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Setting Five (chant style) from Evangelical Lutheran Worship
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live worship recording, Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI, February 24, 2008
John Seboldt, organ
Michael Barna, Senior Choir director
There's certainly plenty of plainchant background to early Lutheran worship - German adaptations of Latin chants, chant IN the original Latin, etc. Here's our congregation singing Setting Five in the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship resource, based in turn on Setting Three of the hymnal before it, and before that on tunes found in the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal. How well do we know it? Should it be accompanied at all? These questions are open, but after only about the seventh time using it, it came off pretty well. Accompaniment is relatively light (for Lutherans!), ranging from warm 8' foundations to a maximum of Principals 8 through 2' with small reeds 16 and 8. Being Lent, you'll hear only the Kyrie, Holy, Lord's Prayer, and Lamb of God.
The most controversial part of what you'll hear is our approach to keeping alive the congregation's sung part in the dialogue "The Lord be with you...." with a pastor who's very uncomfortable singing. With some discreet organ playing behind the presider's spoken parts, I think a certain lyrical feel is maintained.
Also, you'll hear an "Offertory Sentence" that is quite familiar to many Lutherans: "Create in Me" by J.A. Freylinghausen, in the version revived in ELW at #188. On re-introduction at Our Savior's, it is a nice little gem that has worked well without organ, supported by the choir in parts. Coming out of a choir anthem accompanied by piano, a short intro on that instrument establishes pulse, cues folks to rise, and off we go - "look, Ma, no keyboard!"
"O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright", Lutheran Book of Worship, no. 76
live worship recording, Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI, January 14, 2007
John Seboldt, organ
Michael Barna, Senior Choir director
a translation of the great German chorale "Wie schön leuchted der Morgenstern" by Philipp Nicolai. Stanzas 1, 2, 3, and 6 were sung (with verse 3 in unison by the choir). A great hymn in praise of Jesus Christ, with "light" and "morning star" images that connect it to some degree with Epiphany, and the Sundays after, where the beginnings of Jesus' ministry among us are celebrated.
"Fantasia in C Minor", J.S. Bach
recital excerpts, 4/23/06full recital program here
Well, let's say solemn or grave instead...
Sweelinck (d. 1621) composed variation sets on a wide variety of melodies from folk traditions, and liturgical tunes from his own and his students' traditions. This monumental set of four variations is on a votive antiphon for peace from the Latin chant tradition, translating: Give peace, O Lord, in our time, because there is no one else who will fight for us if not You, our God. This tune anchors the texture in long note values during the four variations, in the soprano, tenor, alto, and bass ranges successively, surrounded by figuration that gradually builds in intensity. It is to me one of the most compelling pieces of this period, mainly because it is so easy to read into it an intense prayer for peace in this (and any!) troubled time.
The Bach Fantasia has been a favorite solemn movement of mine for years. A simple falling-note figure is developed into a rich five-voice texture. We have also a tantalizing fragment of a fugue that Bach wrote to go with this work, but I chose to make a large 3-movement selection of related pieces: this Fantasia, the famous melody known as Arioso (from the keyboard concerto in F Minor, also a cantata sinfonia), and the even more monumental Ricercare a 6 from the Musical Offering. I hope to offer this whole grouping here after some careful session recordings!
"Vom
Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her", Johann Pachelbel
live concert recording, 12/3/2005Yes, Pachelbel wrote much more than just the famous Canon! From a Christmas concert performance, a charming piece straight from my earliest high school organ studies, filtered through years of growing understanding, and with some flash and color in registration added for a popular audience. The very high-pitched "Zimbel" mixture on the organ's Rückpositiv division, while far removed from true Baroque historic examples, is charming enough in its own way to be used on occasion. The noble full ensemble in the second half is also quite grand for the 1960's neo-classical style of this Lawrence Phelps organ design, and it's topped off near the end with the "Zimbelstern", a bright continuous peal of tiny bells that just adds a nice festive color and shimmer. (Naturally, some of this high-pitched sonority might be lost or distorted a bit due to the limitations of Internet media...)
"Evening
and Morning", LBW 465, and Canticle, "This Is the Feast of
Victory", LBW Setting 2
"When
Peace, Like A River, Attendeth My Way", LBW 346
version with refrain as it appears in
"Renewing
Worship" resourceslive worship recordings, 8/7/05
"Built
on a
Rock," LBW 365
"My
Hope Is
Built on Nothing Less," LBW 293
live worship recordings, 8/21/05
Summer singing Some recordings that give you a taste of congregational song at Our Savior's Lutheran. From the classic German Lutheran tradition, Paul Gerhardt's "Evening and Morning"; one of the great Scandinavian Lutheran standards, "Built On a Rock"; and two contrasting favorites from 19th-century America -- all sung by the worshipping assembly without an officially-gathered choir.
"Wir
glauben all' an einen Gott", BWV 661 and 660 (J.S. Bach)
"Allein
Gott in der Höh' sei ehr", BWV 662 (J.S. Bach)
Session date 5/28/05
"Soul music" for Trinity Sunday
My experience of these hymns in the German Lutheran tradition is the soil in which my appreciation of Bach's more elaborate hymn-based music was able to flourish and take root. Being present at Our Savior's Lutheran (Milwaukee) as interim organist for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the inner prompting to play such music in connection with the service of Holy Communion was irresistible.
"Old Bach" playing the Creed - there's a story of Bach's bold and hair-raising style of playing Luther's hymn based on the Nicene Creed, Wir glauben all' an einen Gott ("We All Believe in One True God, Father Son, and Holy Ghost"). The story describes each of the 3 verses in a successively higher pitch. The Bach pieces here may reflect some of that intensity - from a monumental collection published in his lifetime, Clavierübung III, here are the two settings, neither of which uses more than a fragmentary approximation of part of the tune - the first a manual-alone setting, in "French overture" rhythm with an appropriately French reed chorus, the second a striding fugue, nicknamed the "Giant" by some commentators.
The German hymn, Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr (All Glory Be to God on High) is a hymn version of the Gloria in excelsis canticle that has been part of the opening rite of the Western liturgy for centuries. Often used in place of a setting of the original text, its explicit naming of the persons of the Trinity has often led it to be associated with this observance as well. This setting spins the tune out in long lines, richly decorated almost beyond recognition, but of such a placid, deeply meditative character that you don't have to follow the tune to pick up the atmosphere.