The Vineyard of the Lord

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The Vineyard of the Lord, Lukas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586)

The Gospel for October 8 (Trinity XVII) is the parable of the Vineyard.

The first reading is from Isaiah 5:

Let me sing for my beloved
a love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He digged it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, between me
and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, a cry!

Psalm 80 continues the image:

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea,
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts;
look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.[b]
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;[c]
may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.

And Jesus uses it in the Gospel (Matthew 21)

Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; 35 and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. 37 Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Cranach in 1582 painted the Protestant interpretation of this metaphor.

 

The painting once hung in Martin Luther’s parish church of St. Mary’s in Wittenberg. Cranach created this painting in memory of the Reformer Paul Eber, who lectured on theology in Wittenberg. Paul Eber, his wife, and  and his thirteen children kneel on the right, The ones in white died in infancy.

It is riposte to a statement that Pope Leo X had made in response to Luther’s posting of his Ninety-five Theses. The pope excommunicated Luther, tossing him out of the Church, in Exsurge, Domine exclaiming famously, “The wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy the vineyard.”

The Lord’s Vineyard is defined as the central motif of the composition by a surrounding fence, which separates it from the landscape behind. A path divides this vineyard into two sections: Catholic left and Protestant right.

14.4.2009: from Lucas Cranach the Younger, ‘Vineyard of the Lord’ (1569), Stadtkirche St-Marien, Wittenberg.

On the left side, the vineyard has withered from neglect and mismanagement. The pope, cardinals, bishops, priests and monks are hard at work … ripping out the vines and throwing rocks into the well. They are destroying the Good News of Jesus Christ with their false doctrines of the worship of Mary and the saints, purgatory, penance, indulgence, etc. They have ripped out the true salvation story contained in the words and person of Jesus Christ, who is the Vine to whom we are connected by faith. The monks are getting drunk and pulling up the vines.

But on the Protestant right, the vineyard is flourishing under Lutheran cultivation. Twelve reformers associated with Wittenberg, ranging from Martin Luther (d. 1546) to the young Matthias Flacius Illyricus (d. 1575), clear the land and prune and irrigate the new, healthy plants.

Luther in his black doctoral gown with a rake and other Reformers take care of the plants by watering them and pulling out the weeds. John Bugenhagen, Luther’s confessor and a contributor to the Augsburg Confession is in the center wearing a light-colored robe as he tills the soil.

Phillip Melanchthon, author of the Augsburg Confession,  is drawing the pure waters of the Scriptures (ad fontes).

In the foreground a procession of clerics, lead by the pope, has stepped beyond the fenced area to meet with Christ and the apostles. The Pope seems to be offering Jesus money to gain admission to heaven, and Jesus is refusing it. Perhaps it is an allusion to Tetzel’s (alleged ) couplet “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul out of purgatory springs” (Sobald der Pfennig im Kasten klingt, die Selle aus dem Fegfeuer springt), which he is supposed to have used to preach the sale of indulgences which would release souls from Purgatory.

Jesus, like the owner of the Vineyard, is carrying a bag with money with which he will pay the true workers in the vineyard, i. e., the Reformers.

This is the frame and epitaph.

In case the meaning of the painiting escaped you:

 

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Mount Calvary Music October 1, 2017

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Parable of the Two Sons, by Jan Luyken (1649-1712)

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XV

Common

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena, Willan

Prelude

Excerpt from Chorale No. 3, Cesar Franck (1822-1890)

Hymns

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 

Al hail the power of Jesus’ name

Anthems

Christus factus est a 3, Matteo Asola

O sacrum convivium, Tomás Luis de Victoria

Postlude

Fugue in G minor BWV 578, Johann Sebastian Bach

________________________________________

Prelude

Excerpt from Chorale No. 3, Cesar Franck (1822-1890). In the summer of 1890, Cesar Franck was riding in a cab when it was struck by a horse-drawn trolley. He suffered a fainting spell and a slight head injury, but he thought it wasn’t serious enough to warrant treatment and went on his way. Soon it became difficult for him to walk and he had to give up his teaching at the Conservatoire and went on vacation to try and recuperate.  He went back to the Conservatoire in the fall of 1890 but contracted an upper respiratory ailment that soon changed to pneumonia. He died November 8, 1890.

It was during this vacation that he completed the three Chorales For Organ. The Chorale No. 3 in A Minor begins as a toccata and has a contrasting second theme before it goes into a new theme played adagio. The finale of the piece hears the toccata return and the weaving in and out of the other themes heard in the piece.

Here is the complete Chorale No. 3 in A minor.

___________________________

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, with text by Caroline Maria Noel (1817—1877), is based on the early Christian hymn preserved in Philippians 2: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Caroline Maria Noel (1817—1877) surveys the history of redemption, from the kenosis, the self-emptying of God when the Son became man, to the Ascension, when He bore our humanity to the throne of God, from whence He shall come in His humanity to rule the cosmos forever.

Here is the original version:

1 At the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow,
every tongue confess him
King of glory now:
’tis the Father’s pleasure
we should call him Lord,
who from the beginning
was the mighty Word.

2 At his voice creation
sprang at once to sight,
all the angel faces,
all the hosts of light,
thrones and dominations,
stars upon their way,
all the heavenly orders,
in their great array.

3 Humbled for a season,
to receive a name
from the lips of sinners
unto whom he came,
faithfully he bore it
spotless to the last,
brought it back victorious,
when from death he passed:

4 Bore it up triumphant
with its human light,
through all ranks of creatures,
to the central height,
to the throne of Godhead,
to the Father’s breast;
filled it with the glory,
of that perfect rest.

5 Name him, Christians, name him,
with love strong as death,
but with awe and wonder
and with bated breath:
he is God the Saviour,
he is Christ the Lord,
ever to be worshipped,
trusted, and adored.

6 In your hearts enthrone him;
there let him subdue
all that is not holy,
all that is not true:
crown him as your Captain
in temptation’s hour;
let his will enfold you
in its light and power.

7 Surely, this Lord Jesus
shall return again,
with his Father’s glory,
with his angel train;
for all wreaths of empire
meet upon his brow,
and our hearts confess him
King of glory now.

Here is the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

The words are by Caroline Maria Noel (1817-1877). She was born in London, April 10th. 1817 and died at 39 Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, Dec. 7th. 1877. Her first hymn “Draw nigh unto my soul,” was written when she was 17. During the next three years she wrote about a dozen pieces. From 20 years of age to 40 she wrote nothing; and during the next 20 years the rest of her pieces were written. The first edition of her composition was published as The Name of Jesus and other Verses for the Sick and Lonely in 1861.

The tune KING’S WESTON is King’s Weston by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ melody, reverently in its somewhat somber manner. It has strong appeal, not least because it features a lovely, mournful folklike quality in the Dorian mode. The short lines of each stanza end in a dotted whole note, emphasizing the rhyme and the meaning: bow, now, Lord, mighty Word. The hymn begins and ends with the phrase King of glory: The Word has gone forth from God and has returned to God, and will come again in His gloried humanity; but we even now, the last word of the hymn, acknowledge him as the King of glory, who comes to us in the Eucharist.

Here is the Cardiff chorus.

___________________________

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds is by John Newton. It was inspired by the Song of Solomon 1.3: “Thy name is an ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.” An ointment is sweet and has healing properties: “It makes the wounded spirit whole.” Our first hymn celebrates the cosmic power of Jesus; this hymn celebrates His intimate relationship with the believer, for He, the Word of God, is also our Shepherd, Brother and Friend.

1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
and drives away his fear.
2 It makes the wounded spirit whole,
and calms the troubled breast;
’tis manna to the hungry soul,
and to the weary rest.
3 Dear name! the rock on which I build,
my shield and hiding-place,
my never-failing treasury filled
with boundless stores of grace.
4 Jesus! my Shepherd, Brother, Friend,
my Prophet, Priest, and King,
my Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
accept the praise I bring.

Here are two additional stanzas, which we will not use:

5 Weak is the effort of my heart,
and cold my warmest thought;
but when I see thee as thou art,
I’ll praise thee as I ought.
6 Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath;
and may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death.

Here is the York Minster choir.

Like many hymns, it has undergone revision. Here is the original text:

1 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear?
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

2 It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
‘Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.

3 Dear name! the rock on which I build,
My shield and hiding place;
My never failing treas’ry, fill’d
With boundless stores of grace!

4 By thee pray’rs acceptance gain,
Altho’ with sin defil’d;
Satan accuses me in vain,
And I am own’d a child.

5 Jesus! my shepherd, husband, friend,
My prophet, priest, and king:
My Lord, my life, my way, my end,
Accept the praise I bring.

6 Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art,
I’ll praise thee as I ought.

7 ‘Till then, I would thy love proclaim
With ev’ry fleeting breath;
And may the music of thy name
Refresh my soul in death.

In the original edition, Olney Hymns, the scripture reference for this hymn is the Song of Solomon 1.3: “Thy name is an ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.” The sweetness and gentleness of teh words and music bear the mark of bridal mysticism, which Protestants inherited form medial Catholicism. In stanza 5 the line “Shepherd, Husband, Friend” has been changed to “Shepherd, Brother, Friend.”

Frank Coloquhoun in Hymns That Live comments:

“But what about the title “Husband”? Newton’s reason for using it is clear. He is interpreting his text from the Song of Solomon in allegorical fashion. The bridegroom in the ancient love-song is Christ, his bride is the Church. St, Paul uses the same metaphor in Ephesians 5,21ff.; so does the writer of teh Apocalypse (Rev 21.9). But Christ is not the “husband” of the individual soul and therefore cannot be addressed by the believer as “my husband.” The bride of Christ is the Church in its corporate and collective  sense. Moreover…”the expression is unsuited to congregational use, as in no sense can it be said that Jesus is the Husband of men.”

John Newton, Clerk,

once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa,

was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

preserved, restored, pardoned,

and appointed to preach the Faith

he had long labored to destroy.

John Newton (1725-1807) wrote this hymn and Amazing Grace.

At sea by the age of eleven, he was forced to enlist on a British man-of-war seven years later. Recaptured after desertion, the disgraced sailor was exchanged to the crew of a slave ship bound for Africa.

It was a book he found on board–Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ–which sowed the seeds of his conversion. When a ship nearly foundered in a storm, he gave his life to Christ. Later he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. Commanding a slave vessel seems like a strange place to find a new Christian. But at last the inhuman aspects of the business began to pall on him, and he left the sea for good.

While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” No wonder he understood so well grace–the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God.

ST PETER features descending motion after an initial rise. Composed by Alexander R. Reinagle (b. Brighton, Sussex, England, 1799; d. Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England, 1877), ST. PETER was published as a setting for Psalm 118 in Reinagle’s Psalm Tunes for the Voice and Pianoforte (c. 1836). The tune first appeared with Newton’s text in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861); it is now usually associated with this text, for which it is a better match than for Psalm 118. The tune was named after St. Peter-in-the-East, the church in Oxford, England, where Reinagle was organist from 1822-1853.

Alexander R. Reinagle (1756-1809) was born in Portsmouth, England. His father was a Hungarian professional musician and his mother was Scots. He studied music with his father, then with Raynor Taylor in Edinburgh.

In 1786, Reinagle decided to try his fortune as a professional musician in the newly independent United States of America. He moved to New York City, and, later moved again to Philadelphia, which was the national capital at the time. He helped revitalize the musical life of Philadelphia in the 1790s, introducing that city to the music of Haydn and Mozart, as well as his own original compositions.

One of Reinagle’s admirers was American President George Washington. In 1789, Reinagle composed a “Chorus”, which was performed for Washington at Trenton, New Jersey, during Washington’s journey to his inauguration. Later, in Philadelphia, Nellie Custis, Washington’s step-granddaughter, was one of Reinagle’s music students. Washington was a frequent concertgoer, and could often be seen in the audience at Reinagle’s concerts. On Washington’s death in 1799, Reinagle composed a Monody on the Death of George Washington.

Beginning in 1791 Reinagle was associated with Thomas Wignell, the British actor, in the operation of a theatrical company that presented programs in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Their company, the New Company, was responsible for the building of both the New Theatre (or Chestnut Street Theatre) in Philadelphia, which opened in February 1793, and the Baltimore Theatre on Holliday Street, which opened in September 1794. The company presented both spoken and musical works. Reinagle was the musical director of the operation until his death in 1809. He hired George Gillingham, an English violinist, as conductor of the Chestnut Street Theatre. In the first six seasons of operation the company produced more than seventy-five musical works. Reinagle composed, arranged, or orchestrated music for all of the productions, and composed two ballad operas himself in 1795, The Volunteers and Sicilian Romance. Unfortunately, all but a few of the musical scores prepared by Reinagle for the Chestnut Street Theatre’s productions were lost in the fire that destroyed the theater on April 2, 1820.

Reinagle moved to Baltimore in 1803, the same year that Thomas Wignell died. He continued to be the musical director of the New Company’s productions at the Baltimore Theatre. Reinagle died on September 21, 1809 and is buried in St. Paul’s Burying Ground in Baltimore.

__________________________

All hail the power of Jesus’ name! was written by Edward Perronet (1726—1792), an associate of John Wesley, and was rewritten by several hands. Like out first hymn, it celebrates the power of the name of Jesus. It alludes to the Apocalypse. In Rev 19.16 Jesus is “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” on whose head “are many diadems,” Rev 19.12. The martyrs call from the altar, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness (martus) they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice” (Rev 6.9). We sinners, who have tasted the “wormwood and the gall” (Lam 3.19) of our evil deeds, offer our repentance as a trophy to the Lord of all. John sees every kindred, every tribe, “a great multitude…from every nation (Rev 7.9) who cry out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb.” As we sing we join them in this confession.

Here is the 1940 Hymnal version:

1 All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye martyrs of our God
Who from His altar call;
Extol the Stem of Jesse’s rod
And crown Him Lord of all.
Extol the Stem of Jesse’s rod
And crown Him Lord of all.

Hail Him, the Heir of David’s line,
Whom David Lord did call,
The God incarnate, Man divine,
And crown Him Lord of all.
The God incarnate, Man divine,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
Ye ransomed from the Fall,
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him who saves you by His grace
And crown Him Lord of all.

Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget
The wormwood and the gall,
Go, spread your trophies at His feet
And crown Him Lord of all.
Go, spread your trophies at His feet
And crown Him Lord of all.

Let every kindred, every tribe,
On this terrestrial ball
To Him all majesty ascribe
And crown Him Lord of all.
To Him all majesty ascribe
And crown Him Lord of all.

Here is Samuel Metzger’s arrangement.

Here is the 1799 version:

1 All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let Angels prostrate fall:
Bring forth the royal diadem,
To crown Him Lord of All.

2 Let high-born Seraphs tune the lyre,
And, as they tune it, fall
Before his face who tunes their choir,
And crown Him Lord of All.

3 Crown Him, ye morning stars of light,
He fix’d this floating ball;
Now hail the strength of Israel’s might,
And crown Him Lord of All

4 Crown Him, ye martyrs of your God,
Who from His altar call,
Extol the stem of Jesse’s rod,
And crown Him Lord of All.

5 Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
Ye ransom’d of the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by his grace,
And crown Him Lord of All.

6 Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line,
Whom David Lord did call;
The God incarnate, Man divine,
And crown Him Lord of All.

7 Sinners! whose love can ne’er forget,
The wormwood and the gall,
Go–spread your trophies at his feet,
And crown Him Lord of All.

8 Let every tribe, and every tongue,
That hear the Saviour’s call
Now shout in universal song,
And crown Him Lord of All.

There is an alternative final stanza, found in many hymnals:

O that with yonder sacred throng
We at his feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown him Lord of all.

The eliminated stanza with “high-born Seraphs” is charming but odd. “Hail Him, ye heirs of David’s line,” a vocative, addressed presumably to the Jews, was changed to “Hail Him, the Heir of David’s line,” changing heirs to Heir, and putting it in apposition to Him, that is, Christ.

Edward Perronet (1726-1792). The Perronets of England, grandfather, father, and son, were French Huguenot emigres. David Perronet came to England about 1680. He was son of the refugee Pasteur Perronet, who had chosen Switzerland as his adopted country, where he ministered to a Protestant congregation at Chateau D’Oex. His son, Vincent Perronet, M.A., was a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford. He became, in 1728, Vicar of Shoreham, Kent. He was close to with the Evangelical Revival under the Wesleys and Whitefield.

His son Edward was born in 1726. Born, baptized, and brought up in the Church of England, he had originally no other thought than to be one of her clergy. But, though strongly evangelical, he had a keen and searching eye for defects. A characteristic note to The Mitre, in referring to a book called The Dissenting Gentleman’s answer to the Rev. Mr. White, thus runs:—”I was born, and am like to die, in the tottering communion of the Church of England; but I despise her nonsense; and thank God that I have once read a book that no fool can answer, and that no honest man will.” This strangely overlooked satire is priceless as a reflection of contemporary ecclesiastical opinion and sentiment. It is pungent, salted with wit, gleams with humor, hits off vividly the well-known celebrities in Church and State, and is well wrought in picked and packed words. But it is a curious production to have come from a “true son” of the Church of England. It roused John Wesley’s hottest anger. He demanded its instant suppression; and it was suppressed; and yet it was at this period the author threw himself into the Wesleys’ great work. But evidences abound in the letters and journals of John Wesley that he was intermittently rebellious and vehement to even his revered leader’s authority. Earlier, Edward Perronet dared all obloquy as a Methodist. In 1749 Wesley enters in his diary:

“From Rochdale went to Bolton, and soon found that the Rochdale lions were lambs in comparison with those of Bolton. Edward Perronet was thrown down and rolled in mud and mire. Stones were hurled and windows broken.”

In 1755 arrangements to meet the emergency created by its own success had to be made for Methodism. As one result, both Edward and Charles Perronet broke loose from John Wesley’s law that none of his preachers or “helpers” were to dispense the Sacraments, but were still with their flocks to attend the parish churches. Edward Perronet asserted his right to administer the Sacraments as a divinely-called preacher. At that time he was resident at Canterbury, “in a part of the archbishop’s old palace.” He became one of the Countess of Huntingdon’s “ministers” in a chapel in Watling Street, Canterbury. Throughout he was passionate, impulsive, strong-willed; but always lived near his divine Master. In the close of his life he was an Independent or Congregational pastor of a small church in Canterbury. He died Jan. 2, 1792, and was buried in the cloisters of the great cathedral.

 

________________________

Anthems

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

Christ became obedient for us unto death, even death on the cross. Therefore God exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above all names.

Here is a Slavic group’s rendition.

Giovanni Matteo Asola (c. 1532-1609) was born in Verona, and began studying at Alga in 1546 in the congregation of secular canons. While in Verona he most likely studied with Vincenzo Ruffo. In 1569 he became a secular parish priest, and in 1577 became maestro di cappella at Treviso Cathedral; however, in 1578 he went to Vicenza Cathedral to take the equivalent job there, where the pay and musical opportunities were greater. He only stayed there four years, going to Venice in 1582,where he lived Venice until his death.

Asola was a rare case of a composer working in Venice who showed almost no stylistic influence from the Venetian school; indeed most of his works are in the Palestrina style, the idiom of the Roman School of composers. In his later works he began using a basso continuo, and he may have been one of the first composers to do so. The only musical feature he borrowed from the Venetian composers elsewhere in his adopted city was the idea of cori spezzati, spatially separated groups of singers; however, this musical style was widespread in northern Italy by the time he was writing, and by no means unique to Venice.

__________________________

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

O sacred banquet, wherein Christ is received; the memorial of his passion is renewed; the soul is filled with grace; and a pledge of future glory is given to us. Alleluia.

Here is a Chinese group.

 

Tomas Luis

Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes Italianised as da Vittoria) (c. 1548 – 27 August 1611) was the most famous composer in 16th-century Spain, and was one of the most important composers of the Catholic Reformation, along with Palestrina and  Orlando di Lasso.Victoria was not only a composer, but also an accomplished organist and singer as well as a priest. However, he preferred the life of a composer to that of a performer.

Postlude

Fugue in G minor BWV 578, Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Fugue in G minor, BWV 578, (popularly known as the Little Fugue), is a piece of organ music written by Johann Sebastian Bach during his years at Arnstadt (1703–1707). It is one of Bach’s best known fugues and has been arranged for other voices, including an orchestral version by Leopold Stokowski.

Early editors of Bach’s work attached this title to distinguish it from the later Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, which is longer in duration.

The fugue’s four-and-a-half measure subject is one of Bach’s most recognizable tunes. The fugue is in four voices. During the episodes, Bach uses one of Arcangelo Corelli’s most famous techniques: imitation between two voices on an eighth note upbeat figure that first leaps up a fourth and then falls back down one step at a time.

Here is the G minor fugue for organ.

Here is Stokowski’s version.

Here are the Swingle Singers.

And for saxophones.

And the Canadian Brass.

And for classical guitar.

For solo harp.

For harpsichord. (rather nice)

For clarinet quartet.

For trumpets.

For recorders.

 

While we’re at it, here is the D Minor fugue from Fantasia.

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Mount Calvary Music September 24, 2017

in hymns, Mount Calvary Church No Comments

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

by Jacob Willemszoon de Wet

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XV

Common

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena, Willan

Prelude

Preludes Liturgiques, No. 4, Gaston Litaize

Hymns

Christ, whose glory fills the skies

Now, my tongue, the mystery telling

Alleluia, sing to Jesus

Anthems

Simile est regnum caelorum, Cristobal de Morales

Simile est regnum caelorum, William Byrd

Postlude

Hyfrydol, Richard Blake

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Preludes Liturgiques, No. 4, by Gaston Litaize.  Archibald Farmer wrote that the Préludes liturgiques were “clever, interesting, often good, and always modishly French.”

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

He began working as organist at Saint-Cloud in 1934, and after leaving the Paris Conservatoire in 1939 he returned to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles to teach harmony. In 1944 he began a thirty-year directorship of religious radio programs, where he oversaw five weekly broadcasts. He took up a position in 1946 at St François-Xavier, Paris, where he remained the organist until his death. In 1975 he retired from the radio and began teaching organ at St Maur-des-Fossés Conservatoire.  He died in 1991 in Bruyères, Vosges.

Hymns

Christ, whose glory fills the skies was written by Charles Wesley (1707—1788). He begins the hymn with the antithesis between light and night. In stanza two, Wesley uses the first words of each line to tell the story of redemption. The first three lines begin with “Dark,” “Unaccompanied,” and “Joyless.” The plight of humanity has been set. The next two lines begin with “till” which represents hope for salvation. The repeating of “more and more” implies the idea that we can never see enough of the “Radiancy divine” which has “[pierced] the gloom of sin and grief.”

Scripture references are present throughout: John 1:9,the “true light”;  Isaiah 2:6 and Malachi 4:2, the “Sun of Righteousness”; Isaiah 14:12 and 2 Peter 1:19, the ”Day Star.”

1 Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true and only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o’er the shade of night;
Day-spring from on high, be near;
Day-star, in my heart appear.

2 Dark and cheerless is the morn
unaccompanied by thee;
joyless is the day’s return
till thy mercy’s beams I see,
till they inward light impart,
glad my eyes and warm my heart.

3 Visit, then, this soul of mine,
pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
fill me, Radiancy divine,
scatter all my unbelief;
more and more thyself display,
shining to the perfect day!

RATISBON is a composite of many different sources. It stems from a fifteenth century German folk tune and was reworked, many times before it was given its present form by  William Henry Havergal. William Henry Havergal (18 January 1793 – 19 April 1870) was an Anglican clergyman, writer, composer and hymn writer. On 14 June 1829 he was thrown out of a carriage and received concussion of the brain, which disabled him for some years. He found relief in music.

Here is the Washington Choral Art Society.

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Now, my tongue, the mystery telling is Thomas Aquinas’s hymn, Pange lingua, as translated by Edward Caswell.

1 Now, my tongue, the mystery telling
of the glorious body sing,
and the blood, all price excelling,
which the Gentiles’ Lord and King,
in a Virgin’s womb once dwelling,
shed for this world’s ransoming.
2 Given for us, and condescending
to be born for us below,
he, with us in converse blending,
dwelt the seed of truth to sow,
till he closed with wondrous ending
his most patient life of woe.
3 That last night, at supper lying,
‘mid the Twelve, his chosen band,
Jesus, with the law complying,
keeps the feast its rites demand;
then, more precious food supplying,
gives himself with his own hand.
4 Word-made-flesh, true bread he maketh
by his word his flesh to be,
wine his blood; which whoso taketh
must from carnal thoughts be free:
faith alone, though sight forsaketh,
shows true hearts the mystery.
5 Therefore we, before him bending,
this great sacrament revere:
types and shadows have their ending,
for the newer rite is here;
faith, our outward sense befriending,
makes our inward vision clear.
6 Glory let us give and blessing
to the Father and the Son,
honour, might, and praise addressing,
while eternal ages run;
ever too his love confessing,
who, from both, with both is One. Amen.

Here is the Pange lingua.

Edward Caswell

Edward Caswell (1814—1878) was an Anglican clergyman. In 1850, his wife having died the previous year, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri under the future Cardinal Newman, to whose influence his conversion to Roman Catholicism was due.

He was born at Yateley, Hampshire on 15 July 1814, the son of Rev. R. C. Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yateley, Hampshire. Caswall was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1836 with honours and later proceeded to Master of Arts. He was curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, 1840–1847. In 1850, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. He died at the Oratory, Edgbaston, near Birmingham on 2 January 1878 and was buried at Rednal, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

He wrote original poems that have survived mainly in Catholic hymnals due to a clear adherence to Catholic doctrine. Caswall is best known for his translations from the Roman Breviary and other Latin sources, which are marked by faithfulness to the original and purity of rhythm. They were published in Lyra Catholica, containing all the breviary and missal hymns (London, 1849); The Masque of Mary (1858); and A May Pageant and other poems (1865). Hymns and Poems (1873) are the three books combined, with many of the hymns rewritten or revised. Some of his translations are used in the Hymns Ancient and Modern. His widely used hymn texts and translations include “Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise”; “Come, Holy Ghost”; “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee”; “When Morning Gilds the Skies”; and “Ye Sons and Daughters of the Lord.”

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Alleluia! sing to Jesus was written by William Chatterton Dix (1837—1898). Revelation 5:9 describes this eschatological scene of joy and glory: “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased for God members of every tribe and language and nation.’”  Dix invites us to sing that new song of praise to our ascended Savior. This hymn is a declaration of Jesus’ victory over death and His continued presence among His people. By complex and interlocking allusions to Scripture, it presents a very high view of the Eucharist presence: Jesus is both “Priest and Victim” in this feast. Jesus, having triumphed over sin and death, “robed in flesh” has ascended above all the heavens, entering “within the veil” to the very throne of God. Dix sees in the Eucharist the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us evermore.

We sometimes forget that Jesus ever intercedes for us. The Mount Calvary Magazine in 1910 reminded us:

“The Incarnation is a permanent thing, it still exists. Our Lord still has His work to do in His glorified humanity; and that work is the perpetual intercession which He ever liveth to make for us. In order that he might carry on that work, it was necessary that His humanity should ascend into Heaven; and the way in which he now carries it on, is the unceasing presentation of His living and glorified humanity to the Father.” He is thereby fulfilling His promise that is in the verse painted on the sanctuary arch.

1 Alleluia! sing to Jesus!
His the sceptre, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone:
Hark! the songs of peaceful Sion
Thunder like a mighty flood;
Jesus, out of every nation
Hath redeemed us by His blood.

2 Alleluia! not as orphans
Are we left in sorrow now;
Alleluia! He is near us,
Faith believes, nor questions how:
Though the cloud from sight received Him,
When the forty days were o’er:
Shall our hearts forget His promise,
“I am with you evermore”?

3 Alleluia! Bread of Heaven,
Thou on earth our Food, our Stay!
Alleluia! here the sinful
Flee to thee from day to day:
Intercessor, Friend of sinners,
Earth’s Redeemer, plead for me,
Where the songs of all the sinless
Sweep across the crystal sea.

4 Alleluia! King eternal,
Thee the Lord of lords we own;
Alleluia! born or Mary,
Earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne:
Thou within the veil hast entered,
Robed in flesh, our great High-Priest;
Thou on earth both Priest and Victim
In the Eucharistic feast.

5 Alleluia! sing to Jesus!
His the sceptre, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone;
Hark! the songs of holy Sion
Thunder like a mighty flood;
Jesus, out of every nation
Hath redeemed us by His blood.

Here is the hymn at St. Bartholomew’s.

william-chatterton-dix

William Chatterton Dix

William Chatterton Dix (14 June 1837 – 9 September 1898) was an English writer of hymns and carols. He was born in Bristol, the son of John Dix, a local surgeon, His father gave him his middle name in honour of Thomas Chatterton, a poet about whom he had written a biography. He was educated at the Grammar School, Bristol, for a mercantile career, and became manager of a maritime insurance company in Glasgow where he spent most of his life.

At the age of 29 he was struck with a near fatal illness and consequently suffered months confined to his bed. During this time he became severely depressed. Yet it is from this period that many of his hymns date. He died at Cheddar, Somerset, England.

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Anthems

Offertory

Simile est regnum caelorum homini patri familias, qui exiit primo mane conducere operarios in vineam suam. Conventione autem facta cum operariis ex denario diurno, misit eos in vineam suam. Et egressus circa horam tertiam vidit alios stantes in foro otiosos, et illis dixit:Ite et vos in vineam meam; et, quod iustum fuerit, dabo vobis.

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.

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.

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Ave verum corpus natum ex Maria virgine, vere passum immolatum in cruce pro homine, cuius latus perforatum unda fluxit sanguine, esto nobis praegustatum mortis in examine. O dulcis, o pie, o Jesu, fili Mariae, miserere mei.

Hail, true Body, born of the Virgin Mary, who having truly suffered, was sacrificed on the cross for mankind, whose pierced side flowed with water and blood: May it be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet] in the trial of death. O sweet, O gentle, O Jesu, son of Mary, have mercy on me.

William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)

16th Century England, under the charge of Queen Elizabeth I, was officially Protestant; and although Byrd was famous in his day, he constantly lived in fear of losing commissions because of his Catholic faith. Because of this, many of Byrd’s earlier sacred works were smaller in scope, and included phrases and musical suspensions meant to secretly signify the desire for equal protection for Catholics in England. By 1605, under the rule of King James I, Byrd felt comfortable enough to compose his most overtly Catholic book, Gradualia. From this collection comes this “Ave Verum Corpus.”

Here are the Tallis Scholars

Postlude

Hyfrydol by Richard Blake (1953-   )

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Mount Calvary Music September 17 2017

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Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Patronal Feast of the Church

Prelude

Preludes Liturgiques, No. 7, Gaston Litaize

Hymns

Lift high the cross

Firmly I believe and truly

And now, O Father, mindful of the love

The head that once was crowned with thorns

Anthems

Christus factus est obediens, Felice Anerio

God so loved the world, John Stainer

Postlude

Dialogue, from Premier Livre D’Orgue, Pierre DuMage

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Lift high the cross was written by George William Kitchen (1827—1912), Dean of the Cathedral for a festival service of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, held in Winchester Cathedral in 1887.  His version was altered by Anglican priest Michael Robert Newbolt (1874–1956), who later became Canon of Chester Cathedral.

The hymn incorporates an important feature of processionals: the crucifer (cross-bearer) leads the procession, lifting the cross high. This ritual use of the cross is a sign of the victory of the resurrection and finds a biblical basis in John 12:32, “And I, when I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”— which is written on the arch above our chancel.

The hymn also alludes to the story of the Emperor Constantine’s vision as told in Eusebius’s Life of Constantine, in which he saw a cross inscribed with the words, “In hoc signo vinces” (“in this sign [of the cross] you will conquer”). Constantine recognized Christianity and provided a basis for the further spread of Christianity.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim
till all the world adore his sacred name.

1 Come, Christians, follow where our Savior trod,
the Lamb victorious, Christ, the Son of God. [Refrain]

2 All newborn servants of the Crucified
bear on their brow the seal of him who died. [Refrain]

3 From north and south, from east and west we raise
in growing unison our song of praise. [Refrain]

4 O Lord, once lifted on the tree of pain,
draw all the world to seek you once again. [Refrain]

5 Let every race and every language tell
of him who saves our lives from death and hell. [Refrain]

6 Set up your throne, that earth’s despair may cease
beneath the shadow of its healing peace. [Refrain]

7 So shall our song of triumph ever be:
praise to the Crucified for victory! [Refrain]

Her are the St. Michael’s Singers.

 

George Kitchin

The Very Reverend George William Kitchin, MA, DD, FSA (7 December 1827 – 13 October 1912) was the first Chancellor of the University of Durham, from the institution of the role in 1908 until his death in 1912. He was also the last Dean of Durham to govern the university.

Kitchin was born to a minister in the Rectory at Naughton, Suffolk. He attended King’s College School and King’s College London. Later, he attended Christ Church, Oxford where he took a Double First in Classics and Mathematics in 1850 and gained his Master of Arts (Oxford) (MA Oxon) in 1852. In 1854, Kitchin was an examiner in Mathematics at Christ Church. Kitchin left Oxford to become Headmaster of Twyford Preparatory School in Hampshire but returned to residence at Oxford as Censor in 1861. While at Christ Church he was partly responsible for the end in late 1861 of the Latin Prayer, conducted there since time immemorial, and for which special provision had been given in the Act of Uniformity 1662. Kitchin married in 1863, and served as Oxford’s first Junior Censor of non-collegiate students from 1868 to 1883. He was Select Preacher at Oxford from 1863–64, Whitehall Preacher from 1866–67. Resided at Brantwood, in the Lake District from 1869–71, the property later purchased by John Ruskin. Here he undertook assignments for Clarendon Press, including working on the proofs of Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson’s Icelandic-English Dictionary.

Appointed Chaplain to William Jacobson, Bishop of Chester from 1871–72, tutor of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark (later Frederick VIII of Denmark) and lecturer and tutor in History in Christ Church from 1870-83. He was also Commissary to Charles Sandford, Bishop of Gibraltar from 1874–1904, and was an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London, and an honorary student of Christ Church. In theology he was a moderate liberal.

In 1883, he became Dean of Winchester and in 1894 became the Dean of Durham.

Xie: “It won’t come smooth”

At Oxford his friends included John Ruskin and Lewis Carroll. Kitchin’s daughter Alexandra (‘Xie’, 1864–1925) was Carroll’s favorite photographic subject.

Great Screen Winchester Cathedral

While Dean of Winchester he was responsible for a number of refurbishments within the Cathedral, most notably, the restoration of the mediaeval reredos behind the High Altar, usually known as ‘The Great Screen’. The restoration was initially entrusted to the architect J. D. Sedding. However, Sedding’s design for the scheme did not meet with general satisfaction and was not implemented. Thereafter Kitchin personally took over and master-minded the entire project, essentially as his own architect, commissioning the many new statues needed to people the restored screen. When completed this was widely acclaimed as a major artistic ecclesiastical restoration of the 19th century. (Wikipedia)

Sir Sydney Nicholson

The tune CRUCIFER was composed by Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson MVO (9 February 1875 – 30 May 1947) was an English choir director, organist and composer, now chiefly remembered as the founder of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM). He was born in London (the son of Charles Nicholson) and educated at Rugby School, New College, Oxford and the Royal College of Music. At this last-named institution, he studied the organ. He then served as organist at Barnet Parish Church (1897 – 1903),  Carlisle Cathedral (1904), Lower Chapel, Eton College (1904 – 1908), Manchester Cathedral (1908 – 1919), and Westminster Abbey (1919 – 1928).[3] Along with maintaining his organist posts, he edited the Hymns Ancient and Modern supplement that was published in 1916; he did not live to see the 1950 revised edition.

Something momentous would have to occur to persuade most away from playing the organ at the prestigious Westminster Abbey, but such was the case with Nicholson who was so concerned at the sad state of choral music in the parish churches throughout the country that in 1927 he founded the School of English Church Music (now the RSCM), in the hope of rectifying the problem. The School’s members initially met at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.

One of Nicholson’s most successful compositions for parish choirs was his Communion Service in G, which was widely sung, especially in Anglo-Catholic churches, until recent times. He was warden of St Nicholas College, Chislehurst (1928 – 1939).[4]

In addition to having edited Hymns Ancient and Modern, still the standard hymn book in many Anglican churches today, Nicholson wrote several hymn tunes. Of these, the most famous is Crucifer for the popular processional hymn Lift High the Cross. In 1928 he received the Lambeth DMus, and a decade later he was knighted for his services to Church music. He died at Ashford, Kent at the age of 72, and was buried at Westminster Abbey. (Wikipedia)

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John Henry Newman young

Firmly I believe and truly is adapted from John Henry Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius, a narrative poem written in 1865 about the progress of a soul from death to salvation.

As an Evangelical, Newman (1901-1890) rejected the doctrines of purgatory and the intercession of saints, but as part of his conversion (1845), he came to a realization, as he would call it, of the fullness of the communion of saints: those striving on earth, those being purified by the divine fire, and those in heaven moved by love to pray for those on earth and in purgatory. Gerontius (Greek Geron: old man), relates the journey of a pious man’s soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. As the priests and assistants pray the prayers for the dying Gerontius recites this creed and prays for mercy. “Sanctus Fortis, sanctus Deus” is from the Good Friday liturgy and is alluded to in the line “him the holy, him the strong.”

Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three and God is One;
and I next acknowledge duly
manhood taken by the Son.

Refrain: Sanctus fortis, sanctus Deus, de profundis oro Te.
Miserere mei, judex meus, parce mihi, Domine.

And I trust and hope most fully
in that manhood crucified;
and each thought and deed unruly
do to death, as he has died.

Simply to his grace and wholly
light and life and strength belong,
and I love supremely, solely,
him the holy, him the strong.

And I hold in veneration,
for the love of him alone,
Holy Church as his creation,
and her teachings as his own.

Adoration ay be given,
with and through the angelic host,
to the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Here is the hymn at Nashotah House.

Gordon

General Gordon (1833-1885), troubled by fears of what happens after the end of life, had a copy of the poem sent to him in Egypt in 1884. He read it on his journey to his own death in Khartoum. This copy, with pencilled notes, was later given as a wedding present to Elgar. Elgar set it to music as an Oratorio, premiered in 1900. Its prominent Roman Catholic theology was objectionable to many Anglicans, and Elgar had to change the text to be have the oratorio performed in Church of England cathedrals.

Elgar Dream

Here is Peter Pears singing Firmly I believe and truly from Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.

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And now, O Father, mindful of the love was composed by Anglican High Churchman William Bright (1824—1901), He was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, and then worked in Scotland, where his views on the Reformation caused him to be ejected by the Bishop of Glasgow. He then returned to Oxford.

The text it was inspired by the Latin Canon that begins Te Igitur, clementissime Pater:

And now, Lord, we Thy servants, 
and with us Thy holy people,
 calling to mind 
the blessed Passion of the same Christ, Thy Son, our Lord,
 and also His Resurrection from the grave
 and His glorious Ascension into heaven,
 offer to Thy excellent majesty, 
of  Thy gifts and presents, 
a pure Victim, a holy Victim, a spotless  Victim, 
the holy Bread of eternal life,
 and the Chalice of everlasting salvation.

1 And now, O Father, mindful of the love
that bought us, once for all, on Calvary’s tree,
and having with us him that pleads above,
we here present, we here spread forth to thee
that only offering perfect in thine eyes,
the one true, pure, immortal sacrifice.

2 Look, Father, look on his anointed face,
and only look on us as found in him;
look not on our misusings of thy grace,
our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim:
for lo, between our sins and their reward
we set the Passion of thy Son our Lord.

3 And then for those, our dearest and our best,
by this prevailing presence we appeal:
O fold them closer to thy mercy’s breast,
O do thine utmost for their souls’ true weal;
from tainting mischief keep them white and clear,
and crown thy gifts with strength to persevere.

4 And so we come: O draw us to thy feet,
most patient Saviour, who canst love us still;
and by this food, so aweful and so sweet,
deliver us from every touch of ill:
in thine own service make us glad and free,
and grant us never more to part with thee.

Her is the Choir of Marlborough College.

William Bright

William Bright,  D.D., born at Doncaster, Dec. 14, 1824, and educated at University College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. (first class in Lit. Hum.) in 1846, M.A. in 1849. In 1847 he was Johnson’s Theological Scholar: and in 1848 he also obtained the Ellerton Theological Essay prize. He was elected Fellow in 1847, and subsequently became Tutor of his College. Taking Holy Orders in 1848, he was for some time Tutor at Trinity College, Glenalmond; but in 1859 he returned to Oxford, and in 1868 became Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon of Christ Church.

William Henry Monk

The tune UNDE ET MEMORES was composed by William Henry Monk. It marks the rhythm very beautifully with a crochet on the third and seventh syllable of lines one and three, varied on the fifth syllable in lines two and four.

Monk (16 March 1823 – 1 March 1889) was an English organist, church musician and music editor who composed popular hymn tunes, including one of the most famous, “Eventide”, used for the hymn “Abide with Me”. He also wrote music for church services and anthems.[1]

Monk was born in London on 16 March 1823. By age 18, Monk was organist at St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square (Central London). He left after two years, and moved on to two more organist posts in London (St. George’s Church, Albemarle Street, and St. Paul’s Church, Portman Square). He spent two years in each.

In 1847, Monk became choirmaster at King’s College London. There he developed an interest in incorporating plainchant into Anglican services, an idea suggested by William Dyce, a King’s College professor with whom Monk had much contact. In 1849, Monk also became organist at King’s College.

In 1852, he became organist and choirmaster at St Matthias’ Church, Stoke Newington, where he made many changes: plainchant was used in singing psalms, and the music performed was more appropriate to the church calendar. By now, Monk was also arranging hymns, as well as writing his own hymn melodies. In 1857, his talents as composer, arranger, and editor were recognized when he was appointed the musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, a volume first published in 1861, containing 273 hymns. After supplements were added (second edition—1875; later additions or supplements—1889, 1904, and 1916) it became one of the best-selling hymn books ever produced. It was for this publication that Monk supplied his famous “Eventide” tune which is mostly used for the hymn “Abide with Me”, as well as several others, including “Gethsemane”, “Ascension”, and “St. Denys”.

In 1874, Monk was appointed professor of vocal studies at King’s College; subsequently he accepted similar posts at two other prestigious London music schools: the first at the National Training School for Music in 1876, and the second at Bedford College in 1878. Monk remained active in composition in his later years, writing not only hymn tunes but also anthems and other works. In 1882 Durham University awarded him an honorary Mus. Doc.

He died on 1 March 1889 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. (from Wikipedia)

 

The Head that once was crowned with thorns was written by  Thomas Kelly (1769-1854), who based this hymn on Hebrews 2: 9-10 which speaks of Christ’s glory and the universal message of grace that is available because of Christ’s suffering: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Kelly employs the poetic device of hypotyposis – a vivid description of a scene or events in words – that provides the singer with a glimpse of the splendor of heaven, which is contrasted with the suffering of the cross and the suffering of all who follow Christ on earth.

1 The head that once was crowned with thorns
is crowned with glory now:
a royal diadem adorns
the mighty Victor’s brow.

2 The highest place that heaven affords
is his, is his by right,
the King of kings, and Lord of lords,
and heaven’s eternal Light;

3 The joy of all who dwell above,
the joy of all below,
to whom he manifests his love,
and grants his name to know.

4 To them the cross, with all its shame,
with all its grace, is given:
their name, an everlasting name,
their joy, the joy of heaven.

5 They suffer with their Lord below,
they reign with him above;
their profit and their joy to know
the mystery of his love.

6 The cross he bore is life and health,
though shame and death to him;
his people’s hope, his people’s wealth,
their everlasting theme.

Here is the Choir of the King’s School.

 

thomas-kelly

Thomas Kelly

Son of a judge, Kelly attended Trinity College (BA 1789) and planned to be a lawyer. After converting to Christ, though, his career plans changed to the ministry. He became an Anglican priest in 1792, but eventually became one of the famous dissenting ministers. He wrote over 760 hymns. Miller’s Singers of the Church (1869) says of him:

Mr. Kelly was a man of great and varied learning, skilled in the Oriental tongues, and an excellent Bible critic. He was possessed also of musical talent, and composed and published a work that was received with favour, consisting of music adapted to every form of metre in his hymn-book. Naturally of an amiable disposition and thorough in his Christian piety, Mr. Kelly became the friend of good men, and the advocate of every worthy, benevolent, and religious cause. He was admired alike for his zeal and his humility; and his liberality found ample scope in Ireland, especially during the year of famine.

Jeremiah Clarke

The tune ST MAGNUS  first appeared in Henry Playford’s Divine Companion (1707 ed.) as an anonymous tune with soprano and bass parts. The tune was later credited to Jeremiah Clark (b. London, England, c. 1670; d. London, 1707), who was a chorister in the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of James II in 1685. Later he served as organist in Winchester College, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Chapel Royal. He shot himself to death in a fit of depression, apparently because of an unhappy romance. Supported by Queen Anne, Clark was a prominent composer in his day, writing songs for the stage as well as anthems, psalm tunes, and harpsichord works.
Although ST. MAGNUS was originally used as a setting for Psalm 117, it has been associated with this text since they were combined in the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. The tune is named for the Church of St. Magnus the Martyr, built by Christopher Wren in 1676 on Lower Thames Street near the old London Bridge, England.

ST. MAGNUS consists of two long lines, each of which has its own sense of climax. The octave leap in the final phrase has a stunning effect, like a vault in a Gothic cathedral. Assign stanzas for antiphonal singing in unison and/ or in harmony, (Hymnary)

 

 

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Dads and Church

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On Rod Deher’s blog, a youth leader, Craig, writes: (My emphasis)

I am a youth group leader in an evangelical church in a Southern state and I can absolutely attest to this.

In my youth group, there are roughly three different types of teens: those who have both parents active and involved in the church; those who have one parent (always the mom) involved with one parent indifferent/apathetic (always the dad); and those who come on their own and have no parents involved.

The first and third groups are some of the finest young people I have ever met. They are committed to living out Christian principles, they love the Lord with all of their heart and they engage in outreach — several of those students have started bible study clubs in their public schools. They give me a sliver of hope for revival in this generation. The first group sees their parents living out an authentic faith and emulates it. The third group has grown up in broken homes with broken lives (their stories will absolutely crush you) and they cling to the life raft that authentic faith provides.

The second group — where one parent is going through the motions — are the most indifferent teens I have ever seen. There is nothing I can do to engage them on a spiritual level. They’ll play games with our group and eat our food, but they mentally check out as soon as any teaching begins.
Dad is telling them to “live as I say, not as I do” and it is working about as well as you would expect.

 

 

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Mount Calvary Music: September 10, 2017

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Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XIII

Hymns

When morning gilds the skies

Draw us in the Spirit’s tether

Rise up, o men of God

Common: Missa de Angelis

When morning gilds the skies was translated by Edward Caswell (1814—1878). from an anonymous German text, “Beim frühen Morgenlicht,” thought to date from around 1800 (perhaps even the mid-1700s). The German text was first published in Sebastian Portner’s Katholisches Gesangbuch (1828). The words were reworked by Robert Seymour Bridges (1844—1930), England’s poet laureate (1913) and friend of Gerald Manley Hopkins, whose works he arranged to have published posthumously.

The images of the rising sun carry over to the second stanza as the “night becomes as day” and the “powers of darkness fear.” However, stanzas three and four switch from visual images of light to aural images “joyous with the sound” of praising Christ.

The hymn, like many hymns, was originally much longer. C. S, Lewis asked for better and shorter hymns, and most hymns in modern hymnals have at most five stanzas. Perhaps modern attention spans are shorter.

When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When you begin the day, O never fail to say,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
And at your work rejoice, to sing with heart and voice,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Whene’er the sweet church bell peals over hill and dell,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
O hark to what it sings, as joyously it rings,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

My tongue shall never tire of chanting with the choir,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
This song of sacred joy, it never seems to cloy,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Does sadness fill my mind? A solace here I find,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Or fades my earthly bliss? My comfort still is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

To God, the Word, on high, the host of angels cry,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let mortals, too, upraise their voice in hymns of praise,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this at meals your grace, in every time and place;
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this, when day is past, of all your thoughts the last
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When mirth for music longs, this is my song of songs:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evening shadows fall, this rings my curfew call,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When sleep her balm denies, my silent spirit sighs,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evil thoughts molest, with this I shield my breast,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

The night becomes as day when from the heart we say:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

No lovelier antiphon in all high Heav’n is known
Than, Jesus Christ be praised!
There to the eternal Word the eternal psalm is heard:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
In Heaven’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Sing, suns and stars of space, sing, ye that see His face,
Sing, Jesus Christ be praised!
God’s whole creation o’er, for aye and evermore
Shall Jesus Christ be praised!

In Heav’n’s eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let earth, and sea and sky from depth to height reply,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Sing this eternal song through all the ages long:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Here is Coral Ridge. Here is First Plymouth in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Here is part of the Herman original:

Beim frühen Morgenlicht
Erwacht mein Herz und spricht,
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
So sing ich früh und spät,
Bei Arbeit und Gebet,
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Was tönst der schönste Klang
Der lieblichste Gesang?
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
In Gottes heiligem Haus
Sprech ich vor allem aus,
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Ihm, meinem höchster Gut,
Sing ich in Liebesglut,
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
Bei jeden Anbeginn
Ruf ich mit Herz und Sinn
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Im Himmel selbst erschallt,
Mit heiligem Gewalt!
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
Des Vaters ewigem Wort,
Ertönet ewig dort:
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Ihr Menschenkinder all
Singt laut im Jubelschall:
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
Ring um den Erdenkreis
Ertöne Gott zum Preis
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Singt Himmel, Erd und Meer,
Und alle Engel Heer:
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!
Es Schalle weit und breit,
In Zeit und Ewigkeit:
Gelobt sei Jesus Christ!

Here is the tune the German version uses.

Edward Caswell

Edward Caswall, (15 July 1814 – 2 January 1878) was an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer who converted to Roman Catholicism.

He was born at Yateley, Hampshire on 15 July 1814, the son of Rev. R. C. Caswall, sometime Vicar of Yateley, Hampshire.

Caswall was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1836 with honours and later proceeded to Master of Arts. He was curate of Stratford-sub-Castle, near Salisbury, 1840–1847. In 1850, his wife having died the previous year, he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri under future Cardinal Newman, to whose influence his conversion to Roman Catholicism was due.

He wrote original poems that have survived mainly in Catholic hymnals due to a clear adherence to Catholic doctrine. Caswall is best known for his translations from the Roman Breviary and other Latin sources, which are marked by faithfulness to the original and purity of rhythm. They were published in Lyra Catholica, containing all the breviary and missal hymns (London, 1849); The Masque of Mary (1858); and A May Pageant and other poems (1865). Hymns and Poems (1873) are the three books combined, with many of the hymns rewritten or revised. Some of his translations are used in the Hymns Ancient and Modern. His widely used hymn texts and translations include “Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise”; “Come, Holy Ghost”; “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee”; “When Morning Gilds the Skies”; and “Ye Sons and Daughters of the Lord”.

He died at the Oratory, Edgbaston, near Birmingham on 2 January 1878 and was buried at Rednal, near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. (Wiki)

Robert Bridges

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

Bridges wrote and also translated historic hymns, and many of these were included in Songs of Syon (1904) and the later English Hymnal (1906). Several of Bridges’ hymns and translations are still in use today:

“Thee will I love, my God and King”
“Happy are they that love God”
“Rejoice, O land, in God thy might”
The Baptist Hymn Book, University Press, Oxford 1962
“Ah, Holy Jesus” (Johann Heermann, 1630)
“All my hope on God is founded” (Joachim Neander, c. 1680)
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Martin Jahn, 1661)
“O Gladsome Light” (Phos Hilaron)
“O Sacred Head, sore wounded” (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656)
“O Splendour of God’s Glory Bright” (Ambrose, 4th century)
“When morning gilds the skies” (stanza 3; Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1744)

The tune LAUDES DOMINI was composed for this text by Joseph Barnby (1839—1896), English organist and composer. The rising melodic motif complements the rising sun that “gilds the skies” of the early morning. Within two phrases we soar an octave above our starting pitch—indeed our voices ascend with the rising sun about which we are singing. The melody ends on an unusually high note for hymns, proclaiming the text, “May Jesus Christ be praised!” These five words form a brief refrain that encapsulates the intent of the entire hymn.

Joseph Barnby

Sir Joseph Barnby (1838-1896) was a prominent English musician and composer in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although his output of published works was prolific, he is more highly regarded today for his influence on the Victorian musical scene.

He was born in York in 1838, the youngest of a family of fifteen children. His father, as well as running a boot and shoe making shop on Swinegate, played the church organ and passed on his musical skills to his family. Joseph became a chorister at York Minster at the age of seven, following in the footsteps of six of his brothers, and at the tender age of twelve was appointed assistant organist and choirmaster, also at the Minster.

When he was sixteen, he moved down to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Two years later, he entered a competition for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship, but was beaten into second place by the young Arthur Sullivan.

He was organist at several London churches including St Andrew’s on Wells Street and St Anne’s in Soho, and during this time composed an enormous number of church services, anthems and hymn tunes. In 1869 he formed his own choir (the first Barnby Choir!) which gave the London premiere of Bach’s St John Passion. Three years later, his choir amalgamated with Charles Gounod’s choir to form the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, now the Royal Choral Society. As well as introducing London audiences to old masters such as Bach, he also invited contemporary composers to give the British premieres of their works, including Verdi with his Requiem and Dvorak with his Stabat Mater.

In 1875 he was appointed Precentor at Eton College, and stayed there 17 years. He left in 1892 to take up the post of Principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and was knighted in the same year. He died in 1896, and his funeral was held at St Paul’s Cathedral.

From a long list of his works, only a handful have stood the test of time – his part song setting of Longfellow’s poem Sweet and Low, the hymn tune O Perfect Love set to the hymn of the same title, and another hymn tune Laudes Domini set to When Morning Gilds the Skies.

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Draw us in the Spirit’s tether  was written by Anglican Percy Dearmer (1867—1936). Objections have been raised to its seemingly low Eucharistic theology, but it has been used at papal ceremonies, and the melody is lovely. Jesus has promised that he will be present when we gather in His name, and indeed the purpose of our receiving Him in the Eucharist is to become one body with Him, and our love and service is sign to the world of His presence. The hymn begins in the Upper Room with the disciples and comes full circle as we join them and the Christians of every age around the table and are nourished to serve others in the world.

Draw us in the Spirit’s tether;For when humbly, in thy name,
Two or three are met together, Thou art in the midst of them:
Alleluya! Alleluya! Touch we now thy garment’s hem.
As the brethren used to gather In the name of Christ to sup,
Then with thanks to God the Father Break the bread and bless the cup,
Alleluya! Alleluya! So knit thou our friendship up.
All our meals and all our living Make us sacraments of thee,
That by caring, helping, giving, We may true disciples be.
Alleluya! Alleluya! We will serve thee faithfully.

Here is a lovely rendition of the anthem.

It would make an excellent wedding anthem, as here, with harp accompaniment.

Percy Dearmer

Percival “Percy” Dearmer (27 February 1867 – 29 May 1936) was an English priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson’s Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. Dearmer also had a strong influence on the music of the church and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms.
Working with renowned composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and as musical editor, Dearmer published The English Hymnal in 1906. He again worked with Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw to produce Songs of Praise (1926) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928). These hymnals have been credited with reintroducing many elements of traditional and medieval English music into the Church of England, as well as carrying that influence well beyond the church.
In 1931 an enlarged edition of Songs of Praise was published. It is notable for the first appearance of the song “Morning Has Broken”, commissioned from noted children’s author Eleanor Farjeon. The song, later popularised by Cat Stevens, was written by Farjeon to be sung with the traditional Gaelic tune Bunessan. Songs of Praise also contained Dearmer’s version of “A Great and Mighty Wonder” which mixed John Mason Neale’s Greek translation and a translation of the German Es ist ein Ros entsprungen from which the music to the hymn had come in 1906.

 

Harold Friedell

The hymn is an adaptation of an anthem. The anthem, Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether, was written in 1945 by one of America’s more influential church musicians of the 20th century, Harold Friedell (1905-1958). Born in Queens, New York on May 11, 1905, the young Harold began his church music career as the organist at the Methodist Church of Jamaica, Long Island before eventually serving on the faculties at the Julliard School of Music, the Guilmant Organ School, and later teaching composition and improvisation at the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York. He served as organist-choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jersey City Heights, New Jersey and later at New York’s Calvary Episcopal Church, where the dynamic The Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker served as rector. During his tenure at Calvary, Friedell founded a series of oratorio concerts and recitals that firmly established Calvary’s name in Church music history. It was also during this time that his famous anthem Draw Us in the Spirit’s Tether was written as a communion hymn for Pentecost Sunday 1945. By 1946, his work at Calvary had drawn critical acclaim and he was asked to succeed his mentor and teacher, David McK. Williams, as organist-choirmaster at Park Avenue’s esteemed St. Bartholomew’s Church. From 1946 until his death in 1958, throngs of people flocked to St. Bartholomew’s to hear the superb professional choir of 70 voices sing weekly Sunday afternoon services (Evensong) where the great choral repertoire of oratorios, passions, requiems, and recently composed works were performed in their entirety following the sung propers of the daily office.

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Rise up, o men of God was written in 1911 by the Presbyterian pastor William P. Merrill (1867—1954) to support the men’s movement in the church. Churches were aware of the lack of men in their congregations. The Men and Religion Forward Movement called men to discipleship so that they could help implement Christian principles in public life. It challenged men to take up the work of transforming the world in Christ.

1 Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of kings.

2 Rise up, O men of God!
His kingdom tarries long;
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.

3 Rise up, O men of God!
The Church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task,
Rise up, and make her great!

4 Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His feet have trod;
As foll’wers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Here is the Wheaton College Glee Club.

William Pierson Merrill

William Merrill was born on January 10, 1867, in Orange, New Jersey, to George and Emily Merrill, both of English descent. During his youth, the family moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, and then back to New Brunswick, New Jersey. Merrill earned his B.A. (1887), A.M. (1890), and D.D. (1904) from Rutgers. He also earned a B.D.(1890) from the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.
Upon his ordination in 1890, Merrill became pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, where he served until 1895. From 1895 until 1911, he served as pastor of the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. There he met his wife Clara (née Helmer). In 1911, Merrill was called to the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, where he served as pastor until 1938,when the merger with the Park Avenue Church took place and he resigned to become pastor emeritus.

Merrill wrote about the genesis of this hymn:

No­lan R. Best, then ed­it­or of The Con­ti­nent, hap­pened to say to me that there was ur­gent need of a bro­ther­hood hymn…The sug­gest­ion lin­gered in my mind, and just about that time I came up­on an ar­ti­cle by Ger­ald Stan­ley Lee, entitled “The Church of the Strong Men.” I was on one of the Lake Mi­chi­gan steam­ers go­ing back to Chi­ca­go for a Sun­day at my own church, when sud­den­ly this hymn came up, almost with­out conscious thought or ef­fort.

Merrill was named the first president on the Church Peace Union, an organization of religious, academic, and political leaders aimed at promoting pacifism.[6] His 1914 sermon titled “The Making of Peace” was hailed by Andrew Carnegie as “…one of the greatest sermons on peace that he had ever heard.” Merrill was offered the presidency of Union Theological Seminary in 1917, but declined. He was elected Moderator of the Presbytery of New York in 1940,  a position he held until 1942.

Merrill died June 19, 1954, in New York City. (wiki et al)

The tune FESTAL SONG is by William Henry Walter (1825—1893). He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was organist at both a Presbyterian and an Episcopal church there. From 1842 on he served various Episcopal churches in New York City and finally became organist at Trinity Chapel, Columbia University, in 1865. The university had granted him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in 1864.

Walter wrote masses, service music, and anthems, but is best known for FESTAL SONG. Other publications include Manual of Church Music (1860), Chorals and Hymns, Hymnal with Tunes Old and New, Selections of Psalms with Chants (1857), The Common Prayer with Ritual Song (1868).

 

 

 

 

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Mount Calvary Music: September 3, 2017

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A pilgrim on the way to Chimayó, New Mexico

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XII

Hymns

Take up your cross, the Saviour said

Nearer, my God, to Thee

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow

Common: Missa de Angelis

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Take up thy cross is an expansion of today’s Gospel: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” We must die to self to be reborn in Jesus. If we accept the sufferings of this life in union with His sufferings, we like Him will rise from the dead to a new life. The cross is not only painful, but shameful, in the eyes of this world, which thinks it folly to deny oneself the pleasures of life in order to follow the perfect Law of the Lord. We train ourselves in small ways so that we can bear the greater crosses. We spend Sunday morning in church rather than in bed, so that we can patiently endure the death of a loved one. But we do not bear these crosses in our own power, but He in us bears them. The Father will honor us because He honors His beloved Son who has borne every sorrow and suffering in us. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”

This hymn is distinctive because it was one of only two hymns by American authors to appear in the significant British collection Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). The hymn by Everest originally had five stanzas. The editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern, chaired by William Henry Baker (1821-1877), himself a fine hymn writer, altered the original poem for publication.

1 Take up thy cross, the Saviour said,
if thou wouldst my disciple be;
Deny thyself, the world forsake,
and humbly follow after me.

2 Take up thy cross: let not its weight
fill thy weak spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear thy spirit up,
and brace thy heart, and nerve thine arm.

3 Take up thy cross, heed not the shame,
and let thy foolish heart be still:
The Lord for thee the cross endured,
Upon a cross, on Calvary’s hill

4 Take up thy cross, then, in his strength,
and calmly every danger brave;
It guides thee to a better home,
and lead to victory o’er the grave.

5 Take up thy cross, and follow Christ,
nor think till death to lay it down;
For only those who bear the cross
may hope to wear the glorious crown.

Here is the tune BRESLAU.

The hymn was composed by the American Episcopal clergyman Charles William Everest (1814—1877) when he was still a teenager. He was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, May 27, 1814, graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, 1838, and took Holy Orders in 1842. He was rector at Hamden, Connecticut, from 1842 to 1873, and also agent for the Society for the Increase of the Ministry. He died at Waterbury, Connecticut, Jan. 11, 1877.

The tune is BRESLAU, a 15th century German folk melody. It appeared in As Hymnodus Sacer (1625). Felix Mendelssohn wrote a choral arrangement of the tune for his 1836 oratorio St. Paul.

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Jacob’s Ladder by Murillo

Nearer, My God, to Thee is by Sarah Flower Adams (1805—1848). It retells the story of Jacob’s dream. Jacob “came to a certain place, and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac…. 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven… 19 He called the name of that place Bethel [The house of God].” The cross is the ladder that unites heaven and earth and only by the cross can we mount to heaven. The hymn is supposed to be the last song the band on the Titanic played before the ship sank.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!
E’n though it be a cross that raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be nearer, my God, to Thee,
Chorus: Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I’d be nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, etc.
There let the way appear steps unto heav’n;
All that Thou sendest me in mercy giv’n;
Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, etc.
Then with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs Bethel I’ll raise;
So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, etc.
Or if on joyful wing, cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upwards I fly,
Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Here is the Titanic.

Sarah Flowers Adams

Sarah Flowers was born February 22, 1805 in Essex, England. She was the second daughter of Benjamin and Eliza Flowers. The home must have been opinionated, for her father was the radical editor (and owner) of The Cambridge Intelligencer and later of The Political Review. Mr. Flower went to prison once for criticizing the politics of the Bishop of Llandaff, but he also worked with the literary giants of the day. For example, he published The Fall of Robespierre: An Historic Drama by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Flowers entertained famous individuals in their house. One was the poet Robert Browning.

Sarah married William Bridges Adams and they moved to London. An early feminist, she made an agreement with him that she should do “no housekeeping.” In London, she attended the independent church (Unitarian) of William Johnson Fox. She contributed thirteen hymns to his Hymns and Anthems. One of them was “Nearer, My God to Thee.” If “Nearer, my God, to Thee” was played on the Titanic, that was why. Bandleader Wallace Hartley had always said he wanted it played at his funeral.

Sarah aspired to create great works of literature. Close friends with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she delighted in the “Romantic” style. She published several dramatic poems. The best of them was called Vivia Perpetua. Its five acts dealt with early martyrs in the clash between Christianity and heathenism. The only line that is commonly quoted is from Act III: “Once have a priest for enemy, good bye to peace.”

The school of poetry to which she belonged, focusing on spontaneous emotion and morbid thoughts, became known as the Spasmodics. Its major works did not endure.

The drama-writing Sarah had an older sister Eliza, a talented musician, whom she dearly loved. Both were in poor health; neither would live to see fifty. Eliza died in 1846, weakened from nursing Sarah through a long illness, and Sarah died twenty months later, never having recovered from nursing Eliza in her last illness.\

Lowell Mason

The tune BETHANY is by Lowell Mason. He was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. As a bank clerk in Savannah he wrote a compilation of church music which he submitted to the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, which published it  published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason’s name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, “I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession.

“The book soon sprang into universal popularity and ran through some seventeen editions. Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank.

Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York.

Dr. Lowell Mason died at “Silverspring,” a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College.

______________________

At the name of Jesus is based on the early Christian hymn preserved in Philippians 2: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Caroline Maria Noel (1817—1877) surveys the history of redemption, from the kenosis, the self-emptying of God when the Son became man, to the Ascension, when He bore our humanity to the throne of God, from whence He shall come in His humanity to rule the cosmos forever.

Here is the original version:

1 At the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow,
every tongue confess him
King of glory now:
’tis the Father’s pleasure
we should call him Lord,
who from the beginning
was the mighty Word.

2 At his voice creation
sprang at once to sight,
all the angel faces,
all the hosts of light,
thrones and dominations,
stars upon their way,
all the heavenly orders,
in their great array.

3 Humbled for a season,
to receive a name
from the lips of sinners
unto whom he came,
faithfully he bore it
spotless to the last,
brought it back victorious,
when from death he passed:

4 Bore it up triumphant
with its human light,
through all ranks of creatures,
to the central height,
to the throne of Godhead,
to the Father’s breast;
filled it with the glory,
of that perfect rest.

5 Name him, Christians, name him,
with love strong as death,
but with awe and wonder
and with bated breath:
he is God the Saviour,
he is Christ the Lord,
ever to be worshipped,
trusted, and adored.

6 In your hearts enthrone him;
there let him subdue
all that is not holy,
all that is not true:
crown him as your Captain
in temptation’s hour;
let his will enfold you
in its light and power.

7 Surely, this Lord Jesus
shall return again,
with his Father’s glory,
with his angel train;
for all wreaths of empire
meet upon his brow,
and our hearts confess him
King of glory now.

Here is the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

The words are by Caroline Maria Noel (1817-1877). She was born in London, April 10th. 1817 and died at 39 Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, Dec. 7th. 1877. Her first hymn “Draw nigh unto my soul,” was written when she was 17. During the next three years she wrote about a dozen pieces. From 20 years of age to 40 she wrote nothing; and during the next 20 years the rest of her pieces were written. The first edition of her composition was published as The Name of Jesus and other Verses for the Sick and Lonely in 1861.

The tune KING’S WESTON is King’s Weston by Ralph Vaughan Williams’ melody, reverently in its somewhat somber manner. It has strong appeal, not least because it features a lovely, mournful folklike quality in the Dorian mode.

 

 

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Mount Calvary Music for August 27, 2017

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Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity XI

Hymns

Glorious things of thee are spoken

Jerusalem, my happy home 

The church’s one foundation

Common: Missa de Angelis

________________________

 

The hymns today focus upon the Church, which is built on the rock of Peter.

Glorious things of thee are spoken was written by John Newton (1725—1807), sometime slave trader and author of Amazing Grace, with the help of William Cowper (1731—1800).  The opening line quotes Psalm 87:3 “Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.” The theme is the universal church. The text begins with a vision of the new city of God (Heb 12:22), founded on the rock of ages (2 Sam 22), from which flow streams of living waters (Rev 22), alluding to the rock that Moses truck in the desert, to the Gihon spring on Mount Zion, and to the living water that Jesus promised the women at the well. The third stanza names the cloud and fire — the enduring presence God in the church —, and the manna (Ex 13:21, 16:31), a symbol of the Eucharist. We are washed in the Blood of the Lamb, making us Kings and priests to our God, to Whom we offer in Jesus the sacrifice of our lives in praise and thanksgiving for the salvation He has wrought.

The tune, AUSTRIA, by Haydn, created problems for England during World War II and was replaced by a newly composed tune, but we are using the 18th century melody, which also appears in the Emperor quartet, opus 70, no. 5.

Here is the Robert Shaw Chorale.

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Sion, city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for his own abode;
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.

See, the streams of living waters
Springing from eternal love,
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove.
Who can faint, when such a river
Ever will their thirst assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the giver,
Never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear
For a glory and a covering,
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from their banner,
Light by night, and shade by day,
Safe they feed upon the manna,
Which he gives them when they pray.

Blest inhabitants of Sion,
Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
‘Tis his love his people raises
Over self to reign as kings:
And as priests, his solemn praises
Each for a thank-offering brings.

Jerusalem my happy home has a complicated history. It may have been written by a 16th century Catholic priest “F. B. P” (¿Francis Baker Porter?) imprisoned in the Tower and it may be based on The Meditations of St. Augustine. It exists in several versions; the one we use was said to be the favorite hymn of Elizabeth Ann Seton.

As adults, we know we live in a vale of tears: the disappointments of life, the sickness and death of friends and family, the destruction that evil works in God’s creation. This world as it now exists is not our home, which we will find in the transfigured world of the New Creation. The disharmony of the present age will be replaced by the harmony of heaven, symbolized by music, the new song, canticum novum, that we will forever sing. As the Navajos say, Hózhó Nahasdlii: It is finished in beauty. St. Mary Magdalen was remembered as a penitent; but penitence leads to the joy of heaven.

LAND OF REST is an American folk tune with roots in the ballads of northern England and Scotland. It was known throughout the Appalachians; a shape-note version of the tune was published in The Sacred Harp (1844).

Here is St Peter’s in the Loop;  here St. Clement’s, Philadelphia; here St Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle; here is a prelude on the tune.

Here is the complete text, with the stanzas in the 1940 Hymnal marked in red.

Jerusalem, my happy home, 
when shall I come to thee? 
When shall my sorrows have an end? 
Thy joys when shall I see?

O happy harbor of the saints!
O sweet and pleasant soil!
In thee no sorrow may be found,
no grief, no care, no toil.

In thee no sickness may be seen,
no hurt, no ache, no sore;
there is no death nor ugly devil,
there is life for evermore.

No dampish mist is seen in thee,
no cold nor darksome night;
there every soul shines as the sun;
for God himself gives light.

There lust and lucre cannot dwell;
there envy bears no sway;
there is no hunger, heat, nor cold,
but pleasure every way.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
God grant that I may see 
thine endless joy, and of the same 
partaker ay may be!

Thy walls are made of precious stones,
thy bulwarks diamonds square;
thy gates are of right orient pearl;
exceeding rich and rare;

thy turrets and thy pinnacles
with carbuncles do shine;
thy very streets are paved with gold,
surpassing clear and fine;

thy houses are of ivory,
thy windows crystal clear;
thy tiles are made of beaten gold–
O God that I were there!

Within thy gates nothing doth come
that is not passing clean,
no spider’s web, no dirt, no dust,
no filth may there be seen.

Aye, my sweet home, Jerusalem,
would God I were in thee:
would God my woes were at an end,
thy joys that I might see.

Thy saints are crowned with glory great;
they see God face to face;
they triumph still, they still rejoice
most happy is their case..

We that are here in banishment
continually do mourn:
we sigh and sob, we weep and wail,
perpetually we groan.

Our sweet is mixed with bitter gall,
our pleasure is but pain:
our joys scarce last the looking on,
our sorrows still remain.

But there they live in such delight,
such pleasure and such play,
as that to them a thousand years
doth seem as yesterday.

Thy vineyards and thy orchards are
most beautiful and fair,
full furnished with trees and fruits,
most wonderful and rare.

Thy gardens and thy gallant walks
continually are green:
there grow such sweet and pleasant flowers
as nowhere else are seen.

There is nectar and ambrosia made,
there is musk and civet sweet;
there many a fair and dainty drug
is trodden under feet.

There cinnamon, there sugar grows,
there nard and balm abound.
What tongue can tell or heart conceive
the joys that there are found?

Quite through the streets with silver sound
the flood of life doth flow,
upon whose banks on every side
the wood of life doth grow.

There trees for evermore bear fruit,
and evermore do spring;
there evermore the angels be,
and evermore do sing.

There David stands with harp in hand 
as master of the choir: 
ten thousand times that man were blessed 
that might this music hear.

Our Lady sings Magnificat 
with tune surpassing sweet, 
and all the virgins bear their part, 
sitting at her feet.

There Magdalen hath left her moan, 
and cheerfully doth sing 
with blessèd saints, whose harmony 
in every street doth ring.

Jerusalem, my happy home, 
would God I were in thee! 
Would God my woes were at an end 
thy joys that I might see!

The Church’s one foundation was written by Samuel John Stone (1839—1900). He wrote this hymn as one of twelve published in Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles’ Creed (1866). It is an expansion of the article of the Apostles’ Creed: “the holy Catholic church, the communion of saints.” Stone counters Bishop John Colenso’s (1814—1883) attack on the infallibility of Scripture and on the unity of the human race: Colenso thought that different races descended from different first parents.

Stone fills the hymn with Scriptural images: the church is the Bride of Christ, created by water (baptism) and the word (Scripture).  Stone emphasizes the unity of the Church, the redeemed human race: “over all the earth,” “one Lord, one faith, one birth,” “one holy Name,” “one food” (the Eucharist), “one hope.” In Stone’s time and now the Church is divided by schisms and heresies (Colenso approved of multiple marriages, i.e., polygamy). Christians are slaughtered daily throughout the world, sometimes at the very altar. John in Revelation “saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’” The Church is militant against evil and therefore attacked by Satan, yet even now we experience the communion of the saints, the communion founded in the Trinity, Whose life of love we enter through the Eucharist.

Here is King’s College, Cambridge; here a vigorous rendition.

1 The church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation
by water and the word:
from heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy Bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.
2 Elect from every nation,
yet one o’er all the earth,
her charter of salvation
one Lord, one faith, one birth;
one holy name she blesses,
partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses
with every grace endued.
3 Though with a scornful wonder
men see her sore opprest,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distrest;
yet saints their watch are keeping,
their cry goes up, ‘How long?’
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.
4 ‘Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war,
she waits the consummation
of peace for evermore;
till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest.
5 Yet she on earth hath union
with God the Three in One,
and mystic sweet communion
with those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly,
on high may dwell with thee.

S. J. Stone

Samuel John Stone, a clergyman of the Church of England, the son of Rev. William Stone, was born at Whitmore, Staffordshire, April 25, 1839. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was graduated B.A. in 1862. Later he took orders and served various Churches. He succeeded his father at St. Paul’s, Haggerstown, in 1874. He was the author of many original hymns and translations, which were collected and published in 1886.  He died November 19, 1900.

Stone wrote The church’s one foundation as his response to the Colenso controversy.

In 1862 Bishop J.W. Colenso caused a great controversy with The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined when he tried to remove points of doctrine which men of the mid-nineteenth century found impossible to believe. For him the entire problem centered on the right of the minister to free thought, a right which, as he wrote in a later volume, was denied by a law which bound each minister “by law to believe in the historical truth of Noah’s Flood, as recorded in the Bible, which the Church believed in some centuries ago, before God had given us the light of modern science.” The blows of the geologist’s hammer were here decisive.

“My own knowledge of some branches of science, of Geology in particular, had been much increased since I left England; and I now knew for certain, on geological grounds, a fact, of which I had only had misgivings before, viz., that a Universal Deluge, such as the Bible manifestly speaks of, could not possibly have taken place in the way described in the Book of Genesis, not to mention other difficulties which the story contains. I refer especially to the circumstance, well known to all geologists, . . . that volcanic hills exist of immense extent in Auvergne and Languedoc, which must have been formed ages before the Noachian Deluge, and which are covered with light and loose substances, pumice-stone &c., that must have been swept away by a Flood, but do not exhibit the slightest sign of having ever been so disturbed.”

Once the Bishop’s doubts had been aroused by the facts of geology and further stimulated by the questions of native assistants who were aiding his translation of the Bible, he proceeded to examine “the other difficulties the story contains.”

After investigating the details, as presented in Exodus, of camp life, of sacrifice, of numbers of men and animals — details all of which, according to contemporary ecclesiastic law, had to be literally true — Bishop Colenso was led to the conviction, painful, he said, both to himself and his reader, that

“the Pentateuch, as a whole, cannot personally have been written by Moses, or by anyone acquainted personally with the facts which it professes to describe, and, further, that the (so-called) Mosaic narrative, by whomsoever written, and though imparting to us, as I fully believe it does, revelations of the Divine Will and Character, cannot be regarded as historically true.”

To feel the force of these words and to understand the anguish they both caused and relieved, it is necessary to realize how widespread was the view, quoted by Colenso, that “The Bible cannot be less that verbally inspired. Every word, every syllable, every letter, is just what it would be, had God spoken from heaven without any human intervention.” In the introductory remarks to the first part of his work, Colenso quotes from Burgon’s Inspiration and Interpretation, a standard work for ministerial students:

“The BIBLE is none other than the Voice of Him that sitteth upon the Throne! Every book of it — every chapter of it — every verse of it — every word of it — every syllable of it — (where are we to stop?) every letter of it — is the direct utterance of the Most High! The Bible is none other than the word of God — not some part of it more, some part of it less, but all alike, the utterance of Him, who sitteth upon the Throne — absolute — faultless — unerring — supreme.”

(Victorian Web)

Colenso, to do him justice, could not believe in the fundamentalist approach to the Bible, which regrads it as  Muslims regard the Koran: very letter divinely inspired and literally true (as undersold by a Westerner). But Colenso also discarded teachings essential to Christianity, such as the unity of the human race”

Colenso was a polygenist; he believed in CoAdamism that races had been created separately. Colenso pointed to monuments and artifacts in Egypt to debunk monogenist beliefs that all races came from the same stock. Ancient Egyptian representations of races for example showed exactly how the races looked today. Egyptological evidence indicated the existence of remarkable permanent differences in the shape of the skull, bodily form, colour and physiognomy between different races which are difficult to reconcile with biblical monogenesis. Colenso believed that racial variation between races was so great, that there was no way all the races could have come from the same stock just a few thousand years ago, he was unconvinced that the climate could change racial variation, he also with other biblical polygenists believed that monogenists had interpreted the bible wrongly.[16] Colenso said “It seems most probable that the human race, as it now exists, had really sprung from more than one pair”. Colenso denied that polygenism caused any kind of racist attitudes or practices, like many other polygenists he claimed that monogenesis was the cause of slavery and racism. Colenso claimed that each race had sprung from a different pair of parents, and that all races had been created equal by God. (wikipedia)

Stone also tried a different approach to critiquing the heresies of his time:

The Soliloquy of a Rationalistic Chicken:
On the Picture of a Newly Hatched Chicken Contemplating the Fragments of Its Native Shell

Most strange!
Most queer,—although most excellent a change!
Shades of the prison-house, ye disappear!
My fettered thoughts have won a wider range,
And, like my legs, are free;
No longer huddled up so pitiably:
Free now to pry and probe, and peep and peer,
And make these mysteries out.
Shall a free-thinking chicken live in doubt?
For now in doubt undoubtedly I am:
This problem’s very heavy on my mind,
And I’m not one to either shirk or sham:
I won’t be blinded, and I won’t be blind!

Now, let me see;
First, I would know how did I get in there?
Then, where was I of yore?
Besides, why didn’t I get out before?

Bless me!
Here are three puzzles (out of plenty more)
Enough to give me pip upon the brain!
But let me think again.
How do I know I ever was inside?
Now I reflect, it is, I do maintain,
Less than my reason, and beneath my pride
To think that I could dwell
In such a paltry miserable cell
As that old shell.
Of course I couldn’t! How could I have lain,
Body and beak and feathers, legs and wings,
And my deep heart’s sublime imaginings,
In there?

I meet the notion with profound disdain;
It’s quite incredible; since I declare
(And I’m a chicken that you can’t deceive)
What I can’t understand I won’t believe.
Where did I come from, then? Ah! where, indeed?
This is a riddle monstrous hard to read.
I have it! Why, of course,
All things are moulded by some plastic force
Out of some atoms somewhere up in space,
Fortuitously concurrent anyhow:—
There, now!
That’s plain as is the beak upon my face.

What’s that I hear?
My mother cackling at me! Just her way,
So prejudiced and ignorant I say;
So far behind the wisdom of the day!

What’s old I can’t revere.
Hark at her. “You’re a little fool, my dear,
That’s quite as plain, alack!
As is the piece of shell upon your back!”
How bigoted! upon my back, indeed!
I don’t believe it’s there;
For I can’t see it; and I do declare,
For all her fond deceivin’,
What I can’t see I never will believe in!

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Mount Calvary Music: August 20, 2017

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“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity X

Hymns

In Christ, there is no east or west 

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy 

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun 

________________________

In Christ, there is no east or west is by John Oxenham (1852—1941). Oxenham opposes Rudyard Kipling’s sentiment: “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” from Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses (1892). Paul in Galatians 3:28 proclaimed: ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ.’” Mount Calvary was the leading Episcopal church in Baltimore in its mission to African-American, It welcomed all as members, and sponsored two missions in Baltimore, St. Mary the Virgin and St. Katherine. St Mary the Virgin was the most prominent African-American Episcopal church in the United States, and had more communicants than Mount Calvary. Mount Calvary sponsored the first African- American seminarian at the General Theological Seminary. The Catholic vision of Mount Calvary has always included all races.

1 In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.

2 In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord
Close binding all mankind.

3 Join hands, then, brothers of the faith,
Whate’er your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me.

4 In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet South and North;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.

Here is St. John’s, Detroit.

John Oxenham (William Arthur Dunkerley)

William Arthur Dunkerley (12 November 1852 – 23 January 1941) was a prolific English journalist, novelist and poet. He was born in Manchester, spent a short time after his marriage in America before moving to Ealing, west London, where he served as deacon and teacher at the Ealing Congregational Church from the 1880s, and he then moved to Worthing in Sussex in 1922, where he became the town’s mayor.

He wrote under his own name, and also as John Oxenham for his poetry, hymn-writing, and novels. His poetry includes Bees in Amber: a little book of thoughtful verse (1913) which became a bestseller. He also wrote the poem Greatheart. He used another pseudonym, Julian Ross, for journalism. Dunkerley was a major contributor to Jerome K. Jerome’s The Idler magazine.

He had two sons and four daughters, of whom the eldest, and eldest child, Elsie Jeanette, became well known as a children’s writer, particularly through her Abbey Series of girls’ school stories. Another daughter, Erica, also used the Oxenham pen-name. The elder son, Roderic Dunkerley, had several titles published under his own name.

McKee is a tune adapted from a spiritual by the famous African-American composer and songwriter, 

Harry T. Burleigh (1866—1949).

It was named for the rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York City, Elmer M. McKee, where Burleigh was the baritone soloist for over 50 years.

With the aid of a scholarship (obtained with the help of Frances MacDowell, the mother of composer Edward MacDowell), Burleigh at the age of 26 was accepted to the prestigious National Conservatory of Music in New York, eventually playing double bass in the Conservatory’s orchestra. Though at first the Conservatory denied Burleigh entrance, citing low grades, Mrs. MacDowell (the registrar) insisted that he try his entrance exam again. Days later, he received a scholarship. To help support himself there, Burleigh worked for Mrs. MacDowell as a handyman, cleaning and working on anything she needed. Reputedly, Burleigh, who later became known worldwide for his excellent baritone voice, sang spirituals while cleaning the Conservatory’s halls, which drew the attention of the conservatory’s director, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who asked Burleigh to sing for him. Burleigh said: “I sang our Negro songs for him very often, and before he wrote his own themes, he filled himself with the spirit of the old Spirituals.” Dvořák said: “In the negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.”

From what he called “Negro melodies” and Native American music, Dvořák took up the Pentatonic scale, which appears in some places in his Symphony “From the New World” and at the beginning of each movement of the “American” String Quartet. In the Symphony, a flute theme resembles the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, which may well be among those Burleigh sang to Dvořák, and which may have been written by a Black (African-American, by descent) Native American (by legal status) Choctaw freedman, Wallis Willis.

In 1922, another student of Dvořák, William Arms Fisher, wrote the spiritual-like song “Goin’ Home” based on an English horn melody from the second movement (Largo) of the Symphony. No evidence seems to exist that the song existed before 1922, or the melody before the Symphony (1893), although both are disputed. In 1893 Burleigh assisted Dvořák in copying out instrumental parts for the symphony.

The following year, Burleigh sang in Dvořák’s arrangement of Pennsylvania native Stephen C. Foster’s classic Old Folks at Home. He graduated in 1896, and later served on the conservatory’s faculty.
In the late 1890s, he also began to publish his own arrangements of art songs. About 1898 he began to compose his own songs and by the late 1910s, Burleigh was one of America’s best-known composers of art songs. Beginning around 1910, Burleigh also worked editing music for G. Ricordi, an Italian music publisher with offices in New York.

Burleigh published several versions of the Negro spiritual “Deep River” in 1916 and 1917, and he quickly became known for his arrangements of spirituals for voice and piano; one of his arrangements in Common Metre is the hymn tune “McKee”, used with John Oxenham’s hymn “In Christ There Is No East or West”. His arrangements helped to make spirituals a popular genre for concert singers, and within a few years, many notable singers performed Burleigh’s arrangements.

Burleigh’s art song arrangements of the spiritual and other sentimental songs were so popular during the late 1910s and 1920s, that almost no vocal recitalist gave a concert in a major city without occasionally singing them.[citation needed] John McCormack sang a number of Burleigh’s songs in concert, including “Little Mother of Mine” (1917), “Dear Old Pal of Mine” (1918), “Under a Blazing Star” (1918), and “In the Great Somewhere” (1919). In many ways, the popularity of Burleigh’s settings contributed to an explosion of popularity for the genre during the 1920s. He also set some poems by Walt Whitman to music, and also published songs for piano and violin. (Wikipedia)

____________________

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy was written by Frederick Faber (1814—1863). He was born an Anglican and reared a strict Calvinist. After attending Oxford, he took orders as an Anglican priest and began his ministry as a rector. Influenced by his friend John Henry Newman (1801—1890) who converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1845, Faber also converted to Catholicism that same year.

1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea:
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.

2 There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Saviour;
There is healing in His blood.

3 For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

4 If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His Word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the presence of our Lord.

Fredrick Faber

Frederick Faber was born in 1814 at Calverley, then within the Parish of Calverley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where his grandfather, Thomas Faber, was the vicar. His father served the local bishop of the Church of England as his secretary.

Faber attended grammar school at Bishop Auckland in County Durham for a short time, but a large portion of his boyhood was spent in Westmorland. He afterwards attended the Harrow School for five years, followed by enrollment in 1832 at Balliol College at the University of Oxford. In 1834, he obtained a scholarship at the University College, from which he graduated. In 1836 he won the Newdigate Prize for a poem on “The Knights of St John,” which elicited special praise from John Keble. Among his college friends were Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne. After graduation he was elected a fellow of the college.

Faber’s family was of Huguenot descent, and Calvinist beliefs were strongly held by them. When Faber had come to Oxford, he was exposed to the Anglo-Catholic preaching of the Oxford Movement which was beginning to develop in the Church of England. One of its most prominent proponents was the popular preacher John Henry Newman, vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. Faber struggled with these divergent forms of Christian beliefs and life. In order to relieve his tension, he would take long vacations in the Lake District, where he would write poetry. There he was befriended by another poet, William Wordsworth. He finally abandoned the Calvinistic views of his youth and became an enthusiastic follower of Newman.

Faber was ordained in the Church of England in 1839, after which he spent time supporting himself as a tutor. In 1841 a travelling tutorship took him to the continent; on his return he published a book called Sights and Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peoples (London, 1842), with a dedication to his friend, the poet Wordsworth.

In 1843, Faber accepted the position of rector at a church in Elton, then in Huntingdonshire but now in Cambridgeshire. His first act was to go to Rome to learn how best to carry out his pastoral charge. Faber introduced the Catholic practices of celebrating feast days, confession and the devotion of the Sacred Heart to the congregation. However, there was a strong Methodist presence in the parish and the Dissidents packed his church each Sunday in an attempt to challenge the Roman Catholic direction he was taking the congregation in. Many of his parishioners were reputed to be living in de facto relationships and the village was notorious for its double standards. He developed the thought of following a monastic way of life and was joined by several men with whom he formed a small community at the rectory.

Faber caused a small furore through his publication of a Life of St. Wilfrid, in which he supported the claim of primacy by the pope. Nonetheless he was accepted by the people of the parish.

Few people were surprised though when, after prolonged mental struggle, Faber left Elton to follow his hero Newman and join the Catholic Church, into which he was received in November 1845 by Bishop William Wareing of Northampton. He was accompanied in this step by eleven men of the small community which had formed around him in Elton. They settled in Birmingham, where they informally organized themselves in a religious community, calling themselves the Brothers of the Will of God.

Faber and his small religious community were encouraged in their venture by the Earl of Shrewsbury, who gave them the use of Cotton Hall in Staffordshire. Within weeks they had begun construction on a new Church of St. Wilfrid, their patron saint, designed by the noted church architect, Pugin, as well as on a school for the local children. All of this was for a region which had no other Catholics at that point, other than the household of the Earl. The exertions took their toll on Faber, who became so ill that he was not expected to live and was given the Last Rites of the Church. He recovered, however, and was ordained a Catholic priest, celebrating his First Mass on 4 April 1847. In the course of his illness Faber had developed a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother. Prompted by this devotion, he translated St. Louis de Montfort’s classic work, True Devotion to Mary, into English.

Along with Newman, Faber felt drawn to the way of life of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, with its decentralized authority and greater freedom of life than in religious institutes. His interest was heightened when he learned that Newman himself had become an Oratorian while in Italy. Faber envisioned having his community at Cotton Hall form a new community of the Oratory, with Newman as Superior. However, this could not happen at Cotton Hall since the Oratorian rules required that they be an urban community.

The Earl, who had handsomely financed the construction of a new parish for the community, felt betrayed by such a quick departure. Additionally, the Wilfridians, as the Brothers were called, wished to wear a traditional religious habit, upsetting the old Catholic families who had survived centuries of persecution by keeping a low profile. Newman thus proposed that Faber’s community settle somewhere other than Birmingham, and suggested London as the best option. Thus in 1849 a community of the Oratory was established in London in William IV Street.

On 11 October 1850, the feast of St. Wilfrid, the community in London was established as autonomous, and Faber was elected its first provost, an office he held until his death. He took ill again, however, almost immediately, and was ordered by his physicians to travel to a warmer climate. He attempted a trip to the Holy Land but had to turn back, and instead toured Malta and Italy. The community still lacked a permanent home, and in September 1852 a location was chosen at Brompton. The Oratorians proceeded with construction despite public protests at their presence.

Faber had never enjoyed good health. He had suffered from illness for years, developing what was eventually diagnosed as Bright’s Disease, which was to prove fatal. In spite of his weak health, much work was crowded into those years. He published a number of theological works, and edited the Oratorian Lives of the Saints.

Faber died in 1863 and was buried in the Oratorian cemetery in Rednal, in the West Midlands.

Father Faber was the great-uncle of Geoffrey Faber, co-founder of the publishing house “Faber and Gwyer” which later became “Faber and Faber”, a major publisher of both literary and religious works.

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Jesus shall reign where’er the sun  is by Isaac Watts (1674—1748). In 1719, Watts published a hymnal entitled The Psalms of David, Imitated. In this hymnal, he paraphrased many of the Psalms, but in a very different style than many of his predecessors. The custom of the day was to keep any paraphrase as close to the text as possible. Watts decided to do otherwise, and his interpretations of the psalms are quite loose, in an effort to write something new while keeping the spirit of the Psalm. His versification of Psalm 72 is no different. He interprets the psalm using a Christological lens. The king referenced in the psalm is Christ, and could be no one else. For Watts, as for the Fathers of the Church, the Old Testament makes sense in light of the New, and vice versa.

1 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
does his successive journeys run;
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
till moons shall wax and wane no more.

2 People and realms of every tongue
dwell on his love with sweetest song,
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.

3 Blessings abound where’er he reigns:
the prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
the weary find eternal rest,
and all the sons of want are blest.

4 To him shall endless prayer be made,
and praises throng to crown his head;
his name like incense shall arise
with every morning sacrifice.

5 Let every creature rise and bring
peculiar honours to our King;
angels descend with songs again,
and earth repeat the loud Amen.

Here are Nebraskans singing. Here are Koreans. Here are Yorkshiremen. And the Hong Kong Hymn Society.

 

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Mount Calvary Music: August 15, 2017

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Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter

Anglican Use

The Dormition of the Theotokos

(The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Hymns

Daily, daily sing to Mary

 Sing of Mary

Hail Holy Queen enthroned above

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Daily, daily sing to Mary is a translation of the Latin hymn Omni die dic Mariae, by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.  St. Casimir, patron of Poland and Lithuania (1458—1484), had a devotion to this poem, and it is sometimes attributed to him, as it was found in his tomb. It was translated by Henry Bittleston (1818–1886), an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism and joined the Oratory at Birmingham with John Henry Newman.

Sing of Mary is by Roland Ford Palmer (1891—1985). He was a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada and joined the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the Cowley Fathers, in 1919.

Hail Holy Queen enthroned above is an anonymous translation of Salve regina coelitum by Hermanus contractus (The Crippled or The Lame). Hermann was a son of the Count of Altshausen. He was crippled by a paralytic disease from early childhood. He was born in 1013, with a cleft palate, cerebral palsy and is said to have had spina bifida.  Hermann possibly had either amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal muscular atrophy. As a result, he had great difficulty moving and could hardly speak. At seven, he was placed in a Benedictine monastery by his parents who could no longer look after him. He grew up in the monastery, learning from the monks and developing a keen interest in both theology and the world around him. He spent most of his life in the Abbey of Reichenau. He was renowned as a musical composer and wrote a treatise on the science of music. When he went blind in later life, he began writing hymns, the best known of which is Salve Regina Coelitum.

Here is the hymn sung at the Anglo-Catholic Church of the Atonement.

 

 

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Mount Calvary Music: August 13, 2017

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Lorenzo Veneziano, Christ Saving St. Peter

Mount Calvary Church

A Roman Catholic Congregation of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of  St. Peter

Anglican Use

Trinity IX

Hymns

Eternal Father, strong to save.

What wondrous love

From all that dwell below the skies

___________________________

Eternal Father, strong to save. The first three stanzas of this hymn by William Whiting (1825—1878) appeal to the Trinity with Scripture passages wherein each Person controlled the sea, imploring “O hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea.” The first stanza refers to God’s discourse with Job, in which the Lord asks “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I … said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” (Job 38:8, 11) The second stanza refers to two occasions when Jesus calmed the raging sea: when He walked on the water (Mark 6:45-52), and when He slept through a storm until His terrified disciples woke Him (Mark 4:35-41). The third stanza alludes to Creation, when “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 ) The final stanza summarizes the hymn and promises continued praise “from land and sea.”

1 Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm does bind the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

2 O Savior, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walked upon the foaming deep,
And calm amid the rage did sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

3 O Holy Spirit, who did brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease,
And give for wild confusion peace;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.

4 O Trinity of love and pow’r,
Your children shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire, and foe,
Protect them where-so-e’er they go;
Thus, evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

Here are (most appropriately) the Navy Sea Chanters. Here it is sung in Portsmouth, England.

William Whiting

William Whiting was born in 1825 in London. He was educated in Chapham and at King Alfred’s College in Winchester. He became master of Winchester College Choristers’ School in 1842, where he remained for 36 years until his death. He wrote numerous volumes of poetry and contributed hymns to various collections. His works include Rural Thoughts and Scenes, 1851 and Edgar Thorpe, or the Warfare of Life, 1867. He is best known for his hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.”

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What wondrous love is an American folk hymn, as its repetitions evidence, 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

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 infamy 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.

Southern Harmony

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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From all that dwell below the skies is a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 117, the shortest psalm in the Bible: “O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.” Isaac Watts (1674—1748), the first important composer of hymns in English, told his father that even though the psalms were the word of God they did not share the message of salvation in Christ, so in his paraphrases he made the deeper Christian meaning of the Psalms explicit. This hymn first appeared in Watts’ Psalms of David Imitated, in the Language of the New Testament (1719). Watts considered this, his last poetical collection, his greatest work. He devoted years of diligent effort to its completion and incorporated into it the evangelical vision already suggested in his earlier poems: “Christ and His cross is all our theme.” Watts recognized how radical his work would appear to English Christians who, since the Reformation, had generally favored church use of nothing but Psalms. In Psalms of David, Watts set out to accommodate the Book of Psalms to Christian worship, making imaginative applications of David’s expressions to Christian experience.

1 From all that dwell below the skies;
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung,
Through every land by every tongue.

2 Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord,
Eternal truth attends Thy Word;
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns rise and set no more.

3 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, you heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s version.

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Mount Calvary Music: August 6, 2017

in hymns, Mount Calvary No Comments

Mount Calvary Church

Baltimore

A Roman Catholic Church of

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

The Feast of the Transfiguration

August 6, 2017

Hymns

‘Tis good, Lord, to be here

Be Thou my vision

Immortal, invisible, God only wise

Common

Missa de Angelis

_____________________

 ‘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.

Joseph Armitage Robinson

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.

_____________________________

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.

Be thou my vision14th C. Manuscript MG 3, National Library of Ireland

containing “Rob tu mo bhoile”

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 (1860-1935b), 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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Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, by William Chalmers Smith (1824—1908), is a proclamation of the transcendence of God: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever” (1 Tim 17). No man has ever seen God, who dwells in inaccessible light that is darkness to mortal eyes. God lacks nothing (“nor wanting”) and never changes (“nor wasting”), and is undying, unlike mortals, who in a striking image “blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree, then wither and perish.” The original ending of the hymn completes the thought: “And so let Thy glory, almighty, impart, / Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.” “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known” (John 1:18). Only in Jesus through the proclamation of the Gospel can we know the Father.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might:
thy justice, like mountains high soaring above,
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree,
then wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.

Thou reignest in glory, thou dwellest in light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render; O help us to see
’tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!

The final stanzas have been somewhat altered from the original:

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
Of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.

All laud we would render; O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,
And so let Thy glory, almighty, impart,
Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.

Here is Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis.

William Chalmers Smith color

Walter Chalmers Smith

Walter Chalmers Smith D. D. (1824-1908)  was educated at the Grammar School and University of that City. He pursued his Theological studies at Edinburgh, and was ordained Pastor of the Scottish Church in Chadwell Street, Islington, London, in 1850. After holding several pastorates he became, in 1876, Minister of the Free High Church, Edinburgh. The Free Church of Scotland elected him its moderator during its Jubilee year in 1893.

“From 1860 to 1893 Dr. Smith published the following volumes of verse: “The Bishop’s Walk” (1860); “Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life” (1867); “Olrig Grange” (1872); “Borland Hall” (1874); “Hilda; among the Broken Gods” (1878); “Raban; or, Life Splinters” (1880); “North Country Folk” (1883); “Kildrostan” (1884); “Thoughts and Fancies for Sunday Evenings” (1887); “A Heretic and other Poems” (1891); “Selections from the Poems of Walter C. Smith” (1893).

Although Dr. Smith’s work has a claim to a place among that of the general poets, there is a certain fitness in his being placed among the sacred poets, since the strongest force in his poetry is the religious one, so that, even in what may be called his secular poetry, the most vital parts grow out of his theologic thought or religious feeling. In this respect he is like the other poet of Aberdeenshire, George MacDonald, who says himself, that he would not care either to write poetry or tell stories if he could not preach in them—but then there is preaching and preaching; and if all preaching were of the living sort we get from these two Aberdonians, the name would carry a higher meaning than it usually does.” (William Horder)

 

Williams, Evan; John Roberts (Ieuan Gwyllt) (1822-1877); Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/john-roberts-ieuan-gwyllt-18221877-121561

John Roberts

John Roberts, in Welsh Ieuan Gwyllt (1822-1877), composed the tune ST. DENIO (also known as JOANNA, or PALESTINA). It is derived from a Welsh folk song Can Mlynned i ‘nawr’ (“A Hundred Years from Now”). This version appeared in his Canaidau y Cyssegr (Songs of Worship) of 1839.  The melody was first harmonized to, adapted for, and used with Smith’s words in The English Hymnal of 1905-1906, edited by Gustav Theodore Holst (1874-1934). Roberts was a leader in the revival of Welsh choral song.

This hymn was sung in Westminster Abbey, London, England, at the 2002 funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. It is Prince Charles’s favorite hymn and was sung at his wedding to Camilla.  Here it is sung at a memorial service for the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon in Washington from St Paul’s Cathedral, 14th September 2001.

As Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Christopher de Hamel has charge of The Gospels of St. Augustine, the very manuscript that Pope Gregory the Great (540—604) gave to St. Augustine of Canterbury (543—604) to take to England. De Hamel carried it in the procession of the enthronement of Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003.

Rowan Williams and Gospel Book

Rowan Williams venerating the Gospel Book of St. Augustine

In his book, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts, de Hamel recounts:

“I had to enter the cathedral that day through the west door, joining the procession just as they began singing the first hymn, ‘immortal, invisible, God only wise,’ a Welsh tune in homage to the nationality of the new primate. I was holding the Gospels of St. Augustine open of a cushion. It was secured by two ribbons of transparent conservation tape. Upwards of 2,500 people singing a familiar hymn very loudly in an enclosed stone building makes the air vibrate. This is the nature of sound waves. The parchment leaves of the manuscript, as we saw earlier, are extremely fine and of tissue thinness, and they picked up the vibrations and they hummed and fluttered in time to the music. At that moment it was as if the sixth-century manuscript on its cushion had come to life and was taking part in the service.”

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Mount Calvary Church: Music for July 30, 2017

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“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net”

Mount Calvary Church

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Congregation

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Trinity VII

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Celebrant

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Hymns

Sing praise to God, who reigns above

Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless

Alleluia! sing to Jesus

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Sing praise to God, who reigns above is a translation by Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812—1897) of Sei Lob und Ehr’ dem höchsten Gut by Johann Jacob Schütz (1640-1690). He became a Pietist, and the hymn has the warm, affectionate tone of German Pietism.  The line “casts each false idol from its throne” recalls the first hymn’s prayer for “a heart” that is “my dear Redeemer’s throne.” The tune, Mit Freuden zart, is beloved of the American Moravians. The tune name itself – “with tender joy” – expresses something of the character of the life and music of the Moravians.

1 Sing praise to God who reigns above,
The God of all creation,
The God of power, the God of love,
The God of our salvation;
With healing balm my soul He fills,
And every faithless murmur stills:
To God all praise and glory!

2 What God’s almighty power hath made
His gracious mercy keepeth;
By morning glow or evening shade
His watchful eye ne’er sleepeth:
Within the kingdom of His might
Lo, all is just, and all is right:
To God all praise and glory!

3 The angel host, O King of kings,
Thy praise forever telling,
In earth and sky all living things
Beneath Thy shadow dwelling,
Adore the wisdom that could span,
And power which formed creation’s plan;
To God all praise and glory!

4 Thus all my gladsome way along
I sing aloud Thy praises,
That men may hear the grateful song
My voice unwearied raises:
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart:
Both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory!
5 O ye who name Christ’s holy name,

Give God all praise and glory:

Give God all praise and glory:

All ye who own His power, proclaim

Aloud the wondrous story!

Cast each false idol from its throne,

The Lord is God, and He alone:

To God all praise and glory!

Here it is sung by First Presbyterian in Houston.

Frances Cox hymns

“Frances Elizabeth Cox, daughter of Mr. George V. Cox, born at Oxford, is well known as a successful translator of hymns from the German. Her translations were published as Sacred Hymns from the German, London, Pickering. The 1st edition, pub. 1841, contained 49 translations printed with the original text, together with biographical notes on the German authors. In the 2nd edition, 1864, Hymns from the German, London, Rivingtons, the translations were increased to 56, those of 1841 being revised, and with additional notes. The 56 translations were composed of 27 from the 1st ed. (22 being omitted) and 29 which were new. The best known of her translations are “Jesus lives! no longer [thy terrors] now” ; and ”Who are these like stars appearing ?” A few other translations and original hymns have been contributed by Miss Cox to the magazines; but they have not been gathered together into a volume.” (Hymnary)

“Johann Jacob Schütz was born Sept. 7, 1640, at Frankfurt am Main. After studying at Tübingen (where he became a licentiate in civil and canon law), he began to practice as an advocate in Frankfurt, and in later years with the title of Rath. He seems to have been a man of considerable legal learning as well as of deep piety. He was an intimate friend of P. J. Spener; and it was, in great measure, at his suggestion, that Spener began his famous Collegia Pietatis. After Spener left Frankfurt, in 1686, Schütz came under the influence of J. W. Petersen; and carrying out Petersen’s principles to their logical conclusion, he became a Separatist, and ceased to attend the Lutheran services or to communicate. He died at Frankfurt, May 22, 1690 (Koch, iv. 220; Blätter fur Hymnologie, Feb. 1883).” (Hymnary)

The tune MIT FREUDEN ZART has some similarities to the French chanson “Une pastourelle gentille” (published by Pierre Attaingnant in 1529) and to GENEVAN 138. The tune was published in the Bohemian Brethren hymnal Kirchengesänge (1566) with Vetter’s text “Mit Freuden zart su dieser Fahrt.”

Here is the choir at St. David’s Cathedral singing the hymn.

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Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless was written by the Moravian James Montgomery (1771—1854). As at the supper at Emmaus, Jesus feeds us. As the Good Shepherd, He lays down his life for His sheep, giving them His body and blood as their sustenance so that they may live forever. We know Jesus especially in the breaking of the bread, the action that symbolizes His death by which He sacrifices Himself for us and gives Himself to us.

The hymn is a tissue of Biblical references: we are God’s ”chosen,”  the elect, his flock. The Eucharist is “manna in the wilderness” and “water from the rock,” the one that Moses struck and was a type of Christ (I Cor 10:4). The second stanza continues he metaphor of pilgrimage; on earth we are but strangers and travelers (Heb 11:13); the Eucharistic body of the Lord, like the manna in the desert, gives us strength to reach our true home, the Promised Land, where we will abide forever. Like the disciples at Emmaus, we recognize the Lord in the “breaking bread,” (Lk 24:35); we pray that he will not vanish, but spread his table in our hearts and sup with us (Rev 3:20).

Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless
Thy chosen pilgrim flock,
With manna in the wilderness,
With water from the rock.

We would not live by bread alone,
But by that word of grace,
In strength of which we travel on
To our abiding-place.

Be known to us in breaking bread,
But do not then depart,
Saviour, abide with us, and spread
Thy table in our heart.

There sup with us in love divine;
Thy body and Thy blood,
That living bread, that heavenly wine,
Be our immortal food.

Here is Trinity Church singing it.

James Montgomery

James Montgomery (1771-1854) was born at Irvine in Ayrshire, on the western coast of Scotland. He was the son of John Montgomery, the only Moravian pastor in Scotland. The British Moravian church traces its roots back to the Moravian Missionary center in Hernnhut, Germany (Moravians were also known as Hernnhuters or the Bohemian Brethren).

John and his wife felt God’s call to be missionaries to the island of Barbados, in the West Indies. Tearfully, they placed six-year old James in a Moravian settlement at Gracehill in Central Ireland. That was to be the last time James would see them. They died within a year of each other after reaching Barbados.

Left with nothing, James was sent to be trained for the ministry at the Moravian School at Fulneck, near Leeds, England. It was here that he first started writing verse, at the age of 10. At Fulneck, secular studies were banned, but James nevertheless found means of borrowing and reading a good deal of poetry, including Burns’ “Lines To A Mountain Daisy.” He made ambitious plans to write epics of his own.

He suffered periods of deep depression as a result of losing his parents at such an early age. The Moravians who were trying to care for the orphan found him to be a dreamer, who “never had a sense of the hour.” Failing school at the age of 14, they “put him out to business” to a baker in Mirfield, just seven miles to the south. James left on his own and hired himself out to a storekeeper at Wath-upon-Dearne, another thirty miles to the south. Not finding much to his liking, James ran away again, wondering from place to place, trying to sell his freshly written verses. After further adventures, including an unsuccessful attempt to launch himself into a literary career in London, he moved to Sheffield in 1792 to become assistant to Joseph Gales, auctioneer, bookseller and printer of the Sheffield Register. In 1794, Gales left England to avoid political prosecution and Montgomery took the paper in hand, changing its name to the Sheffield Iris. Now owning the paper, he was able to publish his writings as he pleased.

These were times of political repression and he was twice imprisoned on charges of sedition. The first time was in 1795 for printing a poem celebrating the fall of the Bastille; the second in 1796 was for criticizing a magistrate for forcibly dispersing a political protest in Sheffield. His later account of this episode was published in 1840. Turning the experience to some profit, in 1797 he published a pamphlet of poems written during his captivity, as Prison Amusements. For some time, the Iris was the only newspaper in Sheffield; but beyond the ability to produce fairly creditable articles from week to week, Montgomery was devoid of the journalistic faculties which would have enabled him to take advantage of his position. Other newspapers arose to fill the place which his might have occupied and in 1825 he sold it on to a local bookseller, John Blackwell.

In his youth, he had strayed from the church, but at his own request he was readmitted into the Moravian congregation at Fulneck when forty-three years of age. He expressed his feelings at the time in the following lines

People of the living God,
I have sought the world around,
Paths of sin and sorrow trod,
Peace and comfort nowhere found.
Now to you my spirit turns–
Turns a fugitive unblest;
Brethren, where your altar burns,
O receive me into rest.

Thereafter he became an avid worker for missions and an active member of the Bible Society. He was interested in social issues and the missions. He attacked attacking the lottery (then, as now, a way of extracting money from the desperate poor) in Thoughts on Wheels (1817) and taking up the cause of the chimney sweeps’ apprentices in The Climbing Boys’ Soliloquies. His next major poem was Greenland (1819), a poem in five cantos of heroic couplets. This was prefaced by a description of the ancient Moravian church, its eighteenth-century revival and mission to Greenland in 1733.

In addition to Shepherd of souls (1940 Hymnal, #213), his hymns Angels from the realms of glory (1940 Hymnal, #28) and Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (1940 Hymnal, #545) are still sung.

In 1861, a monument designed by John Bell (1811–1895) was erected over his grave in the Sheffield cemetery at a cost of £1000, raised by public subscription on the initiative of the Sheffield Sunday School Union, of which he was among the founding members. On its granite pedestal is inscribed: “Here lies interred, beloved by all who knew him, the Christian poet, patriot, and philanthropist. Wherever poetry is read, or Christian hymns sung, in the English language, ‘he being dead, yet speaketh’ by the genius, piety and taste embodied in his writings.” There are also extracts from his poems “Prayer” and “The Grave”. After it fell into disrepair the statue was moved to the precinct of Sheffield Cathedral in 1971, where there is also a memorial window.

Elsewhere in Sheffield there are various streets named after Montgomery and a Grade II-listed drinking fountain on Broad Lane. The meeting hall of the Sunday Schools Union (now known as The Montgomery), in Surrey Street, was named in his honour in 1886; it houses a 420-seat theater which also bears his name. Elsewhere, Wath-upon-Dearne, flattered by being called “the queen of villages” in his work, has repaid the compliment by naming after him a community hall, a street and a square. His birthplace in Irvine was renamed ‘Montgomery House’ after he paid the town a return visit in 1841 but has since been demolished. Sic transit.

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Alleluia! sing to Jesus was written by William Chatterton Dix (1837—1898). Revelation 5:9 describes this eschatological scene of joy and glory: “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased for God members of every tribe and language and nation.’”  Dix invites us to sing that new song of praise to our ascended Savior. This hymn is a declaration of Jesus’ victory over death and His continued presence among His people. By complex and interlocking allusions to Scripture, it presents a very high view of the Eucharist presence: Jesus is both “Priest and Victim” in this feast. Jesus, having triumphed over sin and death, “robed in flesh” has ascended above all the heavens, entering “within the veil” to the very throne of God. Dix sees in the Eucharist the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us evermore.

We sometimes forget that Jesus ever intercedes for us. The Mount Calvary Magazine in 1910 reminded us:

“The Incarnation is a permanent thing, it still exists. Our Lord still has His work to do in His glorified humanity; and that work is the perpetual intercession which He ever liveth to make for us. In order that he might carry on that work, it was necessary that His humanity should ascend into Heaven; and the way in which he now carries it on, is the unceasing presentation of His living and glorified humanity to the Father.”

As we walk down the aisle to approach the Eucharist, Jesus, who has been lifted up on the Cross and to Heaven, is drawing us to Himself, fulfilling His promise in the verse painted on the sanctuary arch.

1 Alleluia! sing to Jesus!
His the sceptre, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone:
Hark! the songs of peaceful Sion
Thunder like a mighty flood;
Jesus, out of every nation
Hath redeemed us by His blood.

2 Alleluia! not as orphans
Are we left in sorrow now;
Alleluia! He is near us,
Faith believes, nor questions how:
Though the cloud from sight received Him,
When the forty days were o’er:
Shall our hearts forget His promise,
“I am with you evermore”?

3 Alleluia! Bread of Heaven,
Thou on earth our Food, our Stay!
Alleluia! here the sinful
Flee to thee from day to day:
Intercessor, Friend of sinners,
Earth’s Redeemer, plead for me,
Where the songs of all the sinless
Sweep across the crystal sea.

4 Alleluia! King eternal,
Thee the Lord of lords we own;
Alleluia! born or Mary,
Earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne:
Thou within the veil hast entered,
Robed in flesh, our great High-Priest;
Thou on earth both Priest and Victim
In the Eucharistic feast.

5 Alleluia! sing to Jesus!
His the sceptre, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone;
Hark! the songs of holy Sion
Thunder like a mighty flood;
Jesus, out of every nation
Hath redeemed us by His blood.

Here is the hymn at St. Bartholomew’s.

william-chatterton-dix

William Chatterton Dix

William Chatterton Dix (14 June 1837 – 9 September 1898) was an English writer of hymns and carols. He was born in Bristol, the son of John Dix, a local surgeon, who wrote The Life of Chatterton the poet, a book of Pen Pictures of Popular English Preachers and other works. His father gave him his middle name in honour of Thomas Chatterton, a poet about whom he had written a biography. He was educated at the Grammar School, Bristol, for a mercantile career, and became manager of a maritime insurance company in Glasgow where he spent most of his life.

At the age of 29 he was struck with a near fatal illness and consequently suffered months confined to his bed. During this time he became severely depressed. Yet it is from this period that many of his hymns date.[4][5] He died at Cheddar, Somerset, England, and was buried at his parish church. (Wikipedia)

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Mount Calvary Music July 23, 2017

in hymns, Mount Calvary Church

Mount Calvary Church

Baltimore, Maryland

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of  St Peter

Trinity VI

July 23, 2017

Hymns

Come ye faithful people, come

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

The God of Abraham praise

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Opening hymn: # 137 Come, ye faithful people, come, written by Henry Alford (1810—1871) closely follows the gospel for today, the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The first stanza focuses directly on the physical harvest, an image used throughout scripture from in Genesis through Revelation. The second stanza begins Alford’s expansion of the parable. Alford applies it to how joy and sorrow grow together in life, and how God does not eliminate sorrow until after the final harvest when God “will wipe every tear from their eyes.” The third and fourth stanzas move directly to the apocalypse with “For the Lord our God shall come.”

1. Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God’s own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

2. All the world is God’s own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

Stained Glass Window Depicting Matthew Chapter 20 Verse 8 Chesterton Church Warwickshire

3. For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

4. Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Henry Alford

Alford was born in London, of a Somerset family, which had given five consecutive generations of clergymen to the Anglican church. Alford’s early years were passed with his widowed father, who was curate of Steeple Ashton in Wiltshire. He was a precocious boy, and before he was ten had written several Latin odes, a history of the Jews and a series of homiletic outlines. After a peripatetic school course he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827 as a scholar. In 1832 he was 34th wrangler and 8th classic, and in 1834 was made fellow of Trinity.

He had already taken orders, and in 1835 began his eighteen-year tenure of the vicarage of Wymeswold in Leicestershire, from which seclusion the twice-repeated offer of a colonial bishopric failed to draw him. He was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1841-1842, and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher, which might have been greater if not for his excursions into minor poetry and magazine editing.

In 1844, he joined the Cambridge Camden Society (CCS) which published a list of do’s and don’ts for church layout which they promoted as a science. He commissioned A.W.N. Pugin to restore St Mary’s church. He also was a member of the Metaphysical Society, founded in 1869 by James Knowles.

In September 1853 Alford moved to Quebec Street Chapel, Marylebone, London, where he had a large congregation. In March 1857 Lord Palmerston advanced him to the deanery of Canterbury, where, till his death, he lived the same energetic and diverse lifestyle as ever. He had been the friend of most of his eminent contemporaries, and was much beloved for his amiable character. The inscription on his tomb, chosen by himself, is Diversorium Viatoris Hierosolymam Proficiscentis (“the lodging place of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem”).

Besides editing the works of John Donne, he published several volumes of his own verse, The School of the Heart (1835), The Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841), The Greek Testament, The Four Gospels (1849), and a number of hymns, the best-known of which are “Forward! be our watchword,” “Come, ye thankful people, come”, and “Ten thousand times ten thousand.” He translated the Odyssey, wrote a well-known manual of idiom, A Plea for the Queen’s English (1863), and was the first editor of the Contemporary Review (1866–1870).

The hymn tune ST. GEORGE’S WINDSOR, composed in 1856 by George J. Elvey (1816-18930, Note the use of a dotted rhythm, balanced throughout the music, as a compelling invitation to sing, notably on the opening “Come.” One might also notice the phrase “all is safely gathered in” where the pitch begins and ends on A, but feels “gathered” by the use of the neighboring tones, Bb and G. Midway through the hymn, the phrases, “first the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear,” are sung in an ascending sequence that seem almost like corn growing in the field, and later the leap upward for ‘raise the song’ and ‘raise the glorious’ helps to paint the intent of the final phrases in stanzas 1 and 4.

 

George Job Elvey

Composer and organist George Job Elvey in 1816. He was a boy chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, going on to study at the Royal College of Music. At seventeen he took his first post as an organist, serving at a few parishes until 1835, when he was appointed to serve at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, where he remained for nearly fifty years as organist and choirmaster. Several other future organists and composers were his students at St. George’s, including C.H.H. Parry.

As organist at St. George’s he also held the official post of Organist to the Queen. In this capacity he came into contact with various members of the British royal family, even teaching composition to the Queen’s consort, Prince Albert (who later wrote a few hymn tunes himself). Many of Elvey’s sacred choral works were composed for royal occasions such as weddings or funerals, and he was knighted in 1871 following his Festival March for the wedding of Princess Louise. (As a letter-writer to the Musical Times noted some years later, his knighthood came at the age of fifty-five, coincidentally LV in Roman numerals)

He was a great admirer of Handel, even naming his youngest son (born after he was sixty) George Frederick Handel Elvey. His choirs often sang Handel’s anthems and choruses, and he also conducted the oratorios at large festivals, his last being a performance of Messiah less than a year before his death in 1893.

Elvey’s own works included nearly fifty anthems, two oratorios, numerous settings of service music and Anglican chant, and, of course, several hymn tunes. His oratorio Mount Carmel was followed very soon after by Mendelssohn’s Elijah, dealing largely with the same Biblical story. Elvey acknowledged the superiority of the latter, and Mount Carmel was never published, though portions of it continued to be performed at St. George’s and elsewhere. His other oratorio, The Resurrection and Ascension, was more popular in its day, though unknown in our time.

Elvey is remembered today primarily for some of his chant settings and two very popular hymn tunes: DIADEMATA  and ST. GEORGE’S WINDSOR.

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Offertory hymn: #197 Let all mortal flesh keep silence is a paraphrase by James Moultrie (1829—1885) of the Cherubic hymn from the Liturgy of St. James of the Eastern Church. It dates to the third century. This hymn is chanted as the bread and wine are carried to the altar. The Greek text reads: “Let all mortal flesh keep silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and in itself consider nothing of earth; for the King of kings and Lord of lords cometh forth to be sacrificed, and given as food to the believers; and there go before Him the choirs of Angels, with every dominion and power, the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim, covering their faces, and crying out the hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.” Here is the hymn in the 4th Plagal. Here is the Great Entrance:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High

Her is the King’s College, Cambridge, choir.

Gerald Moultrie was a Victorian public schoolmaster and Anglican hymnographer born on September 16, 1829, at Rugby Rectory, Warwickshire, England. He died on April 25, 1885, Southleigh, England, aged 55.

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Closing hymn: One night in London, Thomas Olivers (1725—1729), a follower of John Wesley, was attracted to a service in a Jewish synagogue, where he heard a great singer, Myer Leoni, sing an ancient Hebrew text in solemn, plaintive mode. Olivers wrote a hymn to that tune: The God of Abraham Praise, which is a paraphrase of the ancient Hebrew Yigdal, or doxology. In the 12th century, Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides codified the 13 articles of the Jewish Creed. These articles of the Jewish faith were later shaped into the Yigdal around 1400 by Daniel ben Judah, a judge in Rome.

Her is the King’s College choir.

Here is a wonderful Sephardic Yigdal. Here is a (to my ear) klezmer arrangement of the Yigdal. Here is a modern arrangement of the Yigdal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the 1940 Hymnal version by an English choir.

Here is the Yigdal:

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

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

Thomas Olivers

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

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

(Thanks to Wiki and Conjubilant)

Digression on Wheat and Tares

This sense of the word tare survives only in the title of this parable. The etymology is: Middle English tare (“vetch”), from Old English *taru, from Proto-Germanic *tarwō (compare Dutch tarwe (“wheat”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dr̥Hu̯ā (compare Welsh drewg (“darnel”), Lithuanian dirvà (“field”), Ancient Greek δάρατος (dáratos, “bread”), Sanskrit दूर्वा (dūrvā, “panic grass, millet”)).

Here is a comparison and wheat and tares. It is hard at one stage to distinguish them.

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