Proper 25 - October 23rd, 2011

Meditation - Charles-Marie Widor
I Will Love Thee, O Lord - Vassily Kalinnikoff
Lord I Trust Thee - G.F. Handel
Toccata on St. Anne - Frederick Swann


Hymns: #517 Brother James' Air, #605 Sharpthorne, #680 St. Anne


The music this week is about trusting God. 


The prelude, I must confess has little to do with anything else but is a nice quiet Meditation to start the service and I think that it leads nicely in to the first hymn. From there the music seems to build throughout the service ending with the powerful "O God Our Help in Ages Past" perhaps the ultimate hymn of trust.


The Gradual Anthem is a motet by a lesser known contemporary of Tschiakovsky and Rachmaninoff. Vassily Kalinnikoff had a promising career ahead of him as a composer and music director but his life was plagued by ill health and he died of consumption at the age of 35. Is it any wonder that he turned to the scriptures and wrote this piece about God "my rock and my fortress,my Saviour, my God and my strength in Whom I will trust." 


The Communion Anthem continues this idea of trust. The text talks of us relying on God's grace so that when we die we will be joined to Him. This movement taken from Handel's setting of the Passion story is, for me almost reminiscent of the 23rd Psalm and the idea of God as a Shepherd that loves and cares for His sheep.

The postlude this week serves as a continuation of the final hymn, St. Anne and ends the service with a festive toccata. The word toccata comes from the Italian word to touch and is a genre relegated to keyboard instruments primarily the organ although there are toccatas for the piano (Prokoffiev wrote one as did JS Bach). This toccata places the hymn tune in the pedal amid swirling chords in the hands and then breaks up the tune across the 3 manuals of the organ. It's a lot of fun to play.