jgclouser@gmail.com Choral Evensong Sunday at St. John''s Episcopal, Lancaster

[Karl Moyer]

Hi, AGO-er Friends,

Our friend and colleague Paul Reese writes to me, "Please share the Evensong with the AGO!”   I am please to do so and in a way more germane to the likes of us organists. 

The what-where-when-why  basics:    Paul will lead his choir at St. John’s Episcopal Church, West Chestnut & Mulberry Streets, in a traditional Choral Evensong service on Sunday at 4 p.m.  Paul himself will be the cantor as well as directing the choir in the traditional responses, the "Preces,” as they are often known.   The liturgy dates back to Thomas Cranmer and the first Book of Common Prayer, 1549, quite early in the Reformation taking place in England. 

The choir will sing Psalms 113 and 114 to a double Anglican chant with fairly romantic harmonic life.   Paul will play the congregational hymns and the Voluntary at the close of the service (based on the afternoon’s opening hymn), Toccata on “Lasst uns erfreuen” by Aaron David Miller, now organist at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul MN. 

Paul honors me in two ways in this service:  first, that his choir will sing my unpublished settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, the proper canticles for Evening Prayer (“or Choral Evensong” when the liturgy is sung.   Of the two, my Nunc Dimittis was originally composed in honor of the now-sainted Richard Fritsch, some-time treasurer of our chapter and husband of our member Jennie Fritsch.  May he rest in peace.  I feel very honored to be the organist for most of the liturgy, including to accompany my “Mag” and “Nunc,” as well as the psalms, but also to play a thirty-minute recital at 4 p.m. before the liturgy itself begins.  

The history of organs at St. John’s includes a serious fire on 6 January 1939 which did considerable damage, including total destruction of the 1886 Hilbourne Roosevelt, Op. 350, of two manuals.   A four rank Wicks did “temporary”duty from near the close of 1939 until a three-manual Wicks of 20 ranks was installed in 1951.  Rebuilt and enlarged in more recent years by my friend Fred Buch, the organ reflects its history by being particularly adept to romantic repertoire, including Anglican-style choral accompaniments.  I've had some good fun there preparing for Sunday’s organ music.

The recital repertoire:  

Felix Mendelssohn     Sonata   No. 3 in A, with its double fugue based on  Martin Luther’s chorale text  “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir”

Johann Sebastian Bach Chorale Prelude on “Wir glauben all’ an einem Gott,” (Clavierübung, iii), based on the first phrase of an earlier tune used with Martin Luther’s metrical version of the Creed.

Johann Ludwig Krebs Chorale Prelude on “Wir glauben all’ an einem Gott, Vater” (a chorale text and tune different from the one Bach set [above] ) 

César Franck Choral in B minor, a work in incredible beauty!! 

The afternoon’s offering will support the completion of a fresh-water well in Alendu, Kenya, a project of St. John’s Church, and I am supporting that cause as well by contributing my honorarium to it.  Indeed, a friend and his wife are currently in France to learn the French language before going to Kenya for a year or two of on-site work that includes teaching Kenyan natives how to dig fresh-water wells and install pumps over them.   I would be pleased, were the offering so “heavy” that it would take a wheel-barrow to carry it to the altar.   (I also find it fun to remember that some of the world’s best long-distance runners come from Kenya, including a few who have won the Race Against Racism in Lancaster on several occasions.)

You should consider coming properly equipped, perhaps with a rotten tomato or two for self-expression when the organist plays too many wrong notes.   :-) 

Peace,

Karl E. Moyer, F.A.G.O.