We welcome Jeff Spaulding to worship this morning; we are sincerely grateful to him for sharing his musical gifts with us.
Jeff will play two preludes by George Gershwin this morning. Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. He began his career as a song plugger but soon began composing music for Broadway with his brother, Ira. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger , but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris , returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess . Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century and an American cultural classic. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. He died in 1937, only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards. The two pieces we will hear this morning were first performed by the composer at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1926. Each prelude is a well-known example of early-20th-century American classical music , as influenced by jazz .
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The joyful ode, “Joyful, joyful”, is one of the best-known hymns in the English language. Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) was inspired in 1907 by the beauty of the Berkshire mountains where he was serving as a guest preacher at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. It has been said that Van Dyke handed the poem to the president of the college, saying: “Here is a hymn for you. Your mountains were my inspiration. It must be sung to the music of Beethoven’s ‘Hymn to Joy.’” The hymn appeared in the 3rd edition of Van Dyke’s Book of Poems (1911). The adaptation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) stirring melody from the final movement of his Ninth Symphony is the perfect companion to this exuberant text. Beethoven never wrote a hymn tune, per se, though a number of texts have been adapted to this melody. Van Dyke’s is by far the most closely associated hymn text with this tune.
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Our communion anthem, “All Who Hunger, Gather Gladly” is a newly published arrangement of the tune HOLY MANNA with a beautiful communion text by Sylvia G. Dunstan. David Cherwien, the arranger, is one of America’s leading Lutheran church musicians. He currently serves as the Cantor of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN, and recently retired from the National Lutheran Choir after a long tenure as their Artistic Director. Cherwien brings creativity to hymns of various traditions and styles. He has won national acclaim as a leader of congregational song with hymn festivals that are always inspiring. With innovative merging of organ, piano, instruments and voices, his music enfolds the participants and transports them to an encounter with the sublime. Through this expression of faith, Dr. Cherwien bears witness that music is a glorious gift of God.
