From the Organist & Choirmaster

As the church’s calendar year comes to an end next week, so begins another liturgical year. The last Sunday after Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday, is this Sunday, we celebrate the reign of Christ over the universe has always been a favorite Sunday of mine. At Mass on Sunday, the choir will sing a festive introit before the Solemn procession based on Psalm 71:8 and Daniel 7:14, texts which emphasize Christ’s dominion begin an everlasting one that cannot be destroyed. You will also hear the first part of Sir John Stainer’s I am Alpha and Omega at the Offertory, this text being from Revelation 1:8 of course. This anthem was composed in 1878 by Sir Stainer and the complete work also includes the Sanctus from the Mass. It is composed in a very classic British style from the 19th century. At communion you will hear Gustav Holst’s setting of Let all mortal flesh keep silence, a familiar text for many of us, how much do you know about the text?

Let all mortal flesh keep silence is an Ancient Greek chant of Eucharistic adoration based on world from Habakkuk 2:20 “But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him;” and Zechariah 2:13 “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” The original hymn was compose in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn (songs sung at the Great Entrance in Byzantine liturgies) for the Divine Liturgy of Saint James, some scholars however believe that the hymn antedates the rest of the liturgy and goes back to at least 275 AD. Almost 1700 later the English agnostic Ralph Vaughan Williams set the text in English to a medieval French folk melody “Picardy,” the tune we recognize today. This hymn tune is one of a few number of tunes that doesn’t have more than three texts traditionally associated with it, Let all mortal flesh, being the most popular and recognized. I enjoy Holst’s arrangement of it, it is the second of three festival choruses he wrote. Holst and Vaughan Williams lived almost the exact lifespan, with Vaughan Williams living a little longer than Holst, the text must have been such a rage in England at the time of their lives, it certainly is in mine! Holst begins the anthem with two solos for the first two verses, the first a soprano, the second a baritone or tenor. Verse three introduces an upper voice choir until adding the bases at “that the powers of hell may vanish” before coming to a unison “as the darkness clears away.” The organ then enters with a rumbling bass line without much upper registrations so that the choir is prominent. It makes for a very powerful start to verse four’s “At his feet the six-winged seraph; Cherubim with sleepless eye, veil their faces at the presence, as with ceaseless voice they cry.” The organ part changes the key from E minor to E major with a fantastic triplet motif that continues as the choir cries out “Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Lord Most High!” I think it is a beautiful arrangement of such a stunning text, and it certainly provides a type of adoration of the Sacrament for the choir and myself personally. I hope you will enjoy this Sunday’s music!