SUNDAY WORSHIP FOR SEPTEMBER 20, 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 music of 20th century French composer and organist Jean Langlais (1907-1991) is characterized by his love of Gregorian Chant and modal harmonies. Blind from the age of two, he was appointed to the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde, Paris in 1945, a post he kept for over forty years whose predecessors included César Franck and Charles Tournemire. The Prelude is the lovely Prélude modal (Modal Prelude) from his early collection of 24 Pieces (1934-36)
Hymn 541, Come Labor On, was written by Jane Laurie Borthwick in 1859 and has references to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard read at the Gospel. It is set to the tune Ora Labora written by British born composer T. Tertius Noble who later served as organist of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York.
"The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee" by Jean Berger was sung a few weeks ago, adapted as a solo. This week we hear the beautiful close harmonies as our quartet sings the original version unaccompanied. The text, from Psalm 145, supports both the Old Testament story of manna from heaven and the parable of the laborers in the vineyard read at the Gospel.
The eyes of all, wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing
Pianist, composer, and musicologist, Jean Berger was born Arthur Schlossberg, into a Jewish family in Hamm, Westphalia. In 1933 he sought refuge from the Nazi Party and a new name in Paris, France. After two years in South America, Berger lived in the US from 1941 until his death in 2002 where he spent the rest of his career teaching at several different universities.
Postlude: "Pasticcio", the final piece from Langlais' Organ Book (1957), a suite of ten pieces composed for the wedding of a friend, closes today's service. This work, an imitation of Medieval dance music, contains fanfare-like rhythms alternating with dissonant sections. In music, a pasticcio or pastiche is a work that imitates the style of another work, artist, or period. Literally, a hodgepodge of musical ideas.