Music Notes - Sunday, May 23 The Day of Pentecost
Emmanuel Church, Newport, RI
The Day of Pentecost (Whitsunday)
May 23, 2010 - Year C - RCL
8:45 – Choir Call to vest & rehearse at 9
10 A.M. Eucharist
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Entrance Hymn 506, Praise the Spirit Finnian Stanzs T.B.D.
Gloria WLP 900 Setting: John Rutter (see insert)
Psalm 104: 25-35, 37b Setting: George Mursell Garrett Emmanuel Choir
Sequence Hymn 516 Come down O Love Divine Down Ampney
Renewal of Baptismal Vows p. 292
Anthem If ye love me, keep my commandments Thomas Tallis
Presentation Hymn 513 Like the murmur of a dove’s song Bridegroom
Sanctus S-125 Setting: Richard Proulx
Lords Prayer – Orthodox Chant sung by the choir & all, as you feel comfortable (See insert)
Fraction Anthem WLP 866 Alleluia, Christ our Passover Owen Burdick
Anthem Behold the Lamb of God Emmanuel Choristers
Grace before meals (see insert) arr. Murray Somerville
Communion Hymn 504 Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire Veni Creator Spiritus
Dismissal Hymn 511 Holy Spirit, ever living Abbot’s Leigh
Music Notes: Pentecost, May 23rd the birth of The Church - a mountain-top experience from any perspective, but was it so for the disciples in that room in the days up to and on Pentecost, when they may have perceived all that had just happened in their lives - Jesus being with them, dying, being seen again and then, gone, to be like ‘Apres une Reve,’ (After a Dream)? Today’s prelude for cello and pipe organ audibly portrays that apprehensive dream-like-state in which the disciples may have found themselves, perhaps thinking ‘had all that had taken place and that we experienced with Jesus…been just a dream?’
French poet, Romain Bussine (1830-1899), a baritone and voice teacher who lived during the 19th century wrote his poem, ‘After a Dream,’ based on an anonymous Tuscan text. It speaks of how we all, often long to return to the world of our sweet dreams. And so, it is imaginable to us to think of how the disciples might have felt and desired to return to when Jesus was with them. The poem reads:
In slumber which held your image spellbound
I dreamt of happiness, passionate mirage,
Your eyes were softer, your voice pure and sonorous,
You shone like a sky lit up by the dawn;
You called me and I left the earth
To run away with you towards the light,
The skies opened their clouds for us,
Unknown splendours, divine flashes glimpsed,
Alas! Alas! Sad awakening from dreams
I call you, O night give me back your lies,
Return, return radiant,
Return, O mysterious night.
The poem was set in song by Gabriel Fauré: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9, Après une rêve, op. 7 and it is Faure’s most popular song of all time. We do not call for the return of ‘lies’ or of a ‘mysterious night,’ but today, we hear the song’s melody in a transcription by the famed cellist, Pablo Casals, and although based on a secular text, we hear it also in the context or setting of unsettling, uncertainty, as we try to imagine the disciples awaiting whatever and for which they have no idea, will happen next in their lives, for it is as if God has abandoned them…and so it is, as we sit in the pew, choir stall, organ bench, wherever…as the service begins. The cello’s rich sonority, accompanied by the ever lush sounds of the pipe organ in this piece, written in the key of c minor, creates a sense of apprehensive longing we all can feel at many times in our lives…wondering where God is and when will He touch us today and in the future. THEN! Pentecost – Christ’s promise not to leave the disciples, or us, ‘comfortless,’ and in the anthem, Thomas Tallis sets the powerful text, ‘If ye love me,’ in a polyphonically beautiful motet that reaffirms God’s promise through Jesus Christ. The new church has happened; a breath of fresh air from the Holy Spirit primes everyone for a bright future in God’s grace and repeating from last week, the words of Canon White, The Vicar of Bagdad, say it again so aptly. Upon receiving awards for his good works, he said simply, "whilst I am pleased…I only got them because…I am called by God…’ We continue our mission…’to equip people to live as disciples of Jesus,’ under His promise…’If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever: Even the Spirit of truth,’ and under the ‘the calling’ of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost singing the words, ‘Come Down O Love Divine,’ 516, (see photo at: http://www.emmanuelnewport.org/church/), 513, ‘Like the murmur of a dove’s song,’ 506, ‘Praise the Spirit in creation,’ 504, ‘Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire’ and 511, ‘Holy Spirit, ever living as the church’s very life, Holy Spirit, ever striving through her in a ceaseless strife, Holy Spirit, ever forming in the Church the mind of Christ; that we praise with endless worship for thy fruits and gifts unpriced.’
Peace and see you at worship – AJH
The Chorister Creed
‘I will sing with the spirit and with understanding also’
The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 14:15
The Chorister Prayer
Bless, O Lord, us your servants who minister in your temple;
Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
And what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our lives;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
