September 8, 2024

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), last of the "English Virginalists" (the virginal being a string instrument) wrote many sacred songs which wound up being hymns.  Our prelude is based on "Song 13", the number in that hymnal.  Percy Whitlock (1903-1946), English organist and composer, wrote this prelude based on that hymn tune.

Our processional hymn, 375, is "Give praise and glory unto God", a 17th century hymn we often sing.  Jump ahead about a century and you have our familiar Gospel hymn, "Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old was strong to heal and save" 567.

Our anthem may be familiar to some; it is "Now the Silence Now the Peace", by Gerald Near, contemporary American composer (b.1942), known as one of  the finest composers of our time.

During communion we will sing "On this day, the first of days, God the Father's Name we praise", hymn 47, an old German tune that I think is known to most everyone.

Closing, we will sing "Thou whose almighty word" (371), the 18th century tune that is probably one of the most popular hymn tunes in Christendom!

The postlude, simply titled "Postlude in B Flat" is by the American composer, George Blake (1912-1986) who wrote numerous organ works in the "Romantic style"; some of those works having been published only recently.  For those not familiar with musical "periods", you might think of J.S.Bach, who was considered to be the culmination of the "Baroque period" (which followed the "Renaissance period"); then there was Mozart and many others in the "Classical period" (not to be confused with the term "classical music", which is a more general term"), then the "Romantic period", which includes most of the great composers of the 19th century; then you have "Impressionist" (like Dubussy), followed by the rest of the "Twentieth century-- and now "Twentyfirst", which has many approaches, including compositions written in former styles.  Then you have the simple fact that dates associated with these (periods) are somewhat arbitrary.  Changes in style were always more gradual and more complex!