Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Bach Vespers 2018: "Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut " on October 28th at 7:00 p.m.


                                                    Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Bach.
The Four Evangelists
Jacob Jordaens ca. 1625-1630

J. S. Bach
E. G. Hausmann, 1748




                      Bach?










J. S. Bach (1685-1750) is irrefutably the champion of Lutheran church musicians.  During his years serving as a cantor, churches thirsted for new music in service of the church.  A good cantor taught singing, led the choirs, and accompanied church services with the organ. A great cantor was also a skilled composer.  Few composers in history have been as prolific and inspiring as Johann Sebastian Bach.
Thomaskirche - where Bach did much of his work.

In fact, Lutherans sometimes refer to him as the fifth Evangelist because his music proclaims the gospel in unique and glorious ways.

His mind and pen formed thrilling preludes and fugues for organ, elegant compositions for chamber instrumental groups, passions and oratorios proclaiming the gospel, and nearly any other musical form that can be imagined. In a class all their own, he wrote church cantatas – one for every Sunday of the year, save the Sundays in Lent.

Bach’s cantatas include choral fantasies, recitatives, and arias.  Some of his most popular music comes through the cantatas - most of which are based on well-known hymn tunes of the day.

It’s not hard to find Bach’s music in performance these days.  It’s revered in concert halls, sets the tone for worship in Sunday morning services, and is studied intently by anyone who commits to serious musical  study.

It’s a little harder to find the cantatas performed in their intended setting in worship.

Bach Vespers 2015
Chorus, Orchestra, Soloists



Twenty-eight years ago, St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, under the guidance of Cantor Jim Rindelaub, began offering Bach Vespers services.  These services maintain the form of the classic service of evening prayer with readings from scripture, hymns, and canticles.  When this form is combined with a carefully rehearsed choir, professional instrumentalists, and trained soloists, the church’s song reaches a level that is both spiritual and artistic.

This year’s cantata is N o. 117, “Sei lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut” – “Praise and Honor Be to the Highest Good.”  The tune, Es ist das Heil, is familiar to Lutherans today and is usually sung to the text “All Who Believe and are Baptized” or “Salvation unto Us Has Come.”





This year's Bach Vespers features service music by Jacksonville composer Bob Moore.  His settings of Phos Hilaron and Nunc Dimittis (“O Gracious Light” and “Lord, You Now Have Set Your Servant Free”) have a flowing chant feel complemented with modern harmonies that surprise and delight, without startling, the listener.  Magnificat (“My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord”) is a sturdy hymn of praise that is sensitive to the text.
Bob Moore is also the Director of Music Ministy at
Church of Our Savior, Episcopal, in Jacksonville
We are honored to welcome talented and trained singers as soloists: Dina Barone (contralto), Krzysztof Biernacki (baritone), and James Hall (tenor).  All three are voice faculty at the University of North Florida. Ms. Barone is also an adjunct professor at Jacksonville University.
Krzysztof Biernacki

Dina Barone
James Hall
Pastor Daniel Locke from St. Mark’s will preside.

St. Mark’s is happy to present cantatas of J. S. Bach within the service of evening prayer.  Please join us on Sunday night, October 28th (Reformation Sunday) at 7:00 p.m. Our address is 3976 Hendricks Avenue. Since this a service of worship, there is no admission fee. 

All are welcome to enjoy this music as it is sung to the glory to God!


The Four Evangelists: 
 By Jacob Jordaens - Marie-Lan Nguyen (2005), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=933691
Jacob Jordaens (1625-1630)

Bach Portrait
By Elias Gottlob Haussmann - http://www.jsbach.net/bass/elements/bach-hausmann.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1270015


Thomaskirche
By Dirk Goldhahn - Fotografiert von Dirk Goldhahn., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15674