When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself

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

Lent V

March 18, 2018

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

The Great Litany

Hymns

What wondrous love

O sacred head, sore wounded (PASSION CHORALE)

Anthems

Lord we beseech Thee, Adrien Batten

Peccantem me quotidie, Cristóbal de Morales

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The Great Litany

Hymns

What wondrous love

What wondrous love is, as its repetitions evidence, an American folk hymn, from the Second Great Awakening. This hymn articulates the question that Christians ask every day: what did I do to deserve such a wonderful love from God and from Christ? The hymn is an offering of thanks to the Son for laying aside his crown as King and humbling himself even unto death. Jesus took on the sin and shame of man and thereby became the Lamb who was slain to save us from our sins. Jesus is not only the Lamb, but he is I AM, Lord and God. Our response is endless praise, and forever we shall marvel and ask, “What wondrous Love?”

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul?

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
when I was sinking down, sinking down;
when I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
to God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
to God and to the Lamb who is the great I AM –
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
while millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on;
and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be,
and through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,
and through eternity I’ll sing on.

As a folk hymn the exact history of What wondrous love is not entirely clear. It is sometimes described as a “white spiritual” from the American South.

The hymn’s lyrics were first published in Lynchburg, Virginia in the c. 1811 camp meeting songbook A General Selection of the Newest and Most Admired Hymns and Spiritual Songs Now in Use. The lyrics may also have been printed, in a slightly different form, in the 1811 book Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected, published in Lexington, Kentucky. (It was included in the third edition of this text published in 1818, but all copies of the first edition have been lost.) In most early printings, the hymn’s text was attributed to an anonymous author, though the 1848 hymnal The Hesperian Harp attributes the text to a Methodist pastor from Oxford, Georgia, named Alexander Means.

The tune was discovered by composer William Walker on his journey through the Appalachian region of America. Though the tune had been around for many years, it was passed on by rote, and not written down. Walker decided in 1835 that he would change that, and added the hymn to his collection Southern Harmony. The Appalachian region is well known for having many Irish and Scottish immigrants, which is shown in the hymns haunting text and minor tune. The hymn is written in a way that made it easy to pass on from generation to generation, repetition of lyrics. The hymn was written in the early 1800’s, a time when hymnals were scarce and music was rarely written down. To make it easier for people to learn hymns (Especially in the time of the Second Great Awakening), the author would often times write the same lyrics over and over again to drive home the point, while still keeping the text simple and easy to learn.

The hymn is sung in Dorian mode, giving it a haunting quality. Though The Southern Harmony and many later hymnals incorrectly notated the song in Aeolian mode (natural minor), even congregations singing from these hymnals generally sang in Dorian mode by spontaneously raising the sixth note a half step wherever it appeared. Twentieth-century hymnals generally present the hymn in Dorian mode, or sometimes in Aeolian mode but with a raised sixth. The hymn has an unusual meter of 6-6-6-3-6-6-6-6-6-3. The meter of “What Wondrous Love” derives from an old English ballad about the infamous pirate Captain Kidd:

My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed, when I sailed;
My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed;
My name was Robert Kidd, God’s laws I did forbid,
So wickedly I did when I sailed, when I sailed
So wickedly I did when I sailed.

(His real name was William; Americans erroneously called him Robert.)

A popular style of singing during this time was Shape Note Singing, which is a form of singing that uses shapes to denote which pitch should be sung, instead of the traditional European notation that we find in most music now-a-days. In order for the shape note singing to be done correctly, the congregation would be divided into four different sections, and each section was given a different part to sing. This was easier for people to sing, because most people during that time had no idea how to read music, and Shape Note Singing was a way to take something like music and give it to everyone, even the unlearned. The repetitious lyrics also made the text easy to remember.

William Walker (1809-1875)

William Walker was born in Martin Mills, South Carolina in 1807 and grew up just outside of Spartanburg, where, in order to distinguish the difference between himself and other William Walkers, he was nicknamed “Singing Billy.” In 1835 he published a collection of four-shape Shape Note tune books entitled Southern Harmony. This was used for many years and was revised several different times, the final of which was printed in 1854 and is still used today in Kentucky at several different camp meetings. In 1846 Walker published another tune book that was supposed to be used as an index to Southern Harmony. The Publication was entitled The Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist, which contained several different camp meeting tunes. in 1867 Walker published another tune book entitled Christian Harmony where he adopted a new shape notation that contained seven different shapes instead of the traditional four shapes. Christian Harmony shared many similarities with Southern Harmony, but the biggest difference of note was the addition of the Alto harmony in tunes that previously did not contain that particular harmony. William Walker lived a long life, and finally passed away in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1875. He has an influence that continues still today with the singing of traditional Shape Note tunes at conventions around the country and especially groups such as the Sacred Harp Singers of Georgia and Alabama.

In 1952, American composer and musicologist Charles F. Bryan included What Wondrous Love Is This in his folk opera Singin’ Billy, loosely based on Walker’s life as a singing school teacher. In 1958, American composer Samuel Barber composed Wondrous Love: Variations on a Shape Note Hymn (Op. 34), a work for organ, for Christ Episcopal Church in Grosse Pointe, Michigan; the church’s organist, an associate of Barber’s, had requested a piece for the dedication ceremony of the church’s new organ. The piece begins with a statement that closely follows the traditional hymn; four variations follow, of which the last is the “longest and most expressive.” Here is a performance. In 1966, the United Methodist Book of Hymns became the first standard hymnal to incorporate What Wondrous Love.

Here is the St. Olaf choir singing What Wondrous Love. Here is a shape note choir singing the hymn at Berea College. The Germans have taken up shape note singing. Here is a chamber setting for piano and viola and variations for solo violin.

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O sacred head, sore wounded (PASSION CHORALE)

O sacred head sore wounded was composed by Paul Gerhardt (1607—1676), who closely modeled it after a stanza of a poem, Salve mundi salutare, possibly by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) or Arnulf of Leuwen, which contains seven stanzas meditating on how the different parts of Jesus’ body suffered during the Passion. The head is the seat of honor, “face,” and was insulted by a mocking crown of thorns, by spit, and blows from fists. Yet it is the vision of that face that will be our happiness and joy forever, for He has born all our guilt and shame, and given us His life.

O sacred head, sore wounded,
Defiled and put to scorn;
O kingly head, surrounded
With mocking crown of thorn:
What sorrow mars Thy grandeur?
Can death Thy bloom deflow’r?
O countenance whose splendor
The hosts of heav’en adore!

2 Thy beauty, long desired,
Hath vanished from our sight;
Thy pow’r is all expired,
And quenched the light of light.
Ah me! for whom Thou diest,
Hide not so far Thy grace:
Show me, O Love most highest,
The brightness of Thy face.

3 In Thy most bitter passion
My heart to share doth cry,
With Thee for my salvation
Upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
To stand Thy cross beneath,
To mourn Thee, well-beloved,
Yet thank Thee for Thy death.

4 What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
Oh, make me Thine for ever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love for Thee.

5 My days are few, O fail not,
With Thine immortal pow’r,
To hold me that I quail not
In death’s most fearful hour;
That I may fight befriended,
And see in my last strife
To me Thine arms extended
Upon the cross of life.

Here is the King’s College choir.

The Latin text on which the hymn is based is:

Salve mundi salutare, Ad faciem:

Salve, caput cruentatum,

totum spinis coronatum,

conquassatum, vulneratum,

arundine verberatum,

facie sputis illita.

salve, cujus dulcis vultus,

immutatus et incultus,

immutavit suum florem,

totus versus in pallorem

quem […] coeli curia.

 

Omnis vigor atque viror

hinc recessit, non admiror,

mors apparet in aspectu

totus pendens in defectu,

attritus aegra macie.

sic affectus, sic despectus,

propter me sic interfectus,

peccatori tam indigno

cum amoris intersigno

appare clara facie.

 

In hac tua passione,

me agnosce, pastor bone,

cujus sumpsi mel ex ore,

haustum lactis cum dulcore,

prae omnibus deliciis.

non me reum asperneris,

nec indignum dedigneris,

morte tibi jam vicina,

tuum caput hic inclina,

in meis pausa brachiis.

 

Tuae sanctae passioni

me gauderem interponi,

in hac cruce tecum mori:

praesta crucis amatori,

sub cruce tua moriar.

morti tuae tam amarae

grates ago, Jesu chare;

qui es clemens, pie Deus,

fac quod petit tuus reus,

ut absque te non finiar.

 

Dum me mori est necesse,

noli mihi tunc deesse;

in tremenda mortis hora

veni, Jesu, absque mora,

tuere me et libera.

cum me jubes emigrare,

Jesu chare, tunc appare:

o amator amplectende,

temetipsum tunc ostende

in cruce salutifera.

Here is a translation of the Latin:

I Hail, bleeding Head of Jesus, hail to Thee! Thou thorn-crowned Head, I humbly worship Thee! O wounded Head, I lift my hands to Thee; O lovely Face besmeared, I gaze on Thee; O bruised and livid Face, look down on me!

II Hail, beauteous Face of Jesus, bent on me, Whom angel choirs adore exultantly! Hail, sweetest Face of Jesus, bruised for me– Hail, Holy One, whose glorious Face for me Is shorn of beauty on that fatal Tree!

III All strength, all freshness, is gone forth from Thee: What wonder! Hath not God afflicted Thee, And is not death himself approaching Thee? O Love! But death hath laid his touch on Thee, And faint and broken features turn to me.

IV O have they thus maltreated Thee, my own? O have they Thy sweet Face despised, my own? And all for my unworthy sake, my own! O in Thy beauty turn to me, my own; O turn one look of love on me, my own!

V In this Thy Passion, Lord, remember me; In this Thy pain, O Love, acknowledge me; The honey of whose lips was shed on me, The milk of whose delights hath strengthened me Whose sweetness is beyond delight for me!

VI Despise me not, O Love; I long for Thee; Contemn me not, unworthy though I be; But now that death is fast approaching Thee, Incline Thy Head, my Love, my Love, to me, To these poor arms, and let it rest on me!

VII The holy Passion I would share with Thee, And in Thy dying love rejoice with Thee; Content if by this Cross I die with Thee; Content, Thou knowest, Lord, how willingly Where I have lived to die for love of Thee.

VIII For this Thy bitter death all thanks to Thee, Dear Jesus, and Thy wondrous love for me! O gracious God, so merciful to me, Do as Thy guilty one entreateth Thee, And at the end let me be found with Thee!

IX When from this life, O Love, Thou callest me, Then, Jesus, be not wanting unto me, But in the dreadful hour of agony, O hasten, Lord, and be Thou nigh to me, Defend, protect, and O deliver me.

X When Thou, O God, shalt bid my soul be free, Then, dearest Jesus, show Thyself to me! O condescend to show Thyself to me,– Upon Thy saving Cross, dear Lord, to me,– And let me die, my Lord, embracing Thee!

Membra Jesu Nostri, The Limbs of Our Jesus,  (BuxVW 75), is a cycle of seven cantatas composed by Dieterich Buxtehude in 1680. This work is the first Lutheran oratorio. The main text is from Salve mundi salutare – also known as the Rhythmica oratio . It is divided into seven parts, each addressed to a different part of Christ’s crucified body: feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart, and head (ad faciem)

Arnulf of Leuven (c. 1200–1250) was the abbot of the Cistercian in Villers-la-Ville. After serving in this office for ten years, he abdicated, hoping to pursue a life devoted to study and asceticism. He is now consider the probable author of Salve mundi salutare.

PASSION CHORALE:  The music for the German and English versions of the hymn is by Hans Leo Hassler, written around 1600 for a secular love song, “Mein G’müt ist mir verwirret” (My heart is distracted by a gentle maid), which first appeared in print in the 1601 Lustgarten neuer teutscher Gesäng, Balletti, Galliarden und Intraden. The tune was appropriated and rhythmically simplified for Gerhardt’s German hymn in 1656 by Johann Crüger. It first appeared with the Gerhardt text in Praxis Pietatis Melica (1656). Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used five stanzas of the hymn in the St Matthew Passion. He also used the hymn’s text and melody in the second movement of the cantata Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem (BWV 159). Bach used the melody on different words in his Christmas Oratorio, in the first part (no. 5). Franz Liszt included an arrangement of this hymn in the sixth station, Saint Veronica, of his Via Crucis. The Danish composer Rued Langgaard composed a set of variations for string quartet on this tune. It is also employed in the final chorus of Sinfonia Sacra, the 9th symphony of the English composer Edmund Rubbra. Peter Paul and Mary used the tune in their Because all men are brothers and Paul Simon used it in American Tune.

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Anthems

Lord we beseech Thee, Adrian Batten

Lord, we beseech thee, give ear unto our prayers, and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our hearts, by our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here is a performance in Orem, Utah.

Adrian Batten (c. 1591 – c. 1637) was an English organist and Anglican church composer.  He was the choirmaster at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was active during an important period of English church music, between the Reformation and the Civil War in the 1640s. During this period the liturgical music of the first generations of Anglicans began to diverge significantly from music on the continent. Batten developed the simple and direct style pioneered by Tallis during the reign of Edward VI in the late 1540s. The piece begins in a minor key with a plea to Gd to give ear unto our prayers, It changes to the relative major key at “and may thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our hearts.”

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Peccantem me quotidie, Cristóbal de Morales

Peccantem me quotidie et non penitentem, Timor mortis conturbat me. Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio. Miserere mei, Deus, et salva me.

I who sin every day and am not penitent, the fear of death troubles me. For in hell there is no redemption. Have mercy upon me, O God, and save me.

This is a responsory of the Office of the Dead, in the third Nocturn of Matins. The phrase Timor mortis conturbat me was frequently used as a recurring line in medieval English poetry. This anthem uses one  the most emotionally charged devices in Renaissance Polyphony: the suspension. The voices more quickly together on “conturbat me,” on “peccantem,” and in similarly charged words. There is an interesting contrast between “miserere mei” and “et salva me” – “have mecy on me and save me,” in which the former is set homophonically and the latter polyphonically with more motion. The piece closes with a Picardy third, a major chord as ray of hope at the close of this troubling anthem.

Here it is at  Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

Cristóbal de Morales

Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500-1553) was born in Seville and, after an exceptional early education there, which included a rigorous training in the classics as well as musical study with some of the foremost composers, he held posts at Ávila and Plasencia.  Earlier Spanish popes of the Borgia family held a long tradition of employing Spanish singers in the papal chapel’s choir. This had a significant effect on Morales’ success. Morales is documented three times in Rome as ‘presbyter toletanus’ in 1534. By 1535 he had moved to Rome, where he was a singer in the papal choir, evidently due to the interest of Pope Paul III who was partial to Spanish singers. He remained in Rome until 1545, in the employ of the Vatican; then, after a period of unsuccessfully seeking other employment in Italy he returned to Spain, where he held a succession of posts, many of which were marred by financial or political difficulties. While he was renowned by this time as one of the greatest composers in Europe, he seems to have been unpopular as an employee, for he began to have difficulty finding and keeping positions. Morales was the only composer of whose music the parody Mass did not constitute a majority, even though he wrote more of this type than any otherThere is some evidence that he was a difficult character, aware of his exceptional talent, but incapable of getting along with those of lesser musical abilities. He was regarded as one of the finest composers in Europe around the middle of the 16th century.

Stylistically, his music has much in common with other middle Renaissance work of the Iberian peninsula, for example a preference for harmony heard as functional by the modern ear (root motions of fourths or fifths being somewhat more common than in, for example, Gombert or Palestrina), and a free use of harmonic cross-relations rather like one hears in English music of the time, for example in Thomas Tallis. Some unique characteristics of his style include the rhythmic freedom, such as his use of occasional three-against-four polyrhythms, and cross-rhythms where a voice sings in a rhythm following the text but ignoring the meter prevailing in other voices. Late in life he wrote in a sober, heavily homophonic style, but all through his life he was a careful craftsman who considered the expression and understandability of the text to be the highest artistic goal.

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

Lent III

March 4, 2018

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

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The Great Litany in Procession

Hymns

Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)

Anthems

Call to remembrance, Richard Farrant

Hide not Thy face, Richard Farrant

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The Great Litany

The Great Litany was the first service written in English. It was composed by Thomas Cranmer in 1544 from older litanies: the Sarum rite litany, a Latin litany composed by Martin Luther, and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The word litany comes from the Latin litania, from the Greek litê, meaning “prayer” or “supplication.”

“That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand; and to comfort and help the weak-hearted; and to raise up
those who fall; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet…”

This assumes that there is present to our imagination, what is often in our days not there at all—the sense that we are engaged in a great conflict, which is being carried on also in the invisible world, with the forces of evil, the devil and his angels. ‘Our wrestling is not [i.e. not only] against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ So writes S. Paul (Eph. 612). ‘Wherefore take up the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.’ The world into which our Lord came was a world profoundly impressed and depressed by the haunting sense of evil spirits, to escape from whose terrible influence men and women were eagerly seeking all the baser forms of religion—‘mysteries,’ charms, amulets, and magical formulas. Our Lord had no need to teach the reality of spirits good and bad. What He had to teach men was that there lay in Himself, and in faith in Him, a power well able to defeat the spirits of evil and render them helpless.
The same dread of evil spirits is still in many parts of the world a prominent, even the most prominent, motive in religion. There is always a great deal of superstition and mere fraud attached to this sort of lower religion, and our intellectual world has agreed to treat it with contempt. So did our Lord treat it with contempt, in one sense but not in another. He despised the diabolic world and trod it under-foot. But He certainly assumed the real existence of spirits good and bad, and would have His disciples believe it.  (Charles Gore)

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Hymns

Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Lord Jesus, think on me is a translation by the Anglican clergyman Allen William Chatfield (1808-1896) of the Greek hymn, Μνώεο Χριστέ by Synesius of Cyrene (375-430). Synesius was the Bishop of Ptolomais, one of the ancient capitals of Cyrenaica that is today part of modern day Libya.

1. Lord Jesus, think on me
And purge away my sin;
From earth-born passions set me free
And make me pure within.

2. Lord Jesus, think on me
With many a care opprest;
Let me Thy loving servant be
And taste Thy promised rest.

3. Lord Jesus, think on me
Amid the battle’s strife;
In all my pain and misery
Be Thou my Health and Life.

4. Lord Jesus, think on me
Nor let me go astray;
Through darkness and perplexity
Point Thou the heavenly way.

5. Lord Jesus, think on me
When floods the tempest high;
When on doth rush the enemy,
O Savior, be Thou nigh!

6. Lord Jesus, think on me
That, when the flood is past,
I may the eternal brightness see
And share Thy joy at last.

7. Lord Jesus, think on me
That I may sing above
To Father, Spirit, and to Thee
The strains of praise and love.

Here is Lord Jesus, think on me with Magdala and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Here it is as used in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.

Synesius was descended from a wealthy and illustrious family which, according to the historian Edward Gibbons, could trace its descent back seventeen centuries to Spartan Kings. In his youth, he went to Alexandria and was educated under the celebrated woman Neo-Platonist, Hypatia. As an adult, he became wealthy and was known as a sportsman, a brilliant philosopher, a statesman, an eloquent orator, and a man of noble character.

Also, Synesius was a friend of Augustine of Hippo. When invasions by the Goths were threatening his country, he sought to persuade Emperor Arcadius about the imminent danger, but without success. After marrying a Christian in 403, he was converted to Christianity and a few years later was made bishop of Ptolemais by popular demand in 410. In spite of his dissent from some of the tenets of the church, his outstanding character alone made him acceptable. Around 410, Synesius published a series of ten hymns in which he set forth Christian doctrine. They show the evidences of Semitic influence on classic Greek poetry. “Lord Jesus, Think On Me” is the last of the ten. After having outlived his beloved wife and lost all his sons to a plague, he died around A. D. 430 in Ptolemais, although some authorities give the date as early as 414.

The tune SOUTHWELL was composed by Herbert Stephen Irons (1834 -1905).  He became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under T. E. Jones. After studying music under Stephen Elvey at Oxford, he was appointed organist at St. Columba’s College, a large public school at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, Ireland. He stayed there only a few months before being offered the position of organist at Southwell Minister. From Southwell, he went to Chester as assistant organist to Frederic Gunton. Three years later, he accepted an appointment at St. Andrew’s Church, Nottingham, where he remained until his death.

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Lord, who throughout these forty days (ST. FLAVIAN)

Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman wrote Lord, who throughout these forty days. Forty is a symbolic number in Scripture. It rained for forty days and nights when the earth was overtaken by floodwaters, and Noah waited another forty days before opening the window of the Ark. Israel wandered in the desert for forty years. Jesus was seen on earth following the resurrection for forty days. In this case, Christ’s forty days in the wilderness provides the primary paradigm for the forty days of Lent.

Claudia Hernaman (1838-1898) was born in Surrey, England, and died in Brussels, Belgium. She was the daughter of an Anglican minister, and she married a minister who also served as a school inspector. Like so many other women hymn writers of the nineteenth century, she was devoted to the religious education of children. Toward this end, she wrote 150 hymns in several collections, some original and some translated from Latin.

“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” appeared first in her Child’s Book of Praise; A Manual for Devotion in Simple Verse (1873). It was not included in hymnals, however, until the mid-twentieth century, when it appeared in the Irish Church Hymnal (1960) and Hymns for Church and School (1964). By the 1970s, “Lord, who throughout these forty days” was a standard hymn in most hymnals in the United States. It is based on the account of the temptation of Jesus found in three Gospels — Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13.

As is the case with many hymns, Christ’s life becomes a model for how his followers should confront temptation. The first two lines of the stanzas focus on a response of Christ when he faced temptation; the last two lines encourage Christians to model their behavior on Christ’s example. This is a familiar pattern for children’s hymns from the days of Isaac Watts. It obviously strikes a chord with adult believers as well.

The classic themes of the Lenten season are presented in the stanzas of this hymn:

Fasting and prayer (stanza one);
Struggle with Satan and sin (stanza two);
Dying to self, meditation on scripture (stanza three);
Penitence (stanza four);
Looking toward the joy of Easter (stanza five).

Lord, who throughout these forty days,
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with thee to mourn our sins,
And close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
O give us strength in thee to fight,
In thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By thy most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through thy Passion-tide,
Yea, evermore, in life and death,
Jesus! with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life
Of suffering overpast,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last!

Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman (1838-1898) was the daughter of the Rev. William Haywood Ibotson, was perpetual curate of Addlestone. She married the Rev. J.W.M. Hernaman, a school inspector. She was the author of The Child’s Book of Praise: A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse (1873), and co-editor (with Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell and Walter Plimpton) of the Anglo-Catholic Altar Hymnal: A Book of Song for Use at the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist (words-only edition 1884, with music 1885). She also published The Crown of Life: Verses for Holy Seasons (1886) and wrote The Conversion and Martyrdom of St Alban: a Sacred Drama (1891). She edited an anthology, Lyra Consolationis. From the poets of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1890).

This seems to be the best version availability on You Tube. Here is another attempt

ST. FLAVIAN first appears in John Day’s Psalter from 1562. It was adapted and re-harmonized for an 1853 book of organ pieces by the well-known organist Richard Redhead. Oddly enough, St. Flavian is nowhere commemorated in the Anglican calendars.

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Anthems

Call to remembrance, Richard Farrant

Call to remembrance, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, which hath been ever of old. O remember not the sins and offences of my youth, but according to thy mercy, think thou on me, O Lord, for thy goodness.

Here is the Hart House choir.

Hide not Thy face, Richard Farrant

Hide not thou thy face from us, O Lord, and cast not off thy servants in thy displeasure; for we confess our sins unto thee, and hde not our unrighteousness. For thy mercy’s sake, deliver us from all our sins.

Here is Westminster Abbey.

Richard Farrant (1525-1580).

In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet (Act 2, Scene 2), Rosencrantz says to Hamlet: ‘There is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapp’d for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills and dare scarce come thither.’ The ‘little eyases’ to which Shakespeare (1564–1616) alludes are in all probability the choirboys of St Paul’s, the Chapel Royal and St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Richard Farrant (?1525–1580) leased a building in 1564 of ‘six upper chambers, loftes, lodgynges or Romes lyinge together within the precinct of the late dissolved house or priory of the Black ffryers’. Here he ‘rehearsed’ the boys in public, effectively staging musical and theatrical events. Farrant became a wealthy man through this venture and the boys were much in demand at the court of Elizabeth I. He was one of the Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal in the 1550s and sang there during the reign of Mary Tudor, taking up the post of Master of the Choristers at St George’s Chapel in 1564. In 1569 he became Master of the Choristers of the Chapel Royal. Each winter from 1567 he presented them to the Queen and produced a play.

Farrant exercised an important influence on church music. His association with the stage (using his choristers) must have led him to compose anthems in a new idiom—now known as the ‘verse’ style. He may well have been the first to introduce soloists to sing the verses. Few of his compositions survive, and the anthem Call to remembrance—although written in quite the opposite of the verse style—shows considerable sensitivity in the setting of the words. This, too, betrays his association with the stage. Consider, for example, the restrained trumpet calls of the opening of this anthem, and the changes of style at ‘thy tender mercies’, ‘which hath been ever of old’, ‘O remember not the sins’ and ‘but according to thy mercy’. These all reveal the hand of a skilful composer and musician.

The fine short anthems Call to remembrance and Hide not thou thy face help to give Farrant a place in the musical history of the period out of proportion to his small output. Lord, for thy tender mercies’sake, sometimes ascribed to Farrant is more likely by Tye, or the elder John Hilton (d. 1608).

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

Lent II

February 25, 2018

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

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Hymns

O vision blest of heavenly light

Be Thou my vision

Tis good, Lord, to be here

Anthems

Christus Jesus Splendor, Luca Marenzio (1556-1599)

Ne irascaris, Domine, William Byrd

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Hymns

O vision blest of heavenly light

This hymn is a translation by G. B. Timms of a 15th-century Latin hymn, Caelestis formam gloria.

O vision blest of heavenly light,
Which meets the three disciples’ sight,
When on the holy mount they see
Their Lord’s transfigured majesty.

More bright than day his raiment shone;
The Father’s voice proclaimed the Son
Belov’d before the worlds were made,
For us in mortal flesh arrayed.

And with him there on either hand
Lo, Moses and Elijah stand,
To show how Christ, to those who see,
Fulfils both law and prophecy.

O Light from light, by love inclined,
Jesu, redeemer of mankind,
Accept thy people’s prayer and praise
Which on the mount to thee they raise.

Be with us, Lord, as we descend
To walk with thee to journey’s end,
That through thy cross we too may rise,
And share thy triumph in the skies.

To thee, O Father; Christ, to thee,
Let praise and endless glory be,
With whom the Spirit we adore,
One Lord, one God, for evermore.

This hymn is used for Vespers I on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the Sarum Breviary:

Cælestis formam gloriæ,
Quam spes quærit Ecclesiæ,
In monte Christus indicat,
Quo supra solem emicat.

Res memoranda sæculis;
Hic cum tribus discipulis
Cum Moyse et Helia
Grata promit eloquia.

Assistunt testes gratiæ
Legis atque prophetiæ,
De nube testimonium
Sonat Patris ad Filium.

Glorificata facie
Christus declarat hodie,
Quis sit honor credentium
Deo pie fruentium.

Visionis mysterium
Corda levat fidelium,
Unde solemni gaudio
Clamat nostra devotio.

Pater cum Unigenito
Et Spiritu Paraclito
Unus nobis hanc gloriam
Largire per præsentiam. Amen.

George Boorne Timms ( 1910-1997) was into a Baptist family and was educated at Derby School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford (BA 1933, MA 1945). He joined the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, in 1933, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1935, priest 1936). He was curate of St Mary Magdalene, Coventry (1935-38) and of St Bartholomew, Earley, Reading (1938-49); sacrist, and later succentor, of Southwark Cathedral (1949-52); vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill (1952-65) and Rural Dean of Hampstead (1959-65); incumbent of St Andrew, Holborn (1965-81) and Archdeacon of Hackney (1971-81), during part of which time he was also Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral (1964-71). In 1981 he retired to Ramsgate; he died in hospital at Margate.

Timms was a well-known liturgist. He also chaired the committees for English Praise (1975) and for the New English Hymnal (1986).

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Be Thou my vision

Be thou my vision. The Irish monk Eohaid Forgaill (530-598) was a Latin scholar and “King of the Poets.” He was said to have spent so much time studying that he went blind, and was give the name Dallán, “Little Blind One.”   He wrote the poem, “Rop tú mo Baile” (Be Thou my Vision) asking God to be his vision. But “vision” here means more than physical sight. The original Irish word “baile” mean “vision” or “rapture,” in the sense used by the Old Testament prophets. The language of this hymn is drawn from traditional Irish culture: it uses heroic imagery to describe God. This was characteristic of medieval Irish poetry, which cast God as the ‘chieftain’ or ‘High King’ (Ard Ri) who provided protection to his people or clan.

Eohaid Forgaill

The Irish monk Eohaid Forgaill (530-598) was a Latin scholar and “King of the Poets.” He was said to have spent so much time studying that he went blind, and was give the name Dallán, “Little Blind One.”   He wrote the poem, “Rop tú mo Baile” (“Be Thou my Vision”) asking God to be his vision But “vision” here means more than physical sight. The original Irish word “baile” mean “vision” or “rapture,” in the sense used by the Old Testament prophets.

This was translated into literal prose by Irish scholar Mary Byrne (1880-1931), a Dublin native, and then published in Eriú, the journal of the School of Irish Learning, in 1905.

Eleanor Hull

Eleanor Hull (1860-1935), born in Manchester, was the founder of the Irish Text Society and president of the Irish Literary Society of London. Hull versified the text and it was published in her Poem Book of the Gael (1912).

Irish liturgy and ritual scholar Helen Phelan, a lecturer at the University of Limerick, points out how the language of this hymn is drawn from traditional Irish culture: “One of the essential characteristics of the text is the use of ‘heroic’ imagery to describe God. This was very typical of medieval Irish poetry, which cast God as the ‘chieftain’ or ‘High King’ (Ard Ri) who provided protection to his people or clan. The lorica (Latin: breastplate) is one of the most popular forms of this kind of protection prayer and is very prevalent in texts of this period.” St. Patrick’s Breastplate (1940 The Hymnal, #268) is in this genre.

Hull’s verse version was paired with the Irish tune SLANE in The Irish Church Hymnal in 1919. The folk melody was taken from a non-liturgical source, Patrick Weston Joyce’s Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Airs and Songs hitherto unpublished (1909).

“Most ‘traditional’ Irish religious songs are non-liturgical,” says Dr. Phelan. “There is a longstanding practice of ‘editorial weddings’ in Irish liturgical music, where traditional tunes were wedded to more liturgically appropriate texts. This is a very good example of this practice.”

Back in 433 AD, on the eve of Bealtine, a Druidic Holiday that lines up directly with Easter as well as the spring equinox, it was declared by the King, Leoghaire (Leary) Mac Neill, that no fires were to be lit until the fire atop of Tara Hill was lit. Going against the kings wishes, St. Patrick went out to Slane Hill and lit a candle to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The king was so impressed by the courage that St. Patrick had shown, Leoghaire let him continue his missionary work throughout Ireland. The tune was given the name SLANE to commemorate this event.

English translation by Mary Byrne, 1905:

Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart
None other is aught but the King of the seven heavens.

Be thou my meditation by day and night.
May it be thou that I behold even in my sleep.

Be thou my speech, be thou my understanding.
Be thou with me, be I with thee

Be thou my father, be I thy son.
Mayst thou be mine, may I be thine.

Be thou my battle-shield, be thou my sword.
Be thou my dignity, be thou my delight.

Be thou my shelter, be thou my stronghold.
Mayst thou raise me up to the company of the angels.

Be thou every good to my body and soul.
Be thou my kingdom in heaven and on earth.

Be thou solely chief love of my heart.
Let there be none other, O high King of Heaven.

Till I am able to pass into thy hands,
My treasure, my beloved through the greatness of thy love

Be thou alone my noble and wondrous estate.
I seek not men nor lifeless wealth.

Be thou the constant guardian of every possession and every life.
For our corrupt desires are dead at the mere sight of thee.

Thy love in my soul and in my heart —
Grant this to me, O King of the seven heavens.

O King of the seven heavens grant me this —
Thy love to be in my heart and in my soul.

With the King of all, with him after victory won by piety,
May I be in the kingdom of heaven O brightness of the son.

Beloved Father, hear, hear my lamentations.
Timely is the cry of woe of this miserable wretch.

O heart of my heart, whatever befall me,
O ruler of all, be thou my vision.

Here is the hymnal version. Verse three is usually omitted.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tow’r:
Raise Thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whate’er befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Although there are hundreds of versions of Be Thou my vision on the Internet, all the vocals ones are not very satisfactory.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Here is King’s College, Cambridge.Here it is arranged as an art song. Here sung in Modern Irish. Here is a charming version for violin and harp. A good arrangement for cello and piano. Of course for Celtic instruments. For string quartet. For brass quintet! For marching band!!

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Tis good, Lord, to be here

 ‘Tis good Lord to be here was written by Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858-1933), D.D., Dean of Westminster. Jesus, with Peter, James and John, had to come down from the mountain.  The next story in Matthew 17 is of Jesus meeting the crowd and healing an epileptic boy; He predicts His death.  In the Liturgy, we catch of glimpse of the Uncreated Light that shone through the humanity of Jesus. It is given to strengthen us in the realities and difficulties of everyday life, where God is to be found.

‘’Tis good, Lord, to be here’, but, Lord, when we go, ‘Come with us to the plain’, be with us in the day to day realities of our life, in our relationships with others, in our family or health problems, in all the joys and sadnesses of everyday life.

‘Tis good, Lord, to be here,
thy glory fills the night;
thy face and garments, like the sun,
shine with unborrowed light.

‘Tis good, Lord, to be here,
thy beauty to behold,
where Moses and Elijah stand,
thy messengers of old.

Fulfiller of the past,
promise of things to be,
we hail thy body glorified,
and our redemption see.

Before we taste of death,
we see thy kingdom come;
we fain would hold the vision bright,
and make this hill our home.

‘Tis good, Lord, to be here,
yet we may not remain;
but since thou bidst us leave the mount,
come with us to the plain.

Here is a congregation. Here is a most unusual version song perhaps by robots. (For Silicon Valley?)

Joseph Armitage Robinson

Joseph Armitage Robinson (1858-1933),  D.D., Dean of Westminster and of Wells, of Christ College, Camb. (B.A. 1881, M.A. 1884, D.D. 1896), sometime Fellow of his College, Norrisian Professor of Div., Camb., Rector of St. Margaret’s., Westminster, and Canon of Westminster. As Dean of Wells Robinson enjoyed close links with Downside Abbey. He also critically explored the origins of the Glastonbury legends. Robinson was a participant in the bilateral Anglican-Roman Catholic Maline Conversations.  His hymn, “‘Tis good, Lord, to be here” was written c. 1890. It was included in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern.

The tune SWABIA was composed by Johann M. Spiess (? – 1772). Spiess taught music at the Gymnasium in Heidelberg, Germany, and played the organ at St. Peter’s Church and (1746-72) at Berne Cathedral.

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Anthems

Luca Marenzio

Christus Jesus Splendor, Luca Marenzio (1556-1599)

Christus Jesus splendor Patris, et figura substantiae ejus, portans omnia verbo virtutis suae purgationem peccatorum faciens, in monte excelso gloriosus apparere dignatus est.

Jesus Christ, radiance of the Father, and the exact representation of his person, upholding all things by the Word of his power, as he was purging our sins, was pleased to manifest his glory upon a high mountain.

Here is the Gregorian version.

Luca Marenzio, (1553—1599) was a composer whose madrigals are considered to be among the finest examples of Italian madrigals of the late 16th century.

Marenzio published a large number of madrigals and villanelles and five books of motets. He developed an individual technique and was skilled in evoking moods and images suggested by the poetic texts of the madrigals. He exploited passages in a homophonic, or chordal, style in place of the polyphonic style characteristic of earlier madrigals. He was a daring harmonist: his chromaticism occasionally led to advanced enharmonic modulations, and he sometimes left dissonances unresolved for dramatic effect. He exerted a strong influence on Claudio Monteverdi, Don Carlo Gesualdo, and Hans Leo Hassler and was much-admired in England, where his works were printed in N. Yonge’s Musica transalpina (1588), a collection that stimulated the composition of English madrigals.

Marenzio was probably trained as a choirboy in Brescia, and he was in service with Cardinal Luigi d’Este in Rome from 1578 to 1586. In 1588 he went to Florence, where he worked with the circle of musicians and poets associated with Count Giovanni Bardi. Later he was in the service of Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini in Rome. In 1594 he visited Sigismund III of Poland, returned to Rome in 1595, and went again to Poland in 1596. In 1598 he was in Venice and later was appointed musician at the papal court.

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Ne irascaris, Domine, William Byrd

Ne irascaris Domine satis, et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae. Ecce respice populus tuus omnes nos.

Be not angry, O Lord, and remember our iniquity no more. Behold, we are all your people.

Here is Ely Cathedral. Here is Stile antiquo. 

Ne irascaris Domine is a five-part Latin motet by the Catholic English composer, William Byrd (1543-1623). It is one of three works known as the ‘Jerusalem’ motets (along with Tribulations civitatum and Vide Domine afflictionem nostram). Byrd wrote these motets in the 1580s as an act of protest against the Elizabethan Catholic persecutions. As his text, Byrd cunningly chooses here an irreproachable passage of scripture from Isaiah, telling of the Babylonian captivity.

Ne irascaris’ general atmosphere of quiet contemplation coupled with solid polyphonic writing make this a deservedly well known work. Departing from his usual tradition, Byrd sets the appeal to God of Ne irascaris Domine polyphonically, continuing this writing throughout the work. Byrd uses minimal resources (in particular, the melody, which does not move out of the range of a fourth until the end of the work) to create a classic.

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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

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Lent I

February 18, 2018

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

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The Great Litany in Procession

Hymns

O love, how deep, how broad, how high

Forty days and forty nights

Anthems

A Litany, William Walton

Miserere mei, William Byrd

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The Great Litany

The Great Litany was the first service written in English. It was composed by Thomas Cranmer in 1544 from older litanies: the Sarum rite litany, a Latin litany composed by Martin Luther, and the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The word litany comes from the Latin litania, from the Greek litê, meaning “prayer” or “supplication.”

After invoking the Trinity, we ask to be delivered from the evils that come upon us because of sin: heresy, schism, natural disasters, political disasters, war, violence, murder, sudden death.

Litanies are penitential exercises. They are the urgent supplications of the people of God suffering under or dreading divine judgements and asking to be spared or delivered from calamities which at the same time they confess that they deserve. This form of the fear of the Lord is characteristic of the prophets of Israel.

Whatever our control of nature may be, it remains true that we are in the hands of a Power beyond us. Both our reason and our faith drive us to the recognition that this governing Power is a personal God and a righteous God who visits men and nations with judgements on their sins; though we may, if we choose, blind our eyes to the evidences of divine judgement and neglect that humble and penitent return to God which they are intended to stimulate. This Lent let us in penitence turn to Him that we may turn away from evil and be spared His righteous judgement.

Here is the Great Litany at St. John’s, Detroit.

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Hymns

O love, how deep, how broad, how high

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high is a translation by Benjamin Webb (1819–1885) of the text O amor quam exstaticus, from a 15^th c. Latin poem written by someone influenced by the Devotio Moderna and Thomas à Kempis.

1 O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
how passing thought and fantasy,
that God, the Son of God, should take
our mortal form for mortals’ sake!

2 He sent no angel to our race,
of higher or of lower place,
but wore the robe of human frame,
and He Himself to this world came.

3 For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast, and hungered sore;
for us temptations sharp He knew,
for us the tempter overthrew.

4 For us to wicked men betrayed,
scourged, mocked, in crown of thorns arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death
for us at length gave up His breath.

5 For us He rose from death again,
for us He went on high to reign,
for us He sent His Spirit here
to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

6 All glory to our Lord and God
for love so deep, so high, so broad —
the Trinity whom we adore
forever and forevermore.

Here is St. Bartholomew’s.

Webb was an Anglican clergyman, a member of the Cambridge Camden Society which studied medieval art and liturgy, and a close friend of his fellow student at Trinity, John Mason Neale.

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Forty days and forty nights

The Anglican clergyman George Hunt Smyttan (1822-1870) wrote a poem, which was published in the March 1856 edition of The Penny Post and was revised five years later as Forty Days and Forty Nights in Hymns Fitted to the Order of Common Prayer (1861), by the Rev. Francis Pott (1832–1909).

1 Forty days and forty nights
you were fasting in the wild;
forty days and forty nights
tempted, and yet undefiled.

2 Shall not we your sorrow share
and from worldly joys abstain,
fasting with unceasing prayer,
strong with you to suffer pain?

3 Then if Satan on us press,
flesh or spirit to assail,
victor in the wilderness,
grant that we not faint nor fail!

4 So shall we have peace divine:
holier gladness ours shall be;
round us, too, shall angels shine,
such as served you faithfully.

5 Keep, O keep us, Savior dear,
ever constant by your side,
that with you we may appear
at the eternal Eastertide.

Here it is sung at Compline. Here is Bradford Cathedral.

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Anthems

A Litany, William Walton

Drop, Drop, slow tears, And bathe those beauteous feet,Which brought from heav’n The news and Prince of Peace: Cease not, wet eyes, His mercy to entreat; To cry for vengeance, Sin doth never cease. In your deep floods Drown all my faults and fears; Nor let His eye See sin, but through my tears.

Here is the USC Chamber Choir.

Perhaps nowhere is William Walton’s precocity evidenced as clearly as in his Litany (1916) — composed when he was only 15 years old. The work is a setting of a devotional text by seventeenth-century writer Phineas Fletcher, whose penitential poetry finds evocative realization in Walton’s a cappella rendering. Walton scholars note the skill demonstrated by the composer’s voice leading; his harmonic choices, while not necessarily possessing the measured dramatic weight of a mature composer, certainly do not seem the work of an adolescent. Particularly effective is the ambiguous harmony with which the piece begins: a dissonant and disorienting augmented chord, followed by a closely overlapping and likewise dissonant diminished chord, which finally settles at the fourth bar into the E minor harmony upon which the work is built.

Homophonic declamation generally predominates, though various other textures are employed with poignant effects. First and foremost is the pictorial rendering of the repeated word “Drop,” which Walton sets as a descending sequence of leaps in the soprano. Elsewhere, polyphonic divergence sets up moments of tension, as in the “cry for vengeance” of the second stanza. Some observe in the final cadence a foreshadow of the kind of harmonic practice Walton would utilize in later works; the final resolution to an E minor triad is approached and made all the more resolute by a handful of shimmeringly dissonant half steps.

The poem is by the English poet, priest and metaphysician, Phineas Fletcher, (1582-1650) who earned a B.A. in 1604 and M.A. in 1608 from King’s College, Cambridge. By 1611 he had become a fellow at the college. He was known for pastorals and theological poetry. In A Litany, Fletcher’s speaker is hoping to weap enough that the tears will wash Christ’s feet to satisfaction; hoping that the tears will purge relentless sin; that the Lord shall not “See sin, but through my tears.”

Sir William Walton (1902-1983) was a significant composer of orchestral music and one of the major figures to emerge in England between Vaughan Williams and Britten. Born to a family of professional musicians, Walton began his musical studies singing anthems in his father’s Anglican church choir. His output was varied, ranging from the Viola Concerto and the colorful and impressive cantata ‘Belshazzar’s Feast,’ to small choral pieces such as ‘A Litany.’

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Miserere mei, William Byrd

Miserere mei Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam, et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, delle iniquitatem meam.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. According to the multitude of thy commiserations, take away mine iniquity.

Here is the Worcester College Chapel Choir, Oxford.

William Byrd maintained a precarious position as a Catholic in Protestant England. He dutifully provided Protestant church music of a very high caliber, as well as a wealth of courtly instrumental and vocal music. The resultant favor of the Queen and the potency of his noble patrons also allowed Byrd to compose and print music for the Catholic liturgy under his own name, even during times of crackdown when possession of the same books could be grounds for suspicion and arrest. In 1591, the year of his retirement to a recusant Catholic home in Stondon Massey, Byrd released through the press of Thomas East the second volume of his Cantiones sacrae, containing Miserere mei Deus and 20 other Latin motets. It seems that his intention in the print was twofold: he was first providing functional music for domestic performance in the private chapels of his Catholic patrons such as Sir John Petre and Edward Somerset. At the same time, the careful ordering of music within the 1591 print, which creates a large-scale modal descent through several keys, and the overwhelming number of mournful texts Byrd selected, suggest he was also expressing his own spiritual travail.

Miserere mei Deus shows both of these characteristics. Though Byrd set the plaintive text from Psalm 51 to a full five-voiced texture, only the two tenor parts are particularly broad in range, and the composer’s frequent recourse to chordal homophony makes Miserere mei Deus quite accessible (perfect for domestic performance). At the same time, Byrd took a lot of care in crafting the little motet. It concludes the five-voiced section of the 1591 printed anthology, and thus represents the deepest modal descent, into a G mode with fully two flats in its key signature; it does, however, begin quite naturally as an echo to the final chord of the preceding motet, Exsurge Domine. And despite the superficial simplicity of the music, Byrd wrought in it a powerfully affective cry for God’s mercy. It opens with two homophonic invocations to God, unified in texture and poignancy of cadence (plagal and Phrygian). The composer breaks into polyphony in the following phrase, “according to thy great mercy”; the imitative motives both rise aspirantly upwards and offer a subtle pun on the Latin secundum (after). A second homophonic passage is again answered with polyphony, this time a painfully extended passage of repeated cries, each reiterating the manifold sins of those praying for release.

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

Ash Wednesday

February 14, 2018

Noon Said Mass with conferral of ashes

7:00 PM Sung Mass with conferral of ashes

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Prelude

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, BWV 1103, J.S. Bach

Hymns

Lord, who throughout these forty days

This is our accepted time

The glory of these forty days

Anthems

Lord, in Thy rage, rebuke me not, William Byrd

The Lenten Prose, Attende Domine

Postlude

Attende Domine from op. 8, Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

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Prelude

Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort, BWV 1103 – J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

Here it is played by Thorsten Pirkl an der Kreienbrink-Orgel in the Pfarrkirche Maria Hilf, Bachrain

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Hymns

Lord, who throughout these forty days

Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman’s hymn, Lord, who throughout these forty days, signals the beginning of Lent and is often sung during Ash Wednesday services or throughout the season of Lent. Forty is a number with special biblical significance. It rained for forty days and nights when the earth was overtaken by floodwaters, and Noah waited another forty days before opening the window of the Ark. Israel wandered in the desert for forty years. Jesus was seen on earth following the resurrection for forty days. In this case, Christ’s forty days in the wilderness provides the primary paradigm for the forty days of Lent.

Claudia Hernaman (1838-1898) was born in Surrey, England, and died in Brussels, Belgium. She was the daughter of an Anglican minister, and she married a minister who also served as a school inspector. Like so many other women hymn writers of the nineteenth century, she was devoted to the religious education of children. Toward this end, she wrote 150 hymns in several collections, some original and some translated from Latin.

“Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” appeared first in her Child’s Book of Praise; A Manual for Devotion in Simple Verse (1873). It was not included in hymnals, however, until the mid-twentieth century, when it appeared in the Irish Church Hymnal (1960) and Hymns for Church and School (1964). By the 1970s, “Lord, who throughout these forty days” was a standard hymn in most hymnals in the United States. It is based on the account of the temptation of Jesus found in three Gospels — Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13.

As is the case with many hymns, Christ’s life becomes a model for how his followers should confront temptation. The first two lines of the stanzas focus on a response of Christ when he faced temptation; the last two lines encourage Christians to model their behavior on Christ’s example. This is a familiar pattern for children’s hymns from the days of Isaac Watts. It obviously strikes a chord with adult believers as well.

The classic themes of the Lenten season are presented in the stanzas of this hymn:

Fasting and prayer (stanza one);
Struggle with Satan and sin (stanza two);
Dying to self, meditation on scripture (stanza three);
Penitence (stanza four);
Looking toward the joy of Easter (stanza five).

Lord, who throughout these forty days,
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with thee to mourn our sins,
And close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
O give us strength in thee to fight,
In thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By thy most holy word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through thy Passion-tide,
Yea, evermore, in life and death,
Jesus! with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life
Of suffering overpast,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last!

Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman (1838-1898) was the daughter of the Rev. William Haywood Ibotson, was perpetual curate of Addlestone. She married the Rev. J.W.M. Hernaman, a school inspector. She was the author of The Child’s Book of Praise: A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse (1873), and co-editor (with Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell and Walter Plimpton) of the Anglo-Catholic Altar Hymnal: A Book of Song for Use at the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist (words-only edition 1884, with music 1885). She also published The Crown of Life: Verses for Holy Seasons (1886) and wrote The Conversion and Martyrdom of St Alban: a Sacred Drama (1891). She edited an anthology, Lyra Consolationis. From the poets of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1890).

This seems to be the best version availability on You Tube.

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This is our accepted time

This is our accepted time was written in 1955 by the Sulpician priest Fr. Michael Gannon. It is set to the 1609 tune, WEIMAR (Vulpius) by composer, Melchior Vulpius (c.1560–1615).

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The glory of these forty days

In this Lenten hymn attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540—604), The glory of these forty days, the typology so frequently used by the Fathers is employed. We are told that our fast, which we keep in imitation of our Lord’s fast, was prefigured in the Old Testament – by Moses, fasting before receiving the Law; by Elijah who, while fasting, was given the vision of the chariot of fire; and by Daniel who, through fasting and meditation, was delivered from the lions’ den. And, as St. John the Forerunner fasted and became the herald of the Messiah, we pray that we may, through our fasting, be prepared to see our Lord.

The translator was  Maurice Frederick Bell (1862-1947).  He graduated from Hertford College., Oxford (B.A. 1884, M.A. 1887), was ordained a deacon in 1885, and a priest in 1886, and was Vicar of St. Mark, Regent’s Park, London. He contributed to The English Hymnal, 1906, four translations , and “O dearest Lord, by all adored” (Close of Festival), 1906.

1. The glory of these forty days
we celebrate with songs of praise,
for Christ, through whom all things were made,
himself has fasted and has prayed.

2. Alone and fasting Moses saw
the loving God who gave the law,
and to Elijah, fasting, came
the steeds and chariots of flame.

3. So Daniel trained his mystic sight,
delivered from the lions’ might,
and John, the Bridegroom’s friend, became
the herald of Messiah’s name.

4. Then grant us, Lord, like them to be
full oft in fast and prayer with thee;
our spirits strengthen with thy grace,
and give us joy to see thy face.

5. O Father, Son and Spirit blest,
to thee be every prayer addressed,
who art in threefold name adored,
from age to age, the only Lord.

Here is St. John’s, Detroit.

The tune ERHALT UNS, HERR appeared in Joseph Klug’s Geistliche Lieder, Wittenberg, 1535.

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Anthems

Lord, in Thy rage, rebuke me not, William Byrd (1540-1623)

Lord in thy rage rebuke me not for my most grievous sin, nor in thine anger chasten me, but let me favour win. Have mercy Lord on me, because my state is weak to see, heal me, O Lord, for that my bones are troubled sore in me.

Here it is sung by Sarah Stowe.

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The Lenten Prose, Attende Domine

Refrain: Hear us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have sinned against thee. 1. To thee, Redeemer, on thy throne of glory, lift we our weeping eyes in holy pleadings: listen, O Jesus, to our supplications. 2. O thou chief cornerstone, right hand of the Father, way of salvation, gate of life celestial, cleanse thou our sinful souls from all defilement. 3. God, we implore thee, in thy glory seated, bow down and hearken to thy weeping children: pity and pardon all our grievous trespasses. 4. Sins oft committed now we lay before thee: with true contrition, now no more we veil them: grant us, Redeemer, loving absolution. 5. Innocent, captive, taken unresisting; falsely accused, and for us sinners sentenced, save us, we pray thee, Jesus our Redeemer.

Here it is sung at Hereford Cathedral.

The Lenten Prose is a translation of Attende Domine, a 10^th century hymn composed by Mozarabic Christians.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi. Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against Thee.

Ad te Rex summe, omnium redemptor, oculos nostros sublevamus flentes: exaudi, Christe, supplicantum preces. R.

Crying, we raise our eyes to Thee, Sovereign King, Redeemer of all. Listen, Christ, to the pleas of the supplicant sinners. R.

Dextera Patris, lapis angularis, via salutis, ianua caelestis, ablue nostri maculas delicti. R.

Thou art at the Right Hand of God the Father, the Keystone, the Way of salvation and Gate of Heaven, cleanse the stains of our sins. R.

Rogamus, Deus, tuam maiestatem: auribus sacris gemitus exaudi: crimina nostra placidus indulge. R.

O God, we beseech Thy majesty to hear our groans; to forgive our sins. R.

Tibi fatemur crimina admissa: contrito corde pandimus occulta: tua Redemptor, pietas ignoscat. R.

We confess to Thee our consented sins; we declare our hidden sins with contrite heart; in Thy mercy, O Redeemer, forgive them. R.

Innocens captus, nec repugnans ductus, testibus falsis pro impiis damnatus: quos redemisti, tu conserva, Christe. R.

Thou wert captured, being innocent; brought about without resistance, condemned by impious men with false witnesses. O Christ keep safe those whom Thou hast redeemed. R.

Here is the Latin with Gregorian chant.

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Postlude

Attende Domine from op. 8, Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

Here is the  Choral-paraphrase on ‘Attende Domine’ played a person with the wonderful name D’Arcy Trinkwon in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, on 5 July 2001.

Born in Montpellier, Jeanne Demessieux was the second child of Marie-Madeleine Demessieux (née Mézy) and Étienne Demessieux. After taking private piano lessons with her elder sister, Yolande, Jeanne entered the Montpellier Conservatoire in 1928. Four years later, she obtained first prizes in solfège and piano. In 1933, she began her studies at the Paris Conservatoire; studying piano with Simon Riera and Magda Tagliaferro, harmony with Jean Gallon, counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon, and composition with Henri Büsser. The same year, she was appointed titular organist at Saint-Esprit, a post she held for 29 years.

From 1936-39, Demessieux studied organ privately with Marcel Dupré, whose organ class at the Conservatoire she joined in 1939. After receiving a first prize in organ performance and improvisation in 1941, Demessieux studied privately with Dupré in Meudon for five more years, before she played her début concert at Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1946. This was the beginning of her career as an international concert organist. Demessieux gave more than 700 concerts in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. She had memorized more than 2,500 works, including the complete organ works of Bach, Franck, Liszt, and Mendelssohn, and all of Dupré’s organ works up to Opus 41. A prolific recording artist, she was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque Award in 1960 for her complete recording of Franck’s organ works (1958).

In 1962, Demessieux was appointed as titular organist at La Madeleine in Paris. She combined this with demanding academic duties, serving as professor of organ both at the Nancy Conservatoire (1950–52) and later at the Conservatoire Royal in Liège (1952–68). In 1967, she signed a contract with Decca for a recording of the complete organ works by Olivier Messiaen, which was not realized due to her death the following year.

Jeanne Demessieux died in Paris on 11 November 1968 from the effects of throat cancer. A large crowd, including Marcel Dupré, attended her funeral at La Madeleine. The great organ remained silent, and a vast black drape hung from the gallery to the floor.

Jesus healing a leper, drawing by Rembrandt, c. 1650

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

Quinquagesima Sunday

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

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Prelude

L’Orgue Mystique op. 54 no. 14 “Quinquagesima”,  Charles Tournemire

Hymns

How firm a foundation (LYONS)

Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Thou art the Way (DUNDEE)

Anthems

Te lucis ante terminum, Thomas Tallis

O Lord, the maker, William Mundy

Postlude

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622,  J. S. Bach

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Prelude

L’Orgue Mystique op. 54 no. 14 “Quinquagesima”,  Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)

Here is  Le Quinquagésime – 1 – Prélude а l’Introït.

Charles Arnould Tournemire (1870 – 1939) was a French composer and organist, notable partly for his improvisations which were often rooted in the music of Gregorian chant. His compositions include eight symphonies (one of them choral), four operas, twelve chamber works and eighteen piano solos; but he is remembered largely for his organ music, the best known being set of pieces L’Orgue Mystique, a group of 51 sets of five pieces each (except for Holy Saturday, which contains only three pieces), all written between 1927 and 1932. This collection covers the cycle of the Roman Catholic liturgical year, each set being based on the Gregorian chants for the day.

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Hymns

How firm a foundation (LYONS)

How firm a foundation (1787) is a hymn that for over two centuries has assured believers of the faithfulness of Christ and the certainty of hope. The first verse acts as an introduction, giving us cause to stop and ponder the Word of assurance that God has given us, described in greater detail in the next four verses. Those four verses are in fact paraphrases of Scripture passages: Isaiah 41:10, 43:2, Romans 8:3-39, Hebrews 13:5, and Deuteronomy 31:6. In the words of this hymn, we carry with us the Word from God, and the call to trust in that Word. But God’s Word is expansive and not limited to letters on a page — the fifth verse moves us to a trust in the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ. Thus we are assured by the words we sing, the Word we are given, and the Word made flesh, of the steadfastness of God and His unfailing love.

In John Rippon’s A Selection of Hymns (1787, plus numerous subsequent editions), “How Firm a Foundation” (no. 128) is attributed simply to “K—”.  The author of the hymn has never been definitively identified.

How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,
for I am your God, and will still give you aid;
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
for I will be with you in trouble to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

“When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply;
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

“The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake!”

Here is the original text:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say that to you he hath said?
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled,

In every condition, in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home or abroad, on the land, on the sea,
“As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.”

“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismay’d,
I, I am thy God, and will soon give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.”

“When thro’ the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, thy deepest distress.”

“When thro’ fiery trials thy path-way shall lie,
My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

“Even down to old age, all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.”

“The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, tho’ all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never – no never- no never forsake.”

Joseph Martin Kraus

The tune LYONS is by Joseph Martin Kraus (20 June 1756 – 15 December 1792), was a composer in the classical era who was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. He moved to Sweden at age 21, and died at the age of 36 in Stockholm. He is sometimes referred to as “the Swedish Mozart”, and had a life span which was very similar to that of Mozart’s.

Here is a concert performance of How firm a foundation. It has become a folk hymn, and here is a lively rendition. Here is Chelsea Moon.

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Lord Jesus, think on me (SOUTHWELL)

Lord Jesus, think on me is a translation by the Anglican clergyman Allen William Chatfield (1808-1896) of the Greek hymn, Μνώεο Χριστέ by Synesius of Cyrene (375-430). Synesius was the Bishop of Ptolomais, one of the ancient capitals of Cyrenaica that is today part of modern day Libya.

1. Lord Jesus, think on me
And purge away my sin;
From earth-born passions set me free
And make me pure within.

2. Lord Jesus, think on me
With many a care opprest;
Let me Thy loving servant be
And taste Thy promised rest.

3. Lord Jesus, think on me
Amid the battle’s strife;
In all my pain and misery
Be Thou my Health and Life.

4. Lord Jesus, think on me
Nor let me go astray;
Through darkness and perplexity
Point Thou the heavenly way.

5. Lord Jesus, think on me
When floods the tempest high;
When on doth rush the enemy,
O Savior, be Thou nigh!

6. Lord Jesus, think on me
That, when the flood is past,
I may the eternal brightness see
And share Thy joy at last.

7. Lord Jesus, think on me
That I may sing above
To Father, Spirit, and to Thee
The strains of praise and love.

Here is Lord Jesus, think on me with Magdala and at St. John’s College, Cambridge. Here it is as used in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde.

Synesius was descended from a wealthy and illustrious family which, according to the historian Edward Gibbons, could trace its descent back seventeen centuries to Spartan Kings. In his youth, he went to Alexandria and was educated under the celebrated woman Neo-Platonist, Hypatia. As an adult, he became wealthy and was known as a sportsman, a brilliant philosopher, a statesman, an eloquent orator, and a man of noble character.

Also, Synesius was a friend of Augustine of Hippo. When invasions by the Goths were threatening his country, he sought to persuade Emperor Arcadius about the imminent danger, but without success. After marrying a Christian in 403, he was converted to Christianity and a few years later was made bishop of Ptolemais by popular demand in 410. In spite of his dissent from some of the tenets of the church, his outstanding character alone made him acceptable. Around 410, Synesius published a series of ten hymns in which he set forth Christian doctrine. They show the evidences of Semitic influence on classic Greek poetry. “Lord Jesus, Think On Me” is the last of the ten. After having outlived his beloved wife and lost all his sons to a plague, he died around A. D. 430 in Ptolemais, although some authorities give the date as early as 414.

The tune SOUTHWELL was composed by Herbert Stephen Irons (1834 -1905).  He became a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under T. E. Jones. After studying music under Stephen Elvey at Oxford, he was appointed organist at St. Columba’s College, a large public school at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, Ireland. He stayed there only a few months before being offered the position of organist at Southwell Minister. From Southwell, he went to Chester as assistant organist to Frederic Gunton. Three years later, he accepted an appointment at St. Andrew’s Church, Nottingham, where he remained until his death.

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Thou art the Way (DUNDEE)

Thou art the Way is by the Episcopal Bishop George Washington Doane (1799-1859). “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). In His sayings which begin “ἐγώ εἰμί, ego eimi, I am,” Jesus implicitly makes a claim to divinity, because the name of God is יְהֹוָה, YHWH, “I AM WHO AM.” Jesus is the only Way to the Father, because Jesus alone is God and man and unites the two; Jesus is the only Truth, because He reveals the Father and He reveals the ultimate meaning of creation, which is Himself, in whom and for whom the universe was created; Jesus is the only true Life, which death itself could not destroy, and which through His resurrection and the power of the Spirit He pours forth onto a dying world to rescue it from eternal death.

Thou art the Way: by thee alone
from sin and death we flee;
and they who would the Father seek
must seek him, Lord, by thee.
Thou art the Truth: thy word alone
true wisdom can impart;
thou only canst inform the mind
and purify the heart.
Thou art the Life: the rending tomb
proclaims thy conquering arm;
and those who put their trust in thee
nor death nor hell shall harm.
Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life:
grant us that Way to know,
that Truth to keep, that Life to win,
whose joys eternal flow.

Here is the hymnal version.

George Washinton Doane

George Washington Doane, D.D. was born at Trenton, New Jersey, May 27, 1799, and graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York. Ordained in 1821, he was Assistant Minister at Trinity Church, New York, till 1824. In 1824 he became a Professor at Trinity College, Hartford, Conn.; in 1828 Rector of Trinity Church, Boston; and, in 1832, Bishop of New Jersey.  Influenced by the Oxford Movement, Doane prepared the American edition of John Keble’s The Christian Year (1834).

As a young priest Doane published Songs by the Way: chiefly devotional, with translations and imitations (1824). This included many of his hymns, of which the best known are ‘Softly now the light of day’, and ‘Thou art the way; to Thee alone’. The latter was one of only two American hymns to be included in the First Edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861)

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Anthems

Te lucis ante terminum, Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Te lucis ante terminum, Rerum Creator poscimus, Ut solita clementia Sis praesul ad custodiam. Procul recedant somnia, Et noctium phantasmata: Hostemque nostrum comprime, Ne polluantur corpora. Praesta pater omnipotens, Per Jesum Christum Dominum, Qui tecum in perpetuum, Regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.

Here is The Blossomed Voice.

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O Lord, the maker of all thing, William Mundy (1529-1591)

Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law

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

Sexagesima Sunday

8:00 AM Said Mass

10:00 AM Sung Mass

Prelude

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, J.S. Bach

Hymns

Thou, whose almighty word

Blessed Jesus, at Thy word

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old

Anthems

Out of the deep I call to Thee, Thomas Tallis

O sacrum convivium, Thomas Tallis

Postlude

Postlude in A major, Frantisek Walczynski

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Prelude

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, – J.S. Bach

Here is Jacques van Oortmerssen.

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Hymns

Thou, whose almighty word

Thou whose almighty word was written by the Anglican clergyman John Marriott (1780-1825). It is a call to mission, reminding us that the essence of the Church is mission, to bring light to the world. At the beginning, God said “Let there be light,” and now in our time the Father again through his Word lets the light of the Gospel shine into the chaos and darkness of the world. The hymn is also Trinitarian, reminding us that all three Persons bring light: the Father who through the word created the universe and recreates it through the Gospel; the Son, who comes like the rays of  the rising sun, “with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2), with a light which heals diseased minds and gives light to the blind; the Spirit who at the beginning moved over the dark waters and who now broods over the darkness of the world to bring the light of Christ to the dark earth.

Formerly Christian countries are now mission lands, and are filled with darkness and error. Among us are those whose minds are sick with lies, whose minds are darkened, who are despairing and see no life beyond the grave. The Gospel brings life and hope because it shows that the chaos of the world is being transformed by the light of the Gospel of the Risen Lord.

Thou, whose almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the gospel-day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light!

Thou, who didst come to bring
On thy redeeming wing
Healing and sight,
Health to the sick in mind,
Sight to the inly blind,
O now, to all mankind
Let there be light!

Spirit of truth and love,
Life-giving, holy Dove,
Speed forth thy flight;
Move on the water’s face,
Bearing the lamp of grace,
And in earth’s darkest place
Let there be light!

Holy and blessèd Three,
Glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
Boundless as ocean’s tide
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the earth far and wide
Let there be light!

Here (with some feedback) is the International Choir of Notre-Dame Cathedral (CIC) of Ho Chi Minh-City (Vietnam) singing this hymn in opening of Pentecost Mass on June 3rd 2001. Here is a version for four clarinets. And here is the choir of the Norwich Cathedral.

John Marriott, M.A, son of E. Marriott, D.D., Rector of Cottesbach, near Lutterworth, was born at Cottesbach, in 1780, and educated at Rugby, and Christ Church, Oxford. He was the second of two who obtained honours in the schools in 1802, the first year in which there was a public examination for honours at Oxford. He was also Student of Christ Church, and for about two years a private tutor in the family of the Duke of Buccleuch. The Duke presented him to the Rectory of Church Lawford, Warwickshire. This he retained to his death, although his wife’s health compelled him to reside in Devonshire, where he was successively curate of St. Lawrence and other parishes in Exeter, and of Broadclyst, near Exeter, where he died March 31, 1825. (Hymnary)

Felice Giardini

The tune is MOSCOW, also known as ITALIAN HYMN, composed by Felice Giardini, (Turin, April 12, 1716 – Moscow, June 8, 1796), an Italian composer and violinist. Felice de Giardini (b. Turin, Italy, 1716; d. Moscow, Russia, 1796) composed ITALIAN HYMN in three parts for this text at the request of Selina Shirley, the famous evangelically minded Countess of Huntingdon. Giardini was living in London at the time and contributed this tune and three others to Martin Madan’s Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1769), published to benefit the Lock Hospital in London where Madan was chaplain.

Giardini achieved great musical fame throughout Europe, especially in England. He studied violin, harpsichord, voice, and composition in Milan and Turin; from 1748 to 1750 he conducted a very successful solo violin tour on the continent. He came to England in 1750 and for the next forty years lived in London, where he was a prominent violinist in several orchestras. Giardini also taught and composed operas and instrumental music. In 1784 he traveled to Italy, but when he returned to London in 1790, Giardini was no longer popular. His subsequent tour to Russia also failed, and he died there in poverty. (Hymnary)

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Blessed Jesus, at Thy word

Blessed Jesus, at Thy Word was written by Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684) and translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1828). It has many themes beloved of Lutherans: the Word of God is Himself the power that gathers us together to hear Him; the Word by his teaching draws our hearts to love Him; the Spirit prays within us with unutterable groans; we trust in the promise of God’s Word, and are therefore consoled.

Tobias Clausnitzer  (5. Februar 1619 in Thum; † 7. Mai 1684 in Weiden in der Oberpfalz) war ein deutscher lutherischer Geistlicher und Kirchenliederdichter. Clausnitzer wurde als Sohn eines Kärrners und Landfuhrmanns in Thum geboren. Er studierte ab 1642 Evangelische Theologie an der Universität Leipzig. Im Jahr 1644 wurde er Feldprediger in einem schwedischen Regiment. Nachdem er 1649 in Weiden auf Befehl des schwedischen Generals Wrangel die Feldpredigt zur Feier des Westfälischen Friedens hielt, wurde er dort Pfarrer und später auch kurpfälzischer Kirchenrat und Inspektor des gemeinschaftlichen Amtes Parkstein und Weiden. Er starb 1684 als Superintendent in Weiden. (Wikipedia)

Tobias Clausnitzer was born at Thum, near Annaberg, in Saxony, probably on Feb. 5,1619. After studying at various Universities, and finally at Leipzig (where he graduated M.A. in 1643), he was appointed, in 1644, chaplain to a Swedish regiment. In that capacity he preached the thanksgiving sermon in St. Thomas’s Church, Leipzig, on “Reminiscere” Sunday, 1645 (ii. Sunday in Lent) on the accession of Christina as Queen of Sweden; as also the thanksgiving sermon at the field service held by command of General Wrangel, at Weiden, in the Upper Palatine, on January 1, 1649, after the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia. In 1649 he was appointed first pastor at Weiden, and remained there (being also appointed later a member of the Consistory, and inspector of the district,) till his death, on May 7, 1684. (Hymnary)

The German:

Liebster Jesu! wir sind hier,
Dich und dein Wort anzuhören.
Lenke Sinnen und Begier
Auf die süßen Himmelslehren:
Daß die Herzen von der Erden
Ganz zu dir gezogen werden.

Unser Wissen und Verstand
Ist mit Finsterniß verhüllet,
Wo nicht deines Geistes Hand
Uns mit hellem Licht erfüllet:
Gutes denken, thun und dichten
Mußt du selbst in uns verrichten.

O du Glanz der Herrlichkeit,
Licht vom Licht aus Gott geboren!
Mach uns allesamt bereit,
Öffne Herzen, Mund und Ohren:
Unser Bitten, Flehn und Singen
Laß, Herr Jesu, wohl gelingen.

Here is a charming version of the hymn by four siblings,

The translation by Catherine Winkworth (stanzas 1-3; unknown, stanza 4)

Blessed Jesus, at Thy word
We are gathered all to hear Thee;
Let our hearts and souls be stirred
Now to seek and love and fear Thee,
By Thy teachings, sweet and holy,
Drawn from earth to love Thee solely.

All our knowledge, sense, and sight
Lie in deepest darkness shrouded
Till Thy Spirit breaks our night
With the beams of truth unclouded.
Thou alone to God canst win us;
Thou must work all good within us.

Glorious Lord, Thyself impart,
Light of Light, from God proceeding;
Open Thou our ears and heart,
Help us by Thy Spirit’s pleading;
Hear the cry Thy people raises,
Hear and bless our prayers and praises!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Praise to Thee and adoration!
Grant that we Thy Word may trust
And obtain true consolation
While we here below must wander,
Till we sing Thy praises yonder.

Here it is sung by a boy’s voice. Here by a choral group.

Catherine Winkworth (13 September 1827 – 1 July 1878) was born at 20 Ely Place, Holborn, on the edge of the City of London. She was the fourth daughter of Henry Winkworth, a silk merchant. In 1829, her family moved to Manchester, where her father had a silk mill. Winkworth lived most of her early life in this great city, engine of the Industrial Revolution. Winkworth studied under the Rev. William Gaskell, minister of Cross Street Chapel, and with Dr. James Martineau, both of them eminent British Unitarians. She subsequently moved with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. Her sister Susanna Winkworth (1820–1884) was also a translator, mainly of German devotional works.Winkworth translated biographies of two founders of sisterhoods for the poor and the sick: Life of Pastor Fliedner, 1861, and Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863.

She is best known for bringing the German chorale tradition to English speakers with her numerous translations of church hymns, which were published in the Lyra Germanica.

She also worked for wider educational opportunities for girls and  in promoting women’s rights, as the secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women, and a supporter of the Clifton High School for Girls, where a school house is named after her, and a member of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She was likewise governor of the Red Maids’ School in Westbury-on-Trym in the city of Bristol.

According to the Encyclopedia of Britain by Bamber Gascoigne (1993), it was Catherine Winkworth who, learning of General Charles James Napier’s ruthless and unauthorised, but successful campaign to conquer the Indian province of Sindh, “remarked to her teacher that Napier’s despatch to the governor-general of India, after capturing Sindh, should have been Peccavi (Latin for ‘I have sinned’: a pun on ‘I have Sindh’). She sent her joke to the new humorous magazine Punch, which printed it on 18 May 1844. She was then sixteen years old. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations attributes this to Winkworth, noting that it was attributed to her in Notes and Queries in May 1954.The pun has usually been credited to Napier.] The rumour’s persistence over the decades led to investigations in Calcutta archives, as well as comments by William Lee-Warner in 1917 and Lord Zetland, Secretary for India, in 1936.

Catherine Winkworth died suddenly of heart disease near Geneva on 1 July 1878 and was buried in Monnetier, in Upper Savoy. A monument to her memory was erected in Bristol Cathedral. She is commemorated as a hymn writer with John Mason Neale on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 7 August.

The tune LIEBSTER JESU was composed by Johann Rudolf Ahle.

Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625 – 1673) was a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician.

Ahle was born in Mühlhausen, Thuringia. While not much is known of his early musical training, he studied at the grammar school in Göttingen and then studied theology at the University of Erfurt from 1645 to 1649. In 1646 he became cantor at the Church of St. Andrew in Erfurt. In 1648 he published the Compendium per tenellis, a theoretical treatise on choral singing which was reprinted several times during his lifetime and for a last time 50 years later by his son Johann Georg (the last edition appeared in 1704).

In 1654 Ahle assumed the post of organist at the Church of St Blaise in Mühlhausen. The next year he married Anna Maria Wölfer; their son, Johann Georg Ahle (1651-1706), was also a well-known composer and organist. Johann Rudolph was elected a town councilman in Mühlhausen in the 1650s, and was elected mayor shortly before his death in 1673. His immediate successor at St. Blasen/Blasius was his son Johann Georg, and then briefly Johann Sebastian Bach, who was in Mühlhausen in 1707/08.

Much of his compositional output consists of sacred choral and vocal works, instrumental music, and organ music. He is best known for motets and sacred concertos (most of them in German, some in Latin) contained in Neu-gepflanzte Thüringische Lust-Garten, in welchem… Neue Geistliche Musicalische Gewaechse mit 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 und mehr Stimmen auf unterschiedliche Arten mit und ohne Instrument … versetzet (1657–65). He is also known for hymn melodies, of which three remain in the Evangelical Hymn Book. (Wikipedia)

Except for his collection of dances of 1650, Ahle’s large output of music consists entirely of sacred vocal works. On the whole it is interesting not because it is original but because it is typical of the music written for the Protestant Church in Thuringia and Saxony during the third quarter of the 17th century. Moreover, since Ahle and his son were the immediate predecessors of the young J.S. Bach, who as his first employment held the same position as they did at St Blasius, the state of music under them provides at least a few clues to some of the early influences on J.S. Bach’s style. Ahle was probably influenced by Michael Altenburg and especially by Hammerschmidt, who, though belonging to the generation of Heinrich Schütz, wrote simpler and more popular church music. He cultivated the simple style of the chorale, avoiding polyphonic counterpoint. Certainly the tendency towards popularization characterizes almost all of Ahle’s output. His tunes were for long very popular, and are still sung in the Protestant churches of Thuringia – amongst others that known as Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier. (Bach Cantata Website)

The tune is of surpassing sweetness; J. S. Bach used it in a cantata (BWV 373) and six choral preludes. Here is the cantata with choral prelude BWV 633, 634, etc.  Here is a charming version of teh hymn by four siblings – Bach would have loved it.

Here is Albert Schweitzer in 1937 playing BWV 731 on the organ of the Église Sainte-Aurélie in Strasbourg (with an unusual video). And there are that and other preludes in unusual versions Here is Alicia de Laroccha (ah, I remember hearing her when we were both young).  Here a lively version for piano and percussion. Here we have it on the flute and organ in Brazil. Here on four cellos. Here on guitar (rather nice). Here for a Japanese recorder ensemble. Here are the Swingle Singers. Here for saxophone, cello, and piano. Yes, here for accordion.

It is a lovely prelude, but I am astonished at how it has captured the popular imagination all over the world, really becoming a part of pop culture, like Durer’s Hands.

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Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old

Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old was written by Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891), who wrote it for King’s College Hospital. It is a hymn for the sick, whether in body in mind. Unlike much Victorian writing about sickness, the hymn avoids mawkishness and strikes a positive note, with words such as ‘strong’, ‘calmed’, ‘almighty’, ‘deliverer’ and ‘soothe’ stressing both the power and gentleness of God. Like several of Plumptre’s other hymns, it achieves a strong sense of inclusiveness. The first verse describes the sick, with their various afflictions, coming together to seek healing from Jesus. The second verse draws in both those who are able to go about their business and the bedridden, ‘in crowded street, by restless couch’ and links them to those healed in the past ‘by Gennesareth’s shore’. In the third verse, both the healers and the sick ask for God’s help and support and take part together in praising him. This breadth of vision gives the hymn a strength which has ensured its enduring value. We should sing it especially for the sick of our congregation and thsoe in Joseph Richey Hospice, because jsus triumphs “o’er disease and death/ O’er darkness and the grave.”

In the original text, there was a penultimate verse emphasizing that miracles no longer happen, and healing takes place through scientific knowledge. This verse is generally dropped, but otherwise the hymn has not been much altered.

1 Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old
Was strong to heal and save;
It triumphed o’er disease and death,
O’er darkness and the grave.
To Thee they went, the blind, the deaf,
The palsied, and the lame,
The leper with his tainted life,
The sick with fevered frame.
2 And lo! Thy touch brought life and health,
Gave speech, and strength, and sight;
And youth renewed and frenzy calmed
Owned Thee, the Lord of light:
And now, O Lord, be near to bless,
Almighty as of yore,
In crowded street, by restless couch,
As by Gennesareth’s shore.
(3 Though love and might no longer heal
By touch, or word, or look;
Though they who do Thy work must read
Thy laws in nature’s book:
Yet come to heal the sick man’s soul
Come, cleanse the leprous taint;
Give joy and peace, where all is strife,
And strength, where all is faint.)
4 Be Thou our great deliverer still,
Thou Lord of life and death,
Restore and quicken, soothe and bless,
With thine almighty breath.
To hands that work and eyes that see,
Give wisdom’s heavenly lore,
That whole and sick, and weak and strong,
May praise Thee evermore,

Edward Hayes Plumptre

Edward Hayes Plumptre, D.D., was born in London, 1821, and educated at King’s College, London, and University College, Oxford, graduating as a double first in 1844. He was for some time Fellow of Brasenose. On taking Holy Orders in 1846 he rapidly attained to a foremost position as a Theologian and Preacher. His appointments have been important and influential, and include that of Assistant Preacher at Lincoln’s Inn; Select Preacher at Oxford; Professor of Pastoral Theology at King’s College, London; Dean of Queen’s, Oxford; Prebendary in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Professor of Exegesis of the New Testament in King’s College, London; Boyle Lecturer; Grinfield Lecturer on the Septuagint, Oxford; Examiner in the Theological schools at Oxford; Member of the Old Testament Company for the Revision of the A.V. of the Holy Scriptures; Rector of Pluckley, 1869; Vicar of Bickley, Kent, 1873; and Dean of Wells, 1881.

Dean Plumptre’s literary productions have been very numerous and important, and embrace the classics, history, divinity, biblical criticism, biography, and poetry. The list as set forth in Crockford’s Clerical Directory is very extensive. His poetical works include Lazarus, and Other Poems, 1864; Master and Scholar, 1866; Things New and Old, 1884; and translations of Sophocles, Æschylus, and Dante. As a writer of sacred poetry he ranks very high. His hymns are elegant in style, fervent in spirit, and broad in treatment. The subjects chosen are mainly those associated with the revived Church life of the present day, from the Processional at a Choral Festival to hospital work and the spiritual life in schools and colleges. The rhythm of his verse has a special attraction for musicians, its poetry for the cultured, and its stately simplicity for the devout and earnest-minded. The two which have attained to the most extensive use in Great Britain and America are: Rejoice, ye pure in heart,” and “Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old.” His translations from the Latin, many of which were made for the Hymnary, 1871 and 1872, are very good and musical, but they have not been used in any way in proportion to their merits.

The tune ST MATTHEW is attributed to William Croft, who was born in the year 1677 and received his musical education in the Chapel Royal, under Dr. Blow. In 1700 he was admitted a Gentleman Extraordinary of the Chapel Boyd; and in 1707, upon the decease of Jeremiah Clarke, he was appointed joint organist with his mentor, Dr. Blow. In 1709 he was elected organist of Westminster Abbey. This amiable man and excellent musician died in 1727, in the fiftieth year of his age. A very large number of Dr. Croft’s compositions remain still in manuscript.

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Anthems

Out of the deep I call to Thee, Thomas Tallis

Out from the deep I call to thee, O Lord hear my invocation. Thine ears bow down; incline to me and hear my lamentation. For if thou wilt our sins behold, that we have done from time to tide, O Lord, who then dare be so bold as in thy sight for to abide.

Here is the Chapelle du Roi.

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O sacrum convivium, Thomas Tallis

O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur, recolitur memoria passionis eius, mens impletur gratia, et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

Here is St. George’s Windsor.

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Postlude

Postlude in A major, Frantisek Walczynski