Sunday Worship for November 15, 2020
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the image.
About the Music:
The Prelude for this Sunday is "Pastorale", by the Canadian composer Peter Mathews (b. 1944). This beautiful, lyrical work for clarinet and organ evokes images of a rural landscape and is somewhat elegiac in mood. Our guest clarinetist, John Kevin Romano, is the recently retired bass clarinetist of the United States Air Force band and a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory.
Hymn 655, "O Jesus I Have Promised", was originally written by 19th century English priest and poet, John Ernest Bode for the confirmation of three of his children. It is sung to the Finnish folk tune Nyland, named for a province in Finland.
The Anthem, "Euge Bone Serve et Fidelis" is a late Rennaissance motet by Dutch composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and is conducted by our Music Intern, Ryan Davis. The Latin text comes from the parable of the talents which is the appointed Gospel for this Sunday and translates as:
Good and faithful servant,
because you have been faithful with a few things, I will set you over many things:
enter into the joy of the Lord your God.
The Postlude, "Finale jubilante" is by another Canadian, Healey Willan (1880-1968), who served many years at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Toronto. Written in 1959 for the dedication of a new organ in St. Matthew's Church, Ottawa, this festive piece recalls the joy of a congregation rejoicing in the sound of their new instrument.