"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.
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