October 15, 2023

Sunday's prelude will consist of settings of 2 extremely well known hymn tunes — Amazing Grace and All Things Bright and Beautiful; both arrangements are by the American, Dale Wood (1934-2003), about whom I have written.  He was a very prolific composer/arranger, and many, many church musicians enjoy playing his music.

Our processional hymn will be 546, "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve", a George Frideric Handel tune that some of you may associate with Christmas (though not in our hymnal).  If you check out the author of the text (Philip Doddridge, 1702-1751) you will find that he has written 7 texts used in our hymnal.

Our Gospel hymn uses the beautiful tune by John Ireland (1879-1962), "My Song Is Love Unknown".  We will sing verses 1, 2, & 7.

Our anthem used the wonderful hymn tune by Kenneth Naylor (19931-1991), who was music master at the Leys School in Cambridge.  The arrangement is by an American — Ryan Hebert, who teaches at The University of Tampa.

We will have 2 familiar communion hymns — 698, "Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ", and 552, "Fight the good fight with all thy might".

Closing, we will sing the very old but familiar and I think well-liked hymn, "Hail thou once despised Jesus", 495.  

The postlude, titled "Trumpet in Dialogue", is by Louis Nicolas Clerambault (1676-1749), making him 9 years older than J.S.Bach, although Bach was German and Clerambault was French, residing in Paris. The piece, which uses no pedals, does seem to be a "dialogue" between 2 "voices", one played on the upper division of the organ and the other on the lower (which in this work is the trumpet itself).