Service Previews, Recordings & Sermons

Holy Eucharist Rite II at 10:30 a.m. sung by the Youth and Adult Choirs, sermon by Michael Corey.

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin – Sermon Text

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Service Music:

Voluntary    Prelude on Hyfrydol    Peter Niedmann (b. 1962)

Processional Hymn 390    Praise to the Lord, the Almighty    Lobe den Herren

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42, chanted by the choir; Taizé Antiphon

Sequence Hymn 568    Father, all loving, who rulest in majesty   Was lebet

Offertory Anthem    Dear Lord and father of mankind     Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918)
Words by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), found at Hymn 652

Influenced as a composer principally by Bach and Brahms, Parry evolved a powerful diatonic style which itself greatly influenced future English composers such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams. Parry joined the staff of the Royal College of Music in 1884 and was appointed its director in 1894, a post he held until his death. In 1900 he succeeded John Stainer as professor of music at Oxford University. His own full development as a composer was almost certainly hampered by the immense amount of work he took on, but his energy and charisma, not to mention his abilities as a teacher and administrator, helped establish art music at the center of English cultural life. The hymntune Repton is set in its original form in this anthem.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Motet   Ubi caritas    Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Words from the Maundy Thursday liturgy

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Exsultemus, et in ipso jucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Where charity and love are, God is there. Christ’s love has gathered us into one.

Let us rejoice and be pleased in him. Let us fear, and let us love the living God.

And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Ubi caritasis perhaps the best known work of french composer Maurice Duruflé, and the most moving and finely wrought harmonization of this ancient Gregorian Chant. The beautiful harmonies and repeated moment on the word “sincerity” make it a perfect reminder that God’s central message is one of love. The choir is busily preparing this composer’s Requiem for our concert on March 23rd.

Hymn in Procession 657    Love divine, all loves excelling    Hyfrydol

Voluntary    Fantasy on Lobe den Herren    Emma Lou Diemer (b. 1927)

Choral Evensong at 5:00 p.m. sung by the Choir School of Hartford, and the Choir of Trinity Church.

Click here for details.

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:

Click here: Service Bulletin – Sermon Text

Subscribe to St. John’s podcasts at PodcastPeople or on iTunes

Service Music:

Voluntary   Fanfare March    Thomas Donahue, 1991
Prelude on Slane     Robert Edward Smith, 1996

Processional Hymn 137    O wondrous type! O vision fair    Wareham

Gloria S280     Robert Powell (b.1932)

Sequence Hymn 488    Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart    Slane

Offertory Anthem   Christ whose glory fills the skies    T. Frederick H. Candlyn (1892-1964)
Words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788), found at Hymn 7

T. Fredrick H. Candlyn was a Briton who emigrated to the U.S. to undertake church music in New York, first at St. Paul’s, Albany and later at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. His style is in lines with the Wesley family and other very “tuneful” composers. One of his most beloved works, Christ, whose glory fills the skies uses a soaring melody for the first and final stanzas, while the second stanza is a completely different four-part texture. Text painting occurs at words such as “unaccompanied” when the organ stops playing.

Sanctus  S130    Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Fraction anthem S164    Jesus, lamb of God     Franz Schubert

Communion Motet    O nata lux    Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943)

O nata lux de lumine,                              O born light of light,
Jesu redemptor saeculi,                                Jesus, redeemer of the world,
dignare clemens supplicum                         mercifully deem worth and accept
laudes preces que sumere.                           the praises and prayers of your supplicants.
Qui carne quondam contegi                        Thou who once deigned to be clothed in flesh
dignatus es pro perditis,                              for the sake of the lost ones,
Nos membra confer effici,                            Grant us to be made members
tui beati corporis.                                         of your blessed body.

Morten Lauridsen was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.”  O nata lux, a text for the Feast of the Transfiguration, is certainly no exception.

Hymn in Procession 665    All my hope on God is founded    Michael

Voluntary     Fanfare     John Cook, 1952

Holy Eucharist Rite II with Imposition of Ashes at 7:00 p.m. sung by the St. John’s Schola, sermon by the Rev’d Susan Pinkerton.

Worship at Home:

Click here: Service Bulletin – Sermon Text

Subscribe to St. John’s podcasts at PodcastPeople or on iTunes

Service Music:

Voluntary   Choral Dorien    Jehan Alain (1911-1940)

Opening Hymn 143    The glory of these forty days    Erhalt uns, Herr

Offertory Anthem    Lay up for yourselves    Ned Rorem (b. 1923)
Words: Matthew 6: 20-21

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
And where thieves do not break through and steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Communion Motet   Ave verum corpus    William Byrd (1543-1623)
Words attributed to Pope Innocent VI (d. 1362)

Ave, verum corpus natum de Maria Virgine, vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine,
Cujus latus perforatum unda fluxit sanguine, esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.

Hail, true body born of the Virgin Mary, who truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed with blood, Be for us a foretaste in the test of death.

Closing Hymn 674    Forgive our sins as we forgive    Detroit

St. John’s Schola: Claudia Ayer, Anne Harney, soprano; Nancy Eaton, Nancy Skeele, alto; Scott Lamlein, Paul Smith, tenor; Martin Dodd, John Nowacki, bass