CROSSACCENTBook Editor: Paul Grime Copy Editor: Anne-Marie Bogdan Graphic Design: Kathryn Hillert Brewer Editorial Office Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen, Editor 1127 Magazine Road Green

Spring 2015 | CrossAccent 1

CROSSACCENTjournal of the association of lutheran church musicians vol 23, no 1 | sPrinG 2015

CrossAccent is published three times per year by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Subscription is included with membership in ALCM. Libraries may subscribe at $60 per year by contacting the Business Office. Copyright © 2015 Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

The views expressed on the pages of the journal are those of the authors and do not reflect official positions of the editorial board of the journal or of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians.

This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database®, a product of the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606, USA. e-mail: [email protected], www.atla.com.

ISSN 2151–1772

Editor: Jennifer Phelps OllikainenMusic Editor: Lara WestBook Editor: Paul GrimeCopy Editor: Anne-Marie BogdanGraphic Design: Kathryn Hillert Brewer

Editorial OfficeJennifer Phelps Ollikainen, Editor1127 Magazine RoadGreen Lane, PA [email protected]

Editorial BoardKent BurresonPaul Friesen-CarperJoseph HerlNancy RaabeStephen Rosebrock

Advertising OfficeCheryl Dieter, Advertising Coordinator810 Freeman St.Valparaiso, IN [email protected]

ALCM Business OfficeCheryl Dieter, Business ManagerAssociation of Lutheran Church Musicians810 Freeman St.Valparaiso, IN [email protected]

www.ALCM.org

The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians is a service and professional organization that works to strengthen the practice of worship and church music of all North American Lutherans. Membership is open to any person or institution whose interests are in harmony with the Associa-tion’s goals. Address all change of address, subscriptions, and business correspondence to the ALCM Business Office.

ALCM OFFICERSPresident: Anne Krentz OrganPresident-Elect: Julie Potts GrindleSecretary/Treasurer: Kevin BargerRegion 1 (Northeast) President: John Weit

Region 2 (Southeast) President: Sarah HawbeckerRegion 3 (Midwest) President: Linda Martin Region 4 (West) President: Kim CramerDirectors at Large: Scott Hyslop, Thomas Schmidt

PRELUDE 2 Editorial Comment—Jennifer Ollikainen

TAKENOTE 3 A New Life and New Hope: The Center for Church Music— Nancy Raabe

COUNTERPOINT 5 “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you”: Worship and Civic Festivals—Mark Oldenburg

11 Horn, Heart, Music, Word: Hannah’s Song and Venice after the Interdict of 1606—Paul Friesen-Carper

21 Faithful Christians, Conscientious Citizens: Independence Day and Assembly Song—Chad Fothergill

THANKYOU26 Thank you to our donors!

CHORUS28 The Reason Why We (Should) Sing!—Lamont Anthony Wells

BOOKREVIEWS31 The Answering Voice: The Beginnings of Counterpoint and Melodious Accord: Good Singing in Church, by Alice Parker— Matthew Machemer 33 Innovative Warm-Ups for the Volunteer Choir: Concepts to Improve Choral Sound, by Michael Kemp—Jonathan Busarow

34 Managing Music Ministry: Beyond Notes and Chords, by Stephen Petrunak and Randall R. Phillips—Nicole Busarow

SOUNDFEST 35 New Music

POSTLUDE 52 From the ALCM President-Elect—Julie Potts Grindle

Cover art: Childe Hassam, Just Off the Avenue, 1916

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The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phelps OllikainenEditor, CrossAccent

W e hold two realities in tension. Chris-tian worship exists in a particular time and place, situated within hu-

man culture. And Christian worship transcends time and place, proclaiming the grace of God in Jesus Christ beyond human limitations. We stretch this tension whenever our cultural and civic holidays or commemorations coincide with worship or when the community is struggling through political issues that have an impact on the members of our community and, therefore, the assembly gathered for worship.

In the midst of these tensions we must make choices about the content of worship. These are not easy choices because of the reality of our hu-man brokenness and struggle. What do you sing in Sunday worship the weekend your communi-ty celebrates American Independence Day? Will you sing African American spirituals born out of a history of and the ongoing reality of cultural oppression in a community that has not strug-gled under the weight of that oppression? Has our music for worship been co-opted by political disagreements or church politics?

We do best to hold the tensions and to practice intentional reflection lest we proclaim the brokenness of humanity louder than we proclaim the grace and wisdom of God that transforms our worship with salvation grace. We sing the hymn with patriotic images while recog-nizing that God does not show preference to one country. We celebrate the vocation of parents while resisting the cultural tendency to idolize the unattainable ideals of sentimental greet-ing cards. We sing the music of cultures other

than our own in an effort to include the breadth of musical gifts in the church while struggling with the cultural realities of the oppression that undergirds these styles and in which we often participate.

This issue of CrossAccent explores the struggle of preparing Christian worship in the messiness of human culture. Mark Oldenburg suggests five categories of civic observances and examines how each category may or may not be present within the worship of the Christian community. Paul Friesen-Carper observes how the Song of Hannah was used in the 17th-century Venetian church as a partner in the dance of authority be-tween the government and the church. Lamont Anthony Wells illustrates a practice that holds the tensions when African American spirituals and songs born out of oppression are utilized cross-culturally in congregations that have not experienced that oppression. Chad Fothergill offers a practical guide for choosing hymnody across three lectionary years for the first week of July, a time when most American congrega-tions grapple with the tension between gospel and patriotism.

As Oldenburg points out, the incarnational reality of Jesus Christ calls us to live redeemed in a broken world being transformed by God’s grace. Our songs of worship often both proclaim gospel and reveal cultural biases and struggles. Together we are called to intentional reflec-tion, conversation, and careful practice so that in the end the grace of God in Jesus Christ may transform our world, breaking it open with for-giveness, reconciliation, justice, and life.

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by Nancy Raabe

A ll it takes to change the world, or a small corner of it, is someone with a vision and the conviction to follow it through.

In 2010 the Center for Church Music (CCM) was established at Concordia Universi-ty Chicago (CUC) by two major gifts: Richard Hillert’s entire library of manuscripts and pub-lished compositions and Carl Schalk’s extensive collection of American Lutheran hymnals. Both were housed in the university’s rare book and manuscript room. Although the room was open to the public during library hours, relatively few took advantage of the opportunity to view and study these collections.

This puzzled Barry L. Bobb (a CUC grad-uate with additional degrees in church music and systematic theology), who began dreaming about what the Center could become. Step by step, his vision of a wide array of electronic and print resources uniting all American Lutheran church bodies has come to life. With support for the Center from the university and from donors across the country, Bobb assumed the role of vol-untary (unpaid) executive director in May 2013.

Soon after, an advisory group was estab-lished and a new website launched. Today the Center has taken wing as a remarkable resource through which the general public can become engaged with the vibrant legacy of Lutheran church music in America and with the forces and personalities that continue to shape it.

Facets of the Center currently include:• an expanding collection of manuscripts

and papers that now includes those of Carl Schalk, Jaroslav Vajda, Paul Manz, Walter Pelz, and Ralph Schultz, along with Paul Manz’s entire collection of tapes documenting his hymn festivals through the years;

• a series of monographs (published in part-nership with Lutheran University Press [LUP]) on people and subjects of great sig-nificance that long have been overlooked or never before properly represented in print; larger books are being released as well in col-laboration with LUP and MorningStar;

• an expanding array of important books and reference works devoted to church music; and

• the digitization (in partnership with Hymnary.org) of the vast Schalk hymnal collection; phase I is now complete (see the CCM website’s “Publications” section for

A New Life and a New Hope: The Center for Church Music

Center for Church Music Director Barry Bobb and compos-er Carl Schalk at the ceremony in June, 2014, marking the permanent loan of Schalk’s manuscripts to the Center.

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a link at the bottom to a page with coding by which these volumes may be located on Hymnary.org).The Center’s website (www.cuchicago.edu/

about-concordia/center-for-church-music/) ad-dresses every aspect of the Center’s activities and includes such sections as:• “Profiles in American Lutheran Church

Music,” a growing number of video inter-views with leading musicians and scholars; this area also features a series of essays by Victor Gebauer on foundational figures in American Lutheran church music history;

• two ongoing sets of essays, “Reflections” by Paul Westermeyer and “Perspectives” by Carl Schalk;

• “Conversations,” videos of noteworthy keynote speeches and presentations;

• “Discoveries,” edited by Scott Hyslop, which points readers to resources that are off the beaten track but that others have found to be useful tools for planning worship and music in Lutheran churches; and

• a continuing series of “Devotions on the Hymn of the Week” by a diverse array of writers.

From all this one can see that “growing” is a key word. “Things are constantly being added to all components of the Center,” Bobb said, “and more exciting plans are on the drawing board.” Representative of this dynamic expansion is the idea currently being explored for an open source digital initiative to scan and upload composers’ manuscripts so they can be viewed and studied online from any location.

To learn more about the Center for Church Music, investigate its website, subscribe to its electronic newsletter, and follow its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/centerforchurchmusic). Also, make plans to attend the in-depth work-shop on the Center being presented by Linda Kempke at ALCM’s biennial conference July 19–23 in Atlanta.

Nancy Raabe is Associate in Ministry at Luther Memorial Church, Madison, WI. ALCM members Nancy Raabe and Linda Kempke serve on the Center’s advisory group.

Concordia University past president John Johnson, Gloria Hillert, and Carl Schalk cut the ribbon to launch the Center for Church Music in October 2010.

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“Seek the wel-fare of the city where I have sent you”:1

Worship and Civic Festivals by Mark Oldenburg

F irst of all, two dreadful stories about times I have worshipped on a Sunday morning, July 4.

Dreadful story #1: At the end of a commu-nion service at which I was a supply preacher, what separated the blessing from the dismissal was the procession of four members of the youth group, dressed as if members of the armed forc-es of the United States and carrying American flags, while the congregation sang, “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Following the service, the organist noted that I hadn’t sung along and asked why. I said that I knew myself well, and that there were a number of things—my wife and my country foremost among them—that I loved so deeply that I needed constantly to work to make sure I feared, loved, and trusted God above them. It was clear that that notion had never occurred to her. Nor, of course, had the notion (which I did not mention) that “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” is for most of its length a hymn about worshipping a god other than God, and that singing such a hymn in worship is a practice for which Chris-tians have died rather than be forced to carry out. The church should not identify the gospel with any particular social cause—not love of country, not the value of labor, not parenthood. These goods are God-given and God-blessed, but they are not God. They can, however, easily be treated as if they were, if we are not careful.

Childe Hassam, The Fourth of July, 1916

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Dreadful story #2 is dreadful not because it is idolatrous but because it is docetist. Docetism denies the full, true humanity of Christ, at-tempting to remove him from the material world and attempting to remove the gospel from its cultural expression. That congregation did not take seriously its context. By ignoring Indepen-dence Day in the prayers—despite the fact that people were, in fact, spending the day attending to their country and its benefits—the assisting minister guaranteed that the prayers were not the prayers of the people. Because the sermon omitted any reference to how people would be spending the rest of the day, the preacher missed a golden opportunity to connect an important, valued expression of the people’s love on the one hand to God’s love for them on the other. It is dreadful because it is a waste.

How might a congregation, then, slip be-tween this devil and that deep blue sea? How to avoid both idolatry and docetism? That has been a struggle, and not just for our generation and nation. For some the struggle is slight, while for others it is painful. I’ve categorized civic festivals into five groups and offered some suggestions for worship planning, recognizing that different sit-uations can move a particular observance from one category to another.

Dreadful story #2: The town in which we va-cation every year is a Norman Rockwell dream, and we look forward to being there on Indepen-dence Day. The town parade consists of several hundred children (from birth to age ten) rid-ing their bikes and strollers decked out with red, white, and blue bunting following the volunteer fire truck, while the rest of the residents cheer from the sidewalks. After enjoying free snow cones on the largest lawn in town, people scat-ter for picnics and gather again later to watch the next town’s fireworks display. This particular July 4th fell on a Sunday and, before going to the pa-rade, my wife and I (and several toddlers already sporting red, white, and blue T-shirts) attended a church service in which Independence Day was completely ignored: no mention in the preach-ing, the prayers, or even the announcements.

Both of these are dreadful stories about times in which the churches concerned fell into inappropriate practice but in very different ways. Both practices are at least wasteful and at worst idolatrous. Both ignored the advice of Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1-23), from which comes the title of this essay. Jeremiah commanded the exiles neither to be completely assimilated into Babylon nor to ignore the place where they had been sent by God but rather to settle in as resident aliens, preserving their iden-tity but praying for the welfare of the city where they were. We can and should do no less!

Dreadful story #1 is dreadful because it tempts the church to give up its identity, to enter into idolatrous worship of the “city.” Ob-serving a national holiday in such a way within a church service implies that there is no differ-ence between God and nation and certainly no possibility of conflict. It makes of the state and its ideals (as beloved and generally beneficial as they are) a god that cannot be differentiated from the God we know in Jesus Christ. Not to mention the effect of that practice on any mem-bers of the assembly who are or were citizens of other countries. It makes something other than the paschal mystery—the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus—the center of our worship. It is dreadful not because it is tacky but because it is idolatrous.

Childe Hassam, Just Off the Avenue, 1916

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1. Churchy: These are festivals that have or-igins in the church and have obvious continuing connections with it. They would include, for in-stance, Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Day, as well as St. Patrick’s Day. Depending on how it’s observed, New Year’s Eve could also fit into this category, especially in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, where not only les-sons but a nicely edifying hymn (“Across the Sky the Shades of Night” [LSB 899; CW 60]) are included in recent hymnals. This category is an easy one for planners of worship since the ob-servance of these festivals fits so easily with the worship of God and the commemoration of the faithful departed.

2. Sales: These are observances that pro-vide many people with days off from work or school but that do not generally have power-ful resonance, even outside of the church. No matter their original intent, they seem present-ly primarily to be excuses for automobile dealers and other merchants to take out advertisements. Presidents’ Day is a prime example, as is Colum-bus Day in many places and years. This category is also generally an easy one for planners of wor-ship, since these holidays can be easily and safely ignored.

There are times and situations, howev-er, when these observances might move out of this category. Attention to the effect of Euro-pean migration on the earlier residents of the Americas, for instance, would lift Columbus Day into the Mythic category considered below (although it focuses on lament rather than cele-bration). In other places, since Columbus Day gained national recognition as a way for Ital-ian and Spanish immigrants to claim their own

The observance of these [churchy] festivals fits so easily

with the worship of God.

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place in the story of American origins (rather than be marginalized by the dominant Puritan/Anglo story incarnated in Thanksgiving), there may be contexts in which that original purpose would move the holiday into the Mythic catego-ry as well.

3. Developing: There are a number of obser-vances that are gaining strength and that may soon cry out for inclusion in the church’s wor-ship. Earth Day and the Remembrance of the Holocaust are certainly two of these, and Inter-national Women’s Day and International AIDS Day would also belong in this category. Patriots’ Day (observed in some New England states on April 19, the anniversary of the battles of Lex-ington and Concord) would not seem to belong, but April 19 is a date intentionally used in recent years for terrorist attacks by some antigovern-mental groups. (It was originally thought that the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 fell into this category, although it now seems that that was coincidental.) Days in this category might be observed with special ecumenical or inter-faith services and certainly should be included in building the prayers of intercession, but their

observance does not seem to be problematic. This is not true, however, of the final two categories.

4. Vocational: This category of obser-vances includes those days dedicated to particular callings in the world. While some of these (Grandparents Day, Nurses Day) seem simply to be excuses to purchase greeting cards, there are several that are profound enough to command attention from preparers of worship: Labor Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. Here we have the first examples of civic festivals powerful enough in their popularity to tempt planners to focus worship on something other than the paschal mystery. These are also festivals that run the danger of wounding those who are marginalized by them. They deserve to be treat-ed, therefore, with some care.

First, of course, they deserve a place in the general prayers. Prayers of thanksgiving for the vocations of parents (and not only biological parents) or of occupations are most certainly in order. But so are those for healing in relation-ships (for Mothers Day and Fathers Day) and for the unemployed and underemployed (for Labor Day). Pastoral sensitivity will dictate how one might include those who desire children but are not parents. There are, no doubt, petitions poor enough so that silence would be preferable, but these should be edited, not omitted.

Second, I would not recommend depart-ing from the lectionary for these occasions. Nor should these be reasons to depart from the plan-ners’ normal way of choosing hymns, anthems, and other music—please God, as means of pro-claiming the gospel and especially those facets of the gospel lifted up by the service’s Scripture readings. As always, however, pre- and post-ser-vice music is often less obviously connected to this task than music within the service itself.

Third, as always, the context of the day (of which these festivals are very much a part) will be part of the lens through which the preacher exegetes the texts. She or he will undoubtedly be sensitive to ways in which the themes of occupa-tion or parenthood are present in or illumine the readings.

And finally, the figure in the festival (mother,

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father, worker) may appropriately serve as an icon rather than a idol. That is, rather than be a distraction from the paschal mystery, that figure could very well be a metaphor exactly for that mystery. For instance, it is unarguable that each of us is alive because a woman gave birth to us, at considerable risk to her own health and even to her own life. This is true even if we have nev-er had any further connection with her or if the relationship has been strained. While it is not a perfect parallel to Christ, we understand Christ’s self-emptying ministry to us better because we have received a similar ministry from our bio-logical mothers. An icon, of course, must be a broken metaphor—that is, one that is obviously insufficient—but an icon will serve as a window into a greater love rather than serve as a com-petitor with that love. Thus we can appropriately

use human concepts to understand God, and many of these—father, mother, advocate, build-er, healer, teacher, and so on—are particularly appropriate on vocation festivals.

An additional vocational civic occasion that receives less attention than it deserves, both in-side and outside the church, is Election Day, a quintessential stewardship festival. Would that it had the cultural power of Mother’s Day! And would that churches would take the oc-casion, on the Sunday previous to elections, to

We are faithful residents, placed here by God to work for the benefit of our neighbors in this place.

Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857

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What one would not want to do, however, is to assert that love of our country and its ideals is either identical to or incompatible with love of the Triune God. We are resident aliens who have here no permanent city. But we are faithful resi-dents, placed here by God to work for the benefit of our neighbors in this place, deriving safety and prosperity from its structures. We are called to give thanks for it and to use the influence we have to improve it, even if we can never make it perfect. To ignore its festivals would be rob us of opportunities to give thanks and to deepen our experience of the gospel. The trick is to celebrate them in such a way as to proclaim the only true God. Our task is the one W. H. Auden called us to in the last lines of his 1944 poem “For the Time Being”: “Love Him in the World of the Flesh; / And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.”3

Mark Oldenburg is dean of the chapel and Steck-Miller Professor of the Art of Worship at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, PA.

Notes

1. Jeremiah 29:7 (nrsv).

2. In recent years these last two holidays seem to have been rescued from being simply “sales” holidays (in the case of Memorial Day, marking a change of season) into actual occasions of significant depth. It is unfortunate that both focus on military service, not because such service is unimportant, but because there seems to be a popular equation of such service and patriotism, as if no other service is patriotic. This identification is in stark contrast to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. In pre-Civil War America, apparently, the height of patriotism was the willingness to volunteer for service on town councils and other sorts of municipal responsibility.

3. For the Time Being (New York: Random House, 1944).

pray for wisdom and to reflect on our steward-ship of power within our political system. And perhaps even support those who vote—often in our buildings—with transportation and further prayer.

5. Mythic: I’m not using “myth” here in its popular meaning, as a story that is not true. Rather I’m using it in its strict, profound sense: a story that makes sense of the world and which, in fact, creates the social construction of the world in which we live. These festivals are ones that make us who we are. Such festivals would include not only Independence Day but also Memorial Day and Veterans Day.2 In different parts of the country and in different subcultures there would be additional Mythic festivals, Mar-di Gras and Juneteenth, for instance.

Mythic festivals could be treated in many of the same ways as vocational festivals. Certainly they belong in the prayers. Certainly they would not require changing the lectionary, although they would serve as lenses through which to hear and to proclaim the assigned readings. And most certainly they would need to avoid the tempta-tion to idolatry.

Even the sorts of icons to which Mythic hol-idays lend themselves may be similar. Memorial Day and Veterans Day both celebrate those who, like biological mothers, sacrificed time, conve-nience, and even life itself for our benefit. Thus the figures they celebrate can serve as icons of Christ. And on Independence Day one might be careful about the hymns one sings: “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” is a sung prayer to God about America whereas “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” is a sung prayer to the nation itself. And one might include in proclamation a clarification of the dif-ferent meanings “liberty” and “freedom” have in Scripture and in Luther’s writings than they do in popular usage (aided, providentially, by the readings assigned in most years to the closest Sunday).

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by Paul Friesen-Carper

“M usic is a servant of the Word.” This is a maxim Lutheran church musicians will often repeat. (And rightfully so!)

The core of our calling is to attend to the Liv-ing Word as it speaks to the assembly and to facilitate, enrich, and embolden that assembly’s hearing.

On the one hand, this is daunting. No mat-ter how piously we approach music-making in the church or how earnestly we seek to “purify”

it, we are simply unable to make music only serve the Word. Our fallibility as leaders, added to the cultural and experiential presumptions that our assemblies bring to worship, makes for a messy reality in which music in the church serves many masters. Any attempt to “correct” or deny this multiplicity is an exercise in fantasy. (If you have any doubts, just ask your music committee to make selections for a Sunday that falls on Moth-er’s Day or July Fourth.)

On the other hand, when we hear the maxim as describing our situation (instead of

Horn, Heart, Music, Word: Hannah’s Song and Venice after the Interdict of 1606

Jan Victors, Hannah Giving Her Son Samuel to the Priest, 1645

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prescribing it), we are free to trust that music will serve the Word. Because of this freedom, then, we can trust the Spirit to work through the church’s music, steadying us as we surf the waves of other demands for its service. Let us be clear: this situation in not unique to music. It is the same in every other aspect of church life: Christ is with us as we engage the practical with an eye to the eternal. In the spirit of this freedom I of-fer one story of the church’s song riding waves of political motion.

I stumbled across this story as I was looking for a way to bridge my musical interests with a form-critical and historical analysis of Hannah’s Song (1 Samuel 2:1-10, “My heart exults in the Lord”). When I researched settings of this text I found a cluster of eight Latin motets published in Venice and Rome between 1608 and 1635.1

In contrast, there were just two settings from elsewhere around the same time2 and less than a dozen sprinkled from 1680 to the present.3 In comparing the settings, I realized that not only the music but also the texts differed. My inter-est piqued, I searched out an explanation for the brief blossoming of settings of versions of this text. What I found suggested that this song was tied to the political context of the day. The story connects the general use of music in religio-civ-ic propaganda, the specific interests of Venice during and after the interdict of 1606, and the lives and music of the composers who set this text.

Ritual, Music, and the “Myth of Venice”The Song of Hannah functions for Venetian his-tory as a support for what scholars call the “Myth of Venice.” As the fortunes of the Venetian

empire peaked in the 14th and 15th centuries, and especially as those fortunes began to wane in the 16th and 17th centuries, the “Myth of Venice” was a concerted and pervasive effort to cultivate Venice’s image as a paragon of cities. This idea is essential to any understanding of the city’s culture. In a recent brief history of the city, a prominent scholar of Venice devotes an entire chapter of her book to the way Venetians propped up “claims that the city was encapsulat-ed in timeless stability … [and] that the entire community offered unquestioned loyalty to the city,” that the city “also enjoyed special favors: from God and from St. Mark … [and] further …that Venice was blessed with excellent rulers and superior institutions,” and finally, that “by prov-idence, this ideal city and its immaculate ruling class were destined to endure forever.” 4 Petrarch’s oft-quoted words quintessentially describe Ven-ice as “a city rich in gold but richer in renown, mighty in works but mightier in virtue, founded on solid marble but established on the more solid foundation of civic concord, surrounded by the salty waves but secure through her saltier coun-cils.”5 Literature, architecture, art, and music all fed this myth. Its most consistent reiteration was the cycle of rituals celebrating the religio-civic occasions that liberally salted its calendar, thus putting the order and virtue of Venetian society on display. The center of this ritual life was the Piazza San Marco, where the palace of the doge (Venice’s elected leader for life) and the Basilica San Marco existed physically and symbolical-ly side by side. The liturgies that were included on these occasions usually took place inside the basilica.

Music was an integral part of these celebra-tions, both as part of the church’s official liturgies and as part of the associated processions. The Ba-silica San Marco with its distinctive music was a showpiece for the doge and for Venice. One sees this depicted metaphorically in the Logget-ta, a small building decorated with statues that stands prominently at the base of the campanile of San Marco. One of these statues is explained as follows:

[Apollo] signifies the Sun, and the Sun is truly one, unique …; thus this Republic

Our fallibility as leaders, added to the cultural and experiential presumptions that our assemblies bring to worship, makes for a messy reality in which music in the church serves many masters.

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sby virtue of the constitution of its laws, its unity, and its uncorrupted liberty, is unique in the world, ruled with jus-tice and with wisdom. In addition, it is known that this nation takes natural de-light in music, and therefore Apollo is represented to signify music. And since from the union of its Magistrates joined together with inexpressible temperament issues extraordinary harmony, which perpetuates this admirable government, Apollo was therefore depicted.6

Music’s support of the myth is also evident in the 1527 procurement for the basilica of the era’s most famous composer, Adrian Willaert, and in the development of a “dream team” that surrounded him. Similarly well-known musi-cians followed, the best-known being Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo, Ales-sandro Grandi, and Claudio Monteverdi. The virtuosi, singers and instrumentalists, employed at the basilica also served the various state oc-casions. The splendor and renown of Venetian

music reached its apex in the first years of the 1600s, and an increasing number of visitors pub-lished unabashedly laudatory accounts of the music.7

The myth was built not only by the names of the musicians of the basilica but also by the music itself. The polyphonic styles that flowered in Renaissance music found special expression in double-choir music, especially that of the Gabri-elis, that made use of the double balconies and vocal forces unique to Basilica San Marco. A style born here, known as music spezzatta, used different groups of voices, instruments, or both to create variations in timbre, range, and volume that enriched the less-complicated and more-un-derstandable text settings preferred after the

Let us be clear: this situation in not unique to music. It is the same in every other aspect of church life: Christ is with us as we engage the practical with an eye to the eternal.

Giovanni Bellini, Corpus Christi Procession in St Mark’s Square, Venice. c. 1496

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Table 1: Settings of Exultavit cor meum published in Italy, 1608–35 (by date of composition)

Exultavit cor meum 1 a Exultavit cor meum in Domino, b et exultatum est cornu meum in Deo meo. c Dilatatum est os meum super inimicos meos d quia laetata sum in salutari tuo.

2 a Non est sanctus ut est Dominus: b neque enim est alius extra te, c et non est fortis sicut Deus noster.

3 a Nolite multiplicare loqui sublimia gloriantes. b Recedant vetera de ore vestro: c quia Deus scientiarum Dominus est, d et ipsi praeparantur cogitationes.

1 a My heart has exulted in the Lord, b and my horn is exalted in my God. c My mouth has been enlarged over my enemies, d for I have rejoiced in your salvation.

2 a There is none holy as is the Lord. b For there is no other beside you, c And there is none strong like our God.

3 a Do not multiply to utter lofty things, bragging. b Let old things depart from your mouth, c for the Lord is a God of knowledge, d and to him are thoughts prepared

Composer Publication Likely Employment Verses set Instrumentation Key Measures place, date composition during (Variation from date composition primary text)

Giovanni Venice, 1615 1606 Organist, Verses 1–2 SAATTB One flat 63 Gabrieli (published San Marco, (1c: estos and w/ basso seguente posthumously) Venice m. 18 cor | 1d: laetatus and salutari meo)

Cesario Venice, 1608 1606 Organist, Verses 1–2 SATB x2 One flat 86 (counting Gussago Santa Maria (1d: salutari meo | w/ unspecified sinfonia delle Grazie, Brescia 2b: aliud) instruments twice)

Raffaele Rome, 1609 1608 Singer, Arezzo Verse 1 Soprano & bass No flats 38 Bartei or Rome (1b: cor meum | w/ basso seguente or sharps 1c: cor meum)

Ivan Venice, 1620 1615–1618 Student of Finetti Verse 1 Tenor & bass No flats 64 Lukačić in Venice? w/ basso continuo or sharps

Stefano Venice, 1624? 1622 Maestro di Capella, unknown 8 voices unknown 65 Bernardi Verona Cathedral w/ unspecified instruments

Girolamo Rome, 1627 Sometime Organist of the Verses 1a–c Tenor No flats 37 Frescobaldi before 1627 Capella Giulia of (1a: exsultavit | w/ basso continuo or sharps S. Pietro, and other 1b: exsultatum) work for nobles and churches

Heinrich Venice, 1629 1628–1629 Student in Venice, Verses 1–2 Soprano, two One flat 148 Schütz on extended leave violins & from Kapellmeister basso continuo duties in Dresden

Giovanni Venice, 1635 1635 Vice Maestro di Verses 1–3 Two sopranos One flat 85 Rovetta Capella, San Marco, (or tenors) Venice & basso continuo

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Counter-Reformation councils. It is worth not-ing that this style was so connected to Basilica San Marco that long after it had gone out of vogue in the rest of Italy its use (even into the 18th century) was still a requirement for those grand state occasions that the doge attended and during which the magnificent, golden al-tarpiece—the Pala d’oro—was opened. The services were lavishly adorned with music. Ba-silica San Marco’s musicians wrote constantly. Motets on sacred texts and instrumental music proliferated in the church services and were used as antiphons or in addition to them. While this practice was common in Italy, it found special abundance in Venice.

The Interdict of 1606–07In 1606 Pope Paul V imposed an interdict (the denial of sacraments and other ecclesiastical privileges derived from, but short of, excommu-nication) on Venice. It was the culmination both of papal assertions of power in Italy that came in the wake of the Counter Reformation and of the emphasis on secular authority in Venice. Pope Clement VIII had recently tried to rein in the Venetian church, which enjoyed a significant amount of freedom: near complete autonomy at the basilica, measured authority over the clergy of the region surrounding Venice, laws against selling property to the church, and relative reli-gious tolerance. The conflict peaked soon after Clement died and the legalist, domineering new Pope Paul V was elected.

The matter came to a head when Venice tried, convicted, and punished two priests. In

response the pope put Venice under threat of in-terdict. The Venetians did not balk, arguing that a prince was directly responsible to God for the good of the people and not to God’s intermedi-ary. The interdict went into effect just before St. Mark’s day and Corpus Christi, a calculated pa-pal tactic to curb civic pride and to convince the Venetian public their government was willing to deprive them of the sacrament. The Venetians argued in turn that the interdict was invalid because the pope had overreached by using his spiritual authority in secular matters. The war of words began and soon pamphlets flew from the presses in Rome and Venice.

Corpus Christi was an important obser-vance for the Venetians. Civic and religious leaders took part in the occasion together, dis-playing Venetian civic piety and clerical loyalty to Venice. Mass was celebrated with great pomp in the basilica. In the accompanying procession, groups carried floats with state-versus-church slogans, such as “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” and “My kingdom is not of this world.” Floats also portrayed such scenes as Doge Doná alongside St. Francis and St. Dominic (whose orders defied the interdict) supporting a crum-bling church. Venice’s defiance won out, owing to both public and foreign support: in 1607 se-cret negotiations secured the end of the interdict.

Afterward the matter was officially quiet-ed, and Venetians returned to cultivating the myth of Venice’s superior religiousity through good interactions with the Roman church. Over the next 20 years relations were mostly quiet. In 1628, however, there was a war in which Ven-ice joined antipapal interests to keep the pope’s temporal power circumscribed. The pope was defeated but war brought plague, and in 1630 a third of Venice’s population perished.

With this historical sketch we can see the tu-multuous jumble of religious, civic, and political agendas that contextualize these motet settings. We can see the use of both press and ritual as po-litical tactics. In addition we can begin to make sense of not only the number but also the varia-tion of the motet settings we encounter.

With this historical sketch we can see the tumultuous jumble of religious, civic, and political agendas that contextualize these motet settings. We can see the use of both press and ritual as political tactics.

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The MotetsGiovanni GabrieliGabrieli’s setting was published as part of a col-lection of his works. Giovanni succeeded his uncle Andrea in 1585 as organist and composer at Basilica San Marco, where he remained un-til his death in 1612 and thus was the organist during the interdict. Though the motet is not a double-choir piece, it is written in the style of music spezzatta. The verses of the text that Ga-brieli set focus on two aspects: the exultation and salvation of the singer and the incomparability of God, topics that ring with the rhetoric of the interdict. The motet may even have been written for Corpus Christi in 1606. A number of coinci-dences point in that direction.

First, the version from the Odes (a

deuterocanonical collection of canticles from the Old and New Testaments found in some Greek manuscripts) is known as the Canticle of Anne and was supposedly sung upon the birth of Mary. Add this to its similarity to the Magni-ficat of Mary and a distinct Marian connection appears. Further, add Mary’s use as a repre-sentation of the city in Venetian art—with her virginity a metaphor for the city—and Hannah’s Song could take on a different story. Perhaps Hannah’s voice is the voice of Venice itself, pre-disposed to assertions of purity and inviolability.

Perhaps Hannah’s voice is the voice of Venice itself, predisposed to assertions of purity and inviolability.

The west facade of St. Mark’s Basilica in VeniceWikimedia

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Thus “Cor meum” (“my heart”) is now Venice’s heart and civic pride. “Cornu meum,” the uplift-ed horn, belongs to the doge, whose corno ducale (“ducal horn”) was the symbol of his office. Now Venice’s mouth, opened over her enemies, echoes public sentiment.

Gabrieli’s setting suggests we might not be far off in making these connections. The im-age of the lifted horn is particularly emphasized by Gabrieli’s setting of the words “et exultatum est cornu meum.” He builds our expectation by breaking the polyphonic texture and giving “et exultatum est” to three voices in ascending, paral-lel, inverted triads that are immediately imitated by the other three voices. Polyphony resumes before a cadence that clearly communicates the words “cornu meum.” Gabrieli’s text reads “salu-tari meo,” letting the singer claim her salvation instead of making it God’s salvation: God now provides Venice with her salvation. The text “non est sanctus ut est Dominus” receives emphasis as well, as the rhythms get longer and the texture suddenly becomes much more homophonic. Homophony also emphasizes “alius extra te.” The duration of “sicut Deus noster” is twice that of any other section. These three assertions of God’s incomparability easily could have been among floats from the Corpus Christi proces-sion. “None is holy like the Lord” asserts divine priority over papal authority even in spiritual matters. “There is no other beside you” implies that allegiance belongs to God rather than to the pope. “None is strong as our God” forecasts the end of the interdict going in Venice’s favor.

Certainly it would have been a quick job to go from the announcement of the interdict to a full piece four weeks later written for the Cor-pus Christi celebration. Perhaps that accounts for this piece’s mere six voices when compared to the settings in the rest of the collection in which it appears, most for eight or twelve voices but go-ing up to nineteen. One might think that such small forces represented the smaller scale of Ba-silica San Marco in Gabrieli’s early days, but the adventurous use of chromaticism suggests otherwise. Possibly this allowed the compos-er to complete his task for use in the basilica. Or perhaps six voices reflected the resources of

the religious confraternity Gabrieli served as organist and was used in their portion of the pro-cession. In either case, it seems that this piece was event-specific.

Cesario GussagoWhile it is likely that the maestro di capella at Santa Maria della Grazie remained in Brescia to supervise his own church’s Corpus Christi cel-ebration, news of the Venetian interdict spread quickly and surely would have reached Gussa-go’s ears. His setting was likely a response to the interdict either as a show of support or simply as a means of adapting the trendsetting Venetian practice. In either case, it is clear from Gussago’s other published music that he was greatly influ-enced by the homophonic and multichoral styles of Giovanni Gabrieli. The text he sets is practi-cally the same as Gabrieli’s and his setting has emphases similar to Gabrieli’s. He uses the high-est note of the piece on the word “cornu” and voices it with the A doubled in four octaves and an E and a C# near the top. Assuming this motet was used as a replacement or supplemental anti-phon in worship, it likely was meant for the same purpose as Gabrieli’s, since both settings share one flat in the key signature. It was included with a few other motets at the end of a collection of Gussago’s instrumental works published to trade on Brescia’s prestige as an instrumental center while also promoting Gussago’s choral writing.

Raffaele BarteiNot much is known about Bartei except that he was the nephew of the more-famous Girola-mo Bartei. Born in Arezzo in 1592, he sang as a treble there, then moved to Rome and sang con-tralto at St. John Lateran from 1609 until his death sometime before 1618. This motet and one other are all we have of his work, and we know them because of their inclusion in his un-cle’s publication. As a young musician looking to make his mark, Bartei likely saw in Hannah’s Song an opportunity to use political movements to his advantage.

Bartei’s setting uses a version of the Song of Hannah that substitutes “cor” for both “cornu”

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and “os,” making verse 1b–c read “and my heart is exalted in my God. My heart is enlarged over my enemies.” While it might be tempting to write this off as a mistake, the horn’s prominence in Gussago’s and Gabriel’s settings makes its ab-sence conspicuous here. In fact, the text sounds exactly like the Roman rhetoric about the in-terdict. Giovanni Antonio Bovio, an important papalist writer during the interdict explained it this way:

Politics ordains the whole body of the re-public under an earthly prince, religion orders both the entire republic and its head under the supreme Head and Lord God. Politics rules and governs earthly things, religion directs them to the eter-nal. Politics is occupied for the most part with what pertains to the body and to corporal things, religion with that which concerns the salvation of souls.8

It is the heart or soul that is raised up over Rome’s enemies rather than the horn or doge that is raised up over Venice’s enemy.

Additionally, Bartei sets only the first verse of Hannah’s Song, thus avoiding any comment about whether ultimate allegiance was owed ei-ther to God or to the pope. It is possible that the text’s abbreviation is a matter of liturgical use rather than political intention. A one-verse motet, especially with such a small requirement of forces, might have been meant for use as an antiphon for Wednesday Lauds in the peniten-tial seasons of Lent and Advent when it was the appointed text. Lauds was a service mostly for clerics and monastics, however, and there would have been little demand for a fully composed an-tiphon. It makes more sense to understand the piece as a rebuttal to the Venetian settings of the text, made by stripping it of allusions to the doge and by avoiding any challenge to papal authority.

Lukačić, Bernardi, Frescobaldi, Schütz, and RovettaA summary of the remaining settings shows that the threads of the interdict remained connect-ed to this motet. Lukačić’s setting is that of a Roman-educated maestro working and study-ing in Venice. Despite its use of basso continuo, a central Italian element still somewhat novel to Venice, its publication in Venice and its af-finities with Gabrieli’s setting (i.e., the musical emphasis on “cornu” and the length of the work) suggest it may have been written for Venetian ceremonial usage. Bernardi’s setting is similar to Gussago’s and seems to weigh in on the Venetian side. Frescobaldi, the foremost Italian keyboard composer of his time, included the motet in his first choral output, published during his tenure as organist at the papal basilica. Sharing a key signature and a comparatively short length with Bartei’s setting, it is certainly Roman, but the text is “corrected” and the composer seems more interested in making a statement about the mu-sicians’ virtuosity than about politics or piety. Schütz, a student of Gabrieli from 1609 to 1612, included this motet in a collection published during his second visit to Venice. The setting tempers the polemical emphases of his teacher, reflecting the conciliatory attitude of Venetian leaders toward Rome at the time. His emphat-ic setting of the second verse, however, might betray a Lutheran skepticism about absolute me-diators of divine authority, namely the pope. Rovetta’s setting, published while he served as Monteverdi’s assistant at Basilica San Marco, while still probably meant for the ducal chapel, left behind the pomp of its predecessors and was the only one to include the third verse. Perhaps after war and plague this unprecedented inclu-sion represents a call to give up the polemic that originally inspired the song’s setting. It certainly provides a fitting conclusion to this story.

Concluding Thoughts on the MotetsUp to this point I have argued that political con-text was part of each composer’s intent. But still I wonder: were the composers really politically motivated? Did the first audiences really hear the

As a young musician looking to make his mark, Bartei likely saw in Hannah’s Song an opportunity to use political movements to his advantage.

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songs as protest songs? I have no perfect window into the composers’ or hearers’ souls.

For that matter, composing is not a grace-ful sweep from purity of conception to clarity of expression. Rather it is a long slog through variously ugly compromises. Even after that, composers have no real control over how their work is received.

What this story makes clear, at least, is that Rome and Venice had competing interests in dif-ferent kinds of settings of Hannah’s Song. The motets that came out of this competition would have given listeners divergent views of the inter-dict and of early 17th-century Venetian politics, were they to listen carefully.

Servant Music“Music is a servant of the Word.” Can this max-im still apply to these motets mired in their political context? This is not a question that can be asked or answered academically. I may laud the way some of the motets supported the retiring of interdiction and I may criticize the ap-propriation of worship for civic or national goals, but I cannot pretend to be sure that God agrees with me. What I can do is trust that God, who

Did the first audiences really hear the songs as protest songs? I have no perfect window into the composers’ or hearers’ souls.

I can tell the story so that we who make music in the church can see ourselves alongside Gabrieli and the others in the complicated reality in which music happens.

The double balcony at the Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark.

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promised to be with us always, was at work for God’s people even in the political mess of the in-terdict. I can tell the story so that we who make music in the church can see ourselves alongside Gabrieli and the others in the complicated reali-ty in which music happens.

Music is powerful. It turns ideas into beliefs. It unifies and divides people. Song takes on un-predictable meanings because of who sings it and how and where it is sung. It elevates the everyday into the realm of the mythical. This is why mu-sic serves the powerful, faith-creating, unifying, dividing, unpredictable, ennobling Word. This is also why its service is so sought after.

So, church musicians, if I may be so bold as to offer us advice: pay attention to the words, to the world, and to the Word! Learn the histories of what you play and sing. Know what expec-tations and connections your assembly brings to worship. Listen to the way God is working through music in your assembly.

Paul Friesen-Carper is a church musician, composer, singer, and multi-instrumen-talist serving Trinity Luther-an Church in Richmond, MI. He holds an MA in theology from the Lutheran School of

Theology at Chicago (IL) and a BA in music from Valparaiso University (IN).

Notes

1. These are by Cesario Gussago (Venice, 1608), Raffaele Bartei (Rome, 1609), Giovanni Gabrie-li (Venice, published posthumously, 1615), Ivan Lukačić (Venice, 1620), Stefano Bernardi (Venice, 1624?), Girolamo Frescobaldi (Rome, 1627), Hein-rich Schütz (Venice, 1629), and Giovanni Rovet-ta (Venice, 1635). A YouTube playlist of several of these pieces may be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwQQO7ofQDwqagdqmiN45I-80vUDrh9IEi.

2. These are by Hans Leo Hassler (Nuremberg, 1601) and Orlando Gibbons (London, 1623).

3. These are by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (France, 1680), Francis Giroust (France, 1777), Daniël de Lange (Netherlands, 1883), and F. Jean Read (En-gland, 1894). There are also a handful of settings from the second half of the 20th century to the present.

4. Joanne M. Ferraro, Venice: History of the Floating City (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 125–27.

5. Quoted in Ellen Rosand, “Music in the Myth of Venice,” Renaissance Quarterly 30 (1977): 511.

6. Ibid., 512.

7. Ferraro, 149.

8. Quoted in William J. Bouwsma, Venice and the De-fense of Republican Liberty: Renaissance Values in the Age of the Counter Reformation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 428.

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by Chad Fothergill

D uring Time after Pentecost, the texts of Lectionary 14 (Proper 9) will fall on a Sunday between July 3 and July 9, a

range that includes the American national hol-iday doubly known as Independence Day and the Fourth of July. On this Sunday many pastors and musicians feel compelled to chart a middle course through the entities of church and state that intersect when celebrating citizens come to worship (I use “middle course” intentionally, for our baptisms into the death and resurrection of Christ make it impossible to separate Christian worship from Christian living). As with plan-ning for any Sunday, questions about what to say, sing, and pray should be guided by such

Faithful Christians, Conscientious Citizens: Independence Day and Assembly Song

prompts as these from one of the Evangelical Lu-theran Worship companion volumes:

Is a hymn or prayer able to be voiced by the whole community using it, or does it narrowly describe an individual’s experi-ence? Does it give the impression that our works will gain us favor with God? Does it gloss over the reality of the world’s suf-fering? Does it represent only a theology of glory, or is there a theology of the cross? Does it exclude anyone in the assembly? Questions like these help us discern wise-ly texts that can truly carry the assembly’s proclamation, and they help us ensure a healthy balance of emphases in all the ex-pressions that are used on a given day.1

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On the Sunday closest to Independence Day—an instance when civic and Christian identities are both brought into relief—we are often asked to consider, in addition to the questions above, the appropriateness of in-cluding national or patriotic music in worship. Should we sing patriotic hymns? Does praise and thanksgiving alone gloss over the suffering around us? What will define any “American” ex-pressions used on this day: shared geographic borders or shared values? What are those values? What are the implications of offering service music by only American composers? What does a “healthy balance of emphases” between In-dependence Day and Lectionary 14 look like? These types of questions, in turn, steer pastors and musicians toward a larger, highly nuanced dialogue that Peter J. Gomes once proposed in a sermon about patriotism at Harvard’s Memorial Church: “What is it that will help us to be both conscientious citizens and faithful Christians? Are the two mutually exclusive, or is it possible, somehow, to live responsibly in the tension be-tween those two claims?”2

As with any other Sunday, planning should begin with the day’s Scripture readings. Broad-ly viewed, the texts for Lectionary 14 can, in fact, be seen as a series of vignettes about nation-al behaviors toward both God and individuals. Rarely, though, are nations and citizens behav-ing responsibly. For example, God’s commission of the prophet Ezekiel is intended for “a nation of rebels” whose descendants are “impudent and stubborn” (Ezekiel 2:3-4); the psalmists lament their oppression (Psalm 123) and offer thanks for deliverance from captors (Psalm 66); Jesus is rejected by the residents of his native community

at the end of his Galilean ministry (Mark 6:1-6); and Paul writes an indictment of worldly wisdom, a conglomerate of social, economic, political, and military interests—what Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan call “imperial normalcy”5—that stands opposed to God’s vi-sion of a new creation (Galatians 6:1-17).

Yet even in the midst of tribulation, the voices of the prophets, psalmists, and evangelists point beyond their contexts to God as sovereign ruler of all nations, promoting God’s vision of justice, healing, and peace in the world, regard-less of hardship or danger (Psalm 145; Luke 10). Their words comprise a stark, necessary remind-er that earthly machinations by nations and citizens will never outmaneuver or outlast God’s eternal kingdom where, in words of Walter Brueggemann, “God’s regal power is mobilized to care for the otherwise uncared for.”6 Paul, too, dwells upon larger communal concerns, encour-aging the Galatians to set aside self-interest and instead “work for the good of all” (Galatians 6:10).

Taken together, these passages model the tension embodied by God’s people as dual cit-izens of a temporary earthly kingdom and an eternal heavenly kingdom, forerunners of Luther’s two-kingdom worldview in which mu-tual cooperation (even symbiosis) between one’s

Lectionary Year BSixth Sunday after Pentecost5 July 2015

Lectionary Year CSeventh Sunday after Pentecost3 July 2016

Lectionary Year AFifth Sunday after Pentecost9 July 2017 4

Ezekiel 2:1-5Psalm 1232 Corinthians 12:2-10Mark 6:1-13

Isaiah 66:10-14Psalm 66:1-9Galatians 6:[1-6] 7-16Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Zechariah 9:9-12Psalm 145:8-14Romans 7:15-25aMatthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Themes in the Lectionary3

We are free to love one another, free to agree and to disagree, free to work for justice and peace, free to care about this remarkable creation God has given us, free to care about the common good.

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citizenship and one’s faith is far more valuable than mutual exclusion. In Luther and the Hungry Poor Samuel Torvend reminds us that even by the 1520s the reformer’s “own writings on busi-ness practices served as a cogent argument for Christian engagement in social and economic questions,” adding that, “while other reform-ers would attempt to transform society into a ‘Christian’ state or establish a ‘holy’ community separately, at the margins of society, Luther con-sistently labored for another position: Christian engagement with society.”7

However, an honest Christian engagement with society requires us—like Ezekiel, Paul, and other voices in Lectionary 14—to articu-late the harsh realities of the world around us, down the street, across town, throughout the na-tion. This is the very essence of patriotism (from the Latin patriota, or “countryman”), the setting aside of self-interest in order to name communal problems and arrive, by way of compromise, at equitable resolutions. Unfortunately, patriotism is often conflated with nationalism, wherein alternative or unpopular views of a nation’s char-acter are dissuaded or silenced, often through viciousness and violence. Put simply (chillingly) by Steven Grosby, professor of religion at Clem-son University, nationalism “seeks to sweep aside the many complications that always are a part of life as it actually is,” all the while promoting a “systematic, uncompromising, and unrealis-tic view of the world.”8 Nationalism unchecked sows the seeds for exceptionalism and empire—a bastion for the “imperial normalcy” described by Borg and Crossan—where the hunger for pow-er and prestige by one group invariably serves as a catalyst for injustice and inequality toward others.

If you’re wondering by now what any of this actually has to do with assembly song for Lectionary 14, it is this point made by Paul Westermeyer:

When the emperor takes on God-like powers that presume it is legitimate to crush anyone who has whatever the em-pire wants, the church, like ancient Israel, is called to object. It may be that today church musicians are called to articulate

this objection most boldly and to remind us that the proud are scattered in the imagination of their hearts.9Independence Day in the United States is a

celebratory occasion and rightly so: as a nation we have much to be thankful for and should ren-der our praise and thanksgiving to God for the blessings of peace, freedom, prosperity, and a landscape of vibrant beauty. But these gifts are not shared by all, and failure to acknowledge the intolerance, arrogance, narcissism, dishonesty, and injustice of our past and present in voice, prayer, or song only perpetuates the same cap-tivity and exile of the Israelites and the rejection of Jesus by the Nazarenes. We become the im-pudent and stubborn people whom Ezekiel is commissioned to warn, and we shy away from the hands-on pattern of Christian engagement modeled by Luther. Westermeyer reminds us that as dual citizens we are blessed with civic and Christian freedom—and not just a self-interest-ed freedom from something we don’t happen to like, but a freedom for action:

We are free to love one another, free to agree and to disagree, free to work for justice and peace, free to care about this remarkable creation God has given us, free to care about the common good, free to turn away from our selfish and in-grown motives to live for others.10

Themes for Assembly SongWhile hymns for the nation and other nation-al songs (Evangelical Lutheran Worship [ELW] 887–893, Lutheran Service Book [LSB] 964–966, Christian Worship [CW] 617–620) may be appropriate for Lectionary 14, our dual roles as conscientious citizens and faithful Christians encourage us to look beyond ourselves and past hymns of mere platitude toward texts that can re-inforce the themes of justice, service, and God’s sovereignty that are woven through Lection-ary 14. In choosing hymns, writing a newsletter column, or compiling music notes, pastors and musicians may consider:• singing about the freedom we have through

our baptisms into the death and resurrec-tion of Christ;

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• using such settings as Native American melodies (e.g., Lac qui Parle, “Many and Great,” ELW 837), a Japanese melody (e.g., Tōkyō, “Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather,” ELW 530), or African American spirituals, all of which encourage us to re-member that American nation-building is not a one-sided glory story but has come at significant cost to our sisters and brothers once thought (still thought by some) to be a danger, a commodity, or an “other”;

• celebrating the diversity of musical styles brought to the United States by immigrants, including the major waves of Lutheran im-migration to the Delaware Valley in the 17th century and the Midwest in the 19th century;

• choosing texts that lift up the mission of the church in the world as a means of restoring God’s justice, such as a setting of the jus-tice-themed Magnificat;

• selecting texts that make deliberate use of the holiday’s associated imagery and keywords such as “God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens” (ELW 771), “Lord of All Nations, Grant Me Grace” (ELW 716, LSB 844, CW 521), or the Taizé chant, “Sing, Praise, and Bless the Lord … Peoples! Nations!”;11

• singing a hymn text by Francis Scott Key, “Before You, Lord, [Before the Lord] We Bow” (ELW 893, LSB 966, CW 618); or

• some of the additional hymn suggestions printed above.

Hymn Suggestions for Lectionary 14 and Independence Day“All Who Love and Serve Your City” (ELW 724)“Come to Me, All Pilgrims Thirsty” (ELW 777), especially for Matthew 11 in year A“Come unto Me, Ye Weary” (CW 336), especially for Matthew 11 in year A“Eternal [Almighty] Father, Strong to Save” (ELW 756, LSB 717, CW 517)“Forgive Us, Lord, for Shallow Thankfulness” (LSB 788, CW 482),

especially for Galatians 6 in year C“Forth in the Peace of Christ We Go” (LSB 920, CW 518)“Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather” (ELW 530)“Hope of the World” (LSB 690)“In Christ There Is No East or West” (ELW 650, LSB 653, CW 539)“Let Streams of Living Justice” (ELW 710)“Lift Every Voice and Sing” (ELW 841, LSB 964)“Lord, Help Us Walk Your Servant Way” (LSB 857)Magnificat settings (e.g., “Canticle of the Turning,” ELW 723; “Tell Out, My Soul, the

Greatness of the Lord, ” LSB 935; and “My Soul Now Magnifies the Lord,” CW 274)“My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” (ELW 596, 597, LSB 575, 576, CW 382)“Not unto Us” (LSB 558, CW 392)“O God of Every Nation” (ELW 713)“O God of Light” (ELW 507, LSB 836)“O God of Love, O King of Peace” (ELW 749, LSB 751, CW 519)13

“Rise, Shine, You People! ” (ELW 665, LSB 825, CW 556)“The Church of Christ, in Every Age” (ELW 729)“The Son of God, Our Christ” (ELW 584, CW 525)“Weary of All Trumpeting” (CW 527)“What Is the World to Me” (LSB 730, CW 477)“Your Hand, O Lord, in Days of Old” (LSB 846, CW 520)


Worship leaders may also wish to consult synodical resources for missions as a reminder of the many places where societal engagement may bring hope, awareness, compassion, light, and love; websites linked to government offices and relief organizations such as www.elca.org/ advocacy, www.lcms.org/socialissues, and www.wels.net/aom/christian-aid-and-relief may be particularly useful. Each assembly gathering of course will be shaped by its own traditions, physical environment, and abilities. Whatever we sing, we should remember that we are after all only tenants and stewards—resident aliens—of God’s creation. The local, state, and national identities we subscribe to are ephemeral and, as made plain by the American evangelical theolo-gian Russell Moore, “there will come a day when Old Glory yields to an older glory, when the new republic succumbs to a new creation.”12

Chad Fothergill holds an MA in organ performance from the University of Iowa, where he has also completed residency requirements toward a PhD in musicology.

He currently serves as cantor at University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, Philadelphia, PA, and is a visiting faculty member at the University of Delaware, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music history.

Notes1. Lorraine S. Brugh and Gordon W. Lathrop, The

Sunday Assembly, Using Evangelical Lutheran Wor-ship, vol. 1 (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2008), 16.

2. Peter J. Gomes, “Patriotism Is Not Enough,” in Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Dai-ly Living: A New Collection of Sermons (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), 120.

3. The texts referenced here are drawn from the com-plementary series of the Revised Common Lection-ary wherein the Old Testament reading and psalmo-dy relate to the second lesson and gospel. All biblical quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version.

4. In 2017, Lectionary 13 will fall much closer to In-dependence Day than Lectionary 14. Attentive worship leaders may wish to examine these texts—Matthew’s gospel this day is, after all, a message of welcome—for themes that hold civic and Christian claims together.

5. Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon (New York: Harper-Collins, 2009), 135–36.

6. Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), 30.

7. Samuel Torvend, Luther and the Hungry Poor: Gath-ered Fragments (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 119.

8. Steven Grosby, Nationalism: A Very Short Introduc-tion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 18.

9. Paul Westermeyer, Rise, O Church: Reflections on the Church, Its Music, and Empire (Fenton, MO: Morn-ingStar, 2008), 43.

10. Ibid., 36.

11. In Jacques Berthier, Taizé: Songs for Prayer (Chica-go: GIA, 1998).

12. Douglas Wilson, Lisa Velthouse, and Russell D. Moore, “Should Churches Display the American Flag in Their Sanctuaries?” Christianity Today 56, no. 7 (July/August 2012), 82; www.christianityto-day.com/ct/2012/july-august/should-churches-dis-play-the-american-flag.html.

13. Thinking of “lighter” works typical for many sum-mer choirs, this text is also available as Prayer for Peace, a two-part mixed anthem with optional as-sembly set by David Cherwien and published by MorningStar (MSM 50-9209).

COUNTERPOINT s


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CHORUS


The Reason Why We (Should) Sing!by Lamont Anthony Wells

I remember singing spirituals and gospel music at a predominantly white Lutheran congregation several years ago. After wor-

ship, some of them would say that it was a “fun” experience. Intrigued by their response, I asked them to describe what made it “fun.” I wondered whether they understood the meaning of the music. Their responses suggested that they ex-perienced great passion with use of high tempos, repetition, and volume but declared no engage-ment with the message content. I encouraged them to listen again and be open to the narrative story and message content of the music declaring grace in the midst of oppression.

The use of African American music by White communities without confession and ac-knowledgement of engines of oppression does no justice to the meaning and purpose of the music. African American spirituals and gospel hymns express the ways African Americans have come

to know the presence of God in times of op-pression. If the African American spiritual and gospel hymn is sung only as a relic of history or as “fun” then that rendition denies the relevance to the modern moment where the problems of injustice and oppression are still felt by many people.

As with any cross-cultural musical expres-sion, one must remember the context from which the songs came. African American spirituals are songs that were written or sung (from the oral tradition) in a time of ugly forms of oppression. These songs were composed to cope with and deal with the actions of oppressive slave masters. James H. Cone, in his book The Spirituals and the Blues (New York: Seabury, 1972; reissued Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), asks some key questions to consider in preparing to inter-pret and sing Black spirituals and gospel hymns: • What did it mean “to steal away to Jesus”

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when one had been stolen from Africa and enslaved in America?

• What did it mean to “work on a building that is a true foundation” or to “hold up the blood-stained banner for the Lord” when one had no building to call one’s own and one’s own blood was stained with slavery?

• What did it mean to be “child of God” as a Black slave in a predominantly White society? These questions help us to go deeper into the

power of narrative often seen in the performance of gospel music and spirituals and hymns. Cone’s key questions enable us to interpret this African American cultural music, moving us to claim the dignity and understanding that it deserves.

There are those who maintain opposition to White congregations singing spirituals and gospel music, arguing that it is an act of cul-tural theft and disrespect. This view, however, fails to recognize the cross-cultural revelation in the worship life of all cultures. The danger of avoiding ethnic-specific music in largely homo-geneous worship traditions perpetuates a sense of cultural separation that does not honor the God-given diversity of the church.

Yet the other side of the danger is when we sing spirituals that came from the experience of oppression as a disconnected experience without recognizing or empathizing with the original context. In some congregations it may be that few can personally relate to the awful systematic oppression the music describes so well. However, African American spirituals and gospel hymns speak to many who have been and are marginal-ized because of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, immigration status, and more.

The authenticity of singing the spiritual and the gospel hymn does not come from creating a false equivalence in claiming another’s strug-gle as our own but by opening the heart to be challenged and healed by the music and words. With honest confession of the brokenness of our humanity that is experienced around divisions between people and around power imbalances leading to oppression, the transformative and reconciling relationship between diverse people

of God grows deeper and more powerful. This happens through our vulnerability—sitting with, recognizing, and struggling with the emo-tional and historical legacy that produces that division and oppression. In this way, the recon-ciliation of the gospel is revealed.

Historically, spirituals and gospel music played an important role in the struggle for civil rights. This music has helped to heal and soothe the pain caused when countless people of color needlessly lost their lives. At the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahalia Jackson punc-tuated that emotional moment with a powerful rendition of Thomas Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” In recent times gospel mu-sic has been able to provide comfort, hope, and strength in the face of the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many others: we sing the gospel message of justice, peace, grace, mercy, and God’s righteousness. It’s the transforming and transcending mes-sage of hope in gospel music that helps convey

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through its delivery that the freedom from po-lice brutality and violence and the achievement of equal rights may be just as important to many as knowing Jesus.

So how might a largely non-African American congregation sing African Ameri-can spirituals and gospel songs, honoring the cross-cultural revelation of God with hearts open to the struggle of oppression that still re-verberates in our culture today? • Embrace and celebrate the passionate, vo-

luminous, theatrical, and experiential emphasis of gospel music. Don’t be rig-id. For the authentic gospel interpretation, learn to include the rhythmic style, moves, and gestures in the singing and in its accompaniment.

• Seek training. There are trainers that as-sist with the methodology of gospel singing. Many offer a science-based and practical application for the voice/choir. The leading work of Jeanette Lovetri (www.thevoice-workshop.com), Dr. James Abbington (Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, GA), and Dr. Lisa Allen-McLaurin (the Interde-nominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA) is often noted as key in training and workshops for gospel sounds.

• Listen, practice, and repeat. The vocal dis-tinction often occurs in the power of the voice and the way one holds one’s mouth (smiling/broad), often more nasal with a higher laryngeal shift. The quality of the sound produced differs from typical classi-cal low larynx, long mouth, and vowel style. The consistent practice and repetition al-lows the muscles to develop that allow for breath- and spirit-filled shifts between reg-isters that help create the gospel flow and sound.

• Include some information about the imag-ery in the song or about the historical context of the music when using African American spiritual or gospel music. Two resources are James Weldon Johnson, The Books of the American Negro Spirituals (New York: Vi-king, 1925–26; reissued Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1969), and Melva Wilson Costen, African American Christian Worship, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2007).These practices may be a challenge for some.

However, the value of cross-cultural singing is an essential part of our growth in Christ. It is an entryway into God-given diversity that enriches all parts of the body of Christ. I hope those who are not comfortable singing these songs would take a moment to attempt to enter into the ex-perience empathetically. Understanding and using the African American spiritual and gospel hymns is a way to stand in solidarity with those who repeatedly struggle in oppressive structures that often seek to diminish their humanity and divinity.

Lamont Anthony Wells is director for evangelical mis-sion in the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He holds an MA in church music and homiletics from the

Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlan-ta, GA. He is a former advisory council member of the men’s chorus of the Gospel Music Workshop of America.

The use of African American music by white communities without confession and acknowledgement of engines of oppression does no justice to the meaning and purpose of the music.


BOOKREVIEW sA lice Parker has been an incredibly influ-

ential voice in American choral music for over half a century. A world-renowned conductor and composer, Parker worked alongside Robert Shaw for many years. Her contributions to the choral genre have been recognized by universi-ties and organizations across the country. These two recent books serve to continue her legacy of teaching and equipping educators and choristers around the world.

It is no secret that we live in a post-singing culture. Communal music-making is no lon-ger a norm in our society or in our schools. For many people, the only place they may encounter corporate singing on a regular basis is in their church, and the thought of joining in the com-munal song of their congregation is alien and frightening. In Melodious Accord Parker explores the topic of good singing in church, offering sim-ple and practical solutions to encourage a more beautiful and robust sound in the congregation. Church musicians are challenged to see their music programs as communally focused and not performance driven, to expect good sing-ing from their entire congregation, to consider how best to teach nonmusicians new hymns and

Alice Parker.The Answering Voice: The Beginnings of Counterpoint.Chicago: GIA, 2014.

xii, 128 pgs.ISBN-13: 978-1622770984.$21.95, ppbk.

Alice Parker.Melodious Accord: Good Singing in Church.Chicago: GIA, 2013.

ISBN-13: 978-0929650432.viii, 114 pgs.$7.95, ppbk.

liturgies, to study each song before presenting it to the people, and to view hymnals as treasuries of time-tested melodies for their people to use. Parker also offers encouraging thoughts for other musicians, for clergy, and for parishioners, ask-ing them to respect the professional opinions of their musicians, to work in collaboration with their musician toward better congregational mu-sic-making, and to evaluate the quality of the sanctuary for group singing.

In The Answering Voice Parker tackles the topic of composing and arranging for cho-ral voices. She spends the majority of the book teaching how to write a functional and beautiful “answering” voice or countermelody. Parker ar-gues that when a melody is sung beautifully and in character, the echoing voice will respond with the same beauty and character. The response will be drawn from the melody and will play with that melody in a way that is appropriate to its in-tention, whether plaintive or exuberant.

Parker begins by outlining the basis for cho-ral improvisation. She persuades the reader that the best choral arrangements are actually in-sufficient attempts to capture the beauty and nuance of real live melodic interplay between

BOOKREVIEW

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improvising voices. The first half of the book de-scribes the importance of the text and its natural rhythm and how defining this rhythm is essen-tial to creating an excellent answering voice. At the conclusion of the first half she highlights the strengths and weaknesses of creating a counter-melody in various modal and tonal contexts, including using such influences as classical, jazz, blues, spirituals, and world music.

After this brief and delightful intermezzo, Parker then delves into the actual process of ar-ranging for voices. She is careful to show that the bulk of the process happens long before pencil is ever put to paper. Parker encourages the musi-cian to imagine the possibilities of performance, arguing that the goal of arranging is to envision music that will be sung and not merely exist on paper. She also encourages the arranger to seri-ously analyze the melody, giving special emphasis to the rhythmic aspects of the tune, exploring its form and textual origins, and considering the form of the whole arrangement. Finally she provides some basic rules for composing the an-swering voice. Only after all these things are considered can the arranger be prepared to be-gin writing. Parker’s argument is simple: once this big-picture work is completed the stresses of arranging are lessened considerably, and the re-sult is a more singable and pleasing end product.

These books are recommended for any prac-ticing church musician. Both volumes are easy to read—they could be read to cover to cover in the course of a few hours—but offer insights that we all need to hear repeatedly throughout our careers. Parker’s voice is simple and pro-found, insisting that the act of singing and the power of melody is a common bond that all the people of our churches share. Because of this be-lief, her writing conveys a genuine concern with continuing the practice of excellent singing in our churches and choirs while understanding that many choir conductors work with amateur musicians.

In addition, Parker’s advice is practical and achievable. Melodious Accord serves as a remind-er that our largest choir is the congregation. Quality singing from the pews should be every church musician’s goal, but oftentimes we for-get this and focus solely on those musicians who make up our ensembles. Parker’s simple advice can help us lovingly encourage our members to sing again and experience the joy of communal music-making in church. The Answering Voice offers church musicians effective ways to arrange worthwhile pieces for their own church’s singers. Throughout the book Parker elaborates on this simple concept: “Make your response to the mel-ody reflect what you just heard. It’s not literal … but it’s built from those elements that vibrate in your ear” (The Answering Voice, 107). This belief permeates Parker’s entire philosophy of coun-terpoint. Her suggestions are straightforward enough to encourage the novice arranger in his craft and thoughtful enough to be of aid to the seasoned composer.

These volumes are geared toward anyone who leads choirs and churches in song. They are not overly technical and will be of little use to those who are looking for a college-style text on singing or composing. However, for those of us who are looking for a practical handbook that fosters good singing within our churches, these volumes would be an excellent addition to any library. In these books Alice Parker continues to teach us all about excellent singing in ways that are both philosophical and practical.

Matthew MachemerAssociate KantorConcordia Theological SeminaryFort Wayne, IN

BOOKREVIEW


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Many rehearsals tend to include the same vocal warm-ups time after time. Some of

them become so predictable that the director need neither not say a word nor play a note and the choir already knows which warm-up will be next. The purpose of a warm-up should be to vocally prepare instruments while specifically addressing the musical objectives for the re-hearsal. Thankfully there are resources such as this book to encourage directors to utilize a new warm-up repertoire.

In addition to a very nice forward by Helen Kemp, the author’s mother, the book contains a narrative to directors about warm-up objec-tives, general how-to comments, and thoughts on working with a group of volunteers. As one would assume, the majority of the book consists of warm-ups. This collection begins with two-part exercises; then moves to four-part; and ends with four-part canons, which the author has ed-ited to better serve this context. One will note that the vast majority of exercises in this volume are written for at least two parts. The author also provides several four-part examples. While the rewards of four-part singing in warm-ups are valuable, this could be a challenge for a volun-teer group.

Michael Kemp.Innovative Warm-Ups for the Volunteer Choir: Creative Concepts to Improve Choral Sound.Chicago: GIA, 2014.

Director’s edition: xii, 66 pgs.ISBN-13: 978-1622770953.$17.95, ppbk.Singer’s edition: 36 pages.ISBN-13: $5.75, ppbk.

Each exercise has a stated objective at the top of the page and follows with a paragraph ex-planation of how and why one could utilize this particular example. The author is to be praised for utilizing the minor mode, mixed meter, and singing in multiple parts throughout.

Kemp encourages the volunteer choir to sing these warm-ups a cappella. Purchasers of this book should note that there are no keyboard re-ductions for these warm-ups; therefore if one is to lead them from the piano, it is necessary to be able to read open score in up to four parts.

Innovative Warm-Ups for the Volunteer Choir is not the only warm-up resource you will need for your work with a volunteer group. And that is not the point of this volume. You will find that this book includes several warm-ups that will help your ensemble improve their choral sound, and that is always a worthy investment.

Jonathan BusarowArtistic and Executive DirectorFort Wayne (IN) Children’s Choir

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Those who have musical training may feel they have all the skills necessary to be a church

musician, but as those involved in the field know, there is a lot more to the job than just music. This book seeks to equip church musicians with the skills necessary to handle not only interperson-al issues but also other administrative and select musical leadership responsibilities needed in parish music ministry. Stephen Petrunak draws on his corporate and music ministry leadership experience while addressing issues common to music programs. Interspersed throughout the text, Petrunak’s priest, Randall R. Phillips, re-flects on leadership within the gospel.

The first section of this book deals entirely with managing people. A chapter each is giv-en to understanding personality types, effective communication, dealing with conflict, working with difficult people, being a manager, servant leadership, and motivating volunteers. The sec-ond section touches on topics the author believes may not have been covered in music schools: the basics of directing, keeping up morale, rehearsal management, teaching new music, helping the assembly, planning music for services, spiritual-ity of the music ministry, working with youth, recruitment, and budgets.

Concerning interpersonal issues, Petrunak offers some excellent insights from the corpo-rate world in terms of understanding people, why they are there, and what they contribute to the ministry. He also covers how to be an effec-tive communicator and how to resolve conflict.

Stephen Petrunak and Randall R. Phillips.Managing Music Ministry: {Beyond Notes and Chords}.Chicago: GIA, 2014.

xiii, 117 pgs.ISBN-13: 978-1622771042.$12.95. ppbk

Dealing with people one-on-one, however, is different from working with a group, and sever-al examples he takes from his own ministry are quite poor models for interaction when dealing with a group of parish volunteers. Petrunak does hit the mark on instructing musical leaders to set the climate of a music program and to be a coach and cheerleader.

Whereas Petrunak takes readers through a rather thorough discussion of managing peo-ple, the second section offers a more cursory look into musical and nonmusical topics. When ad-dressing motivating volunteers, planning music, keeping up morale, or even recruitment, it would have been helpful if Petrunak had addressed the matter of setting an ensemble up for success by choosing music that would make the group suc-cessful. One of the strongest chapters of this section is on youth; Petrunak has sustained an active and successful youth music program for over 20 years.

This book does not seek to replace proper musical training or even on-the-job training. Readers can glean valuable insights that will help them to become more complete and bet-ter leaders. As the author acknowledges, this is what all parish musicians want, because they un-derstand what an immense responsibility it is to serve their worshipping communities.

Nicole BusarowDirector of MusicEmanuel Lutheran ChurchNew Haven, IN


INSTRUMENTAL | ORGAN

James Biery.Journey to the Man-ger: Hymn Preludes for Advent and Christmas.Concordia (97-7663), $26.00.

This is a nice collection of eight hymn preludes on familiar Advent and Christmas hymns. Biery has paid careful attention to keeping his settings in style with the nature of the hymn tune being used. The organ parts are of medium difficulty, with some arrangements making use of a some-what more active pedal part. The hymn tunes included in this volume are Cas radosti; Di-vinum mysterium; Go Tell It; Helmsley; Milwaukee; Sieh, hier bin ich; W Żlobie Lėży and Wo soll ich fliehen hin. This is strongly recommended as a refreshing addition to your Advent and Christmas library. MS

David Cherwien.Good Friday Re-flections: Organ Meditations on Sta-tions of the Cross.MorningStar (MSM-10-365), $18.00.

Good Friday Reflections features nine hymn tune settings, one for each station of the cross. A de-votional service by Susan Palo Cherwien based on the stations is provided, including reproduc-ible pages for the congregation. The musical style is both dissonant and dramatic, drawing the composer into uncharted musical waters. Nails are pounded by the full organ. Nasty detached chords mock the Christ. The haunting words

of the carol, “Nails, spears shall pierce him through,” are recalled as the mother keeps watch at the cross. The tree in the garden of Shades Mountain is equated with the tree of the cross. This is not pretty music. It’s as dark and chal-lenging as the first Good Friday. It requires the performer to prepare carefully and to intelligent-ly interpret the complex score. It also invites the congregation to deeper reflection on the drama of the cross. KO

Benjamin M. Culli.Hymn Tune Innovations: 8 Easy Chorale Preludes for All Seasons, Set 2.Concordia (97-7649), $18.00.

While sightreadable or slightly above, these intelligently written settings will hold the interest of musicians of all abili-ty levels. Registration suggestions are given for two-manual instruments. Eight tunes are treated, including Gethsemane; Ich sterbe täglich; Llangloffan; and Komm, Heilig-er Geist, Herre Gott. The settings are brief, with many containing a single statement of the hymn tune. Culli’s creativity with tuneful intro-ductions and interludes, rhythms, articulation, and registration add up to a versatile, appealing package. CP

John Eggert.Partita on Veni Creator Spiritus.Concordia (97-7652), $14.00.

Commissioned by the Western Illinois University Chapter of the AGO in hon-or of the retirement of Dr. Anita Eggert Werling, this lively and inventive partita is versatile and highly appealing. There are seven movements which, though not explicitly indicated, could be said to correlate to the seven hymn stanzas. Each movement can stand on its own, whether as service music or as a solo organ stanza during singing of the hymn on Pentecost.

SOUNDFESTs

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güldne Sonne, Engelberg, Ewing, Fortu-natus New, Houston, Le p’ing, Marching to Zion, Min Aynet Fiqir New, Neno Lake Mungu, St. Clement, Shanti, and The Saints’ Delight. This is a nonseasonal volume that offers something to use at almost any time of the year. MS

Ronald Perera.Hymnos.ECS (8101), $13.10.

Commissioned in honor of organist and choirmaster Peter Beardsley on his re-tirement from Christ

Church Cathedral in Springfield, MA, this work comprises two movements. The first movement is based on Star in the East from Southern Harmony, and the second is based on Michael and Hyfrydol. These three main tunes are per-sonal favorites of Beardsley and the composer. Portions of additional hymn tunes are stated throughout. Registrations and rhythmic group-ings of septuplets and octuplets at times give an ethereal effect. Changing and irregular meters are prominent, as well as an array of dynamics. This music will be best served when presented on a well-voiced, three-manual instrument by an organist familiar with the instrument, as fre-quent registration changes are employed. It is suitable for recital, hymn festival introduction, or other special-presentation occasions. CP

Louis Vierne.Complete Organ Works, vol. 5, Symphony No. 5, op. 47.Ed. by Helga Schauerte-Maubouet.Bärenreiter (BA 9225), €28.95 (approx. $32.00).

This volume features Vierne’s 5th Symphony, the largest of his symphonies. Editorial assistance

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As a complete partita, the movements provide sustained interest through a range of composi-tional ideas. The tune is always present—not too obvious or obscure—with enough variation in meter, timbre, and tempo to invite the listener into the texture. This partita also could be very effective in a festival hymn sing, alternating be-tween organ and congregation through all seven movements/stanzas or having the congregation sing a stanza or two after hearing the organ play. DR

Hymn Prelude Library: Lutheran Service Book, vol. 4 (Tunes F G). Ed. by Kevin Hildebrand.Concordia (97-7457), $50.00.

The collection features hymn settings (alphabetically on the tunes Faithful-ness through Gwalchmai) by an array of composers, including Jeffrey Blersch, Alfred Fedak, Charles Ore, Anne Krentz

Organ, and Wayne Wold. The editor’s pref-ace points to an assortment of style, harmony, and registration, all suitable for use as prelude, postlude, offering, or hymn introduction music. Most settings are sightreadable, making them ideal for use by students, lay musicians, or busy professionals. CP

J. Wayne Kerr.Musica Sacra: Easy Hymn Preludes for Organ, vol. 9.Concordia (97-7653), $30.00.

This is an excellent collection of 14 hymn preludes that are well written and acces-sible for any organist. The rhythms and

pedal parts are easy, as promised in the title, but the arranging is well done and worth using. The tunes arranged in this volume include Ach Gott vom Himmelreiche, Alabaré, Die

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Jacob B. Weber.Easter Mosaics.Concordia (97-7646), $18.00.

Weber has already established himself as a fine, young composer. This book of “mo-saics” on Easter hymns should find wide usage. While they may stand alone for worship or recital, some would also make festive, ideal introductions for hymn singing. Weber treats both familiar, beloved tunes as well as some newer, lesser-known tunes. The sugges-tions for registration should be appropriate for most organs. Of moderate difficulty, they none-theless deserve to be practiced, not sightread. Tunes included are Alleluia No. 1, Easter Hymn, Gelobt sei Gott, Ncheu, Orientis partibus, and Salve festa dies. Organists will enjoy performing these works and worshippers will enjoy hearing them. Recommended. JG

was given by Thierry Escaich, a student of Marcel Dupré. Sever-al errors from previous editions have been cor-rected by using the original autograph as the principal source, along with some hand-

written alterations by Vierne. The foreword in this volume (presented in both French and En-glish) is extensive, including photographs of Vierne’s manuscripts and a detailed historical background of this symphony.

The layout of the music on the page is worth noting. The book is in portrait format with an average of about eight measures per page. The generous spacing between the notes improves readability over some earlier editions. It is print-ed on paper that may glare under organ lamps. This is an excellent scholarly edition of Vierne’s 5th Symphony. MS

C h u r c h M u s i cI n s t i t u t eWeek 1 | June 14-19Featured Artist – Maurice ClercSaint-Bénigne Cathedral in Dijon, FranceImprovisation in the French Manner, Organ Vespers

Week 2 | June 21-26Featured Artist – Bruce NeswickIndiana University – Royal School of Church MusicHymn Festival, Master Classes, Choral Evensong

Featured Topics• Hymn & Service Playing (Basic & Advanced)• Keyboard Skills & Improvisation (Basic & Advanced)• Organ Literature, Registration & Performance Practice• Anthem Literature for the Church Year• Morning & Evening Prayer

S u m m e r O r g a n A c a d e m y for High School Keyboard Players

June 21-26Offered concurrently with Church MusicInstitute Week 2

Featured Topics and Activities• Private Lessons• Hymn Playing & Improvisation• Exploring the Harpsichord• Organ Design & Construction• Visit to Taylor & Boody Organ Shop• Evening Programs of CMI• Recreation

Organ and Church MusicJ. Thomas Mitts, Director

at Shenandoah Conservatory

Visit SU.edu/Conservatory/ChurchMusicInstituteor email [email protected] for more information.

CMI is a program of Shenandoah University inWinchester, VA and may be taken for credit.


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38 Spring 2015 | CrossAccent

PIANO

Charles Callahan.We Are Gathered: 12 Hymn Meditations for Piano.MorningStar (MSM-15-760), $15.95.

Callahan’s giftedness in radiating sublime beauty shimmers throughout this collec-tion of 12 hymn meditations. Original melodic passages complement hymn tunes with occasional poignant recasting of tra-ditional harmonies. Effective use of key

changes, subtle dynamics, and prominent par-allelisms provide overtones that are uniquely Callahan. The generally themed settings in-clude well-loved—but often overlooked—tunes, such as Beecher, Bradbury, Jesus Loves Me, Nicaea, and Olivet. Musicians who enjoy ex-perimenting with creative sound possibilities may want to explore the meditations on elec-tronic medium. The settings are at sightreading level or slightly above. As suggested by the title, the collection is appropriate for quieter, medita-tive portions of worship services. CP

KEYBOARD AND INSTRUMENTS

Henry Mollicone.Elegy.B-flat soprano saxophone/clarinet, organ.Ione Press/ECS (7974), $10.50.

Commissioned by organist Douglas Cleve-land and dedicated to him, this piece achieves a meditative mood that could be interpreted as mournful longing. A relative-ly slow tempo, colorful harmonies, and soft

dynamic markings contribute to this mood. The saxophone carries most of the melodic interest, supported by undulating organ lines. California composer Mollicone, best known for his operas, uses dissonance and chromaticism throughout, which add to the difficulty level. LW

HANDBELLS

Sandra Eithun.Handbell Praise.2 octaves handbells.Concordia (97-7637), $30.00 (reproducible).

This is a wonderfully musical and worship-ful collection including

the following hymn tunes: Bradbury, Cantad al Señor, Eventide, Italian Hymn, Madrid, Siyahamba, and Terra beata. Written for only two octaves of handbells, handchimes could also be used in their place, making this a very ver-satile compilation of favorite hymn tunes. The benefits to having reproducible music are end-less: special marking for every ringer, ability to use the music for more than one event, and the ability to copy again and again. The techniques used are thumb damps, mallets (both on the ta-ble and suspended), mallet roll, shake, swing, ring touch, LV (let vibrate), and mart-lift, and tempo and key changes add interest. Level 2–2+. ML

Cathy Moklebust.Silent Night.3–5 octaves handbells, 3–5 octaves hand-chimes, with optional triangle, finger cymbal, chime tree.Concordia (97-7638), $4.25.

For a level-2 piece, this arrangement of Stille Nacht really packs a punch. Newer ringers will feel accomplished while ringing this lovely rendition of one of our most beloved Christ-mas tunes. Not only can one include a triangle and finger cymbals—and these must be in tune for the piece to be effective—but the use of the


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singing-bell technique is very ethereal. This piece can be rung without the triangle, finger cymbals, and chime tree and even without the handchimes, but it will be much more enjoyable if you are able to include all of the extras. The section where the handchimes ring actually gives the melody to the bass, and that is a rare occa-sion. Level 2. ML

VOCAL | CHILDREN’S CHOIR

James Melby.In Thee Is Gladness.Adapted by Scott Hyslop.Unison voices, organ or piano, two flutes, hand drum.Concordia (98-4175), $2.00.

This energetic anthem is a setting of the tune In dir ist Freude. Both the English translation and original German text are included. Since this is written in unison, it would be appropri-ate for children’s, youth, or adult choirs. Both the tempo marking and the unique instrumen-tal ensemble help the text and music come alive. Instrumental parts are included in the score. It is suitable for the Easter season. AW

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ADULT CHOIR

Jeremy J. Bankson.By All Your Saints.SATB, organ, with optional brass quintet, timpani.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-8576-9), $1.80.

This makes attendant music for a stir-ring All Saints celebration—or perhaps even a funeral where a large choir is uti-lized—a splendid event indeed. Written for a church anniversary, the setting has many possible uses, such as dedication and choral fes-tival. Sopranos are invited to divide on the final doxological stanza and even share a high B-flat. Good solid part-writing, which choirs will enjoy singing. This is a festive arrangement of a known text with a brand new tune. Full score and in-strumental parts are available separately at the publisher’s website. JG

Mark Bender.My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker.SATB, congregation, organ.Concordia (98-4160), $2.50.

Composed in G major, this anthem is an energetic setting of the tune Nun lob, mein’ Seel’. Written for SATB choir, stan-zas 1 and 2 of the anthem are in unison. Stanza 3 highlights tenors and basses, then sopranos and altos, and finally the whole choir. The final stanza is unison with a soprano des-cant. Reproducible pages for congregation are included. This anthem is accessible for a wide va-riety of ability levels and can be sung by large or small choirs. It is suitable for general use or for Lent. AW


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James Biery.Holy and Beloved.SATB, organ.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-9249-1), $1.95.

James Biery’s setting of Colossians 3:12-17 starts with a soft, free choral introduction, “You are God’s chosen ones, holy and be-loved.” It is nice to see a new setting of an underutilized scriptural text. Biery’s mu-sic always supports the text as he moves

through key and meter changes, building to a fortissimo at the words “sing psalms and hymns, sing songs of the Spirit with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Difficulty level is manage-able for most church choirs, with a melodic grace that makes the music singable for the choir and accessible to the congregation. The composer’s return to the introductory material at the end is particularly satisfying. This gentle music re-minds us of St. Paul’s call to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (nrsv). KO

Paul Bouman.Kyrie, God Father.SATB unaccompanied.Tempo 1º Press (t1p 002), $1.60.

Bouman utilizes the 9th-century chant Ky-rie fons bonitatis as the

basis for his unaccompanied four-part choral setting featuring text from “Kyrie, Gott Vater.” Thus the work is unmetered, with basic rhythms and stepwise motion. This worshipful, unhur-ried piece features bookend piano dynamics, with a dramatic central section in forte. A four-part ensemble adept in the nuances of breath control, diction, intonation, and blend will make this a highly effective addition to a seasonally or liturgically appropriate worship service. CP

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Carol Doran.O Praise the Gracious Power.Arr. by John Ferguson.SATB, treble choir, handbells (2 or 3 oc-taves), brass quartet, organ, with optional congregation.MorningStar (MSM-50-4052), $2.25.

This is a mighty setting of a powerful hymn in concertato form. Ferguson has arranged it to in-clude a treble choir (children/youth/adults) most effectively, which is not an “option” but rather a necessity. The congregation is invited to join the choirs for stanzas 6 and 7, producing a thrill-ing conclusion. The SATB choir has some divisi

for the women and basses. The tune by Carol Doran is Christpraise Ray. Thomas Troeger’s text makes this piece fit for Reformation, evan-gelism/missions, Eastertide, and social justice. Other editions available from MorningStar are the full score (MSM-50-4052A, $15) and the instrumental parts (MSM-50-4052B, $25) for handbells and brass quartet, with French horn as an optional substitute for Trombone I. The handbell part is playable by 3–4 people. An or-gan with power will be advantageous, and the organ can actually play the entire accompa-niment if the brass quartet is not available. It would be prudent to have both a conductor and an organist for this concertato. JG

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FACULTYJoseph Bognar, DMA, Chair, Department of Music; Associate University Organist

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Competitive scholarships available For more information, please contact the Department of Music 219.464.5454 or email [email protected]/music Department of Music

103 Rank Schlicker/Dobson Organ in the Chapel of the Resurrection

6 practice pipe organs


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Charles Forsberg.In the Shepherd’s Keeping.SATB divisi a capella, with optional violin.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-8290-4), $1.95.

A Norwegian folk tune is the basis for this lovely setting, and there is an optional Norwegian text included for the first cou-

ple pages. Performance options are included for the division of parts and use of a violin. This ar-rangement will delight singers and listeners alike but will require a disciplined approach to learn-ing. The nuances of pianissimo to forte-fortissimo are dramatic. The themes of eternal life, the joys of heavenly (Jeru)Salem, glory, mercy, and grace all permeate this arrangement, which one hopes will find wide use. JG

George Frideric Handel.Jesus, Sun of Life, My Splendor.Arr. by John Leavitt.SAB, organ or piano.Concordia (98-4179), $1.75.

There are other published arrangements of this lovely chorale (Schmücke dich) from Handel’s “Brockes Passion.” How-ever, if you do not have a separate tenor

section, this practical SAB version retains most of the original part-writing while providing a nice, user-friendly keyboard adaptation of the orchestration. Leavitt has also lowered the key to F major and has modernized the Winkworth English translation (e.g., replacing “thee” with “you”). This piece provides an opportunity for the SAB choir to learn and enjoy a classic com-munion anthem in a musically satisfying setting. DR

Hal H. Hopson.O Dearest Jesus, What Law Have You Broken.SATB, piano.MorningStar (MSM-50-3515), $1.85.

Hopson uses the haunting American work song Water Boy as the basis for this anthem for Pas-sion Week, using a 17th-century text by Johann Heermann. The overall form of this piece is AB-CBA, with A (the opening call of the work song) sung by a soloist, accompanied only by open fifths in the piano. The first B section presents the melody in unison with a more flowing ac-companiment. The middle section is in the spirit of a call and response, with the sopranos begin-ning each phrase, answered by the lower voices. The choir here also acts as a countermelody, with the piano playing the melody first introduced in the B section. The B section then returns with full SATB choir, forming the climax both mu-sically and textually (“Conquer my heart, now, make love its sole purpose”). The piece has been building dynamically to this point as well, growing from piano to forte with each section. With the return of the more pensive A section, Hopson also returns to the softer dynamic and minimal open-fifth accompaniment. That Hop-son uses a melody that may have originated as a prison work song makes it a fascinating choice for this text. This piece would make a moving addition for Passion Sunday or Good Friday. Medium-easy. AE


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Hal H. Hopson.With a Mighty Wind and Tongues of Fire.SATB, organ.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-2081-4), $1.75.

Set in ternary form, Hopson’s Pentecost anthem begins and ends “With fire and vigor.” An ascending flourish from the organ leads into the choir’s opening fortissi-mo statement. Syncopated and dotted rhythmic motives increase the sense of urgency, then the tempo slows slightly for the quieter middle sec-tion. Rhythmic interest continues here, with an increased focus on the text, adapted by Hopson from Scripture. The closing section adds Allelu-ias and divisi on the final chords. Aside from the fact that the tessitura may be somewhat high for altos and basses, the choral parts are written in such a way that they will be easy to learn, with many unison passages. This would make a stir-ring addition to a Pentecost worship service. LW

Thomas Keesecker.Jesus Said, Come, Follow Me.SATB a cappella, oboe.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-2074-6), $1.30.

The text is simple, consisting of nothing beyond the words of the title, and the piece is only three pages long, but it is an effective reflection on Je-sus’ call. The anthem begins with a solo melody played by the oboe (or other C instrument). The choir enters and sings alone, unmeasured, with dynamic and harmonic variety to add interest to the repetitive text. Another plaintive oboe solo,

followed by a brief choir coda, brings the piece to a close. Choral ranges are generally comfort-able, with some divisi. A low D is required of the second basses on the final chord. The choir will need to be able to sustain a slow tempo. LW

Thomas Keesecker.The Sun Was Bright That Easter Dawn.SATB, organ, trumpet, with optional assembly.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-9261-3), $1.95.

This anthem is based on a text by the late Dr. Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr., a contem-porary pastor and hymn writer. The tune Easter Dawn is an original work by Keesecker. The can-tus firmus has a searching, modal quality and is underpinned by solid, four-part harmony. A slightly unconventional 6/4 meter lends a Celtic air to the music. A balanced ensemble will be key to successful presentation, but the work should be accessible to a range of ability levels. This up-lifting anthem includes a reproducible page that enables participation by the worship assembly. A trumpet part may be downloaded from the publisher’s website. Keesecker’s setting will be suitable for use throughout the Easter season. CP

Thomas Keesecker.We Praise Your Cross, O Christ.SATB, piano, with optional guitar.MorningStar (MSM-50-3087), $1.70.

This original anthem has a haunting mel-ody that focuses on the cross. Composed in C minor, it is a good marriage of text and tune. Although the tempo indication is very slow, all of the phrases are short. As a result, this anthem is accessible for a wide variety of ability levels and can be sung by large or small choirs. It is suitable for Lent or any service where the Scripture passages refer to the cross. AW


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Kenneth T. Kosche.Now the Green Blade Riseth.Two-part mixed voices, piano.Concordia (98-4161), $1.75.

This is an arrangement using the tune Noël Nouvelet that any smaller choir would enjoy singing. The piano part is not difficult and offers plenty of clues for the vo-calists throughout the piece. The two parts

each remain in unison throughout. The third stanza is written as a canon with the women taking the lead. The canon occasionally creates some close harmonies, but the well-written pia-no arrangement guides the singers through. The option exists to double the voicing for the last stanza, with S/T on voice one and A/B on voice two. This would create more fullness for the cli-max. MS

Paul Leavitt.Luther’s Words.SATB divisi, piano, with optional flute.

www.PaulLeavittMusic.com, $2.95.

Leavitt has based his musical work on Martin Luther’s text, “We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it.” The scriptural reference is Philippians 3:12. The 157-measure anthem was written for a pastoral ordination. Straightforward rhythms bring out the stalwart character of Luther’s words. Text is further high-lighted with passages of imitation, ground bass, and some well-placed dissonant second and sev-enth intervals between parts. Also featured is an optional a cappella section. The supportive ac-companiment consists of flowing 16ths. While not exceedingly difficult, this piece nonetheless will require some independence on the part of the choir, both in its ability to effect dissonance between parts and in the ability to correctly in-terpret longer-held rhythms. A well-blended choir skilled in reading notes and rhythms, dic-tion, and dynamic nuances will bring out the best in this piece. CP

Paul Leavitt.Psalm 85: I Will Lis-ten to What the Lord God Is Saying.SATB a cappella, re-hearsal reduction for keyboard.

www.PaulLeavittMusic.com, $1.95.

Leavitt composed this elegant setting of Psalm 85:8-13 for a pastor’s installation. This is a perfect piece for choirs that enjoy the challenge of singing liturgical music requiring disciplined reading (it is written with six sharps), a few changes of me-ter, close harmonies that are simply elegant, and

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some octave leaps that must be performed with great control. The dynamic changes are exqui-site. Learning this psalm setting will provide the choristers with practical music theory. Warning to the conductor and the accompanist: do not attempt to sightread this in rehearsal. Go over each voice part before the choir ever sees it and know exactly where the challenges lie. Learning the music with sectionals would be wise (SA and TB). The singers will be thrilled with the ethe-real qualities of this arrangement. Leavitt has other SATB works available on his website, and a few for TTBB as well. Highly recommended. JG

Paul Leavitt.Psalm 121: I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills.SATB a capella, rehearsal reduction for keyboard.www.PaulLeavittMusic.com, $1.95.

The close relationship between the words and rhythm in Leavitt’s setting helps to em-phasize the text of Psalm 121. While there are a number of accidentals, the voices are aided by deft voice leading. The composer’s sensitive use of expression markings serves to underscore the text. SATB choirs with experience singing unaccompanied will find this to be a welcome addition to their repertoire. General use. AE

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Anne Krentz Organ.We Walk by Faith.Two-part mixed, piano.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-9263-7), $1.80.

Krentz Organ gives us a new setting of the hymn text by Henry Walford. The use of

a flattened seventh in the melody and accom-paniment adds a modal touch to the piece. The anthem is mainly in 3/4, shifting to 4/4 and a new melody at stanza 4 (“For you, O resurrected Lord”). The lovely melody, flowing accompani-ment, and sensitive text setting will make this a solid addition for choirs looking for two-part an-thems. Appropriate for Easter season and general use. Easy. AE

Mark Patterson.Easter Introit and Benediction.SSATB, brass quartet, timpani, organ.MorningStar (MSM-50-4110), $1.70.

This composition contains original lyrics by the composer. It is divided into two sections of 24 measures each. The first one, titled “Christ Triumphant,” is a festive introit or entrance to an Easter worship service. The choral parts are medium in difficulty with

some upper tenor notes needed. The divided so-prano is minimal and could be covered easily by a first alto. The second section is titled “Our Strength and Our Stay.” This section includes more festive rhythms and the brass quintet. It should be noted that the brass parts are included in the accompaniment and marked as such. The vocal parts are once again medium in difficulty with more doubling of parts to create a forceful sound to reflect the strong lyrics. Full score and instrumental parts (MSM-50-4110A; $32.00) are also available. This is an excellent piece that would work well with or without the additional instrumentation. MS

Walter L. Pelz.O Day Full of Grace.SATB, congregation, organ, brass quartet.Concordia (98-4186), $2.00.

Composed in C major, this hymn concertato is

a straightforward setting of the hymn. The in-strumentation and inclusion of the congregation capture the grandeur of the text. Reproducible pages for congregation are available at the back of the anthem. This anthem is accessible for a wide variety of ability levels and can be sung by large or small choirs. It is suitable for Pentecost. AW

Carl Schalk.My Song in the Night.SAB, organ.Concordia (98-4178), $1.75.

Schalk has creat-ed a simple and effective setting of this

hauntingly beautiful American folk hymn (Ex-pression). The poetry appears to be inspired by imagery from Psalm 77, particularly verse 6 (“I said, ‘Let me remember my song in the night’” in the esv translation), and is an expression of con-fidence in Jesus despite any darkness that may envelop us. Stanza 1 presents the whole melody sung by the women in unison, a call to the Lord in the midst of affliction but in hope rather than in anguish. The men start stanza 2 in unison and are answered by the women with a variation on the middle melodic phrase highlighting Jesus as “My comfort and joy, my soul’s delight.” In the last stanza, the choir begins in a prayerful three-part setting, building to “My love, my life, my only light” and ending in a quiet affirmation of


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the “song in the night” image. With its primar-ily two-part texture based on the melody, this piece is accessible to choirs of all sizes and will be a welcome addition to your choral hymn col-lection. DR

Timothy Shaw.We Praise You, Jesus, at Your Birth.SAB, piano.Concordia (98-4170), $1.75.

There was a time, which seems not so long ago, when Amer-

ican church choir directors sought out SAB music for their high school/youth choirs and only considered SATB with divisi for their adult choirs. In many cases SAB music was not well crafted and was unsatisfactory for helping young singers to develop. Now, in the 21st century, it is (unfortunately) common that there are few (or no) youth choirs, and many adult choirs are no longer comfortable singing four-part choral music. Shaw has taken a great 14th-century Ger-man text that includes some stanzas by Martin Luther and provided a lovely new tune and ac-companiment. This is a splendid opportunity for those who seek to provide classic Reformation texts accessible to choirs and faith communities of today. This setting definitely needs a piano for the accompaniment. It lies in good ranges for so-pranos, altos, and men—no complaints that it’s “too high” or “too low.” SAB voicing appears to be very natural with Shaw, and this should find great usage for Christmastide and Epiphanytide worship or concerts. It could even be sung by a trio or used to start building up a youth choir once again. JG

Timothy Shaw.Who Trusts in God.Two-part equal voices, organ or piano, with op-tional solo.Concordia (98-4176), $1.75.

Since the 500th anniversary of the Reforma-tion is coming in 2017, many choirs will surely want to perform not only classic Lutheran cho-rales, hymnody, and various choral music from the early days of Lutheranism but also new set-tings of these great texts. Shaw has taken the sturdy words of a 16th-century hymn and giv-en them a fresh new melodic treatment. The first and third stanzas are almost in the antiphonal style (another form of singing sacred texts from the early days of the Lutheran church). Directors must carefully decide which voices to use when performing this setting. It would easily fit the tessitura of soprano and alto; if tenor and bari-tone were used, the second part might be a bit low for clean diction. If mixed voices, try switch-ing things around in order to discern the best sound. Whether a soloist or a section is used for the middle stanza, the singer(s) must be able to sing a high F quietly with a challenging vowel. If two accompanists are available, it could be very effective to use the piano for the two-part texture and the organ for the soloist. Experiment and be creative. JG


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Mark Shepperd.Ride On, Ride On in Majesty.SAB, keyboard.MorningStar (MSM-50-3520), $2.25.

This original anthem is a joyous setting of a Palm Sunday text based on John 12:13. Composed in 6/8, it alternates between F major (when referring to the triumphant

nature of Palm Sunday) and F minor (when re-ferring to the Passion aspect of Palm Sunday). Because the voicing is SAB, this accessible an-them would be appropriate for a youth choir or adult choir. AW

Sweet Freedom.Adapted by Gwyneth Walker.SATB divisi a cappella.ECS (7698), $2.25.

Based on the beloved anthem My Country, ‘Tis of Thee, this upbeat arrangement is sure to have both singers and audience riding high on a wave of patriotism. Walker effects a skillful improvisation on the original God Save the King melody, under-pinning it with a choral ostinato that brims with rhythmic vitality. A full, balanced ensemble whose director is capable of eliciting rich dy-namic and tempi expression will bring out the best in this piece. It is suitable for advanced mid-dle school through adult choirs. CP

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SOUNDFESTs

Tom Trenney.Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth.SATB, piano.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-9254-5), $1.80.

Trenney has tak-en a text by Jean Janzen (based on the 14th-century words

of Julian of Norwich), added a hauntingly lovely arrangement of the tune Maryton, and fash-ioned an anthem for those seeking music with a mystical touch. Specific directions are given for the piano accompaniment—organ would not be appropriate for this setting. There is some very minor doubling of parts for basses and sopranos. The entire choir sings the last note (E-flat above middle C) in unison for the final 20 beats, where a diminuendo is achieved. Sumptuous. JG

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David von Kampen.Go to Dark Gethsemane.SATB, piano.Concordia (98-4183), $2.00.

This well-known hymn, which has earned a position in midweek Lenten worship and Holy Week services, is an invitation to “walk” with Christ throughout the final hours of his Passion. (Curiously, the last stanza—sometimes omitted—is an invitation to “run” to the open tomb.) This setting is a refreshing ar-rangement of the familiar text and tune, done with drama and tasteful simplicity. Piano will be far superior to the organ for accompanying this anthem. Choirs will enjoy the rich harmonic structure; tenors and basses get to sing in par-allel fourths, sopranos get to sing lower than


SOUNDFEST

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altos, and the men will take the challenge of an octave leap, quietly, which will land them one whole step from the altos at the dramatic “It is finished!” moment. They are also invited to dou-ble up for an optional TTBB final three chords. This is a beautiful arrangement. JG

Glenn Wonacott.God Is Here.SATB a capella.Augsburg Fortress (978-1-4514-8580-6), $1.50.

Wonacott has provided his own text for this short but very complete anthem. The texture is straightforward with a few har-monic surprises, and the choir will enjoy singing in a free, rubato style. Rich chords with mildly challenging intervals provide a

beautiful background for the text. Every phrase begins with “God is here”; the latter part of the phrase reminds the listener that God reaches out, listens to prayers, gives grace to the wound-ed heart, lifts lives after a fall, calls us Christians, teaches us, and finally shows us why we, too, are here. There is much music in only 28 measures. JG

Reviewers:

Ann Edahl (AE)Choir DirectorOur Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Fresno, CA

James Gladstone (JG)Retired Cantor, Saginaw, MIMusic Assistant, Ev. Lutheran Church of

St. Lorenz, Frankenmuth, MI

Marilyn Lake (ML)Handbell DirectorSouthminster Presbyterian Church,

Prairie Village, KSMusic Educator, Shawnee Mission School

District, KS

Karl A. Osterland (KO)Music DirectorHistoric Trinity Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI

Carla Post (CP)OrganistSt. Mark’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral,

Hastings, NESt. Paul Lutheran Church, Blue Hill, NEEditor/developer, www.thepaulineproject.com

Deborah Reiss (DR)Minister of MusicVillage Lutheran Church, Bronxville, NY

Mark A. Schultz (MS)Minister of MusicTrinity Lutheran Church and School,

Wausau, WI

Lara West (LW)Music DirectorGood Shepherd Lutheran Church,

Lawrence, KSLecturer, Benedictine College, Atchison, KS

Austen Wilson (AW)Director of MusicLutheran Church of Our Savior,

Haddonfield, NJ

POSTLUDE

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Julie Potts GrindlePresident-Elect, ALCM

T he articles in this issue speak to many his-torical and practical tensions in the life and work of the church musician, the pastor,

the composer. They have reminded me just how truly subjective music is to the leader, the sing-er, the listener. The choices we make as worship planners are subject to our experience, our edu-cation, the parish we serve, our time of life, our preferences.

How many times have we chosen a new hymn that spoke to the word and to us, yet fell flat as a pancake when sung as an assem-bly? The text worked but the music didn’t, not in the unique context of that day, or vice versa. Conversely, hasn’t it been a nice surprise when a hymn that was thrown in at the last minute during communion reached deep into the hearts of the same people, stirring them to be God’s faithful people?

The writers in this issue want us to think deeply about why we choose the hymns we pick and how those hymns relate to being of the world, but not in the world. These articles help shape us into being better thinkers, more inten-tional about how we guide the worship of the congregation through song.

It is always helpful to ask oneself when one is worship planning, “whom do I serve?” Those in the pews? My colleagues? My congregation? My country? My worship and music committee?

God? When we focus firmly on the final an-swer—serving God!—we know that serving all the others is going to happen as well. We serve them all, as they (we!) are the body of Christ in this world, in this nation, in this city or town or village, in this neighborhood.

A friend recounted to me how, when plan-ning for Pentecost, she and the other planners scheduled the wonderful hymn “God of Tem-pest, God of Whirlwind” (ELW 400). During the week leading up to that Sunday, one of the families in the church suffered the grievous loss of their house and all their possessions due to a fire. All of a sudden this wonderful, appro-priate hymn for Pentecost was not appropriate anymore, where the second stanza reads, “God of blazing, God of burning … let your flaming Spirit surge!” A wonderful text, but not one for that congregation on that Sunday. Needless to say, as a servant of God and of her congregation, she unscheduled that hymn.

We must live in the context of our world and of our immediate area, while also living as God’s people. Instead of letting this be burdensome, let it be an opportunity for blessing in our life and in our vocation. Let it be an opportunity for rec-onciliation and healing. Let it be an opportunity to serve our neighbor. Let it be an opportunity to serve God.

Documents

CROSSACCENTBook Editor: Paul Grime Copy Editor: Anne-Marie Bogdan Graphic Design: Kathryn Hillert Brewer Editorial Office Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen, Editor 1127 Magazine Road Green