September 29, 2013 - Proper 21

Meditation on 'Kingsfold' - Roberta Bitgood
God Is My Strong Salvation - Sue and Lionel Wood
Requiem: Prayer of St. Francis - John Leavitt
Concerto in C: "Allegro" - J.G. Walther

Hymns: #423 St. Denio, #709 Dundee,
              #625 Darwall's 148th

This week’s music is very typical American church music – Oh except for the German concerto movement for a postlude. Yes, other than that very American. Oh, and the English folk tunes that the prelude and gradual anthem are based on, and the Latin text of the solo quartet in the communion anthem and the text is a prayer by an Italian. Other than that – American.

The prelude this week is Roberta Bitgood’s (1908-2007) Meditation on ‘Kingsfold’. Roberta Bitgood was an organist and composer who was a pioneer in her field. She began her study of music with the violin at age five and by her teens was playing in churches throughout Connecticut. She attended the Connecticut College for Women majoring in Mathematics and music. She studied with William C. Carl at the Guilmant Organ School and went on to get a Master’s in Education from Columbia and a doctorate in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary. She was a trailblazer in her field which was at the time largely male dominated and in 1975 became the first woman president of the American Guild of Organists. This piece was written in 1975 to honor the Rev. Walter Funk at the installation of the new Redman Organ at First Presbyterian Church of Lafayette, LA. Interestingly enough, this piece is not well suited to that particular organ, lacking the types of stops called. The tune is a traditional English folk tune thought to date back to the Middle Ages. I must confess, I picked this piece accidentally thinking that “Kingsfold” was the tune that the gradual anthem was based on. Sadly, they are similar but not the same. It is still a good piece – we’ll call it a happy accident.

God Is My Strong Salvation is a setting of James Montgomery’s (1771-1854) setting of Psalm 27. The arrangement is simple – very much like singing a hymn. The setting is by Sue and Lionel Wood. I know NOTHING about these people aside from the fact that they are/were connected to the Salvation Army. The setting is very straight forward – much like the psalm text. It is a simple affirmation of God as the protector. I think that you will very quickly see how I could mistake this tune for “Kingsfold” with its minor key with a strong pulse; the two have much in common.

The Prayer of St. Francis is taken from the Requiem by John Leavitt (b. 1956). Leavitt’s education and career have been primarily centered in Kansas. He is a highly sought after clinician and conductor and has received commissions for new choral works from numerous organizations. In the preface to his Requiem he writes that the work is “inspired by Brahms’ German Requiem” and that like that work, this is a work that draws on the psalms and other spiritual texts rather than the traditional Mass for the Dead to comfort the living rather than pray for those that have died. This prayer (also from Psalm 27) serves as the “Credo” of the Requiem. The solo quartet prays for peace while the choir asks to be the instrument of peace. The requests combine and remind me of the text of the song by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller Let There Be Peace on Earth. This one says: “Give us peace and let me be the ‘instrument’ that brings it”

The postlude is something completely different. An arrangement by Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) of a concerto by Joseph Meck (1690-1758). These concertos were often for violin or oboe and were arranged for organ as some of the first orchestral transcriptions. This allowed Walther to share the compositional style of Meck with the listeners in Germany that would not have known the style. This bouncy melody seemed a fitting close to this service and gives the variety that I think is necessary for this Sunday. I think that the sparkling and lively solo line will brighten the rather staunch selections that precede it in the service. This selection also capitalizes on the Holtkamp stops on this organ rather than relying on the digital sounds of the Rodgers addition.

September 22, 2013 - Proper 20

Sonata in Eb: "Andante" - Horatio Parker
O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem - John Goss
The Collection/Serenity - Charles Ives
Symphony of Spirituals: "Toccata and Fugue"
                                                                          - Joel Raney

Hymns: #375 DU LEBENSBROT, #550 RESTORATION, 
              #676 BALM IN GILEAD

The music this week is primarily American with the exception of the gradual anthem which is very British. The pieces are all centered around the idea of peace, but in some ways they are about different types of peace.

O Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem is taken from the larger work Praise the Lord by the British organist and composer John Goss (1800-1880). Goss came from a musical family and started his career as a professional musician at an early age. His father was the organist of a small parish church and at an early age Goss was appointed a chorister of the Chapel Royal. He studied the organ with the renowned Thomas Attwood, a student of Mozart and the organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 1821 Goss married and was appointed organist of Stockwell Chapel where he served until 1824 when he took a similar post at St. Luke’s, Chelsea. In 1827 he was appointed to a position at the Royal Academy of Music which he held until 1874. In 1838 Attwood died and Goss was appointed organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, a post he held until his retirement. In addition to his duties at the cathedral and the academy he also taught at St. Paul’s school where one of his students was John Stainer who later succeeded him at the Cathedral. Much of Goss’s music has been relegated to obscurity but his church music is still performed today. O Pray for the Peace opens with a mournful bass line that is passed up through the vocal parts and with a refrain that describes the fate of those that love the Lord. This back and forth continues and the anthem concludes with a quiet final chorus in major.

The prelude was written by the American composer Horatio Parker (1863-1919). Parker, like Goss, came from a musical family. His mother was an organist and his father an architect. In 1877 Parker took his first music lessons from his mother and later studied composition with George Chadwick. It was Chadwick’s recommendation in 1882 that sent Parker to Munich to study with the organist/composer Josef Rheinberger. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1885 he occupied several positions in NYC. In 1893 Parker moved his family to Boston where he assumed duties as organist at Trintiy Church, Copley Square where he stayed until 1902. In 1894 Parker was elected to the Battell Professorship of the Theory of Music at Yale. Parker was tremendously successful as a composer and teacher. Among his students were David Stanley Smith, Roger Sessions, Quincy Porter and Charles Ives. Parker’s 1908 Organ Sonata in Eb Op. 65 in four movements begins with a sonata form structure followed by two song form movements and ending with a large fugue. The second movement, Andante has a lovely singing melody played on the oboe with a flowing left hand accompaniment. This then moves to a B section on the Vox Humana, a unique stop named for the human voice. This moves to a third section which is a fugue played on the string stop of the great. The opening theme returns and again proceeds to the material played on the vox humana as the piece draws to a quiet close.

As I said in the previous section, one of Parker’s students was Charles Ives (1874-1954). For the communion anthem I have combined his 1919 composition Serenity from Seven Songs for Voice and Piano and The Collection from 114 Songs. Serenity is a peaceful song that is only 27 measures long. Of those 27 measures, 16 are the same. From a compositional standpoint this piece is very similar to Holst’s Neptune from The Planets. Ives considered this piece to be “namby-pamby” and “nice” despite the fact that this composition brought him a great deal of notoriety. The Collection is a 1920 setting of Kingsley labeled by the composer for “the organist, the soprano, and the Village Choir.” Typical of Ives’s early writing this utilizes an early hymn tune with some twisting and unusual harmonies at the outset but it is very traditional once the voice comes in. These two pieces provide an interesting contrast about God. The first focuses on praising God while the second finds serenity through the love of God.

The postlude is taken form Joel Raney’s Symphony of Spirituals. Joel Raney (b. 1956) was Artist-in-Residence at the First Presbyterian Church of River Forest, Illinois, and currently serves as Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church of Oak Park, Illinois. He studied at the University of North Alabama and Julliard and is in demand as a composer and clinician. This piece is a toccata on Swing Low, Sweet Chariot with staccato chords in the hands and the melody in the feet followed by a fugue on Promised Land which concludes with a coda on the first piece. This work for piano and organ features a number of well-known spirituals and combines them for the two instruments in a masterful way. This movement for organ only concludes the piece in a triumphant fashion and leads the listener to an image of peace at the end of life. These two pieces paint a picture of a chariot that takes the singer to the Promised Land and invites the listener to join.

These pieces cover peace from a prayerful desire for the chosen people of God to the peace that only God can grant and the notion that this peace may not be found until we reach the end of our journey. It is my hope that as we move back into the church year and the busy seasons of life that we may all find peace now and look forward to the peace that will come.

September 15, 2013 - Proper 19

Da Pacem, Domine - Melchior Franck
Followers of the Lamb - Philip R. Dietterich
Flocks in Pastures Green Abiding - J.S. Bach
The Lord Bless You and Keep You - Peter C. Lutkin

Hymns: #686 Nettleton, #761 Holy Manna, #8 Bunessan

It is always a bit of a challenge to select the music for this first service. In a lot of ways it’s the beginning of the season while at the same time it really isn’t. On top of that there is the constraint of being outside and needing to sing a cappella. This is less daunting to me now but still scary because we have not sung together consistently for three months. I also wanted pieces that would lend themselves to being sung outside. Nothing too heavy or serious. I settled on four pieces that I think work well together but are contrasting enough to be interesting.

Da Pacem, Domine is a simple six measure round by Melchior Franck (1579-1639). Da pacem, Domine in diebus nostris, is the opening line of a votive antiphon and means Give peace, O Lord, in our time. This simple but effective piece was written by a prolific composer that is often forgotten today. Franck met Hans Leo Hassler while in Nuremberg and learned from him the composition style of Lassus and the Gabrielis. Franck excelled at counterpoint and wrote more than 600 works including protestant chorale motets and early examples of fugues. Unlike some of his contemporaries Franck was able to make a living as a full time musician in spite of the 30 Years War which brought typhus to the region and decimated many towns. It’s easy to see why he would write in invocation of peace when there was this much turmoil going on. Franck was not unaffected by this, he lost his wife and two of his children to the outbreak. This prayer serves as a reminder that there is and always will be strife but we can pray for relief. Peace in OUR time.

In 1774 the Shakers, a dissenting sect of the Quaker religion, followed their leader, Mother Ann Lee to the United States settling in 1776 in Nikayuna near Albany, NY. The term “Shaker” refers to their unique style of worship which included rhythmic swaying and dancing as they felt led. The Shakers developed their own system of musical notation and received songs while in a trance like state. Instruments were not sanctioned for use until 1870. This rhythmic tune arranged by Philip R. Dietterich (b. 1931) was written down in 1847. It captures much of the style of Shaker worship. The first thing that struck me is that the men address the men and the women the women, this is a society that lived in gender specific dormitories and led a life of celibacy, it seems fitting. The singers encourage their brethren to dance and the piece builds to an explosive frenzy which is also typical of Shaker worship.

I must admit, this next piece is a bit of a stretch to do the way that we are doing it. Flocks in Pastures Green Abiding is an arrangement by Stanley Roper of Schafe können sicher weiden from J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 208. The piece loses a little without the familiar recorder obbligato alternating with the choir. The piece in its original form was written for soprano, continuo and two recorders as part of the the secular cantata “All that I love is the merry hunt” which Bach presented to Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels as a part of his birthday celebration. In the original aria the singer tells us that sheep may graze safely under the care of a good ruler, in that case, the Duke. In our setting the Good Shepherd is watching over his sheep.

The final piece was written by Peter C. Lutkin (1858-1931). It is his setting of Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord Bless You and Keep You. This old chestnut of the choral literature occupies a nostalgic place in the life of many church and university choirs including Westminster Choir College. Lutkin studied organ with Clarence Eddy and then went on to study at the Royal Academy of the Arts in Berlin. When he returned to the US he served on the faculty at Northwestern and the American Conservatory of Music. He was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists. His sevenfold Amen which concludes this simple benediction is a fitting close to this first Sunday of choir for the year. It rises and falls in just ten measures from a quiet beginning to a full declaration and fades back into nothing.