Several audio samples of this week's music are included for you to enjoy as you read.
Music for the Changing Season
Prelude: Comes Autumn Time by Leo Sowerby
(1895-1968) The first half of the 20th century was a coming of age for American music. Whereas 19th century American composers had largely imitated their European counterparts, people such as Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, George Gershwin and Leo Sowerby introduced a distinctly American sound, incorporating indigenous folk music, spirituals and jazz along the way. Sowerby himself composed works for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra as well as incorporating jazz-inspired harmonies in his concert hall works.
The same time period was also a golden age for the organ in this country. Not merely limited to church choir lofts, pipe organs were heard in movie theaters, concert halls, mansions of the elite, hotel ballrooms – even department stores (the world-famous Wannamaker's Organ in Philadelphia). Leo Sowerby was one of the few who were highly regarded as both a Symphonic composer and an organist. From his 20's on, his works were featured on programs of the orchestras of Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and others. His 550 works are spread over every genre except opera. It is remarkable that he was also able to devote so much time to being a church musician, serving as organist of Chicago's St. James' Cathedral for 40 years, and contributing many gems to the organ and sacred choral repertoire.
Comes Autumn Time is one of his early works, composed in 1916.
[LISTEN] Sowerby's view of autumn at the age of 21 appears not to have been wistful and nostalgic, but rather exuberant and joyful. Perhaps he marveled at nature's dazzling display of fireworks as leaves turned brilliant colors and the air turned crisp. After an initial toccata-like fanfare there appears a carefree tune played on the flute accompanied by undulating harmonies. A bird's excited call temporarily interrupts the melody.
Comes Autumn Time was conceived as an orchestral work, and you can hear how vastly different it sounds from the organ arrangement. [LISTEN] It was originally composed for the New York Symphony Society and premiered under the baton of Walter Damrosch. Sowerby was inspired by An Autumn Song, a poem by Canadian Bliss Carmen, which includes these verses:
There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood,
Touch of matter, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time...
There is something in October sets the gipsy blood astir:
We must rise and follow her...
Music of Aaron David Miller
Prelude: Chorale-Prelude on Beach Spring
by Aaron David Miller The remainder of Sunday's prelude features Aaron David Miller's treatment of an old American tune, Beach Spring. [LISTEN] This folk melody appeared in the 1844 edition of The Sacred Harp and its composition is attributed to the book's editor and promoter, Benjamin Franklin White. The original text was by Joseph Hart in 1759, Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy. At Marble we have sung this tune to a couple of different texts in worship, including Come and Find the Quiet Center and As We Gather at Your Table. Aaron David Miller's arrangement of the hymn tune vacillates between quarter and triple meter, and he changes keys at will within each verse. The juxtaposition of different keys can feel jarring at first, given the straight-forward simplicity of the tune, but each time Miller returns us to the original F Major there is a wonderful sensation of homecoming that is created.
Anthem: Take My Life by Aaron David Miller Often it is enlightening to hear old familiar texts sung to new music, for light is shone on their truth from different angles. In his delicious setting of Frances Havergal's beloved 1874 text,
Take My Life and Let It Be, Aaron David Miller has created an a cappella motet that combines jazz-influenced harmony, imitative counterpoint, and a series of modulations which propel the music forward in perfect tandem with the text.
[LISTEN] For the only phrase which is repeated in the anthem, "Take my heart, it is thine own," Miller summons forth a rich, embracing choral sonority which takes the music to a yet more profound level.
In a stroke of genius, Miller ends the work with all voices coming to rest on a single note on the text, "Ever, only, all for Thee." It is an effective portrayal of the message that though the gifts we each offer to God are vastly different, we are all united by the One to Whom we are offering them. Aaron David Miller is a sought-after concert organist and composer who currently serves as Director of Music at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Minneapolis.
The author of the text to Take My Life and Let It Be was Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879). She was an English poet and the daughter of a clergyman as well as the sister of a priest an organist in the Church of England. Though they never met, she revered her American counterpart, the prolific blind poet and hymn writer, Fanny Crosby (1820-1915). Frances' lifelong struggle with illness seemed only to intensify her powerful faith and devotion to ministry. Her hymn of consecration, Take My Life, was composed in 1874, and these were words she not only wrote but actually lived. She later wrote to a friend,
The Lord has shown me another little step, and of course, I have taken it with extreme delight. "Take my silver and my gold" now means shipping off all my ornaments to the church Missionary House, including a jewel cabinet that is really fit for a countess... I don't think I ever packed a box with such pleasure.
Life as an Offering to God
Hymn: I Offer My Life by Claire Cloninger and Dan Moen [LISTEN] I'm guessing there aren't many of us who will be able to go to the radical extreme of Frances Havergal and cheerfully ship off our stocks and bonds and all our worldly goods to a missionary house. But each of us can respond to the compelling words of this contemporary praise hymn and offer our own true, authentic selves to God. This beautiful melody and message beckons us to offer our very life, past, present, future – all of our joy, pain, regrets, wishes, dreams, hopes, plans – so that God may bless, multiply and use us in ministry and service to others.
On a recent Festival of Voices retreat Sr. Carol Perry spoke to us about the famous story of the feeding of the 5000. When faced with the dilemma of dusk coming on and not enough food to go around, the disciples told Jesus they didn't have enough so He'd better just send everyone away before it got too dark. Instead, Jesus asked the disciples to give Him all that they had. He blessed it and gave it back to the disciples to distribute to the 5000, and as we all know, there were still basketfuls of food left over after everyone had eaten. The insufficiency of that which the disciples had became, when offered to Jesus, an abundance and more than enough. So it is when we offer our lives and our gifts to God. Our gifts and our efforts, however woefully inadequate they may seem, will be blessed and multiplied so that they become more than sufficient to serve many.