Hymn of the Day: Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways ELW 772
Text: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748, alt.
Tune: EVAN, William H. Havergal, 1793-1870
“Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways” (ELW 772) is a prayer that God will give us the will and the ability to live according to God’s ways, which are called “a delightful road.” “Statutes” is one of the synonyms for commandments that occurs in our translation of the psalms. Isaac Watts wrote this hymn as a versification of part of Psalm 119, the psalm for this day. Watts is called the father of English hymnody. Although many in his church asserted that the only songs Christians could sing in worship were the psalms straight from the Bible, Watts wrote over six hundred hymns and psalm paraphrases that have become classic staples in Christian worship around the world.
— Gail Ramshaw
William H. Havergal was educated at St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1815, M.A. 1819). On taking Holy Orders he became rector in various churches until, 1845, when he became Hon. Canon in Worcester Cathedral from 1845. His hymns, about 100 in all, were in many instances written for special services in his own church, and printed as leaflets. Several were included in W. Carus Wilson's Book of General Psalmody, 1840 (2nd ed., 1842); and in Metrical Psalms & Hymns for Singing in Churches, Worcester, Deighton, 1849, commonly known as the Worcester Diocesan Hymn Book, and of which he was the Editor. In Life Echoes, 1883, his hymns are given with those of Miss Havergal. Of those in common use the greater part are in Mercer, and Snepp's Songs of Grace & Glory. Although his hymns are all good, and two or three are excellent, it is not as a hymnwriter but as a musician that Canon Havergal is best known.
Opening Voluntary: Trio #3 “Allegretto” 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.
Rheinberger was a prolific composer. His religious works include twelve Masses, a Requiem and a Stabat Mater. His other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works.
Today Rheinberger is remembered above all for his elaborate and challenging organ compositions, including two concertos, 20 sonatas in 20 different keys (of a projected set of 24 sonatas in all the keys), 22 trios, and 36 solo pieces. His organ sonatas were once declared to be undoubtedly the most valuable addition to organ music since the time of Mendelssohn. They are characterized by a happy blending of the modern Romantic spirit with masterly counterpoint and dignified organ style.
Offertory: Andante Maurice Greene (1696-1755) Maurice Greene
Born in London, the son of a clergyman, Greene became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King. He studied the organ under Richard Brind, and after Brind died, Greene became organist at St Paul's.
With the death of William Croft in 1727, Greene became organist at the Chapel Royal, and in 1730 he became Professor of Music at Cambridge University. In 1735 he was appointed Master of the King's Musick. At his death, Greene was working on the compilation Cathedral Music, which his student and successor as Master of the King's Musick, William Boyce, was to complete. Many items from that collection are still used in Anglican services today.
He wrote very competent music in the style prevalent in Georgian England, particularly longer Verse Anthems. His acknowledged masterpiece, “Lord, Let Me Know Mine End,” is a representative example. Greene sets a text full of pathos using a polyphonic texture over a continuous instrumental walking bass, with a particularly effective treble duet in the middle of the work. Both this section and the end of the anthem contain superb examples of the Neapolitan sixth chord. His organ voluntaries - published only some years after his death - are more contrapuntal than melodic. They display a more reflective and profound character, and do not specify manuals or stops unlike later contemporaries such as Bennett, Boyce and Stanley.
He died in 1755 aged 59 and was initially buried at St Olave Old Jewry. On the church's demolition in 1887, he was reburied in St Paul's Cathedral.
Closing Voluntary: Voluntary in B flat Jonathan Battishill (1738-1801)
Jonathan Battishill was a near contemporary of Haydn (1732-1809) but belonged to a quite different musical tradition, namely that of English cathedral music and the London stage. Handel had been living in London for over 20 years at the time of Battishill's birth and his powerful influence on eighteenth century English music can be felt in his compositions. And yet the melodic shapes and certain musical gestures found within the piece are distinctly Battishill's.
He seems to have been a man of remarkable mental powers, but a failed marriage led him to drink; and this, in turn, robbed him of achieving his ambition to become Organist of St Paul's Cathedral. Nevertheless he was buried in the crypt of St Paul's and you can see his near that of the composer William Boyce and a later composer of music for church and (more famously) the stage: Arthur Sullivan.