Palm Sunday Music Musings, March 23, 2024

I’m so grateful to have our organ scholar, Henry back for a semester, and he will play the prelude.  Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968) was a prolific twentieth-century French organist, teacher, and composer. She made history as the first female organist to sign a record contract. The clarion stop usage in registration and the frequent repetition of the open-fifths motif give this piece, Hosanna Filio David, written in 1947 as part of a set of “Twelve Choral-Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes”, a distinctively fanfare-like quality.

The Palm Sunday Liturgy is different from the rest of the year—as we gather around the blessing of the palms and the triumphal entry Gospel before parading to All Glory Laud and Honor. During the distribution (before we process) we will sing a piece from Zimbabwe that I learned from Mark Miller. Njalo means “always.” Always we pray, always we give, always we bless!

Once we get up front the Chapel Choir (Pre-K to 1st grade) joined by the older School Choir kids will sing the favorite Natalie Sleeth (1930 – 1992) anthem Little Gray Donkey.

The service shifts from triumphal entry to Passion Week. After the reading of the Passion, we will sing a verse of the “Passion Chorale” “O Sacred Head” by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) and harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). This was used many times in Bach’s Passions: Here is a St. Matthew Passion that is particularly close to my heart!

Our anthem is a new one for me, Frank Ferko’s Motet for Passion Sunday. To me it seems stark and yearning. It has a level of dissonance that some of the choristers have a hard time with (not singing, but understanding that not all music is “pretty.”). Church organist since the age of 14, Ferko (b. 1950) holds degrees form Valparaiso University (BM piano and organ performance), Master of Music degree in music theory (with a minor in organ performance) from Syracuse University and a doctorate in music composition from Northwestern University. For nearly three decades he held the post of director of music at various churches in the Midwest, primarily in the Chicago area. The text of this anthem comes from the Passion Sunday Vespers of the Byzantine Rite:

Passing from one celebration to another,
from palms and branches let us now make haste, O faithful,
to the solemn and saving celebration of Christ’s Passion.
Let us see Him undergo voluntary suffering for our sake,
and let us sing to Him with thankfulness a fitting hymn:
Fountain of tender mercy and haven of salvation:
O Lord, glory to You!

Our presentation hymn on the tune PETRA, is “Go to Dark Gethsemane” a mini synopsis of Holy Week.  The text is by James Montgomery (1771-1854). According to Bert Polman at hymnary.org, “Montgomery, the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes.” The tune is by Richard Redhead, (1820 – 1901) organist at Margaret Chapel (later All Saints Church), London, excellent choir trainer and strongly committed to the Oxford Movement. Redhead spent the latter part of his career as organist at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (1864-1894).

To greet Holy Week with a measure of solemnity, we will use the Missa de Angelis setting of the Sanctus (and Amen), and very ancient plainsong setting which was well-used in the 1940 hymnal.

One of the most amazing pieces of music I have ever performed in many years of Holy Week programming is the Stabat Mater by G.P.Pergolesi (1710 – 1736). During communion the Daughters of Zion (High School Girls) will sing the first movement, with yearning dissonances expressing the sadness of the Mother of Jesus standing below her son on the cross. Italian composer Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater was commissioned to be performed at the Franciscan church of San Luigi de Palazzo in Naples as an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary.  First published in London in 1749, the Stabat Mater became the most frequently printed single work in the eighteenth century.  The real appeal of Pergolesi’s style was his ability to unite old and new; the counterpoint of the stile antico, and the decorative language of Neapolitan opera into the church aria.

Finally during communion, we will sing the spiritual Were You There, with the choristers singing the first verse.

The service ends in silence.

I really, really hope you will join us Thursday, Friday and Saturday to experience the Triduum which will make your Easter all the more meaningful.

In a bit of Grace Church History, we ended our Lenten Recital series Friday with an All-Bach recital with Patricia Ruggles, who sang for my predecessor Helen Thomas from the age of 7! Here we are with Lou Ann Bugg who also sang as a child in Mrs. Thomas’ choir, while her daughter Caroline sang for me as a child.

You can watch the recital here