April 14, 2013 - Easter 3

Three Short Pieces: "Aspiration" - John E. West
If Ye Love Me - Philip Wilby
These are They Which Follow the Lamb - John Goss
Gelobet sei Gott - Healey Willan

Hymns: #255 Munich, #205 Gelobet sei Gott,
              #492 Finnian

The Eastertide music has a very Anglican feel to it. Most of it comes from either British or American composers and has strong ties to the British choral traditions (though some feel and are more American in nature.) This vein stretches into the Celebration of the Arts with performances of the Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs and Handel’s Israel in Egypt.

The anthem for today is a new (1992) setting of John 14:15-18, If Ye Love Me. Most of us are familiar with the Tallis setting of this text which is a classic that belongs in the repertoire of every church choir. This setting is by Philip Wilby (b. 1949). He was educated at the Leeds Grammar School and while playing violin in the National Youth Orchestra attended composition seminars taught by Herbert Howells. He later attended Oxford University where he received a degree in composition and went on to a career as a professional violinist. In 1972 he was appointed Principal Lecturer in Composition at Leeds University. Wilby has made a name for himself primarily as a composer of music for Brass bands. His compositions have been used as competition and festival pieces throughout Britain and the world. This simple setting opens with the sopranos only singing the beautiful melody. This leads to a split in the soprano section with a chain of suspension before the full choir enters. The full choir in unison alternates with the lush organ accompaniment as the piece draws to a quiet end.

The communion anthem was written by John Goss (1800-1880) a British organist and composer primarily remembered for his hymn tunes Praise My Soul the King of Heaven, and See, Amid the Winter’s Snow. His anthems tend to be both very well written and very simple. I find that I turn to them when I need something at short notice they are typically quite short which makes them all the more manageable. I have never been disappointed. There are always lovely moments in them that allow for exquisite music making. These are They Which Follow the Lamb is a setting of Revelations 14:4 and 5 speaking of the redeemed in heaven. The anthem is mostly homophonic with an organ part that doubles the voices. I have opted to leave that out and to present it a cappella to allow the delicate musicality of the lines to shine through.

The composer of the postlude was born in Britain but spent the majority of his professional career in Canada. His music, however is strongly associated with the Anglican tradition. Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in England and moved to Canada in 1913 to accept the position of organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s in Toronto. In 1921 he accepted a similar position at St. Mary Magdalene and in 1938 was named professor of theory at the University of Toronto. His setting of Melchior Vulpius’s hymn Gelobet sei Gott has the feel of a light and joyful German chorale prelude. The tune (played in the tenor register on a trumpet stop) alternates with the bubbly ritornello played on the principal chorus. These stops join together for the final joyous “Hallelujahs” which end the piece.

John Ebenezer West’s Aspiration is the first in his 1905 publication Three Short Pieces. West received a formidable education in his early years. He studied organ with J.F. Bridge, the organist at Westminster Abbey and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He received additional instruction from his uncle, Ebenezer Prout, a renowned Bach scholar. West held several church positions before his appointment to the publishing firm of Novello & Co. In 1897 he was named musical editor and advisor. The piece is in a very simple ABA form. The A section is a winding reed solo played above a sustained four voice texture played on the soft foundation stops of the swell. The accompaniment and solo dance back and forth in a way that occasionally gives prominence to the accompanimental figure over the solo. The B section bears a great deal of similarity to the accompaniment of the Wilby piece. It has thick chords with inner voices that move from consonant to dissonant and the registration waxes and wanes as the lines flow up and down. The title seems to lend itself to the message of the Wilby anthem. This should be our “aspiration” as a church, to keep his commandments.