Music at Grace

01/14/2022

On December 5, 1955, several thousand Black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama gathered in the Holt Street Baptist Church for the first mass meeting organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association. A week before that meeting saw the detention and arrest of Rosa Parks, and the black leaders of the community, many of whom were the pastors and ministers in Montgomery’s Black churches, met to determine what actions the beleaguered community would take next. In a meeting earlier on December 5th, a young community leader named Ralph Abernathy had given the organization its name, and the group elected as their president the youngest and newest minister in town, Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King entered the church with Dr. Abernathy, who later recounted that he had never seen a crowd of that size before, and that it took the two men fifteen minutes to get from the back of the church to the pulpit area. But once they took their places, Dr. Abernathy told an interviewer, “I can tell you the name of the first song that we sang, and it was ‘What a Fellowship, What a Joy Divine, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.’ "

I learned from a friend and teacher, who attended many of King’s marches as a member of the organizing and support team, that this hymn was one of Dr. King’s favorites, one that they sang together as they prayed before their marches, protests, and rallies. During my years as a church organist, I have so often played settings of this hymn on the third Sunday in January. It is a song that I have known since childhood. I often think of the words of the third verse – “What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?” - words that may have been on Dr. King’s mind as he faced crowds of angry men and women, rows of armed and resolute police officers, lines of lunging dogs.

The composer of the tune, Anthony Showalter, received a letter from two of his former music students, each of whom had experienced the death of their wife. As Showalter searched for words of comfort and strength to convey to his students, the final words of Moses from Deuteronomy came to mind: “The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deut. 33:27). The setting I will be playing for this Sunday’s service is by Ben Logan.

You can find many recorded versions of this hymn, but one that I have always found to be deeply compelling is this moving rendering by Mahalia Jackson.

1961

01/18/2021

Today we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and offered as the Opening Voluntary Dr. King’s stirring and still so highly relevant speech given at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. How powerful to hear these words again, just days after one of most horrific and tumultuous days in our national life. The music of his speech still reverberates, perhaps even stronger in these days when we strive now to pursue King’s dream and recommit ourselves to the work of justice and reconciliation.

The Closing Voluntary was a setting of the spiritual “Steal Away” composed by Gilbert M. Martin, a song that evokes the language of a scarred, enslaved and embattled people. It seemed an important work for me to play today as an affirmation of hope, a commitment to vision, not an escape from the hard work at hand but faith that the work is not our work alone. We are “stealing away” TO something and not merely AWAY from something.

Photo by Sonder Quest on Unsplash.
Permission to stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license A-401113

05/08/2020

Anthem for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 10, 2020)

Choosing anthems for the Church year begins many months in advance for me. I’m guided mainly by the lectionary texts, especially the Gospel for each Sunday. Of course, I never know what a year is going to bring, what each Sunday might look like, and consequently how the anthem will “fit.” But year after year during my life as a choir director, I’m so often amazed at how timely or particularly meaningful an anthem will be for the chosen Sunday. This week I had planned for the choir to sing an anthem by Richard Shephard (b. 1949; short bio below at “Anthem for Lent V”) that I was immediately drawn to during my anthem research. The first two verses of the text by Jonathan Draper tugs at my own experience of the past several weeks and the prospects of a slow and uncertain recovery ahead for all of us. The challenge is to grab hold of the hope and promise of the final two verses, reflected movingly in Shephard’s eloquent language.

Text:
Out of the stillness of dark before dawn,
In the still and the quiet and the damp of the night,
The morning star glimmers alone in the sky:
Signal of day, herald of light.

Deep in the stillness of anguish and fear
Lie hopes that were shattered by death and by doubt,
The husk of a dream lies empty and crushed,
Mind seeks for meaning, heart flickers out.

Out of the stillness the dawn comes again
Darkness is vanquished and hope is renewed
The sun has arisen, never to set,
A new day is dawning with heaven suffused.

Death with its terrors at last overcome
By one burst of light, by one gift of love.
Wholeness and healing and hope in his arms,
The sun has arisen with life for the world.

Here is a link to an audio performance of the anthem:

https://www.sjmp.com/sites/default/files/audio/outof.mp3

lrkamp

04/25/2020

The Third Sunday of Easter
“Ave verum corpus’ – settings by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré

The Gospel Lesson for the Third Sunday of Easter (Luke 24:13 – 35) was my favorite Easter story when I was young. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was the idea of taking a leisurely Sunday afternoon walk with Jesus, something I could easily conjure up – well, except for the disappearing bit at the end. We had a dime store painting of the Emmaus Road walk hanging in our living room, a peacefully idyllic scene of flowing grass, tall green trees, and a perfectly coiffed dirt road. There wasn’t one detail of the painting that was historically accurate – or even close. Yet it afforded a vision of calming peace and assurance to my childish imagination. Maybe that is why I return to this text often.

In the story, it is in the blessing and breaking of the meal that Jesus is finally recognized, and so I’ve chosen two settings of the familiar Eucharistic hymn Ave verum corpus for this day. The settings are by two French composers - Francis Poulenc (1899- 1963) and Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924). Fauré is probably best known for his “Requiem” though he is an undisputed master of the French art song in addition to his compositions for piano, orchestra, and solo instruments. Poulenc is usually less known to general audiences today and that is unfortunate. His Gloria and his Organ Concerto are magnificent pieces, harmonically and rhythmically adventurous and expressively moving. I encourage you to check out both pieces

lrkamp

Text (Poulenc only sets the first four lines of the hymn)
Ave verum corpus,
natum de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
unda fluxit et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie,
O Iesu, fili Mariae.
Miserere mei. Amen.

Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!

O sweet Jesus, O holy Jesus,
O Jesus, son of Mary,
have mercy on me. Amen.

Poulenc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E4s5FJgprw

Faure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdrGcmYq1_g

04/19/2020

The Second Sunday of Easter

Воскрес из гроба (Risen from the grave) – Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)

I don’t remember exactly when I first encountered the choral music of Rachmaninov. I’d been listening to and studying his piano music since my high school days, but I came to his choral works much later. My first encounter with this music was stunning – the deep and passionate solemnity was soul-gripping. It is a different kind of Easter proclamation than perhaps we are used to, but for me the depth of expression here is astonishing. Воскрес из гроба is from Rachmaninov’s "All-Night Vigil (Vespers)" composed in 1915.

This morning I learned that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Burnett Thompson, lost his father who died at the age of 93 this week. R. Burnett Thompson was an extraordinary man of faith and a tireless worker for justice and peace ,and especially for reconciliation and understanding amongst those of opposing viewpoints and ideologies. The scope and impact of his work in the the U.S Congress and the war-torn Balkan Peninsula is incalculable He and my friend Burnett are in my thoughts as I take in Rachmaninov’s Vespers this morning.

lrk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plVDvA0f6TM

Text:

"When thou hadst arisen from the tomb,
and burst the bonds of hell,
thou destroyedst the condemnation of death, O Lord,
breaking the bonds of the enemy.
Revealing thyself to thine Apostles,
thou didst send them forth to preach thy Word,
granting thy peace through them to all the world,
O thou only all-merciful one."

04/09/2020

Maundy Thursday

Within Christendom there is not agreement upon exactly what happens in the Eucharist , but we all seem to agree upon the centrality of this moment in our corporate life, that something significant and transformative happens in the moments when we receive Bread and Cup together. Many of us will deeply lament the absence of that communal moment tonight.

William Byrd (1540? – 1623) composed a setting of the 14th century hymn “Ave verum corpus” for a collection of his sacred songs in 1605. This work alternates elements of polyphony and chordal phrasing expressing and molding each word. For me, Byrd’s music here is masterfully reflective of the text and the emotions it summons forth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4rWsH1hkQ8

Text
Ave verum corpus,
natum de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
unda fluxit et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie,
O Iesu, fili Mariae.
Miserere mei. Amen.

Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!

O sweet Jesus, O holy Jesus,
O Jesus, son of Mary,
have mercy on me. Amen.

lrk

04/02/2020

Music for Palm Sunday

Opening Voluntary
J.S. Bach composed two settings of the chorale “Valet will ich dir geben” (“I want to bid you farewell, you evil, false world”). Today we are more familiar with another text set to this music , All Glory, Laud, and Honor . The text is thought to have been written by Theodulf of Orleans, a Catholic bishop from 8th/9th century France. The English translation was undertaken by John Mason Neale (1818 – 1866) who is responsible for the translation of many of the hymns of Christian worship, in addition to writing many of his own texts. Our hymnal contains forty -three of Neale’s translations and hymns. The tune was composed by Melchior Teschner, a Germans pastor. theologian, and composer who lived from 1584 – 1635. An interesting note about the lyricist for the original chorale - Valerius Herberger (1562 – 1627). Herberger was a Lutheran pastor in the Polish town of Fraustadt in 1613 when a devastating plague struck the community. It light of our own times, it seems an important connection to consider, even though we generally associate other words with this music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQoCPfEisj4

Anthem
The anthem for this Sunday was “Surely He hath borne our griefs,” a setting of the familiar text from Isaiah by Carl Heinrich Graun (1704 – 1759.) Graun was one of the most successful composers of Italian opera, though his renown did not prevent prevent the Emperor Frederick the Great to “request” Graun to revise or alter an aria that Frederick did not care for.
In addition to his many operas, Graun composed a great deal of music for the church, including his Passion oratorio “The Death of Jesus.” This work, composed in 1755, was performed in Germany during Holy Week for about 150 years following its composition.

Text
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. (Isaiah 53:4)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GqGomjuM4o

Closing Voluntary
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) composed eleven organ chorale preludes near the end of his life. The set includes two settings of “Herzlich tut mich verlangen” (“I desire dearly a blessed end”), but we know the tune more familiarly as the music for “O sacred head, sore wounded.” Although it is one of the most well-known and often-sung of all the Passion hymns, the original tune of O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, composed by Hans Leo Hassler (1564 – 1612), was written for a catchy little love song in 1601 entitled “Confused are all my feelings, A tender maid’s the cause.” But in 1656 the tune became indissolubly wedded to the moving Passion text attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, and the “glorious melody whose beauty has done much to fit the private devotional text onto the lips of congregations” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook) has been set by countless composers. I have always found this particular setting by Brahms particularly compelling and deeply moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJyudemdpo
(Some organist friends may find the performers’ tempo much slower and perhaps less accessible than what we are used to, but I have to admit t
that I prefer the slow yet persistent unfolding of Brahms’ sublime music.)

lrk

03/30/2020

Krzysztof Penderecki
Penderecki’s music is not music we are ever likely to hear at Grace Church, - large forces and highly complicated music. But I like to think that the message and power of his work would find a welcome home there.

During Lent and Holy Week, there are two “go-to” Passions that I listen to each year. The first is the always-amazing and transfigurative St. Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach. The second may not be as familiar to all listeners, but I am also drawn to the St. Luke Passion by the Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 – 2020). Penderecki died yesterday (March 29th) at the age of 86. I've been transfixed by his music since I first heard his "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" (1960) way back in the Music History II Listening Lab imany years ago (linked below.) Penderecki’s “St. Luke Passion (1963 – 1966) continues in the same avant-garde style, with large tone clusters, serialism, and asking the choir to step quite far outside the box of what we generally think of as beautiful choral sound. The effect for me is stunning, a deeply spiritual expression of the profound sense of the Passion story.

This is not the kind of music that gets a lot of “likes” on YouTube or Facebook, and Penderecki himself turned away from and renounced the avant-garde approach, moving back to more recognizable notions of melody, harmony and timber. But his music is moving for me, representing an important voice in the soundscape, and always deeply expressive Pendericki’s Christian faith and hope. The critic Robert Marsh wrote of his music that it seems to rise “from the matrix of our own times ... something we must hear to understand our world and ourselves.... He praises God in the manner of one who lives in darkness; it is a glorification that rises ‘de profundis,’ from the depths.”

Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu371CDZ0ws

St. Luke Passion (with the composer conducting)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxT3tobBO08

Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933): Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) Krzysztof Urbański (b. 1982), conductor Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra Helsinki...

03/28/2020

A Prelude for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

The music I’ve chosen to share here for this coming Sunday morning is not something I would have played since it is an orchestral piece. But I have had a deep love for William Schuman’s setting of “When Jesus Wept” since my first hearing way back in high school days. Schuman’s music is hauntingly evocative of the poignant text of William Billings’ (1746- 1800) hymn.

The Gospel lesson includes a piercingly direct and short sentence, only two words long but provoking many words: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35 William Billings, ). an early American composer, composed his hymn “When Jesus Wept” based upon a text by Perez Morton (1751-1837). Morton’s words allude to the connection between Jesus’s sorrow at Lazarus’ graveside and his suffering on the cross. Wilson Pruitt, a Methodist minister writes the following about this hymn: “Mourning is not a foreign emotion or experience to God, nor are screams of desolation. The hymn does not complete the theological thought but leaves it for those singing to complete with their lives. God is with us in our pain. Let us be with others. God is with us in our pain; let us be with God. Let us mourn with those who mourn. Let us not hide our face from brokenness or devastation. The tears of Jesus are streams of mercy. Our God is not a stone, nor a ghost, but all human and all God, from the heights to the depths.”

Hymn text

When Jesus wept, the falling tear
in mercy flowed beyond all bound.
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
seized all the guilty world around.

Here is the hymn, sung as it was intended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap_ckOb__SY

When Jesus Wept - William Schuman (1910- 1992), from New England Triptych no. 2, based on the music of William Billings (1746- 1800)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvS6HJ0qZ-M

Quire Cleveland under Artistic Director Ross W. Duffin, singing at Historic St. Peter's Church in downtown Cleveland, April 6, 2014. This famous and poignant...

03/27/2020

Anthem for Lent V

Originally for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, I had planned for the choir to sing “The Secret of Christ” by Richard Shephard. Shephard is highly respected in Anglican communities throughout the UK and now here in the United States. He is a gifted and prolific composer with a particularly sensitive ear for the beauty of choral singing, reflecting his many years of singing in choirs throughout his life. He has taken as his text portions from Isaiah 42, Revelation 22, and the Pilgrim’s Prayer (based on verses from Colossians 4)

The Gospel for this Sunday is from John 11 – the familiar narrative of the raising of Lazarus, kind of the ultimate healing story. I usually choose our choral music pretty far in advance, basing the choices on the Lectionary and especially the Gospel. But as is so often the case in the linking of scripture to music, the text can have an even greater impact on the worshipping community on the day it is sung, a significance and relevance unknown or unimagined by me at the time. The image of “tree of life” and “the healing of the nations” is compellingly hopeful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33H1-swmNW8&t=21s

Text
For a long time I have held my peace, but now will I speak. I will lead the blind in a way they know not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn their darkness into light, and I will not forsake them.

And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God; and on either side of the river was there a tree of life, and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of nations.

Help us, Lord, to persevere in prayer with minds awake and thankful hearts, that we may share the secret of Christ with those we meet on our earthly pilgrimage, following in the steps of Jesus, our Master and our Friend. Amen.

Isaiah 42; Revelation 22; The Pilgrim’s Prayer

larry

03/27/2020

03/23/2020

De Profundis (Psalm 130)