Music for Sunday, July 2

July 2, 2017
Proper 8

Back in May I asked the band and the choir for a list of favorites to share with you during the summer months. As you are probably aware, we do not rehearse during June and July, so favorites are good! This Sunday we continue with some old favorites, and even a new favorite!

The past couple of weeks we have introduced a new song at the 9:00 - "Sing Hey For the Carpenter". I have had more than one person come to me to tell me how much they like it. Well guess what? You get to sing it with us this week at the recessional. As mentioned here last week, the song is written by Scottish song writer John L. Bell. Though his primary vocation is as a preacher and teacher, Bell

spends over half his time working in the areas of music and liturgy, both at conferences and in small parishes, and his work takes him frequently into Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

With his colleagues, he has produced over 15 collections of songs and octavos, and a wide range of liturgical materials, particularly for use by lay people, and he oversaw the production of a substantial hymnal for the Church of Scotland which, in North America, goes by the title Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise. (Canterbury Press). He has also authored a number of collections of sermons and meditations, is an occasional broadcaster on radio and television, and manages to survive without the benefit of a wife, car, cell phone, camera, or ipod.

9:00

Prelude - Your Love, O Lord

Processional - My Life Is In You

Sequence - Celtic Alleluia

Offertory - Every Move I Make

Communion -  My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less, Fill Me Now

Recessional - Sing Hey For the Carpenter

At 11:00, I am throwing my favorites into the mix! The recessional hymn is "God of Grace and God of Glory" so I thought I would play my favorite organ piece, Cwm Rhondda by Paul Manz.

Paul Otto Manz (1919-2009) was an American composer for choir and organ. His most famous choral work is the Advent motet "E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come", which has been performed many times at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge. As a performer, Manz was most famous for his celebrated hymn festivals. Instead of playing traditional organ recitals, Manz would generally lead a "festival" of hymns from the organ, in which he introduced each hymn with one of his famously creative organ improvisations based on the hymn tune in question. Cwm Rhondda is one of those improvisations.

Another favorite is the offertory anthem, "Lord, For Thy Tender Mercies Sake". This piece has uncertain origins. Its composition has been attributed to Richard Farrant (1530-1580, Master of the Children of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and later Master of the Chapel Royal), John Hilton (the elder of two composers of that name, d. 1609), and even at one time to Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). Some editions of the piece do not contain the final amen, prompting some to speculate that these final bars may have been added by one composer to a pre-existing piece by another. While the text is taken from Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations (1566) by Henry Bull (1530-75), the fact that the text is not set exactly as it appears in the prayer book has suggested to some that these English words were “found” for music that had previously been a setting of Latin words.

As it is the Sunday before Independence Day, I thought I would add a couple of quasi-patriotic pieces. At communion at both services we will sing "My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less", but we will use the beautiful tune Melita, which is also known as the Navy Hymn. The original text, "Eternal Father, strong to save..." was written by Englishman William Whiting in 1860.  Within a year it was in cluded in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Meanwhile, John B. Dykes, an Anglican clergyman, composed the tune "Melita" to accompany the HA&M version of 1861. Dykes was a well-known composer of nearly three hundred hymn tunes, many of which are still in use today.^[6] "Melita" is an archaic term for Malta, an ancient seafaring nation which was then a colony of the British Empire, and is now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was the site of a shipwreck, mentioned in Acts of the Apostles (chapters 27–28), involving the Apostle Paul.

Finally, at the Postlude I will play Charles Wesley's Variations on "God Save the King" aka "America".

11:00

Prelude - Cwm Rhondda     Paul Manz

Processional - 525 The Church's One Foundation

Sequence - 521 Put Forth, O God, Thy Spirit's Might

Offertory - Lord, For Thy Tender Mercies Sake

Communion - 654 Day By Day

661 They Cast Their Nets in Galilee

My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less 

Recessional - 594 God of Grace and God of Glory

Postlude - Variations on "God Save the King"     Charles Wesley