Music Notes and Events

Music Notes for July 28, 2024

With much gratitude, we thank guest organist Dr. Peter Bennett for joining us these past three weeks! Peter is a Professor of Musicology at CWRU, Head of Harpsichord at CIM, and a regular performer with Apollo’s Fire. Before following a scholarly and historical performance route he was an organ scholar at Cambridge and organist at the historic London church of St Bride’s, Fleet Street. Although the organ is no longer central to his professional activities, he has continued to play whenever possible and enjoys the opportunity to perform at the Church of the Covenant and in Severance Hall for CWRU and other ceremonies.

We welcome Covenant soloist Kiko Weinroth to our service this week. She grew up in Japan being fascinated by the beautiful sound of English, and American culture. Kiko gives voice lessons in Solon and works in the Orange school district. In her spare time, she enjoys watching various sporting events, and playing tennis and pickleball with her family.

The Heart Worships, our anthem this week, was composed by Gustav Holst in 1907. He used the words of British writer Alice M. Buckton from her poetry collection “Through Human Eyes”. There is also a choral edition of this piece.

“Schafe können sicher weiden” by J. S. Bach is from the secular cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208. Originally written for a birthday celebration of Duke Christian in 1713, the larger work is also known as the Hunting Cantata. Although secular in context, the text may be interpreted to represent a sense of security felt by the flock of the faithful when they put their trust in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

Our closing hymn, Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness, is a favorite of Covenant member Marlene Dirksen.

Sing them over again to me, Wonderful Words of Life!

Do you have a favorite hymn that you would like to sing during one of our summer worship services? Identify one of your favorite hymns and share a sentence or two as to why the tune, text, or both are significant to you. We will do our best to incorporate your suggestions into our summer worship services. Email the title or hymn number, along with your story of significance to music@covenantweb.org. We will collect ideas through early August.