December 15, 2013 - Advent 3

"Say to them that are frightened" - Godfrey Schroth
Springs in the Desert - Arthur B. Jennings
Messiah: "O Thou That Tellest" - G.F. Handel
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus - Gilbert M. Martin

The music this week takes us closer to the arrival of the birth of Christ further delving into the prophesy of Isaiah with Arthur B. Jennings’s anthem Springs in the Desert, and Handel’s alto aria O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion. The prelude is based on Charles Wesley’s text Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus which (partially) takes its text from Isaiah, and the prelude is a setting of Isaiah 35 for the third Sunday of Advent. Each of these pieces draws on the rich imagery of the Old Testament text for its inspiration and paints a solid picture with its imagery.

The gradual anthem, Springs in the Desert which was written by Arthur B. Jennings, an American organist and professor at the University of Minnesota started out as a silent movie accompanist. He is best known for this setting of Isaiah 35. This anthem is very sectional. It opens with a tenor solo speaking words of encouragement to the listener. This is followed by a flowing section sung by the sopranos and altos of the choir describing a land that is being revived. The organ bursts forth with fiery chords undergirding a tuba (a high powered reed stop, not the bass brass instrument) solo. After this episode the choir bursts in singing of the way of holiness that is there. This is followed by a short imitative section that leads us through two key changes as we move toward the cascading repetition of the word “joy.” The piece slowly fades as the text “and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” almost as though sorrow and sighing are nothing more than a memory.

The prelude is Godfrey Schroth’s (b. 1927) take on the same text that the tenor soloist sings in the Jennings anthem. “Say to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is our God, He comes to save us.” The piece is in a lilting triple meter which makes it feel almost like a pastorale. The rhythm, however is a bit more intricate than that with a great deal of two against three playing back and forth between the melody and the inner voices. The middle section gets quicker and louder to illustrate the command “Be strong, fear not” before returning to the gentle feel of the opening.

The communion anthem, in preparation for our Messiah sing-along next Sunday is O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion, the lilting alto aria that leads into a powerful chorus, the only combination like this in the entire work. This aria takes its text from Isaiah 40:9, just a few chapters after the previous two pieces. It is God sending comfort to his people and in the oratorio follows the recitative announcing the birth of Christ. This dramatic piece was originally performed by Mrs. Cibber, a celebrated singer and actress who gave an emotional performance filled with drama that led directly to an exciting chorus declaring the good news. Leonard Van Camp points out that the accompaniment is shaped like the mountains the soloist sings about with the unison violin line bouncing back and forth between valleys and peaks.

The postlude is an extension of the final hymn, Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. This setting by Gilbert M. Martin (b. 1941) enticed me because this is one of several hymns in the Hymnal 1982 that I grew up with. However, when we sang this in the Methodist church the tune was Hyfrydol rather than Stuttgart. This arrangement combines the two tunes and uses them both. I recently had the experience of playing a carol sing at the Baptist church that I served prior to my time at St. David’s and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus was the first hymn and I found myself questioning which tune it was to the point of second guessing myself halfway through the introduction. This arrangement insures that I get the right tune because I get to use both. This piece also has ties to Isaiah. The third and fourth verses draw from chapter 61 for their thematic material.

December 8, 2013 - Advent 2

Impromptu Pastorale Op. 27 - Dudley Buck
Every Valley - Joseph M. Martin
He Shall Come Down Like Rain - Dudley Buck
Magnificat - Johann Pachelbel

Hymns: #76 Winchester New, #67 Psalm 42,
              #597 Jerusalem

The music this week is primarily American with a touch of the German Baroque thrown in at the tail end. The Pachelbel fugue hardly seems out of place alongside the gradual anthem written by Joseph Martin which, though written only thirteen years ago is written in the style of a baroque chorus. The prelude and communion anthem are written by the American born and German trained Dudley Buck. The Impromptu Pastorale could easily have been influenced by the Pastorale of J.S. Bach. The communion anthem is very much Victorian American but Buck sticks a fugue in two thirds of the way through it which shows his knowledge of counterpoint.

Dudley Buck (1839-1909) was an American organist and composer who trained at the Leipzig Conservatory and later studied in Paris. Upon returning to the United States he took a job in Hartford. However, he was not satisfied and moved to Chicago in 1869. He lost everything in the Chicago fire of 1871 and moved to Boston, accepting a post at the New England Conservatory. In 1875 he moved to New York City where he spent the remainder of his career at Holy Trinity Church. Buck was the first American organ recitalist and spent part of his career touring playing orchestral transcriptions and bringing the music of Bach and Mendelssohn to American audiences. He also wrote the first American organ sonata. This Impromptu Pastorale Op. 27 is typical of Buck’s lighter character pieces. The melody is lyrical though a bit sentimental and is passed around throughout the orchestral stops on the organ starting with the oboe and moving to flute and clarinet. The anthem He Shall Come Down Like Rain begins with a quartet followed by a soprano solo before the full choir enters. Buck then writes a short fugue before moving to thick chords at a faster tempo and finally an Amen. His choral music was quite popular during his lifetime. Some of this was due to his proximity to the Handel and Haydn Society which premiered some of his large scale works. His secular cantatas on Manifest Destiny were very successful in the United States.

Joseph Martin (b. 1953) is an American composer that started his career as a concert pianist and has since become the head of the Sacred music department at Shawnee Press. Every Valley is taken from his cantata The Winter Rose which tells the story of the Birth of Christ with the metaphor of Christ as the Rose of Sharon. This is a fun imitation of Baroque style complete with a short imitative section. This is a fresh take on the classic text from Isaiah and offers a nice alternative to the Messiah aria.

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) wrote a series of fugues on the Magnificat. Contrary to what popular culture would have us believe, he wrote more than just the Canon in D. This series of pieces features fugues for keyboard, not specifically organ, but keyboard. These were composed during his final years while he was at Nuremberg. This fugue is a peppy, light way to move forward toward Christmas.