Music Notes: May 19th, 2013

Pentecost Sunday

In these 50 days since Easter, each week that has gone by has brought us closer to the building of our Ark and the conclusion of the first phase of our Capital Campaign.  On Pentecost Sunday, we remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the earth.  In recognition and celebration of this occasion, the 9:00 AM and REJOICE worship services will be starting outdoors, with the congregation representing the Wind of Pentecost entering the church and encountering those choosing to stay inside.

Opening Hymn

God Of Tempest, God Of Whirlwind

At the 9:00 AM service, this hymn will function as a quiet introduction to the Pentecost rite before the outside wind enters.  Herman Stuempfle penned this hymn as an epic, energetic entrance to Pentecost.  Using words like “tempest,” “purge,” “burning,” “thunder,” and other powerful verbs and adjectives, it brings the fiery, lively nature of Pentecost to life.

Musically, the tune CWM RHONDDA comes from John Hughes, a composer and church musician of Welsh origin.  The syllabic underlay is the common 8787877.  The final 877 are sometimes broken down as 4477, with the fours and the sevens being the same words.  In Stuempfle’s hymn, only the sevens share the same text. 

Also characteristic is that the third sub-phrase repeats the first, and the fourth is developed from the second, in this case rising to a high D.  The second half switches to the dominant harmony, which is climaxed by a rising arpeggio on a dominant seventh chord.  All these characteristics create a strong tune that is easily singable and very much enjoyed.

Pentecost Hymn

Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading

Following the Pentecost Processional, all the choirs will surround the church and lead in the singing of this wonderful Swahili hymn.  This is a hymn of renewal that the Holy Spirit gives us.  Verses two and three will be sung by the children, as those words (“Come to teach us, come to nourish…”) are particularly appropriate to be heard from voices of that age.  The congregation will enter strongly on the refrain of verse three, and the closing stanzas will be sung joyfully by the entire congregation.

In order to perform this hymn as authentically as possible, it will be sung a capella being accompanied only by a djembe.

Hymn of the Day

All Are Welcome

The last time we sang this hymn, we were nearing a congregational vote in which we were deciding whether or not to begin a capital campaign.  It is only appropriate that we sing it again today on Commitment Sunday to bring our journey full circle.

As we move forward, the message of this hymn is crucial and important.  We want love to dwell, a place where saints and children gather, built from faith and grace, where the love of Christ shall end divisions.  Each stanza goes through a different portion of the fourfold pattern of worship, stanza one is the gathering, stanza two focuses on the word, stanza three on the meal, stanza four on the sending, and finally, stanza five as a strong conclusion.

Communion Hymns

For The Fruit Of All Creation

This hymn of thanksgiving was penned by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000), who was a British Methodist pastor and hymn writer.  While a majority of his most famous texts appear in the United Methodist Hymnal from 1989, we were lucky enough to have this lovely hymn spill over into the ELW.

While the majority of this hymn is thanking God for the gifts (nature or otherwise) that we have received from God, there are some very profound thoughts that close this hymn and our worship this Sunday.  “For the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us, most of all that love has found us, thanks be to God.”  Wow.  How true, yet how interesting it is to be thankful for things that are either too large or too awe-inspiring to comprehend.

Holy Spirit, Ever Dwelling

The composer of this hymn, Timothy Rees, was a Bishop of Llandalf in England.  He was actually the first Anglican see from Wales to be appointed to such a position.  In addition to his responsibilities there, he also composed several hymns, the one which we sing today is likely his most well known.

At the conclusion of Communion today, this hymn sends the Holy Spirit with us as we prepare to depart worship, with the line “Holy spirit, ever binding age to age and soul to soul, in communion never ending, you we worship and extol.”

Closing Hymn

Let All Things Now Living

If I were to play this tune for someone, it’s likely that they would describe it as “joyful,” or some other synonym of it.  What is fascinating is that this tune was made famous by Benjamin Britten in his setting of the poem called “The Ash Grove,” which is about a husband wandering through a meadow.  The poem unfolds to the end, where a revelation at the end of the song reveals that he is walking to his wife’s grave.

This hymn text by Katherine Davis is anything but sad.  This is a joyful hymn of thanks to the creator of all things.  God fashioned, made, and protected us, and still guides us to this day.  Stanza one also contains several Biblical references, including a reference to the pillar of fire in Exodus 12, guiding us along our way.  Our Pentecost service concludes with the line, “…with glad adoration a song let us raise ‘till all things now living unite in Thanksgiving to God in the highest hosanna and praise!”

Postlude

Fanfare on CWM RHONDDA – Paul Manz

Of all of Paul Manz’s wonderful organ improvisations, this one is likely the most well known and celebrated.  Quoting the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, it is a standard ritornello from with the tune displayed in its entirety throughout the piece.  The improvisation concludes with a final, glorious statement of the closing line of the hymn tune.