Music for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, February 10, 2019

Prelude: A Memory Patricia DeWitt 

The prelude is an original composition by Patricia DeWitt for recorder and piano. Patricia DeWitt herself will play the recorder.

Gathering Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty (Nicaea) ELW 413)

Hymn of the Day: Risen Lord, We Gather Round You (Abbot's Leigh)

This hymn does not appear in ELW. The text is by Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. Stuempfle, who died in 2007, was president of Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg from 1976 to 1989. He began his time at Gettysburg as a professor in 1962 which means his total time in service to the seminary was 27 years. A prolific author of hymns, he has eight hymn texts in Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
Read more about his life here:
https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/5876

Musical Offering (Festival Choir): Keep Silence John Helgen

This is a choral setting of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" (ELW 490) with a musical atmosphere that evokes Isaiah's vision in today's Old Testament reading. The piano, recorder (Patricia DeWitt) and windchime accompaniment combine with the choir to create a mystical image of the throne of God and the beings who surround it.

Communion Hymns:
You have come down to the Lakeshore (Pescador de hombres) ELW 817

This hymn was a favorite of our beloved Viki Grzelinski who sang in the Festival Choir for many years. Every time we sing the hymn, we remember her for the faith she lived so well. Viki, a child of God, died in 2012.

Our friend Viki could often be found with a water bottle in one hand and Bach in another.

Here I Am, Lord (Here I Am, Lord) ELW 574

Sending Hymn: Rise, Shine, You People (Wojtkiewiecz) ELW 665

The hymntune name is a very interesting one. The composer, Dale Wood, is the son of Finnish-Polish parents. The tune is named for his Polish family.

Postlude: Trumpet Fanfare on "Rescue" Don Hustad

This piece (which features the Festival Trumpet stop on our organ) comes from a text and tune by Fanny Crosby, a prolific hymn writer (more than 8,000 hymns to her credit) and mission worker who was born in Brewster, New York in 1820.
In today's gospel reading Jesus tells the fishermen, ". . .from now on you will be catching people."
Fanny Crosby says it with these words:
"Rescue the perishing, Duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide.
Back the narrow way, Patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand'rer a Savior has died.
Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save."

sources:
Hymnal Companion to "Evangelical Lutheran Worship"
Wikipedia

Hear Our Harpsichord Twice in February

“Bist du bei mir” is a classic in the solo singer’s repertoire. The song, by J. S. Bach, is equally at home in the setting of a wedding or a funeral.

This Sunday the Festival choir sings “Oh Lord, My God, You Are My Refuge,” a choral setting of Bach’s melody with a different text. It will be accompanied by the prominent keyboard of Bach’s time – the harpsichord.

St. Marks’ harpsichord was built in 1977 while Brian Stout was the Music Director. The instrument, assembled from a kit, took about 2,000 human hours to build and cost about $1,000.00. The heaviest work was the sanding of the legs and stringing the instrument. 

Artwork by Saralyn Landquist, Fran Oglesby, and Connie Smith gave the instrument an authentic finish – making it look more like an instrument from the time of Bach than one built from a kit in 1977.

The artwork includes a bouquet of flowers on the soundboard with Luther’s rose in the center and delicate flowers along the edges of the music stand. The Reformation principles of “Sola Fide” (faith alone), “Sola Gratia” (grace alone), and “Sola Scriptura” (scripture alone), are boldly inscribed on the inside cover.

A nice finish is a listing of the names of those who helped build the instrument painted above the keyboard. Many of these persons have since joined the church triumphant, but their dedication and talent still inspire us.

Money was obtained from a memorial fund in honor of the late Hugh Alderman who was the Music Director at St. Mark’s for 24 years. This was certainly an appropriate way to honor his legacy.

Why a harpsichord? According to a quote in the Jacksonville Journal, Brian Stout gave this explanation:

J. S. Bach, also called the "fifth evangelist"

“First of all, the music in the (early) Lutheran church was written for chamber-type instruments. Bach wrote much of the music we use and much of what he did was for the harpsichord.”

Harpsichords are very different from pianos. With pianos the strings are struck by hammers. Harpsichord strings are plucked by a small device called a “plectrum.” This gives the instrument a delicate, almost tinny sound, that has more in common with a guitar than with a piano.

Today our harpsichord is nearly always heard at our Bach Vespers service (a tradition that started in 1990). It is also often used by the San Marco Chamber Music Society for their chamber music concerts.  In fact, it will be used in service to the music of Antonio Vivaldi in their next concert on February 10^th at 7:00 p.m.

The harpsichord is closed when it’s not in use, but if anyone wants to see it, I am happy to open it after church services.  It can also be viewed by appointment during the week.

Thank you to Eric Olson who does the tuning - and it has to be tuned every time it is used.

This harpsichord is a beautiful gift to the people of St. Mark’s and to the Jacksonville community. We are indebted to Brian Stout and all who helped build this beautiful instrument. May it always remind us that our music is “Soli Deo gloria” – for the glory of God alone.

Bach Vespers 2013 with the harpsichord in the center.

Music for January 6, 2019 Epiphany of Our Lord

Prelude: Chorale Prelude on Wie schön leuchtet    Paul Manz

Paul Manz (1919-2009) is highly regarded by modern Lutherans for his organ and choral compositions. He is also credited with originating the modern hymn festival.

This composition is based on the same tune as our Hymn of the Day. It utilizes the organ’s softer flute sounds and (hopefully) will sound like sparkling stars.

Gathering Hymn: Brightest and Best of the Stars (Morning Star) ELW 303

“We Three Kings” will be sung in many churches today. In that “carol” each mythical king tells the nature of the gifts he brings. I chose “Brightest and Best” because it puts the focus on the gifts we might bring, especially our worship and prayers.

Hymn of the Day: O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright (Wie schön leuchtet) ELW 308

Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)
Lutheran Minister and author
of the Hymn of the Day

It would be hard to find a hymn more “Lutheran” than this one. It is so ingrained in Lutheran liturgy that it has earned a nickname – “Queen of the Lutheran Chorales.” (The “King” is Wachet auf.)

This chorale’s most notable characteristic is its rhythmic dance quality – a quality it holds despite irregular metre and rhyming scheme.  If you center the text on page by the rhyme scheme, using either German or English, the words form the outline of a communion chalice.

Musical Offering: What Star Is This with Beams so Bright     arr. Healey Willan

sung by the Festival Choir

Communion Hymns:

Once in Royal David’s City (Irby) ELW 269
What Child Is This (Greensleeves) ELW 296

Sending Hymn: As With Gladness Men of Old (Dix) ELW 302

Postlude: Love Has Come (Un Flambeau)

Un Flambeau is a French Christmas carol sung with the words, “Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella. . .” See ELW 292 for a modern text by Ken Bible that speaks of light and love.

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 28^th (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

Saturday Evening Worship: Unfailing Light

Sunset in the North Carolina Mountains

“The Holy Spirit calls us together as the people of God.”

Sometimes the Spirit gathers us in the evening, at the close of day. For St. Mark’s, this evening gathering happens on Saturdays.

Our Saturday service is sometimes referred to as St. Mark’s “contemporary” service, but that ambiguous term means different things to different people. At St. Mark’s, “contemporary” refers to modern hymns played on the piano – most of which would be equally suitable for our Sunday morning worship. Songs are typically drawn from Evangelical Lutheran Worship and Worship and Praise – Augsburg Fortress’ contemporary songbook that was released in 1999. Additional songs come from a variety of other sources.

We have been slowly introducing a setting of Holy Communion written specifically for this time of day. “Unfailing Light” is the title with music by Marty Haugen and several original texts by Susan Briehl.  Especially in the gathering and sending, this setting draws images from scripture that invoke eventide.

With texts like “Your canopy of vigil lights, each star you set in place, bestows a blessing on the night. . .” and “let coyote howl and night hawk circle while solemn owl her wise watch keeps,” we are presented with comforting images of the approaching night.

Lighting candles for Evening Prayer - All Saint's Chapel, University of the South
Sewanee, Tennessee

The service also reminds us of the story of the two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. (“Stay with us, for it is evening. . .”) As it was for those disciples, bread is broken, and we are nourished.

When you can’t come to church on Sunday, please remember that we have this Saturday service on the first and third Saturdays of each month at 5:30 p.m. The mood is a little more casual, but we hear the same readings, pray the same prayers, and eat and drink at the same table.  You won’t find anything lacking.

Please join us. . .and bring a friend. 

Evening Prayer at St. Mark's

FIVE NOT-TO-BE-MISSED MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS: FALL 2018 AT ST. MARK’S

You know it’s fall when school is back in session, summer vacations are a not-too-distant memory, and mid-term elections are looming.  At the same time, churches begin their fall programs.  St. Mark’s is no exception.

Here are five music events to watch for at St. Mark’s this fall. You won’t want to miss any of them!

1. Ensemble rehearsals begin

Our summer break from rehearsals is nearly over and our usual practice schedule resumes on Wednesday, September 5^th.

The St. Mark’s Ringers rehearse on Wednesday evenings from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. in the nave.  We have positions for experienced ringers available, so contact Tony Cruz if you would like to play this year.  (“Experienced” means you already read music, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have experience with handbells – we will be happy to supply that!)

St. Mark's Ringers at Riverside Park UMC in May 2017

Is this the year that you join your voice with the voices of our Festival Choir?  We are hoping that is.  We have a strong need for sopranos and altos to join our ranks, but tenors and basses are also welcome. The Festival Choir rehearses on Wednesday evenings in the music suite from 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.  All singers are welcome! The ability to read music is helpful, but not required.  If you have questions, talk to Tony Cruz or any choir member.

The Festival Choir on Reformation Sunday, 2017

Come help up lead the church’s song! 

2. Rising Star Organ Concert

Burce Xu, and AGO Rising Star

Last summer the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) hosted a regional convention in Jacksonville.  St. Mark’s was an important location for that event.

The competition begins at the chapter level. Winners at that level then compete regionally.  The winner at last summer’s Jacksonville competition (held at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church) was 14-year-old Bruce Xu who impressed everyone with his technical skill and dazzling performance of classical and sacred literature. St. Mark’s played a part in the competition because we were the warm-up site for the competitors!

This September, Bruce Xu returns to Jacksonville to play a concert on the organ at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The concert, September 9^th at 7:00 p.m., is co-sponsored by St. Mark’s and the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. 

The event is free, and all are welcome.  An offering will be taken.

3. San Marco Chamber Music Society Kicks Off the Year with a Benefit Concert

The San Marco Chamber Music Society’s first concert is their always - popular community event to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.

JDRF’s mission is to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes and its complications through research. Learn more about JDRF at this link: http://www.jdrf.org/

This year’s concert series includes five concerts of inspired, world-class chamber music programs by professional musicians.

SMCMS has been an important part of St. Mark’s musical outreach since 2008. Last year they took their act on the road to England.  Next summer will find them playing concerts in Germany.

The San Marco Chamber Music Society's concerts include a variety of composers and players. This picture is from a 2017 concert.

Eric and Ellen Olson, founders of SMCMS, are members of St. Mark’s.  Learn more about the group here: http://www.sanmarcochambermusic.org/home.html

4. St. Mark’s 80^th Anniversary Celebration

Pastor Trexler

St. Mark’s was founded in 1938 – which means we have proclaimed the gospel and celebrated the sacraments as a community for eighty years!

Jim Rindelaub

From our first home at the Burns Naugle Funeral Chapel, then to property at the corner of Hendricks Avenue and Lasalle Street, to the current property at 3976 Hendricks Avenue, our story has been one of worship and mission.

We’ll celebrate in worship on Sunday morning, October 14^th, at 9:30 a.m.  with music by the St. Mark’s Ringers and the Festival Choir.  Jim Rindelaub (St. Mark’s Cantor 1985 – 1999) will play the organ postlude. Pastor William Trexler (St. Mark’s Senior Pastor 1979 – 1995) will preach.

Mark your calendar now so you won’t miss this exciting day in church!

5. Our 17^th Bach Vespers Service

In 1990 a Sacred Arts Festival at St. Mark’s included a performance of J. S. Bach’s cantata no. 7, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, under the direction of Jim Rindelaub. From that beginning, Bach Vespers has grown into an event that is unique to northeast Florida.

Bach Vespers is a worship service, rather than a concert.  It presents a cantata by J. S. Bach within the context of a Lutheran Vespers Service (Evening Prayer).  Singers from the community, trained soloists, an orchestra of professional instrumentalists, and Lutheran liturgy all combine to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in a unique worship service.

This year’s cantata is BWV 117, Sei Lob und Her dem höchsten Gut.  The service will include music from an evening prayer service by Jacksonville composer Bob Moore, including settings of Phos Hilaron, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis – important hymns and canticles for Vespers.

Please tell all singers you know about this event because we would love for them to join us. Find current news and information at the Bach Vespers Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BachVespers2013AtStMarksEvangelicalLutheranChurch/

Join us on Sunday, October 28^th, at 7:00 p.m. for the service! Your financial gifts to Bach Vespers are deeply appreciated and will allow this St. Mark’s tradition to carry on for years to come.

There’s a lot happening at St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.  Come and See!

Dear Tune, That Text Just Isn't That Into You

There are some things that go great together:

chocolate and peanut butter

cotton candy and the circus

macaroni and cheese

ice cream and meatloaf. . .

Those don't go together!

Wait a second! Ice cream and meat loaf? Of course not.

As in this culinary example, sometimes the marriage of a text and tune is equally less than ideal.

Stirring Tune, Inspiring Text, but Together?
One of my favorite hymntunes is Mit Freuden zart.  The first time I heard it was with Johann Jacob Schütz’s text “Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above.”  Most Christians have sung this hymn at one time or another.  A pleasing tune to sing that is suitable to the range of most singers, it gives a sense of joy, even triumph.  It’s not hard to imagine it sung as a great procession with a grand organ, large choir, massive assembly, and Samuel Metzger’s bold arrangement - all coming together to make this hymn suitable for any of the church’s festive occasions. See what I mean in the following link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0fIgaVZfY

Perhaps it’s the sense of joy that has often left me feeling ill at ease when I sing it with Walter Russell Bowie’s hymn text “Lord Christ, When First You Came to Earth.”  Since the text is copyrighted, I can’t fully reproduce it in this blog, but it talks about how Christ was treated on earth.  It tells how “they” bound and mocked Jesus, crowned him with thorns and put a robe on him, a “robe of sorrow.”

Caravaggio "The Crowning With Thorns" via Wikipedia

The text tells how Christ’s power will eventually triumph against the nations, then asks the question if we will treat Christ the same way he was treated in the first stanza, or if we will instead seek the kingdom of his peace.

As the hymn closes, we opt for peace as “we bring our hearts before your cross” and ask Jesus to “come, finish your salvation.”

For me the pairing of Mit Freuden zart (an ice cream hymntune) with Lord Christ, When First You Came (a meatloaf text) has never made for a hearty meal. That said, the text is a perfect one for Year B’s third Sunday in Lent.

So. . .I’m allowing these two to have a musical divorce.

A Better Pairing?
Generally, texts are not written to go with particular tunes anyway.  So, now I have to find a tune with the same meter (87, 87, 887) that is more sobering musically.

I’ve found that quality in Kirken den er et gammelt hus – more commonly sung with the text “Built on a Rock the Church Shall Stand.”

Can't wait to sing Mit Freuden zart!

If you want to stick with the food metaphor, imagine Lord Christ, When First You Came to Earth as meatloaf and Kirken as gravy.

If you really enjoy the tune Mit Freuden zart, don’t worry.  I promise it will show up during the Easter Season with a very suitable text – With High Delight Let Us Unite.

Is there a text and tune whose marriage seems less than desirable to you? Name them in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks to my friends Marcy and Lynne for their photos!