Music at All Saints Parish Sunday, February 10, 2008
First Sunday of Lent

From All Saints Music Director Donald Teeters

At All Saints we sing The Great Litany in procession twice a year, on the First Sundays of Advent and Lent. It is especially appropriate for Lenten use, but it is also a fitting way to acknowledge the beginning of the liturgical year (Advent I). The Litany, in the comprehensiveness of its concerns and the beauty of its language, is one of the great treasures of the Church. Its earliest English usage even pre-dates the creation of the first Book of Common Prayer. To quote from The Hymnal 1982 Companion, the monumental four-volume scholarly accompaniment to our hymnal, the Litany breaks down into four sections consisting of: "the invocation of the Trinity, the deprecations or petitions for deliverance from disaster and evil, the obsecrations of pleading of the person and merits of Christ, and the intercessions, concluding with the Agnus Dei ..." when it precedes the Holy Eucharist, as it does at All Saints.

The simple chant tune associated with the Litany since the 16th century may have been composed by John Merbecke (or may not). The complementary harmonizations that the choir sings as it makes its stately way around the nave were composed by Thomas Tallis.

At the Offertory the choir will sing a simple and very beautiful motet by Johannes Brahms. This work is the middle of a three-part larger choral work in which all the movements make use of verses from Psalm 51, which was previously appointed for use on this Sunday. The text, sung in German:

Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz,
und gib mir einen neuen, gewissen Geist.

Create in me, O God, a pure heart,
and grant a right spirit within me.

At the communion we will sing Gibbons's lovely motet that is appropriate to the season and the day. The text: O Lord, increase my faith, strengthen me and confirm me in thy true faith; endue me with wisdom, charity, and patience, in all my adversity, sweet Jesus, say Amen.

Also at the Communion Robert Honeysucker will sing a beautifully moving Spiritual, one which he has not sung at All Saints before: "Here's One" by W. Grant Still.

Because the Litany takes the place of an opening hymn at this service, we will sing only two this week. They are:

Hymn 143 - The glory of these forty days

Hymn 445 - Praise to the Holiest

This hymn makes use of excerpts from John Henry Newman's lengthy poem The Dream of Gerontius (1865), a poem that has entered the classical music repertoire in its setting by Sir Edward Elgar (performed by the Boston Symphony under Colin Davis only a few weeks ago). The music setting in the hymnal was composed by J. B. Dykes in 1868, specifically for this text.

Close Window | To All Saints Parish Homepage