11am Choral Eucharist, Sunday, April 15th, 2018
The Third Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)
Themes from the readings: We are the children of God and sinfulness is lawlessness; The Lord is my Shepherd; Jesus is the Good Shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep.
Prelude: “Werde munter, mein Gemüte”, BWV1118, By: J. S. Bach
Processional Hymn: 645 The King of love my shepherd is (St. Columba)
Gloria: S280, Powell
First Reading: 1 John 3:1-10
Psalm: Psalm 23
Before the Gospel: Alleluia 7
Gospel: John 10:11-16
Offertory Anthem: How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings, By: Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Choir: How lovely are thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts;
My soul doth long to enter thy courts.
Blessed are they who dwell in thy house,
For they shall always praise thee. Amen.
–Psalm 84
Doxology: Hymn 380, stanza 3
Holy: S125, Proulx
Communion Anthem: My Shepherd Will Supply My Need
(Resignation) Arranged by: Scott M. Aniol
Communion Meditation: “Jesu, Meine Freude”, BWV1105, By: J. S. Bach
Recessional Hymn: 205 Good Christians all, rejoice and sing! (Gelobt sei Gott)
Postlude: ”Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ”, BWV 1096, By: J. S. Bach
Music Notes
By: Ashley Sosis
Today’s offertory anthem was written by Lowell Mason (1792-1879), originally included in the hymnal Beauties of Church Music, informally called Mason’s Sacred Harp by those who used the collection in church, home or shape-note sings. Far from the gritty intensity of other shape-note pieces I’ve included in our music offerings, the idyllic, floating soprano soli that opens the piece is (in my opinion) a perfect setting of the words of Psalm 84. If you would like to own a copy of Mason’s Sacred Harp, prepare to spend almost $200 for a rare book (no modern printings exist) or read it online here: https://archive.org/details/sacredharporecle183500maso
Lowell Mason was known as the father of public school music education in the United States and a great contributor to American church music. A brief glance at The Hymnal 1982’s composer index will show that he is credited with writing or arranging the music of hymns #100 Joy to the World”, #365 “Come, thou almighty King”, #411 “O bless the Lord, my soul!”, #436 “Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates”, #493 “O for a thousand tongues to sing”, #524 “I love thy kingdom, Lord”, and #691 “My faith looks up to thee”.
If that wasn’t enough, Lowell Mason made another contribution to church music long after his death. In 1984, thirty-three J. S. Bach organ chorale preludes (that is, organ pieces based on German hymn-tunes) previously unknown to Bach scholars were found by researchers in an 18th-century compendium of German Church Music gifted to Yale University by Lowell Mason. In 1985, the 33 “new” works were published by Harvard musicologist Christoph Wollf in partnership with Yale University, as The Neumeister Chorales. They were played in a public recital marking the three hundredth anniversary of Bach’s birth. (March 31st, 1685) Thank you, Dr. Mason!
For fun, I included three Neumeister Chorale preludes in today’s service that have Season of Easter and Good Shepherd Sunday themes. I included translations of the beginning of each German chorale just below the titles in the program.