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