Worship Schedule:
10:00am in the Sanctuary and on YouTube
Due to the pandemic the need for food is increasing daily. In addition, the annual Letter Carriers Food Drive (Stamp Out Hunger) which normally produces more than 50,000 lbs. of donated food has been canceled which makes the need even greater.
AFAC needs canned vegetables, cereal (low sugar), canned tuna, canned tomato products (stewed, diced, paste), and peanut butter (in plastic jars).
Contributions can be dropped off in the Narthex.
Hymn of the Day: We Come to You for Healing, Lord ELW 617
Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr (1923-2007)
Tune: MARTYRDOM, John B. Dykes (1823-1876)
MARTYRDOM was originally an eighteenth-century Scottish folk melody used for the ballad "Helen of Kirkconnel." Hugh Wilson (1766-1824) adapted MARTYRDOM into a hymn tune in duple meter around 1800. A triple-meter version of the tune was first published by Robert A. Smith (1780-1829) in his Sacred Music (1825), a year after Wilson's death. A legal dispute concerning who was the actual composer of MARTYRDOM arose and was settled in favor of Wilson. However, Smith's triple-meter arrangement is the one chosen most often. The tune's title presumably refers to the martyred Scottish Covenanter James Fenwick, whose last name is also the name of the town where Wilson lived. Consequently, in Scotland this tune has always had melancholy associations.
Hugh Wilson learned the shoemaker trade from his father. He also studied music and mathematics and became proficient enough in various subjects to become a part-time teacher to the villagers. Around 1800 he moved to Pollokshaws to work in the cotton mills and later moved to Duntocher, where he became a draftsman in the local mill. He also made sundials and composed hymn tunes as a hobby. It is thought that he composed and adapted a number of psalm tunes, but only two have survived because he gave instructions shortly before his death that all his music manuscripts were to be destroyed.
Although largely self-taught, Robert Smith was an excellent musician. By the age of ten he played the violin, cello, and flute, and was a church chorister. From 1802 to 1817 he taught music in Paisley and was precentor at the Abbey; from 1823 until his death he was precentor and choirmaster in St. George's Church, Edinburgh. He enlarged the repertoire of tunes for psalm singing in Scotland, raised the precentor skills to a fine art, and greatly improved the singing of the church choirs he directed. Smith published his church music in Sacred Harmony (1820, 1825) and compiled a six-volume collection of Scottish songs, The Scottish Minstrel (1820-1824).
Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. lived most of his life in Gettysburg, PA. He attended Hughesville public schools, and was a graduate of Susquehanna University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He received additional advanced degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a doctoral degree at Southern California School of Theology at Claremont. He served as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg.
Rev. Dr. Stuempfle was the author of several books and numerous articles and lectures on preaching, history, and theology. He was also among the most honored and respected hymn writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
He began crafting hymns in his retirement. Himself suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, he wrote “We come to you for healing, Lord”, a hymn that brings the stories of the Bible into our situations of pain. Many of this hymn’s words and phrases, especially the image of “touch,” connect with today’s gospel.
Offertory: How Good, Lord, to Be Here John Behnke
Robinson, Joseph Armitage, D.D., Dean of Westminster since 1902, of Christ College, Camb. (B.A. 1881, M.A. 1884, D.D. 1896), sometime Fellow of his College, Norrisian Prof, of Div., Camb., Rector of St. Marg., Westminster, and Canon of Westminster, is only slightly associated with hymnology. His hymn text, "'Tis good, Lord, to be here" (Transfiguration), was written c. 1890. It was included in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, and supplies a long-felt want with respect to hymns on the Transfiguration.
Opening Voluntary: UNION SEMINARY (“DRAW US IN THE SPIRIT’S TETHER”) James Biery (1956)
Harold Friedell (1905-1958), who wrote the hymn tune UNION SEMINARY, was an American organist, choirmaster, teacher, and composer. At an early age, he served as organist at First Methodist Episcopal Church (Jamaica, Queens) and studied organ with Clement Gale and David McK. Williams. He later served as organist at Calvary Church (New York), organist and choirmaster at Saint John’s Church (Jersey City, N.J.), organist and choirmaster at Calvary Church (New York), and finally organist and master of the choir at Saint Bartholomew’s Church (New York). Friedell also taught on the faculty of the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music (New York).
Named for the School of Sacred Music at Union Seminary in New York City, UNION SEMINARY is a gently robust congregational tune illustrating Romantic tendencies that managed to continue in the twentieth century. It began in an anthem by Harold Friedell, who wrote it in 1957 for Percy Dearmer’s (1867–1936) text. It was extracted as a hymn tune and published in 1970.
Dearmer’s text is a celebration of Christ’s presence among those who are tethered by the Spirit at the Lord’s table and who pray that as disciples they may make their meals and living “as sacraments” by caring, helping, and giving.”
James Biery is an American organist, composer and conductor who is Minister of Music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (Presbyterian) in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, where he directs the choirs, plays the 66-rank Klais organ and oversees the music program of the church.
Biery’s setting of UNION SEMINARY is in 3 parts, or ABA. The A sections are based on a melody that he constructed from the hymn tune. He has changed the rhythm slightly, and has built the melody on the inverted form of the original tune. The middle section, combining the tune in its original key and rhythm with the tune a fifth below and a half-note apart, creates a delightfully off-center canon. Enjoy!
Closing Voluntary. Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven, John Behnke
LAUDA ANIMA is the hymn tune upon which today’s Closing Voluntary is based. John Goss composed LAUDA ANIMA (Latin for the opening words of Psalm 103) in 1868. Along with his original harmonizations, intended to interpret the different stanzas of the text, the tune was also included in the appendix to Robert Brown- Borthwick's Supplemental Hymn and Tune Book (1869). LAUDA ANIMA is one of the finest tunes that arose out of the Victorian era.
John Behnke, the arranger of both today’s Offertory and Closing Voluntary, considers himself a "church musician." His contribution to hymn-based organ music has been significant. He began playing the organ in high school and is still playing years later. He loves conducting a bell or a vocal choir, composing and arranging.
Hymn of the Day: “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” ELW 756
In 1860 William Whiting, an Anglican layman who taught at a choristers’ school, wrote “Eternal Father, strong to save” for one of his students who was to sail from Britain to America. Popularly called the Navy Hymn, the stanzas pray for safety for travelers. We sing this trinitarian classic on Sunday not only for travelers, but for all of us who are always with the disciples on a boat during a storm. The tune was written for the text. For many Americans the hymn recalls the funerals of both Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and thus singing the hymn brings death to mind. This is not a bad thing: every Sunday’s worship is readying us for death.
Offertory: Lyric Piece Edward Greig (1843-1907)
Edvard Grieg published his Lyric Pieces in ten volumes, starting in 1867 with Op. 12 and finishing in 1901 with Op. 71. The 10-book collection includes several of his best known pieces. Even though the original publishing was made in several volumes, some editors treat the Lyric Pieces as a single set of works, numbering the 66 pieces in all.
Opening Voluntary: Blessed are Ye, Faithful Souls, Op. 122 (#6 from Eleven Chorale Preludes for Organ) Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Most listeners do not think of Johannes Brahms as a composer of organ music, for the works that first come to mind are the symphonies, concertos, piano pieces, songs, and chamber music - or perhaps the German Requiem. Yet, the very last compositions from the pen of Brahms were a set of 11 chorale preludes for organ, published posthumously in 1902. Curiously enough, his only previous compositions for this instrument originated much earlier.
In the 1850s, when Brahms was still a young pianist and composer, he mentioned his aspirations to become an "organ virtuoso". Although he found the complex instrument more difficult to master than he had anticipated, he began to compose for it in earnest. Among his first attempts were two preludes and fugues, a conscious emulation of a form developed in the Baroque era but filtered through Brahms's own harmonic language. He regarded both works as novice projects not worthy of publication and apparently thought that the manuscripts had been destroyed. They were discovered much later, however, and published in 1927, thirty years after his death.
After the 1850s Brahms abandoned composition for the organ, other than revision of older pieces for publication, but toward the end of his life and just before the impending death of his close friend Clara Schumann, Brahms once again turned his attention to the organ. The resulting Eleven Chorale Preludes, Op. 122, finished in May and June of 1896, are a high point in German Romantic organ literature. Most are rather short and similar in format to pieces in the Orgelbüchlein, J. S. Bach's cycle of 45 chorale preludes for the liturgical year; that is, the phrases of the chorale melody, plain or embellished, are not separated by long interludes.
Closing Voluntary Gloria Patri Johann Erasmus Kindermann (1615-1655)
Johann Erasmus Kindermann was the most important composer of the Nuremberg school in the first half of the 17th century. He was born in Nuremberg and studied music from an early age; at 15 he already had a job performing at Sunday afternoon concerts at the Frauenkirche (he sang bass and played violin). His main teacher was Johann Staden. In 1634/35 the city officials granted Kindermann permission and money to travel to Italy to study new music. Nothing is known about his stay in Italy; he may have visited Venice like several other Nuremberg composers (Hans Leo Hassler, Johann Philipp Krieger). In January 1636 the city council ordered Kindermann back to take the position of second organist of the Frauenkirche. In 1640 he was employed as organist at Schwäbisch-Hall, but quit the same year to become organist of the Egidienkirche, the third most important position of its kind in Nuremberg after St. Sebald and St. Lorenz.
Kindermann stayed in Nuremberg for the rest of his life, and became one of the most famous musicians of the city and its most acclaimed teacher. Pachelbel was among his pupils. Most of his surviving works are vocal pieces that reflect the transition from older forms to the more modern use of concertato techniques and basso continuo and explore a variety of techniques from motets for choir without instruments to concertos for solo voices
Hymn of the Day: "For the fruit of all creation" (ELW 679)
Text: Fred Pratt Green, 1903-2000
Tune: AR HYD Y NOS, Welsh traditional; arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1872-1958
Originally called “Harvest Hymn,” this text is much more comprehensive than that title implies. It also deals with stewardship, thanksgiving, and God’s endless gifts that continue to astound us. It is set to a familiar Welsh tune whose name means “throughout the night.”
In England in the middle of the twentieth century, "God, who made the earth and heaven" was associated with the tune AR HYD Y NOS. In 1957 Francis Jackson wrote another tune for it, called EAST ACKLAM. Jackson's tune never caught on. John Wilson, a particularly able hymnologist who saw this lonely tune as a good one, suggested to Fred Pratt Green that he should write a text for it, "preferably on a harvest theme where new hymns were badly needed?" Green did as requested, and the hymn appeared in the Methodist Recorder in August 1970 as "HARVEST HYMN." Not surprisingly, since this is such an able text—about harvest, stewardship, thanksgiving, and the wonders of God that astound and confound us—it has since been included in many hymnals and sung widely. Ironically, however, it has been used more often with AR HYD Y NOS than with EAST ACKLAM. Lutheran Book of Worship (1978, #563) daringly joined it to SANTA BARBARA. Evangelical Lutheran Worship retains the same slightly modified text (Green's text originally began, “For the fruits of his creation) but joins it to this congregational tune in a very happy marriage.
Fred Pratt Green is perhaps best described as the twentieth-century hymn-writing version of Charles Wesley. He was born in a suburb of Liverpool, where his father ran a leather manufacturing business and was a Wesleyan Methodist and local preacher. His mother was an Anglican. As a child he worshiped in an Anglican Church. He wanted to become an architect but worked in his father's leather business for four years, developed an interest in writing, married Marjorie Dowsett, and became a Methodist minister and superintendent.
When he retired in 1969, he planned to spend his time doing pastels. That plan never materialized. He accepted an invitation to serve on the Working Party of the Methodist Conference in Great Britain to prepare a supplement to the Methodist Hymn-Book (which was published as Hymns and Songs). The committee asked him to write hymns for topics that seemed to be lacking, and hymn writing replaced water colors for most of the rest of his life. John Wilson and Erik Routley encouraged him.
Fred Pratt Green's poetic interests and abilities did not suddenly appear out of nowhere. When he came to the Finsbury Park Circuit in 1944, he made a pastoral call to Fallon Webb, the father of one of his Sunday school children. Webb, in spite of his arthritis, had an intense interest in poetry. When he discovered that Green had written some poems, he suggested that they each write a poem and criticize the other's work at their next encounter. They continued the practice weekly for the next twenty years, until Webb's death. Green was well prepared for hymn writing.
He produced a large number of hymns, many of which are included in denominational hymnals. He received an honorary doctorate from Emory University, served as vice president of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and was made a fellow of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. In addition to being a faithful pastor and remarkable hymn writer, he was an unusually humble man with a twinkle in his eye and a song in his heart.
Hymn of the Day: Rise, shine, you people! Christ the Lord has entered ELW 665
Text: Ronald A. Klug, 1939, alt.
Tune: WOJTKIEWIECZ, Dale Wood, 1934-2003
Starting with this text from Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you,” Ronald A. Klug wrote this text originally purposed for the Epiphany season. Thankfully it has come to embrace an even wider purpose to “hurl your songs and prayers against the darkness.”
In addition to consulting, conducting and writing articles, Dale Wood composed over 300 musical compositions, from hymn tunes to a music drama with orchestra. When he wrote the tune for Klug’s text he gave it his family name, Wojtkiewiecz, which was simplified when the family came to the United States.
Hymn of the Day: O Day of Rest and Gladness ELW 521
Text: Christopher Wordsworth, 1807–1885, alt.
Tune: German melody, 18th cent.; adapt. X. L. Hartig, Melodien zum Mainzer Gesangbuche, 1833
Christopher Wordsworth placed this as the first hymn in his Holy Year (1862) and titled it "Sunday." He had in mind Sunday in the Christian multilayered sense- first day of creation and therefore of light, "eighth" day of resurrection and new creation beyond history, and seventh day of rest and gladness when God rested. On this eucharistic little Easter when the church gathers around word and table to celebrate the wondrous mix of God’s graciousness, it sings “Holy, holy, holy,” which calls to mind the Sanctus.
ELLACOMBE is an anonymous tune that seems to come from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German Roman Catholics. In close to our current version, it is found in Xavier L. Hartig's Vollständige Sammlung der gewöhnlichen Melodien zum Mainzer Gesangbuche (Mainz, 1833), where it was used for the text "Der du im heil'gsten Sakrament." It may have an antecedent in the Württemberg Gesangbuch (Württemberg, 1784) where it may have been associated with the text for which it was named in Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), AVE MARIA, KLARER UND LICHTER MORGENSTERN. The name ELLACOMBE "is evidently an English name given to this tune by an English editor, probably after a place or locality."
ELLACOMBE was the tune Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) used with this text, and it is the one The Hymnal 1982 (1985) and Voices United (1996) also used. LANCASHIRE is chosen in some other modern hymnals. ROTTERDAM was used in The Lutheran Hymnary (1918) and Service Book and Hymnal (1958). Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) used HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN. "The day of resurrection!" is obviously searching for a suitable modern tune! These all work, but none seems quite right. ELLACOMBE, LANCASHIRE, and ROTTERDAM are eighteenth- and post-eighteenth-century products. HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN is from the sixteenth century. Often matches of text and tune from across centuries like this work well. In this case they feel forced. The quite proper jubilance of the tunes obscures the more crucial and characteristic objectivity of the text. We await the skill of the composer who will create the appropriate tune.
Hymn of the Day: Come, Join the Dance of Trinity ELW 412
Text: Richard Leach, (1953)
Tune: KINGSFOLD, English folk tune
This hymn text by Richard Leach reflects the name of the church for which it was written, Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut. It was the winning entry in Trinity's 250th anniversary hymn search in 2002, coming to Evangelical Lutheran Worship through New Hymns and Songs (2003).
The church's trinitarian theological insights are expressed here with their historic and intrinsic graceful agility. Yes, they can be ponderous—and they should be as we seek to understand what is beyond our grasp, but they also dance. "Dancing," says Leach, "has a very long association with the Trinity, going back to eighth-century theologians who used the word perichoresis to speak of the interdependence of unity and Trinity. 'Dance around' is a literal translation of the word, but its sense is 'interweaving,' and I use that in the hymn." The images of incarnation in the second stanza reflect Leach's reading of Robert W. Jenson. Sydney Carter's "Lord of the Dance" and the traditional carol "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day" were "in the back of my mind as I wrote," says Leach. He thought of this as a carol for Trinity Sunday.
What we get here, then, is the church in motion with a winsome welcome by and to the God of its being—an invitation to dance the Trinity's interweaving dance that "began" before all worlds began, to see the Trinity's face in Christ's human flesh and bone, to speak aloud the Trinity's wind and flame that frees us to move, and then to shape the rising song in joy.
Richard Leach is a hymn writer whose hymns have appeared in hymnals of many denominations, set by many composers as anthems. In addition to hymns he has written three cantatas for which Curt Oliver has composed the music. Born in Maine, he studied at Bowdoin College (BA in religion, 1974) and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1978). In 1987, as a pastor in New England, after sitting in at Yale Divinity School on Jeffrey Rowthorn's course on worship, where hymn writing was a topic one week, he began to write hymns. Those written from 1987 until 2007 are collected in Tuned for Your Sake (2007). As a United Church of Christ pastor from 1978 to 1999, his hymns tended to relate to the three-year common lectionary. After that, as a lay member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a business manager of an information systems consulting company, and a homemaker and hymn poet, they have related more to commissions, requests, and specific projects.
Thought by some scholars to date back to the Middle Ages, KINGSFOLD is a folk tune set to a variety of texts in England and Ireland. The tune was published in English Country Songs [sic: English County Songs], an anthology compiled by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams introduced it as a hymn tune in The English Hymnal (1906) as a setting for Horatius Bonar's "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say".
Shaped in classic rounded bar form (AABA), KINGSFOLD has modal character and is both dignified and strong.
Offertory: Tongues of Fire and Hearts of Love Stephen Casurella (1973)
This is a newly composed setting of a familiar and well-loved hymn text by James Montgomery (1771-1854). The son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missions and the British Bible Society. He published eleven volumes of poetry, mainly his own, and at least four hundred hymns. Some critics judge his hymn texts to be equal in quality to those of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley .
Stephan Casurella was born in England, where he began studying piano, organ and music composition at an early age. After moving to the United States, he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in both piano performance and music composition and in 2009 was awarded a doctor of musical arts degree in church music (organ emphasis) from the University of Kansas. Stephan is a published composer who has written for a wide range of media. His works have been performed by soloists and ensembles such as the choir of Chester Cathedral, England, the Thalia Symphony Orchestra, the Xavier University Concert Choir, and flutist James Hall.
O spirit of the Living God;
in all the fullness of your grace,
wherever human feet have trod,
descend upon our fallen race.
Give tongues of fire and hearts of love
to preach the reconciling word;
anoint with power from heaven above
when e'er the joyful sound is heard.
Let darkness turn to radiant light,
confusion vanish in your path;
souls without strength inspire with might;
bid mercy triumph over wrath.
O spirit of the Lord,
prepare the whole round earth its God to meet;
and breathe abroad like morning air,
till hearts of stone begin to beat.
Baptize the nations; far and wide
the triumphs of the cross record;
the name of Jesus glorify,
till every people call him Lord.
Opening Voluntary: “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” Rebecca Groom te Velde
Saint Patrick's Breastplate, a prayer of protection also known as The Deer's Cry, The Lorica of Saint Patrick or Saint Patrick's Hymn, is a lorica; in the Christian monastic tradition, a prayer recited for protection in which the petitioner invokes all the power of God as a safeguard against evil in its many forms. The Latin word lōrīca originally meant "armor" or "breastplate." Both meanings come together in the practice of placing verbal inscriptions on the shields or armorial trappings of knights, who might recite them before going into battle. The original Old Irish lyrics of this hymn were traditionally attributed to Saint Patrick during his Irish ministry in the 5th century. In 1889 it was adapted into the hymn I Bind Unto Myself Today.
Rebecca Groom Te Velde is a third-generation professional organist, following both parents and her grandfather. In 1991 she assumed her present position as organist of First Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, OK. She is an active performer, composer, clinician, and adjunct instructor of music at Oklahoma State University.
Closing Voluntary: Prelude in E flat Major BWV 552 J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
While Bach was putting together his definitive Clavier-Übung III, a collection of compositions for organ, he may have had a brilliant idea. Rather then putting his tremendous 'Prelude and fugue in E-flat major in the middle as planned, what if he were to separate them to form the opening of the volume and a surprising finish?
In a volume that was essentially devoted to the Trinity, there could have been no clearer statement than this piece, with all its references to the number three. On paper, that is - as Bach and musicians well into the nineteenth century would have found it unusual or even unthinkable that his Clavier-Übung, including prelude and fugue, would ever be played consecutively in a concert.
Incidentally, we do not know for certain whether the prelude and fugue were actually created together, even though the similarities are almost too marked to ignore.
Hymn of the Day: O Spirit all-embracing and counselor all-wise, ACS 944
Text: Delores Dufner, OSB, (1939)
Tune: THAXED, Gustav Holst, 1874–1934
This hymn text by Benedictine sister Delores Dufner sings praise to the Holy Spirit, which enables prayer and discernment. The sweeping tune THAXED may be familiar from other hymn texts (ELW 710, 880). In this context it is particularly fitting for its ability to express reverence with humility, honesty, and clarity. The most obvious use of this hymn is at Pentecost, but it is appropriate to other seasons and occasions too. Whenever God’s people need passion, inspiration, and a ceaseless wind and undying flame to urge them forward, this hymn can prepare them for prayer and attentiveness to the Spirit’s movement.
Thaxted" is a hymn tune by the English composer Gustav Holst, based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of his orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where he lived much of his life. He adapted the theme in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country" by Cecil Spring Rice but that was as a unison song with orchestra. It did not appear as a hymn-tune called "Thaxted" until his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926.
After THAXTED, was originally set to the text "I vow to thee, my country" it was 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 is the melody more orchestral than congregational, with problems of length and range?
Offertory: Hark! Ten-thousand Harps and Voices Robert J Powell (1932)
This is an original tune to a well-known text by Thomas Kelly (1759-1865). The text was first published in Kelly’s Hymns, &c, 2nd edition, 1806, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines, and headed with the text "Let all the angels of God worship Him." In 1812 it was included in his Hymns adapted for Social Worship, No. 7, but subsequently it was restored to the original work (edition 1853, No. 42). Its use is mainly confined to America, where it is given in several collections, including Songs for the Sanctuary, 1865. In most cases it is abbreviated.
Robert J. Powell was born in Benoit, Mississippi. Since 1958 he has published over 300 compositions for organ, choir, handbells and instrumental ensembles with leading American and English church music publishers. Robert Powell grew up in sacred music, beginning his training in the 5th grade and starting to compose in 7th grade. By age 18, he was providing piano and organ music for worship services, something he continued through his years in college and as a chaplain’s assistant in the U.S. Army. Mr. Powell holds a Bachelor of Music in Organ and Composition from Louisiana State University (1954) and a Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary in New York (1958), where he studied under Alec Wyton.
Hark, ten thousand harps and voices
Sound the note of praise above!
Jesus reigns, and Heav’n rejoices,
Jesus reigns, the God of love;
See, He sits on yonder throne;
Jesus rules the world alone.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen!
Jesus, hail! Whose glory brightens
All above, and gives it worth;
Lord of life, Thy smile enlightens,
Cheers, and charms Thy saints on earth;
When we think of love like Thine,
Lord, we own it love divine.
King of glory, reign forever!
Thine an everlasting crown.
Nothing from Thy love shall sever
Those whom Thou hast made Thine own:
Happy objects of Thy grace,
Destined to behold Thy face.
Savior, hasten Thine appearing;
Bring, O bring the glorious day,
When, the awful summons bearing
Heaven and earth shall pass away;
Then with all the saints we’ll sing,
Glory, glory to our king!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen!
Organ Voluntaries
March Upon Handel’s “Lift Up Your Heads,” Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer. A student of his father, then of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, he became an organist and teacher in his place of birth. In 1871 he was appointed as organist of la Trinité church in Paris, a position that he held for 25 years. From then on he followed a career as a virtuoso; he gave concerts in Europe as well as in the USA.
Guilmant created the Schola Cantorum in 1894 with Charles Bordes and Vincent d'Indy. In 1896 he succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as organ teacher of Conservatoire de Paris. With André Pirro, he published a collection of scores, Archives des Maîtres de l'Orgue (archives of the masters of the organ), a compilation of the compositions of numerous classical French composers in ten volumes, from 1898 to 1914. He proceeded in the same manner for foreign masters of the organ, publishing l'Ecole classique de l'Orgue (Classical School of the Organ),
Guilmant was an accomplished composer, particularly for his own instrument, the organ. His organ repertoire includes his 18 collections of Pièces dans différents styles (Pieces in Differing Styles), of which today’s Voluntaries are a part.
Hymn of the Day: Crown Him with Many Crowns ELW 855
Text: Matthew Bridges, 1800-1894, sts. 1-3, 5; Godfrey Thring, 1823-1903, st. 4
Tune: DIADEMATA, George J. Elvey, 1816-1893
Crowns are more than decorative headwear reserved for royalty. They signify honor, power, and dominion. For the King of Kings, a single crown could never suffice to represent His infinite glory and authority. And so we “Crown Him with Many Crowns” as we lift our voices to praise the One exalted high above all others. This beloved hymn magnifies Jesus, the Lord over all creation deserving of every crown. The lyricists beautifully capture just some of the many facets of our Savior’s majesty that demand our worship. As we sing, we join the eternal chorus around God’s throne, proclaiming the wonder of who Christ is and what He has done. The rich imagery stirs our hearts to offer Him every crown, for no earthly treasure compares to the treasure we have in our risen, glorified Lord.
The hymn Crown Him with Many Crowns was written in 1851 by Matthew Bridges, an Anglican minister who later converted to the Roman Catholic Church. Bridges was born in Essex, England in 1800 and pursued literary interests in history and poetry. He was influenced by John Henry Newman and the Oxford Movement, which aimed to reconnect the Anglican tradition with ancient Christian history and liturgy. This led Bridges to convert to Catholicism in 1848.
Bridges wrote the original six stanzas of the hymn after being inspired by the “exaltation and many crowns of Jesus” described in Revelation 19:12. The lyrics reflect on the different roles and honors of Christ, referring to Him as the “Lamb upon His throne” and “Son of God” who wears “many diadems.” Bridges used rich biblical imagery like “eyes are like a flame of fire” directly from Revelation to capture the majesty of Jesus.
In 1868, Anglican priest Godfrey Thring wrote additional verses while serving at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor castle. Born in 1823, Thring spent his life in dedication to the Church of England. As a Protestant minister, he brought a different theological perspective than Bridges’ Catholic lyrics. Thring’s new stanzas broadened the hymn’s vision by focusing on Jesus as the “Lord of life,” “Lord of love,” and “Lord of years” – bringing out more perspectives on Christ’s eternal nature and lordship.
Though the original hymn contained a total of 12 verses, 6 by Bridges and 6 by Thring, most modern hymnals today only include 4 selected verses. These 4 widely used verses – “Crown him with many crowns,” “Crown him the Lord of life,” “Crown him the Lord of love,” and “Crown Him the Lord of heav’n” – provide a condensed but still rich vision of Christ’s lordship and exaltation. The popularity of the hymn led to mixing and reduction of the original 12 verses down to these 4 accessible stanzas that continue to inspire worship and praise in churches today. Though not comprehensive, the shortened version retains the celebratory spirit and vital imagery of the full original work.
Composed for Bridges's text by George J. Elvey, DIADEMATA was first published in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. Since that publication, the tune has retained its association with this text. The name DIADEMATA is derived from the Greek word for "crowns."
Offertory: O Lord Most High Eternal King Robert Benson (1942)
Robert Benson arranged this Canadian hymn, its tune by Percy C. Buck and text by St. Ambrose. Ambrose (340-397), one of the great Latin church fathers, is remembered best for his preaching, his struggle against the Arian heresy, and his introduction of metrical and antiphonal singing into the Western church. He was trained in legal studies and distinguished himself in a civic career, becoming a consul in Northern Italy. When the bishop of Milan, an Arian, died in 374, the people demanded that Ambrose, who was not ordained or even baptized, become the bishop. He was promptly baptized and ordained, and he remained bishop of Milan until his death. Percy C. Buck(1871-1947), director of music at the well-known British boys' academy Harrow School, wrote GONFALON ROYAL for “The royal banners forward go” (gonfalon is an ancient Anglo-Norman word meaning banner). Buck published the tune in 1913 in his Fourteen Hymn Tunes.
Organist, choral conductor and composer in the Cincinnati area, Robert Benson’s compositions for choir, organ and other instruments have been reviewed in a variety of journals and have been performed by the Cincinnati Camerata, the Miami University Men’s Glee Club and Collegiate Chorale as well as in churches. He is an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and Dean of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
O Lord most high, eternal King,
By Thee redeemed Thy praise we sing;
The bonds of death are burst by Thee,
And grace has won the victory.
Ascending to the Father’s throne
Thou claim’st the kingdom as Thine own;
And angels wonder when they see
How changed is our humanity.
Be Thou our Joy, O mighty Lord,
As Thou wilt be our great Reward;
Let all our glory be in Thee
Both now and through eternity.`
O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
All praise to you let earth accord,
Who are, while endless ages run,
With Father and with Spirit One.
Alleluia!
Opening Voluntary: Miles Lane (All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name) Paul Leddington Wright (1951)
MILES LANE is one of three tunes that are closely associated with this well-known and beloved text; CORONATION and DIADEM are the other two.
MILES LANE was published anonymously in the November 1779 issue of the Gospel Magazine. The tune appeared in three parts with the melody in the middle part. Each "Crown him" was meant to be sung by a different part, first by the bass, then by the treble, and finally by the tenor. Thus MILES LANE was a fuguing tune. Stephen Addington identified Edward Perronet (1721-1792) as the author of the text in his Collection of Psalm Tunes (1780). The tune's title comes from the traditional English corruption of St. Michael's Lane, the London street where the Miles' Lane Meeting House was located, of which Addington was minister.
William Shrubsole (1760 -1806) composed MILES LANE when he was only nineteen. A chorister in Canterbury Cathedral from 1770 to 1777, Shrubsole was appointed organist at Bangor Cathedral in 1782. However, he was dismissed in 1783 for associating too closely with religious dissenters. In 1784 he became a music teacher in London and organist at Lady Huntingdon's Spa Fields Chapel, Clerkenwell, a position he retained until his death.
Shrubsole is the subject of a famous essay (1943) by Ralph Vaughan Williams: who called MILES LANE a "superb" tune and composed a concertato arrangement of it in 1938. Edward Elgar called it "the finest tune in English hymnody."
Paul Leddington Wright has been conducting orchestras and choirs since he was 15, at which age he held his first position as Organist and Choirmaster of the Maidenhead Methodist Church. His first organ recital tour abroad took place at the age of 17 where he played in New York, Boston, Hartford USA, as well as Montreal, Canada, and Jamaica. He was organ scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge where he studied music with David Willcocks, Peter Hurford and Peter Le Huray. In order to pursue a busy free-lance career, working for the BBC and abroad, since 1995 he has held the part-time position of Associate Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral. He has been conductor of the cathedral’s choral society, Saint Michael’s Singers, since 1984. He is a busy arranger and composer, and his music is published in the UK and USA.
Closing Voluntary: Christ Arose (Diademata) Christopher Tambling (1964-2016)
Christopher Tambling was one of English sacred music’s most popular and productive composers. Speaking through a language that is rich in variety but none the less familiar, his seemingly inexhaustible creativity has made a lasting impression on performers and audiences alike.
Born in Clevedon, Somerset, Christopher Peter Tambling was educated at Christ’s Hospital, Horsham. From there, his musical talents took him first to Canterbury Cathedral and then St Peter’s College, Oxford, both with organ scholarships.
Hymn of the Day: Come Down, O Love Divine (ELW 804)
Text: Bianco da Siena (1350-1434)
Tune: DOWN AMPNEY, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Bianco da Siena was an Italian poet and wool worker who was born at Anciolina, in the Val d'Arno. In 1367 he entered the Order of Jesuates, consisting of unordained men who followed the rule of St. Augustine. This order was instituted in that year by one John Colombinus of Siena, and suppressed by Pope Clement IX, possibly because of fear of not being able to control their mystical fervor. Little is known of Bianco beyond the fact that he is said to have lived in Venice for some years, and died there in 1434. His hymns were published at Lucca, in 1851, and edited by T. Bini, under the title, Laudi spirituali del Bianco da Siena. One of these, “Discendi, amor santo,” is the basis for this English translation by Richard F. Littledale in The People's Hymnal in 1867. Littledale translated four of the original eight stanzas, but most hymnals omit his third (beginning “Let holy charity”) for a consistent three-stanza text.
The first stanza of this text addresses the Holy Spirit as “O Love divine” and “O Comforter,” asking for His presence in our lives. The middle stanzas ask the Holy Spirit to purge us of all pride and evil passion, and to purify our love and light our path. The final stanza anticipates the greater love for God that will ensue from such purification, and recognizes that, as Paul wrote, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you”
This hymn is addressed to the Holy Spirit. Though the third Person of the Trinity is not specifically named until the very last line of the hymn, it is clear through the terms “O Love divine” and “O Comforter” that He is the one to whom this prayer is addressed.
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the tune DOWN AMPNEY for this text in the English Hymnal in 1906. It was named after his birthplace, and has been praised as one of the most beautiful hymn tunes ever written.
OFFERTORY Awake, My Soul Nikolaus Herman (1500-1561), S. Drummond Wolff, arr.
This is a paraphrase of Psalm 36.
From 1518 to 1560 Nikolaus Herman was schoolmaster, organist and Kantor in Joachimsthal, Bohemia, just over the mountains from Saxony. Johann Matthesius, Luther’s first biographer and headmaster of the Latin school there from 1532, was also, until 1565, minister of the church; Herman was associated with him both as a close friend and as a colleague, and thus came into contact with the Reformation from an early date. As early as 6 November 1524 Luther wrote to him as ‘viro pio et erudito’. Toward the end of his life he suffered greatly from gout, and had to resign even his post as Cantor a number of years before his death. Nikolaus Herman’s importance lies in his hymns, which were published in several volumes. He wrote both text and music, but most melodies are used for several texts. His poems are rhymed syllabic verses with no fixed metre.
Awake, my soul, to joyful lays And sing thy great Redeemer’s praise.
He justly claims a song from me. His loving kindness, oh, how free!
When I was Satan’s easy prey And deep in debt and bondage lay,
He paid His life for my discharge, His loving kindness, on, how large!
Then shall I mount and soar away To the bright world of endless day
And sing with rapture and surprise His loving kindness in the skies.
Hymm of the Day: Earth is Full of Wit and Wisdom (ACS 1064)
Text: Adam M. L. Tice, (1979)
Tune: HOLY MANNA, W. Moore, Columbian Harmony, 1825; arr. hymnal version
Can you hear God laugh? This hymn challenges us to try. It might be easier for the young, or the young at heart, than for those of us more set in our ways. By the time we’ve sung through the myriad species in God’s creation, even the crabbiest one among us might at least muffle a chuckle or crack a smile. While this is a recently composed text, it is paired with an early American tune that helps it lilt along through the mouthful of God’s creatures.
Opening Voluntary: Wondrous Love Justin McCarthy
Although various sources have attributed this text to a number of different writers, it remains anonymous. "What Wondrous Love" was first published in both Stith Mead's hymnal for Methodists, A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811), and in Starke Dupuy's hymnal for Baptists, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1811). The text is addressed to the soul.
Today’s Opening Voluntary is another selection from Piano Meditations, a collection of traditional hymn tunes, arranged by Justin McCarthy. Justin McCarthy has worked as a pianist & educator in the greater Boston area for over 20 years. A faculty member at Plymouth State University (NH) since 2009, Justin currently serves as Coordinator of Collaborative Piano in the Department of Music, Theatre, & Dance. He received his Bachelor & Master’s degrees from Rice University, and his Doctorate from Boston University. Justin also serves as pianist for the Nashua Choral Society and maintains an active teaching studio at the Manchester Community Music School. He lives in Southern NH with his wife and 3 children.
Offertory: Rise Heart Arlen Clarke (1954)
With a few modifications Arlen Clarke has set George Herbert’s beautiful poem, Easter, an exploration of how people are made right with God - justified - through Jesus’ death on the cross. George Herbert was a skilled pastor and teacher, as well as an accomplished musician, and this poem is a beautiful illustration of both. Easter was originally two separate poems, each containing 3 verses. But the call in the first verse, 'Rise heart; thy Lord is risen', and the musical images of verses two and three, find their fullest expression in the song of praise of the final three verses.
Conductor, composer, and singer Arlen Clarke currently lives in Greenville, SC and is the Director of Music at St. Mary's Catholic Church. In addition to composing, he maintains an active schedule as a conductor, singer and vocal coach, choral clinician, and adjudicator.
Closing Voluntary: St. John Damascene (Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain) Noel Rawsthorne (1929- 2019)
This tune, ST. JOHN DAMASCENE, written by Arthur Henry Brown (1830-1926) may not be familiar to many of us as it is found chiefly in English hymnals. It was named after our venerable Father John of Damascus (676 - 749) who was also known as John Damascene, Chrysorrhoas, "streaming with gold," (i.e., the golden speaker) and is known to have written the text “Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain” paired with this tune. John of Damascus was born and raised in Damascus, in all probability at the Monastery of Saint Sabbas (Mar Saba), South East of Jerusalem. His feast day is December 4.
Organist for many years at Liverpool Cathedral, Noel Rawsthorne emerged as one of the finest organists of his generation, and maintained a non-stop global career as a top-flight concert artist. He proved no less adept as a composer: his numerous introits, carols, chants, anthems, hymn tunes, responses, and imaginative descants, often written for special occasions, have long retained their place in the repertoire.
Hymn of the Day: The King of Love My Shepherd Is (ELW 502)
Text: Henry W. Baker (1821–1877)
Tune: ST. COLUMBA, Irish tune
The Tune St. Columba is named for the Irish saint who took Irish Christianity to Scotland (and is reputed to have been the first to report a sighting of the Loch Ness monster in 546). The tune is an Irish melody collected by George Petrie (1789-1866) and which appeared in Charles Villers Stanford's Complete Collection of Irish Music as noted by George Petrie, in 1902.
The words of the hymn The King of Love my Shepherd Is, often sung to this tune, are by Henry W. Baker, who played a large part in the creation of the earliest edition of "Hymns Ancient and Modern". Baker was born in 1821, in London. He was awarded a BA in 1844 and an MA 3 years later by Trinity College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1844, he became vicar of Monkland in Herefordshire in 1851, a position he held until his death in 1877.
Offertory The Lord Is My Shepherd Thomas Matthews (1915-1999)
The Lord Is My Shepherd by Thomas Matthews, who sang in the Grace Church (Utica) Choir as a Chorister, He was a longtime organist, choirmaster and resident composer at Trinity Episcopal Church, Tulsa. His music is beloved by church choirs and congregations around the world.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
For Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever
Opening Voluntary “St. Columba” (The King of Love My Shepherd Is) Justin McCarthy
Some additional information about this tune and text: “The King of Love My Shepherd Is,” a text by Sir Henry William Baker, initially paired with the tune, DOMINUS REGIT ME. Because the compilers of the 1906 English Hymnal were denied permission to use this original tune, musical editor Ralph Vaughan Williams turned to a folk tune recently edited for a collection of Irish music. With some small but notable improvements, ST. COLUMBA has proven to be an equally satisfying pairing of text and tune.
Closing Voluntary: Jesus Lives (St. Albinus) Paul Bryan
The hymn tune ST. ALBINUS was composed by Henry J. Gauntlett (1805-1876). When he was nine years old, became organist at his father's church in Olney, Buckinghamshire. At his father's insistence he studied law, practicing it until 1844, after which he chose to devote the rest of his life to music. He was an organist in various churches in the London area and became an important figure in the history of British pipe organs. A designer of organs for William Hill's company, Gauntlett extended the organ pedal range and in 1851 took out a patent on electric action for organs. Felix Mendelssohn chose him to play the organ part at the first performance of Elijah in Birmingham, England, in 1846. Gauntlett is said to have composed some ten thousand hymn tunes, most of which have been forgotten. Also a supporter of the use of plainchant in the church, Gauntlett published the Gregorian Hymnal of Matins and Evensong (1844).
Hymn of the Day: With High Delight Let Us Unite, ELW 368
Text: Georg Vetter (1536-1599)
Tune: MIT FREUDEN ZART, medieval European tune
This hymn text by Georg Vetter was included in the Bohemian Brethren's Kirchengeseng (Ivancice, 1566). Martin H. Franzmann (1907-1976) translated it, and his translation was included in the Worship Supplement (1969). It has passed through Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) to Evangelical Lutheran Worship with little alteration.
This is a jubilant Easter hymn. It gives expression to the explosive song spawned by the freedom from and death of death obtained by Christ's death and resurrection. This expression is achieved by a complex but deliciously audible inner and outer rhyme scheme allied to the meter. Franzmann skillfully maintained it in the English translation.
Georg Vetter was a Bohemian Brethren pastor, born in Moravia, who studied at the University of Könisberg and the University of Tübingen. He was ordained in 1567 and served as a pastor at several churches, not without resistance to his authoritarianism. A leader among the Brethren, in 1587 he made a Czech version of the Genevan Psalms with Claude Goudimel's settings, and he played a leading part in the Kralice translation of the Bible, which, for the Czech world, was comparable to Martin Luther's translation for the German one.
Martin Franzmann was an eloquent Lutheran pastor, teacher, and hymn writer. Born into a pastor's family in Minnesota, he studied at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin (BA, 1928), Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Thiensille (graduated, 1936), and at the University of Chicago in classics for over twenty years (from 1929 to 1951). He was professor of New Testament at Northwestern College from 1936 to 1946, held the same post at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis from 1946,345 and moved to England in 1969 as tutor at Westfield House, Cambridge-the seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England. After having served the church as a beloved teacher and only sometimes a preacher (albeit a remarkable one), he was ordained in England there and then. Well before he went to England. in 1934 and 1935 he served as a pastoral assistant and teacher in the parish school with Pastor Arthur Klatt at St. Peter's Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio. At Klat's encouragement he began translating and writing hymns. His hymns, with four sermons, are collected in Leaver's Come to the Feast (1994). He was not a prolific hymn writer (Leaver's book gives twenty original hymns and nine translations) but a potent one.
Splendid music for a great text, this tune is one of the great hymn tunes of the Reformation. MIT FREUDEN ZART is a tune with breadth. It spans an octave and gives congregations a wonderful ride over its arch. It works very well with this text because its melodic pieces within its overall bar form match the text's metric structure and rhyme scheme.
Offertory: A Rose Touched by the Sun’s Warm Rays, Jean Berger (1909-2002)
Jean Berger, the German-Jewish composer born as Arthur Schlossberg, fled from Nazi Germany in 1933 and changed his name to Jean Berger. In 1962, while teaching at University of Colorado at Boulder, he was inspired to translate and compose a musical setting of this poem written by Maria Brubacher in 1825 into a bookplate which he discovered in a book about Pennsylvania German bookplates. This piece is a beautiful reflection of God's love and mercy.
A rose touched by the sun’s warm rays
All its petals gently does unfold.
So you when touched by God’s great mercy
Let joy and gladness win your soul.
Opening Voluntary: The Strife is O’er (Gelobt Sei Gott) Andrew Gant (1963)
Although the tune GELOBT SEI GOTT is most often associated with the text “Good Christians, All, Rejoice and Sing”, the title of this organ voluntary by Andrew Gant references the occasional pairing of this tune with an anonymous text which first appeared in the Jesuit collection, Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum in 1695. The text was translated by Francis Pott in 1859, and published in five stanzas. These stanzas appear in most modern hymnals. Each verse follows a similar pattern. We first proclaim some aspect of Christ’s victory over death, and then add our emotional response to this victory.
There is also something very profound and triumphant about the text. There is a sense of finality and the finality is the finality of newness. It is the realization that we are continually being made new, that Creation is continually being restored, and that every day we are called to life anew with Christ. Alleluia.
Andrew Gant is Director of Music in Chapel at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He also directs the Light Blues vocal ensemble and is Musical Director of the Thursford Christmas concerts. He has worked extensively as an arranger for both radio and television.
Closing Voluntary: All the Vault of Heaven Resounds (Lasst Uns Erfreuen), Mark Sedio (1954)
LASST UNS ERFREUEN derives its opening line and several other melodic ideas from GENEVAN 68. The tune was first published with the Easter text "Lasst uns erfreuen herzlich sehr" in the Jesuit hymnal Ausserlesene Catlwlische Geistliche Kirchengesänge (Cologne, 1623). LASST UNS ERFREUEN appeared in later hymnals with variations in the "alleluia" phrases.
Mark Sedio serves as Cantor at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. In addition he has held teaching positions both at Augsburg University and Luther Seminary. Sedio is an active recitalist, clinician, conductor and composer, having presented hymn festivals and workshops throughout North America and Europe. Over 125 of his compositions for organ, piano, choral and instrumental ensembles are available from a number of publishers. A number of his hymn tunes, texts and harmonization appear in various denominational hymnals and supplements. A love of foreign language acquisition and linguistics combined with interest in folk music and styles has led to a keen interest in global church music. In 2008, the faculty of Luther Seminary (St. Paul) granted him the title of Musician Emeritus for his service in various musical capacities from 1982 through 2008. He holds a B.A. in music from Augsburg University and an M.A. in choral music from the University of Iowa. He has studied in the M.Div. program at Luther Seminary and the liturgical studies program at St. John’s University. A charter member of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, Sedio served on the organization’s founding board and as its first Director of Ecclesiastical Concerns. He chaired the worship committee for the 2008 national convention of the American Guild of Organists.
Hymn of the Day: Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain ELW 363
Text: John of Damascus, c. 696–c. 754; tr. John Mason Neale, 1818–1866
Tune: GAUDEAMUS PARITER, Johann Horn, 1490–1547
Eighth-century Greek poet John of Damascus is especially known for his writing of six canons for the
major festivals of the church year. (A canon is a form of Greek hymnody based on biblical canticles
consisting of nine odes, each with six to nine stanzas.) His "Golden Canon" is the source of Easter hymns.
Written around 750 and inspired by the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, this text is John's first ode from the
canon for the Sunday after Easter.
John's father, a Christian, was an important official at the court of the Muslim caliph in Damascus. After
his father's death, John assumed that position and lived in wealth and honor. At about the age of forty,
however, he became dissatisfied with his life, gave away his possessions, freed his slaves, and entered the
monastery of St. Sabas in the desert near Jerusalem. One of the last of the Greek fathers, John became a
great theologian in the Eastern church. He defended the church's use of icons, codified the practices of
Byzantine chant, and wrote about science, philosophy, and theology.
All canons in the Greek church demonstrated how Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ's
resurrection. The first ode of each canon was based on the Passover event and on Exodus 15 as the
metaphor for Christ's delivery of his people from the slavery of sin and death. That metaphor lies behind
stanza 1. Stanza 2 uses images of spring and sunshine as metaphors for the new life and light of Christ.
Stanza 3 concludes the text with an Easter doxology.
John M. Neale translated the text in his article on Greek hymnology in the Christian Remembrancer
(April, 1859) and reprinted it in his Hymns of the Eastern Church in 1862.
Offertory: From Six Duets for Two Flutes: Presto #4, Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Published in 1759, stylistically the six duets are elegant, light, and tender, and overall excellent examples
of Quantz’s intermediate position between the Baroque and Classical eras. As a composer Quantz
certainly cannot be classed among the great, but he does display a high level of craftsmanship through
clarity of phrasing, dynamic variety and briskness, qualities of much mid-18th-century music.
Opening Voluntary: Lux Eoi, Andrew Moore (1936)
This is a setting of Lux Eoi, a hymn tune by Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900), associated with
multiple texts and creatively arranged for organ by Andrew Moore, a Benedictine Monk at Downside
Abbey, near Bath.
Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster
and a professor of music. Sullivan embarked on his composing career with a series of ambitious works,
interspersed with hymns, parlor songs and other light pieces in a more commercial vein. His compositions
were not enough to support him financially, and between 1861 and 1872 he worked as a church organist,
which he enjoyed; as a music teacher, which he hated and gave up as soon as he could; and as an arranger
of vocal scores of popular operas. He is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert,
which produced popular operettas such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The
Mikado (1884), and Yeomen of the Guard (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in
Victorian times. Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best
remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in The Hymnary (1872)
and Church Hymns (1874), both of which he edited. Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to
those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas.
Closing Voluntary: Gaudeamus Paritur, Robert Buckley Farlee
Set by Robert Buckley Farlee, this piece is based on the hymn tune GAUDEAMUS PARITUR by Johann
Roh (1487-1547) who used many pseudonyms. Johann Roh was a native of Bohemia. Roh was his name
in Bohemian, but when he wrote in Latin he called himself Cornu, and in German, Horn.
Robert Buckley Farlee, who has not altered or changed his name, is Associate Pastor and Director of
Music at Christ Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. He was deeply involved in the publication of
Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
During March, Women’s History Month, we are celebrating each week the contribution women have made to our worship either in our hymns, anthems, preludes or postludes, through musical compositions and/or texts rooted in this history and culture.
For this celebration of the Three Days and Easter Sunday our list includes the texts, “Cross of Glory” by Delores Dufner, and “There Is a Green Hill” by Cecil Frances Alexander and music by Evelyn Larter.
Hymn of the Day: Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing, ELW 385
Text: Cyril A. Alington (1872-1955)
Tune: GELOBT SEI GOTT, Melchior Vulpius (c.1570-1615)
While Headmaster of Eton College, Cyril A. Alington wrote this text for Melchior Vulpius's tune GELOBT SEI GOTT. The hymn was published in Songs of Praise (1931). Stanley L. Osborn has written of Alington's stanzas, “They vibrate with excitement, they utter the encouragement of victory, and they stir the heart to praise and thanksgiving" (If Such Holy Song, 469). This text should not be mistaken for its Christmas counterpart "Good Christian Friends, Rejoice" (355); both texts originally began, "Good Christian men, rejoice."
A strong text for Easter, "Good Christian Friends" rings in the victory of Christ's resurrections so that "all the world" will know the news. Each stanza encourages us to tell the good news and praise the "Lord of life," and ends with an exciting three-fold "alleluia."
Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, England, Cyril A. Alington was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1901. He had a teaching career that included being headmaster at Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He was dean of Durham from 1933-1951 as well as chaplain to the king of England. His writings include literary works and Christianity in England, Good News (1945). Many of his hymns appeared in various twentieth-century editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern.
Born into a poor family named Fuchs, Melchior Vulpius had only limited educational opportunities and did not attend the university. He taught Latin in the school in Schleusingen, where he Latinized his surname, and from 1596 until his death served as a Lutheran cantor and teacher in Weimar. A distinguished composer, Vulpius wrote a St. Matthew Passion (1613), nearly two hundred motets in German and Latin, and over four hundred hymn tunes, many of which became popular in Lutheran churches, and some of which introduced the lively Italian balletto rhythms into the German hymn tunes. His music was published in Cantiones Sacrae (1602, 1604), Kirchengesangund Geistliche Lieder (1604, enlarged as Ein schon geistlich Gesanglmch, 1609), and posthumously in Cantionale Sacrum (1646).
Offertory Anthem: “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands” Ryan Kelly
Martin Luther’s celebrated Easter hymn, “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands,” receives an exuberant setting by Ryan Kelly for mixed voices and tambourine. An incorporation of the historic "Victimae paschali laudes" chant captures the mystery of Christ’s passion in contrast with spirited “alleluias” that respond to his victorious resurrection.
Opening Voluntary: “Easter Hymn” Phillip Moore (1943)
EASTER HYMN originally appeared in the John Walsh collection Lyra Davidica (1708) as a rather florid tune. Tempered to its present version by John Arnold in his Compleat Psalmodist (1749), EASTER HYMN is now one of the best and most joyous Easter tunes.
Philip Moore is a British composer who has written extensively for choirs and vocal ensembles. He has composed a wide range of sacred and secular music, including several large-scale works for choir and orchestra. Moore studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London under the tutelage of Alan Bush, and later at King's College, Cambridge. He served as the Master of Music at York Minster from 1983 to 2008, where he oversaw the music program and composed music for the choir. He has also held teaching positions at several institutions, including the Royal Academy of Music and the University of York. In 2019 he was commissioned to write the new carol for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast from King’s College, Cambridge.
Moore's music is marked by its lush harmonies and rich textures, and often draws inspiration from poetry and literature. His works have been performed by leading choirs and orchestras around the world, and he has received numerous commissions and awards for his compositions.
Closing Voluntary: “Final” (from Symphony for Organ, #1), op. 14, Louis Vierne
Composed over 1898 - 1899, Vierne's Symphony in D minor for organ is his first major work and an ambitious throw at continuing the lineage of large-scale serious works for organ advanced by his mentors : Franck (in his Grande Pièce symphonique), and Widor, in his brilliant series of ten symphonies. This powerful, bravura Final of virile assertiveness became vastly popular -- Vierne referred to it as "my Marseillaise" and arranged it for organ and orchestra in 1926. The symphony as a whole announced the startling emergence of a major compositional voice and set the pattern for the five organ symphonies to follow -- a suite-like succession of movements in which confessional moments of disconcerting intimacy are juxtaposed with manifestations of eerie fantasy and virtuoso movements of tremendous power.
Good Friday Anthems
“The Mild Mother” Robert Convery (1954)
This anonymous text is a reflection on the anguish felt by Mary at the crucifixion, her sorrow and grief emulated by the music.
Robert Convery is among the handful of composers today writing effectively for the voice. His music is expressed in a distinctly personal tone of lyricism, rhythmic vitality, a keen harmonic sense, and transparent textures. He holds degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College and The Juilliard School where he received his doctorate. His teachers have been Ned Rorem, David Diamond, Richard Hundley, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Vincent Persichetti.
Jesus Christ’s mild mother stood,
and beheld her son against the cross,
that He was nailed on.
The Son hung, the mother stood,
and beheld her child’s blood,
how it of His wounds ran.
“There Is a Green Hill” Evelyn Larter (1953)
Many thanks to Carole Smith for her beautiful interpretation of the flute obbligato.
This expressive anthem combines Cecil Alexander's Lenten hymn with the haunting English folk melody The Turtle Dove. This lyrical music renders a portrait of Calvary's hill that allows the listener to deeply ponder the agony of Christ's suffering. The culminating verse on the text "O Jesus, dearly have You loved and we must love You, too" is rich with meaningful expression.
Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-95), an Anglo-Irish hymn writer and poet, is the composer of this extremely popular hymn, There Is a Green Hill Far Away. Amongst other works, she wrote “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and the Christmas carol “Once in Royal David’s City”.
It draws its inspiration from the Apostles Creed especially the line, ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried”. It is believed to have been written at the bedside of a sick young person. The writer gives substance and answer to those who inquire why Jesus died. She talks about God’s forgiveness. She speaks of how man can reclaim his original close relationship with God and suggests the only possible response is the total giving of loving self. The event was for us.
Evelyn Larter was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. She won the prestigious Governor’s Recital Prize for piano, and graduated with honors in concert piano and music education. She performed with the Highlands Sinfonia, and on Scottish television. Since moving to the United States with her husband and family in 1988, Evelyn has been active in the Philadelphia area, collaborating with many well-known soloists and ensembles.
There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall,
where our 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 have you loved! And we must love you too,
and trust in your redeeming blood, and gladly follow you.
“Faithful Cross” Thomas Pavlechko
Thomas Pavlechko's compositions are always engaging and innovative, including this rich and expressive setting of the text “Cross of Glory” by Delores Dufner (1939).
Delores Dufner is a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, with Master's Degrees in Liturgical Music and Liturgical Studies. Delores is a writer of liturgical, scripturally based hymn and song texts which have a broad ecumenical appeal and are contracted or licensed by 34 publishers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and China. She has received more than 50 commissions to write texts for special occasions or needs and has published over 200 hymns, many of which have several different musical settings and appear in several publications.
Delores, the middle child of five, was born and raised on a farm in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. She attended a one-room country school in which she learned to read music and play the tonette, later studying piano and organ.
Before entering the monastery Delores was a school music teacher, private piano and organ instructor, and parish organist/choir director for twelve years.
Faithful cross, O tree of beauty, tree of Eden, tree divine!
Not a grove on earth can show us leaf and flower and fruit so fine.
Bearer, of our Savior’s body, tree of life, salvation’s sign!
Cross of pain, transformed to gladness, ever green and sheltering tree,
Symbol once of shame and bondage, now the sign that we are free!
Cross of splendor, cross of glory, cross of love’s great victory!
Christians, chant your grateful praises for the tree of triumph won, proof of overflowing mercy and redemption in the Son. To the cross of Christ give glory while the endless ages run!
“Paschal Lamb, Who Suffered for Us” Carl Schalk (1929-2021)
Musician, composer, and professor of music emeritus, Dr. Carl F. Schalk taught various music classes at his alma mater, Concordia University Chicago, for more than four decades. During his years as a professor, Dr. Schalk joyfully served as a mentor to future generations of church musicians and encouraged his students to remain true to the doctrine set forth by the Scriptures. Barry L. Bobb, director of the Center for Church Music at Concordia University Chicago, said these words about Dr. Schalk: “He has bequeathed to this generation and those to come an extraordinary model, one which will serve well all those who aspire to a life of significant service in the Church.”
Paschal Lamb who suggested for us, Sheepgate guarding all your sheep,
Let us hear your voice which summons Each of us, God’s will to keep.
Dead to sing through your great mercy, By your wounds we are made whole;
You have gathered us from straying, Safe may pass from death to life.
Guide and guard us through our sufferings, Let us hear you call our name,
Knowing you as our Messiah Who, for us, bore cross and shame.
In your victory make us sharers; Lead us new through sin and strife
That we all who share one Baptism Safe may pass from death to life.
