Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Youth and Adult Choirs; sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Worship at Home:

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Service Music:

Voluntary   Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565    Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Meditation on Peace like a river     Sondra Tucker, 2006

While the Voluntary is instantly recognized as “phantom of the opera” spooky music, this stereotyped association tends to obscure the brilliance of the composition. Long before it was used in films, video games and ringtones, it was transcribed and arranged for orchestra, band, piano, brass and other instruments (even marimba!). A theory exists that it may have been an arrangement by Bach of a lost violin piece; since the 1980s, scholars have been debating whether it is even by Bach at all. Various stylistic departures from the rest of Bach’s output are generally explained by it being an early work, based on the improvisatory forms of North German composers much studied and admired by Bach. Even if the music is by one of his predecessors, a listener can in any case imagine a teenage Bach pulling out all the stops and having fun with the massive chords, virtuosic use of the pedals, echo effects and startling dissonance.

Processional Hymn 518    Christ is made the sure foundation    Westminster Abbey

Gloria in excelsis S278     William Mathias (1934-1992)

Sequence Hymn 581    Where charity and love prevail    Cheshire

Offertory Anthem    The Spirit of the Lord    Philip Stopford (b. 1977)
Words from Isaiah 61

The spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives
And recovering of sight to the blind, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord,
To give unto them that mourn a garland of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
That they might be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord that he might be glorified.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
And as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before the nations.

Philip Stopford is a contemporary English composer who began his career as a youth chorister at Westminster Abbey, singing under Simon Preston and Martin Neary. His music is equally popular with American choirs as it is with English ones, due to his accessible yet thought-provoking compositional style. Our Youth Choir (along with the choir of St. James’s Church) will be premiering a new work by Philip at the Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival in October.

Sanctus S128    William Mathias

Fraction Anthem S166  Agnus Dei     Gerald Near (b. 1942)

Communion Anthem    Bread of the world, in mercy broken     John Abdenour (b. 1962)
Words: Reginald Heber (1783-1826), found at Hymn 301

Closing Hymn   Shall we gather at the river    At the River

Voluntary    Toccata Brevis    Daniel Gawthrop, 1985