Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, February 4, 2007
Epiphany V
From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters
A lingering theme for the service today comes from the celebration on Friday, February 2, of the Feast of Candlemas, sometimes called the Purification, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. This is the last of the feasts specifically related to the date of Christmas - the rest are connected to the date of Easter. It falls 40 days after Christmas and honors the Jewish custom of presenting a first-born son in the temple on that day. Jesus's parents are met in the temple by Anna and Simeon. Simeon raises up the child in his arms and intones what has come down to us as one of the most beautiful of our canticles, the Nunc dimittis. Here is the passage from Luke:
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
Lord, you now have set your servant free
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel.And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed - and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
At the offertory the choir will sing one of the finest 20th century settings of the Nunc dimittis, a work by the English composer Herbert Howells from his Evening Service written for St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
At the Communion the adult choir will sing a motet by William Byrd with a text that recounts the same event: Simeon carried the young Child, but the young Child was the old man's King. Him did a virgin bear, and from henceforth virgin remained. And Him whom she had borne, she did worship.
And the themes specific to this Sunday itself, Epiphany 5, are rich in possibilities for musical embellishment as well. The Gospel tells of the calling of Simon and James and John on the lake of Gennesaret. Hymn 661 - They cast their nets in Galilee - first appeared in The Hymnal 1940. The words are from a poem called "His Peace," written by William Alexander Percy in 1924. That poem begins with these words, which are not included in the hymnal setting:
I love to think of them at dawn
Beneath the frail pink sky,
Casting their nets in Galilee
And fish-hawks circling by.
The music, composed in 1941 especially for this text, is by David McK. Williams, longtime organist/choirmaster of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City.
Other hymns at this service include:
445 - Praise to the holiest in the height
653 - Dear Lord and Father of mankind
362 - Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty
... all familiar, strong-boned, and rewarding to sing on a day that is special not only for the work we do in worship, but the work we do afterwards at our Annual Meeting, where we examine the ways and means that support our worship, and help us to expand upon it with our work in the community after we leave here.