Staff

Hymn of the Day: “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending” ELW 435
Text: Charles Wesley, 1707–1788, alt.
Music: HELMSLEY, Thomas Olivers, 1725–1799

“Lo! He comes with clouds descending" is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley, based on an earlier hymn, "Lo! He cometh, countless Trumpets" by John Cennick (1718–1755). Most commonly sung at Advent, the hymn derives its theological content from the Book of Revelation relating imagery of the Day of Judgment. Considered one of the "Great Four Anglican Hymns" in the 19th century, it is most commonly sung to the tune HELMSLEY, first published in 1763.

The tune HELMSLEY is usually attributed to Thomas Olivers, a Welsh Methodist preacher and hymn-writer. Anecdotal stories about the tune's composition suggest Olivers heard the tune whistled in the street and derived his melody from that; the most likely source is an Irish concert song "Guardian angels, now protect me". George Arthur Crawford, in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900), discusses the origin:

This tune claims a notice on account of the various opinions that have been expressed respecting its origin. The story runs that Thomas Olivers, the friend of John Wesley, was attracted by a tune which he heard whistled in the street, and that from it he formed the melody to which were adapted the words of Cennick and Wesley's Advent hymn...The source from whence 'Olivers' was derived seems to have been a concert-room song commencing 'Guardian angels, now protect me,' the music of which probably originated in Dublin.

Offertory: “Savior of the Nations, Come” Georgiann Toole (1958)

The tune, NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND, is a chorale derived from a chant. Among the simplest of the Lutheran repertoire, it is framed by identical lines l and 4. Ambrose, its original Latin author, strongly promoted the practice of singing the hymn with antiphonal groups and this is duplicated in this choral setting.

The tune dates from a twelfth- or thirteenth-century Einsiedeln manuscript. Presumably by Johann Walther, the adaptation of the tune was published in the 1524 Erfurt Enchiridia. Johann S. Bach used the tune for preludes in the Clavierübung and Orgelbüchlein and in his cantatas 36 and 62.

Georgiann Hinchcliffe Toole is a West Virginia native who currently resides in Sharpsburg, Maryland. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Shepherd College (Shepherdstown, WV), a Master of Music in Conducting from the Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA), and a Ph.D. in Music Education from The University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She has taught choral and general music in public and private schools, and music education courses at Shepherd, Shenandoah, and UNCG. A strong proponent of the value of musical performance activities for people of all ages and ability levels, she has served as singer or conductor for many church music programs and community and professional theater groups. She has served as clinician, adjudicator, conductor, and/or composer for county and regional honors choruses in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Currently, Dr. Toole is on the education faculty at Shepherd University, and is the founder and artistic director of the Antietam Women’s Ensemble.

Savior of the nations, come;
Virgin’s Son, make Earth your home,
Marvel now, O heaven and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.

From the Godhead forth you came
And return unto the same,
Captive leading death and hell
High the song of triumph swell!

You, the chosen Holy One,
Have o'er death the victory won.
Boundless shall your kingdom be;
When shall we its glories see?

Brightly does your manger shine,
Glorious is its light divine.
Let not hate o’ercloud this light;
Ever be our faith so bright.

Opening Voluntary: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” George Lachenauer (1950)

VENI IMMANUEL was originally music for a Requiem Mass in a fifteenth-century French Franciscan Processional. Thomas Helmore (1811-1890) adapted this chant tune and published it in Part II of his The Hymnal Noted (1854).

George Lauchenauer studied at Muhlenberg College and Union Theological Seminary and is currently choir director at First Presbyterian Church in Roselle, New Jersey. Melody is from a Fifteenth Century French Processional.

Closing Voluntary: “On Jordan’s Bank” Charles Callahan (1951)

This piece is part of a collection of Advent hymn settings by Charles Callahan, well-known as an award-winning composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist, and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. He presently resides in Vermont, and is the Director of the Vermont Conservatory of Music.

John the Baptist's announcement "Prepare the way for the Lord" is the primary basis for this Advent hymn. Stanzas 1 and 2 apply that message to people today; stanza 3 is a confession by God's people of their need for salvation; stanza 4 is a prayer for healing and love; stanza 5 is a doxology. This much-loved Advent text is laced with various scriptural phrases.

Charles Coffin (1676-1749) wrote this text in Latin (“Jordanis oras praevia”) for the Paris Breviary (1736), a famous Roman Catholic liturgical collection of psalms, hymns, and prayers. Coffin was partially responsible for the compilation of that hymnbook. Latin remained the language of scholarship and of the Roman Catholic liturgy in the eighteenth century. Working in that tradition, Coffin was an accomplished Latin scholar and writer of Latin poems and hymns.

The English translation is a composite work based on a translation by John Chandler who published it in Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837). (Chandler thought it was a medieval text!) Since 1837, various hymnal editors have revised the text in attempts to bring the translation closer to Coffin's original.

Hymn of the Day: “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” ELW 634
Text: Edward Perronet, (1726-1792), sts. 1-4; J. Rippon, A Selection of Hymns, 1787, sts. 5-6
Music: CORONATION, Oliver Holden, 1765-1844

The first stanza of this hymn was printed anonymously in the Gospel Magazine (November 1779). Six months later the Gospel Magazine (April 1780) printed it again, this time with seven more stanzas by Edward Perronet (1726-1792) and the title "On the Resurrection, the Lord is King." The hymn appeared once more in A Selection of Hymns (London, 1787) by John Rippon (1751-1836). Many argue that the hymn has experienced continued popularity due to the hymn tune MILES LANE which appeared with it in Gospel Magazine and the tunes CORONATION and DIADEM which have accompanied the text since that time. The use of this hymn in various forms and many languages is very extensive. A rendering in Latin, "Salve, nomen potestatis," is given in Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871. In the number of hymnbooks in which it is found in one form or another, it ranks with the first ten in the English language.

Like MILES LANE, CORONATION was written for this text. Oliver Holden composed the tune in four parts with a duet in the third phrase. The tune, whose title comes from the theme of Perronet's text, was published in Holden's Union Harmony (1793). It is the one eighteenth-century American tune that has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity–from the singing schools of that era to today's congregational worship.

CORONATION is a vigorous marching tune with many repeated tones that delighted Holden's contemporaries. The tune requires the jubilant repetition of the last couplet of text for each stanza.

Holden was reared in a small rural community and had only a minimal formal education–a few months in a "common school" in Groton, Massachusetts. He worked as a carpenter and was involved in community service in Charlestown, holding posts in the Anti-Slavery Society and serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In addition he worked very profitably as a merchant and real estate dealer, and served as a Puritan lay preacher. Very interested in music, Holden became a composer and singing-school teacher in the tradition of William Billings. He was involved in publishing various tune books, including The American Harmony (1792), The Massachusetts Compiler (1795), Plain Psalmody (1800), and The Charlestown Collection of Sacred Songs (1803).

Offertory: "How Can I Keep From Singing" Sarah Quartel

How Can I Keep From Singing?" (also known by its first line "My Life Flows On in Endless Song") is an American folksong originating as a Christian hymn. The author of the lyrics was known only as 'Pauline T', and the original tune was composed by American Baptist minister Robert Lowry. The song is frequently, though erroneously, cited as a traditional Quaker or Shaker hymn and the song has often been attributed to "early" Quakers, but Quakers did not permit congregational singing in worship until after the American Civil War (and many still do not have music regularly). But learning it in social activist circles of the fifties and hearing Pete Seeger's (erroneous) attribution endeared the song to many contemporary Quakers, who have adopted it as a sort of anthem. It was published in the Quaker songbook Songs of the Spirit, and the original words, were included in the much more ambitious Quaker hymnal project, Worship in Song: A Friends Hymnal in 1996.

Canadian composer and educator Sarah Quartel is known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music. Deeply inspired by the life-changing relationships that can occur while making choral music, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor, and performer to audience. Her works are performed by choirs across the world, and she has been commissioned by groups including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Children's Chorus of the United States of America, and New Dublin Voices. Since 2018 she has been exclusively published by Oxford University Press, and she continues to work as a clinician and conductor at music education and choral events at home and abroad.

Opening Voluntary: “Chorale Prelude on Liebster Jesu, Wir Sind Hier,” Gerald Near (1942)

Gerald Near, an alumnus of the University of Michigan, has an extensive catalog of well-crafted, published, choral and organ music. His early position as choirmaster at Calvary Church, (an Anglo-Catholic parish) Rochester, Minnesota, afforded him the opportunity to hone his craftsmanship for the special choral requirements of that unique community of worshippers. Later, he was appointed a lay Canon Precentor (Director of Music and Organist) of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, Texas, before becoming composer-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John, Denver, CO. Currently he is a freelance composer, and Choral Director and Cantor at Holy Faith Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This beautiful, lyrical setting of “Liebster Jesu wir Sind hier” is one of my favorites. A Lutheran hymn with text by Tobias Clausnitzer in 1663, it is a prayer for illumination, regularly found in Protestant and Catholic hymnals, with German and English translations. The tune was composed by Johann Rudolph Ahle (1625 –1673), a German composer, organist, theorist, and Protestant church musician.

Closing Voluntary: Chorale Prelude on “Nun danket alle Gott” op. 65, no. 59, Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

Of his 66 Chorale Improvisations, this exultant march is one of Karg-Elert's most cherished works for the organ. It refers to the 17th-century text written by Lutheran hymnist Martin Rinkart, which in English is "Now thank we all our God," and it is widely used at this time of year. We also celebrated Karg-Elert's birthday this past Tuesday: November 21, 1877!

Hymn of the Day: “Voices Raised to You” #845
Text: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. (1923-2007)
Tune: SONG OF PRAISE, Caroline Jennings (1936)

This hymn was commissioned by the ALCM for its tenth anniversary and first sung on Reformation Sunday in the fall of 1996.

Rev. Dr. Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. lived most of his life in Gettysburg, PA. He served as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg and was the author of several books and numerous articles and lectures on preaching, history, and theology. He was also among the most honored and respected hymn writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Rev. Dr. Stuempfle was known for his leadership in community and civic projects. Always taking an active stance on social issues, he participated in the creation of day care centers, served on the Gettysburg interchurch social action committee, helped create and support prison ministries and a homeless shelter, and tutored young people in the after school program of Christ Lutheran Church, where he was a long time member.

Carolyn Jennings is a Professor Emerita of Music at St. Olaf College where she taught for many years and also served in administrative roles, including Chair of the Music Department and Associate Dean for the Fine Arts. She also served as a church musician for over thirty years, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Northfield, Minnesota.

Over many years she has been active in promoting the use of inclusive language in texts for singing, and has worked to heighten awareness of how language shapes as well as expresses thought.

Her compositions and arrangements include works for voices, orchestra, and piano. She particularly enjoys composing for voices.

Offertory: Song of Thanksgiving,” Malcom Archer (1952)

With a text by John Milton, paraphrasing Psalm 136, today’s anthem is rhythmic and joyful with fun syncopations.

Malcolm Archer is much in demand internationally as a conductor, composer and organist, and has given many recitals in the USA as well as conducting concerts and directing leading choral courses there. His career has taken him to several English Cathedrals as Director of Music, including Wells and St. Paul’s, and for eleven years he was Director of Chapel Music at Winchester College. He has over 250 published works, which include organ and choral works, a one act opera, instrumental and orchestral pieces and two musicals.

Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind;
For his mercies ay endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,
For of gods he is the Lord,
For his mercies ay endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

He the warm and golden sun
Causes in its course to run,
And the moon to shine at night,
mid her starry sisters bright.

All things living he doth feed,
his full hand supplies their need.
For his mercies ay endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

Opening Voluntary: Schmucke dich (Deck Thyself, My Soul) J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

This text is often considered the best and most popular of the Lutheran chorales for the Lord's Supper. The dominant tone is one of deep joy enhanced by a sense of awe. We express joy and praise for "this wondrous banquet" (st. 1), and we show reverence in receiving Christ (st. 2). Thankful for "heavenly food" and drink (st. 3), we rejoice in Christ's love for us and in its power to unite us (st. 4).

Johann Cruger composed the hymn tune specifically for the text. Johann S. Bach used this tune in his Cantata 180; he and many other composers have written organ preludes on the melody.

Closing Voluntary: Fanfare from Five Pieces for Organ, Healey Willan (1880-1968)

James Healey Willan was born on October 12, 1880, in Balham, Surrey, England. He had a wide experience as a composer of a full-length opera, a symphonic work, countless organ and choral works, as a music educator, a choral director, and a church musician. He played his first service at the age of eleven in 1891 and his last service on Christmas Eve, 1967, just two months before he died on February 16, 1968.

Having served churches in England, Willan left for Canada in 1913 to serve as organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Toronto as well as head of the Theory Department at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1921, he accepted the position of organist-choirmaster at St. Mary Magdalene Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish in Toronto, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. During his tenure there, Willan also accepted in 1938 the position of Professor in the Music Faculty at the University of Toronto.

Most of his hymn-based motets and organ preludes came into existence after his retirement from the University of Toronto in 1950, the most prolific compositional period of his life. Willan is probably best known for his sacred and liturgical music, especially that written for St. Mary Magdalene Church. His anthems, hymns, motets, mass settings, and carol settings contributed to his reputation as the “dean of Canadian composers.”

Written in 1959 for the dedication of a new organ in St. Matthew's Church, Ottawa, this festive piece recalls the joy of a congregation rejoicing in the sound of their new instrument.

Hymn of the Day: “Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers” ELW 244
Text: Laurentius Laurenti (1660-1722) tr. Sarah B. Findlater (1823-1907)
Tune: HAF TRONES LAMPA FARDIG, Swedish Folk Tune

Considered to be one of the finest hymn writers of the Pietistic period, Laurentius Laurenti wrote the text for this hymn based on the parable of the wise and foolish maidens (Matt. 25: 1-13). Stanzas 1 and 2 focus on the expected coming of the bridegroom; stanza 3 is a prayer for Christ's return to complete the work of redemption and to set his people free. Born Lorenz Lorenzen (1660-1722) in Schleswig, Laurenti studied at the University of Rostock and in Kiel. In 1684 he moved to Bremen, where he was appointed music director and cantor in the Lutheran Cathedral Church. He is a well known writer of German hymns in the Pietist tradition, and based most of his hymn texts on the gospel lessons for the church year. They were published in Evangelia Melodica (1700).

Sarah Borthwick Findlater translated the text into English and published it in Hymns from the Land of Luther (1854), a collection of 122 hymns translated by her (53 hymns) and her sister Jane. Findlater was a fine linguist, and as a translator of German chorales, she is considered second only to Catherine Winkworth. As an author, Sarah wrote fiction, juvenile works, music scores, anthems, and musical parts.

There are quite a number of different tunes published in combination with this text. In the ELW we find the setting, HAF TRONES LAMPA FÄRDIG, a Swedish Folk tune. It is one of the 3 most used.

Offertory: Awake My Heart and Render, Jane Marshall (1924- 2019)
Text: Paulus Gerhardt, Translation: Winfred Douglas

This marvelous anthem won the American Guild of Organists prize in 1958. It was and has continued to be a stalwart anthem of the church. The effect for morning, evening worship and any festive worship day is as thrilling as ever.

In the early 1950s, Jane Marshall was a young homemaker and Methodist church choir member, albeit one with an unusually strong music background. She decided to write an anthem. The grand slam result was “My Eternal King,” published in 1954 by Carl Fischer Music. It became one of that venerable sheet music company’s all-time bestselling anthems and remains popular with choirs across denominations.

Marshall would go on to write more than 200 anthems, hymns and other sacred music works. A revered figure among fellow United Methodist musicians as well as the broader church music world, she was one of the most sensitive and text-oriented hymn tune composers of the late 20th century.

Awake, my heart, and render
to God - thy sure defender,
thy maker, thy preserver
A song of love and fervor.

Confirm my deeds and guide me:
my day, with thee beside me -
beginning, middle, ending -
will all be upward tending.

My heart shall be thy dwelling,
with joy and gladness swelling;
thy word, my nurture;
given to bring me on toward heaven.

Opening Voluntary: Schmucke dich (Deck Thyself, My Soul) J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

This text is often considered the best and most popular of the Lutheran chorales for the Lord's Supper. The dominant tone is one of deep joy enhanced by a sense of awe. We express joy and praise for "this wondrous banquet" (st. 1), and we show reverence in receiving Christ (st. 2). Thankful for "heavenly food" and drink (st. 3), we rejoice in Christ's love for us and in its power to unite us (st. 4).

Johann Cruger composed the hymn tune specifically for the text. Johann S. Bach used this tune in his Cantata 180; he and many other composers have written organ preludes on the melody.

Closing Voluntary: Fanfare from Five Pieces for Organ, Healey Willan (1880-1968)

James Healey Willan was born on October 12, 1880, in Balham, Surrey, England. He had a wide experience as a composer of a full-length opera, a symphonic work, countless organ and choral works, as a music educator, a choral director, and a church musician. He played his first service at the age of eleven in 1891 and his last service on Christmas Eve, 1967, just two months before he died on February 16, 1968.

Having served churches in England, Willan left for Canada in 1913 to serve as organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Toronto as well as head of the Theory Department at the Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1921, he accepted the position of organist-choirmaster at St. Mary Magdalene Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish in Toronto, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. During his tenure there, Willan also accepted in 1938 the position of Professor in the Music Faculty at the University of Toronto.

Most of his hymn-based motets and organ preludes came into existence after his retirement from the University of Toronto in 1950, the most prolific compositional period of his life. Willan is probably best known for his sacred and liturgical music, especially that written for St. Mary Magdalene Church. His anthems, hymns, motets, mass settings, and carol settings contributed to his reputation as the “dean of Canadian composers.”

Written in 1959 for the dedication of a new organ in St. Matthew's Church, Ottawa, this festive piece recalls the joy of a congregation rejoicing in the sound of their new instrument.

Hymn of the Day: “Jerusalem My Happy Home” ELW 422
Text: F. B. P., 16th cent.
Tune: LAND OF REST, North American traditional; arr. hymnal version

This hymn is five stanzas - #11, 2, 17, 21 and 6 - taken from a twenty-six stanza English hymn found in a manuscript in the British Museum, c. 1616, where it is headed “A Song Mad [sic] by F:B:P. To the tune of Diana." Behind it lies the medieval Latin Liber Mediationum (which also lies behind "Ah, holy Jesus”). In Julian’s Dictionary William T. Brooke discusses this hymn at length. He gives the Latin, all twenty-six stanzas by F. B. P., points to a corrupted nineteen-stanza version from The Song of Mary the Mother of Christ (1601), and suggests a prior common but now unknown source. He gives another version of the hymn from The Glass of vain-glorie (1585). It has forty-four stanzas, most of which relate to the new Jerusalem, F. B. P., and the Liber Meditationum, but some of which paraphrase the Song of Solomon (which prompted "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds"). The best guess about the initials F. B. P. is that they may denote a Roman Catholic priest, and the "tune of Diana" is equally unclear.

This "originally pentatonic tune" was paired with "O land of rest, for thee I sigh!" in the 1836 Appendix of Samuel Wakefield's shape-note tune book called The Christian Harp (Pittsburgh, 1832). As we have it, the tune is hexatonic but only slightly so: the fourth degree of the scale is used twice, once as a passing tone at measure 5 and once in a more accented fashion four notes from the end. The seventh degree is not present (E in this key that is otherwise F major), which gives the tune an open, rustic flavor. Herbranson linked his hymn with John Dahle's tune LUTHER SEMINARY, found in the Service Book and Hymnal (1958). In Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) it was paired with a more pensive tune by Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) called PERRY, for which Kevin Norris wrote a chorale concertato. In Evangelical Lutheran Worship it gets a third tune. More than the first two, LAND OF REST highlights the motion and physicality of the text. If one finds such things significant, it also has a compound background beat whose three can be seen as reflecting or underscoring the trinitarian Three in whose name the church baptizes.

Offertory Anthem: “And We’ll All Sing Hallelujah” Harold Stover

“O what are all my sufferings here compared to life above?" This Charles Wesley text is set to a sturdy tune by William Walker, compiler of shape-note books such as Southern Harmony. It celebrates our joining with the saints and finding eternal rest. The music has rhythmic drive and a real sense of jubilation.

And let this feeble body fail,
And let it faint or die;
My soul shall leave the realms of earth,
And soar to worlds on high;

Refrain:
And I’ll sing hallelujah and you’ll sing hallelujah,
and we’ll sing hallelujah when we arrive at home.

I’ll join the disembodied saints,
And find my long sought rest,
The happiness for which I long
And life among the blest. Refrain

O what are all my sufferings here,
Compared to life above,
With all the glorious heavenly host
To live with God in love? Refrain
Give joy or grief, give ease or pain,
Take life or friends away,
But let me find them all again
In that eternal day. Refrain

Communion Anthem: “O Quam Gloriosum” Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

Tomás Luis de Victoria was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. His surviving works, unlike that of his colleagues, are almost exclusively sacred and polyphonic vocal music, set to Latin texts. “O quam gloriosum” is an All Saints Antiphon to the Magnificat, Second Vespers, published in 1572.

O quam gloriosum est regnum,
in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes Sancti!
Amicti stolis albis, sequuntur Agnum,
quocumque ierit.

O how glorious is the kingdom
in which all the saints rejoice with Christ!
Clothed in white robes, they follow the Lamb,
wherever He goes.

Opening Voluntary: Land of Rest” Richard Proulx (1937 - 2010)

Richard Proulx was one of the most important composers of liturgical music in the twentieth century. Modern Liturgy Magazine called him the "most significant liturgical composer of the last twenty years." He has more than 300 published works, including congregational music in every form, sacred and secular choral works, song cycles, two operas, and instrumental and organ music.

Closing Voluntary: Sine Nomine, Arthur Hutchings (1906–1989)

Arthur James Bramwell Hutchings was an English musicologist, composer, and professor of music successively at the University of Durham and the University of Exeter. He wrote extensively on topics as varied as nineteenth-century English liturgical composition, Schubert, Purcell, Edmund Rubbra, and baroque concertos; but his most famous book was the Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos, published in 1948 and often reissued since. Among his other books are The Invention and Composition of Music and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century. His compositions include the Seasonal Preludes for organ, the overture Oriana Triumphans, the opera Marriage à la Mode, and the operetta The Plumber's Arms. Among his choral works are Hosanna to the Son of David, God is Gone Up, Grant Them Rest, and the Communion Service on Russian Themes. Hutchings served for many years as a director of the English Hymnal Company and three of his tunes were included in the 1986 New English Hymnal.

With our music this Reformation Sunday we celebrate with a service filled with music sung corporally, beginning with the German Singmesse and including the Offertory anthem, with verses 1 and 3 to be sung by all. So, today we are all members of the Choir- enjoy!

Today’s Choral Service Music: The German Singmessse or Liedmesse

In western Europe before the Reformation, cathedrals in cities and the larger churches in towns had choirs, often made up of schoolboys, that could sing the congregation’s parts of the Latin High Mass for the main services on Sunday and feasts.

But in small villages and the smaller churches in towns and cities, a choir was not always available. It became customary for the priest and the altar server to say all the parts of Low Mass quietly, in Latin, facing East away from the people, behind the rood screen, while the people did… whatever.

The people were still expected to attend Mass every Sunday. They could meditate, say prayers, or sing hymns while the priest said Mass, and if they could read and afford to buy them, Primers were popular books to aid individual devotions in some areas, such as England.

But in Germany, it became customary, as early as the 12th century, for the congregation to sing specific hymns that paraphrased, in German, the main unchanging songs of the Mass (Kyrie Eleison, Gloria in Excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) while the priest said them in Latin. This was the type of service that Dr. Luther was writing about in Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdeinsts (German Mass and Order of Divine Service) in 1526. This practice remained the custom even in Roman Catholic parishes in German-speaking countries even into the 20th century and is still influential in the worship of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

During the reformation era, Protestant pastors saw this as a quick way to transform the Mass into language that the ordinary people could understand, and if they had musical talent, as many did, composed German hymns in this genre. Several of these hymns can be found, translated into English, in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

Kyrie (Lord have mercy) Hymn 409

Kyrie! God, Father in Heaven Above is set to the tune Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, adapted from a 9th century Gregorian chant in the Latin Mass II Fons Bonitatis Pater Ingenite for solemn feasts. The German hymn was published in Wittenberg in 1541 and might be by Pastor Johann Spangenberg (1484-1550)

Gloria (Glory to God in the Highest) Hymn 410

All Glory be to God on High is set to the tune Allein Gott in der Höhe sei Ehr adapted from a 10th century Gregorian chant in Latin Mass I Lux et Origo for the Easter season. The German hymn was published in Brunswick in 1523 by Pastor Nikolaus Decius (1485-1550).

Credo (We believe in one God) Hymn 411

We All Believe in One True God is set to the tune Wir Glauben All an Einen Gott adapted by Dr. Luther. and his music publisher Johann Walter (1496-1570) in 1524 from a 14th century tune. It was later included in Deutsche Messe 1526.

Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Hymn 868

Isaiah in a Vision is set to the tune Jesaiah dem Propheten adapted by Dr. Luther from an 11th century chant (Mass XVII for Sundays in Advent and Lent?) and published in Deutsche Messe 1526.

Lord’s Prayer Hymn 746

Our Father God in Heaven Above is set to the tune Vater Unser in Himmelreich. Dr. Luther wrote the words with a different tune in mind, but printer Valentin Schumann (1520-1559) published it with this tune in 1539. The hymnal version was shortened to four verses from nine. The longer version is Hymn 747.

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Hymn 357

Lamb of God, Pure and Sinless is set to the tune O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig adapted by Pastor Nikolaus Decius from a 13th century chant in 1525.

— Tom VanPoole

Hymn of the Day: “Salvation unto Us Has Come” ELW 590
Text: Paul Speratus (1484-1551)
Tune: ES IST DAS HEIL, Etlich christlich Lieder, Wittenberg, 1524

This hymn by Paul Speratus was published in what is sometimes called the first hymnal of the Reformation, Etlich christlich Lieder (the "Achtliederbuch," 1524). One of the oldest "Lutheran" hymns, Speratus probably wrote it in 1523 when he was jailed at Olmütz for his evangelical preaching. In the "Achtliederbuch" it had fourteen stanzas and was headed "A hymn of law and faith, powerfully expounded by holy scripture." "Powerfully expounded by holy scripture" referred to two pages of smaller print that followed the hymn. There "reports from scripture" about how the hymn "was grounded on all sides" were given in sets of biblical references, one set for each of twelve of the fourteen stanzas. Brief comments formed a kind of study guide.

The hymn was one of the Lutheran Kernlieder- central "kernel" or "core" hymns-for more than a century after the Reformation, but there have been those, especially but not only among Rationalists and Pietists, who have regarded it as didactic rhymed doctrine and not a hymn at all. It certainly sets out the essence of things from the very outset. With its point of departure Romans 3:28, it says clearly that salvation has come to us by God's free grace and favor.

Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) printed stanzas 1, 3, 5, 10, and 13 from Speratus's original German. Evangelical Lutheran Worship prints one additional stanza and uses 1, 2, 6, 10, 13, and 14 from the original. Both translations make modifications, but they rely on The Lutheran Hymnal (1941), which relied on the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1912). It should be noted that stanza 13, now stanza 5 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship's numbering, begins with doxology. Hymnals, like Lutheran Book of Worship, have tended therefore to make it final, but its last three lines begin the Lord's Prayer. The hymn is thus incomplete without Speratus's final stanza, which is the rest of the Lord's Prayer in a metrical version. Evangelical Lutheran Worship wisely included Speratus's last two stanzas. They complete and contextualize what goes before them, and they modify criticism. Doxology and the Lord's Prayer cannot be construed as didactic rhymed doctrine. When they are present the rest of the hymn finds its focus in God and not in human systems.

Paul Speratus was born near Ellwangen in Württemberg, Germany. He probably is the person who in 1503 went to the University of Freiburg as "Paul Offer de Ellwangen." His name was either Offer (or Hoffer) before he Latinized it to Speratus. He also studied in Paris and Vienna, earning doctorates in philosophy, Jurisprudence, and theology. In 1506 he was ordained a priest and faithfully served for the next twelve years or so in Salzburg, Dinkelsbühl, and Würzburg. He even wrote a hymn text praising Johann Eck, who in 1518 opposed Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Around 1519 Speratus began to adopt evangelical views. One of the first priests to break his vow of celibacy, he married Anna. Forced to leave Würzburg, he enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1520 and earned one of his degrees, Doctor of Divinity, there. On January 12 of 1522 at the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna he preached a sermon supporting marriage and justification by grace through faith. The faculty of the University of Vienna condemned him. He went to Moravia, where he continued to preach about justification. This time it got him imprisoned at Olmütz for three months on bread and water and almost burned at the stake. He went to Wittenberg in 1523, where he helped Luther with the "Achtliederbuch" and translated Luther's Formula Missae into German. In 1525 he became court preacher in East Prussia for Duke Albrecht, in 1526 helped formulate the Kirchenordnung (the liturgy and regulations) for East Prussia, and from 1530 to the end of his life was a devoted and faithful bishop in poverty-stricken Pomerania So far as is known, this is one of only five hymn texts he wrote.

This tune was one of four printed in the Etlich christlich Lieder (the "Achtliederbuch,"1524). It was paired with two texts there, Paul Speratus's hymn (ELW 590), for which it is named, and Martin Luther's (ELW 263) paraphrase of Psalm 22, "Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darin." Also in 1524 it was printed in Walter's Geistliche Gesangbüchlein and in the Erfurt Enchiridia. Its composer is unknown. It probably was in circulation by the fifteenth century and can be found in later Catholic hymnals with the text "Frue dich, du werte Christenheit."

This is a tune in bar form, with potent but graceful drive. Without alterations, as given in Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder (1889-1893), it is Mixolydian. However, the G sharps and C sharps in Evangelical Lutheran Worship were inserted already in the sixteenth century. The version we sing today is a more original rhythmic version.

Offertory: “God Whose Giving Knows No Ending” David Cherwien (1957)

First of all, many thanks to Nathan Bastuscheck for sharing his music with us today!

C. Hubert H. Parry's RUSTINGTON was first published in the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book (1897) as a setting for Benjamin Webb's "Praise the Rock of Our Salvation." The tune is named for the village in Sussex, England, where Parry lived for some years and where he died. This distinguished melody has been paired with at least 35 texts. “God Whose Giving Knows No Ending” by Robert L. Edwards (1915-2006) is probably the most popular pairing.

This celebratory anthem of praise is commissioned from David Cherwien, celebrating RELC’s 75th Anniversary and dedicated to the Choir and Roy Guenther, Organist/Choirmaster.

Opening Voluntary: Sonata op.65 No. 6, Chorale and Variations 1-3 on "Vater unser im Himmelreich," Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

The organ music of Felix Mendelssohn represents an approach gesturing not towards the future but towards the glorious past of German composition and the work of J.S. Bach in particular. (Liszt once called him “Bach reborn.”) The stark dissimilarity in compositional approach between Mendelssohn and Liszt was heralded by the coolness of their personal relationship, manifested for instance at a soirée when Mendelssohn drew a picture of Liszt playing the former’s music with five hammers, rather than fingers, on each hand. (This somewhat childish action is perhaps understandable given Liszt’s description of preceding events: “The truth of the matter is that I only played his Concerto in G minor from the manuscript, and as I found several of the passages rather simple and not broad enough…I changed them to suit my own ideas.”) Inherently conservative in character, Mendelssohn formed a profound aversion to the iconoclastic work of Liszt and kindred spirits such as Berlioz, of whose work Mendelssohn remarked: “one ought to wash one’s hands after handling one of his scores.” Mendelssohn was undoubtedly a Romantic composer, but his Romanticism was often of the Biedermeier kind; he was capable of composing dramatic and inventive works such as the Hebrides Overture, yet his individual musical poetry emerged perhaps most strongly in miniatures such as the Songs without Words for piano and in those works (e.g. the Quartet in F minor) wherein he recaptured the youthful genius that had burst forth so forcefully in the Octet and Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture.

Mendelssohn’s posthumous reputation in the country of his birth suffered from Wagner’s pen (this time through the faintest of praise rather than vitriol) and, in due course, the Nazi regime’s efforts to expunge his name from musical history. In England, where Mendelssohn had made a strong impression on musical life over the course of ten visits, his stock remained considerably higher. Mendelssohn enjoyed particular success with his organ recitals in the late 1830s and early 1840s, leading the publishers Coventry and Hollier to commission a set of six “voluntaries” from him in 1844. The planned voluntaries soon became Mendelssohn’s six Organ Sonatas Op 65, with the term sonata here implying the Bachian sense of the term—i.e. suites of varied pieces which are played instrumentally, as opposed to sung cantatas—rather than works exhibiting classical sonata form. The Organ Sonata No 6 in D minor (1845) demonstrates Mendelssohn’s consummate craftsmanship and mastery of organ texture in a set of variations upon the Lutheran Bach chorale Vater unser im Himmelreich (BWV416). Following a five-part harmonisation of the Chorale, which pervades the sonata as a whole, Mendelssohn presents four variations of increasing brilliance before a restatement of the Chorale. Today’s Closing Voluntary is the final variation. The sonata concludes with a substantial fugue and the finale in D major, whose quiet religiosity symbolises the completion of a journey from stern Lutheranism to an essentially English brand of sentiment. In this work and its companion sonatas, Mendelssohn revitalised the then-moribund European organ tradition, spurred English organ-builders to new heights, and, through his particular blend of chorale, counterpoint and domestic spirituality, substantially augmented the organ repertoire for the first time since Bach. Musing on his passion for structural innovation, Liszt once remarked that “new wine demands new bottles”; Mendelssohn here demonstrates the continued potency of an older brew.

Closing Voluntary: “Ein feste Berg,” David Cherwien (1957)

David Cherwien, artistic director of the National Lutheran Choir, is a nationally known conductor, composer, and organist. Recognized for his contributions to the field of church music and liturgy, he is in demand as a clinician and hymn festival leader across the country.

Hymn of the Day: “Sing Praise to God the Highest Good” (ELW 871)
Text: Johann J. Schütz, 1640-1690; tr. Francis E. Cox, 1812-1897, adapt.
Tune: LOBT GOTT DEN HERREN, IHR, Melchior Vulpius (1570-1615)

Johann J. Schütz wrote this hymn text in nine stanzas and published it in his Christliches Gedenckbüchlein, zur Beförderung eines anfang-endes neues Lebens (Frankfurt, 1675). Almost two centuries later Frances E. Cox (1812-1897) translated the first eight stanzas. They were published in Lyra Eucharistica (1864), which Orby Shipley edited. In her own Hymns from the German in the same year (1864), Cox left out the eighth stanza (and made a slight change at the beginning of stanza 5: “But through” to “Throughout”. Four years later the Church Book (1868) used her first, second, fourth, and seventh stanzas, altering one word: “my” to “me” in the third stanza. Evangelical Lutheran Worship uses her first, third, fourth, and eighth stanzas with substantial modifications, among them addressing God to avoid third-person male pronouns and using the third-person plural for humanity. Cox’s translation began “Sing praise to God Who reigns above” Catherine Winkworth (#241) also made a translation. It began “All praise and thanks to God most high” in Lyra Germanica, second series (1858) and her Chorale Book for England (1863). A composite version of nine stanzas, probably by August Crull (#323), began “To God the Father of all love” and was included in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book (1889). The conflations and modifications have produced multiple first lines, making it not easy to find.

Johann Jacob Schütz was born in Germany at Frankfurt am Main. He studied law at Tübingen University and became a lawyer in his hometown. A learned man of piety, he was a friend of Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705), the champion of Pietism. He suggested to Spener that he begin his prayer meetings, called “Collegia Pietatis.” Joachim Neander was part of the same circle. Like Neander, Schütz separated himself from Lutheran worship and stayed away from communion. Also like Neander in his “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, Schütz in this hymn shows none of his separatism, but wrote a potent catholic hymn of praise. Five of his hymns were included in his Christliches Gedenckbüchlein, and he also wrote Christliche Lebensregeln (1677).

Frances E. Cox was born at Oxford, England, the daughter of George V. Cox. She became a skillful translator of German hymns. John Julian says forty-nine of her translations were published in her Sacred Hymns from the German (London, 1841) and the number increased to fifty-six (the number I also count) with revisions and notes in her Hymns from the German (1864). C. T. Aufdemberge says her translations number eighty.

LOBT GOTT DEN HERREN, IHR

This is one of the dance-like tunes by Melchior Vulpius. It gets its name from an Epiphany hymn of Joachim Sartorius (c. 1548-1600) that is based on Psalm 117 and for which Vulpius wrote it, “Lobt Gott den Herren, ihr Heiden all.”; Vulpius published it with that hymn in his Ein schön geistliche Gesangbuch (Jena, 1609).

A bar-form tune that swings along with a three-phrase group in the Aufgesang and leads nicely
to the repeated line “To God all praise and glory,” it is a most fitting match for this text. The
wedding of the two seems quite recent, however, possibly first in the Evangelical Lutheran
Hymn Book with Tunes (1912).

Offertory: “Cantate Domino,” Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)

Born at Nuremberg, Germany, he came from a family of famous musicians and received early education from his father. He then studied in Venice, Italy, with Andrea Gabrieli, uncle of Giovanni Gabrieli, his friend, with whom he composed a wedding motet. The uncle taught him to play the organ. He learned the polychoral style and took it back to Germany after Andrea Gabrieli’s death. He was a prolific composer but found his influence limited, as he was Protestant in a still heavily Catholic region. A Lutheran, he composed both for Roman Catholic liturgy and for Lutheran churches. He produced two volumes of motets, a famous collection of court songs, and a volume of simpler hymn settings. He published both secular and religious music, managing to compose much for the Catholic church that was also usable in Lutheran settings. Hassler was not only a composer, but also an active organist and a consultant to organ builders. Hassler stepped into the world of mechanical instrument construction and developed a clockwork organ that was later sold to Emperor Rudolf II. Hassler is considered to be one of the most important German composers of all time. His use of the innovative Italian techniques, coupled with traditional, conservative German techniques allowed his compositions to be fresh without the modern affective tone. His songs presented a combined vocal and instrumental literature that did not make use of the continuo, or only provided it as an option, and his sacred music introduced the Italian polychoral structures that would later influence many composers leading into the Baroque era.

Cantate Domino canticum novum; cantate Domino omnis terra
Cantate Domino, et benedicite nomini ejus; annuntiate de die in diem salutare ejus
Annuntiate inter gentes gloriam ejus; in omnibus populis mirabilia ejus
Quoniam magnus Dominus, et laudabilis nimis: terribilis est super omnes deos

Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

Opening Voluntary: “You Satisfy the Lonely Heart” Charles Callahan

Robert E. Kreutz (1922-1996) carefully crafted BICENTENNIAL for this text GIFT OF FINESTWHEAT in Denver, Colorado, in 1976. Kreutz received a bachelor’s degree from the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago, and a master’s degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He also studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg, Leo Sowerby, and Norman Lockwood. A resident of Golden, Colorado, Kreutz worked for many years for the Gates Rubber Company as a development engineer and also directed the choir at St. Bernadette Church in Lakewood, Colorado, for more than twenty-five years. He published some three hundred choral and instrumental compositions, including many psalm settings and other liturgical music.

Charles Callahan is a well-known composer, organist, choral conductor, pianist and teacher. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Closing Voluntary: “Gather Us In” John H. Behnke (1953)

The composer of the tune GATHER US IN, Marty Haugen (b. 1950) is perhaps the most prolific and influential composer of liturgical music of his generation. His hymns, psalm settings and paraphrases, services set to music, and anthems are widely used in both Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations around the world. “Gather Us In” (1982) represents Mr. Haugen’s skill both as a poet and composer. Mr. Haugen describes his inspiration for this hymn in an e-mail: “‘Gather Us In’ was written after I first heard the wonderful [former Jesuit Dutch theologian and poet Huub] Oosterhuis (b. 1933) text ‘What Is This Place?’ I wanted to craft something that might say a similar message to North American ears. I deliberately wrote it in second person to avoid gender issues and to more directly sing ‘to’ God rather than ‘about’ God. Ironically, that has been at times a problem for some, who would like God more carefully circumscribed and named.”

Dr. John A. Behnke enjoys composing and arranging having nearly 500 compositions in print with nineteen different publishers in the United States, Germany, and Taiwan. He is Emeritus Professor of Music at Concordia University, where he taught for 29 years. He was the organist and choir director at Historic Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee, from 1990 until 2019, and the director of the Milwaukee Handbell Ensemble and Music Editor of AGEHR Publishing – Handbell Musicians of America from 2003 until 2019.

Hymn of the Day: “Now We Join in Celebration” ELW 462
Text: Joel W. Lundeen (1918-1990)
Tune: SCHMÜCKE DICH, Johann Crüger (1598-1662)

This hymn text by Joel W. Lundeen was included in Contemporary Worship 4: Hymns for Baptism and Communion (1972). Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) made modifications in the second and third stanzas, and this version appears also here.

Joel Waldemar Lundeen was born in China, where his parents were missionar-is. He studied at Augsburg College and MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis, Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Union Seminary in New York, and the University of Chicago. A pastor and musician, he was the director of the library and church archivist at Augustana Seminary, director of the library at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and in 1967 became archivist for the Lutheran Church in America. Before that, from 1957 to 1962, he was the secretary of the Commission on Worship of the Augustana Church, and in 1986 his Index to Luther's Works was published.

Johann Crüger composed SCHMÜCKE DICH for Johann Franck's text, “Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness”, and first published the tune as a setting for Franck's first stanza in Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien. The tune name is the incipit of the original German text. Johann S. Bach used this tune in his Cantata 180; he and many other composers have written organ preludes on the melody, including Sigfrid Karg-Elert, whose Chorale Improvisation setting we hear today.

Offertory Anthem: “Rejoice in the Lord,” K. Lee Scott (1950)

"Rejoice in the Lord Always" is almost a direct quotation of Philippians 4:4-7. The apostle Paul's encouragement to rejoice always, regardless of our circumstances, is an exhortation we sing cheerfully to each other in this song.

K. Lee Scott is widely considered one of America’s top composers of church music. His hymns appear in eight hymnals, and he has published more than three hundred compositions. His compositions include anthems, hymns, and works for solo voice, organ, and brass, plus major works including a Christmas Cantata and Te Deum. He has been published by more than a dozen publishers. In 1995, he was commissioned by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and Choristers Guild to compose a hymn setting for their convention in San Diego.

In addition to his compositional success, Scott is internationally known as a teacher, musician, and conductor. He has taught on the music faculties at the University of Alabama School of Music, the Samford University School of Performing Arts, and The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Music. He is a frequent guest conductor and clinician in the United States, Canada, and Africa.
Scott received two degrees in choral music from the University of Alabama School of Music.

4Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. 5Make your forbearance known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6Have no anxiety about anything; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your prayers known unto God. 7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Opening Voluntary: “Chorale Improvisation on ‘Schmucke Dich’” S. Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

The composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert is well-known to organists and flautists on account of his substantial contributions to these instruments' repertoires. His music is colorful and impressionistic, but he also drew on the established ways of writing music, including works for organ based on Lutheran chorales (hymn tunes).

Closing Voluntary:“Vineyard Haven” ("Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart”), Robert J. Powell (1932)

Today we can indulge ourselves when singing E. H. Plumptre’s text "Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart" to one of our great twentieth-century hymn tunes, VINYARD HAVEN, composed by Richard Dirksen in 1974 for this text as a processional choral anthem for the installation of Presiding Bishop John Maury Allin at the Washington (D.C.) Cathedral, also known as the National Cathedral. VINEYARD HAVEN was first published as a hymn tune in Ecumenical Praise. Dirksen wrote that the quality of rejoicing was intended to foreshadow the raising of "such 'Hosannas' forever in [God's] presence and with the company of heaven in the life eternal." The tune is named after the town on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where the Very Reverend Francis B. Sayre, Jr., who was then Dean of Washington Cathedral, had his permanent home.

Robert J. Powell earned his Bachelor of Music in Organ and Composition from Louisiana State University in 1954 and his Master of Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, New York in 1958. He holds Certificates of Fellow (FAGO) and Choirmaster (ChM) from the American Guild of Organists and is a member of American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers( ASCAP). He has received the Standard Music Award from ASCAP for the last 35 years.

Hymn of the Day “Thine the Amen” ELW 826
Text: Herbert F. Brokering (1926)
Tune: THINE, Carl F. Schalk, (1929-2021)

Herbert Brokering wrote this hymn text at Holden Village, the retreat center for renewal in the Cascade Mountains near Chelan, Washington. It was the tenth hymn he wrote in as many days in the summer of 1981. Each morning Walter Bouman led a Bible study, and on the following morning it was reviewed through the singing of a hymn by Brokering, who said, "We sang each study the following morning. This hymn is on the great eucharistic theology in Revelation. It was to be a then to the now." The "Now" refers to Jaroslav Vajdas "Now the silence". The hymn comes to Evangelical Lutheran Worship through With One Voice (1995).

At this same Holden Village summer session in 1981, Carl Schalk was the composer for Brokering's hymns. He remembers the schedule like this. "After each morning's Bible study by Walter Bouman, Herb Brokering would fashion a new text, which he had to have finished by about noon that day. I had to write a tune and accompaniment by about three in the afternoon since I had to get it to the print shop, which closed at four in the afternoon, for duplication so we could use it the following morning. This pattern continued each day for two weeks.” One day Schalk mentioned to Brokering that since he (Schalk) had set a text by Jaroslav Vajda called “Now" that Brokering might write one called "Then." Within a day or so Brokering "had written a text in which almost each line began with 'Thine. Thus the idea of Then' became ‘Thine.' The tune was published with this text as an anthem in 1983 and in Christians, Awake! A Hymn Supplement (1989). It appeared in the same year in The Carl Schalk Hymnary (1989), where it was called THEN. The name was subsequently changed to THINE.

The life of Dr. Carl F. Schalk is certainly one of the clearest and longest proclamations of the Gospel ever heard in the world of Lutheran church music. He was a beloved husband, father, musician, writer, composer, and fervent advocate of the Lutheran Church. His music, his faith, and his song continue to live and remain with the Church. What a precious gift for people in the present and for generations to come!

The Choir Anthem is an arrangement of today’s Hymn of the Day.

Thine the amen thine the praise
alleluias angels raise
thine the everlasting head
thine the breaking of the bread
thine the glory thine the story
thine the harvest then the cup
thine the vineyard then the cup
is lifted up lifted up.

Thine the life eternally
thine the promise let there be
thine the vision thine the tree
all the earth on bended knee
gone the nailing gone the railing
gone the pleading gone the cry
gone the sighing gone the dying
what was loss lifted high.

Thine the truly thine the yes
thine the table we the guest
thine the mercy all from thee
thine the glory yet to be
then the ringing and the singing
then the end of all the war
thine the living thine the loving
evermore evermore.

Thine the kingdom thine the prize
thine the wonder full surprise
thine the banquet then the praise
then the justice of thy ways
thine the glory thine the story
then the welcome to the least
then the wonder all increasing
at thy feast at thy feast.

Thine the glory in the night
no more dying only light
thine the river thine the tree
then the Lamb eternally
then the holy holy holy
celebration jubilee
thine the splendor thine the brightness
only thee only thee.

Organ Voluntaries: IN DIR IST FREUDE, Paul Manz (1919-2009)

Paul Otto Manz was an American composer for choir and organ. As a performer, Manz was most famous for his celebrated hymn festivals. Instead of playing traditional organ recitals, Manz would generally lead a "festival" of hymns from the organ, in which he introduced each hymn with one of his famously creative organ improvisations based on the hymn tune in question. The congregation would then sing the hymn with his accompaniment. Many volumes of these neo-Baroque chorale prelude improvisations have been written out and published and are among his most famous organ works, played by church organists throughout the world. Today’s Voluntaries are two improvisations on IN DIR IST FREUDE.

The chorale tune, IN DIR IST FREUDE, was composed by Giovanni G. Gastoldi (1582-1609) who served as a deacon and singer in the chapel of the Gonzaga family in Mantua. Gastoldi composed a considerable body of court music, such as madrigals, and some church music, but he is best known for his Balletti, which influenced composers such as Monteverdi, Hassler, and Morley.

Hymn of the Day: “Oh, That the Lord Would Guide My Ways” ELW 772
Text:
Tune: EVAN (Havergal)

This is part of Psalm 119 as metricized by Isaac Watts, from his Psalms of David (1719). It is a good illustration of how Watts conceived his task, especially with this lengthy psalm of 176 verses. Let Watts speak for himself.

“Psalm CXIX. I have collected and disposed the most usefull Verses of the Psalm under eighteen different Heads, and form'd a Divine Song upon each of them. But the Verses are much transposed to attain some degree of Connexion. In some places among the Words, Law, Commands, Judgments, Testimonies, I have used Gospel, Word, Grace, Truth, Promises, &c. as more agreeable to the New Testament, and the Common Language of Christians, and equally answers the Design of the Psalmist, which was to recommend Holy Scripture.”

This is the "Eleventh Part," which Watts calls "Breathing after Holiness.” He wrote six stanzas. As Lutheran hymnals have tended to do since the Church Book (1868), Evangelical Lutheran Worship prints four stanzas.

William H. Havergal wrote this tune. It was included in his Old Church Psalmody (London, 1847) with Robert Burns's poem "O thou dread power, who reign'st above." Lowell Mason called it EVA in New Carmina Sacra (1850), where, in an altered version as it appears in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, it was the setting for "In mercy, Lord, remember me." In Cantica Laudis (1850) Mason called it EVAN. In Havergal's Psalmody and Century of Chants from Old Church Psalmody (1871) the tune is given at #54 as EVAN I (CM) in a 4/2, not a 3/2 version. A note on page xix indicates it is the first two and last two phrases of Havergal's original melody. The full original is given at #77 as EVAN II (CMD). In the note Havergal says, "'EVAN,' framed by Dr. Lowell Mason of New York ... comprises only part of the original melody. As the American arrangement was a sad estrangement, I have reconstructed the tune after a more correct form. Why it was called 'EVAN' I know not. Still I do not approve of the tune.”

Offertory Anthem: “I Will Bow” Frederick Chatfield (1950)

This is a lovely little gem - simple and as graceful as the Shaker text.

Frederick Chatfield served as Director of Music and Organist of Christ United Methodist Church in Kettering, Ohio, a position he held for thirty years (1986-2016). Mr. Chatfield holds a Bachelor of Music in Organ from New England Conservatory in Boston (1972) and a Master of Arts in Religion (Music and Worship) cum laude from Yale University (1985) where he was named the 1985 Hugh Porter Scholar. His principle organ teachers have included Frank Mulheron, Charles Krigbaum, Miréille Lagacé and Thomas Murray. Mr. Chatfield was a faculty member of the Organ Academy of the American Guild of Organists, Dayton chapter and is a published composer. One of his great enjoyments is his 1982 BMW R100RS motorcycle which he restored in the spring of 2006.

I will bow and be simple, I will bow and be free,
I will bow and be humble, yea, bow like the willow tree.

I will bow, this is the token, I will wear the easy yoke,
I will bow and be broken, yea, I'll fall upon the rock.

Opening Voluntary: “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” Lani Smith

Anthony J. Showalter received letters from two friends who had lost their wives about the same time. He wrote back to express his sympathy, and included a verse of Scripture: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 KJV). As he thought about that text, he wrote the music and refrain to this hymn. He asked Elisha Hoffman to write the stanzas. The hymn was first published in 1887 in The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp, and Evangelistic Meetings, for which Showalter was an editor.

Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including"Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894).

Closing Voluntary: “Jubilate” Roy Douglas (1907-2015)

This is an original work for organ which is, as the title suggests, jubilant!

Richard Roy Douglas, better known as Roy Douglas, was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works such as Les Sylphides (the ballet, music based on piano pieces by Chopin) and Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, and wrote a quantity of original music.

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