Behold the Lamb of God!

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Epiphany II

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Prelude

Puer nobis,  J. P. Sweelinck

Hymns

O splendor of God’s glory bright

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted

The God of Abraham praise

Anthems

Jubilate Deo, Laslo Halmos

O taste and see, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Postlude

Trumpet Voluntary no. 5,  op, 7, John Stanley

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Prelude

Puer nobis, Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck (1562-1721)

Here it is played with a very delicate touch by Diederik Blankesteijn.

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Hymns

O splendor of God’s glory bright is a translation by Robert Bridges, poet laureate of England, of St. Ambrose’s morning hymn Splendor paternæ gloriæ.

O Splendor of God’s glory bright,
O Thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of Light, light’s living spring,
O Day, all days illumining.

O thou true Sun, on us Thy glance,
Let fall in royal radiance,
the Spirit’s sanctifying beam
upon our earthly senses stream.

The Father, too, our prayers implore,
Father of glory evermore;
the Father of all grace and might,
to banish sin from our delight.

On Christ, the true bread, let us feed;
Let Him to us be drink indeed;
And let us taste with joyfulness
The Holy Spirit’s plenteousness.

All laud to God the Father be;
All praise, eternal Son, to thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To God the holy Paraclete.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir doing a cheerful version.

Here is the English sung to a Gregorian melody.

Splendor paternæ gloriæ,
De luce lucem proferens,
Lux lucis et fons luminis,
Diem dies illuminans

Verusque sol, illabere
Micans nitore perpeti
Iubarque sancti spiritus
Infunde nostris sensibus.

Votis vocemus et patrem,
Patrem perennis gloriæ,
Patrem potentis gratiæ
Culpam releget lubricam.

Informet actus strenuos,
Dentem retundat invidi,
Casus secundet asperos,
Donet gerendi gratiam.

Mentem gubernet et regat
Casto, fideli corpore,
Fides calore ferveat,
Fraudis venena nesciat.

Christusque noster sit cibus,
Potusque noster sit fides,
Læti bibamus sobriam
Ebrietatem spiritus.

Lætus dies hic transeat,
Pudor sit ut diluculum,
Fides velut meridies,
Crepusculum mens nesciat.

Aurora cursus provehat,
Aurora totus prodeat,
In patre totus filius
Et totus in verbo pater.

Here is the Latin with Gregorian chant.

Robert Bridges

Robert Bridges (1844-1930) was poet laureate of England from 1913 until his death. At Oxford he was a friend of Gerald Manley Hopkins and arranged for the publication of Hopkins’ poetry posthumously.

Bridges wrote and also translated historic hymns, and many of these were included in Songs of Syon (1904) and the later English Hymnal (1906). Several of Bridges’ hymns and translations are still in use today, such as “O Gladsome Light” (Phos Hilaron), “O Sacred Head, sore wounded” (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656), and
“When morning gilds the skies” (stanza 3; Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1744)

PUER NOBIS NASCITUR is a melody from a fifteenth-century manuscript from Trier. However, the tune probably dates from an earlier time and may even have folk roots. PUER NOBIS was altered in Spangenberg’s Christliches Gesangbuchlein (1568), in Petri’s famous Piae Cantiones (1582), and again in Praetorius’s  Musae Sioniae (Part VI, 1609), which is the basis for the triple-meter version.

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Father, we thank Thee who hast planted  is a paraphrase by the Episcopal clergyman Francis Bland Tucker (1895—1984) of the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, one of the earliest documents of the church.

Stanza 1 corresponds to 10: 2 of the Didache, a post-communion prayer: ‘We give Thee thanks, Holy Father, for Thy holy name, which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus’ (translation by Joseph Barber Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 1891). Stanza 2 is from 10: 3: ‘Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for Thy name’s sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee; but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son.’ Stanza 3 is from 10: 5: ‘Remember, Lord, Thy Church to deliver it from all evil and to perfect it in Thy love…’. Stanza 4 is from 9: 4: ‘As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom.’

Here at St. John’s, Detroit, before a Tigers game.

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted
Thy holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus, Thy Son, to us imparts.
Thou, Lord, didst make all for Thy pleasure,
Didst give us food for all our days,
Giving in Christ the Bread eternal;
Thine is the pow’r, be Thine the praise.

Watch o’er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,
Save it from evil, guard it still,
Perfect it in Thy love, unite it,
Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will.
As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,
Was in this broken bread made one,
So from all lands Thy Church be gather’d
Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son.

Francis Bland Tucker (1885-1984)  was an important figure in hymnody. He was educated at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Beginning in 1945, he was Rector of Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia. Tucker served on the two commissions, forty-two years apart, that revised hymnals of the Episcopal Church. He worked on the 1940 Hymnal and the 1982 Hymnal which includes 17 of Tucker’s contributions. Among these are the texts, Oh, Gracious Light (Hymns 25-26), Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted (Hymns 302-303), and his original text, Our Father, by Whose Name (Hymn 587). Only John Mason Neale is credited with more items in the 1982 Hymnal.  Tucker was also a theological adviser to the commission that produced the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

A collateral descendant of George Washington, Tucker’s parents were Beverley Dandridge Tucker, Episcopal Bishop of Southern Virginia, and Anna Maria Washington who was one of the last children to be born at Mount Vernon. Francis Bland is the brother of Henry St. George Tucker (1874–1959), 19th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and descendant of St. George Tucker (1752–1827), lawyer, legal scholar, state and federal judge for whom the St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg is named.

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One night in London, Thomas Olivers (1725—1799), a follower of John Wesley, was attracted to a service in a Jewish synagogue, where he heard a great singer, Myer Leoni, sing an ancient Hebrew text in solemn, plaintive mode. Olivers wrote a hymn to that tune: The God of Abraham Praise, which is a paraphrase of the ancient Hebrew Yigdal, or doxology. In the 12th century, Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides codified the 13 articles of the Jewish Creed. These articles of the Jewish faith were later shaped into the Yigdal around 1400 by Daniel ben Judah, a judge in Rome.

Her is the King’s College choir.

Here is a wonderful Sephardic Yigdal. Here is a modern arrangement of the Yigdal.

Here are the original verses. Note that in almost all hymnals the specifically Christian references have been removed, often to make the hymn suitable for interfaith gatherings.

The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days, and God of Love;
Jehovah, great I AM! by earth and Heav’n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred Name forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise, at Whose supreme command
From earth I rise—and seek the joys at His right hand;
I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and power;
And Him my only Portion make, my Shield and Tower.

The God of Abraham praise, whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my happy days, in all my ways.
He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God!
And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.

He by Himself has sworn; I on His oath depend,
I shall, on eagle wings upborne, to Heav’n ascend.
I shall behold His face; I shall His power adore,
And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.

Tho’ nature’s strength decay, and earth and hell withstand,
To Canaan’s bounds I urge my way, at His command.
The wat’ry deep I pass, with Jesus in my view;
And thro’ the howling wilderness my way pursue.

The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty bless’d;
A land of sacred liberty, and endless rest.
There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound,
And trees of life forever grow with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our righteousness,
Triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of peace;
On Sion’s sacred height His kingdom still maintains,
And glorious with His saints in light forever reigns.

He keeps His own secure, He guards them by His side,
Arrays in garments, white and pure, His spotless bride:
With streams of sacred bliss, with groves of living joys—
With all the fruits of Paradise, He still supplies.

Before the great Three-One they all exulting stand;
And tell the wonders He hath done, through all their land:
The list’ning spheres attend, and swell the growing fame;
And sing, in songs which never end, the wondrous Name.

The God Who reigns on high the great archangels sing,
And “Holy, holy, holy!” cry, “Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same, and evermore shall be:
Jehovah—Father—great I AM, we worship Thee!”

Before the Savior’s face the ransomed nations bow;
O’erwhelmed at His almighty grace, forever new:
He shows His prints of love—they kindle to a flame!
And sound thro’ all the worlds above the slaughtered Lamb.

The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” they ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine! (I join the heav’nly lays,)
All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.

Here is the 1940 Hymnal version by an English choir.

Here is the Yigdal:

1. Exalted be the Living God and praised, He exists – unbounded by time is His existence;
2. He is One – and there is no unity like His Oneness – Inscrutable and infinite is His Oneness;
3. He has no semblance of a body nor is He corporeal – nor has His holiness any comparison;
4. He preceded every being that was created – the First, and nothing precedes His precedence;
5. Behold! He is Master of the universe – Every creature demonstrates His greatness and His sovereignty;
6. He granted His flow of prophecy – to His treasured, splendid people;
7. In Israel, none like Moses arose again – a prophet who perceived His vision clearly;
8. God gave His people a Torah of truth – by means of His prophet, the most trusted of His household;
9. God will never amend nor exchange His law – for any other one, for all eternity;
10. He scrutinizes and knows our hiddenmost secrets – He perceives a matter’s outcome at its inception;
11. He recompenses man with kindness according to his deed – He places evil on the wicked according to his wickedness;
12. By the End of Days He will send our Messiah – to redeem those longing for His final salvation;
13. God will revive the dead in His abundant kindness – Blessed forever is His praised Name.

Note that the last verse expresses belief in the resurrection of the dead, which is an article of Jewish belief, as is clear from  Gospels.

Thomas Olivers

Thomas Olivers was born in 1725. Both his father and his mother died when he was four years old. He grew up to be an apprentice shoemaker and he became a profligate and reckless young man. After his involvement in a scandal which forced him to leave his home, Olivers travelled to Bristol where he heard George Whitfield preach on the text “is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2). Olivers was converted and expressed a desire to follow Whitfield; however one of Whitfield’s preachers discouraged him and instead he joined the Methodist society and met one of the founders of Methodism, John Wesley.

After joining Wesley as a preacher, Olivers was initially stationed to preach in Cornwall.  He was later stationed to preach all around Great Britain and Ireland because of his fearless preaching style. He also had good relations with Great Britain’s Jewish community, attending Jewish synagogues and became friends with Rabbi Myer Lyon. In 1775, Wesley appointed Olivers to co-write the Arminian Magazine with him. Olivers often exercised control over the content of the magazine. Due to a lack of formal education, Olivers’ editions of the magazine contained several printing errors, which annoyed Wesley but he persevered with Olivers whom he counted as a friend and attached a list of errors at the back of the yearly annual in 1778. However following an “astounding number of errata”, Wesley declared in a letter that “I cannot, dare not, will not suffer Thomas Olivers to murder the Arminian Magazine any longer. The errata are intolerable and innumerable. They shall be so no more” and removed Olivers from his position in 1789. Despite this, Olivers and Wesley remained good friends, often viewed as a father-son relationship. When Olivers died in March 1799, he was buried in Wesley’s grave in London.

Anthems

Jubilate Deo, Laslo Halmos

Jubilate Deo universa terra, psalmum dicite nomini eius. Venite et audite, et narrabo vobis omnis qui timetis Deum quanta fecit Dominus animae meae. Alleluia.

O be joyful in God, all ye lands: sing praises unto the honour of his Name. O come hither, and hearken, all ye that fear God: and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. Alleluia.

László Halmos (1909- 1997) was a Hungarian composer, choir director and violinist.

He wrote choral works, songs, chamber music, oratorios, cantatas, masses, as well as works for orchestra and for the organ, totaling several hundred works. He was choir director of Gyór Cathedral and also held the position of professor at the Theological College and the State Conservatory. As a violinist, he was one of the early members of The New Hungarian Quartet.

Here the anthem by mixed chamber choir; here at the Christ the King mass at St. Peter’s in Rome; here by a male choir at Đakova cathedral in Croatia.

Halmos was born a subject of Franz Josef in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He lived through the Red Terror of Béla Kun, the regency of Admiral Horthy, the takeover by the Germans, and Communist era, including  the Revolution of 1956.  He lived to see a free Hungary. America’s political difficulties should be kept in perspective.

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O taste and see, Ralph Vaughan Williams

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blest is the man that trusteth in Him.

Here is the score and the Cambridge Singers

Common

An Anglican Folk Mass, Martin Shaw

Here is the Creed as sung at Chichester Cathedral.

Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 – 1958) was an English composer, conductor and (in his early life) theatre producer. His over 300 published works include songs, hymns, carols, oratorios, several instrumental works, a congregational mass setting (the Anglican Folk Mass) and four operas including a ballad opera.

He was the son of the Bohemian and eccentric James Shaw, composer of church music and organist of Hampstead Parish Church. He was the elder brother of the composer and influential educator Geoffrey Shaw and the actor Julius Shaw, whose career was cut short by the First World War – he was killed in March 1918. He studied under Stanford at the Royal College of Music, together with a generation of composers that included Holst, Vaughan Williams and John Ireland. He then embarked upon a career as a theatrical producer, composer and conductor, the early years of which he described as “a long period of starving along”.  However, he began his career as an organist, serving at Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, from 1895 to 1903.

Working with Percy Dearmer, Martin was music editor of The English Carol Book (1913, 1919) and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams, of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). His tune Little Cornardis sung to Hills of the North Rejoice, and Marching is sung to Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow. While doing research for the English Hymnal (1906) in the British Library, he came upon the traditional Gaelic hymn-tune Bunessan in L. McBean’s Songs and Hymns of the Gael, published in 1900. However, the tune was not included in the English Hymnal. It was used instead in the second edition of Songs of Praise (1931), set to the poem Morning Has Broken, which Martin Shaw commissioned specially from his old friend Eleanor Farjeon. This tune and words became a No. 1 hit for Cat Stevens in 1972. Martin Shaw also noted down the Czech carol Rocking and included it in The Oxford Book of Carols.

Postlude

Trumpet Voluntary no. 5,  op, 7, John Stanley

Here it is on organ and trumpet.

Sagrada familia, New Mexican retablo

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

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Sunday, December 31, 2017

The Feast of the Holy Family

8:00 Said Mass

10:00 Sung Mass

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Monday, January 1, 2018

The Feast of Mary Mother of God

9:oo AM Said Mass with hymns

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Music for December 31 Sung Mass

Prelude

Overture from The Messiah, Handel

Common

Anglican Folk Mass, Shaw

Hymns

Gentle Mary laid her child

Joseph dearest, Joseph mine

The first Nowell

Sing of Mary, pure and lowly

Away in a manger

Postlude

Pastoral from The Messiah, Handel

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Gentle Mary laid her child is a Canadian carol by the Methodist mister Joseph Simpson Cook (1858–1933) Born in England he at a young age emigrated to Canada and attended McGill University.  Cook followed John Wesley’s Catholic tendencies; he loved the church of England and saw the positive aspects of the Roman Catholic church.

Gentle Mary laid her Child
Lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the undefiled,
To the world a stranger:
Such a Babe in such a place,
Can He be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race
Who have found His favor.

2 Angels sang about His birth;
Wise men sought and found Him;
Heaven’s star shone brightly forth,
Glory all around Him:
Shepherds saw the wondrous sight,
Heard the angels singing;
All the plains were lit that night,
All the hills were ringing.

3 Gentle Mary laid her Child
Lowly in a manger;
He is still the undefiled,
But no more a stranger:
Son of God, of humble birth,
Beautiful the story;
Praise His name in all the earth,
Hail the King of glory!

Here is the tune.

The tune Weimar is by Melchior Vulpius (Latinized from Fuchs, fox). He wrote exclusively church music. As a composer, his roots are in the tradition of the Lutheran reformation. He avoided the new styles of bass continuo and monody and was, in a positive sense, a retainer of 16th-century musical style.

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Joseph dearest, Joseph mine is a traditional German carol, Josef, lieber Josef mein, which was originally sung as a lullaby by the Virgin Mary in 16th Century mystery plays in Leipzig, Germany.

1. “Joseph, Dearest Joseph mine,
Help me cradle the Child divine.
God reward thee and all that’s thine,
In paradise,” so prays the mother Mary.

“Gladly, dear one, lady mine,
Help I cradle this child of thine;
God’s own light on us both shall shine
In paradise,
As prays the mother Mary. “

Her are the Dale Warland Singers.

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The first Nowell is a traditional English carol, first published in 1823. The usual derivation of ‘Nowell’ is from the Old French ‘Nouel’, modern French ‘Noel’ from the Latin ‘natalis’, meaning ‘belonging to a birth’ (as in ‘Dies natalis’ meaning ‘birthday’). It is however also possible that the word should be linked with ‘novellare’ and ‘nouvelle’ with the implication that it is a cry of ‘News! News!’

1. The first Nowell the Angel1 did say
Was to three poor Shepherds in fields as they lay.1b
In fields where they lay keeping2 their sheep,
In a cold winter’s night that was so deep.3

Chorus
Nowell, nowell, nowell, nowell.
Born is the King of Israel.

2. They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the East, beyond them far,
And to the earth it gave great light,
And so it continued, both day and night. Chorus

3. And by the light of that same Star
Three Wise Men came from country far,
To seek for a King was their intent,
And to follow the Star wherever it went. Chorus

4. This Star drew nigh to the North West;
O’er Bethlehem it took it’s rest.
And there it did both stop and stay,
Right4 over the place where Jesus lay. Chorus

5. Then did they know assuredly5
Within that house, the King did lie
One entered in then for to see
And found the babe in poverty. Chorus

6. Then enter’d in those Wise Men three,
Full reverently upon their knee,
And offer’d there, in his presence,
Their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense. Chorus

7. Between an ox stall and an ass,
This Child truly there born he was;
For want of clothing they did him lay
All in a manger, among the hay. Chorus

8. Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made heaven and earth of nought,
And with his blood mankind hath bought. Chorus

9. If we in our time shall do well
We shall be free from death and Hell
For God hath prepared for us all
A resting place in general. Chorus

Here is King’s College, Cambridge.

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Sing of Mary, pure and lowly, also a Canadian carol, was written by Roland Ford Palmer (1891–1985), who was also born in England and in 1905 emigrated to Canada. Palmer was an Anglican priest who entered the Society of St John (Cowley fathers) in 1919 and founded its Canadian province in 1927. The text is based on an anonymous poem published in an Ilkeston, Derbyshire pamphlet c. 1914.

Sing of Mary, pure and lowly,
Virgin mother undefiled,
Sing of God’s own Son most holy,
Who became her little child.
Fairest child of fairest mother,
God the Lord who came to earth,
Word made flesh, our very brother,
Takes our nature by his birth.

Sing of Jesus, son of Mary,
In the home at Nazareth.
Toil and labour cannot weary
Love enduring unto death.
Constant was the love he gave her,
Though he went forth from her side,
Forth to preach, and heal, and suffer,
Till on Calvary he died.

Glory be to God the Father;
Glory be to God the Son;
Glory be to God the Spirit;
Glory to the Three in One.
From the heart of blessed Mary,
From all saints the song ascends,
And the Church the strain reechoes
Unto earth’s remotest ends.

Here it is from the album Walsingham Way.

The tune Pleading Saviour was composed by Joshua Leavitt (1794–1873), a Congregational minister, who was for many years musical advisor to the most famous revivalist of the Second Great Awakening, Charles Grandison Finney. In 1831 Leavitt compiled and published The Christian Lyre, the first hymnal to print music for every hymn. He was first Secretary of the American Temperance Society and co-founder of the New York City Anti-Slavery Society. He aided a slave Basil Dorsey to escape from Maryland to Massachusetts and formed the Amistad Committee to raise funds for the defense of Amistad captives.

Nativity, English, 12th c.

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

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December 24, ANNO SALUTIS 2017

Christmas Eve Mass

10:00 PM Carols

10:30 PM Mass

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Prelude

Noel Polonais – Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Common

O quam gloriosum, Tomás Luis de Victoria

The Procession to the Creche

O come all ye faithful

Silent night

Angels we have heard on high

Offertory

Of the Father’s love begotten

Closing

Joy to the world

Anthems

Hodie Christus natus est, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Parish of the Roman  Catholic Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Advent III: Gaudete Sunday

Prelude

Préludes liturgiques, No. 2 – Gaston Litaize

Archibald Farmer wrote that the Préludes liturgiques were “clever, interesting, often good, and always modishly French.”

Here is No. 11 of Prélude Liturqiques.

Gaston Litaize (1909-1991) was born in Ménil-sur-Belvitte, Vosges, in northeast France. An illness caused him to lose his sight just after birth. He entered the Institute for the Blind at a young age, studying with Charles Magin, who encouraged him to move to Paris and study with Magin and Adolphe Marty at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which he did from 1926 to 1931. Concurrently, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in October 1927, studying with Marcel Dupré and Henri Büsser, as well as privately with Louis Vierne. Over the course of six years, he won first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue, and composition, as well as the Prix Rossini for his cantata Fra Angelico. In 1938 he finished second to Henri Dutilleux in the Prix de Rome, said to be the first time that a blind person was accepted in the competition.

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Hymns

Hail to the Lord’s anointed was written by James Montgomery (1771-1854) for a Moravian Christmas occasion, perhaps at the settlement at Fulneck, near Leeds. It is a free paraphrase of Psalm 72, a psalm of righteousness and justice.

Here is the complete hymn. The 1940 Hymnal uses stanzas 1, 2, 3, a combination of 5 and 6, and 7.

1 Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,
great David’s greater Son!
Hail, in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression,
to set the captive free,
to take away transgression,
and rule in equity.

2 He comes with succor speedy
to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy,
and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing,
their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying,
were precious in His sight.

3 He shall come down like showers
upon the fruitful earth;
and love, joy, hope, like flowers,
spring in His path to birth;
Before Him on the mountains
shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains,
from hill to valley flow.

4 Arabia’s desert ranger
to Him shall bow the knee,
the Ethiopian stranger
His glory come to see;
with offerings of devotion,
ships from the isles shall meet,
to pour the wealth of ocean
in tribute at His feet.

5 Kings shall fall down before Him,
and gold and incense bring;
all nations shall adore Him,
His praise all people sing;
for He shall have dominion
o’er river, sea, and shore,
far as the eagle’s pinion
or dove’s light wing can soar.

6 For Him shall pray’r unceasing,
and daily vows ascend;
His kingdom still increasing,
a kingdom without end;
the mountain dews shall nourish
a seed in weakness sown,
whose fruit shall spread and flourish,
and shake like Lebanon.

7 O’er every foe victorious,
He on His throne shall rest,
from age to age more glorious,
all-blessing and all-blessed;
the tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand forever –
that name to us is Love.

Here is St. John’s, Detroit.

It is closely based on Psalm 72.

A Psalm for Solomon. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.

He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.

The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.

There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.

And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

The King James translation indicates that this is song written by David for his son Solomon. The song addresses Solomon in exaggerated terms that could be fulfilled only by the Messiah, but Solomon in his wisdom and peacefulness foreshadows the Messiah: “One greater than Solomon is here.”

David proclaims in hope that his son, Solomon, shall reign to the ends of the earth, that kings from afar will bring him gifts, that all nations shall serve him. Solomon’s wisdom will be in service of justice, especially justice for the poor and oppressed, whom he will redeem. Therefore all nations will call him blessed. Such hopes no merely human king could fulfill, and therefore Coffman’s Commentary lists the ways in which Solomon is a type of Christ.

1. Just as the First Israel had its most glorious extent under Solomon; so shall the Second Israel, the Church of God though Christ attain to eternal glory in Christ.
2. Solomon was a son of David; Jesus Christ is The Son of David.
3. Solomon reigned over the earth from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea; but Christ’s dominion is “to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
4. Solomon’s wisdom was known all over the world; but “In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.”
5. Solomon’s reign was one of peace; and Christ our Lord is the Prince of Peace, “And of the increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end.”
6. Solomon sat upon the literal throne of David in Jerusalem; but Christ, risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, is seated upon the Throne of David in heaven (Acts 2:30-31).
7. Kings and rulers of all the world of Solomon’s day honored him and brought presents to him. In Christ’s kingdom, “The kings of the earth bring their glory into Christ’s kingdom” (Revelation 21:24); and even in the manger at Bethlehem the kings of the earth brought unto Christ gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

But Coffman does not consider the several passages in the psalm about the judgment that shall save the poor and needy.

James Montgomery (1771-1854), the English author of the hymn Hail to the Lord’s Anointed noticed these passages. For thirty years he edited a radical paper; in the fears that swept England after the French Revolution he was twice jailed because of his advocacy of social justice. He was an advocate for the end of the slave trade and of the exploitation of child chimney sweeps. During his time in jail he wrote poetry, including probably this hymn. It was first sung on Christmas Day, 1821, at a Moravian gathering.

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On Jordan’s bank is one of the few Advent hymns to take account of Saint John the Baptist as the forerunner of the coming Christ.

This hymn, which is based on the text in Luke 3: 1-18, was written by Charles Coffin (1676-1749), who became the Rector of the University of Paris in 1718, and first appeared in the Paris Breviary in 1736. It was translated by the Revd John Chandler (1806-1876), Vicar of Witley in Godalming, Surrey, and one of the early translators of Latin hymns into English with Anglican churches and parishes in mind.

Every hymnal seems to have a different version. Here is the one from the 1940 Hymnal.

1. On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake, and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings.

2. Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
Make straight the way for God within;
Let each heart prepare a home
Where such a mighty Guest may come.

3. For Thou art our Salvation, Lord,
Our refuge, and our great reward.
Without Thy grace we waste away,
Like flowers that wither and decay.

4. To heal the sick stretch out Thine hand,
And bid the fallen sinner stand;
Shine forth, and let Thy light restore
Earth’s own true lovliness once more.

5. All praise, eternal Son, to Thee
Whose advent doth Thy people free,
Whom, with the Father, we adore,
And Holy Ghost, forevermore.

Here is a congregational rendition.

Here is the original Latin:

Jordanis oras praevia
Vox ecce Baptistae quatit:
Praeconis ad grandes sonos
Ignavus abscedat sopor.

Auctoris adventum sui
Tellus & aether & mare
Praegestiente sentiunt,
Et jam salutant gaudio.

Mundemus & nos pectora:
Deo propinquanti viam
Sternamus, & dignam domum
Tanto paremus hospiti.

Tu nostra, tu, Jesu, salus;
Tu robur & solatium:
Arens ut herba, te sine
Mortale tabescit genus.

Aegris salutarem manum
Extende: prostratos leva:
Ostende vultum, jam suus
Mundo reflorescet decor.

Qui liberator advenis,
Fili, tibi laus maxima
Cum Patre & almo Spiriiu
In sempiterna secula.

Charles Coffin (1676 – 1749 ) was a French teacher, writer and Jansenist who was Rector of the University of Paris. Among his writings are a number of hymns which have been translated into English. In 1701, he was appointed chief assistant to Charles Rollin, principal of the Collège de Beauvais. He succeeded Rollin as principal in 1712.  In 1718. he became rector of the University of Paris, a post which he held until his death.

Coffin published in 1727 some of his Latin poems, for which he was already noted, and in 1736 the bulk of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of that year, an edition of which was published in 1838 at Oxford by John Henry Newman. 1736 also saw the publication of Coffin’s Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin.

The Hymni Sacri included a poem adapted from the original chant, Jordanis oras prævia, which Rev. John Chandler later translated to the hymn On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry set to the tune Winchester New for use at Matins during Advent. Chandler also translated Coffin’s The Advent of Our King.

Among his other works is an ode in praise of the wines of Champagne. This work is a version of a similar poem in which Bénigne Grenan, professor at Harcourt College, praised the pre-eminence of Burgundy wine, and that one of Charles Coffin’s Jansenist friends, Marc-Antoine Hersan, had had fun reciting one evening at a dinner.

While the papal bull Unigenitus condemned Jansenism, many in France interpreted it as an attack on the perogatives of the French church. The University of Paris and the provincial Parlements were hotbeds of opposition. The University was known to harbor Jansenist sympathizers; the Parlement of Paris went so far as to threatened to confiscate the temporalities of the Archbishop. As rector of the University and clerk to the Parlement of Paris, even Coffin’s hymns were viewed by some with suspicion.

Coffin died of pneumonia in Paris 20 June 1749. Due to his persistence in appealing against the apostolic constitution Unigenitus, under instructions from the Archbishop, who wished to make an example, the parish rector of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, refused to administer last rites to him, or give him a Christian burial ] Four thousand Parisians joined the funeral procession. Because the crown had supported the suppression of the Jansenists, Danton notes that the religious rite took on political overtones. The Parlement of Paris subsequently issued an official and strong “remonstrance” to the king. Richard J. Janet sees the resulting popular demonstrations as contributing to the growing disenchantment with the monarchy that would later play into the coming Revolution.

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John Chandler (1806 – 1876) was the son of the vicar of Witley. John was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1827, MA 1830). He took Holy Orders, becoming a Fellow of his College and curate of Witley. He became vicar of Witley in 1839, remaining there until his death. He is chiefly known for The Hymns of the Primitive Church, published in 1837 (a later edition, with additional hymns, appeared as The Hymns of the Church, mostly Primitive, in 1841).

In the Preface to The Hymns of the Primitive Church, written in a rather ponderous style, Chandler wrote:

It has long struck me, indeed, that as our Liturgy is compiled, in a great measure, from ancient materials, so, if there were any ancient hymns still extant, of the same date and character with the prayers, they would be most suitable for our purpose; for they would, from their antiquity, carry more weight with them than any modern ones could do…

He disapproved of ‘those rhyming jingling hymns which are found in the Popish missals, as barbarous in their Latinity, as defective in their doctrine’. He then described how he had found the deliberately unmetrical translations (by Isaac Williams*) in the British Magazine of hymns from the Paris Breviary of 1736, got hold of a copy, and proceeded to translate some of them again in a manner suited to congregational singing. In his orotund way, Chandler addressed himself with heavy playfulness to the Church of England:

It will not, I trust, be unpleasing or unedifying to her members to see a Morning hymn by a Bishop of Milan of the fourth century [Ambrose] joined to one on the same subject by a Bishop of Salisbury of the seventeenth [Ken? -who was Bishop of Bath and Wells]. Perhaps, if the authorities of our Church carry on the design, we may see next to them a hymn by a Bishop of Calcutta of the nineteenth [Heber].

The tune, ‘Winchester New,’ is a melody adapted from Georg Wittwe’s Musikalishes Hand-Buch (Hamburg, 1690) by Canon William Henry Havergal (1793-1870), one of the leading figures in reforming church psalmody in the Anglican tradition.

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Rejoice the Lord is King is by Charles Wesley (1707-1788).

The hymn has four principal sources. First, it begins with a clear allusion to Psalm 97:1, 12. Second, the 2-line refrain, with which each verse except the last concludes, begins with a citation of part of the Third Century Eucharistic text, Sursum Corda (‘Lift up your hearts.’). Third, the refrain continues with a reference to Philippians 4: 4. Fourth, the content of the hymn is influenced by that section of the Nicene Creed which deals with Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, the belief that he will come again as Judge, and the unending nature of his Kingdom.

The final stanza concludes with a modified version of the refrain, in which the words of Sursum Corda are replaced by an allusion to 1 Thessalonians 4:16. This modification may have suggested itself to Wesley because the final verse itself draws upon 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

1 Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing,
And triumph evermore:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

2 The Lord, our Savior, reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When He has purged our stains,
He took His seat above:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

3 His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o’er earth and heav’n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv’n:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

4 Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord the Judge shall come
And take His servants up
To their eternal home:
Lift up your heart,
lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Here is John Rutter’s arrangement.

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This brilliant work comes from the “Chorale Preludes based on famous Hymn Tunes, Volume 5, No. 3,” and published by Ashdown. It is to be played “like an improvisation,” and there is plenty of color and excitement as it sweeps along to its triumphant conclusion.

Here is the piece. Click on Listen.The famous melody was composed by John Darwall (1731–1789), an English clergyman and hymnodist.

Alec Rowley (1892-1958) was a teacher, composer, organist, pianist, lecturer and writer, who studied at the RAM with Frederick Corder and where he won sundry scholarships and prizes. He was an organist at several London churches including, during the Second World War, St Margaret’s, Westminster. As a pianist he often broadcast duets with Edgar Moy. In 1920, he was appointed to the staff of Trinity College, London, where he was elected a Fellow and remained until his death. He was elected a Fellow of the RAM in 1934.

Parable of the Talents

Mount Calvary 

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XXIII

Prelude

Hymns

Awake, my soul, and with the sun

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted

God, my King, Thy might confessing

Anthems

Serve bone et fidelis, Tommaso Bai

Almighty and everlasting God, Orlando Gibbons

Common

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena, Healey Willan

Postlude

Toccata-Sortie, Auguste Larriu (1840 – 1925)

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Prelude

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Hymns

#151 Awake my soul and with the sun. Thomas Ken wrote this hymn specifically as a morning prayer, as well as another for an evening prayer, and one more for a midnight prayer, which was used only during special occasions. Written sometime prior to 1674, Ken gave this text to his students at Winchester College, which is one of the oldest public preparatory schools in England. The language is simple and precise, and the opening images of light and rising up, appropriate to morning, pervade the hymn and convey a powerful sense of renewal and aspiration.

1 Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

2 Redeem thy misspent moments past;
And live this day as if thy last:
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great Day thyself prepare.

3 Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noonday clear;
Think how all-seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

4 Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angels bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praise to the eternal King.

5 All praise to Thee, Who safe hast kept
And hast refreshed me while I slept;
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless light partake.

6 Lord, I my vows to Thee renew;
Scatter my sins as morning dew;
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with Thyself my spirit fill.

7 Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say;
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.

8 Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, angelic host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Here is the Norwich Cathedral Choir.

Bishop Thomas Ken

Thomas Ken (1637—1711) was a very successful man, having been schooled well, and having faced death at such a young age. Born in Berkhampstead, England, Ken lost both his mother and father at the age of nine. After the death of his parents, he was forced to move in and be raised by his older sister, Ann, and by Ann’s husband, Izaak Walton. Ken was educated at Winchester College, Hart Hall, and New College, Oxford, but throughout the heavy Presbyterian presence throughout Oxford, Ken maintained his strong connections to the Church of England. Ken was ordained in 1662, and quickly became a parish priest and chaplain. In 1669, Ken became the prebendary of Winchester Cathedral and College chaplain to the bishop, a position he would hold for ten years. It was during this ten year stay at Winchester that Ken wrote this morning hymn. Finally, Ken left Winchester so that he may serve as a chaplain to Princess Mary at The Hague in 1679, and in 1685, he was named bishop of Bath and Wells. Ken spent only a short time away from Winchester. He returned from his work with Princess Mary at The Hague after Ken’s remonstrance against a case of immorality in the church.

Thomas Ken window in Wells Cathedral

Ken was a well-respected man of integrity who was known for his strong stances, but was also known for his “conciliatory spirit….gentleness, modesty, and love.”.He was also known as one of the first Anglican writers of hymns as opposed to metrical psalms, though he is only known best for these three hymns. Ken is known for having been made Bishop of Bath and Wells by King Charles II. King Charles still favored Ken, even though Ken had refused the kings mistress, Nell Gwynne, the use of his house while she was visiting. King James II called Ken the most eloquent protestant preacher of his time, and Charles was noted of saying “I must go and hear Ken tell me my faults.”

In 1688, when James reissued his Declaration of Indulgence, which tolerated non-Anglicans, Ken was one of the Seven Bishops who refused to publish it. He was probably influenced by two considerations: first, by his profound aversion to Roman Catholicism, to which he felt he would be giving some episcopal recognition by compliance; but, second and more especially, by the feeling that James was compromising the spiritual freedom of the church. Along with his six brethren, Ken was committed to the Tower on 8 June 1688, on a charge of high misdemeanour. Ken was put on trial with the others on 29 and 30 June, which resulted in a verdict of acquittal.

With the Glorious Revolution which speedily followed this impolitic trial, new troubles encountered Ken; for, having sworn allegiance to James, he thought himself thereby precluded from taking the oath to William of Orange. Accordingly, he took his place among the non-jurors, and, as he stood firm to his refusal, he was, in August 1691, superseded in his bishopric by Dr Richard Kidder, dean of Peterborough.

From this time he lived mostly in retirement, finding a congenial home with Lord Weymouth, his friend from college days, at Longleat in Wiltshire; and though pressed by Queen Anne to resume his diocese in 1703, upon the death of Bishop Kidder, he declined, partly on the ground of growing weakness, but partly no doubt from his love for the quiet life of devotion which he was able to lead at Longleat. He did however persuade George Hooper to accept and made a cession to him. At Hooper’s instigation, Queen Anne granted Ken a pension of £200. His death took place there on 19 March 1711. and at dawn the following day, whilst his faithful friends sang “Awake, my soul, and with the sun” Bishop Ken’s remains were laid to rest beneath the East Window of the Church of St. John in Frome – the nearest parish in his old Diocese of Bath and Wells. “I am dying,” Ken had written, “In the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West; and, more particularly, in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from both Papal and Protestant innovation, and adheres to the Doctrine of the Cross.”

Although Ken wrote much poetry, besides his hymns, he cannot be called a great poet; but he had that fine combination of spiritual insight and feeling with poetic taste which marks all great hymnwriters. As a hymnwriter he has had few equals in England; he wrote Praise God from whom all blessings flow. It can scarcely be said that even John Keble, though possessed of much rarer poetic gifts, surpassed him in his own sphere. In his own day he took high rank as a pulpit orator, and even royalty had to beg for a seat amongst his audiences; but his sermons are now forgotten. He lives in history, apart from his three hymns, mainly as a man of unstained purity and invincible fidelity to conscience, weak only in a certain narrowness of view. As an ecclesiastic he was a High Churchman of the old school.

The tune MORNING HYMN was commissioned by a Swedenborgian from Philadelphia by the name of Jacob Duche (1737—1798). Duche was the chaplain of the Female Orphan Asylum in London, a place where a young woman by the name of Mary Young Barthélemon had close associations with. While Duche was putting together a collection of hymns and psalms to be used at the asylum, he requested a hymn tune from her husband, François Hippolyte Barthélemon  (1741—1808), to accompany the text to Ken’s text. The tune first appeared in a supplement to William Gawler’s Hymns and Psalms Used at the Asylum for Female Orphans, which was published in London around 1785.

François-Hippolyte Barthélemon was born at Bordeaux, France, as the oldest child of sixteen. His father was a French army officer; his mother a well-to-do Irish woman. Barthélemon was a well-educated man, having a knowledge of several modern languages. He studied music, fencing and Hebrew, and gave up his career as an Irish Regiment officer to become a violinist and conductor. He played in the orchestra of the Paris Comédie-Italienne, as well as served as the director of the Opera Orchestra in London. Barthélemon ‘s wife, Mary Young, was a vocalist who was related to the composer Thomas Arne, and the bassoonist, Johann Lampe, who is known to have composed music for several of Charles Wesley’s hymns. Barthélemon and his wife became members of the Swedenborg Church, possibly under the influences of Jacob Duche, who became a close friend of the two. Mary Young and Francois H. Barthélemon gave many concerts across Europe, including several at Versailles for Marie Antoinette, and Franz Joseph Haydn was also one of his close friends.

Thomas Hardy write this tribute:

He said: “Awake my soul, and with the sun,” . . .
And paused upon the bridge, his eyes due east,
Where was emerging like a full-robed priest
The irradiate globe that vouched the dark as done.

It lit his face the weary face of one
Who in the adjacent gardens charged his string,
Nightly, with many a tuneful tender thing,
Till stars were weak, and dancing hours outrun.

And then were threads of matin music spun
In trial tones as he pursued his way:
“This is a morn,” he murmured, “well begun:
This strain to Ken will count when I am clay!”

And count it did; till, caught by echoing lyres,
It spread to galleried naves and mighty quires.

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#195 Father, we thank Thee who hast planted  is a paraphrase by the Episcopal clergyman Francis Bland Tucker (1895—1984) of the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, one of the earliest documents of the church.

Stanza 1 corresponds to 10: 2 of the Didache, a post-communion prayer: ‘We give Thee thanks, Holy Father, for Thy holy name, which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus’ (translation by Joseph Barber Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 1891). Stanza 2 is from 10: 3: ‘Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for Thy name’s sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee; but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son.’ Stanza 3 is from 10: 5: ‘Remember, Lord, Thy Church to deliver it from all evil and to perfect it in Thy love…’. Stanza 4 is from 9: 4: ‘As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom.’

Here at St. John’s, Detroit, before a Tigers game.

Father, we thank Thee who hast planted
Thy holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus, Thy Son, to us imparts.
Thou, Lord, didst make all for Thy pleasure,
Didst give us food for all our days,
Giving in Christ the Bread eternal;
Thine is the pow’r, be Thine the praise.

Watch o’er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,
Save it from evil, guard it still,
Perfect it in Thy love, unite it,
Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will.
As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,
Was in this broken bread made one,
So from all lands Thy Church be gather’d
Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son.

Francis Bland Tucker (1885-1984)  was an important figure in hymnody. He was educated at the University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Beginning in 1945, he was Rector of Christ Church in Savannah, Georgia. Tucker served on the two commissions, forty-two years apart, that revised hymnals of the Episcopal Church. He worked on the 1940 Hymnal and the 1982 Hymnal which includes 17 of Tucker’s contributions. Among these are the texts, Oh, Gracious Light (Hymns 25-26), Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted (Hymns 302-303), and his original text, Our Father, by Whose Name (Hymn 587). Only John Mason Neale is credited with more items in the 1982 Hymnal.  Tucker was also a theological adviser to the commission that produced the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

A collateral descendant of George Washington, Tucker’s parents were Beverley Dandridge Tucker, Episcopal Bishop of Southern Virginia, and Anna Maria Washington who was one of the last children to be born at Mount Vernon. Francis Bland is the brother of Henry St. George Tucker (1874–1959), 19th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and descendant of St. George Tucker (1752–1827), lawyer, legal scholar, state and federal judge for whom the St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg is named.

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#280 God, my King, Thy might confessing is a metrical version of Psalm 145, ‘I will extol thee, my God, O king’. It was first published in Richard Mant’s The Book of Psalms, in an English Metrical Version (1824). Mant (1776—1848), a bishop on the Church of Ireland, was also one of the architects of the revival of Latin hymnody in the Church of England, especially in his Ancient Hymns from the Roman Breviary (1837).

1 God, my King, Thy might confessing,
Ever will I bless Thy Name;
Day by day Thy throne addressing,
Still will I Thy praise proclaim.

2 Honor great our God befitteth;
Who His Majesty can reach?
Age to age His works transmitteth,
Age to age His power shall teach.

3 They shall talk of all Thy glory,
On Thy might and greatness dwell,
Speak of Thy dread acts the story,
And Thy deeds of wonder tell.

4 Nor shall fail from memory’s treasure,
Works by love and mercy wrought,
Works of love surpassing measure,
Works of mercy passing thought.

5 Full of kindness and compassion,
Slow to anger, vast in love,
God is good to all creation;
All His works His goodness prove.

6 All Thy works, O Lord, shall bless Thee;
Thee shall all Thy saints adore;
King supreme shall they confess Thee,
And proclaim Thy sovereign power.

Here is St. John’s Detroit.

Bishop Richard Mant

Richard Mant (1776-1848) was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford; he was then a fellow of Oriel. He was ordained in 1802. In 1820 he became Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, in Ireland. In 1823 he was translated to Down and Connor, and from 1842 was the Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore.

Dr. Mant owed his rise in the church to his professional authorship of works such as

• Two Tracts intended to convey correct Notions of Regeneration and Conversion, according to the sense of Holy Scripture, and of the Church of England.
• The Fear of God and the King
• The Laws of the Church the Churchman’s guard against Romanism and Puritanism, in two Charges.
• Reflections on the Sinfulness of Cruelty to Animals; a Sermon.

His secular work included The Simpliciad, a satirical poem that parodied Poems, in Two Volumes (1807) by William Wordsworth. He gave notes relating his parodies to the originals. The aim of the work included the other Lake Poets, Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with “To a Young Ass” by Coleridge used to guy the group as a whole.

Coleridge’s poem which was beyond parody was:

To A Young Ass, Its Mother Being Tethered Near It

Poor little Foal of an oppressed race!
I love the languid patience of thy face:
And oft with gentle hand I give thee bread,
And clap thy ragged coat, and pat thy head.
But what thy dulled spirits hath dismay’d,
That never thou dost sport along the glade?
And (most unlike the nature of things young)
That earthward still thy moveless head is hung?
Do thy prophetic fears anticipate,
Meek Child of Misery! thy future fate?
The starving meal, and all the thousand aches
‘Which patient Merit of the Unworthy takes’?
Or is thy sad heart thrill’d with filial pain
To see thy wretched mother’s shorten’d chain?
And truly, very piteous is her lot–
Chain’d to a log within a narrow spot,
Where the close-eaten grass is scarcely seen,
While sweet around her waves the tempting green!

Poor Ass! they master should have learnt to show
Pity — best taught by fellowship of Woe!
For much I fear me that He lives like thee,
Half famished in a land of Luxury!
How askingly its footsteps hither bend?
It seems to say, ‘And have I then one friend?’
Innocent foal! thou poor despis’d forlorn!
I hail thee Brother — spite of the fool’s scorn!
And fain would take thee with me, in the Dell
Of Peace and mild Equality to dwell,
Where Toil shall call the charmer Health his bride,
And Laughter tickle Plenty’s ribless side!
How thou wouldst toss thy heels in gamesome play,
And frisk about, as lamb or kitten gay!
Yea! and more musically sweet to me
Thy dissonant harsh bray of joy would be,
Than warbled melodies that soothe to rest
The aching of pale Fashion’s vacant breast!

“I hail thee Brother” was irresistible.

The tune STUTTGART was included in Psalmodia Sacra (1715) and probably composed by Christian Friedrich Witt (1660—1716).

Son of Altenburg court organist Johann Ernst Witt, Christian probably received a scholarship from Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, in 1676 to study in Vienna and Salzburg, then from 1685-86 to study composition and counterpoint in Nuremberg with Georg Caspar Wecker, returning for a further period of study in 1688. He moved to Gotha to become court chamber organist in June 1686, and stayed there for the rest of his life. He became a substitute for Kapellmeister W. M. Mylius in 1694, and succeeded him after his death in 1713; Duke Frederick II was one of his pupils. He is mentioned as a good keyboard player and Kapellmeister in J. P. Treiber’s 1704 Der accurate Organist im General-Bass & Telemann’s 1739 Beschreibung der Augen-Orgel. He was valued by the courts of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Saxe-Weiss­enfels. While on his deathbed, Bach was commissioned to substitute for him and perform a Passiontide work for the court chapel (the Weimarer Passion).

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Anthems

Serve bone et fidelis, Tommaso

Serve bone et fidelis, quia in pauca fuisti, supra multa te constituam: intra in gaudium Domini Dei tui.

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.

Tommaso Bai (1636-1714) was a singer and composer and head of the Sistine choir. His chief fame rests on his Miserere, which was sung wash year in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week. His music is in the polyphonic Roman tradition.

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Almighty and everlasting God, Orlando Gibbons

Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here is the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) between 1596 and 1598 sang in the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, where his brother Edward Gibbons (1568–1650), eldest of the four sons of William Gibbons, was master of the choristers. Orlando achieved the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1606.

King James I appointed him a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he served as an organist from at least 1615 until his death. In 1623 he became senior organist at the Chapel Royal. He also held positions as keyboard player in the privy chamber of the court of Prince Charles (later King Charles I), and organist at Westminster Abbey. He died at age 41 in Canterbury of apoplexy, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.

One of the most versatile English composers of his time, Gibbons wrote a large number of keyboard works, around thirty fantasias for viols, a number of madrigals (the best-known being “The Silver Swan”), and many popular verse anthems, all to English texts. Perhaps his most well-known verse anthem is This Is the Record of John, which sets an Advent text for solo countertenor or tenor, alternating with full chorus. The soloist is required to demonstrate considerable technical facility at points, and the work expresses the rhetorical force of the text, whilst never being demonstrative or bombastic. He also produced two major settings of Evensong, the Short Service and the Second Service, an extended composition combining verse and full sections. Gibbons’s full anthems include the expressive O Lord, in thy wrath, and the Ascension Day anthem O clap your hands together for eight voices.

He contributed six pieces to the first printed collection of keyboard music in England, Parthenia (to which he was by far the youngest of the three contributors), published in about 1611. Gibbons’s surviving keyboard output comprises some 45 pieces. The polyphonic fantasia and dance forms are the best represented genres. Gibbons’s writing exhibits a command of three- and four-part counterpoint. Most of the fantasias are complex, multi-sectional pieces, treating multiple subjects imitatively. Gibbons’s approach to melody, in both his fantasias and his dances, features extensive development of simple musical ideas, as for example in Pavane in D minor and Lord Salisbury’s Pavan and Galliard.

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Postlude

Toccata-Sortie, Auguste Larriu

August Larriu (1840-1925) was an advocate by profession, and was also organist at Sainte-Croix d’Oloron. He composed for the organ and harmonium, but most of his music has been lost.

Here is the Toccata Sortie.