Music Notes 7-26-26

This week we welcome back our wonderful band. We have an announcement regarding that –

our fabulous pianist, Jeff Colella, is releasing another album of jazz with legendary bassist Putter

Smith. Ironically, most people recognize Putter as one of the 2 assassins in the James Bond

movie Diamonds Are Forever. However, he is one of the most iconic bassists in the world, and

laid down the bass track on an endless list of hits like You’ve Got That Lovin’ Feelin’. Jeff, on

the other hand, was Lou Rawls’ pianist and conductor for 16 years and was music director for

Jack Jones before that. We’re honored to have him joining our crew of artists every month. The

album will be available August 21 st . We’ll keep you informed as more information becomes

available.

Sandi Patty was born in Oklahoma City to a musical family, her father being a church music

director and her mother being a church organist. Growing up in Phoenix and then San Diego,

she studied at San Diego State University and Anderson University in Indiana, where she studied

voice and conducting. In the late 70’s, while studying at Anderson, she began working as a

studio singer, recording, among other things, the iconic Juicy Fruit gum commercial. After

graduating, she began working with Bill Gaither and Singspiration! Records and built a huge

career in the Christian pop world. Throughout the 80’s she performed to sold out arenas,

stadiums and concert halls, averaging 200 concerts a year and getting the label of the ”highest

paid singer in Christian music”, averaging over $100,000 a performance. After a career setback

in the early 90’s, she rebuilt her career and began doing pop concerts with orchestras all over the

country. These days she has followed in the footsteps of Amy Grant and crossed over from

Christian music to pop music, especially Broadway. Shine Down was released on the album

From The Heart in 1984.

Show Me The Way is a song written by Dennis DeYoung, lead singer and keyboardist for the

band Styx. A devout Catholic, DeYoung wrote the song for his son Matthew as a pseudo-hymn

about keeping the faith “in a world so filled with hatred”. It was released on the album Edge of

the Century as the 2 nd single in December of 1990 and slowly climbed the charts until it reached

#3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained in the top 40 for 23 weeks, and #3 on the

Adult Contemporary chart, where it remained in the top 40 for 31 weeks. It was the band’s 4 th

and final top 5 single, and made Styx one of a handful of artists to have top 10 singles in 3

different decades (1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s).

Shine, Jesus, Shine was written by English composer Graham Kendrick in 1987. Originally

conceived as a 3-verse hymn, Kendrick came back to it after leaving it in a drawer for several

months and realized that it needed a chorus. In his words, “The phrase “shine, Jesus, shine”

came to mind. I think it was one of the quickest things I’ve ever written! Within 20 minutes or

half an hour I’d written the chorus, and the whole thing just needed a little bit of editing and

tidying up here and there. The chorus fell into place surprisingly naturally. But even then, it took

a while to mature. I’d written the verses at a different pace. So, the tempo of verse and chorus

seemed to pull against one another. It was only through use that it actually began to settle down.

As I worked on it with my band, an arrangement and a way of doing it took shape. Then it started

to feel like a complete song.” It began to appear in print in 1987 and in hymnals in 1989. It

arrived in the U.S in 1990 in The Baptist Hymnal and then later in our hymn book Glory To God.

It’s been recorded many times, by Kendrick himself and by numerous other artists.

Dan Schutte is one of the most renowned of the contemporary composers in the Catholic world

and is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits, who popularized a contemporary

style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. This was a result of the Second Vatican

Council of the early 1960’s (also known as Vatican II), which revamped and reformed the

Catholic liturgy in an effort to bring it closer to the people (before that, the mass was sung in

Latin and the priest kept his back to the congregation throughout). He is based in San Francisco,

has written over 120 popular hymns and mass settings, and continues to be one of the most

influential figures in the world of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. His most famous

composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic

origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different

languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2 nd

favorite after Amazing Grace.

Music Notes 7-19-26

Michael Cox is an ASCAP award winning composer, conductor, pianist, and educator. He is

currently Composer-in-Residence at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas. In 2009

he retired as Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Southwestern Baptist

Theological Seminary's (SWBTS) School of Church Music. Prior to joining the faculty at

Southwestern in the fall of 1990, Dr. Cox taught conducting, composition, and music theory

at Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) in Shawnee, Oklahoma. As a composer, he has hundreds

of published works in musical genres including choral music, piano music, orchestral

music, instrumental, etc. He has received the Standard Award from the American Society of

Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) every year since 1987. He continues to travel

across the country conducting choral clinics, and in his spare time works as a music copyist and

engraver. This week’s anthem, Open Thou Mine Eyes, is a 1990 setting of the words by Lancelot

Andrewes, who lived 1555-1626 and was a scholar in the church of England. He served

successively as Bishop of Chichester, of Ely, and of Winchester, and oversaw the translation of

the King James Version of the Bible. I discovered this anthem in the library of a previous church

and fell in love with it. The tune is a beautifully melodic tune that you find yourself walking out

of the room humming to yourself.

Jan Sanborn is a pianist whose musicianship, style, and flexibility combine with her knowledge

of the classical piano repertoire to provide for her audiences concerts of memorable music-

making. Jan’s piano studies began in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State University, Drake University,

then to California where she studied at Westmont College, and then California State University

Northridge as a student of Dr. Charles Fierro. She is the choral staff accompanist at California

State Northridge University and has served as the accompanist for the Roger Wagner Chorale on

their tours of Japan and the Far East, and as accompanist for the Los Angeles Chamber Singers.

In addition, she has served as organist and coordinator of music at Bel Air Presbyterian Church,

as organist at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, and a number of southland churches. Jan is a

member of ASCAP and the composer of many published choral works with Alfred Publishing,

The Fred Bock Music Company, Hinshaw, Pavane, and Shawnee. Her piano books are published

by Alfred Publishing and the Fred Bock Music Company, and she has recorded five solo piano

CD’s. She is the Past President of the National Association of Church Musicians, formerly CCG,

a member of ACDA, and a member of the Dominant Club of Los Angeles. She lives with her

husband, veteran stuntman Loren Janes, in Canyon Country, California. Jan has been a friend for

many years and is one of the best accompanists I’ve ever worked with. Her anthem, No Longer

A Baby, was written in 1975 to the lyrics of Bryan Jeffery Leech and was recorded by the Roger

Wagner Chorale for Delos.

A Mighty Fortress is our God (in the original German Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) is one of the

best known hymns written by reformer Martin Luther (who wrote many hymns). One of the best

loved hymns of the Lutheran tradition, and among Protestants in general, it’s been called “The

Battle Hymn of the Reformation”. Luther composed the lyrics and melody sometime between

1527 and 1529. There are several theories regarding the reason for its composition, and the

original version of the melody (we have the manuscript with Luther’s autograph on it) is heavily

syncopated and is very different from the tune we all know and love. Over the years, it has been

used extensively, from Bach’s cantata #80 and Christmas Oratorio, organ settings by Buxtehude

and Pachelbel, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony #5 to Wagner’s Kaisermarsch (Emperor's March)

and the grand opera Les Huguenots by French composer Meyerbeer. More recently, it’s been

used by Ralph Vaughn Williams for the soundtrack to the movie 49 th Parallel, in an episode of

The Simpsons (Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes), as the theme song for the children’s

television series Davey and Goliath and in an episode of The Gilmore Girls. The translation in

our hymnal was translated in 1853 by Fredrick H. Hedge and is less literal, but is the most

familiar version in this part of the world.

Music Notes 7-12-26

The Hallelujah Chorus is probably the most iconic classical music chorus of all time. It closes

the 2 nd part of George Fredrick Handel’s 1742 oratorio Messiah, and has been heard just about

everywhere. There is a tradition of everyone in the audience standing for the singing of the

Hallelujah Chorus. The legend is that during the 1743 London premier, just as the Hallelujah

Chorus was starting, the King, who was attending in the royal box, stood up. Nobody knows

why. Maybe he needed a stretch, or a scratch, or something, but when the King stands,

everybody stands. So, everybody stood for the performance of the chorus, and to this day, the

tradition is to stand for the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. Now, scholars insist that there is

absolutely no evidence anywhere to suggest that this is actually what happened, and as a result,

the reason for this tradition is still shrouded in mystery, but it does make for a fun story.

Personally, I think it’s a sneaky way to get a standing ovation…….

Handel’s Messiah, A Soulful Celebration was a project conceived by Take 6 alum Mervyn

Warren. He enlisted some of the greatest names in gospel and R&B to help him take 16 pieces

of music from the familiar Messiah of Handel, and re-interpret them with a gospel soul. The

album was widely praised for its use of a broad range of African-American musical genres,

including spirituals, blues, ragtime, big band, jazz fusion, R&B and hip hop. It received

numerous awards, including the 1992 Dove Award for Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year

and the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. It was in preparations

for the 1992 Grammys that someone noticed that there was also a traditional version of the

Messiah up for an award, this time for Best Performance of a Choral Work – The Messiah, by

Martin Pearlman and the Boston Baroque Orchestra and Chorus. It was decided to combine the

2 Hallelujah Choruses into one big performance for the ceremonies - hire 21 singers from the

Los Angeles Master Chorale (the same number that was in the Boston recording), bring in the

original chorus that sang on the Soulful Celebration, start with the traditional and have the

Soulful singers “interrupt” them and join them on stage for a big sing finale. I was one of those

fortunate singers, and got the opportunity to meet some of the great artists in person (I stood next

to Phylicia Rashad in the front row during rehearsals). The all-star chorus consisted of such

widely disparate artists as Andrae and Sandra Crouch, Al Jarreau, Johnny Mathis, Marilyn

McCoo, Vanessa Williams and Chaka Khan. It was during those rehearsals that I was able to

chat with Andrae Crouch, and he asked me “I wonder what Handel would have thought about

what we did to his music?” I told him “I think he would have loved it. He was always ripping

off his own music for other uses, but I think he would have loved the idea that someone could

have taken his music and made it relevant and meaningful to a whole new generation, culture

and race of people.” There was a video of that performance on YouTube for a while, but was

removed. However, I grabbed it before it went away and you can view it on my website. I’ve

said it before, and I’ll say it again – our choir is amazing. This piece – Hallelujah from The

Soulful Celebration – is absolutely beyond most church choirs. But I can’t think of a better way

to celebrate, rejoice and worship, than to sing this piece. Feel free to dance, sway, and clap along

at the end.

Music Notes 7-5-26

All of us in the music department would like to wish you all a very Happy 4 th of July, with a

special shout out to Pastor Henry, who served our country faithfully for more than 10 years

before bringing his talents to the pulpit. Happy 4 th , everyone!

Patricia Mock is a pastor’s wife, mother and grandmother residing in Big Canoe, Georgia, who

has still found time write over 80 choral anthems. Today’s anthem, Savior, Like A Shepherd

Lead Us, is a setting of words by Victoria era poet Dorothy Thrupp, using the familiar hymn tune

He Leadeth Me by William Bradbury. It was published in 2010 and is a lovely, gentle piece that

sooths the soul.

I Want Jesus To Walk With Me is a traditional spiritual, in this case arranged in a bluesy style by

St. Paul, Minnesota resident John Helgen. He is currently the director of music at Roseville

Lutheran Church in St. Paul, where he plays the piano and organ and directs several vocal

ensembles. Written in 2019, the piano accompaniment gives the accompanist the chance to lay

back and be groovy.

Hailing from the small coastal town of Bangor in Northern Ireland, the Rend Collective is a

group of “twenty-somethings” that gathered at Rend, what the band describes as “a ministry for

spiritually hungry young adults, desperately seeking an authentic, raw and real expression of

church, which was informally pastored by bandleader, Gareth Gilkeson.” Their first album –

Homemade Worship by Handmade People – was released in 2012, and was followed by a string

of hits in the contemporary Christian music world. Their music is based around older

instruments - their native Irish folk instruments, old rock and roll guitars and assorted other

whimsical musical toys - and has a raw, uninhibited style that gets the toes tapping and the feet

stomping. They don’t call themselves a folk band, but insist rather “We are not actually an indie-

folk band - despite all the beards and bow-ties and banjos. We are a celebration band. It’s just a

coincidence that folk music and celebration make a great pairing!” Their song Rescuer (Good

News) is the title song from the album Rescuer, which was released in 2017. It’s an interesting

tune in that the musical form is slightly irregular, and features a shouted “Hey!” in various places

during the song, which I’m told is a popular device in that part of Ireland.

Music Notes 6-28-26

Gershon Kingsley was born in Germany in 1922. His family, being Jewish, fled Germany a few

days before the infamous Kristallnacht riots and moved to Israel. His parents then went to Cuba

while he studied music at the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music, and then obtained visas to enter

the U.S., where he joined them. After World War 2, he became a pit conductor for Broadway

musical shows after he graduated from the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music in 1946. He

became interested in synthesized music in the mid-60’s and released an album in 1967 that

contained a cut called Baroque Hoedown. Baroque Hoedown was picked up and used by

Disneyland as the background music for the Main Street Electrical Parade. He then became a

proponent of the Moog synthesizer and became one of the most famous creators of music for that

medium. He also began to write music for Jewish worship in the late 60’s, encouraged by the

relaxing of formal restraints and growing acceptance of contemporary musical styles. His most

famous anthem, Shepherd Me, Lord, was written in 1971 and generated sales of over 2 million

copies just to Southern Baptist congregations, who were attracted by its gospel style.

Andraé Edward Crouch, a Los Angeles native, has been referred to as “the father of modern

gospel music” by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals. Known for his

compositions The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, My Tribute (To God Be the Glory) - which he

told me had been recorded 2500 times - Soon and Very Soon and this week’s offertory, Let The

Church Say Amen, which he wrote in 2011, he was also known for his collaborative work during

the 1980s and 1990s with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Quincy Jones, as well as conducting

choirs that sang on the Michael Jackson hit "Man in the Mirror" and Madonna's "Like a Prayer".

Crouch was noted for his talent of incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the

gospel music he grew up with. His efforts in this area helped pave the way for early American

contemporary Christian music during the 1960s and 1970s. His original musical arrangements

were heard in the movies The Color Purple and The Lion King, and in the NBC television show

Amen. His awards and honors include 7 Grammy Awards, induction into the Gospel Music Hall

of Fame in 1998 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After his father's death in 1994,

Crouch and his twin sister Sandra took over the shared duty of senior pastor at the church his

parents founded, Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ in Pacoima. I first met Andraé when

we performed on the 1993 Grammy Awards ceremonies together. He was part of the team that

had produced The Messiah, a Soulful Celebration (a gospel adaptation of 16 of the pieces from

the Messiah), which was up for a Grammy for best gospel album. We were both singing with the

choir that performed a hybrid version of the Hallelujah Chorus for the show, and during

rehearsals we talked at length about the piece. He asked, “I wonder what Handel would have

thought about what we did to his music?” I told him “I think he would have loved it. He was

always ripping off his own music for other uses, but I think he would have loved the idea that

someone could have taken his music and made it relevant and meaningful to a whole new

generation, culture and race of people.” I still think that. Sadly, we lost him in January of 2015.

Amazing Grace has a long and storied history. The words were written by English clergyman

John Newton to illustrate a sermon on New Year’s Day, 1773. His own history was rocky and

turbulent. He was conscripted into the Royal Navy and, once released from service, went into

the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a storm battered his ship off the Irish coast so badly that he

called out to God for mercy, an event that marked the beginning of his spiritual conversion. He

was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and became curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire.

It wasn’t until 1835, however, that composer William Walker assigned Newton’s words to the

tune New Britain, which was itself a combination of 2 different melodies, Gallagher and St.

Mary. The final, familiar version of the hymn as we know it was first published in the “shape

note” tunebook Southern Harmony in 1847, “shape note” being an American musical artform

dating back to the Revolutionary War.

Music Notes 6-21-26

Mark Hayes is a composer/arranger/pianist based in Kansas City whose music is renowned

around the world. He got his degree in piano performance at Baylor University, moved to

Kansas City to work as a music editor for Tempo Publishing, and now spends his time writing

music for the church and traveling around the world as a clinician and guest conductor. When I

met Mark in the late 80’s, I was struck by his pianistic skills – more specifically, the way he

manhandled the piano into submission to produce the most wondrous sounds. Mark’s writing is

superbly crafted, with influences of black gospel and jazz. He’s one of my favorite

contemporary writers, and if you play piano and want some music that will both challenge you

and satisfy your appetite for delicious piano music, pick up a book of Mark Hayes piano

improvisations. You’ll love it. This week’s anthem is a setting of Amazing Grace. Mark has

created several setting of this classic tune, and this one caught my attention. My wife Eileen,

upon listening to a recording of it, commented that it was a very “grown-up” piece of music – an

underlay of a 4 part canon supporting the tune, and a verse that is in a minor key…all very

unusual.

In 1994, BBC executive Richard Curtis approached composer Howard Goodall about composing

the theme music for what was to become BBC TV’s classic comedy series The Vicar of Dibley.

In his own words: “I felt that the setting of a familiar sacred text – and the use of some real

choral singing – would offset perfectly the quirky humor of the storylines; as it had also been my

ambition to write a setting of The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23), I was delighted that the

creative team loved the idea. Thanks to the popularity of The Vicar of Dibley on British TV and

elsewhere around the world, I have managed to give a whole new generation of younger listeners

and singers a version of this wonderful psalm they can truly call their own. Indeed, this piece

has become a stand-alone choral classic since it was introduced to audiences through the TV

series, and I feel humbled when I realize that for many people under 30 in the UK and Australia

it is the only tune for The Lord Is My Shepherd that they now know. I consider myself blessed to

have been able to share my setting of it with so many others of all possible backgrounds and

beliefs.” It’s a delightfully pastoral setting to sing, and for many of us, brings back fond

memories of chuckling (or guffawing) at the wonderful antics of Dawn French and the rest of

that brilliant cast. If you haven’t seen the series, go watch it. It’s streaming on BritBox and

Roku.

Chris Tomlin was born in Texas in 1972 and learned to play guitar by playing along with Willy

Nelson recordings. He has become one of the dominant forces in contemporary Christian music,

and in 2012 CCLI announced that his songs were played 3 million times in churches that year.

His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, only the fourth Christian

album ever to open at No. 1, and he was pronounced the most sung songwriter in the world that

year. In 2018, he was the 1 st Christian artist to receive the “Billionaire” award from Pandora for

reaching one billion Pandora streams. The song God Of This City was written by a worship band

from Belfast, Ireland called Bluetree. They composed the piece (and I’m not making this up!) in

Padia, Thailand at a bar that also doubled as a brothel. Chris Tomlin heard the song at concert of

worship bands in Belfast when the band took him aside and played the song for him. He was so

inspired by the message that he gave the song his own unique treatment and recorded it on the

2008 album Passion: God Of This City, which won the Dove Award in 2009 for Special Event

Album of the Year. His song Your Grace Is Enough was released on the album Arriving in 2004.

Music Notes 6-14-26

This week we welcome back our wonderful band. After last month’s big band extravaganza,

we’re going a bit more eclectic – ballads, country, rock and roll, swing…running the gamut.

Come and join us for the celebration.

Evergreen was the main song to emerge from the 1976 version of the movie A Star Is Born

starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristopherson. The movie, the 3 rd iteration of the “up-and-

coming-artist-gets-discovered-by-a-declining-star” story (the first was with Janet Gaynor and

Fredric March in 1937, and second in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason) follows the

story of a declining rock star who discovers a talented singer in a small club. They fall in love,

he records and promotes her, then dies in a car accident. The big song, Evergreen, was written

by Barbra Streisand herself, with words by Paul Williams, who was the hottest lyricist in

Hollywood at the time (he was behind the music for the Muppet Movie), and won the Oscar that

year for Best Original Song.

Mark Hayes is a composer/arranger/pianist based in Kansas City whose music is renowned

around the world. He got his degree in piano performance at Baylor University, moved to

Kansas City to work as a music editor for Tempo Publishing, and now spends his time writing

music for the church and traveling around the world as a clinician and guest conductor. When I

met Mark in the late 80’s, I was struck by his pianistic skills – more specifically, the way he

manhandled the piano into submission to produce the most wondrous sounds. Mark’s writing is

superbly crafted, with influences of black gospel and jazz. He’s one of my favorite

contemporary writers, and if you play piano and want some music that will both challenge you

and satisfy your appetite for delicious piano music, pick up a book of Mark Hayes piano

improvisations. You’ll love it. The anthem for this week – Swingin’ With The Saints – is one

we’ve done before (a couple of years ago). It was written in 1981 and combines two old favorite

hymns – Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and When The Saints Go Marching In – and makes them

groovy.

Chris Tomlin was born in Texas in 1972 and learned to play guitar by playing along with Willy

Nelson recordings. He has become one of the dominant forces in contemporary Christian music,

and in 2012 CCLI announced that his songs were played 3 million times in churches that year.

His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, only the fourth Christian

album ever to open at No. 1, and he was pronounced the most sung songwriter in the world that

year. In 2018, he was the 1 st Christian artist to receive the “Billionaire” award from Pandora for

reaching one billion Pandora streams. The song God Of This City was written by a worship band

from Belfast, Ireland called Bluetree. They composed the piece (and I’m not making this up!) in

Padia, Thailand at a bar that also doubled as a brothel. Chris Tomlin heard the song at concert of

worship bands in Belfast when the band took him aside and played the song for him. He was so

inspired by the message that he gave the song his own unique treatment and recorded it on the

2008 album Passion: God Of This City, which won the Dove Award in 2009 for Special Event

Album of the Year. The song Indescribable was written by songwriters Jesse Reeves and Laura

Story, and debuted on the album Arriving in 2004. Indescribable is listed in Christian Copyright

Licensing International’s (CCLI) list of Top 25 Worship Songs of 2007 as #22. In 2008, it was

listed in The Countdown Magazine’s list of Top 20 Praise and Worship songs as #6.

Hero is a song written by Maria Carey and Walter Afanasieff in 1992 for the Dustin

Hoffman/Geena Davis movie of the same name. However, after being convinced by Sony

executive Tommy Mottola to keep it for herself, she changed some of the lyrics to more precisely

fit her personality. Lyrically, the song is regarded as one of Carey's most inspirational and

personal ballads, with its protagonist declaring that even though people may feel discouraged or

down at times, in reality, they are "heroes" if they look inside themselves and see their own inner

strength; in time, it will help them "find the way". It was ultimately released on her 1993 album

Music Box.

Music Notes 6-7-26

George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel) is known as an English composer, but he

was actually born, raised and trained in Germany. He was born in 1650 in Halle an der Saal, a

city just north of Leipzig (famous for its resident composer J.S. Bach) in what was East

Germany, and was the son of a coppersmith. Between the age of 7 and 9, he began training with

the only teacher he would ever have, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, who introduced him to both the

traditional music of fugues and counterpoint, and to the newer forms of music, especially the

new Italian art form, opera. By age 9, he was composing entire services of music for Zachow’s

church. After graduating from the University of Halle in 1702, he moved to Hamburg, a free city

with an established opera company, where he took a position with the Hamburg opera orchestra

(playing violin and harpsichord) and began writing operas in the Italian style (in those days,

operatic subjects were always based on Greek mythology). In 1706, he traveled to Italy at the

invitation of the Medicis, who were trying to establish Florence as the musical capitol of Italy by

attracting the greatest talents in the world. He wrote operas in Florence and sacred music for the

clergy in Rome. In 1710, he became Kapellmeister (person in charge of music-making) to

Georg, Elector of Hannover. In 1712, he decided to move to London, and in a twist of fate,

Georg of Hannover became King George I of England in 1714 (Handel had to appease his

old/new boss by writing a bunch of music for him, including the Coronation Anthems, also

known as Zadok the Priest, which our choir has sung and has been performed at every British

coronation since). Handel ultimately founded 3 companies to supply the British nobility with

Italian opera, including the opera house at Covent Garden. As financial returns from opera

began to dwindle, he turned to writing oratorios – they were cheaper to produce since no sets

were required and the singers wore their own clothes. Once he began writing oratorios, he never

completely returned to opera. His Messiah was written in 3 weeks in a burst of energy and

debuted in Dublin in 1741. He died on April 14, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey

with full state honors and with 3000 attendees present. Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates is #33 in

the Messiah and falls in the section devoted to Christ’s Passion.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a non-denominational, multi-cultural church in the heart of

downtown Brooklyn that began as a small congregation worshiping in a rundown building, and

has grown into a congregation of over 16,000. The husband and wife team of Pastor Jim

Cymbala and music director Carol Cymbala took over leadership of the 30 member congregation

in 1971. By the 1980’s, the church had grown enough to purchase the 1383-seat Carlton Theatre

and convert it into their sanctuary. By 2002, they had outgrown that facility and purchased

Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre, and renovated it into a state-of-the-art,

3,200-seat worship facility. The choir began with just 9 members in 1971 and grew with the

church. Carol Cymbala began writing music for the choir, and they recorded their first album in

the 1980’s. Now numbering over 280 members, their music is sung all over the world, and they

sang at the 2013 inauguration of President Obama. Jesus Will Make A Way was written and

arranged by Carol Cymbala and was released in 1992 on the album Only To Him.

Music Notes 5-31-26

Fanny Crosby, who lived 1820-1915, is legendary in the world of Christian hymns. She’s been

called the "Queen of Gospel Song Writers" and the "Mother of modern congregational singing in

America", having written more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. In fact, she wrote so many

songs, some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, so

Crosby used nearly 200 different pseudonyms throughout her career. She was blind all her life

and wrote a poem about her blindness at age 8. At 6 weeks old, she caught a cold and developed

inflammation in her eyes. Mustard plasters were applied to her eyes to treat the inflammation,

and, according to Crosby, damaged her optic nerves. Modern physicians think it was more likely

that the blindness was congenital, and her parents simply hadn’t noticed it yet. She later stated:

"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I

thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not

accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the

beautiful and interesting things about me." She also once said, "when I get to heaven, the first

face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior". According to biographer Annie

Willis, "had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education or have so

great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory".

She wrote more than 1,000 secular poems and had four books of poetry published, as well as two

best-selling autobiographies. Additionally, she co-wrote popular secular songs, as well as

political and patriotic songs and at least five cantatas on biblical and patriotic themes,

including The Flower Queen, the first secular cantata by an American composer. She was

committed to Christian rescue missions and was known for her public speaking. In 1851, she

met George Root, with whom she was teaching at the North Reading Musical Institute in

Massachusetts. From 1851 to 1857, they wrote more than 60 “parlor songs” or “people’s songs”,

many of them written for the popular minstrel shows of the time. Sadly, the minstrel shows had

a negative connotation with Christian and classical musicians, so their involvement was

deliberately obscured. She was also heavily involved in the politics of the time, as a strict

abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln. After the election of Franklin Pierce in 1856, she

wrote “The election’s past and I’m pierced at last. The locos have gained the day.” Her hymn

I’ll Sing The Praise Of Jesus was written in 1893.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a non-denominational, multi-cultural church in the heart of

downtown Brooklyn that began as a small congregation worshiping in a rundown building, and

has grown into a congregation of over 16,000. The husband and wife team of Pastor Jim

Cymbala and music director Carol Cymbala took over leadership of the 30 member congregation

in 1971. By the 1980’s, the church had grown enough to purchase the 1383-seat Carlton Theatre

and convert it into their sanctuary. By 2002, they had outgrown that facility and purchased

Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre, and renovated it into a state-of-the-art,

3,200-seat worship facility.

The choir began with just 9 members in 1971 and grew with the church. Carol Cymbala began

writing music for the choir, and they recorded their first album in the 1980’s. Now numbering

over 280 members, their music is sung all over the world, and they sang at the 2013 inauguration

of President Obama. The song Praise You was written by Elizabeth Goodine, arranged by Carol

Cymbala and was released in 2000 on the album Live…We Come Rejoicing.

Music Notes 5-24-26

Pepper Choplin is a composer and conductor based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who has literally

hundreds of anthems in his catalogue. With a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of

North Carolina at Greensboro, he went on to earn a Master of Music degree in composition from

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Currently, he serves as Minister of Music at

Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh, a position he’s held for over 22 years. His gospel-inspired

anthem Hold On To The Rock was commissioned in 2014 by 1 st Presbyterian Church of Haddon

Height, NJ for the retirement of their music director, Marjorie Wendler.

Fanny Crosby, who lived 1820-1915, is legendary in the world of Christian hymns. She’s been

called the "Queen of Gospel Song Writers" and the "Mother of modern congregational singing in

America", having written more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. In fact, she wrote so many

songs, some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, so

Crosby used nearly 200 different pseudonyms throughout her career. She was blind all her life

and wrote a poem about her blindness at age 8. At 6 weeks old, she caught a cold and developed

inflammation in her eyes. Mustard plasters were applied to her eyes to treat the inflammation,

and, according to Crosby, damaged her optic nerves. Modern physicians think it was more likely

that the blindness was congenital, and her parents simply hadn’t noticed it yet. She later stated:

"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I

thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not

accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the

beautiful and interesting things about me." She also once said, "when I get to heaven, the first

face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior". According to biographer Annie

Willis, "had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education or have so

great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory".

She wrote more than 1,000 secular poems and had four books of poetry published, as well as two

best-selling autobiographies. Additionally, she co-wrote popular secular songs, as well as

political and patriotic songs and at least five cantatas on biblical and patriotic themes,

including The Flower Queen, the first secular cantata by an American composer. She was

committed to Christian rescue missions and was known for her public speaking. In 1851, she

met George Root, with whom she was teaching at the North Reading Musical Institute in

Massachusetts. From 1851 to 1857, they wrote more than 60 “parlor songs” or “people’s songs”,

many of them written for the popular minstrel shows of the time. Sadly, the minstrel shows had

a negative connotation with Christian and classical musicians, so their involvement was

deliberately obscured. She was also heavily involved in the politics of the time, as a strict

abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln. After the election of Franklin Pierce in 1856, she

wrote “The election’s past and I’m pierced at last. The locos have gained the day.”

Her hymn To God Be The Glory, with music by William Howard Doane, was written in 1872 and

published in 1875. It was popular in England but failed to find wide usage in the United States

until 1954, when Cliff Barrows, song leader for Billy Graham, was handed a copy with the

suggestion that it be included in the songbook for the London Crusade. It was so popular that it

was included in the songbook for the Nashville Crusade that same year, and the rest is history.

They'll Know We Are Christians by Our Love was written by Peter Scholtes, who was born in

1938 in Evanston, Ill., while he was a parish priest at St. Brendan's on the South Side of Chicago

in the 1960s. At the time, he was leading a youth choir out of the church basement and was

looking for an appropriate song for a series of ecumenical, interracial events. When he couldn't

find such a song, he wrote the now-famous hymn in a single day. His experiences at St.

Brendan's, and in the Chicago Civil Rights movement, influenced him for the rest of his life.

The tune, called ST. BRENDAN’S, was named after the parish where he was assigned when he

wrote the song. This tune has become a classic and has been published in 45 hymnals to date.

Music Notes 5-17-26

George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel) is known as an English composer, but he

was actually born, raised and trained in Germany. He was born in 1650 in Halle an der Saal, a

city just north of Leipzig (famous for its resident composer J.S. Bach) in what was East

Germany, and was the son of a coppersmith. Between the age of 7 and 9, he began training with

the only teacher he would ever have, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, who introduced him to both the

traditional music of fugues and counterpoint, and to the newer forms of music, especially the

new Italian art form, opera. By age 9, he was composing entire services of music for Zachow’s

church. After graduating from the University of Halle in 1702, he moved to Hamburg, a free city

with an established opera company, where he took a position with the Hamburg opera orchestra

(playing violin and harpsichord) and began writing operas in the Italian style (in those days,

operatic subjects were always based on Greek mythology). In 1706, he traveled to Italy at the

invitation of the Medicis, who were trying to establish Florence as the musical capitol of Italy by

attracting the greatest talents in the world. He wrote operas in Florence and sacred music for the

clergy in Rome. In 1710, he became Kapellmeister (person in charge of music-making) to

Georg, Elector of Hannover. In 1712, he decided to move to London, and in a twist of fate,

Georg of Hannover became King George I of England in 1714 (Handel had to appease his

old/new boss by writing a bunch of music for him, including the Coronation Anthems, also

known as Zadok the Priest, which our choir has sung and has been performed at every British

coronation since). Handel ultimately founded 3 companies to supply the British nobility with

Italian opera, including the opera house at Covent Garden. As financial returns from opera

began to dwindle, he turned to writing oratorios – they were cheaper to produce since no sets

were required and the singers wore their own clothes. Once he began writing oratorios, he never

completely returned to opera. His Messiah was written in 3 weeks in a burst of energy and

debuted in Dublin in 1741. He died on April 14, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey

with full state honors and with 3000 attendees present. Comfort Ye, My People is the second

piece of music heard in Part I of Handel’s Messiah, as well as also being the first vocal work.

Based on three verses, this work depicts the voice of God talking to the people. It is traditionally

sung by a tenor. The slow and warm string opening sets the scene for the tenor to enter. The

vocalist sings the first line, which is then mirrored at pitch by the violins. This is significant as it

places the emphasis on the phrase ‘Comfort Ye’. The ebb and flow of the accompaniment add to

the peaks and troughs of the vocal line, which keeps the ear interested in the music. 

In This Very Room is considered to be one of the all-time “Top 10” modern Christian songs. It

was written by Los Angeles-based composer Ron Harris, who, at the time, was music director for

Carol Lawrence. Over coffee at Starbucks one day, he told me the story of how he was on the

road with Carol, and had been away from home for over a month. He was in New Orleans, and

had just gotten off a one hour phone call to his wife. He was sitting on the bed of his hotel room,

feeling lonely and miserable, and, looking around at the walls of the room, suddenly came to the

realization that there was more to the room than just the 4 walls. Pulling out his electronic

keyboard, he began writing a melody to the words that had popped into his head - “In this very

room there’s quite enough love for one like me….” It’s been performed as a solo, as a choral

work, with piano, with orchestra, a cappella, and to date, is known to have been sung in the

Upper Room – the room generally accepted to be the room where the Last Supper took place – at

least twice.

Music Notes 5-10-26

This week we celebrate the groove of the big band. Swingin’ harmonies, just like the old days.

Duke Ellington, Vince Guaraldi, Tommy Dorsey…you can’t go wrong. Bring your dancing

shoes to church this week – it’s going to be a blast.

Duke Ellington was a very spiritual man, who carried a Bible and crucifix everywhere he went.

He studied scripture every day, and so when he was approached in 1962 to create and execute a

concert of music for the opening of the new Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, it was dream

come true. Finally, he was allowed to write the music HE wanted to write – it didn’t have to be

commercial to make the publishers happy, and it didn’t have to be 2 ½ minutes long to play on

the radio. Most of all, it could be music that came from his soul, a soul that was deeply rooted in

the church. He undertook what he called “the most important work I’ve ever done” and created

what ultimately became three concerts that became known as “The Sacred Concerts”.

He stated publicly many times that he was trying to avoid writing “a mass”, and observers at the

time commented that he brought the Cotton Club revue to the church. The music was familiar

Ellington, and yet had modern esoteric elements that even today make music aficionados sit up

and take notice. The most lasting thing to come out of all that is the song we know from the

hymn book, known variously as “Come Sunday” or “Savior God Above”. Like all good

composers, he took that tune and reused it in a variety of places in the concert, including the tap

dance number “David Danced” – yes, there were tap dancers in church. The original 1965

concert was filmed and can be seen on YouTube. And to make sure you didn’t get too

complacent, he threw in Ain’t But The One to keep your toe tapping.

Take My Hand, Precious Lord is a classic gospel hymn written by Thomas A. Dorsey, who is

generally considered to be the father of the gospel hymn. He wrote the words in his inconsolable

grief after finding out that his wife, Nettie Harper, and infant son, August, had both died during

childbirth in 1932. He later adapted the melody, drawing largely on the 1844 hymn tune

Maitland. It was the favorite song of Martin Luther King, who frequently asked Mahalia

Jackson to sing it at gatherings to help inspire the crowd. In fact, King’s last words, before being

assassinated, were a request for it to be played at a Mass he was scheduled to attend that night.

Leontyne Price sang it at the funeral of Lyndon B. Johnson, and Aretha Franklin sang it at the

funeral of Mahalia Jackson. Years ago, I was flipping through the hymnal looking for something

we could use for special music with the band and stopped at Precious Lord (one of my favorites).

I looked at the name of the composer and wondered “I wonder what it would’ve sounded like if

the other Tommy Dorsey got his hands on it…” So, this is what I think it would’ve sounded like

if Tommy Dorsey had written it for his orchestra with the Pied Pipers and Frank Sinatra.

Vince Guaraldi, who was born Vincent Anthony Dellaglio, was a jazz pianist known for his

innovative compositions and arrangements. He was born in San Francisco’s North Beach area,

and his name changed to Guaraldi when he was adopted by his mother’s second husband. After

a 6 year stint with Cal Tjader’s trio in the 50’s, he left and pursued a solo career, releasing an

album entitled Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. The record company released Samba De

Orpheus from the album as a single, hoping to catch the growing bossa nova wave. But it was

the B side of Samba De Orpheus, a gentle, likeable tune called Cast Your Fate To The Wind, that

caught the attention of DJs across the country. The producer of the Peanuts documentary that

was in the works heard Cast Your Fate To The Wind on the radio while traveling in a taxicab, and

asked Guaraldi to write the music for the upcoming Peanuts Christmas special, which he took on

eagerly. 3 weeks later, he called the producer, who was in a meeting with Peanuts creator

Charles Schultz, to play Linus and Lucy for them over the phone. When he finished and picked

up the phone again, he heard loud cheers and whoops coming from the other end. The

producers’ idea was to enable the parents watching the show with their children to listen to “cool

jazz” while the kids watched the cartoon. Guaraldi went on to score 17 Peanuts shows as well as

the feature film A Boy Named Charlie Brown. He had just finished recording the score for It’s

Arbor Day, Charlie Brown when he died of a heart attack on February 6 th , 1976 at age 46.

Skating, Christmas Is Coming and Linus and Lucy are all from that first Christmas special, which

aired in December of 1965.

Music Notes 5-3-26

I Love You Lord was written in 1974 by Laurie Klein. She was a young mother and homemaker

in Oregon and was “feeling the poverty of my life keenly at that point, both emotionally and

physically.” She sang the first part of the song spontaneously, and felt so intrigued and moved

by the words that she thought “maybe I should write this down.” She stopped long enough to get

a pen and then the rest of the song came just as easily. Her husband Bill recognized the simple

beauty of the song and encouraged her to play it for a local pastor and some visiting musicians.

Eventually the song surfaced at Jack Hayford’s Church on the Way in Van Nuys. There Buck and

Annie Herring learned the song and included it on Annie’s Kids of the Kingdom. But its greatest

exposure was on Maranatha! Music's Praise 4 in 1980. Since then, it has been estimated to have

been recorded over 75 times. A notable, rather earthy cover of the song was released by the rock

band Petra in 1997 on their album Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus. This was the piece that was

specifically requested by the family for the memorial service on Maui, this piece and this specific

arrangement. We augmented it with Tracy singing You’ll Never Walk Alone at the end of the

service, which brought most of the congregation to tears.

Mark Hayes is a composer/arranger/pianist based in Kansas City whose music is renowned

around the world. He got his degree in piano performance at Baylor University, moved to

Kansas City to work as a music editor for Tempo Publishing, and now spends his time writing

music for the church and traveling around the world as a clinician and guest conductor. When I

met Mark in the late 80’s, I was struck by his pianistic skills – more specifically, the way he

manhandled the piano into submission to produce the most wondrous sounds. Mark’s writing is

superbly crafted, with influences of black gospel and jazz. He’s one of my favorite

contemporary writers, and one of today’s most sought after composer/arrangers. If you play

piano and want some music that will both challenge you and satisfy your appetite for delicious

piano music, pick up a book of Mark Hayes piano improvisations. You’ll love it. The words to I

Surrender All were written in 1896 by Judson W. Van DeVenter, who was a teacher of music and

art. While conducting a performance, he made the decision to surrender himself completely to

God and become an evangelist, and the song was born. The words were then set to music by

Winfield S. Weeden, who loved the song so much that the words are inscribed on his tombstone.

When Mark sent me a copy of his arrangement of this piece to look at, my wife and I sat down to

read through it and were blown away. I called Mark and asked him if he had experienced a

“Blues Brothers moment” – a ray of sunlight coming in the window and illuminating him while

he wrote it. This is one of the most inspired arrangements of this old classic tune I’ve ever

heard, and one of my all-time favorites.

Michael Joncas (born Jan Michael Joncas) is a priest, liturgical theologian and a composer. He

did his Master’s degree in liturgy at Notre Dame and studied at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute

in Rome. He was ordained in 1980 and now teaches at the University of St. Thomas (in

Minnesota), at Notre Dame and at the St. John’s School of Theology. He is best known for his

hymn On Eagle’s Wings, which he wrote in the late 70’s, basing the lyrics on Psalm 91 and Isaiah

40. He recorded it in 1979, and it has become a standard in the liturgical music world (it’s even

in our hymnbook). It was performed at the funerals of many of the victims of the 9/11 attack, as

well as the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti. He has stated that his preference for the title would be

“On Eagles’ Wings”; indicating that the wings belong to a single eagle as a metaphor for God, but

he said he could make an argument for the plural “On Eagles’ Wings” since many wings would

be needed to lift up the multitude of people in covenant with God.

Music Notes 4-26-26

Alooooooooooha! Our intrepid choir is back from our excursion to the island of Maui. We spent

9 days over there making music with the choir at Kihei Lutheran Church and participating in a

memorial service for one of their most prominent members. It was a huge success, and the

congregation and choir members came away from the week uplifted and energized. Kihei

Lutheran was renowned for having the best church choir on the island…and then came the

lockdown. Like most churches, they lost their mojo after that and are still rebuilding. Their

woes were compounded by the loss last year of their choir director of 16 years and a number of

the choir and handbell choir members moving off the island. My goal was to help start the re-

energizing process and create a partnership with them, to create an environment where we can do

this every year – take the first week after Easter, which the choir gets off anyway (after our big

Easter season) and go to Paradise and join with our fellow singers to make music. We made a lot

of friends and we’re already looking forward to next year, April 3-11.

Hawai’i Aloha is a revered anthem of the native Hawaiian people and Hawaiian residents alike.

It was composed by Reverend Lorenzo Lyons, a Christian minister who died in 1886, to the tune

of the old hymn I Left It All With Jesus. It was considered by the Hawaiian State Legislature in

1967 and the Hawaiian State Constitutional Convention in 1978 to be the official Hawaiian state

song, but it lost out to Hawai’i Pono’i, which was written by King David Kalakaua with music

by Royal Hawaiian Band Master Henri Berger. Whenever the locals get together for events,

meetings, concerts, etc., they will stand, join hands, sway side to side and sing this song, with the

last chorus being sung with the hands raised above their heads. There is a wonderful recording

of this on YouTube, with Brudda IZ closing a televised concert on the beach with this song. You

can see it here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_17vGYa81s&list=RDC_17vGYa81s&start_radio=1

Aloha Oe was composed by Hawaiian Princess Liliʻuokalani, who became Queen of Hawai’i and

Hawai’i’s last monarch, in 1878. There are different stories around the actual circumstances, but

her recollection was that she was out for a horseback ride and saw 2 young lovers kissing on the

next hill over. She was an experienced composer and, inspired, began humming a tune on her

return ride. When she arrived at Washington Place, one of her residences, she completed the

song. The original manuscript is available to be seen online by the Hawaiian State Archives.

She wrote on the score "Composed at Maunawili 1878. Played by the Royal Hawaiian Band in

San Francisco August 1883 and became very popular." It is simply a love song, in a mixture of

Hawaiian and English, and is probably the most recognized Hawaiian song.

Music Notes 4-5-26

Easter is here! A time for joyous celebration. As the genie in the Bugs Bunny cartoon said, “Let

the bells ring and the banners fly!” Our wonderful sanctuary was designed for live music, and

we take full advantage of the fabulous acoustics on Easter morning. In addition to our fabulous

band, we welcome back our 6 incredible brass players. Over a dozen world-class musicians

gathered together to elevate our worship experience, not to mention our marvelous choir and the

guests joining the choir just for this service….we are truly blessed. The year we feature some

familiar favorites, like the Olympic Fanfare as our overture and a gang sing of the Hallelujah

Chorus at the end. We also will be presenting 2 new pieces for the anthem and offertory. The

anthem is unique, in that it was written in 5/4, like Take Five (or the Mission Impossible Theme).

The offertory, on the other hand is party music – straight ahead Jerry Lee Lewis rock and roll.

Craig Courtney is one of the dominant forces in the world of church anthems. He is currently the

Executive Music Editor for Beckenhorst Press in Columbus, Ohio, and was the protégé of the

founder, the legendary John Ness Beck. What his resume doesn’t tell you is how he started

composing (I got this information one day over coffee with him). He was a staff piano teacher at

the famous Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Sitting in his cubicle, day after day, waiting for

piano students to arrive (or not), he began to improvise and noodle. This brought about his first

big publication, Thy Will Be Done (which we happen to have in our library and have done before

during Lent). He sent that to John Ness Beck, founder of Beckenhorst Music Publications, and

the rest is history. Our anthem this week is The Tomb Stands Open Wide, a powerful, dynamic

piece in 5/4 (like Mission Impossible), guaranteed to make your hair stand on end. The 1980s

were stellar years for his musical output. He was new and fresh and innovative, looking to make

a name for himself, devising ways to make anthems easily accessible to smaller groups, yet still

impressive and powerful. Pieces like Coronation, One Faith, One Hope, One Lord and The

Tomb Stands Open Wide established him as the next composer to watch for.

Rick Muchow was Director of Music Ministries at Saddleback Community Church in Irvine

from 1987 to 2012. By the time he left, he was supervising over 1000 volunteers in the church

and its 6 campuses. He Arose, a straight ahead rock and roll tune, was written in 1992, and is the

perfect Easter celebration/party/dance song.

This Easter morning, the choral Call To Worship is a short, rousing piece called Sing Praise To

Him, Our Lord. It was written by James Christensen, who was the head of the music department

at Disneyland for many years. He wrote it in 1977 to be the opener for the Disneyland/Disney

World Candlelight Event, which, if you’ve never experienced it, is quite the experience. A 1000

voice choir, assembled from auditioned choirs from around Southern California (or Florida),

processes from the Small World ride at the back of the park to the train station holding electronic

candles and singing along to Christmas carols, played by brass and pipe organ, and coming

through the park’s speaker system. They file onto a set of risers behind a large orchestra and

present a program consisting of a dozen pieces of music with a celebrity narrator presenting a

reading that precedes each piece. I was introduced to Sing Praise To Him because I sang with

the Dickens Carolers at Disneyland for Christmas of 1983, and we participated in the Candlelight

as one of the featured artists. Mickey’s Christmas Carol had debuted that year, and we sang the

big tune from that movie – Oh, What A Merry Christmas Day – with the orchestra as the warmup

act (our celebrity narrator was actor Darren McGavin). I loved Sing Praise To Him and kept my

copy of it in my library for future use. The publication has been, sadly, discontinued, but that

won’t stop us from singing it this year. It’s a stirring piece that is reminiscent of the music

preceding the chariot race in the movie Ben-Hur and is a great way to start the Easter celebration.

Also Sprach Zarasthustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) is an orchestral tone poem by German

composer Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 when he was 32 years old. It was inspired by the

philosophical novel of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche. The opening fanfare, which he

titled “Sunrise” in his program notes, became wildly famous when it was used extensively in the

1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001, A Space Odyssey. By the time of the 2 nd World War, Richard

Strauss was the most famous composer in the world. He had written orchestral works and operas

that had put him on the very short list of composers who were absolute masters of both melody

and orchestration. To this day, his opera Der Rosenkavalier (“The Knight of the Rose”) is

considered to be one of the very best in history, and the closing trio, even if you don’t

particularly like opera or understand the German language, is considered to be the closest thing

to musical ecstasy ever written. Listen to it on YouTube sometime – turn up the volume, because

with the specified 125 piece orchestra, it will blow your mind. Wanting to take advantage of his

fame, the Nazis appointed him, without his consent, to the position of music master of the Third

Reich. He took advantage of his position to save a number of Jews from prosecution (including

his daughter-in-law), then packed up his family and escaped to Austria, where he hid for the

remainder of the war. Ironically, the first Allied soldier to find him and tell him the war was over

was an oboe player from the New York Philharmonic, who recognized him and immediately

asked him to write something for oboe (he agreed).

Music Notes 4-2-26

John Purifoy is an ASCAP composer and arranger with various published choral anthems,

cantatas and keyboard collections and works recorded by Carol Lawrence, Anita Kerr, the

Chicago Master Chorale and other artists. His work for chorus and orchestra, We Hold These

Truths, narrated by Alex Haley won the 1987 Freedoms Foundation Award for musical

programs. He is the composer and lyricist of the stage musical, Lambarene, which received a

workshop production at the state theatre of New Jersey in 1991. John lives in Knoxville,

Tennessee with his wife Vicki, a television news producer, and two teenage sons, Drew and

Michael. The Triptych for Easter Week was written in 2014 and was published by Hal Leonard

Publishing. The Triptych has 3 musical meditations on the various stages of the Passion – the

Garden, The Betrayal and the Crucifixion. Each meditation reflects on the emotions of the

moment, on the heightened senses common to moments like that. It’s a very powerful piece. I

discovered it for my first Easter Week here at FPCE and have been promising the choir we would

do the whole thing for Maundy Thursday “soon”…..“soon” is now.

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded is a Christian Passion hymn based on a long Medieval poem,

Salve mundi salutare, which addresses various parts of Christ’s body hanging on the cross – the

feet, the knees, the hands, the pierced side, the breast, the heart and the face. The last stanzas

that deal with the head, the ones the hymn is taken from, begin “Salve caput cruentatum” –

essentially, “Hello, bloody head”. The poem was translated into German in the 1600’s by Paul

Gerhardt and into English in 1752 by Paul Gambold – his version begins “O Head, so full of

bruises”. Gerhardt reworked the Latin words into something more meditative on the Passion of

Christ, and it first appeared in Johann Crüger’s hymnal in 1656. Since then, it has appeared in

virtually all hymnals in numerous languages, and has been the source for numerous musical

endeavors, one of the more prominent being the St. Matthew Passion of J.S. Bach, where the

hymn appears several times in several harmonizations.

What Wondrous Love Is This is a hymn that has a multi-layered past. The text’s author is listed

as “Anonymous”, which means that it could have gone through a variety of authors, iterations,

and rewrites before arriving in the form we now know. It was first set to the tune we know in

William Walker’s 1840 second edition publication of Southern Harmony. Interestingly, the tune

comes from an old English ballad about the infamous English pirate Captain Kidd:

My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed, when I sailed;

My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed;

My name was Robert Kidd, God's laws I did forbid,

So wickedly I did when I sailed, when I sailed

So wickedly I did when I sailed.

Music Notes 3-29-26

This week we have the unique opportunity to debut 2 world premieres – our anthem and our

offertory, both of which were written specifically for us and specifically for this Palm Sunday.

The musical Godspell was originally written by John-Michael Tebelak as his master’s thesis for

Carnegie Mellon University. The original production was performed in 1970 by members of the

Carnegie Mellon Drama school and was supposed to include Ted Danson, who had to drop out

due to a case of Bell’s Palsy. The show was brought to the attention of Angela Lansbury’s

brother Edgar by Carnegie Mellon alum Charles Haid, who wanted to transfer the show to off-

Broadway. Eventually, the producers hired Stephen Schwartz, another Carnegie Mellon alum, to

re-score the show. The only song from the original show that survived was By My Side, and the

show opened at the Cherry Lane Theatre in May of 1971. Later on that year, most of the original

cast came to Los Angeles to open the show at the Mark Taper Forum. The show was then

adapted for Hollywood and released as a movie in 1973, with John-Michael Tebelak writing the

screenplay. In addition to Ted Danson, the musical has had a number of familiar names attached

to it, including Jeremy Irons, who played John the Baptist/Judas in the London production, and

Paul Schaffer, of the Letterman Show fame, playing keyboards and conducting the first

Broadway production.

Stephen Schwartz is a composer and lyricist for Broadway musicals and movies. As a composer,

he’s written hit musicals like Godspell, Pippin and Wicked. As a lyricist, he’s provided lyrics for

movies such as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt and Enchanted.

He’s won 3 Oscars, 3 Grammys, 5 Drama Desk Awards and has been nominated for 6 Tonys. He

was born in New York City in 1948, studied piano and composition at Julliard and graduated

from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Drama.

I began work on Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord while on vacation last summer at a cabin in

the mountains. The song seemed like a great theme for Palm Sunday. The problem is that the

whole song is only 8 bars long – literally 15 seconds of music. The play and the movie both

stretch that 15 seconds into 3 minutes by singing the same 8 bars over and over again, so I began

looking for something to add to it. I found a reference to another song by the same title by

Ronald Gollner but could only find the lyrics. A search of YouTube revealed a single recording

of the song as an instrumental on a keyboard, with the lyrics in subtitles. I used this interesting

song as a bridge and the rest is history.

When our marvelous tenor section leader Kirk joined us last fall, he told us that his wife, Jessica,

was a soprano and a composer. I invited him to bring some of her music to us, and we were able

to do a trio for soprano, alto and tenor for one of our offertories. She offered to write a piece for

us for Palm Sunday, and Hosanna! is the result.

Jessica Berns-Garner is an opera singer, composer, and voice teacher. Ms. Berns-Garner grew up

in Los Angeles, where she began singing, playing piano, and composing music at an early age.

She studied Vocal Arts Performance at California State University, Northridge, where she studied

voice with Dr. Deanna Murray, and it was then that she met her future husband, Kirk Garner.

Graduating in 2013, she went on to begin performing with local opera companies, learning a

variety of roles, some favorites including covering and performing Phoebe in Yeoman of the

Guard,  covering Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, singing Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and singing

Countess Stasi in The Gipsy Princess.  In 2022, she began studying voice with Jessica Tivens-

Schneiderman, and afterwards she began to accept fuller roles, covering Blanche in Les Dialogue

des Carmélites, performing Second Maid in Daphne, and covering the title role in Anna Bolena.

 She continues to work and maintain a private voice studio in Los Angeles.  Her current projects

include singing Parasya in Sorochyntsi Fair by Mussorgsky ​with Independent Opera Company

and continuing to compose.

Music Notes 3-22-26

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famous composers in history. Born in Eisenach,

Germany in 1685, he spent the bulk of his most renowned composing time – the last 25 years of

his life (1723-1750) - in Leipzig at St. Thomas Church, where he provided music for 4 churches

in the area. He was a bit of a maverick, disagreeing with his employers and taking unannounced

leaves of absence to go hear other musicians perform. There is even a story of him pulling a

sword in the middle of the street during an argument with a local bassoon player (Bach publicly

called him a “nanny goat bassoonist”…the bassoonist didn’t like it). He had 22 children with 2

different wives – Phyllis Diller used to joke that his harpsichord bench made out into a bed. His

music, however, is what he is most renowned for. His catalogue is enormous, containing over

1100 pieces of music (that’s what has survived – we know a lot of his music was lost after he

died), from small pieces for harpsichord to huge choral works (The St. Matthew Passion is

written for 2 orchestras and 2 choirs). He is the god of organ music, however, and organists

around the world defer to him and his music. During the time period between 1723 and 1729,

right after he moved to Leipzig, he wrote most of his cantatas – small performance works that

usually consist of a choral piece, a few arias and a couple of chorales (hymns). He wrote over

220 of these pieces, which were all written with orchestra. Probably the most famous single

piece of music to come out of his cantatas is the piece we call Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, which

is actually a chorale from cantata #147 – Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth

and Deed and Life). A wonderfully lilting countermelody underscores the main hymn tune, and

is probably his most universally recognized piece of music, other than the organ piece Toccata

and Fugue in D Minor, which owes its renown to Hollywood. His Magnificat, written in 1723

and revised 10 years later, is also universally revered as a masterwork. Roughly 30 minutes in

length, it has 12 movements that include pieces for chorus and soloists.

John Rutter is a British composer, born in London in 1945, and one of the most recognized

composers of church music in the world. His work includes carols (both original and

arrangements of familiar carols), anthems (including All Things Bright and Beautiful, our anthem

for this week), choral works and larger musical compositions. He has written for the King’s

Singers and regularly records his music with his own chorus, the Cambridge Singers. Many of

his larger works, including his Gloria and his Requiem, are considered classics and are part of

standard repertoire (our choir sang the first movement of the Gloria on Easter morning this year).

He’s also known for having reconstructed and published the original version of the Faure

Requiem. Gabriel Faure originally wrote his Requiem orchestrated for a chamber orchestra, but

his publisher suggested that he re-orchestrate it for full orchestra so that it would become part of

standard concert repertoire, which he completed in 1900. The original 1893 version was lost

until Rutter found Faure’s original sketch books in a closet at Faure’s church, the Madeleine

Church (or, more formally, L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine). This week’s offertory, A Gaelic

Blessing, was commissioned in 1978 by 1 st Methodist Church of Omaha, Nebraska for their

music director Mel Olsen. Over the years, FUMC of Omaha and Olson had a strong relationship

with Rutter, and they were responsible for the commissioning of several pieces of his that have

gone on to become modern classics, including his Gloria. Rutter has said that his Gaelic

Blessing was derived from an old Gaelic rune, and that he added the words “Jesus” and “Amen”

to make it Christian. The words talk about elements of nature - "running wave", "flowing air",

"quiet earth", "shining stars", "gentle night", "healing light", and in Rutter’s version, “Christ,

light of the world”. It is a modern classic and is considered to be one of the “top 10” anthems in

modern repertoire.

Music Notes 3-15-26

William Dawson is an icon in the world of spirituals, but he was, in fact, a classically trained

musician. Born in Anniston, Alabama in 1899, he studied at the Homer Institute of Fine arts,

where he got his bachelor’s degree in music. He later studied at the Chicago Musical College

and then at the American Conservatory of Music, where he got his master’s degree. His body of

music includes chamber, orchestral and choral music, but his spirituals are what he’s best known

for. It was during his 25-year tenure at the Tuskegee Institute (1931-1956) that he developed the

Tuskegee Institute Choir into a world-renowned ensemble, and he published many of his best-

known spiritual arrangements. Every Time I Feel The Spirit is a classic he wrote in 1946. He

passed away in May of 1990.

Sarah McLachlan is a Canadian singer/songwriter known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-

soprano vocal range. As of 2015 she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her best-

selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four Juno

Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which

showcased female musicians on an unprecedented scale. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place

from 1997 to 1999, and resumed in the summer of 2010. She also funds an outreach program in

Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2007, the provincial

government announced $500,000 in funding for the outreach program. Originating at the "Sarah

McLachlan Music Outreach", this program evolved into the Sarah McLachlan School of Music.

This program provided children with high quality music instruction in guitar, piano, percussion

and choir. In 2011 McLachlan opened the Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, a

free music school for at-risk youth. The School of Music provides group and private lessons to

hundreds of young people every year. It is their goal that through music education, students will

develop a love of the arts and have greater self-esteem. On May 25, 2016, the Sarah McLachlan

School of Music expanded to Edmonton, Alberta (my hometown), opening in Rundle

Elementary School and Eastglen High School. The music school contains the same initiative as

the Vancouver school. Her version of The Prayer of St. Francis, simple and meditative, was

released in 2015 on the album Surfacing, noted above as her best-selling album to date.

Now Thank We All Our God is a popular Christian hymn. Catherine Winkworth translated it from

the German Nun danket alle Gott, written around 1636 by the Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart.

Its hymn tune, Zahn No. 5142, was published by composer Johann Crüger in the 1647 edition of

his Lutheran hymnal Praxis Pietatis Melica. Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor who came

to  Eilenburg , Saxony, at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The walled city of Eilenburg

became the refuge for political and military fugitives, but the result was overcrowding,

deadly pestilence and famine. Armies overran it three times. The Rinkart home was a refuge for

the victims, even though he was often hard-pressed to provide for his own family. During the

height of a severe plague in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in Eilenburg, conducting

as many as 50 funerals in a day. He performed more than 4000 funerals in that year, including

that of his wife. Rinkart was a prolific hymn writer. In Rinkart's Jesu Hertz-Buchlein (Leipzig,

1636), "Nun danket alle Gott" appears under the title "Tisch-Gebetlein", as a short prayer before

meals. Composer Johann Crüger was active during the 1600’s, living most of his adult life in

Berlin, working as a teacher in a Gymnasium (basically, a college prep high school) and as

cantor at the Nicolaikirche, the oldest church in Berlin. In addition to numerous concert works

and editing the hymnal Praxis Pietatis Melica, the most important Lutheran hymnal of its time,

he also wrote the tune to Johann Franck’s hymn Jesu, Meine Freude (in English, Jesus, My Joy),

and Rinkart’s Nun danket alle Gott, which was set to it’s now standard harmonization by Felix

Mendelssohn in 1840 when he used it for the chorale for his Symphony #2. Translator Catherine

Winkworth was born in London and spent a year in Dresden, Germany, where she took an

interest in German hymnody. She published several books of translations of classic German

hymns, including From Heaven Above to Earth I Come ( Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich

her , Martin Luther, 1534), Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying ( Wachet auf, ruft uns die

Stimme , Philipp Nicolai, 1599), How Brightly Beams the Morning Star! (Wie schön leuchtet der

Morgenstern, Nicolai, 1597), and the Christmas hymn A Spotless Rose (Es ist ein Ros

entsprungen), known in our hymnal as Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming. According to The

Harvard University Hymn Book, Winkworth “did more than any other single individual to make

the rich heritage of German hymnody available to the English-speaking world”.

Music Notes 3-8-26

The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a non-denominational, multi-cultural church in the heart of

downtown Brooklyn that began as a small congregation worshiping in a rundown building, and

has grown into a congregation of over 16,000. The husband and wife team of Pastor Jim

Cymbala and music director Carol Cymbala took over leadership of the 30 member congregation

in 1971. By the 1980’s, the church had grown enough to purchase the 1383-seat Carlton Theatre

and convert it into their sanctuary. By 2002, they had outgrown that facility and purchased

Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre, and renovated it into a state-of-the-art,

3,200-seat worship facility. The choir began with just 9 members in 1971 and grew with the

church. Carol Cymbala began writing music for the choir, and they recorded their first album in

the 1980’s. Now numbering over 280 members, their music is sung all over the world, and they

sang at the 2013 inauguration of President Obama. The song Revival In The Land was written in

1983 by Renee Morris and was recorded for the 1989 album Live…Again.

Bridge Over Troubled Water was composed by Paul Simon in 1969 and came to him so quickly

that he frequently asked himself “Where did that come from?” Simon told his partner, Art

Garfunkel, that he should sing it alone “in a white, choir-boy style”, but added a harmony later

on in the piece. Despite rumors that the 3 rd verse “Sail on, silvergirl” referred to a drug user’s

hypodermic needle, it was actually about Simon’s then-wife, Peggy Harper, discovering her first

grey hairs. It was ultimately one of the last things they ever recorded together, and as their

relationship was unraveling, Simon often regretted giving the solo to Art. “He felt I should have

done it, and many times on a stage, though, when I'd be sitting off to the side and Larry Knechtel

would be playing the piano and Artie would be singing "Bridge", people would stomp and cheer

when it was over, and I would think, "That's my song, man..."

Dan Schutte is one of the most renowned of the contemporary composers in the Catholic world

and is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits, who popularized a contemporary

style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. This was a result of the Second Vatican

Council of the early 1960’s (also known as Vatican II), which revamped and reformed the

Catholic liturgy in an effort to bring it closer to the people (before that, the mass was sung in

Latin and the priest kept his back to the congregation throughout). He is based in San Francisco,

has written over 120 popular hymns and mass settings, and continues to be one of the most

influential figures in the world of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. His most famous

composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic

origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different

languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2 nd

favorite after Amazing Grace.

Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, Third Day is a Christian rock band formed at YMCA Camp

High Harbour in 1991 by high-schoolers Mac Powell and Mark Lee. The name Third Day is a

reference to Jesus’ resurrection on the third day after crucifixion. Over the years, like most

bands, they had several different musicians playing with them and released their first

independent album, Long Time Forgotten, in 1994. In 1995, they signed a contract with Reunion

Records and released their second album Third Day in 1996. That year they were nominated for

a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year and their video Consuming Fire won a Billboard Music

Award for Best Christian Video. In 2004, they released their seventh album Wire, toured the U.S.

and Europe, collaborated on Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ, played at the

Republican National Convention and were featured on 60 Minutes. Their hit single, Soul On

Fire, is from their album Soul On Fire of 2014, and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts,

peaking at No. 2 on Hot Christian Songs and No. 3 on Christian Digital Songs.

Andraé Edward Crouch, a Los Angeles native, has been referred to as “the father of modern

gospel music” by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals. Known for his

compositions The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, My Tribute (To God Be the Glory) - which he

told me had been recorded 2500 times - and this week’s closing song, Soon and Very Soon, he

was also known for his collaborative work during the 1980s and 1990s with Stevie Wonder,

Elton John and Quincy Jones, as well as conducting choirs that sang on the Michael Jackson hit

"Man in the Mirror" and Madonna's "Like a Prayer". Crouch was noted for his talent of

incorporating contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with. His

efforts in this area helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during

the 1960s and 1970s. His original musical arrangements were heard in the movies The Color

Purple and The Lion King, and in the NBC television show Amen. His awards and honors

include 7 Grammy Awards, induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998 and a star on

the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After his father's death in 1994, Crouch and his twin sister Sandra

took over the shared duty of senior pastor at the church his parents founded, Christ Memorial

Church of God in Christ in Pacoima. I first met Andraé when we performed on the 1993

Grammy Awards ceremonies together. He was part of the team that had produced The Messiah,

a Soulful Celebration (a gospel adaptation of 16 of the pieces from the Messiah), which was up

for a Grammy for best gospel album. We were both singing with the choir that performed a

hybrid version of the Hallelujah Chorus for the show, and during rehearsals we talked at length

about the piece. He asked, “I wonder what Handel would have thought about what we did to his

music?” I told him “I think he would have loved it. He was always ripping off his own music

for other uses, but I think he would have loved the idea that someone could have taken his music

and made it relevant and meaningful to a whole new generation, culture and race of people.” I

still think that. Sadly, we lost him in January of 2015.