September 15, 2024

The organ prelude is J. S. Bach's setting of Martin Luther's 16th century hymn, "We all believe in one true God", which of course is the Nicene Creed.  I will first play Bach's harmonization of the chorale (or hymn) itself, then his fugue like setting, which is only one of several by different composers of the era.

Our familiar processional hymn (409) is from Franz Joseph Haydn's oratorio, "Creation", the text being a paraphrase of Psalm 19: 1-6 ("The spacious firmament on high...."). I think several parts of his oratorio might be familiar, but the entire work might be a very pleasurable "listen".  

The Gospel hymn jumps to the 20th century but I think is also familiar: David McKinley Williams' "Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken" (312).  You might check out the origin of the text in the hymnal notes!

Our anthem is a 3-part arrangement of Cesar Franck's "For the Bread Which You Have Broken".  Franck, of course, was one of the most important French romantic composers of the late 19th century.  Much of his music is standard repertoire for both symphonies and organists.

During communion we will first sing the popular "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (711) and then the too short "Day by day"(654).  As you may note this beautiful hymn was written in the 20th century, but the text is attributed to Richard of Chichester. 

Closing we will sing the well known "Take up your cross, the Savior said, if you would be my disciple be", 675, from the 19th century.

The postlude, by Percy Whitlock (I wrote about him last week), is based on hymn 625, known as "Darwell's 148th", "Ye holy angels bright....".The "148th" refers to the particular Psalm for which the tune was written; Darwall wrote tunes and bass lines only for 150 Psalms.