Hymn of the Day: Jerusalem, My Happy Home (ELW 628)
Text: F. B. P., 16th cent.
Tune: LAND OF REST, North American traditional; arr. hymnal version

This hymn is five stanzas - #11, 2, 17, 21 and 6 - taken from a twenty-six stanza English hymn found in a manuscript in the British Museum, c. 1616, where it is headed “A Song Mad [sic] by F:B:P. To the tune of Diana." Behind it lies the medieval Latin Liber Mediationum (which also lies behind "Ah, holy Jesus”). In Julian’s Dictionary William T. Brooke discusses this hymn at length. He gives the Latin, all twenty-six stanzas by F. B. P., points to a corrupted nineteen-stanza version from The Song of Mary the Mother of Christ (1601), and suggests a prior common but now unknown source. He gives another version of the hymn from The Glass of vain-glorie (1585). It has forty-four stanzas, most of which relate to the new Jerusalem, F. B. P., and the Liber Meditationum, but some of which paraphrase the Song of Solomon (which prompted "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds"). The best guess about the initials F. B. P. is that they may denote a Roman Catholic priest, and the "tune of Diana" is equally unclear.

This "originally pentatonic tune" was paired with "O land of rest, for thee I sigh!" in the 1836 Appendix of Samuel Wakefield's shape-note tune book called The Christian Harp (Pittsburgh, 1832). Herbranson linked his hymn with John Dahle's tune LUTHER SEMINARY, found in the Service Book and Hymnal (1958). In Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) it was paired with a more pensive tune by Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) called PERRY, for which Kevin Norris wrote a chorale concertato. In Evangelical Lutheran Worship it gets a third tune. More than the first two, LAND OF REST highlights the motion and physicality of the text. If one finds such things significant, it also has a compound background beat whose three can be seen as reflecting or underscoring the trinitarian Three in whose name the church baptizes.

Offertory Anthem: “Unless You Lead Me, Love” Thomas Keesecker

Thomas Keesecker's setting of poetry by 13th cent. mystic Mechtild of Magdeburg invites us to dance and sing with the love that created the world. The music is not simplistic in its message or writing, and this anthem is a wonderful combination of metaphor, poetry, and beautiful melodic writing.

Mechthild of Magdeburg’s ideas are inspiring in their own right, but are all the more amazing considering the era she lived in (1207-1282) – a time from which women’s voices are mostly lost in the mists of time. What seems today as a literary jewel, was a “stone of offence” back then, because a FEMALE Beguine composed writings with a theological content in vernacular German and not in Latin, and she referred to a divine authorization for her mission. Her criticism of church dignitaries, religious laxity and claims to theological insight aroused so much opposition that some called for the burning of her writings. How fortunate we are that her words survive so we can bask in her reflected light.

Thomas Keesecker has served as a musician in Lutheran and Roman Catholic parishes in Virginia, Montana, and Maryland. His award-winning choral music has been published by several publishers. His studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Catholic University School of Music in Washington, D.C. prepared him for a career in which he has mixed classical technique and jazz improvisation. During the last decade, he has explored the nexus of creativity and healing and its implication for liturgical musicians.

I cannot dance, Lord,
unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment
beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain,
yet want also to circle higher still.

Opening Voluntary: “Melody” Richard Purvis (1913-1994)

Richard Purvis was an American organist, composer, conductor and teacher. He began playing the organ publicly at the age of 14 in churches and in the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. In addition to recitals and church services, Purvis played nightly recitals broadcast on the 7-rank style "E" Wurlitzer organ at the Chapel of the Chimes over local radio station KRE. His stage name was Don Irving and his theme song was “I'll Take an Option on You”.

He was admired as one of the finest organ improvisateurs in the U.S. In an era when so-called "romantic" music was out of favor with most composers, and atonal, serial music was considered the hallmark of serious composition, he was not afraid to write tuneful, accessible, richly colored, and even whimsical compositions that possessed commercial viability. He is especially remembered for his expressive recordings of the organ classics and his own lighter compositions for the instrument.

Closing Voluntary: “Puer nobis nascitur” David Schelat (1955)

PUER NOBIS is a melody from a fifteenth-century manuscript from Trier. However, the tune probably dates from an earlier time and may even have folk roots. PUER NOBIS was altered in Spangenberg's Christliches Gesangbüchlein (1568), in Petri's famous Piae Cantiones (1582), and again in Praetorius's Musae Sioniae (Part VI, 1609), which is the basis for the triple-meter version used in the 1987 Psalter Hymnal. Another form of the tune in duple meter is usually called PUER NOBIS NASCITUR. The tune name is taken from the incipit of the original Latin Christmas text, which was translated into German by the mid-sixteenth century as "Uns ist geborn ein Kindelein," and later in English as "Unto Us a Boy Is Born." The harmonization is from the 1902 edition of George R. Woodward's Cowley Carol Book. PUER NOBIS is a splendid tune with strong ties to both Christmas and Easter texts. So, if you might be asking yourself if I have been influenced by the commercial holiday decorations we now see everywhere, the answer is: no, the text I consider pertinent today is one based on the writings of Hildegard von Bingen, “O Holy Spirit, Root of Life”

David Schelat, recently retired Director of Music at First & Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, is president and artistic director of Market Street Music (MSM), a non-profit corporation that creates musical experiences for audiences and musicians in the Delaware Valley. For MSM, he produces Thursday Noontime Concerts and Festival Concerts, as well as conducts Center City Chorale (a community choir of downtown workers), and Mastersingers of Wilmington (a concert choir of professional and amateur singers). Committed to new music, Mr. Schelat has facilitated commissions by Bruce Neswick, Gerald Near, and James Bassi and has conducted a number of Delaware premieres of recent compositions. In addition, he has explored a significant amount of secular and cross-cultural choral literature with the choral ensembles of First & Central and MSM.

Hymn of the Day: Lord of Glory, You Have Bought Us (ELW 707)
Text: Eliza S. Alderson (1818-1889)
Tune: HYFRYDOL, Rowland H. Pritchard (1811-1887)

Eliza S. Alderson wrote this text about tithing, sent it to the committee working on an addition to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) and requested that, if it were chosen, her brother John B. Dykes would be asked to write a tune for it. It was chosen, and he wrote the pleasant and not memorable CHARITAS.

Rowland H. Pritchard was a textile worker and an amateur musician. He had a good singing voice and was appointed precentor in Graienyn. Many of his tunes were published in Welsh periodicals. He composed this most loved Welsh tune when he was only nineteen. It was published with about forty of his other tunes in his children's hymnal Cyfaill y Cantorion (The Singers' Friend) in 1844. HYFRYDOL means delightful, beautiful, sweet, melodious, etc. The “H” in the tune name is pronounced, both the ‘y’s are sounded like the ‘u’ in ‘nut’ and the ‘f’ is voiced like ‘v’. This tune can be found published with at least 91 different texts. This is probably because HYFRYDOL is not only a tune that is quite friendly to congregations but one that accommodates many texts very well.

Offertory Anthem: “O Taste and See” Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958)

Ralph Vaughan Williamsnwas an English composer in the first half of the 20th century, and the founder of the nationalist movement in English music. He composed "O Taste and See" for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The piece is a short motet for choir and organ, setting a text from Psalm 34. It reflects Vaughan Williams' deep interest in English choral traditions and his ability to blend simplicity with profound expressiveness. The work is characterized by its lyrical melody and harmonic richness, typical of Vaughan Williams' style, which often incorporated elements of English folk music and modal harmonies. His compositions frequently aimed to evoke a sense of English identity and spirituality, which is evident in "O Taste and See" through its serene and contemplative nature.

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is: blest is the man that trusteth in him.

Opening Voluntary: “Hyfrydol” David Cherwien

David Cherwien is a prominent musician who serves as the Cantor at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and is the Artistic Director of the National Lutheran Choir. He holds degrees in Choral Music Education, Organ Performance, and Music Theory and Composition, and has extensive experience in church music across various cities, including Chicago, Seattle, and Berlin.

Closing Voluntary: “Trio #4” from Ten Trios for the Organ, Op. 49 Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was an organist and composer, born in Liechtenstein and resident in Germany for most of his life. Young Josef showed exceptional musical talent at an early age. When only seven years old, he was already serving as organist of the Vaduz parish church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1849, he studied with composer Philipp M. Schmutzer (1821–1898) in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. In 1851, his father, who had initially opposed his son's desire to embark on the life of a professional musician, relented and allowed him to enter the Munich Conservatorium. Not long after graduating, he became professor of piano and of composition at the same institution. When this first version of the Munich Conservatorium was dissolved, he was appointed répétiteur at the Court Theatre, from which he resigned in 1867.
Rheinberger married his former pupil, the poet and socialite Franziska "Fanny" von Hoffnaass (eight years his senior) in 1867. The couple remained childless, but the marriage was happy. Franziska wrote the texts for much of her husband's vocal work.

The stylistic influences on Rheinberger ranged from contemporaries such as Brahms to composers from earlier times, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and, above all, Bach. He was also an enthusiast for painting and literature (especially English and German).

In 1877 he was appointed court conductor, responsible for the music in the royal chapel. He was subsequently awarded an honorary doctorate by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. A distinguished teacher, he numbered many Americans among his pupils, including Horatio Parker, William Berwald, George Whitefield Chadwick, Bruno Klein, Sidney Homer and Henry Holden Huss. Other students of his included German composers Engelbert Humperdinck and Richard Strauss and the conductor (and composer) Wilhelm Furtwängler. When the second (and present) Munich Conservatorium was founded, Rheinberger was appointed Royal Professor of organ and composition, a post he held for the rest of his life.

Hymn of the Day: “Let Streams of Living Justice” ELW 710
Text: William Whitla (1934)
Tune: THAXTED, Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

William Whitla wrote this hymn text in 1989. It was published in Sing Justice! Do Justice! (1998), a collection of hymns that "grew out of a formal search for hymns on justice sponsored by the organizations Alternative for Simple Living and The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. It had four stanzas.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship, not the only hymnal to do so, prints three of the four by omitting the second. Whitla is "not very keen" on this move, which he views as "cutting out both the too incarnational and the too feminine images." Here is what he says about the hymn:

"I wrote the hymn in 1989 just after the events in Tiananmen Square, and when the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina were bringing their campaign to the conscience of the world. At the same time, the religious and racial disputes in Ireland, Israel-Palestine, the Congo and other parts of Africa, and in Canada and many other countries over First Nation or Aboriginal rights all seemed impossible to solve. Unfortunately, similar events are still replayed, and only too-similar images in the Near East, Irag, Afghanistan, and now Somalia- not to mention the school shootings at home-recur and are now extended well beyond those earlier sad happenings. So I used some images from those events, especially in verse two, seen through echoes of the holocaust, to tell of the bad news before the Good News of verses three and four. Subsequent events only sharpened those images, alas. To me all of these parts are needed for a full expression of the biblical promises of hope and justice so long awaited, including the too-common images of both the child with the gun and the old ones dreaming for peace."

Here is stanza 2:

The dreaded disappearance of family and friend;
the torture and the silence- the fear that knows no end;
the mother with her candle, the child who holds a gun,
the old one nursing hatred- all seek release to come.
Each candle burns for freedom; each lights a tyrant's fall;
each flower placed for martyrs gives tongue to silenced call.

The tune, THAXTED, was originally set to the text "I vow to thee, my country" and then used for others. That it is a splendid melody is clear. Whether it is a congregational one is less clear. Like Parry's JERUSALEM (#711-for which Whitla has written "O dream of peace,") is the melody more orchestral than congregational, with problems of length, range and Anglophilia?

Choral Music for All Saints: REQUIEM, for Choir, Soprano and Baritone solo Eleanor Daley

Eleanor Daley (1955) is a Canadian composer of choral and church music, a church choir director, choral clinician and accompanist. She lives and works in Toronto, Ontario. Among her best-known works are The Rose Trilogy and Requiem. Eleanor Daley began composing as a result of practical need. “I fell into composing quite by accident. I was sick and tired of the one book of introits that was available for the church choir, and so I began writing my own.” As she did not intend to compose, her formal study is limited to one required class during her time at university. Daley found that she greatly enjoyed writing for her choir, and decided to write a new introit every week. This evolved into the composition of descants, psalm settings and pieces for full choir. Despite several awards and over 100 pieces in print, she humbly describes herself as self-taught and still learning.

Set to texts by poets Clare Harner (“Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep”) and Carolyn Smart (“The Sound Of The Birds”), and passages from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, her Requiem serves as a celebrative exploration of life.

Daley is the recipient of numerous commissions. Her compositions have been widely performed, recorded, and aired throughout North America, Great Britain, Europe, South Africa, and the Far East.

Daley’s awards include the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors’ 1994 and 2004 National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year, as well as three first place awards in the Amadeus Choir Carol Competition. She is the first Canadian composer to be commissioned by the American Choral Director’s Association Regional Conventions (2008), and her works have been featured on award winning recordings.

1. Requiem aeternam I

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Grant them rest eternal, Lord our God, we pray to Thee.
— From Missa pro defunctis

Each night I listened for your call, when your call stopped I held my breath, suspended,
I'd grow accustomed to a dialogue with silence,
then wait for the sounds of night
you, dying,
and I but witness to the end
— From The Sound of the Birds*

2. Out Of The Deep

Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.
O let Thine ears consider well: the voice of my complaint.
If Thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss: O Lord, who may abide it?
For there is mercy with Thee: therefore shalt Thou be feared.
I look for the Lord: my soul doth wait for Him: and in His word is my trust.
My soul fleeth unto the Lord; before the morning watch, I say, before the morning watch.
O Israel, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from their sins.
— Psalm 130

3. And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears

I heard a voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with all people and God shall dwell with them and they shall be God's people. God shall be with them and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."
— Revelation 21:3,4

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine.
Light eternal shine upon them, Lord.
— From Missa pro defunctis

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
— From the Burial Service
1662 Book of Common Prayer

4. In Remembrance

Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glint on snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle morning rain.
And when you wake in the morning's hush, I am the sweet uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die.
— Anonymous

5. I Heard A Voice From Heaven

I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours: even so saith the spirit."
— From the Burial Service
1662 Book of Common Prayer

6. Thou Knowest, Lord

In the midst of life we are in death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not Thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, Thou most worthy Judge Eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from Thee.
— From the Burial Service
1662 Book of Common Prayer

7. Requiem aeternam II

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, dona eis sempiternam requiem.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord our God, we pray to Thee, grant them everlasting rest.
— From Missa pro defunctis

The stillness is a room I've moved into, and you are not here, you are gone
the dark heart of a night without song
— From The Sound of the Birds*

8. In paradisum

Go forth upon Thy journey from this world, O Christian soul, in the name of God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, in company with the blessed angels and archangels and all the heavenly host. May Thy portion this day be in peace and Thy dwelling place in Jerusalem.
— From a Russian Benediction

In paradisum deducant angeli, in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere, aeternam habeas requiem.
May the angels receive Thee in paradise. At Thy coming may the martyrs receive Thee and bring Thee into the Holy city Jerusalem. May the choir of angels receive Thee and with Lazarus, once a beggar, may Thou have eteral rest.
— From Missa pro defunctis

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, dona eis sempiternam requiem.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord our God, we pray to Thee, grant them everlasting rest.
— From Missa pro defunctis

* The Sound of the Birds appears in Carolyn Smart's The Way To Come Home, Brick Books, London. Ontario. 1992

Hymn of the Day: God Whose Almighty Word ELW 673
Text: John Marriott (1780-1825)
Tune: ITALIAN HYMN, Felipe Giardini (1716-1796)

This hymn, beginning "Thou Whose eternal word," was quoted by the Rev. Thomas Mortimer, M.A., Lecturer of St. Olave's, Southwark, and afternoon Lecturer at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, at the meeting of the London Missionary Society in Great Queen Street Chapel, London, on Thur., May 12, 1825, and was printed with a digest of the speech in the Evangelical Magazine, June 1825. It was probably copied from the Magazine into the Friendly Visitor of July , 1825. Written, his son says, "about 1813." It was printed in The Friendly Visitor, July, 1825, in 4 st. of 11., with the Title "Missionary Hymn," and without signature. This text differs only in two or three words from the original as supplied by the author's son to Dr. Rogers and published by him in his Lyra Brittanica, 1867, p. 395. Two texts are known which are received as original, the first the undoubted text in Lyra Brittanica, and the second that given by Lord Selborne from the Collection of Dr. Baffles, Congregational Minister of Liverpool.

When young, Felice Giardini studied singing, harpsichord, and violin and became a composer and violin virtuoso. By age 12 he was playing in theatre orchestras. His most instructive lesson: While playing a solo passage during an opera, he decided to show off his skills by improvising several bravura variations that the composer, Jommelli, had not written . Although the audience applauded loudly, Jommelli, who happened to be there, went up and slapped Giardini in the face. He learned a lesson from that. He toured Europe as a violinist, considered one of the greatest musical artists of his time. He served as orchestra leader and director of the Italian Opera in London, giving concerts. He tried to run a theatre in Naples, but encountered adversity. He went to Russia, had little fortune there but remained until his death.

Offertory: “Psalm 46” Peter R. Hallock (1924-2014)

Psalm 46 is the 46th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble". In Latin it is known as "Deus noster refugium et virtus". The song is attributed to the sons of Korah. The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. According to Charles Spurgeon, Psalm 46 is called a "song of holy confidence"; it is also known as "Luther's Psalm", as Martin Luther wrote his popular hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" using Psalm 46 as a starting point. Luther's hymn has been quoted in many musical works, both religious and secular, including Bach's cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80.

2024 is the centenary of Peter Hallock’s birth. Peter Hallock’s compositions are rooted in the experience of the spiritual — especially through the acoustical space of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, where he spent the major part of his working life. Organist/choirmaster at Saint Mark’s for 40 years (1951-1991) and founder and director of The Compline Choir (1956-2009), Hallock produced works that have greatly enriched the sacred repertoire. He also made a number of pioneering contributions to local and national church music traditions in the United States, promoting such things as the tracker-action organ, the countertenor voice, Easter services with brass and percussion, modern liturgical dramas and processions, and performances with historically-informed instruments. But his most notable gift to the church was the creation of a choir that sings the Office of Compline at St. Mark’s every Sunday evening, attracting attendees in the hundreds, and thousands listening each week to the broadcast — reviving interest in this last of the Divine Hours.

1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;
3. Though its waters rage and foam, and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.
5. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
6. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be over-thrown; God shall help her at the break of day.
7. The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken; God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.
9. Come now and look upon the works of the Lord, what awesome things he has done on earth.
10. It is he who makes war to cease in all the world; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.
11. “Be still, then, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.”

Opening Voluntary “Amazing Grace” Jack Schrader, arr. (1942)

Part of our American heritage, Amazing Grace is a hymn everyone knows, and this arrangement in a slow, gospel style adds a richness to the melody and power to the message.

Jack Schrader, arranger, composer, conductor, vocalist, and organist/pianist, is past editor with Hope Publishing Company, retiring in January of 2009. His association with Hope began in 1978. A 1964 graduate of Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, where he majored in Voice and Organ, he also received the Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Nebraska (1966). Further studies in theology culminated in Jack's ordination by the Evangelical Free Church of America (1975). Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he now resides in Florida.

Closing Voluntary: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Wilbur Held (1914-2015)

Wilbur Held was born in the little Chicago suburb of Des Plaines. Dr. Held’s mother was an accomplished violinist, and there was always music in his home and his church. But piano lessons were poorly practiced, and the decision to get serious about music didn’t happen until after graduation from high school when he enrolled at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, studying organ with Frank van Dusen and theory/composition with John Palmer. After getting serious he did pretty well, and midway in his studies he became Leo Sowerby’s assistant at St. James Church–an association that lasted seven years. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the conservatory.

In 1946 he joined the faculty at the Ohio State University, where he became Professor of Organ and Church Music and head of the keyboard department. He remained in this position for over 30 years, and for most of that time was also organist-choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio.