Music for All Saints Day

Following are text and music links to several choral anthems that are especially suitable to listen to during some quiet moments today when the church remembers the saints from all times and places. Special services are held at many churches today, this weekend, and on Sunday morning. This link gives a synopsis of the Festival from the Roman Catholic and Protestant perspectives.
 

O What Their Joy and Their Glory Must Be

Text: Peter Abelard; trans. by John Mason Neale

Music: Paris Antiphoner; harm. by John B. Dykes

Setting by William Henry Harris

 

music link here

1.            O what their joy and their glory must be,

               those endless sabbaths the blessed ones see;

               crown for the valiant, to weary ones rest;

               God shall be all, and in all ever blest.

2.            Truly, "Jerusalem" name we that shore,

               city of peace that brings joy evermore;

               wish and fulfillment are not severed there,

               nor do things prayed for come short of the prayer.

3.            There, where no troubles distraction can bring,

               we the sweet anthems of Zion shall sing;

               while for thy grace, Lord, their voices of praise

               thy blessed people eternally raise.

4.            Now, in the meanwhile, with hearts raised on high,

               we for that country must yearn and must sigh;

               seeking Jerusalem, dear native land,

               through our long exile on Babylon's strand.

5.            Low before him with our praises we fall,

               of whom, and in whom, and through whom are all;

               of whom, the Father; and in whom, the Son,

               through whom, the Spirit, with them ever One.

Faire Is the Heaven

Setting by William Harris

music link here

Faire is the heaven, where happy soules have place

In full enjoyment of felicitie,

Whence they doe still behold the glorious face

Of the Divine Eternall Majestie;

Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins,

Which all with golden wings are overdight,

And those eternall burning Seraphins,

Which from their faces dart out fiery light;

Yet fairer than they both, and much more bright,

Be th' Angels and Archangels, which attend

On God's owne Person, without rest or end.

These then in faire each other farre excelling,

As to the Highest they approach more neare,

Yet is the Highest farre beyond all telling,

Fairer than all the rest which there appear,

Though all their beauties joynd together were;

How then can mortall tongue hope to expresse

The image of such endlesse perfectnesse?

Lead Kindly Light Hymn

The choir of Wells Cathedral sing this beautiful hymn

with words by John Henry Newman

music link here

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;

I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,

And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I

Have loved long since, and lost awhile!

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,

Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.

To rest forever after earthly strife

In the calm light of everlasting life.

Bring Us, O Lord God

Text by John Donne

Setting by Wm. Henry Harris

music link here

 

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening

Into the house and gate of Heaven,

To enter into that gate and dwell in that house,

Where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light;

No noise nor silence, but one equal music;

No fears or hopes, but one equal possession;

No ends or beginnings, but one equal eternity,

In the habitations of thy glory and dominion,

World without end.

Additional Music ... 

 

To hear several hours of choral music especially suitable for the Festival of All Saints, go to this playlist on my youtube channel:  Music for All Saints

Here is a link to an organ meditation on "For All the Saints" with video featuring Michaelangelo's artwork of many saints as painted in the Sistine Chapel.  

Flexibility and Working Together

BETWEEN THE LINES for Sunday, October 27, 2013

For the next couple Sundays the congregation at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church will be meeting in the fellowship hall for worship during sanctuary refurbishing. Preparing for this has reminded me of the importance of three things:   being flexible, working together, and caring for God’s house. 

FLEXIBILITY – Things always go better in a group when people remain flexible rather than stubborn. This is an interesting concept, something Christians need to ponder and spend a little time in self-examination. It’s good for you and me to ask ourselves questions like:  “Am I flexible when I need to be?” “When have I been stubborn to my detriment and that of others?” “When has my flexibility been a good thing?” “When has my inflexibility not been helpful?” “How can I grow in these areas?” In life there are times when taking a principled stand is the duty and call of the Christian. At other times, being flexible is the Christian’s duty. Here is a link to a helpful article on this subject:  FLEXIBILITY.

WORKING TOGETHER - Our pastor asked people to help on their way out of worship last Sunday by taking the hymnals and pew Bibles and placing them in the boxes at the exits. I was very touched to see a number of young people going the extra mile and clearing out these things from the choir loft and elsewhere. One young boy asked me where he could get another box because the one by the door was full. I have a folder with quite a few emails going back and forth regarding caring for the organ and it’s pipework during the painting, set-up for instruments in the fellowship hall, and so on. On many of these, I was copied as a courtesy communication. On several of those courtesy communiques, it promoted a question or further forward on my part. When the people of God work together in pleasantness, helpfulness, and harmony, it not only makes things go better, but it is a witness to the watching world that the Gospel is alive and working well! Here is a link to a helpful article on this subject: EFFICIENCY.

CARING FOR GOD’S HOUSE - Our pastors have been leading the congregation through the book of Exodus in their Sunday sermons. We are at the point where God gives Moses the details for building the tabernacle where his people will worship during their wilderness journeys. This begins in Exodus 25 and continues through the end of the book (with the terrible interlude in Exodus 32 of the golden calf incident). I am always struck when I read these chapters with how important it is to God how we worship and how the worship space, the details, the individual pieces all have a plan, purpose, and place in His house. When a congregation lovingly spends their time and resources caring for their place of worship, making it shine beautifully, this is pleasing to God and a witness to the watching world. I am reminded of Psalm 15 when I think about how spiritual and physical things are mysteriously bound together in God’s house. Here is a helpful study on Psalm 15, a psalm that beautifully ties together approaching God’s house with how we live our lives:  ENTERING GOD’S HOLY HOUSE in PSALM 15.

I will not be at Ebenezer this weekend as I’ll be caring for some family business this weekend. Thanks to Melody Howell and Sue Pierce for filling in for me. I’ll see members and friends in worship again on November 3.

~ ~ ~ 

MUSIC LINKS

Several selections from the album “This Is God’s House” by the Sanctuary Choir at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Cary, North Carolina. This album is from the church’s 25^th anniversary during my time as their Music Director. 

This Is God’s House (Locus iste) – Bruckner

Zion’s Walls – Copland

Grant Us Thy Peace - Mendelssohn

The sanctuary exterior at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Cary NC

Peace and Strength

BETWEEN THE LINES for Sunday, October 20, 2013

The two organ works that I will share this week at Ebenezer Presbyterian Church are musical ways to state the dual blessings in Psalm 29:11 ...

May the Lord give strength to his people! 

May the Lord bless his people with peace!

PEACE

The Prelude piece comes from the pen of a North Carolina composer, Dan Locklair. His work RUBRICS (1988) is a work with five movements. The introductory page of the score tells us, "The extra-musical impetus and subsequent titles for each movement of RUBRICS are found in

A Peaceful Scene at My Family Home

the instructions (rubrics) to the services for THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER."

Movement 4, "The Peace may be exchanged" is my Prelude selection. This movement was played at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan. Beautifully composed, it is a quintessential musical description of the kind of peace that the Christian church has embraced since Christ left us with these words:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.    John 14:27

This richly lyrical aria features a solo diapason stop accompanied by strings and double pedal throughout. The gentle pace and rich sonority are so arresting that the technical aspects required to produce this peaceful exchange are almost imperceptible. But not to the organist, at least not in the first encounter with the piece!

This graphic from measures 31-32 shows beat one divided into 2 in the pedals, 3 in the right hand and 4 in the upper part of the left hand; all of which takes a little practice. (For non-musicians, it's like patting your head, rubbing your tummy and skipping at the same time). Add the ties to this, the required legato, and double pedal, and its a challenging musical workout at the organ.

Excerpt from "The Peace may be exchanged." Measures 31-32.

And isn't this a wonderful picture of peace? So beautiful when it comes, but it often comes in the midst of, or following, difficulties and struggles. That's why Jesus says his peace isn't the kind the world gives, and follows that with the admonition not to be troubled or afraid. May this song be a gentle reminder to all of our own call to peace, not just in a kindly greeting on a Sunday morning, but throughout all the days of our lives.

STRENGTH

The Festival of the Reformation is nearly upon us, celebrated in many Protestant churches on the last Sunday of October each year. Since our sanctuary is undergoing renovations, I wanted to include a setting of "A Mighty Fortress" before the organ is buried under tarps!

The arrangement I share for the Postlude is a setting by Paul Manz. Wiki notes about this recently deceased church musician and composer:

His musical compositions are internationally known. His organ works are extensively used in worship services, recitals and in teaching. His choral music is widely used by church and college choirs here and abroad. His motet, "E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" is regarded as a classic and has been frequently recorded.

Manz's partitas and chorale preludes are always engaging and always highlight the meaning of the text with assurance and honesty. This arrangement is no exception. A full registration, passages with double pedal work (a device Manz was fond of using), and baroque-like passage work, all combine to remind the listener that our God is indeed mighty, our refuge and our strength. What better instrument to sound out this message than the mighty pipe organ!

A section from "A Mighty Fortress" by Paul Manz.

The hymn "A Mighty Fortress" was composed by Martin Luther between 1527 and 1529. A fine "lay-musician", Luther penned both the text and the melody. If you read music, you'll note his rhythm is livelier than the string of steady quarter notes used in most modern hymnals. You might say Luther rocked this one! The original rhythm is found as an alternate option in modern Lutheran hymnals. I used it with the choirs singing some of the stanzas from that version at all my posts in Lutheran churches. (Other denominations often miss out on this musical gem from the past.)

One of only very few early printings of Luther's hymn: "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

Whether we dress up for Sunday worship or "come as we are," we all come to worship each week with hearts that bear the stresses of life in a fallen world. Will we leave God's house renewed in His strength and peace?

It is my prayer that these organ selections compliment the other elements of worship and help you to draw near to God in worship. In a world where peace is the elusive prize and is often found in substitutes--entertainment, prosperity, power, education, and more--the church of Christ offers true strength and peace. May God grant us strength to find the Source of true peace through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

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MUSIC LINKS

"The Peace may be exchanged."

A Mighty Fortress - This arrangement is by Charles Ore, with organist J. Marty Cope. Mr. Cope's parents are in the choir at my church. The organ in this recording is just down the street from me at Calvary Church in Charlotte NC.

 

Marble Colorado. A recent photo taken by my brother, Jerry Begly.

Of Islands and Bells

This weekend my husband and I will join as members of the church where we've been attending (and myself serving on staff as organist). As I reflected on joining this church, it reminded me of the oft-quoted line from John Donne's essay, "No man is an island." One could join all kinds of groups, (social, sports, special interest, etc.) but to me, the loveliest group to be a part of is a local congregation of Christ's church. Donne's essay below explains why this is so, while he highlights the transiency and beauty of life, and insists it all finds its ultimate meaning in a relationship with God. 

No man is an island entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as any manner of thy friends
or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.

This poetic excerpt is taken from this essay ... 

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne 

Bell at Muhlenberg Lutheran, Harrisonburg VA

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.

As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.

Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

Resurrection Lutheran, Cary, NC

Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.

No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

Edenton Street UMC, Raleigh, NC

Donne highlights two themes, our interconnectedness and our mortality, via the imagery of an island and a tolling bell. Tying them together as he does here, gives us pause to consider how our living and dying, and the living and dying of those we love and those who live and die as our neighbors is part of our human story. We refuse to read it at our peril, yet reading it deeply will drive one to despair if they don't turn to God or make their "recourse to ... God, who is our only security."

The three photos are of church buildings where I have had the privilege to serve among God's people during my career in church music ministry.

The bell at Muhlenberg was from the original church building. It was stored at a member's home for many years, and during the building of a new Gathering Area, was installed in the atrium. We rang it as a call to worship (1 time on regular Sundays, 3 times on Festival Days), and at funerals it was tolled seven times. 

Once when we sang the hymn, Built on a Rock the Church Doth Stand, Mark Byerly rang the bell in joyful tolls throughout the last stanza. I remember with a chill sitting at the organ bench, the powerful singing and the deep fellowship that transpired between people in the pews, chancel, choir loft, and heaven during that singing. The first and last stanza are:

Built on the Rock the church doth stand,
Even when steeples are falling;
Crumbled have spires in every land,
Bells still are chiming and calling;
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distressed,
Longing for rest everlasting.

Grant then, O God, wherever men roam,
That, when the church bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
“I know Mine own, Mine own know Me;
Ye, not the world, My face shall see.
My peace I leave with you.”

 ~ ~ ~ MUSIC LINKS

No Man Is an Island - Text by John Donne in a setting for chamber cantata by Ukranian composer Victoria Poleva. What a rich, warm, haunting voice the soloist has! The text is given below the video.

Built on a Rock the Church Doth Stand - chorale, and here for organ alone