May 20, 2012 - Easter 7/Sunday after the Ascension

Ten Pieces in Style Libre: "Larghetto"
                                                             - Charles Tournemire
O Be Joyful in the Lord (Jubilate Deo) - Leo Sowerby
Peace I Leave With You - Walter L. Pelz

Hymns: #460 Hyfrydol, #307 Bryn Calfaria, #481 Gopsal

The gradual anthem is a setting of O Be Joyful in the Lord, or Jubilate Deo by the American composer and church musician, Leo Sowerby (1895-1968). Sowerby spent most of his career playing and teaching in Chicago. He was born in Grand Rapids, MI he began his piano studies at age seven but taught himself theory and organ. He served in the US Army as a clarinetist and bandmaster and in 1921 he was awarded the Prix de Rome and studied in Italy for three years. Upon his return to the US he was appointed choir director and organist of St. James Episcopal Cathedral where he served from 1927-1961. In 1932 he joined the composition faculty of the American Conservatory where he taught until 1962. He also helped to found and served as director of the College of Church Musicians in Washington D.C. until his death in 1968. Sowerby’s church music is demanding for both the organist and the choir. This setting of the Jubilate Deo is one of the easier compositions from the choir’s point of view but offers its share of challenges. There are some tricky skips in the choral line as well as many difficulties in fitting the rather dissonant organ part in with the unison choir line. The choir and the organ trade lines back and forth including lines featuring the trumpet stop playing a spirited melody.

The communion anthem is from the pen of Walter L. Pelz(b. 1926), a recitalist and Professor Emeritus of music at Bethany College. This setting of John 14:27 in ABA form is a simple and gentle setting of this beloved text. The piece opens and closes with chordal writing for the choir with flowing lines in the inner parts. The B section contains the only imitative writing in the work with a more active theme that is introduced by the altos and then handed off through the rest of the choir but the imitation is short lived. The choir joins together after each part has had its turn on the text, “Let not your heart be troubled.” The work closes with the hushed assurance that “my peace I give unto you” cascading through the choir from the sopranos down.

The prelude is by the French Romantic composer Charles Tournemire (1870-1939). This Larghetto is the fourth of Ten Pieces in Free Style composed for the organist Joseph Bonnet. Tournemire studied the organ with Franck and Widor at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1898 he was appointed organist of St. Clotilde, a position previously occupied by Gabriel Pierne and his teacher Cesar Franck. This piece features the Vox Celeste stop. This stop is actually a stop made up of two pipes per note. The first is the main pipe, a narrow scaled soft voice “string pipe” (meant to imitate the sound of orchestral strings). The second pipe is tuned slightly sharp to intentionally create an “out-of-tune” undulating effect that causes the stop to shimmer.