October 22, 2023

The organ prelude Sunday is "Andante" by Samuel Wesley, "andante" being a tempo marking but also often used to refer to the movement of a larger work. There are a number of "Wesley's" and they are hard to keep straight! Samuel's uncle, John Wesley, founded the Methodist church; his father was a preacher but also wrote the texts for over 700 hymns, including "Hark, the herald angels sing", 87 in our hymnal; his grandfather was a famous poet; then there is his son Samuel Sebastian Wesley who was also a musical prodigy. "Our" Samuel Wesley (b. 1766) wrote many large works and was known as "the English Mozart". Although talented, personally, I wouldn't say his talents compared to those of Mozart. The "Andante", is a pleasant, somewhat upbeat, somewhat meditative piece, however (in my opinion)!

So... Samuel's father, Charles, also wrote the text for our opening hymn, "Christ, whose glory fills the skies", no. 7, the tune dating back to the 16th century.

Our Gospel hymn is the beautiful "O Jesus, joy of loving hearts", 649. Note that though the music is 20th century, the text is 12th century!

Our anthem is well known to most-- Beethoven's "The Heavens Are Telling", a paraphrase of Psalm 19.

During communion we will sing first, hymn 487, "Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life", music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, text by the 17th century George Herbert. Secondly, we will sing the well-loved Irish melody, "The King of love my shepherd is", 645, a paraphrase of Psalm 23.

Closing, we will sing verses 1-5 of the favorite, "Rejoice, ye pure in heart", 556.

The postlude is a setting of a hymn we don't know (or at least I did not know), "Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus", by Jacob B. Weber, a contemporary American, Lutheran, former cantor, now associated with Concordia Publishing House, a prominent supplier of church music.