Today’s setting of Psalm 54, “Hear my prayer”, comes from a song cycle, Biblical Songs, by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák consisting of ten musical settings from the Book of Psalms. They written between 5 and 26 March 1894, while Dvořák was living in New York City where he served as the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. While in NYC, Dvořák wrote one of his most successful orchestral works, the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide.
It has been suggested that he was prompted to write the Biblical Songs by news of a death (of his father František or of the composers Tchaikovsky or Gounod, or of the conductor Hans von Bülow); but there is no good evidence for that, and the most likely explanation is that he felt out of place in the bustle of a big city, and that after two years in America he was homesick for Bohemia. He returned to Europe in April 1895.
Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák’s style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them,” and Dvořák has been described as “arguably the most versatile… composer of his time”.
Our offertory hymn, “You are holy”, is one of the hymns we used this month during our September Hymn Sing. Here we have one of the central paradoxes of the Christian faith constructed poetically. First God is addressed in the second person — by you, a familiar form. But then the hymn says God is beyond our understanding, not so familiar! But then comes the affirmation that this beyond-our-understanding God is always at hand, and what’s even more amazing, comes near in bread and wine.
Per Harling wrote both the text and the music. Born in Stockholm, Harling is a Lutheran pastor in the Church of Sweden (ordained in 1974). He sees himself as a child of Lutheran “harmonies and melodic inflections” as well as “the American/British rock music movement, … with a deep appreciation for Latin American music” – and all these influences may be heard in this hymn.
The choir will sing “Creation’s Dance” during communion. The text comes from an anonymous German hymn. Though it begins with morning, it quickly moves to evening and then progresses to the praise of Jesus Christ at all times and places. This new choral arrangement by Benjamin Harlan incorporates the tune LAUDES DOMINI by Joseph Barnby which was included in Hymns Ancient and Modern. Barnby’s music is an example of how quickly the momentarily popular perishes, and this tune is an example of how the least characteristic of a composer’s tunes may survive. Barnby wrote 246 hymn tunes. More durable than his choral music, a few may be found here and there, in one or two hymnals. Only this one, LAUDES DOMINI, can be found in more than fourteen.
Benjamin Harlan holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Baylor University and the D.M.A. degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. His career includes vocational church music ministry and positions on seminary faculties in Fort Worth, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana. His interest in writing stems from his work as a practicing church musician, having served over a dozen congregations. Benjamin Harlan is a frequent clinician and has a special interest in congregational singing.
