February 8, 2015 - Epiphany 5

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem - J.H. Maunder

You Shall Have a Song - Eugene Butler

Hymns: #423 St. Denio, #318 Nyack, #529 McKee

The music this week really doesn’t have much connection to each other but both are excellently thoughtful meditations on scripture that are well crafted and simple.  The gradual anthem is J.H. Maunder’s Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. The communion anthem is You Shall Have a Song by the renowned American composer Eugene Butler.

John Henry Maunder (1858-1920) was born in Chelsea and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Maunder spent his entire career in the church serving at several parishes. In addition to this work he also wrote operettas and trained choirs for theatrical productions (Hmm…sounds familiar.) Maunder wrote many church cantatas but is probably best known for his Lenten cantata, “Olivet to Calvary.” The primary appeal of this music is that it is well written and easy for a parish choir to sing. One critic wrote that the music was popular with church choirs but not with Maunder’s peers. The Victorian sensibilities of his writing led to a fall from favor as composers like Wood, Parry and Stanford rose to popularity. This rather lengthy piece opens with a large declamation that leads to a sort of call and response section between fortissimo unisons and pianissimo harmonies. The opening material returns but is cut short by a solo verse outlining the softer side of God. This is followed by a romping ¾ section that builds but then pulls back to a flowing melody about the harvest. This builds and builds as the opening material returns and finishes in a huge “amen.”

Eugene Butler (b. 1935) was educated at Oklahoma University, Union Theological Seminary, and University of Missouri – Kansas City. Butler has spent his life, like Maunder, as a church musician and teacher. He retired from both to work as a clinician. Butler has over 650 published works and has been the recipient of numerous awards. You Shall Have a Song is a setting of a text from Isaiah that is paired with a beautiful lyrical melody first introduced by a soprano solo and then taken up by the whole choir. A more chordal B section increases the intensity and drive before broadening to the final statement with a luxurious final statement of the melody and a thick lush ending.