July 1, 2012 - Proper 8

Festival Prelude on "Thaxted" - David Howard Pettit
An American Sonata: "Sostenuto and Meditation"
                                                             - Charles Callahan
Variations on "The Star Spangled Banner": Finale
                                                             - Dudley Buck

Hymns: #9 Morning Song, #482 Slane,
              #705 Forest Green, #719 Materna

This week’s music is, with the exception of the prelude, based on American hymn tunes. The prelude is a festive setting of the “hymntune” Thaxted . This tune is taken from Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite  The Planets: “Jupiter.” It was not until Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in his 1926 hymnal,  Songs of Praise. Just as the chorale in the orchestral suite, this setting builds and grows with the theme passed back and forth between the organ and the saxophone with the pedals imitating tympani at the conclusion of the piece.

The communion anthem is taken from An American Sonata by Charles Callahan, one of the leading composers of organ music in the country. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and the American Catholic University. He is a noted expert on church music and organ buildings with two books on the latter to his record which have become standards in the field. The first movement is a setting of Consolation while the second is a meditation on He Leadeth Me. Both present the tunes in a straightforward unadorned fashion in the saxophone. The organ provides smooth, sustained accompaniment which allows the soloist to play with great expressivity and with much freedom.

The postlude is the final variation in Dudley Buck’s Variations on the Star Spangled Banner. Variation sets of this type were common during the late 19^th century in America as organ recitals gained popularity. The recitalists such as Buck, John Knowles Paine, and Edwin H. Lemare would frequently play sets of variations on well-known tunes that showed off their technique. These variations usually had a statement of the theme followed by between three and five variations. There was usually a variation for pedals alone, one in a minor key, and it would frequently end with a big fugue leading to a restatement of the main theme. This piece is no different. Today I am ending the service with the fugue and finale as a way of celebrating the upcoming Fourth of July holiday.