Attached is the music for this Sunday's service. The following are a few performance notes for each piece:
Adagio - Rolf Lovland
Norwegian Rolf Lovland composed this piece for piano and violin for performance by his Nordic-Celtic group, Secret Garden. Replacing the piano with the organ provides a richer tonal palette that adds more 'color' to the piece, especially in the dialogue between the instruments that occurs during the middle of the composition. Here the organ's Hautboy (Oboe) stop provides a contrasting foil to the violin's lower register as the two echo the melodic line. The listener may find this plaintively haunting tune to be a real ohrwurm(earworm), a tune or phrase that one hums or hears internally even after the music ceases to play. John, my captive violinist, is the soloist for this selection.
Seek Ye First - Karen Lafferty, Johann Pachelbel, Setting by Douglas E Wagner
This selection from the eponymous collection by Douglas E. Wagner combines Pachelbel'sCanon in D with Lafferty's hymn tune. The charm of this piece lies in its gentle simplicity.
His Eye Is on the Sparrow - Charles H Gabriel, arr. by Roger Wilson
In today's gospel, before uttering the rather discomfiting words about bringing a sword rather than peace, Jesus offers some comforting words to his disciples when he says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows." This sentiment is echoed in Gabriel's joyous paraphrase which concludes with "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me!"
Wilson's arrangement of this gospel favorite appeared in the August 1969 edition of The Volunteer Choir, a monthly publication of the Lorenz Corporation that contained accessible anthems for small choirs. I vividly remember as a very small child, sitting beside my godmother on the organ bench watching her hands and feet as she accompanied the choir on this very anthem.
The S.S. Hamill organ at Emmanuel, like many organs built since the mid-nineteenth century, contains a Tremulant, a non-speaking stop that, when drawn, imparts a trembling or quivering quality to the speaking stops with which it is used. Because of my own somewhat dreary associations of this effect with funerals and other occasions during which maudlin selections that employ the Tremulant are often performed, I typically avoid its use. In this instance, however, the stop is used in conjunction with a light registration consisting of flute tones to evoke the warbling of a sparrow's call. Listen to see if you can hear the effect!
-Kenyon Scott