Welcome to Sundays at Home
As we worship remotely during this time of change, each week you’ll find Sundays at Home with Trinity Episcopal Church. We will be featuring the full service recording, as well as the sermon and anthem on their own.
Good morning and welcome to Trinity! So glad you are tuning in virtually for today’s service. If you would like to join us for an in-person service we have started Holy Eucharist in the Courtyard each Sunday at 10am. Simply bring a chair, mask, and a heart for worship.
Once again, thank you for tuning in and for being faithful with your time, talents, and treasures.
Grace and Peace!
Rev. Jonathan V. Adams
Worship for December 13, 2020
Third Sunday of Advent
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the grey arrow in the middle of the image.
About the Music:
On this third Sunday of Advent, our anthem, "This is the Record of John" is a setting by Orlando Gibbons of the Gospel lesson appointed for this day regarding the questioning of John the Baptist. Gibbons was the leading composer and organist in early 17th century England and rose to the position of Organist of Westminster Abbey shortly before his sudden death in 1625 at the age of 41. This "verse-anthem" was composed for the Chapel at St. John's College, Oxford, which is named for and dedicated to John the Baptist.
The organ voluntaries for this week are both based on hymn #54, "Savior of the nations, come!". The tune, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, is a Lutheran chorale from 1524 based on a medieval plainchant with words by Martin Luther that are a paraphrase of an early Latin hymn. This chorale was the dominant hymn for the first Sunday of Advent for centuries, and was widely used in organ settings by Protestant composers of the Baroque period, especially J. S. Bach. Bach's organ setting known as BWV 659, from his set of "Great Eighteen" chorale preludes is here arranged for horn and organ by David Jolley. Our guest Brad Tatum plays the horn part, which is the melody decorated with many embellishments to make a highly expressive, "singing" line. Originally played by the right hand in the organ solo version, the melody is accompanied by two inner voices played by the left hand of the organ and a "walking bass" played by the pedals, moving forward towards the birth of Jesus. Near the end, there is a harmonic pause and an abrupt slowing of the bass line as the Incarnation draws near.
The Postlude is another setting of this tune, this time by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), a south German organist and composer who was one of the most important composers of the middle Baroque era and was an indirect influence on J. S. Bach. After a long introductory four-part fugue using fragments of the chorale tune, the melody enters prominently in the pedals - doubled by the left hand - interspersed contrasting melodic material in the hands.