This coming Sunday is the last before Ascension Thursday, and we will celebrate Christ’s Ascension at next Sunday’s Worship on June 1st. The readings for this Sixth Sunday of Easter foreshadow the coming of the Holy Spirit, which imbues love, strengthens community and inspires mission in Christ’s followers.
The Chancel Choir’s Anthem is probably Thomas Tallis’ most famous anthem, “If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments”, setting Christ’s words from John 14: 15-17. First Published in 1560, this 4 voice anthem was written during the reign of England’s Edward VI when composers were required to write Church Music in English instead of Latin and required to “give to each syllable a plain and distinct note”, eschewing the melismatic lines of the past which could include dozens of notes per syllable of text. This much-loved anthem is a fine example of the Reformation compositional style, with a good deal of homophonic style, interspersed with elegant elaboration and imitation.
Our Communion music is Mark Miller’s “I Choose Love”, written in response to the tragic events in Charleston in June 2015. This thoughtful work by Mark Miller and poet Lindy Thompson speaks beautifully to our commitment to love one another through hardship and pain. Mark is treasured within our Methodist Communion, and his works have now been published by Catholic, Lutheran, and Presbyterian publishing houses, and many others. Lindy Thompson’s simple yet profound text speaks powerfully to the Spirit’s power to guide our choices in the midst of life’s most challenging circumstances.
My first two music choices for Sunday’s Worship focus our minds on the sacrifice made by all those who have fought and died in defense of our country and the freedoms we hold so dear. The Organ Voluntary is a unique recasting of the hymn tune “Materna” by the wonderful American composer Calvin Hampton, who was an early victim of AIDS in 1984. We know this hymn tune as “America, the Beautiful” but it was originally set to the text “O Mother Dear, [New] Jerusalem” – hence the tune name MATERNA. Hampton’s setting sets the familiar melody over a constantly undulating 16th note pattern in the left hand, growing to a poignant climax in the second statement of the melody, then ending quietly and calmly. I have always loved this setting, and I find it an appropriate way to remember all those “heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their country loved” on this Memorial Day Weekend.
Our Choral Prelude was written for the 1971 Remembrance Sunday Service at Westminster Abbey by its then Organist and Master of the Choristers, Douglas Guest, who held the post from 1963 to 1981. Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen” from 1914 is recited and sung across the Commonwealth on Remembrance Sunday, and it always conjures images of the red poppies we wore in November when we were growing up in Canada. Douglas Guest sets the words syllabically, as if being spoken together. The music is set mostly in four parts, with the odd note added to highlight certain moments in the text, such as ‘years’ and ‘morning’. Guest chose to set the central verse - Lines 13-16 of Binyon’s 28 Line Poem, and these four short lines form the central ever-beating heart of this poignant poem. Though written as a memorial to those lost in the “Great War” which claimed an entire generation of Europe’s Men – including so many musicians and artists whose prophetic voices were snuffed out too soon – it is such a powerful remembrance to all those we have lost in our own lives to unexpected sickness or tragedy. May we always be comforted in knowing that they live in on in each of us and have wone their promised reward.
So as we recall Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation and our fellow Americans’ sacrifice for their country, may the Holy Spirit inspire our hearts and strengthen our resolve to love and serve all God’s creation.
