September 28, 2014 - Proper 21

Missa Festiva - Flor Peeters

Dear Lord and Father - C.H.H. Parry

Hymns: #523 Abbot's Leigh, #686 Nettleton, 

              #477 Engelberg

Flor Peeters (1903-1986) was a significant figure in church music in the 20^th century. His compositional oeuvre was not limited to liturgical compositions but it was through the music of the church and for his own instrument, the organ, that he made his most important contributions. Peeters was educated at the Lemmens institute in Belgium and at the age of 20 became the youngest student to receive the Prix Lemmens-Tinel, the school’s highest honor. In 1923 he was appointed assistant organist and second organ teacher. Upon the death of Oscar Depuydt in 1925 Peeters took over for his former teacher as head teacher and first organist. Peeters taught at several prominent conservatories and institutes throughout Belgium as well as in Holland, something that became not only complicated but illegal during World War II. Peeters would use a false passport and trade his Belgian bicycle for a Dutch made model at the border so that he could continue teaching and act as a messenger between his Cardinal and the Dutch Bishop.  Peeters also offered late night organ recitals to Jews and other people of the resistance.

Seeing the drastic effects of the war, it is no wonder that this Missa Festiva is as haunting and at times as dark as it is. Written in 1947 this was a piece that fits perfectly within the confines set out by Pope Pius X in his letter on liturgical music from 1903. This piece is centered around Gregorian chant and utilizes the same musical material throughout making not a collection of standalone pieces but a through composed work based on the principles of classical tradition with the harmonic language of the time. The haunting opening theme of the Kyrie is very similar to the twisting line that the altos introduce in the Agnus Dei. The Gloria and Benedictus both open with ascending fifths and while the character of the two movements is quite disparate, the line of the latter feels almost familiar. It’s these harmonic and melodic similarities throughout the piece that tie this piece so tightly together.

Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)is one of England’s foremost composers of the late 19^th/early 20^th century.  He is perhaps best known for his setting of the William Blake poem, Jerusalem, and his anthem I Was Glad. Parry’s tune, Repton was originally 'Long since in Egypt's plenteous land'  an aria for contralto from the oratorio Judith. The text is taken from John Greenleaf Whittier’s (1807-1892) poem the Brewing of Soma. This hymn-anthem setting arranged by H.A. Chambers opens and closes with the full choir but it is in the internal verses that the real creativity of the anthem occurs. The men sing the second verse in a strong unison until the tenors soar upward on the line “rise up.” The soprano’s verse leads us away from the key without making us actually leave it before returning to a half cadence that leads us back to the key we are already in! The piece ends as quietly as it began with the organ fading to the same chords that open the piece.

September 21, 2014 - Proper 20

Aria - Flor Peeters

Israel in Egypt: "Egypt Was Glad" - G.F. Handel

Missa Festiva: "Agnus Dei" - Flor Peeters

Fanfare - Jacques Nicolas Lemmens

This week’s music delves into the traditions of Belgian music in the 19^th and 20^th century. The music of Belgium greatly influenced the great French organ tradition. The teaching of Jacques Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881) led to the great French tradition. He was the teacher at the Royal Brussels Conservatory and counted both Guilmant and Widor among his students. It was also Lemmens’ playing and concertizing that led to an interest in the organ works of J.S. Bach. His excellent technique led to an increase in the standards of organ playing and furthered the study of church music. His Fanfare is a light bouncy piece which relies on staccato manual playing. There are also definite similarities between this piece and the famous Widor Toccata from Symphony No. 5.

Flor Peeter’s (1903-1986) studied at the Lemmens Institute and in 1925 became the professor of organ at the institute. Peeter’s career as teacher, organist, and composer placed him in a very prominent position in the world of church music. He was nominated as an advisor to the Vatican II Council, wrote the largest collection of chorales of any composer, and contributed greatly to the music of the organ as an editor and composer. His Aria, Op. 51 is one of his most popular works for the organ. It is just that, a song with the theme played on a reed solo and accompanied by the foundation stops has interesting color chords against a beautiful but winding melody.  The communion anthem is also by Peeters but more on that next week when we present the whole Missa Festiva.

G.F. Handel is known to us today primarily for his oratorios, the most notable one being Messiah. It is commonly accepted that Handel turned to oratorio when opera was not an option. In May of 1738 the sale of season tickets was opened and by July the season had to be called off due to lack of subscriptions. Handel realized that he had to rethink his plans and began writing Saul and Israel in Egypt.

The work came together rather quickly and was composed from back to front. Handel first composed what we know today as Part 2, The Song of Moses. Musicologist Richard Streatfeild believes that this was initially to be a stand-alone anthem. He then composed Part 1, the Exodus in four days. In the original composition these served as parts 2 and 3 with part 1 being a reworking of a Funeral Anthem written for the death of Queen Caroline which became Lamentations of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph. The text for this work is taken directly from scripture, primarily the books of Exodus and Psalms. Some researchers believe the libretto to have been assembled by Charles Jennens who also assembled the text for Messiah. Egypt Was Glad closes the first large scene of the Exodus and depicts the reaction of the Egyptians to the Israelites leaving. 

September 14, 2014 - Picnic Service

The Love of God - F.H. Lehman

He's Just the Same Today - Elwood Denson

The Love of God - V.B. Ellis

Hymns: If You Believe, Old 100th, Go Down Moses

This week’s music is centered around Southern Singing Convention style Shape Note Music. This is what I grew up on.  I was first exposed to this by my oldest brother who somehow encountered the early Bill Gaither Homecoming videos and brought them home for my parents and I to watch. This was the first time that I really experienced people singing in harmony and doing counterpoint. As a more educated musician I can now see the more rudimentary nature of this counterpoint but it was the first time that I personally experienced parts moving in separate directions. The first time that I realized what a group of singers was truly capable of.

As a teenager I attended the Stamps Baxter School of Music. For three years I attended Ben Speer’s Music School in Nashville and learned about theory and harmony and sight singing and conducting taught by such gospel greats as the Speer Family. It was here that I learned the seven note shape note system where each note in the scale has a different shape. This was designed to help teach sight reading to people that had no experience singing at all and is a really interesting system of music education that expands upon the four note Sacred Harp system of the 19^th century.

The gospel hymn The Love of God by F. H. Lehman is an early example of convention style singing. This hymn describes God’s love from the perspective of god’s unfathomable love. The third verse which we will be performing as the benediction was not written by Lehman but was written on the wall of an asylum. It is a beautiful poetic explanation of the infinite nature of God’s love.

He’s Just the Same Today was written by Elwood Denson, a cousin of the Gospel pioneers, the Speer Family. This piece in the style of a fast gospel song tells the story of three Old Testament heroes, Moses, Daniel, and David. This song reminds us that the same God that did all of these miracles in the Bible is that same God that we worship today.

Vesphew Benton Ellis (1917-1988) a Church of God minister and member of the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame (2001) wrote a number of gospel songs. His setting of The Love of God has been recorded by a number of gospel groups including the Stamps Quartet. This piece gives the altos a chance to take the lead. In quartet style music the “soprano” line was sung by the lead of the quartet. The female singers (if there were any) sang the alto line otherwise this was sung the by the first tenor. This is considered the standard for “Quartet style singing.” As a student at Stamps Baxter I sang alto and got to sing all of the best parts. This piece offers a view that is very similar to the Lehman but musically shows one of the styles that was very typical of convention music, a slow six eight with an alto melody which was prevalent in a great deal of the more “sentimental” songs.

These pieces tie together in that they all show the love of God, either through explicit explanation or through the works of God in the Old Testament. These are a testimony to the love that God has for his people and fits well with the text for the day. A nice way to get back into the season, by focusing on the essence of our faith.