Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, April 22, 2007
Third Sunday after Easter
From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters
Today the choir is back, and at the offertory they will proclaim the great Easter message in a stirring anthem composed by Englishman Edward C. Bairstow. The anthem, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously, draws together two texts from two excellent sources: Exodus and the 19th century British poet Robert Campbell. Bairstow begins his festive Paschal anthem with a reminder, adorned with fanfares, of the Hebrew words from Exodus that we last heard at the Easter Vigil: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea." The anthem continues with Campbell's "church militant-ish" celebration of the Easter miracle taken from his hymn At the Lamb's high feast we sing. The verse Bairstow chose for musical setting is the third verse of that hymn with this text:
Mighty victim from on high,
hell's fierce powers beneath thee lie;
thou hast conquered in the fight,
thou hast brought us life and light:
now no more can death appall,
now no more the grave enthrall;
thou hast opened paradise,
and in thee thy saints shall rise.
Edward Bairstow was born in Huddersfield in 1874. After several appointments in smaller churches, he was appointed Organist of York Minster in 1913, a post he held until his death there in 1946. He was knighted in 1932, and received the Degree of Hon. D.Litt. from Leeds University in 1936.
The hymn whose third verse Dr. Bairstow chose for his fine anthem, No. 174, At the Lamb's high feast, will be sung in its entirety at the end of this service.
The other hymns today are:
#205 - Good Christians all rejoice and sing! The text is 20th century, written by the Dean of Durham Cathedral, Cyril Arlington, specifically for Songs of Praise, a hymn collection published in London in 1931. The first few words and, to a lesser extent, the tune [Michael Vulpius, 1560-1616] share a similarity with the 14th century Christmas Carol In dulci jubilo, but in its continuation it is unmistakeably an equally joyous Easter Carol.
#492 - Sing ye faithful, sing with gladness. The text of this hymn first appeared in the 1892 edition of the Hymnal, but was dropped from later editions. Happily, it has now been restored with some textual alterations and clarifications. The tune was written in 1966 by the English organist Christopher Dearnley on the day of the birth of his youngest child. The tune name, Finnian, honors a 6th century Irish saint, and was the name bestowed on the child for whom Dearnley composed it.