Choral Evensong
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CCHHOORRAALL EEVVEENNSSOONNGG THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2018 NOTES ON THE MUSIC Today marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, an influential British composer, teacher, and music historian. We include one of his hymn tunes in the service and begin with one of his better-known organ compositions, Elegy, composed in 1913 and dedicated to the memory of his friend Sidney Herbert, 14th Earl of Pembroke, who died in April of that year. David Ashley White is Professor of Composition and the C.W. Moores, Jr. Endowed Professor of Music in the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Additionally, he is Composer-in-Residence at Houston’s Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church. In 2016, he was named Distinguished Composer by the American Guild of Organists. His hymn sung this evening as an introit appears in the hymnal supplement Wonder, Love & Praise. The Rev. William Bradley Roberts is Professor of Church Music at Virginia Theological Seminary. He has held church music positions in Washington, DC, Tucson, AZ, Newport Beach, CA, and Louisville, KY. His hymns and service music appear in several different hymnals and his anthems are sung by choirs throughout the country. His Christ Church Responses were composed in 2016 and published in 2018. They are dedicated to Jason Abel, Director of Music at Christ Church, Alexandria, and Thomas Smith, Director of Music at Christ Church, Georgetown. During the Second World War, Herbert Howells served as Acting Organist for four years at St. John’s College, Cambridge, while Robin Orr, the University Organist, was in military service. Howells claimed that these years were extraordinary and inspirational in many ways. The story goes that Howells never played a piece of printed music in his entire time at Cambridge, improvising at every service. How unfortunate that no recordings were made! Prior to St. John’s, Howells had not been intimately involved with the work of a church since 1917, when he had been an assistant at Salisbury Cathedral. The canticles sung tonight, the Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense, were composed in 1957. This set was initially intended for Salisbury Cathedral, but a 1956 article listing all of Howells’s compositions erroneously stated that there was a set for St. John’s, Cambridge. As the work had not yet been delivered to Salisbury and there was no setting for St. John’s, Cambridge, Howells decided to assign this work to St. John’s, where George Guest was Organist, rather than Salisbury. He would not deliver a new setting for Salisbury Cathedral until 1966. In total, Howells composed 20 different settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. Zachary Wadsworth was born in Richmond, Virginia. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Williams College. His compositions have been heard in venues around the world, and he has held Fellowship positions with the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. He won first prize in the King James Bible Composition Awards, and the winning work was performed by the choir of Westminster Abbey in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. His anthem sung this evening, Earthquake, was commissioned for the 2016 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Houston and premiered by the Houston Chamber Choir. César Franck composed his Prelude, Fugue and Variation Op. 18 in 1862, four years after he became organist at Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. It is one of six pieces published together and dedicated to his younger colleague, Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally written for organ, in 1868 Franck arranged the work for harmonium and piano. CHORAL EVENSONG Elegy Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) Introit So the day dawn for me, so the day break, Be the day dark to me, be the day drear, Christ watching over me, Christ as I wake. Christ shall my comfort be, Christ be my cheer. Be the day shine for me, be the day bright, Be the day swift to me, be the day long, Christ my companion be, Christ be my light. Christ my contentment be, Christ be my song. So the day close for me, so the night fall, Christ watching over me, Christ be my all. Text: Timothy Dudley-Smith (b.1926) Music: Wildridge and St. Charles, David Ashley White (b. 1944) Please stand and sing. Hymn 360 Words: Latin, ca 9th cent. Music: Rouen Opening Sentences O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth stand in awe of him. Psalm 96:9 Thine is the day, O God, thine also the night; thou hast established the moon and the sun. Thou hast fixed all the boundaries of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter. Psalm 74:15,16 Invitatory and Psalter William Bradley Roberts (b. 1947) Christ Church Responses Officiant: O Lord, open thou our lips. Choir: And our mouth shall show forth thy praise. Officiant: O God, make speed to save us. Choir: O Lord, make haste to help us. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. Officiant: Praise ye the Lord. Choir: The Lord’s Name be praised. The People are seated. Psalm 8 Anglican Chant by Henry Lawes (1595-1662) 1 O Lord our Governor, how excellent is thy Name in all the world * thou that has set thy glory above the heavens! 2 Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies * that thou mightest still the enemy, and the avenger. 3 For I will consider thy heavens, even the works of thy fingers * the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained. 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him * and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 Thou madest him lower than the angels * to crown him with glory and worship. 6 Thou makest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands * and thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet; 7 All sheep and oxen * yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea * and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord our Governor * how excellent is thy Name in all the world! Glory be to the Father and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. The First Lesson Hosea 13:4-14 Yet I have been the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who fed you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When I fed them, they were satisfied; they were satisfied, and their heart was proud; therefore they forgot me. So I will become like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild animal would mangle them. I will destroy you, O Israel; who can help you? Where now is your king, that he may save you? Where in all your cities are your rulers, of whom you said, “Give me a king and rulers”? I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath. Ephraim’s iniquity is bound up; his sin is kept in store. The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son; for at the proper time he does not present himself at the mouth of the womb. Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. Reader: The Word of the Lord. People: Thanks be to God. The People stand as the choir sings. Magnificat from Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense Herbert Howells (1892-1983) My soul doth magnify the Lord, * and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded * the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold from henceforth * all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me, * and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him * throughout all generations. He hath showed strength with his arm; * he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, * as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen. The People are seated. The Second Lesson Matthew 14:1-12 At that time Herod the ruler heard reports about Jesus; and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Though Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded him as a prophet.