Proper 28 - November 13th, 2011

Sonata 1 - Paul Hindemith 
Lift Thine Eyes - F. Mendelssohn 
Out of Your Sleep - R. R. Bennett 
Allegretto - Horatio Parker


Hymns: #551 Festal Song, #721 Ton-Y-Botel, #617 Song 1


This weeks music is a little disjoint. The anthem is a setting of the psalm for the day taken from Felix Mendelssohn's work Elijah. This piece in itself is unique in that Mendelssohn is one of few composers that chose to continue writing oratorios. Elijah bears a strong resemblance to the oratorios of Handel and Haydn taking a huge amount of Biblical text and turning it into a sacred drama. "Lift Thine Eyes" comes at a pivotal point in Elijah's experience. He is being pursued and his life is in jeopardy. He has just sung "It is Enough" and basically stated that he is giving up and wants God to take his life. "Lift Thine Eyes" is sung by the women of the choir. It is sometimes performed by a trio of "angels." The text of the recitative before it is "See, now he sleepeth beneath a juniper tree in the wilderness! and there the angels of the Lord encamp around all them that fear Him." The angels then direct Elijah to Lift his eyes to the hills. That's where your help will come from.

Out of Your Sleep is a setting of a poem from a 15th century manuscript (the Seldin Manuscript). It seems that the reason that this text is so odd to us is because much of it is mistranslated. Here is a rough correction of the text:

Out of your sleep arise and wake,
For God mankind has taken
A maid without equal
Of all women, she beareth the best

And through a maid fair and wise,
Now man is made of excellence
Now angels bow to man's service
And at this time all this befell.

Now man is brighter than the sun
Now man in heaven on high shall won
Blessed be God this game is begun
And his Mother the Empress of Light**

Whoever was thrall now is he free;
That ever was small now great is she
Now shall God judge both thee and me
Unto his bliss if we do well

Now man he may to heaven go
now heaven and earth to him they bow
He that was foe now is our friend
It cannot be, that which I tell you.

Now blessed brother grant us grace
At doomsday to see Thy face
And in thy court to have a place
That we may there sing thee nowell.

** The word hell is a mistranslation of hel the Middle English word for light. An archaic name for Mary is the Empress of Light.

The organ music for the day was picked with the Boatwright anthem in mind. The anthem by Howard Boatwright is dated 1962 New Haven, CT. The pieces I picked are by notable Yale composers. Paul Hindemith fled Nazi occupied Germany for of all places Buffalo and then left it for Connecticut where the snow was less black (his words not mine). One of the notable things about Hindemith is that he composed for all instruments including 3 sonatas for the organ. The prelude is a slow trio from the first sonata and is just a beautiful dialogue between the two hands with a supportive and at times melodic pedal line. The postlude is a playful piece by Horatio Parker. Parker was elected to the position of Theory professor in 1894. He later became the dean of the school of music. He was instrumental in establishing the Music Library. The piece is a playful romp that is light and quick. It is interesting because although the piece is in minor it never feels dark. It is just a quick light end to the service.