January 8, 2012 - Epiphany 1

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan Kam - Johann Pachelbel
This Little Babe from Ceremony of Carols - Benjamin Britten
Of the Father's Heart Begotten - arr. Sir David Willcocks
Songs of Thankfulness and Praise - arr. Robert A. Hobby


Hymns: #135 Salzbury, Restoration, #121 Caithness


The organ music and the choir music this week are quite separate in their mood and traditions but do have one thing in common, the melody is always presented in the simplest of fashions. Each composer/arranger goes to great lengths to preserve the integrity of the tune that he is working with. The prelude is a setting of Christ unser Herr zum Jordan Kam by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706). Pachelbel is one of the most influential Baroque composers of the South German school. Although primarily known at this point for his Canon in D, he is the composer of a great deal of music, much of it composed for the church. Almost half of Pachelbel's existing organ music is chorale based. These chorales were primarily composed during his time as organist in Erfurt where it was expected that he would continue to develop as a composer and demonstrated this by composing chorale preludes as well as one large chorale work each year that would demonstrate personal growth. His chorale settings unlike others by Buxtehude are much more simple. The chorale tune is often presented in a simple unadorned fashion in the outer voices (in this case in the pedal) while the other 2-4 voices provide counterpoint. The manuals in this piece play flowing 16th notes which help to evoke the image of the Jordan river to which Christ came to be baptized.

The postlude is a toccata like setting of the opening hymn Songs of Thankfulness and Praise by Robert A. Hobby (b. 1962). Mr. Hobby is Director of Music for Trinity English Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana and has  had his music published by several publishing companies. Much like the Pachelbel, this hymn setting features the hymn tune in the pedals with swirling figures in the manuals.

The choir music this week has a British flavor to it. The communion anthem is a setting of Of the Father's Heart Begotten by the English conductor, composer and organist Sid David Willcocks. Willcocks received his early musical training as a chorister at Westminter Abbey and continued his studies at King's College, Cambridge. WWII brought an interuption to these studies and Willcocks joined the infantry in 1941. After teh war he returned to his studies taking positions at Salisbury Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral and from 1957-1974 as Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge. Willcocks has received many honors and prestigious awards and appointments throughout his long career. His music continues to be performed throughout the world and as General editor of Church Music for Oxford University Press he has helped to shape the tradition of liturgical Church Music. This setting of Of the Father's Heart is very simple and allows the beauty of the tune and the text to shine through. The men and women alternate verses for the first five verses before coming together for the final verse for full choir.

This Little Babe is the final movement of Part 1 of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols Op. 28. This work was composed in 1942 while Britten and longtime friend Peter Pears were crossing the Atlantic on a trip from the US back to England. Britten had brought along two technical manuals on the harp to read as research for a harp concerto that he planned to write so it is likely that this explains his choice of the harp as accompaniment for the work. The piece was originally scored for three part treble voices and (perhaps at the urging of his publisher) was rescored for four part adult voices. The text for this movement was written by Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is likely that Southwell wrote this text during his three year imprisonment in the Tower of London for treason. Southwell was hung, drawn and quartered in 1595 for his beliefs and works as a Catholic missionary. In 1929 he was beatified by Pope Paul VI as one of the forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The text for This Little Babe is taken from the final four stanzas of the poem New Heaven, New War published after his death. The piece starts with the choir in unison and then goes to two part and later three part canon before bringing the choir back together, this time with big lush harmonies before the final two lines of the poem which modulate to a major key to bring the movement (and that section of the work) to a triumphal close. Throughout the movement the melody is presented in the same way. We hear the melody simply stated in unison and then broken into a round - but not changed. Even the last section in major is still the same basic melody and is still unaltered.