January 11, 2015 - Epiphany 1

Divinum Mysterium - Richard Purvis

Of the Father's Love Begotten - Wilbur Chenoweth

My Dancing Day - arr. Robert Shaw and Alice Parker

Lasst uns Erfreuen - Flor Peeters

Hymns: #398 Forest Green, #400 Lasst uns erfreuen, 

              #Caithness

The music this week is centered around old melodies, old texts, and old ideas. The prelude and gradual anthem are both settings of the hymn Of the Father’s Love Begotten, a combination of an ancient Latin poem and a 10^th century Sanctus trope. The communion anthem is an arrangement of the first four verses of My Dancing Day by the renowned arranging team of Robert Shaw and Alice Parker and the postlude is a setting of the 17^th century hymn tune Lasst uns erfreuen.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten is a setting of the 10^th century plainchant “Divinum Mysterium” which first appeared paired with “Corde natus” a portion of the Liber Cathemerinon by Aurelius Prudentius (348-413) in 1582 in the Finnish Piae Cantiones. The setting by Nebraska born composer and teacher Wilbur Chenoweth (1899-1980) makes use of the traditional tune along with an original countermelody introduced in the third verse by the sopranos. Chenoweth attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and taught there from 1925-1938. He then moved to California where he taught at Occidental College. This anthem switches back and forth between accompanied and a cappella allowing the freedom to take more time here and there for textual emphasis. The anthem builds to a unison doxology for the final verse which grows into a series of alleluias and amens.

The prelude is also a setting of Divinum Mysterium by Richard Purvis (1913-1994)an American born composer, organist, conductor and teacher remembered primarily for his recordings of great organ works and his impressive improvisations at a time when his Romantic style was largely falling out of favor.  Purvis was born in San Francisco and educated at the Curtis Institute. He also studied with Marcel Dupre and Edward Bairstow. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private and was assigned as bandmaster. Surprisingly, he continued composing and wrote some of his best known pieces in a foxhole. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge. Purvis was freed after six weeks but suffered such extreme treatment that he needed to have physical therapy before returning to work. He was appointed as organist at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and served from 1947-1971. This arrangement is typical of his playing style with interesting solo colors and clever variances in the tune that allow for key changes, a change from major to minor and even incorporating a line of “Adeste Fidelis.”

The communion anthem is one of the many a cappella Christmas carols arranged by Robert Shaw (1916-1999) and Alice Parker (b. 1925) of My Dancing Day. This traditional English carol tells the story of the life of Christ in eleven verses. The story of Christ is told using Christ’s own voice and uses dance as a metaphor for life. It is thought that the text may date back to the 14^th century. Its meter suggests that it would fall into the category of “crèche dance.” There are various theories as to the line in verse one “to see the legend of my play.” Many believe that this carol, like Coventry Carol originated as part of a mystery play.  This setting only uses the first four verses of the poem stopping before the verses about the death and resurrection. The piece is Christ’s invitation to his love the church to join him in the dance of life.

The postlude is a setting of Lasst uns erfreuen by the Belgian composer Flor Peeters (1903-1986) a significant figure in church music in the 20th 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. This setting is a fantasy. It opens with a pedal solo and then erupts in a toccata like flurry of sixteenth notes that is reminiscent of the North German fantasies of Buxtehude.  Peeters then alternates between the bright plenum sound and the fiery reeds of the swell division before combining them leading to a triumphal ending.

These pieces all have simple stepwise melodies that are governed by the text they set. These pieces tell stories and illustrate mysteries as old as the Christian faith. The techniques used by these 20^th century composers are faithful to the style and character of the music and the text. The composers are interpreting the text rather than reimagining it as a new piece. These pieces are so great because of the respect the composers had for their source material.