Sunday 24th October 2021 Last Sunday of Trinity Bible Sunday

 Teach Me O Lord  Thomas Attwood (1765-1838)

Thomas Attwood was an English composer and organist.  Attwood was born in London, the son of a musician in the royal band. He became a chorister in the Chapel Royal by the age of nine.  He was sent abroad to study at the expense of the Prince of Wales (later George IV) who was impressed by his skill at the harpsichord.  He was a favourite pupil of Mozart. He returned to London in 1787.

In 1796 he was made organist of St Paul's and the same year composer of the Chapel Royal.  For George IV's coronation he wrote the anthem "I was glad".

Much of his work is forgotten, only a few anthems regularly performed including "Turn thy face from my sins". See 30th October 2017.

Today we sang "Teach Me O Lord " which is Psalm 119 v33.

Thomas Atwood from Wikipedia

Sunday 17th October 2021 Trinity 20

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring   J S Bach

This is the common title of the 10th and last movement of the cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (BVW 147) composed in 1716 and 1723.  It is commonly played at weddings and Christian festive seasons of Easter and Christmas.  Much of the music of this cantata comes from Bach’s Weimar period (the 1716 parts) finished in 1723 in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He was a highly respected organist in his lifetime, although not recognised as a composer of magnitude (possibly one of the greatest) until a revival of his works in the first half of the 19th century. He showed considerable skill in counterpoint and harmony. He was able to adapt rhythm, form and texture from abroad. He was a prolific composer of church music due to the demand for huge numbers of cantatas over the Christian year.  It is thought her wrote over 300 with only around 200 surviving. He also wrote many other works sacred and secular.  It is now agreed that his music has technical command, intellectual depth and artistic beauty.

Benedictus in C   C V Stanford

The Benedictus was composed in 1909 as part of Stanford's Morning and Evening Service together with the Office of Holy Communion Op 115.  Stanford was given the choice to hear one of his services sung at Matins at York Minster in 1923 when he was a guest of the organist, Edward . "He chose the one in C", Bairstow recalled, "for he said he had never heard it!"

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) thought to be one of our great British composers was actually Irish, born in Dublin, although educated at The University of Cambridge and then studied music in Leipzig and Berlin.

Whilst an undergraduate, he was appointed organist of Trinity College, Cambridge and was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, where he taught composition for the rest of his life.  He was also Professor of Music at Cambridge.  His pupils included Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams whose fame went on to surpass his own.

He is best remembered for his sacred choral compositions for church performance in the Anglican tradition. Along with Hubert Parry and Alexander Mackenzie, he was thought responsible for the renaissance of music in the British Isles.

Charles Villiers Stanford from Wikipedia

Sunday 10th October 2021 Trinity 19

 Tantum Ergo  Louis Vierne

Tantum ergo is the incipit of the last two verses of Pange lingua.  This is a Medieval Latin hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas c. 1264. The Genitori genitoque and Procedenti ab utroque portions are adapted from Adam of Saint Victor's sequence for Pentecost.  An incipit, is the opening phrase,or in music the opening sequence of notes.

The singing of Tantum ergo occurs during veneration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic Church and other denominations that have this devotion. We sang it as out anthem at the end of Holy Communion.

Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937) was a french organist and composer.  He was born in Poitiers, with very poor vision due to congenital cataracts.  However it was discovered at a young age that he had a gift for music. He was schooled initially in the provinces and then went to the Paris Conservatoire. In 1892, he was assistant organist to Charles-Marie Widor and subsequently was organist at Notre Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death.  He suffered greatly from his own ill health, the loss of his brother and son during World War One and he almost lost a leg after a severe accident. Although his leg  was saved it took a year for him to relearn to use it to play the organ. His organ in Notre Dame was in a severe state of disrepair and he undertook a tour of America, playing to raise money for its refurbishment. This tour was a huge success but it took its toll on his health.

He was playing a recital at his organ in Notre Dame, and had completed the majority of the programme.  He suddenly pitched forward with his foot on the low E pedal and died with the note echoing through the great cathedral.  He had often said he wished to die at the console of the great organ of Notre Dame and so fulfilled his wish.  Maurice Durufle (another great french composer and organist)  was at his side as he died.

Vierne in about 1910 from Wikipedia

Sunday 3rd October 2021 Harvest Thanksgiving

 "Thou Visitest The Earth" from "Thou O God Art Praised in Sion" Dr Maurice Greene (1696 - 1755)

"Thou Visitest The Earth" is a setting of Psalm 65 for solo tenor or baritone and SATB chorus.  In our case today, the solo was taken by one of our altos.  It is commonly used as a Harvest anthem speaking of God's blessings on the earth.

Maurice Green was born in London, his father, Thomas Greene, was chaplain of the Chapel Royal and canon of Salisbury. Young Maurice began his studies under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King at St Paul's Cathedral. In 1714 he gained his first musical post as organist at St Dunstan-in-the-West on Fleet Street. In 1717 he became organist at St Paul's Cathedral.

Greene was a founder member of the Castle Society, established in 1724. He also helped found the Academy of Ancient Music.

In 1730, Greene was admitted "Doctor in Musica" at Cambridge University and later was made a professor of music there.

In 1735, Greene was elected Master of the King's Music, the highest musical position in the land.

Originally a friend of Handel, Handel had a disagreement with another composer, Giovanni Bononcini, but when Greene continued his friendship with Bononcini, this upset Handel and a lifelong feud ensued.

Sunday 26th September 2021 Trinity 17

 Ave Verus Corpus  Mozart

Ave Verum Corpus (Hail, true body) is a setting of the Latin Hymn, in D major.  It was written for Anton Stoll, a friend and church musician of St Stephen, Baden.

It was composed in 1791 whilst visiting his wife Constanze who was pregnant with their 6th child and staying at the spa Baden bei Wien.  It was composed for the feast of Corpus Christi.  Mozart's manuscript has only "Sotto voce" marked at the beginning with no other markings.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Mozart was a child prodigy competent on keyboard and violin.  He began composing at the age of five. He performed around Europe for royalty.  At the age of 17 he was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but was restless and travelled looking for a better position.  Whilst visiting Vienna he was dismissed from his position in Salzburg.  He remained in Vienna, where he gained fame but no financial security.

He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as the finest in symphonies, concertante, operatic, chamber and choral music.  He remains one of the best loved classical composers, whose work influenced many composers.  Joseph Haydn said of Mozart "Posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

W A Mozart from Wikipedia

Sunday 12th September 2021 Trinity 15

 What Wondrous Love Is This    Geoffrey Weaver

Geoff Weaver was born in 1943.  He read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge gaining an honours degree. He founded the Bath Youth Choir and directed the Bach Cantata Choir. After teaching in the UK, worked in Hong Kong for 8 years with the Church Mission Society. He was Director of Music for 4 years in Bradford Cathedral and 8 years on the training staff at CMS Training College at Selly Oak. He was also Director of Studies/Outreach for the Royal School of Church Music for 8 years.

"What Wondrous Love is This" is an American Folk Hymn arranged by Geoff Weaver.  It starts as a simple melody sung for us today by the Junior Choir, and goes into 3 part harmony for the middle stanza, finishing with unison Alto, Tenor, Bass and  Soprano descant, building to a joyous crescendo.

Sunday 5th September 2021 Family Service and Patronal Festival

After the choir "summer break" we were back in full swing. What is even better is that the congregation can also join in with the hymns, although behind masks.

 Ave Verum Op 65 No 1  Faure 

Yet another Ave Verum, but this is written for Soprano and Alto voices (the tenors and basses get a rest). Although the start of the piece seems unfamiliar, the soprano and alto canon is in more familiar territory (O Jesu, Jesu dulcis - ).

Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine,

Vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine,

Cujus latus perforatum vero fluxit cum sanguine;

Esto nobis praegustatum, mortis in examine.

O pie, O dulcis Jesu, Fili Mariae.

Tu nobis miserere. Amen.

Hail, true body, born of Mary Virgin,

truly suffering, was sacrificed on the cross for mankind,

From whose pierced side flowed with true blood;

Be for us a foretaste In our final judgment.

O pious, O sweet Jesus, Son of Mary.

You have mercy on us. Amen.

Gabriel Urbain Fauré 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.

Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a small boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to the Ecole Niedermeyer music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the French Republic. Outside France, Fauré's music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.

Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

Taken from Wikipedia