Our prelude music is a beautiful Easter composition for flute and organ by Charles Callahan (1951-2023) incorporating the ancient sequence chant, “Victimae paschali laudes” (Praise to the paschal victim). Its text has been set to different music by many Renaissance and Baroque composers, including Busnois, Josquin, Lassus, Willaert, Hans Buchner, Palestrina, Byrd, Perosi, and Fernando de las Infantas. Chorales derived from the sequence include “Christ ist erstanden” (12th century) and Martin Luther‘s “Christ lag in Todes Banden“.
Today’s psalm is one of the most well-known passages from the Bible, Psalm 23. The setting this morning was written by Bob Chilcott (b. 1955), one of the world’s most widely performed composers and arrangers of vocal and choral music. His compositional output reflects his wide taste in music styles and his commitment to writing music that is both singable and communicative.
He was a chorister and then a choral scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and was a member of the British vocal group The King’s Singers for whom he made a number of popular arrangements of well-known songs from all genres.
As well as being a full-time composer he is also a highly acclaimed choral conductor. He has been privileged to conduct many choirs all over the world. He is Principal Guest Conductor of The BBC Singers and in 2019 he was appointed Principal Conductor of Birmingham University Singers. His music has been widely recorded by many choirs and groups including The King’s Singers, Tenebrae, and The BBC Singers.
Today’s Hymn of the Day, “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing” is set to a tune by Melchior Vulpius (1570-1615). Vulpius had only limited educational opportunities and did not attend the university. He taught Latin in the school in Schleusingen, where he Latinized his surname, and from 1596 until his death served as a Lutheran cantor and teacher in Weimar. A distinguished composer, Vulpius wrote a St. Matthew Passion (1613), nearly two hundred motets in German and Latin, and over four hundred hymn tunes, many of which became popular in Lutheran churches, and some of which introduced the lively Italian balletto rhythms into the German hymn tunes.
While Headmaster of Eton College, Cyril A. Alington (1872-1955) wrote this text for Melchior Vulpius’s tune GELOBT SEI GOTT. The hymn was published in Songs of Praise (1931). Stanley L. Osborne (PHH 395) has written of Alington’s stanzas, “They vibrate with excitement, they utter the encouragement of victory, and they stir the heart to praise and thanksgiving”.
A strong text for Easter, “Good Christians All” rings in the victory of Christ’s resurrections so that “all the world” will know the news. Each stanza encourages us to tell the good news and praise the “Lord of life,” and ends with an exciting three-fold “alleluia.”
Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, England, Alington was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1901. He had a teaching career that included being headmaster at Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He was dean of Durham from 1933-1951 as well as chaplain to the king of England. His writings include literary works and Christianity in England, Good News (1945). Many of his hymns appeared in various twentieth-century editions of the famous British hymnal, Hymns Ancient and Modern.
Our communion hymn, “Shepherd me, O God”, is by Marty Haugen (b. 1950), one of the most prolific and influential composers of liturgical music of his generation. His hymns, psalm settings, and paraphrases, services set to music, and anthems are widely used in both Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations around the world.
“Shepherd me, O God” demonstrates the composer’s gift both as a musical composer and a writer of texts. The inviting refrain does not use “shepherd” as a noun, but rather begins with a petition, using “shepherd” as a verb. It is the refrain that takes Psalm 23 and places it in contemporary life as well as echoes of John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (ESV). The stanzas of the hymn paraphrase the structure and themes of Psalm 23, but in language that enlivens the message for singers today.
