From: Richard Thomas
Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 12:49 AM
Subject: Music for the OSHC Sunday Worship Service of November 16, 2014
The Introit is “We Come Before Thee,” the same as last week.
The opening hymn is No. 473, “For the Beauty of the Earth.”
We have this piece as an anthem by John Rutter. Alan likes it a lot, but it is one of the hardest pieces we’ve done.
We did it in 2003. Here are some young singers doing the same anthem:
http://youtu.be/PTOfSKXkRa0 John Rutter’s “For the Beauty of the Earth,” Vocal Arts Academy of Milwaukee, Emily Croker, director.
And here it is at a fast tempo in a different language, Portuguese I think.
http://youtu.be/t_0VvK0hEQ4 Coral Carlos Gomes Church (this may be an Adventist Church in Brazil), “For the Beauty of the Earth” by John Rutter
But we will be singing the hymn tune. Here is the hymn tune done well on the guitar:
http://youtu.be/QR7XGDep5mk “For the Beauty of the Earth,” solo male singer on guitar (well done with good audio)
The words were written by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (b. 7 October 1835, Spa Villa, Bath, England, d. 1917) in 1864. He attended Queen’s College, Cambridge. He was a High-Church Anglican which developed into Anglo-Catholicism. He was a member of the Tractarian Movement. The Tractarians were sometimes called Puseyites (by their detractors) after one of their leaders, Edward Bouverie Pusey.
Pierpoint was 29 when he wrote the words of the hymn. They first appeared in Lyra Eucharistica, Hymns and Verses on The Holy Communion, Ancient and Modern, with other Poems.
The tune is DIX (Kocher) by Conrad Kocher; (b. 1786, Ditzingen; d. 1872, Stuttgart) with alterations by William Henry Monk. The hymn “As with Gladness Men of Old” is often sung to the same tune.
You can hear it with a “descant-like” addition on the second verse here:
http://youtu.be/dGt4-KyFwe4 “For the Beauty of the Earth,” sung by Heather Prusse (multi-track for different voices)
The readings are from Judges 4:1-7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
I have been told that Rev. Philipp will be preaching his first sermon ever based on passages from the Book of Judges. It will be a premiere.
The reading is about Deborah summoning Barak. (No, not that Barak.)
Deborah was the leader of Israel at the time, and she had to decide what to do about General Sisera and his nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels who was oppressing the Israelites for his King, King Jabin of Canaan.
She calls up Barak and orders him to go up with the Israelite army and attack General Sisera, and tells him first to march up to Mount Tabon.
Barak says, I’ll go, but only if you go with me, so she does.
General Sisera learns of their approach and “ordered all of his chariotry --- nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels – and all his troops” to go to the River Kishon.
Barak and Deborah, up on Mount Tabon, have the high ground, and Deborah orders Barak: “Spring into action.” So Barak quickly leads the ten thousand men of the Israelite army down the mountain and routes Sisera and all his chariotry—the nine hundred chariots with the iron-rimmed wheels, and Sisera’s whole army dies “by the edge of the sword; not even one survived!”
Well, one survived, as General Sisera jumped out of his chariot, and ran away on foot.
He made it to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber. Jael comes out and tells him to “Stop and rest. Don’t be afraid.” Sisera stops, goes into the tent, and Jael puts a blanket over him.
He says, “Give me a little water, because I’m thirsty.” Instead she gives him some milk out of a goatskin, then covers him up again. He says, “Stand watch at the entrance to the tent, and if anyone comes by and asks if there are any men in there?” tell them “No.”
Then Jael took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground while he slept from exhaustion, and he died.
All-in-all, it was a pretty bad day for General Sisera.
Barak learns of what has happened and Deborah and Barak sing a victory song.
I guess It was a sort of duet. The song has lyrics such as the following:
He asked for water,
and she gave him milk;
in a bowl fit for a king,
she served him curds.
Her left hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workmen’s hammer.
She “hammered” Sisera,
she shattered his skull,
she smashed his head,
she drove the tent peg through his temple.
(I’m sure it flows better in Hebrew.)
Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t tell us the tune to which these words were sung.
It reminds me a bit of “Lizzie Borden.” “Lizzie Borden took an axe, and she gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father fort-y –one.”
The 1st Thessalonians reading is about the unexpected, how the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, like labor pains on a pregnant woman. “So we must not sleep, but must stay awake and sober.” We must put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope for salvation. (An allusion to Isaiah 59:17,
He [Yahweh, the Lord] wears his desire for justice like body armor,
and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head.
He puts on the garments of vengeance
and wears zeal like a robe.)
The second hymn almost escaped--like Sisera, and doesn’t appear in the bulletin, but I am told it is “Lord, Speak to Me that I May Speak.” (Our hymnal doesn’t have a single hymn to go with any passages from the Book of Judges.)
There is such a hymn in Spanish, “Mother of Israel, leader of her armies,” which has the refrain “!Canta, Dèbora, canta!”
There is also the hymn “Praise ye the Lord, who hath avenged” by John Barnard of Marblehead, Massachusetts, which he published in 1752, and has the following 26th verse (well, it is a long story): “She took the tent nail in her hand, Her right hand seized the hammer fast; Through Sisera's temples drove the spike, And then cut off his head at last.” Luckily in Marblehead, in 1752 the Puritans had long services, as it must have taken quite a while to get through all 31 verses.
Anyway, we’ll be singing No. 426, “Lord, Speak to Me that I May Speak.” This year, we’ve sung that hymn on May 11, June 22, and August 24.
The words are by Frances Havergal (1836-1879), daughter of the Rev. W. H. Havergal. She was born at Astley, Worcestershire. She was very well educated and knew Greek and Hebrew. Theologically, she is described as being “mildly Calvinistic.”
She also wrote:
“Take My Life and Let It Be,”
“Who Is On the Lord’s Side? Who Will Serve the King?,”
“Yes, He Knows the Way is Dreary,” and
“Tell It Among the Heathen.”
The tune for “Lord, Speak to Me, that I May Speak,” CANONBURY is derived from the fourth piano piece in Robert A. Schumann's Nachtstücke, Opus 23 (1839).
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) intended to be a concert pianist, but he injured his hand, and turned to composing instead. He attempted suicide in 1854 and, at his own request, “was confined to a mental institution,” where he spent the last two years of his life.
You can hear the hymn here:
http://youtu.be/4bfWclC8Kp8 “Lord, Speak to Me, that I May Speak” sung at Geneva Presbyterian in Laguna Hills, California
The closing hymn is No. 446, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.”
We sang that one on July 6 and October 12. It’s sung to the AUSTRIAN HYMN by Haydn, the tune for the national anthem of Austria and of Germany, about which I have written more than enough already.
Instrumental Music
The prelude is “Andante Religioso” by Henry Smith. I found the sheet music on the internet, but I didn’t find an audio file.
But as I had the sheet music (copyright 1916), I just fed it into SmartScore and produced a MIDI file, attached.
It sounds good as a piano piece too. I may have missed some accidentals. There were quite a few.
The offertory is “Chanson Mantinale” by Richard Lange.
Here is the piece (but it is an awful recording, so you should probably skip it):
http://youtu.be/VC7WEIbxtfU “Chason Matinale” by Richard Lange, played by Andrezej Ryszkiewicz on an organ in the Czech Republic (terrible video)
The postlude is “Marche Triomphale” (“Triumphal March in E-flat Major”) by Paul Wachs.
Stephen Victor Paul Wachs was born in Paris, 19 Sep 1851, and died 06 Jul 1915, Saint-Mande.
He studied organ at the Paris Conservatory with François Benoist, then with César Franck. He was the organist at Saint-Merri Church form 1874 until 1896.
I didn’t find the “Triumphal March” but I did find his “Marche Nuptiale.”
http://youtu.be/Geo9PyE3wFo “Marche Nuptiale,” composed by Paul Wachs
and here is a Gavotte by Wachs played on a HARMONIUM by a man with a beard and very short hair on top his head:
http://youtu.be/-RzweQZa5Io Gavotte by Wachs
Richard
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