May 7, 2023

The prelude Sunday, "Choral with Interludes", by Courtlandt Palmer, comprises of a hymnlike section at the beginning and end, with several short variations (hence "interludes") between. Mr. Palmer (1876-1951) was an American mostly known as a pianist who studied in Italy with a pupil of Franz Liszt. The piece is typical of a lot of music of the period, being in the neo-romantic style, despite what else was going on — like with Debussy, Ravel, and even Schoenberg!

Our processional hymn is an "old standard" — Hymn 1, "Father, we praise thee, now the night is over.” Wouldn't you like to know how many times this tune has been sung since 1681!

Our Gospel hymn is also an old tune, but with slightly more recent words (19th century); it's "Thou art the Way, to thee alone from sin and death we flee", Hymn 457.

Our day's anthem, "Christ is made the sure foundation,” has a text that closely follows our hymn 518, and is by the 20th century American, Dale Wood, who contributed much to church music repertoire.

The first Communion Hymn, 231, as you will note, is an English melody adapted by the famous Ralph Vaughan Williams. Note which stanza "appropriate to the day" needs to be inserted for verse 2.

Our Second Hymn, 536, is a Hasidic melody arr. by Richard Proulx, whose music we often use. This Hebrew melody we have sung many times.

Our Closing Hymn is 359, "God of the prophets, bless the prophets' heirs", as you will note, is another very old tune, but harmonized in the 20th century by a name you may recognize now-- Charles Winfred Douglas.

The Postlude. "Choral Song", was composed by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, who was a contemporary of Mozart and sometimes referred to as "the English Mozart". He is also called "S.S." Wesley, to distinguish him from his father, Samuel Wesley, who was also a prominent musician. It is a nice piece of music, but in no way would anyone ever think it could have been written by Mozart, as it is an entirely different style!