Sunday Music Musings September 24, 2022
Prelude in G BWV 541 by J. S. Bach (1685-1750) is one of the most joyful pieces I know, and I am joyful that things are getting back to normal singing-wise. The opening arpeggio leads into an ebullient Vivaldi-like tutti. This work was probably originally written around the middle of Bach’s formative period in Weimar, 1708-1717, but revised in Leipzig sometime after 1740.
Our upbeat Processional hymn Tell Out My Soul is a 20th century setting of Mary’s Song, the Magnificat. Timothy Dudley-Smith OBE (b. 1926) is a retired bishop of the Church of England and a noted hymnwriter of over 400 hymns. The tune WOODLANDS is by Walter Greatorex (1877-1949). Greatorix, who became a music teacher, began his musical career as a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, England.
Our Song of Praise by the children is a partner song of two spirituals, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and All Night, All Day—both alluding to the angels in today’s Psalm (91). At the Fraction the Adult Choir will sing a setting of a few verses of this psalm as well, Hide me Under the Shadow of thy Wings by the late 19th century composer John Ebenezer West (1863-1929). This beautiful short motet is set in a deliberately antique, almost Renaissance style. Read more about West here. Another connection to today’s service is West’s fame as a conductor of a tenor-bass choir, the famed Railway Clearing House Male-Voice Choir.
The tenors and basses will sing Jester Hairston’s (1901-2000) well known spiritual arrangement of Poor Man Lazarus which goes with the gospel reading as the offertory. Composer, songwriter, film composer, and singer educated at Tufts University, Juilliard, and the University of the Pacific, Hairston was an esteemed choral director as well as actor. You may have encountered him in the movie Lilies of the Field (1963) for which he wrote the song “Amen” and dubbed the singing voice for Sidney Poitier. Read more here.
“Poor man Lazrus sick and disabled. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ’cause I’m tormented in the flame. He had to eat crumbs from the rich man’s table. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.
Chorus:
I’m tormented in the flame. I’m tormented in the flame.
Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue,
’cause I’m tormented in the flame.
Rich man Divies he lived so well. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ’cause I’m tormented in the flame. And when he died he went straight to hell. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ’cause I’m tormented in the flame. (Chorus)
I love to shout, I love to sing! Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ’cause I’m tormented in the flame. I love to praise my heav’nly King! Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ’cause I’m tormented in the flame. (Chorus)
The short communion organ piece I will play is by a fascinating woman that I just came to learn of this summer at Liedfestival Sindelfingen. Mélanie Hélène Bonis, known as Mel Bonis (1858 – 1937), was a prolific French late-Romantic composer. She wrote more than 300 pieces, including for piano, chorus organ and orchestra. Her life reads like a movie plot that you would have trouble believing. I promise more stories as I play more of her music this year, but for now you can read about her life in Wikipedia as if you were reading a gothic novel!
Our communion hymn to the familiar words “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” is by Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), a noted English hymn writer and theologian, who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1847. His best-known hymn is Faith of Our Fathers. We will sing it to a less familiar but gorgeous tune (ST. HELENA) by one of the greats of our 20th century Anglican composers and organists, Calvin Hampton (1938-1984). Hampton received his musical training at Oberlin Conservatory and Syracuse University. For many years (1963 – 1983), he was organist at Calvary Episcopal Church NYC. He was a fantastic organist, and also loved to improvise and transcribe such things as Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and César Franck’s Symphony in D minor for organ. His wildly popular “Fridays at Midnight” organ recital series ran from 1974-83. The late Eric Routley, an authority on church music, called Hampton as “the greatest living composer of hymn tunes.” Hampton also wrote important works for orchestral and chamber forces, consulted on organ building and recorded and concertized extensively. He composed through the last year before his death from AIDS at the age of 45.
Our final hymn is DARWALL’s 148th, Ye Holy Angels’ Bright. It is a wonderfully singable C major based on a tune and bass by John Darwall (1731-1789) and fleshed out by William Henry Monk, (1823-1889), who is best known for his music editing of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861, 1868; 1875, and 1889) and the tune Eventide (“Abide with Me”). The words are also by a team; original by Richard Baxter (1615-1691) revised later by John Hampton Gurney (1802-1862).
The postlude a setting of this by is by the Anglo-Canadian great Healey Willan, who I wrote about extensively here.
maestrasmusings 