An eclectic blend of musical stylings from the Celtic, Americana, and pop/rock idioms greet you this Sunday morning in our annual outdoor service at Rolland Moore Park. Vocalist Lucas Jackson, guitarist/vocalist Bill DeMarco and Bruce Ronda, bassist Peter Strening, fiddler Abigail Morgan, and I lead you in worshipful song "out on the green." See you then!
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A duo of Baroque composers and a tango on this Pentecost Sunday.
From the Italian Baroque, the opening "Allegro non molto" from the summer section of Vivaldi's famed programmatic work "The Four Seasons" begins worship. Violinist Harmony Tucker ushers in the second unofficial weekend of summer with this beloved classic. From the German Baroque, J.S. Bach's chorale prelude on the 16th century Martin Luther Pentecost hymn "Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist" (Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost) concludes the service. The flurry of notes cascading over the cantus firmus in the pedal symbolizes the rushing wind of the Spirit in Bach's sensitive and exuberant rendering of the text in musical form. During communion, a setting of the Ralph Vaughan Williams' tune "Down Ampney" by Mark Sedio evokes the rhythms and bluesy tonalities of a tango. Originally for organ solo, Harmony Tucker will take the melody in this elegant and sensual arrangement of a tune commonly paired with the Pentecost text "Come Down, O Love Divine." Worship this Memorial Day weekend begins with a work from Ned Rorem's "A Quaker Reader" in "There is a spirit that delights to do no evil..." Inspired by the last words of a devout Quaker named James Naylor in 1660, the piece exudes a peace and calm in its assurance of God's goodness and grace. At the Offertory, the 18th century German chorale "Renew Me, O Eternal Light" is given a gentle ethereal treatment by Paul Manz. To close, the idiosyncratic musical stylings of Daniel Pinkham are playfully present in his "Festive March."
We celebrate the role and spiritual nourishment of music in worship this Sunday and offer a thankful farewell to Blair Carpenter for her four-year tenure as Plymouth's Staff Singer.
At 9:00 a.m., an eclectic blend of music from the jazz, Celtic, and pop/rock idioms featuring the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" will be presented. Blair Carpenter sings Hall Johnson's "Give Me Jesus," an artful setting of the traditional African-American spiritual. Bassist Peter Strening and guitarist Alan Skowron join us for this lovely Eastertide early morning service. At 11:00 a.m., a reprise of the Hall Johnson work begins worship. Two arrangements of the Charles Villiers Stanford composed hymn "When in Our Music God Is Glorified" follow in a choral setting by Hal Hopson for organ and handbells (and you the congregation!) and "Fughetta on 'Engelberg'" (the tune of the hymn) by Richard Proulx at the Postlude. This Sunday also marks the end of the 2021-22 Chancel Choir season and the first complete season we were able to offer since the start of the pandemic. Here's to many more...Soli Deo Gloria. A new creation through the resurrection vision of Eastertide.
At 9:00 a.m., a reprise of the Easter hymn "Now the Green Blade Rises" greets you this fine morning in an arrangement by yours truly. Cantor Blair Carpenter, bassist Peter Strening, and ukulelist Stuart Yoshida join us for music of the resurrection and new life. At 11:00 a.m., two hymn settings of the Paschal season from the organ: "That Easter Day with Joy Was Bright" by 19th century Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg in a neo-Baroque style and a blistering "Toccata on Gaudeamus Pariter" by James Biery on a tune associated with the Easter text "Come, Ye Joyful, Raise the Strain." The Chancel Choir offers the beloved "Hymn of Promise" by Natalie Sleeth. Celtic-inspired expressions of Psalm 23 on this Fourth Sunday of Eastertide.
Harpist Alaina Bongers and flutist Rebecca Quillen return to Plymouth for both morning services with Celtic offerings celebrating the wonder of nature and the solace it gives to our being. The "Prayer of Jesus," the text based on an adaptation of The Lord's Prayer by John Philip Newell, will be sung at both services as we anticipate the Celtic scholar's visit to Plymouth on May 11. At the 11:00 service, the Chancel Choir sings a paraphrase of Psalm 23 from the Scottish Psalter (1650) in "Brother James' Air" arranged by Stan Pethel. Come join us this Sunday in a Celtic feast for the ears and soul. The gift of sight bestowed upon us by the Risen Christ – lighting the Way.
The lovely "Meditation from 'Thais'" by Jules Massenet warmly greets morning worshipers at the 9:00 service with violinist Harmony Tucker joining. Songs from the Celtic and Iona traditions lead to John Lennon's classic tune of unity and new vision in "Imagine." The 11:00 service begins with the ringing of bells in the classic hymn of praise and light "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" arranged by Hal Hopson. The Chancel Choir sings Will Todd's "Lighting the Way," a musical theater-inspired work subtitled by the composer as a "A Song for Pilgrims." At service's end, the great Lutheran hymn of praise "Lobe den Herren" (the tune paired with the text "Sing Praise to God, Who Has Shaped" in The New Century Hymnal) is offered in a glorious chorale prelude setting by Baroque composer Johann Gottfried Walther. Now the green blade rises from the buried grain. Wheat that in dark earth for many days has lain. Love lives again, that with the dead has been. Love is come again like wheat that rises green. -John Crum, alt. The resurrection imagery of new life emerging from the earth in the Easter hymn "Now the Green Blade Rises" applies beautifully to this Sunday's Earth Day celebration. Songs of nature and beauty also remind us that we also are the soil of God nurturing seeds to become better stewards of God's creation and its people.
A light-hearted kid-friendly Easter 2 service at 9:00 a.m. begins with a message of environmental stewardship in "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocohontas. An eclectic mix of folk, jazz, and even a spot from the organ in a quirky Emma Lou Diemer setting of the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" takes us to the Sending Song "A Place in the Choir" by Bill Staines. You'll be invited to join us on the refrain of this ode to "all God's critters"! Bassist Peter Strening and vocalist/banjoist Lucas Jackson join us. At 11:00 a.m., two selections from Flor Peeters' nature-inspired Lied (German for "song") Symphony for Organ will be offered. "Lied to the Flowers" is a variation on an original theme presented in a cascade of timbres from the organ much like the beautiful variances of flowers in nature. "Lied to the Mountains" is a stately majestic work of nobility and strength with a hint of mysteriousness in the unsettled middle section. The Chancel Choir sings the praises of rebirth on a fresh new day in Mark Hayes' anthem "In the Morning, Joy." Music of Passiontide and the Paschal season as we journey through the Triduum and, at long last, arrive at Easter Sunday.
The Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service begins with a mystical ode to the mysteries of the Eucharist in Olivier Messaien's "Le Banquet Céleste" (the celestial banquet). The Chancel Choir offers "What Wondrous Love Is This" in a contemplative setting by Peter Stearns. Lenten chants from the Taizé tradition will be beautifully embellished with vocal and instrumental descants by members of the Chancel Choir and violinist Harmony Tucker and cellist Aaron Dunigan-Atlee. On Good Friday, we reflect on the ministry of Jesus and the crucifixion in a time of readings, scripture, prayer, and music of Passiontide from the organ. Works by Jehan Alain, J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Pamela Decker, Jeanne Demessieux, and Ludwig Lenel will be prayerfully offered. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection with a joyful musical potpourri featuring the Plymouth Brass, Plymouth Ringers, Chancel Choir, and the roar of the organ! Easter carols will be aplenty including two settings of the Palestrina tune "Victory" (most associated with the text "The Strife Is O'er, the Battle Done") for brass quintet and organ and my own arrangement for handbells at communion — a gentle fanfare expressing Easter's accompanying quiet joy and assurance. The Chancel Choir offers the simple message of "Christ Jesus Is Arisen" in a Renaissance-inspired arrangement by Michael Burkhardt. Finally, the Easter celebration closes with the ecstatic expression of exhilarating joy in Jean Langlais' "Acclamations," the final movement of his "Suite Médiévale" based on the two-note motif of the Gregorian Chant "Christus Vincit" (Christ victorious.) Ride on, ride on, God's love demands. Justice and peace lie in your hands. Evil and angel voices rhyme: you are the man and this the time. -John Bell On this Palm Sunday morning, the time is right for God's plan of salvation to take hold in our lives as it was in the events that unfolded several millennia ago. Join us this Sunday as we begin our own entrance into the solemn and introspective time of Holy Week.
At the 9:00 service, the inspired texts and music of John Bell and the Iona Community are shared with cellist and cantor Lucas Jackson, guitarist Alan Skowron, and bassist Peter Strening. Our Lenten pilgrimage theme song "Full to the Brim" by Paul Demer is also offered at service's end. At the 11:00 service, the stately splendor of entrance and exit (even if only in the perception of bystanders...) is explored in two pieces at the Prelude and Postlude: "Processional in D" by David Johnson and "Recessional" by Robert Hughes. The Chancel Choir offers exclamations of "Hosanna" in a setting by Alfred Fedak—and you are invited to join in! |
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