Category Archives: church music

Hymn Festival

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An exhilarating Sunday night at Holy Trinity Lutheran, where we held our Hymn Festival, exploring Martin Luther’s Seven Marks of the Church, through Lutheran hymns—so many hymns, and A Mighty Fortress nowhere in sight. Jackie once again put together a fantastic program of music with the Chancel, Handbell, and Youth Choirs, oboist Priscilla Smith, violinist James Finegan, and cellist Elena Smith.

I commented on each of the hymns, one or two for each Mark, and managed to work in the Phrygian mode, Calvinists, Barry White, a hymn I wrote (The Word of God, in hymn + anthem concertato style), and cake.

The Marks, and the hymns:

1. The Word
Dearest Jesus, at Your Word (Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier)
The Law of God is Good and Wise (Erhalt uns Herr, bei deinem Wort)

2. Baptism
God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It (Bachofen)
All Christians Who Have Been Baptized (Nun freut euch)

3. Communion
Jesus Comes Today with Healing (Alles ist an Gottes Segen)

4. Absolution
From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee (Aus tiefer Not)

5. Ministering
The Word of God (Confession)

6. Discipleship
Your Kingdom Come, O Father (Noormarkku)

7. The Cross
Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me? (Warum sollt ich mich denn Grämen)
If You But Trust in God to Guide You (Wer nur den lieben Gott)

They had a reception afterward (cf. cake, above), celebrating (honoring? poking fun at?) my retirement from the Fleisher Collection. Lots of folks—stunning how many stayed for a good long time, I was overwhelmed by it. Two very busy self-employed friends, a programmer and an architect, gave me the same advice. They told me to say, “I’m not retired. I’m working for myself full-time!” After adding up all the things I am doing, it sounds good; I think I’ll use it.

Come, Gather All

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My latest anthem was written for the 100th Anniversary of St. Eleanor Church in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and premieres this Sunday, October 16th, at 2:30 pm. Celebrating at Mass will be the new Philadelphia Archbishop, Charles J. Chaput.

The original music, lively and moderately easy, is for SATB, organ, and optional brass quartet. The text is also brand-new. It’s by Paul Berchtold, and I enjoyed working with him on this. He wrote the perfect words for this celebration, and I know everyone is excited. I was at rehearsal last week, and the choir is sounding good!

How Fair the Bright and Morning Star

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One of my newest anthems is actually two years old. Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern is from Vespers. I’ve written a keyboard reduction for it and added a translation. Some choirs have been performing two sections of Vespers separately—Psalm 113 and the 16-part hymn Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn—so now Philipp Nicolai’s hymn, in my translation, How Fair the Bright and Morning Star, is also available by itself.

Vespers includes the translation in the front of the score, which I gathered together for program notes. But only the German is sung in the original. In this new separate anthem I’ve added the English to the music with the German, so it now can be sung in either language.

I came to make my own translation only because I could not find a public-domain translation of the second verse “Zwingt die Saiten in Cythara,” and I really wanted to set that verse. I thought bringing the theorbo to the fore at that point would make for nice text-painting. There was no need, however, to make a rhymed translation; I think I simply relished the challenge. In any case, I’ve now put it to fuller use. Here’s a sample of Wie schön leuchtet from the Vespers CD (in the original the accompaniment is four shawms, two sackbuts, and theorbo):

The original text:

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
voll Gnad und Wahrheit von dem Herrn,
die süße Wurzel Jesse!
Du Sohn David aus Jakobs Stamm,
mein König und mein Bräutigam,
hast mir mein Herz besessen,
lieblich, freundlich,
schön und herrlich, groß und ehrlich, reich an Gaben,
hoch und sehr prächtig erhaben.

Zwingt die Saiten in Cythara
und laßt die süße Musika
ganz freudenreich erschallen,
daß ich möge mit Jesulein,
dem wunderschönen Bräutgam mein,
in steter Liebe wallen.
Singet, springet,
jubilieret, triumphieret, dankt dem Herren;
groß ist der König der Ehren.

Wie bin ich doch so herzlich froh,
daß mein Schatz ist das A und O,
der Anfang und das Ende.
Er wird mich doch zu seinem Preis
aufnehmen in das Paradeis;
des klopf ich in die Hände.
Amen, Amen,
komm, du schöne Freudenkrone, bleib nicht lange;
deiner wart ich mit Verlangen.

and my translation:

How fair and bright the morning star,
my Lord, with grace and truth, you are
the sweetest root of Jesse!
O David’s son, of Jacob’s line,
you are my bridegroom, King divine,
here, take my heart, possess it:
loving, caring,
glorious, shining, now consigning for my pleasure
splendid gifts beyond all measure.

Now strike the strings on the guitar,
behold sweet music near and far
the joyous kingdom sweeping.
I long to be with Jesus dear—
who is my lovely bridegroom here,
in love forever keeping—
singing, leaping,
celebrating, thanks unfading, always praising
my great King, his greatness raising.

My heartfelt joy can therefore ring,
to Alpha and Omega spring:
the first and last, my fortune.
He will redeem me at great price,
receive me in his Paradise;
my bliss is past proportion.
Amen, amen!
Crown of Joy, all blest, most royal, haste returning.
Yours, I wait with every yearning.

Click on the page below to see it larger, and if you’d like to see more, just let me know. Of course, the full score is available for viewing if you buy the enhanced CD; go here for details on how to order.

Behold the Best, the Greatest Gift

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This anthem, commissioned by the First Presbyterian Church of Phoenixville, is part of the dedicatory recital for the newly installed Kegg Pipe Organ, Sunday, November 7, 2010, at 4:00 p.m. Music Director David Nicol will conduct the Senior Choir, accompanied by Mary Nicol, the church’s organist.

More information and directions here.

I wrote an original tune for the anthem. The text is an eighteenth-century hymn from the Church of Scotland, based on Romans 8, and I added an American shape-note refrain: “And I’ll sing Hallelujah / And you’ll sing Hallelujah / And we’ll all sing Hallelujah / When we arrive at home.”

Gordon Turk will give the organ recital. Dr. Turk is Organist and Choirmaster of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne, Pa., Resident Organist at the historic Ocean Grove Auditorium in New Jersey, and a critically acclaimed international concert organist. He was consultant to the Organ Committee of First Presbyterian for this fine instrument.

See a news clip on Channel 6 ABC News about the installation of the organ this summer.

Vespers in Choral Journal

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A very thoughtful essay by Thomas Lloyd appears in the February 2010 Choral Journal. It casts an eye on David Lang’s Pulitzer-winning the little match girl passion, Phil Kline’s John the Revelator, and my Vespers. Here’s a bit of it:

These three premiere recordings of recent sacred choral works by American composers shine a light on a distinctive area of new vocal music well worth our attention. While each work has its own identity, they share several significant traits. All three are longer works for small vocal ensemble or chamber choir with unorthodox instrumental accompaniment. Each uses a traditional liturgical form as its starting point, around which other texts of varied origins are inserted. Together, these elements create the context for performances that fall somewhere in between a concert experience and a worship service.… This sacralized musical experience was not unknown to nineteenth-century audiences, but it has been renewed in the more recent European spiritualism of Pärt, Tavener, MacMillan…

The liturgical form providing the basis for Kile Smith’s Vespers is the Lutheran service of evening prayer. The sound palette is again quite unique: chamber choir (The Crossing, directed by Donald Nally) with another unconventional accompaniment: a Renaissance wind band (Piffaro), complete with full consorts of recorders, shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, and continuo (lute, theorbo, guitar, and harp)—27 different instruments played expertly by seven musicians… As with the other works discussed here, the composer has reshaped a traditional liturgical form to serve the musical design… Smith points to the earliest Lutheran composers such as Praetorius and Schütz as inspirations, writing at a time when wind consorts were in their prime. Plainchant, chorale variations, and complex imitative counterpoint abound.

On the other side of Bach, the music also recalls the probing and angular music of Hugo Distler, but with a lighter heart and a natural exuberance. Stravinsky’s neo-baroque fanfares come to mind in several of the instrumental flourishes… The closing of the final movement (“Deo Gratias”) is almost giddy in its exuberance.

Smith also writes music that draws fully on the remarkable talents of his performers… Not only are the demands of sonority, range, ensemble, and intonation more extensive, but performers are asked to contribute a more varied palette of inflection, shaping, shading, and rubato. Smith writes idiomatically and inventively for Piffaro… The composer is said to be considering an arrangement for modern instruments as well…

Along with Smith, Kline, and Lang, those composers are writing new music that is quite accessible on the first hearing but also rewards repeated listening (and, especially in the case of the Smith Vespers, repeated singing). This is richly gratifying music to know.… we need to create the musical space—a sacred space—for this evocative repertoire…

Read all of it here.

Cello Spirituals sheet music available

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The sheet music for American Spirituals, Book Two, for cello and piano, is now available through Paul Jones Music. I wrote this for Anne Martindale Williams, principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Paul Jones, who accompanies her on her latest solo CD, Sacred Music for Cello, which has been available for a few months now.

Sharing in this project are many other composers and arrangers of works written for church or concert performance. Particularly, cellists who play in church services should be interested in the entire volume of new hymn arrangements, spirituals, and well-known works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Fauré. Anne edited the cello solos and added fingerings. She was also delightful as could be while we worked on the pieces.

I’ve enjoyed working with Paul on this and on the earlier American Spirituals, Book One for violin and piano. Those were written for David Kim, Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the CD and sheet music for that are also available.

Vespers, Liturgy Hymnody Pulpit Review

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The Rev. Paul J. Cain reviews Vespers in the Liturgy, Hymnody, and Pulpit Quarterly Book Review, whose motto is: Critical reviews (by Lutheran pastors and church musicians) of books and other resources for Christian worship, preaching, and church music from a perspective rooted in Holy Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and good common sense. LHP Quarterly Book Review asks, “Is it worth the money to buy, the time to read, the shelf space to store, and the effort to teach?”

…an exceptional treat… a modern restatement of Renaissance-era wind bands for a sacred context… a fusion of the 16th Century and our 21st. I think Dr. Luther would be at home and J. S. Bach would appreciate what was going on… one hears a transcendent heavenly setting of “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”… Psalm 113 completes the trilogy of psalms in preparation for a 13th Century tune used by the Bohemian Brethren in the 16th Century. The psalm setting is hauntingly beautiful. I simply couldn’t wait to sing along. Remember that included sheet music?

The recording is at once recognizable as a liturgical service of Vespers… may be able to include some pared-down portions of the music for a congregational service of Vespers. The music is full of life, joy, and celebration appropriate for a New Year’s Eve service, a congregational anniversary, a building dedication, or an ordination.

Piffaro is blessed with skilled musicians, a creative composer in Kile Smith, and a daring record label, Navona Records. The combination produced a fresh, reverent, and timeless recording that is historically and musically grounded in the best of Christian liturgy and hymnody. What are they working on next?

The composition and recording of Vespers is inspired and inspiring.

Read it all here.