Musical Reflection
Sarabande for an Easter Morning, Herbert Howells

Sarabande for an Easter Morning was composed during May 1940. It was issued in 1953 as the second number in ‘Six Pieces for Organ’. The entire volume was dedicated to the organist and composer Herbert Sumsion. Howells wrote that “In 1940, after a severe illness, I found a new way of making use of convalescence. In those days and in that time, in sheer affection and admiration of Dr. Herbert Sumsion of Gloucester, I wrote this set of six pieces.” The Sarabande for an Easter Morning is written in the form of a Baroque stylized sarabande. All the ancient dance’s characteristics are present, including the slow majestic triple meter, accented first and second beats, regular four bar phrases and a melody characterized by considerable written out ornamentation. The chords are dense, giving the work a power and strength. Enjoy!

Hymn Of The Day
"I Know That My Redeemer Lives!" #619
Text: Samuel Medley (1738-1799) Tune: Duke Street, attr. John Hatton (1710-1793)

First published anonymously in Henry Boyd's Select Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes in 1793, DUKE STREET was credited to John Hatton in William Dixon's Euphonia (1805). Virtually nothing is known about Hatton, its composer, other than that he lived on Duke Street in St. Helen's and that his funeral was conducted at the Presbyterian chapel there. A sturdy and much loved tune, DUKE STREET has a generic resemblance to TRURO and to the African American gospel-style doxology.

Samuel Medley's hymn texts have been very popular in his own Baptist denomination, particularly among the more Calvinistic churches. Their charm consists less in their poetry than in the warmth and occasional pathos with which they give expression to Christian experience. This text is found in G. Whitefield's Psalms & Hymns 1775, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and in De Courcy's Collection, 1793, but in each case without signature. Medley included it in the London edition of his Hymns, 1800. In an abbreviated form it is in somewhat extensive use, and is easily known by the frequent repetition of the words "He lives!" The cento, "The Saviour lives, no more to die," is also popular; but that in the American Baptist Praise Book, 1871, "He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend," is limited in use. Both forms of the text are in common use in Great Britain and America.

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Musical Reflection
Rockingham (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)
Rosalie Bonighton (1946-2011)

Edward Miller (1735-1807) composed the tune, ROCKINGHAM, adapting it from an earlier tune published in 1780. ROCKINGHAM has long associations in Great Britain and North America with Isaac Watts' "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” The tune title refers to a friend and patron of Edward Miller, the Marquis of Rockingham, who served twice as Great Britain's prime minister. Miller was active in the musical life of the Doncaster region and composed keyboard sonatas and church music. ROCKINGHAM (or ROCKINGHAM OLD) is one of the finest long-meter tunes in the history of church music and is much loved by those who sing in harmony.

Born in Ballarat, Australia, Rosalie Bonighton was raised among organs as her parents ran an organ technician business. Bonighton's compositions consistently display a strong academic foundation and dedicated craftsmanship. Her musical style shows influences of plainchant modes, British and Celtic folk song, the richness and complexity of late German Romanticism, and more recently, the harmonies and rhythms of jazz.

Hymn of the Day
“There in God’s Garden”, #342
Text: Pécseli Király Imre, Translator: Eric Routley (1917-1982) Tune: Shades Mountain, K. Lee Scott (1950)

“There in God’s Garden stands the tree of Wisdom, whose leaves hold forth the healing of the nations.” Kiraly Imre von Pecselyi wrote these words sometime in the early 1600’s. Erik Routley translated them into English in 1976, and in 1987 K. Lee Scott put them to music in hymn #342. In this brief sentence we are taken from the Garden of Eden through the entire Bible to the book of Revelations. The tree of Wisdom which was temptation to Adam and Eve has been transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus into life and healing for all nations. The story of God with us is full of grace from the beginning into eternity.

K. Lee Scott is an internationally known teacher, musician, conductor and composer of sacred music, choral music and hymns, and resides in Birmingham, Alabama. Scott has been recognized, during the past twenty plus years, as one of America's foremost composers of music for the church. His hymns are published in eight hymnals. He has published over 300 compositions including anthems, hymns, works for solo voice, organ, brass, and major works.

Erik Reginald Routley was an English Congregational minister, composer and musicologist. He was educated at Lancing College and Magdalen and Mansfield Colleges in Oxford. He held positions in England as chaplain and minister before becoming Professor of Church Music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey in 1975.

His publications include critical and historical works on hymnody, church music and carols. Routley also wrote hymn texts, including the translation "There in God's garden stands the Tree of Wisdom” from the Hungarian hymn ‘Paradicsomnak te szép élö Fája’ (‘You beautiful living tree of Paradise’) by Pécselyi Király Imre (c.1585-c.1641). It was at that time, in Routley’s own words, ‘just about all that is yet available from Hungarian Protestantism’ (A Panorama of Christian Hymnody, 1979, p. 216). Routley translated this hymn, which is entitled ‘The Tree of Life’ as part of his editorial work on Cantate Domino, the World Council of Churches’ hymnal.