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Music Notes 1-19-25

Down To The River To Pray, also known as The Good Old Way and Come Let Us All Go Down,

has been described as a Christian folk hymn, a gospel song, an Appalachian song and an African-

American spiritual. The exact origin of the song is unknown, but research suggests it was

written by an African slave. The earliest known version of it was published in 1867 in Slave

Songs of the United States, and bore the title The Good Old Way. Since then, it has been

recorded by numerous artists, including Lead Belly, Doc Watson, The King’s Singers and the

Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Our rendition was written for the George Clooney movie Brother,

Where Art Thou in the river baptism scene, and was arranged for the movie by a friend of mine,

noted film composer and orchestrator JAC Redford who gave me a copy, which is the version

we’re singing this Sunday.

Andraé Edward Crouch, a Los Angeles native, has been referred to as “the father of modern

gospel music” by contemporary Christian and gospel music professionals. Known for his

compositions The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power, My Tribute (To God Be the Glory) - which he

told me had been recorded 2500 times - and this week’s offertory, Soon and Very Soon, he was

also known for his collaborative work during the 1980s and 1990s with Stevie Wonder, Elton

John and Quincy Jones, as well as conducting choirs that sang on the Michael Jackson hit "Man

in the Mirror" and Madonna's "Like a Prayer". Crouch was noted for his talent of incorporating

contemporary secular music styles into the gospel music he grew up with. His efforts in this area

helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during the 1960s and

1970s. His original musical arrangements were heard in the movies The Color Purple and The

Lion King, and in the NBC television show Amen. His awards and honors include 7 Grammy

Awards, induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1998 and a star on the Hollywood

Walk of Fame. After his father's death in 1994, Crouch and his twin sister Sandra took over the

shared duty of senior pastor at the church his parents founded, Christ Memorial Church of God

in Christ in Pacoima. I first met Andraé when we performed on the 1993 Grammy Awards

ceremonies together. He was part of the team that had produced The Messiah, a Soulful

Celebration (a gospel adaptation of 16 of the pieces from the Messiah), which was up for a

Grammy for best gospel album. We were both singing with the choir that performed a hybrid

version of the Hallelujah Chorus for the show, and during rehearsals we talked at length about

the piece. He asked, “I wonder what Handel would have thought about what we did to his

music?” I told him “I think he would have loved it. He was always ripping off his own music

for other uses, but I think he would have loved the idea that someone could have taken his music

and made it relevant and meaningful to a whole new generation, culture and race of people.” I

still think that. Sadly, we lost him in January of 2015.

Chris Tomlin was born in Texas in 1972 and learned to play guitar by playing along with Willy

Nelson recordings. He has become one of the dominant forces in contemporary Christian music,

and in 2012 CCLI announced that his songs were played 3 million times in churches that year.

His 2013 album Burning Lights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, only the fourth Christian

album ever to open at No. 1, and he was pronounced the most sung songwriter in the world that

year. In 2018, he was the 1 st Christian artist to receive the “Billionaire” award from Pandora for

reaching one billion Pandora streams. The song Adore is the title track for the album Adore:

Christmas Songs Of Worship, which was released in 2015.

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Music Notes 1-12-25

Craig Courtney is one of the dominant forces in the world of church anthems. He is currently the

Executive Music Editor for Beckenhorst Press in Columbus, Ohio, and was the protégé of the

founder, the legendary John Ness Beck. What his resume doesn’t tell you is how he started

composing (I got this information one day over coffee with him). He was a staff piano teacher at

the famous Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Sitting in his cubicle, day after day, waiting for

piano students to arrive (or not), he began to improvise and noodle. This brought about his first

big publication, Thy Will Be Done (which we happen to have in our library). He sent that to John

Ness Beck, founder of Beckenhorst Music Publications, and the rest is history. This week’s

anthem, One Faith, One Hope, One Lord, was commissioned by Meadowbrook United

Methodist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, in celebration of their 60 th anniversary in 1989. It draws

its text from Ephesians and has a calm, serene, majestic feel that reminds the listener of the

famous Elgar tune Pomp and Circumstance, which was also the inspiration for Courtney’s Easter

Week anthem Coronation, which we did last year on Easter morning.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is another of history’s most renowned composers. Born in 1756, he

was a true prodigy and his father Leopold, a composer and music teacher, began teaching him

pieces on the harpsichord at the age of 4, and he picked them up and played them flawlessly. By

the age of 5, he was composing small pieces that his father wrote down, including, believe it or

not, the tune we all know as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (he wrote it as a Theme and

Variations!). By the time he was 5, his father had begun taking him and his older sister, Nannerl,

on concert tours as child prodigies, and he composed his first symphony when he was 8. On one

such trip to Rome when he was 14, he heard Gregorio Allegri’s choral work Miserere, a closely

guarded Vatican treasure of the Sistine Chapel Choir, and wrote it out from memory. Instead of

being excommunicated, as was the required punishment, the Pope was so impressed that he gave

Mozart a commendation. He met Joseph Haydn in 1784, and they became friends, occasionally

playing together in an impromptu string quartet (a string quartet jam session). Ultimately, he

went on to write over 600 pieces of music during his short life, many of which are considered to

be pinnacles of symphonic, concert, chamber, operatic and vocal music. The movie Amadeus,

adapted from the stage play, creates a fictional story around his relationship with composer

Antonio Salieri (who, in real life, was one of the few who attended his burial and who actually

paid for Mozart’s funeral) and the writing of the Requiem, which he never finished (that story is

indeed fiction). The most recent hypothesis regarding the cause of his death in 1791 is a severe

kidney ailment, which probably could have been resolved by him drinking a lot of water (but the

medical technology of the time was to bleed him with leeches). This week’s offertory, the

Laudate Dominum, which is a setting of Psalm 117 and is considered to be one of the most

“perfect” pieces of music ever written, is the 5 th movement of the Vesperae solennes de

confessore, or the Solemn Vespers of the Confessor. The Vespers is a 6 movement work that was

written for the Salzburg Cathedral in 1780 when he was 24 years old, and is the last choral piece

written for the Cathedral before he moved to Vienna. The orchestration is unique in that it was

written for strings, but without violas. When the movie Amadeus was in the theatres, one of the

local choral conductors thought it would be a good marketing move to do an “Amadeus Live”

concert, featuring the Salieri Requiem (considered the best thing he ever wrote) and the Mozart

Solemn Vespers (considered to be middle-of-the-road Mozart). I sang on that concert, and it

wasn’t even close. Middle-of-the-road Mozart was head and shoulders better than the best thing

Salieri ever wrote.

Francesca Battistelli is a Christian recording artist who was born in New York in 1985 and

released her first independent album in 2004 titled Just A Breath. She released her first studio

album under the Fervent label in 2008 titled My Paper Heart. Her single Holy Spirit, written by

Bryan and Katie Torwalt, was released in 2014 as part of her 3 rd studio album, If We’re Honest,

and it went on to win a Grammy in 2016 for Best Contemporary Christian Music

Performance/Song.

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Music Notes 1-5-25

2025 is here, and the New Year brings to us a new soprano section leader, Lauren Doyel. Lauren

Michelle Doyel (Soprano), is a genre-bending, classically-trained singer/songwriter, soloist, and

chorister based in LA and Ventura County. She graduated with a B.M. in Vocal Performance

from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2008, then landed in Los Angeles in 2010, where she

sang jazz at the House of Blues, Indie rock at the Viper room, and plenty of classical/choral

music sprinkled in between. She regularly performs with the LA Master Chorale, the LA

Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Arete Vocal Ensemble, she is a wife and mother of two children,

and is a champion for the expressive liberation of other professional vocalists through her

business, Singing and Soul Work. We’re very fortunate to have Lauren joining us. Watch for a

solo from her next week.

In This Very Room is considered to be one of the all-time “Top 10” modern Christian songs. It

was written by Los Angeles-based composer Ron Harris, who, at the time, was music director for

Carol Lawrence. Over coffee at Starbucks one day, he told me the story of how he was on the

road with Carol and had been away from home for over a month. He was in New Orleans and

had just gotten off a one hour phone call to his wife. He was sitting on the bed of his hotel room,

feeling lonely and miserable, and, looking around at the walls of the room, suddenly came to the

realization that there was more to the room than just the 4 walls. Pulling out his electronic

keyboard, he began writing a melody to the words that had popped into his head - “In this very

room there’s quite enough love for one like me….” It’s been performed as a solo, as a choral

work, with piano, with orchestra, a cappella, and to date, is known to have been sung in the

Upper Room – the room generally accepted to be the room where the Last Supper took place – at

least twice.

Sir John Stainer was an English composer (1840-1901) who was very influential in the musical

world of the Anglican Church, especially as a choir trainer and organist. A parallel can be drawn

between him and Antonio Salieri of the movie Amadeus fame in that his music was very popular

during his lifetime, but very little of it has survived and is performed today. He ultimately ended

up as the organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, and upon retiring there due to bad eyesight, he became

a professor of music at Oxford University. One of his biggest contributions to modern musical

literature was in the publishing of Christmas Carols New And Old (1871), which he followed

with a second volume the next year due to its success. In these volumes, he capitalized on a

renewed interest in Christmas carols, and filled the books with arrangements of tunes that have

become classic and are still in use today, such as his arrangements of Greensleeves (What Child

Is This), In Dulci Jubilo (Good Christian Men, Rejoice), Good King Wenceslas and God Rest You

Merry, Gentlemen. The one original piece of his that is still performed, especially this time of

year, is his cantata The Crucifixion, which he published in 1887. It was scored for SATB choir

and organ, and Stainer insisted that “it would be within the scope of most church choirs”. By

today’s standards, the music is very dated, and ironically, Stainer himself described the piece as

“rubbish”, but in the middle of the work (#9 out of 20 pieces) is a gem of an anthem titled God

So Loved The World, using the classic text from John 3:16. It’s written to be sung a cappella, and

has become a standard in the world of church choir music.

I Love You Lord was written in 1974 by Laurie Klein. She was a young mother and homemaker

in Oregon and was “feeling the poverty of my life keenly at that point, both emotionally and

physically.” She sang the first part of the song spontaneously, and felt so intrigued and moved

by the words that she thought “maybe I should write this down.” She stopped long enough to get

a pen and then the rest of the song came just as easily. Her husband Bill recognized the simple

beauty of the song and encouraged her to play it for a local pastor and some visiting musicians.

Eventually the song surfaced at Jack Hayford's Church on the Way in Van Nuys. There Buck and

Annie Herring learned the song and included it on Annie's Kids of the Kingdom. But its greatest

exposure was on Maranatha! Music's Praise 4 in 1980. Since then, it has been estimated to have

been recorded over 75 times. A notable, rather earthy cover of the song was released by the rock

band Petra in 1997 on their album Petra Praise 2: We Need Jesus.

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Music Notes 12-22-24

Once again, Christmas is upon us and I’m delighted to be able to bring to FPCE the Christmas

Story According to St. Luke, which I’m intending to make a yearly tradition. The piece is a

particular favorite of mine, and I was lucky enough to have performed it under the baton of its

creator, the late, great Roger Wagner. The piece involves a narrator, so I’ve asked a friend of

mine, the wonderful actress Marta Kristen, to help us out. In her words:

“Adopted from a Norwegian orphanage at the age of 5, it is always a wonder to me that I am

standing in front of an audience here in California doing what I love most, storytelling. I have

been fortunate to work in many movies, commercials, and TV shows, most notably in the classic

“Lost in Space." In theatre, I was a founding member of the esteemed theatre company, “West

Coast Ensemble,” voted as the best small theatre company in Los Angeles by NPR. My late

husband, Kevin Kane, an elder abuse lawyer, was introduced by June Lockhart to the

incomparable Jim Raycroft, who leads the "Legal Voices", chorus of the Los Angeles Lawyers

Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. I now, too, have the honor to work with Jim--and your

singers and musicians--to read the story of the wonder of the birth of our Christ Jesus. I dedicate

this reading to Kevin, my daughter Lora and my granddaughter Lena...and to you. Thank you.”

In 1963, NBC contacted the legendary Roger Wagner about creating a Christmas show to be

broadcast live. The result was a 20 minute concert of Christmas carols, separated by incidental

music that underscored a narrator, who narrated the story of Christmas according to St. Luke.

Roger chose a selection of 8 carols, some familiar like We Three Kings and Joy To The World,

and a couple less familiar – Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon and The Virgin’s Slumber Song by Max

Reger. Pietro Yon was an Italian-born organist and composer who was organist at the Vatican

when he was offered a job as organist at St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan in 1907. It was

during this tenure that he wrote Gesu Bambino (1917), and in 1926 became assistant organist at

St Patrick’s Cathedral, and then in 1928 became music director at the Cathedral until his death in

1943. Max Reger was a German composer who worked primarily in the Leipzig area from the

late 1800’s to the early 1900’s and wrote hundreds of pieces of music. The Virgin’s Slumber

Song was originally a folk song to the tune of the German Christmas carol “Joseph dearest,

Joseph mild”, and Reger took this song in 1912, near the end of his life, and transformed it into

an art song, originally called Maria Wiegenlied. Edward Teschemacher supplied the English

translation we now know. The show was broadcast in 1964, sung by the Roger Wagner Chorale,

accompanied by the NBC Orchestra, conducted by Roger and narrated by Tennessee Ernie Ford.

An accompanying album was released by Capitol and is still available on Amazon. From that

year on, The Christmas Story According to St. Luke was the closer for every Christmas concert

performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and was always narrated by a celebrity narrator,

like Jean Stapleton and Orson Wells. I was fortunate to have experienced the last such concert

(Christmas of 1985), as Roger retired from the Master Chorale at the end of that season. The

narrator that year was Pernell Roberts, star of the hit television show Trapper John, M.D. (and

Bonanza before that), and I recall that the concert was so long (2 hours and 45 minutes) that it

forced the Chorale management to pay us overtime. I’m fond of this piece, as I think it has a

strong appeal to young and old – classic without being trendy – and brings the story of the first

Christmas to life in a way that’s accessible to pretty much everyone.

2024 saw the sad closing of Panorama Presbyterian Church. There was a bright spot, however.

They agreed to gift their handbells to FPCE, and their handbell director and resident bell trio

came with them. Director Sherron Corner works for LA Unified as a crossing guard and is not

only a knowledgeable bell director, but she has a marvelous alto voice and has begun singing

with the choir. The Belfry Trio - Dawn Corner, Megan Lee and Sherron Corner – have already

begun to bring their magic to our services and are joining us this Sunday to add their unique

music to the celebrations.

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Music Notes 12-15-24

John Rutter is a British composer, born in London in 1945, and one of the most recognized

composers of church music in the world. His work includes carols (both original and

arrangements of familiar carols), anthems (including All Things Bright and Beautiful, our anthem

for this week), choral works and larger musical compositions. He has written for the King’s

Singers and regularly records his music with his own chorus, the Cambridge Singers. Many of

his larger works, including his Gloria and his Requiem, are considered classics and are part of

standard repertoire (our choir sang the first movement of the Gloria on Easter morning this year).

He’s also known for having reconstructed and published the original version of the Faure

Requiem. Gabriel Faure originally wrote his Requiem orchestrated for a chamber orchestra, but

his publisher suggested that he re-orchestrate it for full orchestra so that it would become part of

standard concert repertoire, which he completed in 1900. The original 1893 version was lost

until Rutter found Faure’s original sketch books in a closet at Faure’s church, the Madeleine

Church (or, more formally, L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine). This week’s anthem, Candlelight

Carol, is probably his most popular Christmas piece and was written in 1984. It was

commissioned by John Romeri, who at the time was Director of Music at Church of the

Assumption in Bellevue, Pennsylvania. He requested a carol that celebrated the Virgin Mary,

and the carol focuses on describing the nativity of Jesus, and especially the love of Mary for her

son. Rutter drew inspiration from the 1490’s Dutch painting Nativity At Night by Geertgen tot

Sint Jans. It was first recorded by Rutter’s own chorus, The Cambridge Singers, and was

included on their 1987 album Christmas Night. It has since been recorded by numerous artists,

like Neil Diamond and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Tomas Luis de Victoria was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance period. Born

around 1523, most likely in the town of Avila (his family’s primary residence at the time), he

came under the tutelage of his uncle, Padre Juan Luis de Vitoria and became a choirboy at the

Avila Cathedral. In 1565, he received a grant from Phillip II, King of Spain, and moved to

Rome, where he became cantor at the German College, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola. In 1574,

he was ordained a priest and continued his double life as priest and musician for the rest of his

life. He returned to Spain in 1587 and was appointed chaplain to the Empress Maria, daughter of

Charles V (the Holy Roman Emperor) and remained in that position for 17 years. He died in

1611 and was buried in the convent, although the location of his tomb has not, to this day, been

identified. He, along with Palestrina and di Lasso, are considered to be the most influential

composers of the late Renaissance. Along with his setting of Ave Maria, his setting of O

Magnum Mysterium is considered to be one of the most renowned examples of 16 th century

polyphony in history. The text muses upon the remarkable mystery of the fact that the birth of

the Savior of the world was witnessed by animals instead of heads of state or celebrities.

Away In A Manger has become one of the most beloved Christmas songs in modern repertoire.

Its origins, however, are murky. The text is commonly attributed to Martin Luther, and has even

been called “Luther’s Cradle Hymn”. However, there is no evidence at all that Luther had

anything to do with it. The earliest recorded version shows up at the end of the 1800’s (Luther

lived in the 1500’s). There is no text in Luther’s known writings that correspond to the carol,

there is no German text for the carol before 1934 (50 years after the first English publication)

and the German text is awkward, suggesting that it was translated, perhaps word for word, from

the English. One of the earliest appearances of the English text came in 1882 in an anti-Masonic

journal called The Christian Cynosure, and consisted of the first two verses we know. Another

early version was published in Little Pilgrim Songs, a book of Christian music for young

children, whose preface is dated November 10, 1883. Little Pilgrim Songs includes a similar

claim that the song was written "by Martin Luther for his own children". The version of the

melody we know in the U.S. was first published, under the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", by

James R. Murray in his collection Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887). Another

melody, which is common in the British Commonwealth (the U.K, Ireland, Canada, Australia,

etc.), was written by the American composer William J. Kirkpatrick, and was first published as

part of the collection Around the World with Christmas (1895), a "Christmas Exercise" for

schools featuring material representing various countries: Away in a Manger was included, under

the title "Luther's Cradle Hymn", as a representative of "The German Fatherland".

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Music Notes 12-8-24

Advent is always a source of contradiction for a church music director, at least as far as the

hymns are concerned. Technically, throughout Advent we should be singing Advent hymns, like

O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. Then, on Christmas Eve,

we can start to sing the Christmas carols during what is, technically, the Christmas season. The

problem is, we are bombarded with Christmas music everywhere we go from Thanksgiving Day

on, and on the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, everything stops and goes back to normal. And

everyone really wants to sing the Christmas carols in the season leading up to Christmas Day.

After that, we’re kinda burned out on Christmas music and we’re ready to hear something,

anything, else. My solution has always been to split the difference and sing the Advent carols

on the first Sunday of Advent, and then schedule the carols everybody wants to sing for the rest

of the season. Then, we can get the last vestiges of Christmas carols out of our systems with a

carol sing on the Sunday after Christmas. I hope no one is too disappointed.

George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel) is known as an English composer, but he

was actually born, raised and trained in Germany. He was born in 1650 in Halle an der Saal, a

city just north of Leipzig (famous for its resident composer J.S. Bach) in what was East Germany

for 45 years, and was the son of a coppersmith. Between the age of 7 and 9, he began training

with the only teacher he would ever have, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, who introduced him to

both the traditional music of fugues and counterpoint, and to the newer forms of music,

especially the new Italian art form, opera. By age 9, he was composing entire services of music

for Zachow’s church. After graduating from the University of Halle in 1702, he moved to

Hamburg, a free city with an established opera company, where he took a position with the

Hamburg opera orchestra (playing violin and harpsichord) and began writing operas in the Italian

style (in those days, operatic subjects were always based on Greek mythology). In 1706, he

traveled to Italy at the invitation of the Medicis, who were trying to establish Florence as the

musical capitol of Italy by attracting the greatest talents in the world. He wrote operas in

Florence and sacred music for the clergy in Rome. In 1710, he became Kapellmeister (person in

charge of music-making) to Georg, Elector of Hannover. In 1712, he decided to move to

London, and in a twist of fate, Georg of Hannover became King George I of England in 1714

(Handel had to appease his old/new boss by writing a bunch of music for him, including the

Coronation Anthems, also known as Zadok the Priest, which our choir has sung and has been

performed at every British coronation since). Handel ultimately founded 3 companies to supply

the British nobility with Italian opera, including the opera house at Covent Garden. As financial

returns from opera began to dwindle, he turned to writing oratorios – they were cheaper to

produce since no sets were required and the singers wore their own clothes. Once he began

writing oratorios, he never completely returned to opera. His Messiah was written in 3 weeks in

a burst of energy and debuted in Dublin in 1741. He died on April 14, 1759, and was buried in

Westminster Abbey with full state honors and with 3000 attendees present. O Thou That Tellest

Good Tidings To Zion is #9 in the Messiah and gives the alto soloist a chance to shine, with the

choir coming in afterwards and echoing the tune.

Still, Still, Still is an Austrian Christmas carol and lullaby. The melody is a folk tune from

the district of Salzburg. The tune appeared for the first time in 1865 in a folksong collection

of Vinzenz Maria Süß (1802–1868), founder of the Salzburg Museum. The words describe the

peace of the infant Jesus and his mother as the baby is sung to sleep. They have changed slightly

over the years but the modern Standard German version remains attributed to Georg Götsch

(1895–1956). There are various English translations of the original German. In 1958, American

choral conductor and arranger Norman Luboff took this tune and arranged it for choir and piano.

His translation talks about the silence of falling snow and peace of the baby sleeping. This

arrangement has become a Christmas classic around the world.

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Music Notes 12-1-24

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one of the older hymns in the hymnbook, its roots stretching

back to the “O Antiphons” (an antiphon being a short sentence that is sung or said before or after

a psalm or canticle), which are part of the Magnificat Vespers of the last 7 days of Advent in

liturgical Christian traditions. The earliest references to the O Antiphons can be found in the

writings of Boethius, who was a Roman senator and philosopher in the 6 th century. The earliest

references to the tune Veni Emmanuel was found in a 15 th century French manuscript, and was

part of the Libera Me in the Vespers. By 1851, the tune was familiar and was published for the

first time paired with a similar text by Thomas Helmore in a book called Hymnal Noted. The

text we sing most commonly in the English-speaking world was translated in 1861 and published

in Hymns Ancient and Modern. This arrangement was part of my Christmas Album, which we

recorded in May of 1989. I assembled 24 of the best singers I could get and we recorded 10 a

cappella arrangements in a “live from the floor” setting (in the choir room at my wife’s church in

Granada Hills). The arranger, Ken Neufeld, who was my right-hand man in those days, wrote

the arrangement and later uploaded the performance to YouTube. Ken has been soloist and

ensemble singer in groups ranging from trios to large massed choirs, professionally and

otherwise, covering classical, jazz, sacred, secular, and even comic repertoire. He has sung and

acted nationally and internationally on stage, screen and television. He has appeared in sit-coms,

musicals, and dramatic works---including those of Shakespeare. In addition, Ken is an award-

winning composer/arranger, with well over 300 works to his credit. These include choral/vocal

settings, keyboard and instrumental pieces, as well as full-scale musical theatre. His music has

been performed worldwide, including renowned venues in Europe, the Antipodes, and across the

States. They have also won local, national and international awards and honors. Over the years,

he’s been published by nearly a dozen well-known publishers. More recently, he even began his

own online publishing company: Kensington Choralworks.

Alfred Burt is a Christmas legend and mainstay among carolers. He was a jazz musician who

was born in Michigan and studied at the U of M in Ann Arbor. He served in the army during the

2 nd World War and played trumpet and cornet with the Army Air Force Band and he subbed in

with the Houston Symphony. His father, Bates, an Episcopal rector, began a tradition in their

family prior to moving to Pontiac in 1922 - the creation of a Christmas card, which he sent to

family members and parishioners. On these cards were original Christmas carols, with both the

words and music by the Reverend Burt. After Alfred graduated from college, his father asked

him to take over as composer and write the music for the family Christmas card in 1942,

"Christmas Cometh Caroling". From then on, Alfred would write the music for the family's

Christmas cards. His father sent him the lyrics for the carols from Michigan, first in 1943 (Jesu

Parvule) and then in 1944 (What Are The Signs). Burt completed the music from his base. Burt

married his childhood sweetheart, Anne Shortt (August 14, 1922 – November 30, 2000), on

October 13, 1945. Finally earning his discharge in early 1946, he formed a short-lived band; after

the group disbanded, he and Anne returned to Michigan to spend time with his father. The 1947

Christmas card, Nigh Bethlehem, was the last collaboration between Alfred and Bates Burt.

Reverend Burt died of a heart attack early in 1948. Alfred and his wife chose to continue the

family Christmas card tradition in his honor. Burt resumed his career in New York as a musician

and arranger/composer. Meanwhile, Anne remained in Michigan, where the Burts' only child,

Diane Bates Burt, was born on March 8, 1950. While she was pregnant, Anne, in consultation

with Alfred, asked an old family friend, Wihla Hutson (1901–2002), the organist at Rev. Bates

Burt's church, to write the lyrics for the annual Christmas card, which Alfred then would set to

music. This carol, entitled Sleep, Baby Mine (or Carol of the Mother) was a lullaby for their

unborn child. In the spring of 1950, Alfred, Anne and six-week-old Diane moved to Pacoima.

Burt finished the last of his carols, The Star Carol, this week’s offertory, on February 5, 1954.

Less than two days later, he died. The Star Carol would be used on the final Burt family

Christmas card that holiday season. The artwork and printing of the card was donated by

Columbia Records with a staff photographer providing the photo of a little girl looking at a

Christmas ornament. Many thought it was Al's daughter, Diane Burt. Diane lives in Santa

Monica these days and is a good friend. She formed and runs an outfit called The Caroling

Company, which, of course, features her dad’s music (as well as all the usual suspects) and has

recorded an album of his carols. The Burt Carols are unique, in that they are carols, as opposed

to songs, and as such are the only truly American Christmas carols of any renown.

Jim Raycroft 11/24/24 Jim Raycroft 11/24/24

Music Notes 11-24-24

John Rutter is a British composer, born in London in 1945, and one of the most recognized

composers of church music in the world. His work includes carols (both original and

arrangements of familiar carols), anthems, choral works and larger musical compositions. He

has written for the King’s Singers and regularly records his music with his own chorus, the

Cambridge Singers. Many of his larger works, including his Gloria and his Requiem, are

considered classics and are part of standard repertoire (our choir sang the first movement of the

Gloria on Easter morning this year). He’s also known for having reconstructed and published the

original version of the Faure Requiem. Gabriel Faure originally wrote his Requiem orchestrated

for a chamber orchestra, but his publisher suggested that he re-orchestrate it for full orchestra so

that it would become part of standard concert repertoire, which he completed in 1900. The

original 1893 version was lost until Rutter found Faure’s original sketch books in a closet at

Faure’s church, the Madeleine Church (or, more formally, L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine).

This week’s anthem, Et Misericordia, is from his large work Magnificat. The Latin text is from

Luke 1:50 and translates as “And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to

generation.” Magnificat was completed in 1990 and given its first performance under Rutter’s

baton on May 26, 1990 at Carnegie Hall. The work received mixed reviews – some liking the

melodic and harmonic accessibility, typical of much of Rutter’s work, and others finding those

very characteristics cliché and lowbrow. Personally, I like the singability of his music, and the

widespread appeal is undeniable. Et Misericordia features a soprano soloist with the choir,

which gives our own Kylie Smith a chance to shine.

They Could Not was written by composer Ron Harris and lyricist Claire Cloninger in 1981. It

followed the huge success of his 1979 song In This Very Room, which has become a “Top 10”

song in Christian music circles. He had been music director for Carol Lawrence for several

years and several tours and was now getting into composition and publishing, founding his own

publishing house based in Calabasas. They Could Not was discovered by Christian singer Sandi

Patti in 1989, which she released in November of 1989 on the album The Finest Moments. The

original choral version is a powerful, moving piece that makes the point of how

incomprehensible the power of God truly is. I had the pleasure of introducing Ron to the joys of

Starbucks in 2002.

Jack Hayford was born in Los Angeles in 1934 and grew up in Oakland. In 1969, he was serving

as the Dean of Students at L.I.F.E Bible College and was working on his 2 nd bachelor’s degree at

Azuza Pacific University when he was asked to take over as pastor of a small church, the 1 st

Foursquare Church of Van Nuys, a struggling congregation of 18 members with an average age

of 65. He initially agreed to take the church for a 6 month period, but later changed his mind and

stayed on. Under his guidance, the church grew and became the model for the mega-church

movement, changing its name to Church On The Way (on Sherman Way) and grew to boast a

membership of over 10,000. It was during this time, in 1978, that he wrote the worship song

Majesty, which has been designated one of the top 100 contemporary worship songs and is sung

in churches around the world. He and his wife Anna were touring through England during the

25 th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. He described it thus: “In 1977, my wife

Anna and I spent our vacation in Great Britain. We traveled through England, Scotland and

Wales the same year that Queen Elizabeth celebrated the 25th anniversary of her coronation.

There were many symbols of royalty. Majesty describes the kingly, lordly, glorious, regal nature

of our savior. Majesty recalls that our worship can align us with God and His throne and His

kingdom. We are rescued from death, restored to the inheritance of sons and daughters, and

qualified for victory in battle against the adversary, and destined for the throne forever in His

presence.” He continued with Church On The Way until 1999, and was a prolific author and

songwriter, having over 600 songs and choruses in his catalogue. He passed away at his home in

Los Angeles in 2023.

Jim Raycroft 11/17/24 Jim Raycroft 11/17/24

Music Notes 11-17-24

Mark Hayes is a composer/arranger/pianist based in Kansas City whose music is renowned

around the world. He got his degree in piano performance at Baylor University, moved to

Kansas City to work as a music editor for Tempo Publishing, and now spends his time writing

music for the church and traveling around the world as a clinician and guest conductor. When I

met Mark in the late 80’s, I was struck by his pianistic skills – more specifically, the way he

manhandled the piano into submission to produce the most wondrous sounds. Mark’s writing is

superbly crafted, with influences of black gospel and jazz. He’s one of my favorite

contemporary writers. If you play piano and want some music that will both challenge you and

satisfy your appetite for delicious piano music, pick up a book of Mark Hayes piano

improvisations. You’ll love it. The anthem this week is titled And The Father Will Dance Over

You In Joy. It is a beautifully crafted and inspired piece with an uplifting message, and was part

of a cantata he completed in 1985 called Jubilate published by Tempo Music. It was an unusual

concept at the time – a mixture of musical styles – traditional anthems, pop solos, big orchestra –

and was designed for an adult choir, soloists, a youth choir, a junior choir, a handbell choir, a

liturgical dance team, an orchestra, a narrator, and places for the congregation to join in the

singing. There are a number of particularly groovy pieces that we will get to here as time goes

on, including a wonderful communion medley, an old hymn medley and several marvelous

anthems that the choir will enjoy sinking their teeth into. It was about a year after this came out

that I met Mark and got familiar with his music.