April 28, 2013 - Easter 5

Morning - Alfred Hollins
The Holy City: "They Shall Hunger No More" - A.R. Gaul
I Give To You a New Commandment - Peter Nardone
Morning Song - Stanley E. Saxton

Hymns: #8 Bunessan, #9 Morning Song, #624 Ewing

If I had to pick one word to describe this week’s music it would be new. Not new as in contemporary, but new as in a fresh start. Even though the day of spring was over a month ago it is finally starting to warm up and get greener outside. Things at church are launching in to full speed ahead for the Celebration of the Arts, Everything seems a little bit fresher and yes, a little bit newer.

The prelude and postlude I picked are only marginally suited for the day but, for me they fit in with this theme. The thing that got me into this frame of mind for the service are the first two hymns, Morning Has Broken, and the hymntune Morning Song. The prelude is simply called Morning. It is the first in a pair of pieces (the other being Evening) by the English, organist Alfred Hollins (1865-1942). Hollins early life was marked with tragedy. He was blind from birth and his mother died while he was very young. Little is known of his father, he was raised by his “Aunt Mary” from whom he received his first instruction at the piano. At age 9 he went to Wilberforce Institution for the Blikd where he studied for four years and then went on to study at the Royal Normal College for the Blind where he was given opportunity to study piano and organ. Hollins later moved to Edinburgh where he served Free St. George’s Church. This church had never had an organ or an organist but the assistant minister fought to bring the church into the twentieth century by installing an organ and hiring Hollins to play it.  Despite being remembered for only three of his organ compositions, Hollins was a very successful recitalist who made several international tours. He wrote over 50 compositions for the organ as well as choral music for the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Morning is a light character piece that has a rising and falling line that twists and turns this way and that played on the soft foundation stops of the organ with a light reed to add a little buzz.

The postlude is called Prelude on Morning Song but it is not on the hymn tune Morning Song, but rather on Laudes Domini by Joseph Barnby(1838-1896). Incidentally, Joseph Barnby’s brother William was one of Alfred Hollins’s teacher at the Wilberforce Institution. This arrangement by Stanley E. Saxton begins with chimes to announce the morning and builds from there into a full bright chorale. Saxton studied at Syracuse University and went on to study in Paris with Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupre, and Nadia Boulanger. In 1928 he joined the faculty of Skidmore College where he taught for 40 years. After his retirement he retained an active schedule as a recitalist and composer but also cultivating and breeding daylilies. Saxton Gardens in Saratoga became a major supplier of seeds to wholesalers and home gardeners. (Again keeping with our Spring thinking).

The gradual anthem is a duet from A.R. Gaul’s (1837-1913) oratorio The Holy City. This week’s epistle reading from Revelation 21 describes a new heaven and new earth where there will be no pain and thirst will be quenched. The duet They shall hunger no more takes its text from slightly earlier in Revelation (7:15-16) but conveys the same sentiment as the reading for this morning. Alfred Gaul spent most of his career in Birmingham as music director and teacher. His choral music for which he is best known bears the influence of Louis Spohr whose cantata The Last Judgment he viewed as the logical prequel to his own work The Holy City. Gaul’s compositions have largely fallen out of favor today. They are firmly rooted in the choral traditions of Mendelssohn but without the creativity and originality of counterpoint that Mendelssohn possesses. This lovely duet is very comforting and sweet. The middle section is reminiscent of the duet from the Crucifixion programmed a few weeks ago in which the two soloists seemingly seek to outdo the other before joining together again at the end.

The communion anthem is a simple setting of John 13:34-35 combined with the chant Ubi Caritas. This arrangement functions almost like a partner song. The ladies start the piece with the newly composed theme. This music is repeated with the men taking up the Ubi Caritas melody. On the third iteration of the theme the men join the altos while the sopranos add a descant above. The work closes with the men singing the final phrase of the chant tune with the women repeating “I have loved you” before a final “amen.” Peter Nardone (b.1965) is the Organist and Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later went on to study at the Royal Academy of London as a countertenor. Prior to holding this position at Worcester Cathedral he served twelve years at Chelmsford Cathedral and held numerous organist and director positions before that. He continues to maintain an active recital career as both soloist and conductor.