Sunday Worship for October 18, 2020
Please view the embedded video of our service below by clicking on the arrow in the middle of the image.
About the Music:
Today's Prelude is "Andantino", from the first set of Fantasy Pieces. Op. 51, by Louis Vierne (1870-1937). Vierne studied at the Paris Conservatory under Cesar Franck and Charles-Marie Widor and was heavily influenced by the compositional style of Debussy, who lived at the same time. These pieces have a unique character, using traditional 19th century techniques along with new, more Impressionistic 20th century styles meant to convey moods and feelings more than follow rules and standard procedures. A life-long church musician, Vierne served as organist at the Notre=Dame Cathedral in Paris from 1900 until his death. It is chosen for this Sunday to honor the 150th anniversary of his birth on October 8, 2020.
The anthem, "What Shall I Render To My God" by Austin Lovelace, uses a text by one of the greatest and most prolific hymn writers of all time, Charles Wesley, and expands on the words from the appointed Gospel reading from Matthew, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". The tune comes from the University of Virginia Collection of Folk Music with the note "Collected by Winston Wilkinson as sung for him by Z.B. Lam of Stanardsville Virginia". Composer, organist, hymnologist, Austin Lovelace was a prolific American church musician throughout the 20th century having served several nationally prominent churches, written over 800 compositions, and helped edit multiple denominational hymnals. Known for his sense of humor, he also authored five books including "Hymns That Jesus Would Not Have Liked". Thankfully, this is not one of them.
Hymn 594, "God of Grace and God of Glory", is sung to the quintessential Welsh tune Cwm Rhondda. While it is often portrayed as a timeless informal national anthem of Wales, it is really not that old having been composed in 1903 by John Hughes for a Singing Festival in the Rhondda Valley. A paraphrase of the original Welsh words can also be found in our hymnal as "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah". The God of Grace text was written by Harry Emerson Fosdick at his summer home in Boothbay Harbor Maine in 1929 and sung the following year for the opening of the Riverside Church, New York. Originally conceived to be sung with the tune Regent Square, Fosdick was unhappy about his hymn's "divorce from that tune and remarriage to Cwm Rhondda" and in his autobiography, blamed the Methodists.
Paul Manz's hymn improvisations have long been staples in the repertoire for church organists. Manz (1919-2009) was a huge influence on hymn singing and playing in the Lutheran Church, which spread to all denominations in the mid-20th century. He was concerned with the finest music craftsmanship in the service of the church and it's liturgy. Today's Postlude is based on today's hymn selection, "God of Grace and God of Glory", and uses what he called his "hallelujah motif", a quote from the "Hallelujah Chorus" of Handel. Heard at the very beginning of the piece, this motif reappears throughout the work after each phrase of the melody is outlined by the "big" trumpet of our instrument which hangs on the back wall of the nave.