Soli Deo Gloria!
Every Sunday that our community of faith gathers around the Lord’s table is a special and holy moment. Our liturgical calendar and the Book of Common Prayer create a bedrock upon which we build our liturgies week to week. Yet some Sundays, to borrow an organ term, we “pull out all the stops.” This Sunday happens to be one of them. Liturgically, Sunday is a Baptismal Feast Day as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Marlise Vail Shepherd will receive the sacrament of baptism, an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means for receiving God’s grace. It will be a joyous and holy time.
This weekend also marks a joyous moment for one of our parishioners, Betsy Donaldson. A few months ago, her family reached out to me to share that Betsy’s 100th birthday is January 9th. They informed me that her family would be gathering with her this weekend. For Betsy, the music of the church has a very special and important place in her heart and in her spiritual practice. I, too, share this path of knowing and understanding God. Knowing her great joy is in the music of the church, the family and I worked together to plan some special music in celebration of her birthday.
This Sunday, our 10 A.M. liturgy will include music provided by Moore Brass, which consists of members Chris Dunn, trumpet, Rob Hill, trumpet, Kim Clark, French horn, Becca Clemens, trombone, and Davis Clark, tuba. Our feast day will also be enhanced by timpani, offered by percussionist Wayne Osborne.
Special music for this Sunday will start with the prelude at 9:54 A.M., The Morning Trumpet, a work commissioned in 2004 for brass quintet, organ, and timpani, from John Eggert, while I was teaching as a sabbatical replacement at Illinois College. The work is a gorgeous setting of one of the most widely sung of all folk hymns. The hymn was composed by B.F. White, an itinerant singing teacher and preacher, and chief compiler of the influential Sacred Harp hymnal of 1844. The words of The Morning Trumpet are by the Baptist writer John Leland (1754-1841), who was born and died in Massachusetts but spent several years as a hellfire preacher in the mountainous areas of Virginia and North Carolina, where this hymn took root.
If you want to educate yourself on the music before Sunday’s service, you can experience the singing of the hymn, as offered at the 2018 Sacred Harp Convention in Germany, by following this link:
https://youtu.be/o6wQ0NgYc0g?si=GpJ4AHghpcshlYUB
The first verse of the hymn is:
Oh when shall I see Jesus,
And reign with Him above,
And shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning?
And from the flowing fountain
Drink everlasting love,
And shall hear the trumpet sound in that morning?
Chorus:
Shout, Oh glory! for I shall mount above the skies,
When I hear the trumpet sound in that morning.
The complete text of the hymn can be reviewed here:
https://sacredharpbremen.org/85-the-morning-trumpet/
The brass and timpani will also join on the hymns, which will include:
#119 As with gladness men of old
#8 Morning has broken
The gradual hymn is, “O God, beyond all praising,” sung to the tune “Thaxted,” a theme taken from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst’s Planets. This hymn has found its way into most Protestant and Roman Catholic hymnals in the past 30 or so years. Sadly, The Episcopal Church has yet to adopt it. The text and tune are so powerful and this Sunday, we will sing this glorious hymn together.
The choir will offer an anthem set by fellow centenarian Dr. Walter Pelz, on the Epiphany hymn “The people that in darkness sat.” Other works offered by Moore Brass will include a setting of Giovanni Gabrieli’s “Hodie Christus Natus Est” (Today Christ Is Born) arranged for organ and brass quintet, a setting for brass of, O Savior, like a shepherd lead us, and The Rejoicing from Handel’s Water Music.
On Thursday night, the members of Moore Brass met with me for an extended rehearsal. It was a joyous time making music in preparation for Sunday’s baptism and eucharist. It transported me back to two different times in my life. First, to undergraduate school, where we had a brass ensemble that I often accompanied. Much of the music we performed were arrangements for brass and organ, a natural complement to a brass quintet. Second, Thursday’s rehearsal transported me to my years as organist and music associate at Central United Methodist Church in Phoenix. A member of that church was an immense fan of brass music, so every other month these members would sponsor brass for our Sunday morning service, specifically, the Sonoran Brass Quintet.
Unlike a new television or frock, the gift of musical sponsorship in celebration of Betsy’s birthday is a gift that will be enjoyed by hundreds. It’s like all gifts to the church, be they gifts to support the daily cost, care, and maintenance to run our parish, or special gifts like a new front door, stained glass, or handbells, these are all gifts that are enjoyed and shared for the benefit of all and given to the glory of God.
On a personal note, I wish to extend my thanks to Betsy’s family, as the experience of musical collaboration with Moore Brass makes it a special gift for me to enjoy, too. For the Shepherd family, this music will add to the joy of the occasion of Marlise’s baptism. For the brass musicians, this gift provides an opportunity to make holy music, in a space and environment that so beautifully supports their musical gifts and talents. For those in the choir and in the congregation, this gift will allow our hearts and minds to soar in our praise and devotion to an ever loving God. Soli Deo Gloria!