New Providence Presbyterian March 30 2014

This is what was planned.  See below. 

Music for March 30-- Lent 4 and Commissioning

Bell Choir Prelude: "Pie Jesu" from "Requiem"  (John Rutter  b.1945)

Introit:  "Blest Be The Tie That Binds"

Hymn #175:  Psalm 23- The Lord's My Shepherd

Prayer Response:  "Kyrie"  (John Merbecke 1510-1585)

Anthem:  "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus"  (William Kirkpatrick 1838-1931)

Hymn Sing (on a 5th Sunday there is a hymn sing with requests from the congregation. ) 

Offertory:  "Prelude in C Major"  (William Selby 1738-1798)

Hymn 280: "Amazing Grace" 

Benediction Response:  Go With Us, Lord (Thomas Tallis 1505-1585)

Postlude:  Rigaudon (Andre Campra 1660-1744)

We had an unexpected snow storm starting at about 7 am.  I left home at 8 to do the 30 minute drive to church so I could do my usual preparation for the 9 am choir practice.  There was a light snow when I left home but it wasn't sticking on the road. The farther I drove the more snow there was.  Halfway to church there was about a 2 inch accumulation on the road, and by the time I reached the church the snow was 5 inches.  So I went from 55 miles per hour on the 2-lane primary road, to 45 to 35 to 25.  Arrived safely.   We had 4 choir members attend and when church time came there were 6 in the congregation. In choir practice we worked on voice parts for anthems up through Easter and adapted the music planned for today's service.  The bell choir canceled because some members could not get there in the snow and you have to have all the bells covered.  I played a prelude that happened to be in my organ bag--Es ist das Heil uns kommen her….Komponist unbekannt  (17th century)  which came from the Peters Edition 80 Chorale Preludes.  We had no sopranos in the choir, so on the introit and benediction responses I sang melody from the organ bench  and the others sang parts, so we had in essence a male quartet with the altos taking the first tenor part and the baritone (me) on the melody.  I sang the anthem as a solo from the organ bench. 

The six members of the congregation enthusiastically suggested hymns for the hymn sing and everyone sang with strength and resolve.   It was a true worship experience for all.   By the time church ended the highway department had plowed the roads and it was an easy drive home.  By the time I reached the halfway point there was little evidence that there had been a storm.  Both sons and daughters in law along with all four granddaughters  came for a delicious Sunday Dinner, which Joy had prepared, and we had a great time together. 

New Providence Presbyterian Church, Raphine VA March 23

Music for March 23 -- Lent 3 and Baptism

Prelude:  "Prelude"  (Jean Langlais 1907-1991)

Introit:  "Blest Be The Tie That Binds"

Hymn: Psalm 95 (Insert) sung to "St. Anne." 

Response to Assurance of Pardon: "Gloria Patri" 

Hymn of Preparation for Baptism #492:  "Baptized in Water"

Prayer Response:  "Kyrie"  (John Merbecke 1510-1585)

Anthem:  "Lord, For Thy Tender Mercies Sake" (Richard Farrant 1525-1580)

Hymn 644 (Supplemental Hymnal):  "Bringing in the Sheaves"

Offertory:  "Simple Gifts"  (Russell Schulz-Widmar  b.1944) 

Doxology

Hymn 645 (Supplemental Hymnal)  "Jesus Saves!"

Benediction Response:  Dresden Amen  (Johann Naumann 1741-1801)

Postlude:  Give Thanks Unto God  (Emma Louise Ashford 1850-1930)

Music notes:

It is not often that we have the opportunity to participate in a worship service where both the Gospel Text and the Sacrament of Baptism fit in perfectly with the grand old Gospel Hymn "Bringing in The Sheaves."  When a child is brought into the Family of God in Baptism we are sowing seeds to be reaped in a Godly life.  The hymn refers to John 4:35-36 and Revelation 14:15.   

Today's Prelude, starkly minimalist-modern in style,  was composed by Jean Langlais, blind from birth, and organiste titulaire at the Basicila of St. Clotilde in Paris from 1945-88. Today's sermon title "Salvation" led me to think of the first verse of "Amazing Grace" which let me to think of the blind composer Langlais and the piece which moves from dissonance to consonance bit by bit.  Today's Offertory "Simple Gifts" is based on the Shaker hymn "Tis the Gift to Be Simple" and speaks to our offerings and also to baptism.  The composer was Professor of Liturgical Music at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin TX.   Emma Louise Ashford's music was published under the name E. L. Ashford, as it was thought in her day that people would not buy music composed by a woman. She composed over 600 pieces, including organ voluntaries, sacred cantatas, hymns, song cycles, anthems, and music for piano and organ instruction, as well as writing the Vanderbilt University "Ode" for Vanderbilt'sd 25th Anniversary. 

Registrations:

Langlais:  Swell: Salicional 8.  Great:  Melodia 8.  Pedal: Bourdon 16.

Schulz-Widmar:  Swell: Stopped Diapason 8.  Great: Melodia 8.  Pedal Bourdon 16

Ashford:  Swell: Harmonic Flute 4   Great: Dulciana 8, Open Diapason 8.  Pedal: Bourdon 16.  Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Swell to Great 8, Swell to Great 4

New Providence Presbyterian Church, Raphine VA March 16, 2016

Prelude:"Praise Ye The Lord, The Almighty"  (Johann Gottfried Walther 1684-1748)

Introit: "Blest Be the Tie That Binds"

Hymn 482: Praise Ye The Lord, The Almighty

Prayer Response:  "Kyrie"  (John Merbecke 1510-1585)

Anthem:  "God So Loved The World"  (Sir John Stainer 1840-1901)

Hymn 443: O Christ, The Great Foundation (Aurelia)

Offertory: "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"  (Johann Gottfried Walther)

Hymn 376:  Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Benediction Response:  Dresden Amen  (Johann Naumann 1741-1801)

Postlude:  "The Church's One Foundation"  (Donald Hustad (1918-2013)

Music Notes:

1 Corinthians 12:4  "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit"  Let those who are able sing a harmony part on the hymns to acknowledge the manifold gifts of the Sprit, and let all who are able unite on the melody of the last verse of each hymn to signify the unity of the Church. 

Today's Anthem is on the text of John 3:16 and comes from the Cantata "The Crucifixion".  This cantata, composed in 1887, is still performed around the world during Lent. For your Good Friday meditation, fine recordings of the cantata can be found at www.clarecollegechoir.com, one by the Huddersfield Choral Society at target.com, and others on YouTube.  

Organ music today offers settings of the first and second hymn tunes, as well as the first hymn at the Ash Wednesday service.  

Registrations:

Prelude:  Manual:  Swell Stopped Diapason 8, Harmonic Flute 4.

              Great: Open Diapason 8

              Pedal:  Bourdon 16, Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal.

Cantus Firmus in Pedal.  Manual Parts on Swell 

Offertory:  Swell Stopped Diapason 8  

                 Great  Dulciana 8,  Swell to Great 4

Entire piece played on Great.  A mild "brustwerk" effect. 

Postlude and most Hymns:

Swell Harmonic Flute 4.  Great Open Diapason 8.  Pedal Bourdon 16

Swell to Great 8, Swell to Great 4,  Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal.

This gives a bright 8-4-2 in the manual and 16-8-4-2 in the Pedal. 

For softer verses I switch off the Open Diapason and turn on the Melodia. 

If the pedal line is unclear, I add the Dulciana to the Great, as it adds a certain edge to the bass line. 

New Providence Presbyterian Church, Raphine VA March 9 2014

New photos of the organ are now on the OHS Database

http://database.organsociety.org/SingleOrganDetails.php?OrganID=27949

Prelude:  "Epitaphe"  op.31 #4  (Louis Vierne 1870-1937)

Introit:  "Blest Be the Tie"

Hymn "All Mankind fell in Adam's fall" 

Sung to the tune of "The Doxology"

(The version starting each phrase with a quarter note)

=============================

All man-kind fell in A-dam's fall,
One com-mon sin in-fects us all;
From sire to son the bane de-scends,
And over all the curse im-pends.

Through all man's powers cor-rup-tion creeps
And him in dread-ful bond-age keeps;
In guilt he draws his in-fant breath
And reaps its fruits of woe and death.

From hearts de-praved, to e-vil prone,
Flow thoughts and deeds of sin alone;
God's im-age lost, the dark-ened soul
Nor seeks nor finds its heav'nly goal.

But Christ, the sec-ond Adam, came
To bear our sin and woe and shame,
To be our Life, our Light, our Way,
Our only Hope, our only Stay.

As by one man all man-kind fell
And, born in sin, was doomed to hell,
So by one Man, who took our place,
We all re-ceived the gift of grace.

We thank Thee, Christ; new life is ours,
New light, new hope, new strength, new powers:
This grace our ev-ery way at-tend
Un-til we reach our jour-ney's end!

================================

Prayer Response:  "Kyrie"  (John Merbecke 1510-1585)

Anthem:  "O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High"  (arr. Schalk)

Hymn 632 (supplemental hymnal):  "Jesus Calls Us"

Offertory:  "Voluntary in G Major"   (Samuel Jackson 1816-1885)

Hymn 81:  Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

Benediction Response:  Dresden Amen  (Johann Naumann 1741-1801)

Postlude:  "Sunday Song"  (Max Oesten 1843-1917)

Music Notes:

Dresden Amen has two amens--suitable before Pentecost. 

Sunday Song comes from "The Village Organist" which is available online in numerous volumes. It is registered with the Swell Harmonic Flute 4 coupled to Great 8 and 4, Great Open Diapason 8, Pedal Bourdon 16, Great to Pedal.  The Swell to Great couplers couple through to the pedal.  

The Jackson Voluntary is played on the Open Diapason Alone.  It is from The Church Organist's Library.  

The Vierne Epitaphe is registered with the Stopped Diapason in the Swell, the Dulciana in the Great, Pedal Bourdon 16 Swell to Great, Great to Pedal.