FOUR EVENING SERVICE SETTINGS OF JOEL MARTINSON: AN AMERICAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO ANGLICAN EVENSONG REPERTOIRE Gary Adrian Gordon, B.M.E., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2019 APPROVED: Richard Sparks, Major Professor and Chair of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles Jesse Eschbach, Committee Member Felix Olschofka, Committee Member and Interim Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music John Richmond, Dean of the College of Music Victor Prybutok, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Gordon, Gary Adrian. Four Evening Service Settings of Joel Martinson: An American’s Contribution to Anglican Evensong Repertoire. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), May 2019, 123 pp., 2 tables, 38 musical examples, 5 appendices, bibliography, 46 titles. The Evening Service settings of great British composers like Charles Stanford, A. Herbert Brewer, Charles Wood and Herbert Howells are well known and performed often throughout the world. However, little is known about the body of settings created by American composers. There are currently approximately 75 American composers dating from 1890 to the present, with Evening Service settings in print. Joel Martinson, based in Dallas, Texas, is an American composer, church musician, concert organist, and presenter. Although Martinson has composed four Evening Service settings (Evening Service for the St. Mark’s School 1996, Evening Service for the Incarnation 2000, Evening Service for Church of the Nativity 2002, and Evening Service for the Transfiguration 2015), these works are not widely known outside of Dallas and small Anglican circles, nor is the value of his contributions to Anglican Evensong repertoire recognized. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that Martinson’s four settings make a valuable American contribution to Anglican repertoire through his neo-classical style and creative counterpoint. The four settings are modern and challenging but remain approachable for both choir and audience. Copyright 2019 By Gary Adrian Gordon ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I had the privilege of working closely with Joel Martinson during my tenure as upper school music teacher at Parish Episcopal School 2005-2012. I attended numerous Evensong services, hymn festivals and other concerts that he produced. I am a great admirer of Martinson’s musical sensitivity, technical excellence as organist, and for his many inspiring hymn tunes, anthems, organ works and other service music. Attending services under his leadership has enhanced my own worship. Therefore, it is a great joy and honor to devote a study to Martinson’s four Evening Service settings. I am grateful to Martinson for the generous amount of time he spent sharing insights about his own music, St. Mark’s School and other American Evening Service settings. I am particularly indebted to the many music directors across the United States, who provided encouragement for this study and leads to unpublished settings. My list of American settings would not be as comprehensive without their help. I especially thank Benjamin Bachman, Mary Badarak, Carson Cooman, Gary Davison, David Hurd, Douglas Major, Bruce Neswick, Jeffrey Smith, Richard Webster, and David Ashley White. Patrick Fennig, Music Librarian at Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue was supremely helpful. Also, I am thankful for the warm friendship and support of Scott Dettra, who was extremely charitable and shared so many valuable insights about Anglican music in America. I am grateful to Mary Ann Livengood for sharing the history of the St. Mark’s School and the important work of her late husband, James Livengood, Jr. Finally, to Dr. Richard Sparks, whose steadfast support helped me to bring this study to completion. This study is dedicated to my mother, Dr. Elaine Gordon, who always insisted that I reach my highest potential and also to Drs. Thomas and Beverly Rogers. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Origin of Evensong...................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 The Canticle Texts ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Canticle Settings .......................................................................................................................... 6 1.5 Further Musical Development in the 20th Century ....................................................... 7 1.6 Evensong Today ........................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 2. JOEL MARTINSON ....................................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Biography .................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Compositional Background .................................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 3. THE FOUR SETTINGS ................................................................................................................ 15 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 15 3.1.1 Shared Characteristics in All Settings ............................................................... 15 3.1.2 Unique Characteristics to Individual Settings ............................................... 16 3.2 Melodic Material ....................................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Harmony, Modality and Tonality ....................................................................................... 23 3.4 Text and Meter .......................................................................................................................... 38 3.5 Accompaniment ........................................................................................................................ 41 3.6 Registration ................................................................................................................................ 45 CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 52 APPENDIX A. A SELECTION OF AMERICAN EVENING SERVICE SETTINGS 1892-PRESENT. ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 APPENDIX B. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: JOEL MARTINSON ............................................................ 67 iv APPENDIX C. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: SCOTT DETTRA ................................................................. 89 APPENDIX D. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: MARY ANN LIVENGOOD ............................................. 103 APPENDIX E. HISTORY OF THE ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS CHOIR PROGRAM ............. 114 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................... 121 v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Traditional Hours of Prayer ............................................................................................................... 3 Table 2: Grafting of Vespers and Compline on Modern Evensong. ..................................................... 4 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES *Reproduced with permission from Paraclete Press. Reproduced with permission from Trinitas Publishing. † Page *Example 1: St. Mark’s setting, opening melody, mm. 1-6 ................................................................... 17 * Example 2: St. Mark’s setting, opening theme in bass vocal part, mm. 27-32 ........................... 17 *Example 3: St. Mark’s setting, opening theme in organ pedals, mm. 35-41 ............................... 18 * Example 4: St. Mark’s setting, Nunc dimittis, organ intro and opening phrase, mm. 1-8..... 18 Example 5: Incarnation setting Magnificat, mm. 8-13 ......................................................................... 20 † Example 6: Incarnation setting ...................................................................................................................... 21 † Example 7: Incarnation setting, Puer nátus chant opening ............................................................... 22 † Example 8: Incarnation setting, mm. 45-50 “Amen” coda. ................................................................ 22 † *Example 9: St. Mark’s setting, mm. 24-27 ................................................................................................