March 30, 2025

We are so fortunate to have Benjamin Smith in our midst-- partly because, along with being a wonderful person, he is a fine professional and sought after cellist!  He will be playing with us this Sunday, including the prelude, which is "Ah, Dearest Jesus", based on hymn 158, the tune name "Herzliebster Jesu".  It is a beautiful setting by Raymond H. Haan, an American composer born in 1938.  Mr. Haan has written extensively for organ and choirs, but has also written for other instruments.  If you know the tune of the hymn, you will probably recognize it more clearly  toward the end the work.

Our anthem is an arrangement of "God, Who Made the Earth and Heaven", a Welsh hymn tune most everyone will know - but another hymn not in our hymnal.  The arrangement, by David Cherwien, contemporary American Lutheran (b. 1957), includes a cello part,

The postlude is a Robert Hobby setting of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"; Mr. Hobby, of whom I have written many times, is a contemporary American.  The tune, by Martin Luther, needs no explanation, but if anyone wants to study his text again, it is hymn 688.