Hymns as Proclamation

The hymnody we sing in worship functions in variety of ways in our overall  life and mission as a church.  Over the next few weeks, we will take a closer look at these ways: Proclamation, worship, education, and ministry.  Some of our hymns fall into all of these categories, others, only one. This week we look at how are hymns function as proclamation.

Hymns as Proclamation
Throughout the Bible, music and proclamation of the gospel go hand in hand.  In Psalm 96, the psalmist sings "Sing a new song to the Lord!...Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to the all people".  In the Gospel of Luke we hear the angel proclaim the birth of Jesus accompanied by song "Suddenly a great army of heaven's angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God: ' Glory to God in the highest heaven..."  Singing the good news continues throughout the New Testament, perhaps most directly as Paul exhorts the churches to make known the Word of Christ through singing.

Throughout our Christian history, from 13th-century Francis of Assisi's audi spirituali to the Protestant Reformation's chorales of Martin Luther and the metrical psalms of John Calvin to the  Wesleyan revival of England and frontier camp meetings revivals of early America, the hymn has been an effective vehicle for proclaiming the gospel.  Even today with new hymns, such as own St. Georges hymn - All-embracing God - we proclaim the powerful Gospel, the love of Christ as has been done throughout Christendom.

Our hymnody functions as proclamation when it is simply a vehicle for sharing the good news.  These hymns must incorporate the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ,  They are not limited by a specific time period, culture or style. Proclamation hymns help us publicly declare our faith - the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ - and its daily application to our lives.  They proclaim both the objective truth, God's mighty acts which have brought our salvation, and the subjective truth, our corporate response to this salvation and our experience of knowing God's love in Jesus Christ.  

Proclamation hymns fall into three categories, evangelism, witness, and missions.  Evangelism (meaning bring good news)  hymns disseminate, or preach, the gospel (i.e. Lift High the Cross; Go tell it on the mountain).  Hymns of witness share Christian experiences of faith with others, and give personal testimony to the abounding love of Christ.  They share personal and corporate faith experiences with others (My song is love unknown; I heard a voice of Jesus say; O Master let me walk with thee).  Hymns of missions (meaning let go, send)  are evangelism hymns pursued across national and cultural lines or ones that express concerns of missions. (O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling; God, whose almighty word.)

Over the next month as we explore the ways in which hymnody functions in our life, I encourage you to perhaps interact differently with our hymnody than you might currently do. Maybe its praying the texts of the hymns we sing on Sunday during the following week, or choosing a new hymn or a very familiar hymn and letting it resonate with you and your daily prayers during the week.  Maybe its locating other hymns of proclamation in our hymnal or recounting the mighty acts of God in our Sunday hymnody. Maybe its purchasing a hymnal for your home so you can readily access this treasure of poetry.  On Sunday morning, encourage your child to draw a picture about a hymn they have sung or if they are too young to read, while we sing it (I'd love to see these!).  Maybe its having a time as a family to sing a hymn or singing a stanza or two of a hymn at meal time or at bedtime.  I am sure there are others. It is my hope that we may experience a more meaningful and deep congregational singing of these hymns as we explore and increase our understanding about these treasures of our faith.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley, Minister of Music

Psallam spiritu et mente
I will sing with the spirit and with the understanding also
(1 Corinthians 14:15)

We need each others voice to sing

 

I love the following poem by the hymn writer Thomas Troeger.  It is one I’ve shared before, and one I think is important to hold close.   I love the beautiful imagery in the poem and how it captures not only the power and communal aspect of the songs we sing together in worship, but also the power of standing together to proclaim the love of Jesus in our worship and our daily lives.   I give thanks regularly for each of you, and our singing together each time we worship as we raise our songs of love and praise to God.

We need each other’s voice to sing,
each other’s strength to love,
each other’s views to help us bring our hearts to God above.
 
Our lives like coals placed side by side
to feed each other’s flame,
shall with the Spirit’s breath provide a blaze of faith to claim.
 
We give our alleluias
To the church’s common chord:
Alleluia! Alleluia!  Praise, O Praise, O Praise the Lord!
-Thomas Troeger

Soli Deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley, Minister of Music

© 1994, Oxford University Press.  Reprinted with permission OneLicense.net # A71721

Text Painting in Sunday's Anthem

Bring your personal flotation devices on Sunday!  The choir's anthem is a wild ride.  

The choir will sing Herbert Sumsion's beautiful and "stormy" anthem They that go down to the sea in ships.  Sumsion was born in Gloucester in 1899. He was a pupil of Sir Herbert Brewer, the Gloucester Cathedral Organist.  Sumsion was appointed as Cathedral Organist at Gloucester on the sudden death of Brewer in 1928.  Prior to this appointment, he spent a short period in America as Professor of Harmony at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia,  Sumsion died in 1995.
 
This anthem was written in 1979 for Dennis Kiddy and the Choir of Repton Preparatory School. The piece is an excellent example of how composers use music to "paint" the text which they are setting.  Text painting helps illustrate and depict the text in an dramatic and evocative way.

In this particular piece you will here the text of Psalm 107 come alive with a rippling of the sea in the organ accompaniment, a rising and falling choral part that depicts the movement of the ship.  Sumsion dwells on the word "wonders", repeating it several times.  We hear the dramatic effect of the stormy wind arising as the music moves upwards at the words "carried up to the heaven".  His use of syncopation to depict the psalmist words - "they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man," show's his flair for the dramatic and less subtle text-painting.  The anthem ends with a beautiful depiction of peaceful waves.

Understanding a little about the composer's craft, such as these examples of text painting, help us move even deeper into the music and experience and hear the word of God being proclaimed.  I encourage you to listen to this anthem a little more closely than you might normally.  How does the organ support what the choir sings?  How do the choir melodies go with the text? It is remarkable to me how when the Word of God carried on the wings of song, dwell deeper and more profoundly in the soul.

Soli deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley, Minister of Music

They that go down to the sea in ships :
and occupy their business in great waters;
These men see the works of the Lord :
and his wonders in the deep.

For at his word the stormy wind ariseth :
which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They are carried up to the heav’n, and down again to the deep :
their soul melteth away because of the trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man :
and are at their wits’ end.

So when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble :
he delivereth them out of their distress.
For he maketh the storm to cease :
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they are at rest :
and so he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be.

Photo Credit: The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew (detail), about 1389–1404, Master of the Brussels Initials. Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink on parchment, 13 x 9 7/16 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 34, fol. 172

A new organ for Saint George's

I am so excited for our parish, the greater community and for what the commissioning of Pasi, Opus 28, means for ministry at Saint George's and outreach in our community.  As you may have read in our Senior Warden's letter this week, our vestry approved moving forward with the long-awaited new pipe organ for Saint George's at its last meeting.  You can read about the Organ Committee's work several years ago and other background information here.

When I arrived in at Saint George's in the late spring of  2009 for my interview,  it became immediately apparent that Saint George's valued its music ministry, recognized music's importance in our faith lives and worship, and that there was a very strong desire to grow this ministry in dynamic and meaningful ways.  As our choirs have grown and blossomed these past years - both in numbers and musically - we have increasingly become aware of how inadequate our instrument is in supporting the beautiful music these ensembles make.  As I lead you all in congregational song each week, I have become intimately aware of both the technical challenges and tonal limitations of our instrument for leading your glorious hymns of praise and prayer.  

Our new instrument (Opus 28), built by Martin Pasi and team Pasi Organbuilders of Roy Washington, will change all of that.  Our nave will be graced by a beautiful new instrument,  a work of art lovingly handmade for our community and nave using time-tested practices.  Our instrument is designed with our ministries and worship in mind both today and into the future.  It will be one that inspires our grandchildren's grandchildren as it continues to lead the church's song in this place. It will be an instrument that inspires and leads congregational singing with clarity and sheer beauty.  It will be an organ that fully supports our choir's work and becomes and equal partner in these proclamations.  It will not only be an instrument that leads our holy praises and prayer and inspires us to a deeper faith, but a gift to our community which invites them in to the holy mysteries of God.

Because Martin Pasi's shop builds one instrument at a time, our instrument will not arrive until the Fall of 2020.  It will take 14 months to build once construction is started.  The building of an organ is a fascinating and beautiful thing, combining a variety of trades and fine craftsmanship.  I encourage you to check out Martin Pasi's website to not only see his beautiful instruments, but to watch the many videos which show his team making pipes and building an instrument.  It truly is an exciting and amazing thing!

I look forward to this journey with you as we watch Opus. 28 come to life and become a part of this community's generous work to love God, serve others, and change the world.

Soli Deo Gloria!
en Keseley, Minister of Music

1995 Martin Pasi - Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood, Washington, USA Martin Pasi is one of very few American organ-builders who is capable of recreating the sound of 18th and 19th century European organs in the new organs he builds. His organs and all pipes are hand-built in his shop in Roy, Washington.

Sunday's Prelude

 
Widor’s Andante Sostenuto
 
The prelude on Sunday comes from French composer Charles Marie Widor’s Symphonie Gothique, mvt. II op. 70 (Andante sostenuto).  For Widor, his organ symphonies were a symbolic way of communicating his spiritual insights and Christian faith.  Written in 1895, the Symphonie Gothique was based on the liturgical theme “Puer natus est nobis” (Unto us a child is born), and inspired by the magnificent Gothic basilica of Saint-Ouen at Rouen, France.  
 
The Andante sostenutowas considered by Widor’s student Albert Riemenschneider, as well as French organist Marcel Dupré, as a piece that evoked the serenity of the church’s interior.  Riemenschneider wrote in a program note that the Andante sostenutowas a “rare movement with a spiritual content so chaste and pure that involuntarily the atmosphere of prayer and incense suggests itself.”   So fittingly, Andante sostenuto is offered this Sunday as we begin our worship together to gather our prayers for us and the world.  May they rise like incense.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Ben Keseley

Cavaille-Coll organ at Saint-Ouen in Rouen, France