April 27, 2014 - Easter 2

Sonata III: "Awake, My Treasure" - Paul Hindemith
Elijah: "Be Not Afraid" - Felix Mendelssohn
Messiah: "But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell"
                                                                          - G.F. Handel
Chaconne in C - Dietrich Buxtehude

Hymns: #192 Vreuchten, #193 Puer nobis,                       
              #209 St. Botolph

This week is a bit of a German extravaganza as we prepare to sing Mendelssohn’s epic oratorio, Elijah. We will present a preview of this, using the chorus “Be Not Afraid” as our gradual anthem. We are also traveling backwards through time chronologically with our composers starting the morning with Hindemith then moving through Mendelssohn and Handel before ending with Buxtehude.

The prelude is the second movement of Paul Hindemith’s (1895-1963) Organ Sonata III. The third of his three sonatas for organ was written in 1940 after he had fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to the US moving first to Buffalo, NY and then to New Haven, CT to teach at Yale. Unlike the first two sonatas, the third is based on German folksongs with each movement bearing a line of text as its title. “Awake, my treasure,” the second movement  is a song taken from the 15^th century Locham Book. Hindemith sets this in his way with winding lines that are, at times angular and still somehow gentle.  The song that this is best on is a song of two lovers that meet and must part at the breaking dawn. I however, in reading the title immediately associated it with the resurrection. It seems for me (if in title only) a fitting open to the second Sunday of Easter.

Traveling back in time almost 100 years from Hindemith’s sonata we come to Felix Mendelssohn’s (1809-1847) oratorio, Elijah. This biblical drama tells the story of God’s prophet Elijah and his mission to get the Israelites to renounce the false gods of their rulers and to turn to the one true God.  Part two of the oratorio opens with the soprano aria “Hear Ye, Israel” (see the post from 1/19/14 for more on this aria) and then the choir explodes with the further affirmation that God, thy help is near. This chorus takes its text from Isaiah and the Psalms, beginning with large thick chords and full orchestra before changing to a faster tempo, a minor key, and a fugue that reminds the hearer that although things are bad in the surrounding world, God’s people need not be afraid.

Mendelssohn’s oratorio was greatly influenced by the large choral works that preceded it by many different composers but one of the most notable composers of oratorio is obviously Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), and probably his most well-known piece, Messiah is where the tenor aria “But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul in Hell” is taken from.  Messiah is an oratorio on the life of Christ and takes us from the Old Testament prophecies of his birth to his incarnation. Part two, where this aria is found, opens with the prophecy of his death and moves then to his resurrection.  This text from Psalm 16 is set as a light tenor aria (although in other editions it has been assigned to a soprano). This piece reminds us that even though Christ was put to death, his soul was not allowed to languish in hell. It is further reinforcement of the promise of “Be Not Afraid.”

The postlude takes us back a bit further still in the history of German music to Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707). One of his best-known organ works, The Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne is  a joyful piece with three very distinct sections. The third (my postlude) is the chaconne. A chaconne is a set of variations over a repeated harmonic progression. There is often but not always a repeated bass line, but that is not required. These short variations grow in rhythmic intensity allowing the piece to build. The fact that the piece is in C and is built around the lowest note the organ can produce (low “c “in the pedal)adds gravitas and grandeur to this celebratory piece of North German Organ Music.

This tour of the history of German music (sort of) will be continued next week as we present Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah with choir(s) and orchestra. This is an event not to be missed.

April 20,2014 - Easter

Prelude in C BWV 531 - J.S. Bach
If Ye Then Be Risen With Christ - C.V. Stanford
The Day Draws On With Golden Light - Edward Bairstow
Carillon-Sortie - Henri Mulet

Hymns: #207 Easter Hymn, #191 Lux eoi, #199 St. Kevin

As in previous years the Easter service will open with the music of J.S. Bach (1685-1750) which has been a constant throughout the season of Lent.  This piece embraces the joyful and celebratory nature of Bach’s writing. This early Prelude in C, BWV 531 resembles the music of Buxtehude and Bohm more than the more complex writing of Bach. The piece opens with an extended pedal solo which gives way to arpeggios and scales that are little more than broad sweeping gestures that lead from one harmony to another.  The freedom of this piece captures the improvisatory nature of Bach’s organ writing. Pieces like this were seldom conceived as literature to be presented in a church or concert setting and more as an example of an improvisation that the organist would perform. In fact, pieces like this were often designed to be played while the orchestra was tuning for a performance. The prolonged harmonies allow the players to tune to the organ while it is holding a static pitch.

The postlude is the Carillon-Sortie by Henri Mulet (1878-1967). Mulet was a rather eccentric composer who is all but forgotten. Of his 88 years of life he only composed for 15 and spent the last thirty years of his life in seclusion. It is difficult to imagine that such a reclusive man would have crafted such an overtly joyful piece.  Like many French carillons, the piece has a repeated figure on top of a broad and stately melody line. This piece builds rhythmically going from sixteenth notes as the accompanying figure to 32^nd notes. The piece captures all of the joy of Easter.

The choir anthems are both by English Romantic composers. The gradual anthem was written in 1883 by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924). Stanford was born in Ireland to a Protestant lawyer. He was educated at Queen’s College Cambridge. In 1874 he traveled to Germany and then France but he still returned to England to conduct various projects. Staonford went on to teach music at Cambridge and composition at the Royal College of Music. Stanford wrote for every major idiom and counted such greats as Bridge, Holst, and Vaughan Williams. His writing has the influence of his German training and his Celtic upbringing synthesized into a well crafted and very singable piece. If Ye Then Be Risen with Christ takes the tune “Salisbury” as part of its thematic material. The piece opens with a lovely rising line that is passed through the choir. The sopranos then introduce the next section of the piece which is then taken up by the rest of the choir. The A section returns which is followed by a section of “Hallelujah”s  which takes us to the end of the piece.

The communion anthem is English organist Edward Bairstown (1874-1946). The Day Draws on With Golden Light . This hymn with has a text by Ambrose of Milan (340-397). The piece is a rather simple anthem in unison or two parts featuring the men of the choir and the women of the choir alternating between melody and harmony. The organs colorful accompaniment leads the choir through a lilting melody in ¾. The piece builds to the middle before tapering back to the quietness in which the piece began.

April 13, 2014 - Palm Sunday

The Passion According to Saint Matthew
                                                               -Howard Boatwright

Howard Boatwright’s setting of “The Passion according to St. Matthew” follows  the form and character of a great many passion settings; the best known of which is probably the monumental setting by J.S. Bach.  Other composers including Telemann, Handel, Schutz, and Pärt have drawn on the dramatic readings from the Gospel for settings of this story as well.

Howard Boatwright composed this passion setting in 1962 for the choir of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, New Haven, Connecticut. This church has a longstanding tradition of high quality music and counts Charles Ives among its past organists. A conversation with retired tenor soloist, Jim Shults, who studied the piece with Howard revealed that the hymn tune PETRA was included because it was Helen’s favorite. Shults also shared that while coaching with Howard for the role of the Evangelist that Howard told him he had written the role for the Yale professor and renowned Bach tenor, Blake Stern who would sing both the Boatwright and the Bach St. John Passion in New Haven.

The work is structured like the Bach setting with the Evangelist (a solo tenor) taking us through the events of the day with the text of Matthew 27:1-54 as the source material. Other characters including Pilate, Pilate’s Wife, Jesus, and Judas help to share their part of the narrative. The choir and congregation participate in the drama by taking responsibility for many of the day’s events singing hymns drawn from The 1940 Hymnal and set by Boatwright.  The piece is a dramatic and emotional setting of this familiar text exploiting Boatwright’s understanding of the passion form and of dissonance to capitalize on the turbulent nature of the text.

April 6, 2014 - Lent 5

Aus tiefer not schrei ich zu dir - Georg Bohm
Cantata No. 38: Wenn meine Trubsal als mit Ketten
                                                                              - J.S. Bach
Verily, Verily I Say Unto You - Thomas Tallis

Hymns: #665 Michael, #508 Nova Vita,
              #715 When Jesus Wept

The music this week is old. Very old. This is the one week in Lent that I am not playing Bach for the prelude or postlude, but instead we are singing a movement from cantata No. 38. Fear not though, I found a lovely chorale prelude by Georg Bohm (1661-1733) on Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir to play. Bohm was an organist and composer that is largely credited with developing the chorale partita, a piece which consists of a set of variations on a chorale tune for a solo keyboard instrument. In 1700 J.S. Bach traveled to Luneburg where Bohm served at the Johanniskirche and it is widely believed that Bach studied with Bohm between 1700 and 1702. This piece based on a chorale tune first published in the Teutch Kirchenampt is much cheerier than the Martin Luther tune of the same name. The first of two partitas is for manuals only and is a simple contrapuntal four part setting. The second places the chorale in the left hand fragmented against a swirling figuration in the right hand.

Cantata No. 38 is based on the familiar Martin Luther tune, Aus tiefer Not, or Out of the Depths.  This cantata for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity has for its fifth movement a trio for soprano, alto and bass. The text is:

When my troubles like chains
link one misfortune to another,
then my Savior will rescue me,
so that it all suddenly falls from me.
How soon the morning of comfort appears
after this night of anguish and worry!

Which I think works very well as a glimpse of things to come in the next two weeks. The nice part about this verse is that despite the minor key and the mention of things that are bed, there is a great deal of hope which is something that we can’t do without during these last few days of Lent.

The communion anthem is Thomas Tallis’s (1505-1585) setting of John 6:53-56. In this modal piece Tallis plays around with tonal ambiguity leading us back and forth between minor and modal in this, mostly homophonic motet. Tallis’s use of text painting is evident in the second section when the voices alternate singing that “I [GOD] will raise him up at the last day. It is an honest and rather stark setting of the basics of the Eucharist. Something that I find is very important to think on during these few weeks as we search our hearts to make them fitting for his Kingdom. This is a good example of the beauty of how we worship.

March 30, 2014 - Lent 4

Sheep May Safely Graze - J.S. Bach
Brother James' Air - Gordon Jacob
Beautiful Savior - F. Melius Christiansen
My Shepherd, Lord - Randall Debruyn

Hymns: #677 London New, #645 St. Columba,
              #490 Houston 

The music this week is all centered around the idea of Christ as the good shepherd with the beloved 23^rd psalm as one of the central texts of the day.

Sheep May Safely Graze (Schafe können sicher weiden) from J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 208. The piece in its original form was written for soprano, continuo and two recorders as part of the secular cantata “All that I love is the merry hunt” which Bach presented to Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels as a part of his birthday celebration. In the original aria the singer tells us that sheep may graze safely under the care of a good ruler, in that case, the Duke. In our setting the Good Shepherd is watching over his sheep. During the 1940s this piece became E. Power Biggs signature piece. He played it at the conclusion of each of his radio recitals for sixteen years. This arrangement uses solo flutes to play the recorder obligato with the softer foundation stops of the swell division taking up the soprano line.

Gordon Jacob (1895-1984) was a renowned composer and teacher. He studied with Charles V. Stanford and counted among his own pupils at the Royal College of Music the likes of Imogen Holst and Malcolm Arnold.  This a cappella setting of the Scottish hymn tune, “Marosa” treats the hymn simply but creatively. The first two verses are set with the melody in the soprano and the lower three parts singing lush harmonies. The men of the choir take the melody for the third verse while the sopranos and altos sing an ornamented line on top of it. The fourth verse reverts to a melody in the soprano this time with the lower three voices singing “Ahs” underneath. The fifth and final verse is filled with big, strong chords that lead to a strong, stirring finish.

The communion anthem is another a cappella hymn arrangement, this one by the conductor and arranger F. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955). He was born in Norway and moved to the United States in 1888. He studied at Augsburg College and in 1901 was recruited to work with the St. Olaf Choir making them one of the foremost a cappella choirs in the country. This tune was used by Franz Liszt in his oratorio “The Legend of St. Elizabeth.”  This arrangement exploits the abilities of the St. Olaf choir to sing a cappella music. The arrangement opens with lush, full eight part chords in a sustained hum. This gives way to the men of the choir continuing the hum under an alto solo. The women enter in unison on the tune for the final verse with a climactic conclusion.

The postlude is a setting of Marosa called “My Shepherd, Lord” by Randall Debruyn (b. 1947), the English language editor of missals for OCP. This piece is a grand but meandering setting of the tune commonly associated with the text “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.” The piece wanders like a lost sheep through various keys and moves between major and minor before the entrance of the pedal that leads to the final verse played in a stately and grand fashion.

March 16, 2014 - Lent 2

Three Pieces: "Meditation" - Camille Saint-Saens
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes - Leo Sowerby
Justorum animae - Camille Saint-Saens
Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 623 - J.S. Bach

Hymns: #401 Leoni, #489 Tallis' Ordinal, #147 Bourbon

The music this week is eclectic drawing from the American school, the French Romantic period and, of course, the music of J.S. Bach. The pieces have a bit of give and take with contrasting sections that illustrate the drama that is inherent in the text but always return to the simple calmness. A fitting message for our busy lives; that despite the storm we are currently facing there will be a return to the calm that we once knew.

The prelude and communion anthems are by the French Romantic composer, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Saint-Saëns is perhaps best known as an orchestral composer having written such treasures as Carnival of the Animals and Danse Macabre; but spent much of his career as a church organist at La Madeleine in Paris. Justorum animae is an offertory piece for the Feast of All Saint’s. The text is taken from chapter 3 of the Book of Wisdom and is a very comforting text. The A section has the choir singing in lush four part homophonic writing on the text which translates as: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God and the torment of death shall not touch them.” The organ is playing a simple bass line in the pedals undergirding the voices. The tenors introduce the B section stating that “In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die.” The organ plays a bit more hear as the choir wanders far away from the home key of F major ending in the key of Db. The choir cuts off and the organ continues with a rather awkward pedal line which does not really help the choir to find F major again for the return of the A section where the choir again brings comfort with the line “but they are in peace.”

Saint-Saens wrote very few pieces for the organ and the prelude for today, Meditation, is taken from a set of three pieces not for the organ but for its cousin, the harmonium. The harmonium is a reed organ which, like the pipe organ has stops and is capable of playing different sounds based on the stops the performer chooses. The harmonium is also capable of very subtle dynamic shading based on a pair of knee levers that control the volume. This piece exploits the harmoniums ability to add all of the stops with the pulling of one lever and to then illicit various degrees of shading based on the manipulation of the knee levers. The opening of the piece utilizes the harmonium’s split keyboard. Unlike the organ, the harmonium has only one manual like the piano but the performer can choose to have the same sound across the compass of the keyboard or to use contrasting stops to allow for two distinct voices.  The piece goes through sections of loud, chromatic lines and dulcet tonal phrases before winding to a peaceful close.

The gradual anthem is by the great American organist and church music composer, Leo Sowerby.  Sowerby (1895-1968) studied at the American Conservatory of Music and from 1927-1962 served as organist at St. James’ Episcopal Church (in 1955 named a cathedral). In 1946 he received the Pulitzer Prize in music for his cantata Canticle of the Sun. After retiring from St. James’ he went to Washington DC to direct the newly founded College of Church Musicians. His choral music is often very demanding, haven been written for some of the top church choirs in the country. This setting of Psalm 121 for choir and organ opens with an alto solo that before the choir comes in on the third verse of the psalm. After the choir sings the fourth verse, the entire alto section takes up the opening solo line while the other sections provide an organ-like accompaniment. The sopranos then take up the second half of the theme as the altos rejoin the rest of the ensemble. A faster B section sets verses five and six before the alto soloist returns with a slightly altered version of the original melody sung at the opening and a final choral “amen.”

This week the postlude is J.S. Bach’s chorale from the Orgelbüchlein, Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 623. This chorale is one in thanksgiving for the sacrifice of Christ which, though a little premature at this stage is applicable to the gospel lesson for the day. This brief setting shows Bach’s use of motif in his use of a recurring lower neighbor tone (think do-ti-do) in the lower three voices’ accompaniment of the chorale tune. The final line of the chorale is one asking for solace in our final hour. This piece is a happy conclusion to the service but it is understood that the happiness and comfort was borne through pain and suffering.

March 5, 2014 - Ash Wednesday

Sorrow and Gladness - Alice Parker
Denn es gehet - Johannes Brahms
Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ - J.S. Bach

Hymns: #411 St. Thomas, #149 Old 124th

The music for Ash Wednesday was varied from being quiet and reverent to hopeful to dramatic and dark. It encompassed all aspects of the season ahead and helped to set the tone for the forty days ahead.

This year, as was the case two years ago I have decided to spend some of my own devotional and practice time with the works of J.S. Bach (1685-1759). The postlude this evening was his setting of Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ BWV 639. This setting of Johann Agricola’s hymn is among the most popular pieces in the Orgelbuchlein. The chorale tune (as is the case in most of these pieces) is played in the soprano in tastefully ornamented quarter notes while the left hand plays arpeggiated sixteenth notes against the throbbing eighth note pedal line; a real treatise in maintaining different rhythms for the organ student. The text of the first verse is:
Lord, hear the voice of my complaint,
To Thee I now commend me,
Let not my heart and hope grow faint,
But deign Thy grace to send me.
True faith from Thee, my God, I seek,
The faith that loves Thee solely.
Keeps me lowly,
And prompt to aid the weak,
And mark each word that Thou dost speak Translation by John Christian Jacobi

This seems fitting as we move into a time where we must seek God and examine our lives. I thought it an appropriate ending to the service and beginning to our Lenten journey.

The gradual anthem is Alice Parker’s (b. 1925) setting of the Gracia Grindal (b. 1943) poem Sorrow and Gladness. Grindal is Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric at Luther Seminary where she began teaching in 1984. In addition to her work there she has served on many committees on hymnody and his done extensive research on the connections between theology, culture and hymnody. This original tune by Alice Parker, Robert Shaw’s longtime collaborator and a prolific composer and highly respected conductor has much in common with the folk hymn arrangements that Parker wrote with Shaw earlier in her career. It is an a cappella setting of a melody with much resemblance to an early American hymn tune. The added two part descant on the last verse is the crowning moment of the piece as the two parts soar over the rest of the choir.
One of Johannes Brahms’ (1833-1897) final compositions was his Op. 121 Vier Ernst Gesänge (Four Serious Songs)written in 1896. In March of 1896 his close friend Clara Schumann suffered a stroke and, in anticipation of her death Brahms turned to the scripture and to music for consolation. The piece, however is dedicated to the German Symbolist painter, sculptor, print maker and writer, Max Klinger. The first of these four “Denn es Gehet” takes its text from Ecclesiastes 3:19-22 and alternates between a plodding lyrical melody and a dramatic section with running triplet figures in the piano that seems to have more in common with Wagner than Brahms. The piece reminds us that we are no better than the animals and that we, like they, are made of dust and will return to that dust.