Hymn of the Day: Lead On, O King Eternal ELW 805
Text: Ernest W. Shurtleff, 1862-1917
Tune: LANCASHIRE, Henry T. Smart, 1813-1879
With the encouragement of his fellow graduating classmates, Ernest W. Shurtleff wrote this text in 1887 for Andover Theological Seminary's commencement ceremonies. Winning immediate acclaim, the text was published in Shurtleff's Hymns of the Faith that same year. Since that publication it has appeared in many American hymnals.
Graduation is one milestone on our life's journey, a road sign that points to the future as much as it marks the end of formal education. Consequently, "Lead On, O King Eternal" is a battle call to go forward in Christian service. Initially laced with war imagery, the text moves on to biblical imagery-"deeds of love and mercy"-and concludes with a note of hope. The text has remained mostly unchanged since its composition. The only differences lie in the modernization of language, changing “thee” to “you,” etc. Its message is as urgent today as it was a hundred years ago.
Before studying at Andover, Shurtleff attended Harvard University. He served Congregational churches in California, Massachusetts and Minnesota, before moving to Europe. In 1905 he established the American Church in Frankfurt, and in 1906 he moved to Paris, where he was involved in student ministry at the Academy Vitti. During World War I he and his wife were active in refugee relief work in Paris.
The rousing marching tune LANCASHIRE was composed by Henry T. Smart and set to Shurtleff’s text in 1905. It is an easy melody to pick up. This song was written for young people, and was for many years a popular choice at youth camps and young people’s worship gatherings.
Henry Smart was a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, is the best-known). Smart gave up a career in the legal profession for one in music. Although largely self taught, he became proficient in organ playing and composition, and he was a music teacher and critic. Organist in a number of London churches, including St. Luke's, Old Street, and St. Pancras, Smart was famous for his extemporizations and for his accompaniment of congregational singing. He became completely blind at the age of fifty-two, but his remarkable memory enabled him to continue playing the organ. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for important places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He composed an opera, oratorios, part-songs, some instrumental music, and many hymn tunes, as well as a large number of works for organ and choir. He edited the Choralebook (1858), the English Presbyterian Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), and the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal (1875). Some of his hymn tunes were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).
Offertory: Petit Offertoire César Franck (1822-1890)
It took a Belgian composer to convince France of the value of German musical ideas. Before César Franck arrived in Paris, French Romantic music had been primarily a tradition of dazzling orchestral color and seductive harmonies. Franck was interested in the structural and expressive innovations of Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner. His music combines the best of the two approaches, its Gallic lyricism and harmonic color shaped through German structural ideas into powerful dramatic forms. His legacy to French music was complex and varied. Parisian organists took inspiration from his phenomenal improvisation skills. He also pioneered extended compositions for the organ, which would lead to even grander works by Widor and Vierne. His advocacy of Liszt’s cyclic forms would later influence Debussy and Ravel. But for audiences around the world, Franck will be best remembered for his exhilarating orchestral works. Although few in number, their character marks them out as the work of a master equally at home in both German and French musical traditions.
This work, from his mature period, was published in 1864 in the collection Cinq Pièces pour harmonium (Five Pieces for Harmonium), Op.23. It is a gentle pastorale.
Opening Voluntary: O Gott, du frommer Gott Max Reger (1873-1916)
Composed by Ahasuerus Fritsch (1629- 1701), DARMSTADT first appeared in his Himmels-Lust und Welt-Unlust (1679). The melody was altered when it was published in the 1698 Darmstadt Geistreiches Gesangbuch and in several other eighteenth-century German hymnals. The tune is also known as O GOTT, DU FROMMER GOTT (named after a text by Heermann) and as WAS FRAG ICH NACH DER WELT (named after an association with a text in the Darmstadt hymnal).
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He was noted for his organ works, which use Baroque forms and was one of the last composers to infuse life into 19th-century musical traditions. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and a music director at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. Reger first composed mainly Lieder, chamber music, choral music and works for piano and organ. He later turned to orchestral compositions.
Closing Voluntary: Prelude on “Richmond” Healey Willan
RICHMOND (also known as CHESTERFIELD) is a florid tune originally written by Thomas Haweis and published in his collection Carmina Christo (1792). Samuel Webbe, Jr., adapted and shortened the tune and published it in his Collection of Psalm Tunes (1808). It was reprinted in 1853 in Webbe's Psalmody. Webbe named the tune after Rev. Leigh Richmond, a friend of Haweis's. The CHESTERFIELD name comes from Lord Chesterfield, a statesman who frequently visited Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, for whom Haweis worked as a chaplain.
In all, Willan wrote and published 99 chorale preludes, almost all from 1950 or later. Most are in a traditional style and in forms derived from those found in the works of Bach, an indebtedness anticipated in the organ compositions of Willan’s influential British forebears, Parry and Stanford.