession (November 19, 569) when a relic of the True Cross, sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justin II from the East at the request of St. Radegunda, was carried in great pomp from Tours to her monastery of Saint-Croix at Poitiers. The splendour and triumph suggested by the first stanza can be appreciated fully only by recalling the occasion when the hymn was first sung--the triumphant procession from the walls of Poitiers to the monastery with bishops and princes in attendance and with all the pomp and pageantry of a great ecclesiastical function. "And still, after thirteen centuries, how great is our emotion as these imperishable accents come to our ears!" (Pimont). There are about forty translations into English verse.

Its original processional use is commemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use however, is in the Divine Office, the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Passion Sunday daily to Maundy Thursday, and to Vespers of feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), and in pre-Vatican II breviary also for the feast of the Finding (May 3), and of the Triumph of the Holy Cross (July 16). Originally the hymn comprised eight stanzas. In the tenth century, stanzas 7 and 8 were gradually replaced by new ones ("O crux ave, spes unica", and the doxology, "Te summa Deus trinitas"), although they were still retained in some places. In the seventeenth century the correctors of the Breviary under Urban VIII revised the whole hymn in the interest of classical prosody. The Commission on Plain Chant under Pius X restored the ancient form of the text. The Graduale Romanum (1908) gives only the ancient form of the hymn, while the Antiphonary (2012) gives only the revised form. The Processionale (1911) gives both forms.

The Royal Banner forward goes, The mystic Cross refulgent glows:
Where He, in Flesh, flesh who made, Upon the Tree of pain is laid.

Where deep for us the spear was dyed, Life’s torrent rushing from His side,
To wash us in that precious flood, Where mingled water flowed, and blood.

Fulfilled is all that David told In true prophetic song of old,
Amidst the nations, God, saith he, Hath reigned and triumphed from the tree.

O tree of beauty, tree of light! O tree with royal purple dight!
Elect on whose triumphal breast Those holy limbs should find their rest.

Blest tree, whose chosen branches bore The wealth that did the world restore,
The price of humankind to pay, And spoil the spoiler of his prey.

O Cross! all hail! sole hope, abide With us now in this Passion-tide:
New grace in pious hearts implant, And pardon to the guilty grant.

Thee, mighty Trinity! One God! Let every living creature laud;
Whom by the Cross Thou dost deliver, O guide and govern now and ever! Amen.

About the Choral Music:

Hosanna, Loud Hosanna – Joel Raney

Like "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" (375/376), this text is based on Christ's triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. However, "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" focuses more on the children's role in that event. The text was written by Jeannette Threlfall (1821-1880) in an "idle moment" (as she says she wrote all of her hymns, all others of which have been forgotten). Undoubtedly, Threlfall had Mark 11 in mind when she wrote this text, but she also alludes to Jesus' welcoming of the children in Mark 10:13-16. Threlfall's life was extremely difficult: she was orphaned at an early age, and two serious accidents caused her to be an invalid for life. But she bore her misfortune with grace and fortitude and maintained a ministry to many people who came in contact with her. Threlfall wrote devotional verse, which was published anonymously in various periodicals and later collected in Woodsorrel, or Leaves from a Retired Home (1856) and Sunshine and Shadow (1873), which included "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna."

Joel Raney’s (b. 1956) taste for gospel music began in a rural Baptist church in Alabama, an influence that shows strongly in his work to this day. Joel's interest in music of all kinds has led to everything from classical and jazz performance to pop vocal arranging. He has conducted Broadway productions, and has been honored for outstanding musical direction of theater in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Since 1988 he has worked as a composer and producer of commercial music in Chicago and has written soundtracks for more than 2000 television and radio commercials, plus numerous scores for short films. Joel is a choral and keyboard clinician, and performs throughout North America as a piano soloist and in duo-concert with organist Jane Holstein. He has over 200 titles in print, including choral anthems, musicals and cantatas, handbell compositions, piano solos, and instrumental works.

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang:

Through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang:

To Jesus, who had blessed them, close folded to his breast,

The children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.

Hosanna in the highest, hosanna to the King!

Hosanna in the highest, let loud hosannas ring!

Sing hosanna, hosanna to the King!

Sing hosanna, let loud hosannas ring!

O may we ever praise him with heart and life and voice,

And in his blissful presence eternally rejoice!

Hosanna in the highest, let loud hosannas ring!

About the Hymns:

All Glory, Laud, and Honor

Theodulf of Orleans (760-821) was originally from Spain. Muslim conquests of Iberia drove him to leave, and he was brought to France by Charlemagne. In addition to serving as a kind of poet laureate, he was a scholar, church reformer, secretary of education, theological advisor to the king. His writings included sermons and theological treatises on baptism and the Holy Spirit. He opposed the use of icons and revised the text of the Bible. He became Bishop of Orleans about 785, and soon afterwards also Abbot of Fleury. After Charlemagne died, Louis the Pious accused Theodulf of joining Bernard of Italy (a royal nephew) in a conspiracy against the throne. Theodulf protested his innocence, but in 818, he was deposed from his influential posts and imprisoned at Angers, where he died in 821. While imprisoned, he wrote the words to the Latin hymn "Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit Rex Christe, Redemptor " or "All Glory, Laud and Honor To thee Redeemer King." More than a thousand years later, an English translation of his hymn remains a favorite for Palm Sunday.

Tell Me the Stories of Jesus

William Henry Parker (1845-1929) was an English businessman who taught Sunday school at Chelsea Street Baptist Church in Nottingham. Early in life, he had written verses and this led him to compose hymns for use in Sunday School. Thinking of the children in his classes who were always asking him to “tell us another story”, he wrote this text in 1885. The melody was added when a publisher ran a contest to find an appropriate tune for it.

Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service

Albert F. Bayly (1901-1984) was educated at London University and Mansfield College, Oxford. Beginning in the late 1920’s, he served at four Congregational churches in Northumberland, Lancashire and East Yorkshire; in 1962, he became pastor in Thaxted, Essex. After retiring in 1971, he moved to Springfield, Chelmsford, and was active in the local United Reformed Church. He wrote several pageants on mission themes, and librettos for cantatas by W. L. Lloyd Webber (father of Andrew).

Bayly wrote this text in response to a Hymn Society of America search for new hymns on social welfare. It was chosen as the theme hymn for the Second National Conference on the Churches and Social Welfare held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 23-27, 1961. The Hymn Society published the text in Seven New Social Welfare Hymns (1961).

Monday, March 7, 2016

March 13, 2016

This week's topic for the Lenten sermon series, Cativated by Christ, is Jesus fought injustice.

About the Organ Music:

Tui sunt coeli – John Redford

The Missam in Die has its origins in the Medieval period. It is one of the Gregorian masses originally used during the Christmas season. The text of the Propers of the Missam in Die is a fully mature expression of the evangelical message, proclaiming “The Lord has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.” “Tui sunt coeli” is the offertory text from that mass. It is a setting of Psalm 89, which recalls God’s promise that David’s seed would endure forever. This provides its connection to Christmas; however the rest of the Psalm is not specific to the Christmas season. Many composers of the Medieval and Renaissance periods wrote vocal settings of this mass. Organ pieces were written to be played in “alternatum” with the mass, with an organ piece occurring between chant sections which prepared and provided the intonation for the chant which followed.

John Redford (c. 1500-1547) was a major English composer, organist, and dramatist of the Tudor period. From about 1525, he was organist at St Paul's Cathedral. He was choirmaster there from 1531 until his death. Many of his works are represented in the Mulliner Book. Redford is notable as one of the earliest composers, rather than improvisers, of organ music, having notated a significant quantity of keyboard music, all of it liturgical in function, based on plainchant melodies; a few vocal works by him also survive.

As he held the post of Almoner and Master of the Choristers, Redford was responsible for the arrangement of the choristers performances, including writing and directing plays and interludes. The most celebrated of these entertainments is the morality play, The Play of Wyt and Science (written ca 1530-1550). However, the first five pages of the manuscript are missing; there is no way to know how much is lost. Redford also wrote a number of poems, including the 23 verse Nolo mortem peccatoris, which was set to music by Thomas Morley, who was a later organist at St Paul's. Another famous poem is The Chorister's Lament, in which choirboys complain of the cruel beatings meted out to them.

Tui sunt caeli et tua est terra, Orbem terrarum et plenitudinem ejus tu fundasti.
Justitia et judicium praeparatio sedis tuae.

Thine are the heavens and thine is the earth, the world and the fullness thereof thou hast founded.

Justice and judgement are the preparation of thy throne.

Felix namque – Thomas Tallis

Despite his stature as one of the great composers of English sacred music, little is known about the personality of English composer Thomas Tallis (c. 150 -1585). The last two lines of his epitaph - "As he did live, so also did he die, in mild and quiet sort (O happy man!); To God full oft for mercy did he cry, wherefore he lives, let death do what it can." - allude to a quiet, pious man, but little else.

Tallis' music, however, suggests much more. The composer lived in an England whose political and religious landscape was much more volatile than that of its 21st century counterpart. As monarchs changed - and Thomas Tallis saw four of them - so did the national faith. The pendulum swung from Catholic to Protestant to Catholic, and back to Protestant again. Both religions claimed numerous martyrs in defence of the "One True Faith;" kings and queens demanded different loyalties. And they also demanded liturgical music to fit the prevailing order of the day. Thus at least two conclusions can be drawn, reliably, about Tallis' personality from his work: first and most obvious, his creativity, and second, his adaptability. His output, for the most part, did not display the floridity of composers like Cornysh; nor did he compose much in the way of madrigals or other secular music; his music demonstrated more restraint than the exuberance of his pupil Byrd. Much of Tallis' work possesses a moody, reflective quality (for example, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Suscipe quaeso, Miserere), but occasionally he could demonstrate supreme technical skill. The best, and most well-known, example may be the 40-part Spem in alium, with its amazing tapestry of voices, but one can also point to pieces such as the giant six-voice antiphon Gaude gloriosa (probably written to honour Queen Mary Tudor) and some of Tallis' intricate keyboard pieces, most notably the two Felix namque settings, displaying a spirit of experimentation wildly at odds with the more reserved nature of much of his music.

As stated before, little is known about Thomas Tallis himself. His date of birth is murky, and at best music history scholars can narrow it down to "about 1505." Tallis' musical education as a youth is not known either, though he was probably a choirboy somewhere (it has been suggested he was probably one of the "children of the Chapel Royal," but there is nothing to confirm this), as that was how many composers in his day learned their music. The first definite date marking the start of Tallis' musical career is 1532, when he was appointed organist of Benedictine Priory in Dover. The year 1537 found him at his second job, organist at St Mary-le-Hill in Billingsgate, London, and then on to Waltham Abbey in London until its dissolution in 1540 under Henry VIII. The unemployed Tallis then set out to find work, which he did in 1541 at Canterbury Cathedral as a lay clerk. Finally, he settled into the King's service, appointed as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1543. He sang with the Chapel Royal, played the organ, helped in running the choir, and continued to compose. In 1575, with William Byrd, Tallis secured a monopoly on printing music and music paper in England. Tallis remained with the Chapel Royal until his death in 1585, while finding time to marry his wife Joan and taking on the young Byrd as a pupil (both probably around the same time, in 1552). While Tallis was undoubtedly composing before he entered the Chapel Royal - Missa salve intemerata, for example, was written by the young composer in the late 1520s or early 1530s - it was this move into the King's service which marked the real beginning of a career which would establish him as England's main composer of church music.

Thomas Tallis would prove himself adept in writing for both the Catholic and Protestant liturgies. Born a Catholic, he managed to survive - apparently without being persecuted - as a member of the "Old Faith," while becoming the chief composer for the new Church of England. For the Catholic Church he set Latin texts to music in the form of vocal polyphony; for the new Anglican Church he provided clear chordal settings for English texts, many of which are still used by church choirs today (Tallis' Canon is perhaps the best-known example). Though not as "in your face" about retaining his Catholic faith as Byrd was (Byrd was fined on several occasions for being a recusant), Tallis may have very well intended some of his pieces to make a point about the persecution of Catholics in a newly Protestant England. The haunting, expressive quality of his Lamentations of Jeremiah suggests desolation, penitence; the work, says Paul Doe, was more than likely not conceived as church music at all, "but rather for private recreational singing by loyal Catholics." For Tallis, the words "Ierusalem, Ierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum" - Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God - may have had special significance for Tallis, a Catholic in a Protestant country.

One of Tallis' most famous compositions, the 40-voice Spem in alium, also alludes to a strong allegiance to Roman Catholicism, with its mix of voices both polyphonic and chordal. Spem is also a work with an interesting history in its own right. It was ostensibly the result of a challenge by one of the composer's supporters, the Catholic Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk (executed not long after as the result of trumped-up charges accusing Norfolk of colluding with Mary Queen of Scots). The work challenged was Striggio's 40-part Ecce beatum lautam; the challenge was for an Englishman to produce a work that would excel this piece produced by an Italian. Tallis answered the challenge, perhaps to defend England's creative honour; or to prove himself as an old man still capable of creating great work; or to produce - like many composers - a masterwork which history would remember him by. At any rate, Tallis set to work answering Howard's challenge. And answer it he did: Apparently after its first performance at the palace of Nonsuch (or the Long Hall), owned by Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, Spem in alium moved Thomas Howard enough to remove a heavy gold chain from around his neck, placing it around Tallis' own, thanking the older Thomas for the glorious piece he had crafted.

Whether Tallis was a subversive Catholic, following one faith professionally but the other one in private, or merely demonstrating a love of the old liturgy he knew as a child, one may never know for certain, but it is clear that Thomas Tallis' music stands up not just for its creative merit, but as a reflection of one man's response to the tumultuous - and often treacherous - politics of Tudor England.

“Felix Namque” is one of a pair of 'Offertories': unique both for their structure, virtuosity and duration. They might have been written prior to the Reformation for liturgical use. It was the custom in the late medieval period to substitute the chanting of an Offertory hymn to the Virgin, Felix Namque, with a keyboard elaboration of the plainchant or the cantus firmus. By using its entirety as equal-length notes in the treble Tallis commits himself to a nine minute piece, which he builds through many rhythmic developments into a near-Lisztian climax while keeping everything subordinated to the cantus firmus. Probably written for organ, Felix Namque works equally well on harpsichord. Doubtless intended as a tour de force it set bench-marks that were not overtaken for a century, both in keyboard technique and what we would now call 'pure' composition, that is to say music that was intended neither for the practical purposes of dance or devotion.

“Felix namque” is the offertory from the Ladymass, a 13th century Gregorian mass in honor of the Virgin Mary. Organ settings appeared as early as 1420.

Felix namque es sacra Virgo Maria et omni laude dignissima,
quia ex te ortus est sol justitiae, Christus Deus noster.
Ora pro populo, intervene pro clero, intercede pro devote femineo sexu:
Sentiant omnes tuum juvamen, quicumque celebrant tuam sanctam commemorationem.
Quia ex te ortus est sol justitiae, Christus Deus noster.

For thou art happy, O holy Virgin Mary, and art worthy of all praise,
for out of thee arose the Sun of justice, Christ our God.
Pray for the people, plead for the clergy, make intercession for women dedicated to God:
May your help be to all who keep thy holy remembrance.
For out of thee arose the Sun of justice, Christ our God.

Thy Strong Word – Aaron Miller

Martin Hans Franzmann (1907-1976) taught exegetical theology at Concordia Lutheran Seminary. “Thy Strong Word” is characteristic of his work in its careful crafting, poetic beauty and theological depth. It was written in 1961, during his tenure at Concordia, and is based on the seminary motto, “Anothen to Phos” (Light from above). The hymn takes the idea of light, beginning with creation, and takes it all the way to its fulfillment as we worship the Triune God with all the company of heaven in the splendor of God’s glory.

Thy strong word did cleave the darkness; At Thy speaking it was done.

For created light we thank Thee, While Thine ordered seasons run.

Alleluia, alleluia, Praise to Thee who light dost send!

Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia without end!

Lo, on those who dwelt in darkness, dark as night and deep as death,
broke the light of thy salvation, breathed thine own life-giving breath:
Alleluia, alleluia! Praise to thee who light dost send!
Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia without end!

Thy strong word bespeaks us righteous; bright with thine own holiness,
glorious now, we press toward glory, and our lives our hopes confess:
Alleluia, alleluia! Praise to thee who light dost send!
Alleluia, alleluia! Alleluia without end!

God the Father, Light-Creator, to thee laud and honor be;

to thee, Light of Light begotten, praise be sung eternally;
Holy Spirit, Light-Revealer, glory, glory be to thee;
mortals, angels, now and ever praise the Holy Trinity.

Aaron David Miller is a renowned concert organist and composer, having won numerous international awards and given concerts across the United States. Dr. Miller’s performances have been heard on National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Pipe Dreams, and many television programs. Dr. Miller’s work was recently honored with the 2004 Hellenikon Idyllion Composition Prize offered by the Olympic Committee in Athens, Greece. In 1996, Dr. Miller won the Top Prize in Improvisation at the American Guild of Organists National Convention in New York. In 1998, he went on to win the Bach and Improvisation Prizes at the Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition. His other prizes include the 1999 Helen Cohn Award for Music Research for his study of late Medieval and Renaissance keyboard music.

Dr. Miller attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts and received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Miller completed his graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, earning his Master of Music degree and his Doctor of Musical Arts. Dr. Miller was a member of the theory faculty at the Manhattan School of Music from 1996-1999. He served as Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago from 1999-2000. Dr. Miller is currently the Music Director at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, MN.

About the Choral Music:

Come Follow Me – Joseph Martin

Joseph Martin (b. 1959 ), a native of North Carolina, earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Subsequently he earned a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. Joseph taught for five years in the Piano Pedagogy Department of the University of Texas.. He is a member of the staff of Shawnee Press as Director of Sacred Publications, with responsibilities for overseeing the editorial and creative direction of the company’s sacred publications and also coordinating the recording and production aspects of future sacred publishing efforts. Joseph has performed solo piano recitals and has been the featured artist with symphony orchestras in the United States and Mexico. As winner of the Nina Plant Wideman Competition, he performed with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. His solo recital in Ex-convento del Carmen was broadcast nationally throughout the country. Though he continues to perform in concert, he now devotes his efforts to playing in churches and for conferences of church musicians Recognized throughout the United States for his many choral compositions, over 1200 compositions are currently in print and the list continues to grow.

“Come Follow Me” is a movement from the cantata, A Time for Alleluia. From the passion of Gethsemane to the victory of the empty tomb, A Time For Alleluia celebrates the life of Christ and his redemptive work, using Ecclesiasties as the biblical basis for the text. “Come Follow Me” takes its text from Matthew 19.

Take up thy cross and follow.

Come, faithful seeker of the Light, my voice is calling in the night.

Walk with me; I’ll be your guide. Follow me.

Come weary pilgrim, take my hand. I’ll lift you up and help you stand.

All who seek the promised land, follow me.

All who hunger, all who suffer, all who sorrow, all who would be free, follow me.

The path is steep, the road is long, but with my love I’ll keep you strong;

Then my grace will lead you home. Come follow me.

Come follow me, O faithful one, until the final race is won,

Until the great Amen is sung! Follow me.

I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. Follow me.

About the Hymns:

For the Healing of the Nations

During the 1960s and 1970s, four English-language hymn writers emerged on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean who were the leaders of the “hymnic explosion.” Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) and Brian Wren (b. 1936) all were born in Great Britain. Unlike the other three, Fred Kaan (b. 1929), though ordained in the United Reformed Church and serving in England, is a native of Haarlem, The Netherlands. These writers, along with their counterparts from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, brought the language and theological vision of hymnody out of the earlier Victorian era into the late 20th century. In many cases, their work continues to enrich 21st-century congregational song.

After serving congregations in England, Kaan served as minister-secretary of the International Congregational Council in Geneva, Switzerland and the executive secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He returned to England in 1978 as a moderator of the Western Midlands Conference of the United Reformed Church. From 1986-1989 he returned to parish ministry in the United Reformed Church.

Kaan’s linguistic ability, ecumenical service and fervent concern for the powerless are apparent in his hymns, numbering more than 200. Collections of his hymns appear in this country as The Hymn Texts of Fred Kaan (1985), Planting Trees and Sowing Seeds (1989) and The Only Earth We Know (1999). He was elected Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 2001. His hymns have been translated into more than 15 languages.

In 1985, Dr. Kaan reflected on “For the healing of the nations,” saying, “Of all the hymns I have written, this is the text that has been more widely reprinted and incorporated in major hymnbooks than any other. It was first used in 1965 in a worship service at the Pilgrim Church, Plymouth, to mark Human Rights Day. Subsequently, it has been used on many official occasions, such as the 25th anniversary of the United Nations organization.”

Dr. Kaan reminds us to care for a world where we are inter-dependant and to use our political will, global influence and natural resources for the good of all humanity in seeking justice and “abundant living” for all. Alleluia!

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

The so-called Prayer of Saint Francis, also known as the Peace Prayer or Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, is a widely known Christian prayer. Often wrongly attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912, when it was printed in Paris in French, in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette (The Little Bell), published by La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe (The League of the Holy Mass). The author's name was not given, although it may have been the founder of La Ligue, Fr. Esther Bouquerel. A professor at the University of Orleans in France, Dr. Christian Renoux, published a study of the prayer and its history in French in 2001. Around 1920, a French Franciscan priest printed the prayer on the back of an image of St. Francis, without attribution. The prayer has been known in the United States since 1927, when its first known English translation appeared in the Quaker magazine Friends' Intelligencer under the mistaken title "A prayer of St. Francis of Assissi". Senator Albert W. Hawkes and the saint's namesake Cardinal Francis Spellman distributed millions of copies of the prayer during and just after World War II.

The prayer has similarities to this saying of Blessed Giles of Assisi, one of the companions of St. Francis:

Blessed is he who loves and does not therefore desire to be loved; blessed is he who fears and does not therefore desire to be feared; blessed is he who serves and does not therefore desire to be served; blessed is he who behaves well toward others and does not desire that others behave well toward him; and because these are great things, the foolish do not rise to them.

A popular hymn version of the prayer is "Make Me A Channel of Your Peace", adapted and set to music in 1967 by South African songwriter Sebastian Temple (Johann Sebastian von Tempelhoff, 1928-1997). It is an anthem of the Royal British Legion and is usually sung every November at the Service of Remembrance at Royal Albert Hall, London. In 1997, it was part of the Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was sung by Sinéad O'Connor on the Princess Diana tribute album.

Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service

Monday, February 29, 2016

March 6, 2016

This week's topic for the Lenten sermon series, Cativated by Christ, is Jesus the Teacher.

About the Organ Music:

Sandys – Healey Willan

George Herbert (1593-1633) was educated at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became Major Fellow of the College and Orator for the University. He took Holy Orders and was appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln to the Prebend of Lcighton Ecclesia. Herbert's prose work, Priest to the Temple, appeared several years after his death, but The Temple, by which he is best known, was delivered to Nicholas Ferrar and published in 1633. The work became popular, and the 13th edition was issued in 1709. It is meditative rather than hymnic in character, and was never intended for use in public worship. In 1697, a selection from The Temple appeared under the title Select Hymns Taken out of Mr. Herbert's Temple & turned into the Common Metre To Be Sung In The Tunes Ordinarily us'd in Churches. In 1739, John and Charles Wesley made a much more successful attempt to introduce his hymns into public worship by inserting over 40 in a much-altered form in their Hymns & Sacred Poems. The quaintness of some of Herbert's lyrics and the peculiarity of several of their metres have made them less useful for congregational singing. The best known are: “Let all the world in every corner sing"; "My stock lies dead, and no increase"; "Throw away Thy rod"; "Sweet day, so cool, so calm"; and "Teach me, my God, and King."

Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything To do it as for Thee;

To scorn the senses' sway, While still to Thee I tend:
In all I do be Thou the Way, In all be Thou the End.

All may of Thee partake; Nothing so small can be
But draws, when acted for Thy sake, Greatness and worth from Thee:

If done to obey Thy laws, E'en servile labors shine;
Hallowed is toil, if this the cause, The meanest work Divine.

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was an Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano, but is best known for his religious music. Willan was born in England, and he began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne. He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the Royal College of Organists' Associateship in 1897 and Fellowship in 1899. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910, Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant"). In 1913, Willan emigrated to Canada. In 1921, he become Precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto), where he remained until his death. St. Mary Magdalene, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians. In 1920, the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan Head of its Theory Department. In 1934, he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939. From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur; in 1956, Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers", became the first non-English church musician to be so honoured. People who remember Willan from his time at St Mary Magdalene's like to moderate his somewhat dourly pious public image by quoting him: "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption."

Prière – Joseph Jongen

Many French organ composers wrote pieces called “prière”, which is an old French word meaning prayer or supplication. This works are simply prayers without words.

Marie-Alphonse-Nicolas-Joseph Jongen (1873- 1953) was a Belgian organist, composer, and music educator. Jongen was born in Liège, where his parents had moved from Flanders. On the strength of an amazing precocity for music, he was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire at the extraordinarily young age of seven, and spent the next sixteen years there. Jongen won a First Prize for Fugue in 1895, an honors diploma in piano the next year, and another for organ in 1896. In 1897, he won the Belgian Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel to Italy, Germany and France. In 1902, he returned to his native land, and in the following year he was named a professor of harmony and counterpoint at Liège college. With the outbreak of World War I, he and his family moved to England, where he founded a piano quartet. When peace returned, he returned to Belgium and was named professor of fugue at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. From 1925 until 1939, he served as director of that institution.

From his teens to his seventies Jongen composed a great deal, including symphonies, concertos (for cello, for piano and for harp), chamber music (notably a late string trio and three string quartets), and songs, some with piano, others with orchestra. (His list of opus numbers eventually reached 241, but he destroyed a many pieces.) Today, the only part of his oeuvre performed with any regularity is his output for organ, much of it solo, some of it in combination with other instruments.

His monumental Symphonie Concertante of 1926 is a tour de force, considered by many to be among the greatest works ever written for organ and orchestra. The work was commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker for debut in the Grand Court of his palatial Philadelphia department store, Wanamaker's. Its intended use was for the re-dedication of the world's largest pipe organ there, the Wanamaker Organ, as part of a series of concerts Rodman Wanamaker funded with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Wanamaker's death in 1928 precluded the performance of the work at that time in the venue for which it was written, but it was finally performed for the first time with the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2008.

In the Cross of Christ I Glory – David Cherwein

Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) was a distinguished scholar, ranked by some as one of the great minds of his day in the English-speaking world. Among his gifts was his ability as a linguist, publishing translations of poetry from such varied languages as Russian, Batavian, Spanish, Polish, Serbian, Bohemian, Magyar, Czech and Hungarian. Bowring was also a social progressive, advocating free trade, parliamentary reform, education for all and prison reforms, according to hymnologist Albert Bailey. Few hymn writers have been as involved in politics. Knighted in 1854, Bowring helped develop commercial relationships on behalf of Great Britain, traveling to France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Syria and Siam (now Thailand). Bowring also was twice a member of Parliament, a consul at Canton (in charge of trade in China) and a governor of Hong Kong. He was evidently relieved of his duties in Hong Kong because he “was full of conceit and without any very clear idea of political principles on a large scale.” After retirement in 1860, his public service continued as a commissioner to Italy and other diplomatic posts in Europe and Hawaii.

Despite a demanding political and diplomatic career, Bowring maintained an active avocation as a translator of poetry, composer of original poems and writer of essays on political and religious themes. Mr. Bailey notes that the “hymns that have lived were all written when he was about 30 years old, when his poetic interests were uppermost, and the idealism of youth made him the champion of the downtrodden and the underprivileged.” “In the cross of Christ I glory” (1825) was composed while the author was in his early thirties. Appearing in Hymns by John Bowring (1825), the theme and language suggests a much more mature poet. Galatians 6:14 provides the basis for this hymn: “Far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” .

In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o'er the wrecks of time;
all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o'ertake me, hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
never shall the cross forsake me. Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way,
from the cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the cross are sanctified;
peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide.

Dr. David Cherwien (b. 1957) is currently serving as Director of Music at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN, and in 2002 was appointed Music Director for the National Lutheran Choir, also based in the Twin Cities. He has also held full time parish music positions in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin. He completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance, and the Master of Arts degree in Theory and Composition, both from the University of Minnesota. His undergraduate work was in organ performance and music education at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, where he was honored as distinguished alumni in the fall of 2000.

About the Choral Music:

There is a Green Hill Far Away – Bob Chilcott

Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) was born at Redcross, County Wicklow, the second daughter of a British Army Major. She was a devout Christian who came under the influence of the Oxford [high Church] Movement. From an early age she showed a great aptitude for writing. When she was just twenty-five, she published her Hymns for Little Children [1848] with an introductory note by the celebrated Revd. John Keble. Dedicated to her ‘little godsons’ the book was written to illustrate and explain the Church Catechism. The hymnal also contained other well-known hymns, among them, “All things bright and beautiful” and “Once in Royal David’s City”, written to celebrate the credal statements, Creator of heaven and earth and born of the Virgin Mary. Two years after the publication she married the Revd. William Alexander. He was six years her junior and the marriage caused quite a stir within her own family. It is said that her father arranged, for the sake of propriety, for her birth date to be altered in the registers. [In some old hymn books her year of birth is given as 1823]. Her husband later became Bishop of Derry and Archbishop of Armagh.

Her poetical works were much admired and came to the attention of Alfred Lord Tennyson. The composer Charles Gounod once remarked that There is a green hill was ‘the most perfect hymn in the English language because of its charming simplicity.... the lyrics seemed to set themselves to music.’ She is rightly regarded as one of the greatest of British women hymn writers.

There is a green hill was written to illustrate the words of the creed, ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.’ Mrs Alexander begins the first verse by painting a picture. As a skilled teacher she knew that her first task was to capture a child’s imagination. In the second line she originally wrote ‘without’ a city wall, but changed it to ‘outside’ to remove any ambiguity. The second verse celebrates the mystery of the cross, ‘We may not know, we cannot tell....’ The passion of Jesus, though difficult to comprehend, is something he endured for us and for our salvation. This is celebrated in the next two verses, ‘He died that we might be forgiven, he died to make us good... There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.’ The noted New Testament scholar, Professor A. H. Hunter, once wrote, ‘It was given to an Irish woman, in a hymn she wrote for little children, to express better than many a learned tome the purpose, the necessity and the challenge of that sacrifice which has in principle redeemed our prodigal race.’ The hymn ends with a call for us to ‘love as he has loved us.’ Though written for children this is a classic hymn for young and old. It sets the scene of our Lord’s passion and celebrates the mystery, the purpose, the necessity and the challenge of the cross.

Alexander devoted her life to Christian education, to the care of the young and the poor. All the profits from the sale of her writings were donated to a home for deaf children. She was widely respected as a writer and many of her poems were published posthumously by her husband who survived her by sixteen years. She was buried in her beloved Derry, outside the city walls.

There is a green hill far away, without a city wall,

Where the dear Lord was crucified, who died to save us all.

We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains he had to bear,

But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good,

That we might go at last to heaven, saved by his precious blood.

O dearly, dearly has he loved, and we must love him too,

And trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do.

Robert "Bob" Chilcott (b.1955) is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England. Born in Plymouth, Chilcott sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student. He performed the Pie Jesu of Fauré's Requiem on the 1967 King's College recording. In 1985 he joined the King's Singers, singing tenor for 12 years. He has been a composer since 1997. Chilcott was the conductor of the chorus at the Royal College of Music in London for seven years, and is Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers.

About the Hymns:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" is a hymn based on Joachim Neander's German chorale Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, published in 1680. John Julian, in his A Dictionary of Hymnology, calls the German original "a magnificent hymn of praise to God, perhaps the finest creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class." Neander wrote this particular hymn while dying and it says much about his faith. While contemplating the words to go along with the melody, he reflected on Psalm 103 with its claim that everything within us should praise the Father’s holy name. It was the favorite hymn of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who first heard it in 1800. In the Neander original, first the singer calls himself (my beloved soul) to praise God, then calls for a larger group to join the praise with musical instruments as well as song. John Julian‍‍ '‍s A Dictionary of Hymnology lists more than ten English translations of "Lobe den Herren" printed in various nineteenth century hymnals.

The melody used by Neander, first published in 1665, is probably based on a folk tune. The common name given to this melody is "Lobe den Herren". Several variants were published with various secular texts between 1665 to 1680, when Joachim Neander published his German hymn, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren, using its meter. The text paraphrases Psalm 103 and Psalm 150.

One interesting piece of history is the later use of Neander’s name. He often taught in a valley near the Düssel river, and over 100 years after his death the valley was named after him. It was in that valley that bones were later found, from which we get the name “Neanderthal.”

Wonderful Words of Life

Philip Bliss (1838-1876) went to Chicago in the employ of Dr. George F. Root, the musician, where he was engaged in conducting musical Institutes, and in composing Sunday School melodies. Originally a Methodist, he became, about 1871, a choirman of the First Congregational Church, Chicago, and the Superintendent of its Sunday Schools. In 1874 he joined D. W. Whittle in evangelical work. To this cause he gave (although a poor man) the royalty of his Gospel Songs, which was worth some thirty thousand dollars. His death was sudden. It occurred in the railway disaster at Ashtabula, Ohio, Dec. 30, 1876. He had escaped from the car, but lost his life in trying to save his wife. In spite of the shortness of his life, Philip Bliss is one of the most important and influential gospel song writers of the nineteenth century.

Christian publisher Fleming H. Revell (Dwight Moody’s brother-in-law) was about to launch a new Sunday School paper. He wanted a song that would capture the overall focus of the publication, which was to emphasize the vital importance of studying the Word of God. The name of the paper was to be Words of Life, so Mr. Revell asked Philip Bliss if he could come up with a song to fit, suggesting the key text, John 5 & 6. In the passage, many who had followed Christ were drifting away. The Lord turned to His disciples and asked, “Do you also want to go away?” And Peter made this reply on behalf of the other men: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life”. Bliss duly produced a song, as requested, calling it Wonderful Words of Life. It’s a simple song. And after it served its purpose, in the first issue of the publication, it was all but forgotten. But Revell passed on a copy of the Sunday School paper to another hymn writer, George Stebbins. Stebbins began using Philip Bliss’s song in evangelistic meetings, with he and his wife Elma singing it as a duet. It caught on, after that, and became very popular. Simple though it is, it reminds us that we have a precious treasure in the Scriptures–words of life.

Standing on the Promises

R. Kelso Carter became an ordained Methodist minister (1887) at the age of 38. A year earlier, he was a professor at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, where he wrote the hymn, "Standing On the Promises," after reading Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians I: 20: "For all the promise of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." It was published in Songs of Perfect Love, one of two hymns compiled by Carter. The drum-beating, military march style of the music reflects the influence of the military academy life that surrounded Carter when it was written. Carter was active in the Methodist Camp-Meeting movement, and “Standing on the Promises” was widely used in evangelistic crusades well into the 20^th century and is still found in many hymnals. It is a reminder of the Christian’s daily dependence on the promises of God.