June 3, 2012 - Trinity Sunday

Prelude and Variations on OLD HUNDREDTH
                                                                    - Calvin Hampton
In the Year That King Uzziah Died - David McK. Williams
God So Loved the World - John Goss

Hymns: #362 Nicaea, #324 Picardy, #365 Moscow

All of the music for this Sunday is from composers with close ties to the Anglican Choral tradition. Another unifying characteristic is the tie that they have to hymnody. All are known as composers of hymn tunes and one of them, David McKay Williams is best remembered for his hymn playing.

The gradual anthem for Sunday is a setting of Isaiah 6:1-8 by David McKay Williams. In the Year That King Uzziah Died was written in 1935 while Williams was serving at St. Bartholomew’s in NYC. Williams was originally born in Wales but his family moved to Denver before he was a year old. He studied organ and composition in Paris. Upon his return to the US he became the organist at St. Bartholomew’s and chair of the organ department at Julliard and later at Union Seminary. More than any of his other contributions to church music, Williams is remembered for his hymn playing. People would come from across the country to hear him play hymns. He would compose free accompaniments on the spot and he had the largest organ in the city at his disposal. Williams was instrumental in the additions that were made to the organ at St. Bart’s which has five manuals with a gallery organ as well as the front organ and a “celestial organ” placed in the domed ceiling.  This creativity is evident in his use of text painting throughout the anthem. The piece starts strong with the choir singing in unison against a pretty substantial organ part before breaking into their cries of “Holy.” This praise gives way to the mysterious verse 4 with the organ creating the illusion of smoke. Williams asks the organist to sustain the lowest two notes on the organ through this verse on the lowest sounding stops. The choir and organ then “sing” a duet before the brief a cappella section that leads to the return of the opening material. The piece draws to a quiet close with fragments of earlier themes traded between organ and choir.

The communion anthem is Sir John Goss’s(1800-1880) setting of God So Loved the World. Goss was an organist, composer and teacher. He served as professor at the Royal Academy of Music from 1827-1874 where one of his best known pupils was Sir John Stainer. In fact, if one were to compare the two settings of this text (Stainer’s and Goss’s) there are definite similarities to be found not the least of which is the dotted figure on the phrase “to condemn the world.” Goss was known as a benevolent teacher and choirmaster that was constantly striving to raise the slipping standards of church music. He wrote in many mediums but is best remembered for his choral compositions and his hymn tunes including Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven and See, Amid the Winter’s Snow.

The prelude and postlude are excerpts from Calvin Hampton’s(1938-1984) Prelude and Variations on OLD HUNDREDTH. I have programmed three of the twelve variations (in honor of Trinity Sunday.) This piece was written by Calvin Hampton for his “Concerts at Midnight” series at Calvary Episcopal Church. The concert organist Cherry Rhodes was preparing for a performance at the International Organ Festival in St. Albans and want to Hampton in search of a piece. He played her a recording of his performance of the piece and she asked to play it with the proviso that he compose a flashy pedal variation for it. He was only all too happy to answer her request with a challenging pedal solo for the fifth variation which did not appear in the first publication. The variations that I have selected are numbers 3, 10, and 12.  The third and tenth will combine to make up the prelude. The third is a lovely trio with the chorale in the pedals on a 4’reed with the left and right hand playing an intricate two against three figure. Variation ten is a bit freer with the tune being played on an 8’ principal accompanied by the string celestes of the organ. The final variation is a toccata with the tune first presented in long notes in the soprano and then in canon with the pedals. The coda brings back the two against three interplay heard in the third variation and ends with crashing chords that are reminiscent of the opening sections of the work.