Jim Raycroft 10/27/24 Jim Raycroft 10/27/24

Music Notes 10-27-24

We welcome my talented wife, Eileen, to the piano and organ for the next 2 weeks as Paul takes a trip to Barcelona and Mallorca. (And he didn’t even invite us to come along!)

The bells in English bell towers ring with complicated patterns, called changes, and the people who do the ringing, volunteers from within the congregation, are called “change ringers”. They even have local competitions between ringer teams. If you’ve never been in the bell tower of an English church, it’s drafty and, in the winter, darn cold. Sometime between 1694 and 1724, the bell makers of Aldbourne, England, Robert and William Cor, began making small bells that could be held in the hand and were tuned to the same notes as the bells in the bell towers. This allowed the change ringers to learn and practice the complex rhythms in the warmth and comfort of the choir room, or better yet, the pub. While touring England in the late 1800’s, P.T Barnum saw a set of these, acquired a set for himself and brought it back to the U.S and began displaying it as another of his “oddities”, like the Fiji Mermaid and General Tom Thumb. A lady from Boston saw them and relocated to England for a couple of years to learn bell ringing, both with the large bells and the handbells. That lady, Margaret Shurcliff, was presented a set of handbells by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry after performing two separate 2 ½ hour change ringing peals in 1 day. She brought them home in 1902 and began the tradition of handbell ringing in the United States (although they continued to call it “English” handbell ringing).

Due to the materials they are made from (the same materials used to make tower bells), the English handbells make a tone that doesn’t allow “groovy” chords – there are conflicting overtones that turn the sound into mud. American manufacturers Schulmerich and Malmark (both based in Pennsylvania) began experimenting with materials that would create a cleaner sound and thus allow for “groovy” chords and thicker musical textures, making it possible to play musical pieces, rather than just changes. Today, handbells are a staple in the church and in schools, and are popular because they don’t require “musical talent” to participate.

When we got word that Panorama Presbyterian Church was closing its doors, I paid them a visit one Sunday in August and was told they were looking for a home for their bells. My wife, Eileen, has directed handbells for years at her church, and I’ve been wishing for a chance to bring handbells to FPCE – one more addition to our musical buffet. I chatted with their bell director and, long story short, Panorama’s handbells are now in residence at FPCE. This Sunday we will get a taste of the bells, as her trio – The Belfry Trio of Dawn Corner, Megan Lee and Sherron Corner – serenade us just before Henry’s sermon. Sherron, the director, will be joining us at FPCE and would like to invite anyone who might be interested in learning a bit more to come over after the service. Handbells are tremendous fun to play, and it doesn’t require training. Here are a couple of links you can check out to get a feel for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgpuWPg1OE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7SLPvGq7p8

We hope you’ll join us and come up to check out the bells afterwards.

Jim Raycroft 10/20/24 Jim Raycroft 10/20/24

Music Notes 10-20-24

This week we welcome back our marvelous drummer/percussionist Ed Zajac. I found a cool anthem for the choir that is a cappella with just a hand drum, so I invited him to join us for the worship. Ed began his musical career in Chicago, where he spent a year as a timpanist for the Chicago Symphony. He then decided he wanted to just play his drums, so he sold all his percussion equipment and moved to Los Angeles, but started getting jobs playing percussion in pit orchestras and movie soundtracks. He’s also an actor and a singer and has appeared onscreen in a variety of productions including episodes of M.A.S.H. and House, and has sung on soundtracks for movies like Spiderman 3, Superman Returns, King Kong and Star Trek Beyond. He’s been an invaluable musical assistant and resource for me over the years, and if we’re lucky, we might be able to get him to sing some Sunday morning. 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. Our offertory this week is an unusual offering from him – The Name Of Jesus. Most of what he writes has a more “classical” accent, but this tune, an original, is dance-like and has a syncopated rhythm that is fun to sing and fun to listen to. Ed is joining us on the hand drum, and is bringing an interesting “clapping machine” (so we don’t have to do the clapping ourselves). Henry Mollicone is a composer based in San Jose, CA and has a large body of work, including operas, symphonic works, songs, piano and chamber music, but one of his best known, and most performed, pieces is a gospel anthem called Hear Me, Redeemer. Bluesy and fun, it’s been sung throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Lord, I Lift Your Name On High was written by Fallbrook, California-based Rick Founds in 1989. He wrote it during his morning devotional, while reading scripture on his computer and watching television. He began plucking his guitar and thinking about the “cycle of redemption”, comparing it to the water cycle - You came from heaven to earth, to show the way; From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay; From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high. It was picked up by Maranatha Music and was listed as the #1 Christian song in churches between 1997 and 2003, and currently sits at #24. It’s #5 in the U.K. and #7 in Australia. It’s been interpreted in a number of musical variations, including gospel, R&B, soul, rock, dance, reggae, hip hop, rap, Soca, ska, punk and a cappella. My setting is rock, and we’ll rock the house with it in the New Year with the band.

Jim Raycroft 10/13/24 Jim Raycroft 10/13/24

Music Notes 10-13-24

Jester Hairston was a local treasure. One of the most recognizable names in the world of spirituals, Jester was born the grandson of slaves, who worked the Hairston Plantation in Belews Creek, North Carolina. His parents moved to Homestead, PA (outside Pittsburgh), where he graduated high school. He then studied at, as one of the first black individuals admitted, and graduated from Tufts College outside Boston in 1929. He sang with the Hall Johnson Choir in Harlem for a while but was almost fired because of his Boston accent (Johnson told him “we’re singing ain’t and cain’t, and you’re singing shahn’t and cahn’t – they don’t mix!”). His work on Broadway with that choir took him to Hollywood, where he began working regularly on movies, television and radio. He began writing and arranging, especially spirituals, with Mary’s Little Boy Child composed in 1956. Most of us have seen the movie Lilies of the Field (1963), starring Sidney Poitier, which contains this week’s anthem Amen. Those wonderful scenes where Sidney is singing “Amen, amen, amen”, which he teaches to the nuns – that song was composed and arranged by Jester for the movie, and Sidney’s singing isn’t Sidney – it’s Jester. Jester lived out his life in Los Angeles, traveling all over the world teaching and conducting and spreading the word of spirituals. He also worked as an actor in front of the camera, in such movies as The Alamo, To Kill A Mockingbird and In The Heat Of The Night, to name a few. Many of the singers in town were his protégés, and “Jester stories” abound at local music events. We lost Jester on January 18, 2000, at the age of 98, and most of the musical world in Los Angeles attended the funeral service.

Climb Every Mountain is a showtune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the end of the 1st act and again as an epilogue to the second act by the Mother Abbess. It’s an inspirational piece, encouraging people to take every step to achieving their dreams. It shares inspirational overtones with the song You’ll Never Walk Alone, from the musical Carousel, and is often sung by classically trained singers in professional stage productions. The song has been covered by singers from Tony Bennett and Andy Williams to Tammy Wynette (at the 1984 Olympics), to Barbra Streisand and Christina Aguilera, to a Norwegian version by Sissel Kyrkjebø.

Hailing from the small coastal town of Bangor in Northern Ireland, the Rend Collective is a group of “twenty-somethings” that gathered at Rend, what the band describes as “a ministry for spiritually hungry young adults, desperately seeking an authentic, raw and real expression of church, which was informally pastored by bandleader, Gareth Gilkeson.” Their first album – Homemade Worship by Handmade People – was released in 2012, and was followed by a string of hits in the contemporary Christian music world. Their music is based around older instruments - their native Irish folk instruments, old rock and roll guitars and assorted other whimsical musical toys - and has a raw, uninhibited style that gets the toes tapping and the feet stomping. They don’t call themselves a folk band, but insist rather “We are not actually an indiefolk band - despite all the beards and bow-ties and banjos. We are a celebration band. It’s just a coincidence that folk music and celebration make a great pairing!” Their song My Lighthouse is a classic foot-stomper that never fails to engage the listener and was released in 2014 on the album The Art Of Celebration.

Dan Schutte is one of the most renowned of the contemporary composers in the Catholic world and is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits, who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. This was a result of the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960’s (also known as Vatican II), which revamped and reformed the Catholic liturgy in an effort to bring it closer to the people (before that, the mass was sung in Latin and the priest kept his back to the congregation throughout). He is based in San Francisco, has written over 120 popular hymns and mass settings, and continues to be one of the most influential figures in the world of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. His most famous composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2nd favorite after Amazing Grace.

Jim Raycroft 10/6/24 Jim Raycroft 10/6/24

Music Notes 10-6-24

This week we are joined again by our wonderful band. Since it’s World Communion Sunday, we’re going to celebrate the world with songs like Heal The World, We Are The World and What A Wonderful World. To wrap up the service, our fabulous pianist, Jeff Colella, will play a piece from one of his albums, which you can explore, and purchase, at http://jeffcolella.com/music/ .

On the east side of La Brea Blvd, between Sunset and De Longpre, sits the venerable Charlie Chaplin Studios, begun in 1917 and opened in 1918. Chaplin filmed most of his great movies there. When he left Hollywood in 1952, he sold the studio, and it was used to film the Adventures of Superman. In 1960, it was sold to Red Skelton, who shot his shows there, then in 1962 it was sold to CBS, who used it to shoot Perry Mason. In 1966 it was sold to Herb Alpert to be used as the headquarters for A&M Records. In 2000, it was sold to the Jim Henson Company, where today it is used for shooting various Muppet-related adventures and is a registered historical landmark.

It was on Monday, January 28, 1985, 9:00 p.m. that limos began to arrive at the Chaplin Stage at A&M Records to record a historic event – dozens of music stars contributing their voices to a song, the proceeds of which would go towards relieving hunger in Africa, especially Ethiopia. A pet project of Harry Belafonte, the song was written by Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson, and produced and conducted by Quincy Jones. The stars, some of whom came directly there from the American Music Awards, were greeted by a sign at the door that said “Please check your egos at the door”, and by Stevie Wonder, who promised that if the recording was not done in one take, he and Ray Charles (both blind) would personally drive them all home.

The final recording of We Are The World began at 10:30 p.m. and was completed at 8 a.m. More than 45 of America’s top musicians took part, with over 50 that had to be turned away. The project ultimately raised $63 million (over $150 million today) and was eventually named the biggest selling single in both US and pop music history, becoming the first single ever certified multi-platinum with global sales surpassing 20 million copies.

What A Wonderful World was written in 1967 by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, and was intended to be an antidote for the racially charged atmosphere in the U.S. at that time. It has an optimistic view of the world, making reference to babies being born and having so much to look forward to. It was originally offered to Tony Bennett, who turned it down, so it was offered to Louis Armstrong. George Weiss later said that he had written the song for Louis Armstrong, inspired by Satchmo’s ability to bring people of different races together. Ironically, it was not a hit in the U.S. until much later, becoming instead a huge hit in the U.K., where it was #1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and was proclaimed the top selling single in the U.K. in 1968. It was featured in the closing scenes of the BBC Radio cult hit Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and, in a funny continuity error, was featured in Good Morning, Vietnam, where a DJ played it on the radio – the date of that radio program would have been 1965, 2 years before the song was written!

Born August 29, 1958, the 8th of 10 children, Michael Joseph Jackson went on to become one of the most influential figures in the world of entertainment. Dubbed the “King Of Pop”, he made his debut at the age of 6 performing with his brothers as a member of the Jackson Five, first playing congas and tambourine, then starting to share lead vocals with Jermaine in 1965. He began his solo career in 1971, releasing 4 studio albums between 1972 and 1975. His film career began in 1978, when he moved to New York to star as the Scarecrow in The Wiz. The movie was a box office flop, but the film’s musical arranger, Quincy Jones, agreed to produce Michael’s next solo album. In 1979, he broke his nose during a complex dance move, bringing about the first of his famous nose jobs (the first was a failure, and he complained that he had trouble breathing). His 5th solo album, Off The Wall, was released in 1979, had 4 hit singles, and provided him with 3 awards at the American Music Awards: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. Thriller was released in 1982, won 7 Grammys and 8 American Music Awards, and spawned 3 major music videos – Thriller, Billie Jean and Beat It, all of which helped to solidify the fledgling entertainment channel MTV. Thriller is the only music video to have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

In 1983 he performed at the Motown Records 25th anniversary concert at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where he debuted what was to become his signature dance move, the moonwalk – taught to him by former Soul Train dancer and Shalamar member Jeffrey Daniel 3 years earlier. We Are The World happened in 1985 (becoming one of the best-selling singles in history – 20 million copies, generating $63 million for charity), and Bad was released in 1987 (his first solo album in 5 years). Bad generated 7 singles that charted and 5 became #1 hits (the record for any album), and became the best-selling album in history (over 45 million copies to date). Dangerous was released in 1992 and included this Sunday’s offertory, Heal The World. That year he also founded the Heal The World Foundation which sent millions of dollars around the world for children’s charities. Many of the rumors pushed by the tabloids were actually disseminated by Jackson himself, who saw them as free advertising. But when the rumors became increasingly sensational, he stopped, forcing the tabloids to make up their own rumors which became increasingly silly and divorced from reality. His death in 2009 brought to an end a remarkable life that, despite the turmoil, was larger than life and brought untold millions to children’s charities around the world. Personally, I remember meeting him backstage at Disneyland one summer afternoon (around 1988) while singing with the Dapper Dans (Disneyland’s barbershop quartet). The word came down that he was visiting and wanted to see Mickey and Minnie. So, the characters put on their heads and went over to cavort for him. I’ll never forget seeing him standing there in a trench coat and fedora (in August!) and giggling at the antics of Mickey and Minnie.

Jim Raycroft 9/29/24 Jim Raycroft 9/29/24

Music Notes 9-29-24

Andrew Lloyd Webber has become an icon in the world of theatrical music, writing his first pieces, a suite of 6 pieces, at the age of nine. Over the years he has written 21 musicals (several of which have run for over a decade both on the West End of London and on Broadway), a song cycle, a set of variations, 2 film scores and a Latin Requiem Mass. The Requiem was written during 1984 in memory of his father, William Lloyd Webber, a composer and organist. It was premiered in 1985, conducted by Lorin Maazel, with soloists Placido Domingo, Sarah Brightman (Webber’s wife at the time) and boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston. It contained elements of his melodic, pop-oriented style with more angular, austere musical environments. The recording proved to be quite popular, although the piece is seldom performed live, partially due to the large forces needed and the fact that the vocal writing is very tricky and demanding. The Requiem debuted in Los Angeles in 1986 at the Shrine Theatre. It was the backdrop for the American Ballet Theatre, under the leadership of Mikhael Baryshnikov. I was singing with the Roger Wagner Chorale at the time, and we were hired to be the pit choir for the performance. It turned out that the iconic Pie Jesu was choreographed and danced by Baryshnikov himself, and subsequently, none of us were paying much attention to the conductor (our eyes were glued to the stage – we had, after all, the best seats in the house). The Pie Jesu features both the soprano soloist, the boy soprano (although this week we’re substituting a real soprano) and the choir. Probably the most popular piece in the Requiem, the Pie Jesu is, for my money, also the best piece of music in the work.

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah comes to us from Wales and their great tradition of singing. The tune, Cwm Rhondda, was written by composer/organist John Hughes. Hughes wrote the first version of the tune, which he called "Rhondda", for the Cymanfa Ganu (hymn festival) in Pontypridd in 1905, when the enthusiasm of the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival still remained. The present form was developed for the inauguration of the organ at Capel Rhondda, in Hopkinstown in the Rhondda Valley, in 1907. Hughes himself played the organ at this performance. The name was changed from "Rhondda" to "Cwm Rhondda" by Harry Evans, of Dowlais, to avoid confusion with another tune, by M. O. Jones. The lyrics came from the pen of William Williams Pantycelyn (named, in the Welsh style, "Pantycelyn" after the farm which his wife inherited), who is generally acknowledged as the greatest Welsh hymnwriter. The Welsh original of this hymn was first published as Hymn 10 in Mor o Wydr (Sea of Glass) in 1762. It comprised six verses. (References to a five-verse version in Pantycelyn's Alleluia of 1745 appear to be incorrect.) It was originally titled Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd (Prayer for strength for the journey through the world's wilderness). Peter Williams (1722–1796) translated part of the hymn into the English version we’re familiar with, with the title Prayer for Strength. It was published in Hymns on various subjects, 1771. This translation is the only Welsh hymn to have gained widespread circulation in the English-speaking world. The present-day Welsh version is essentially a redaction of the original to parallel Peter Williams's English version. A result of the translation process is that the now-familiar phrase "Bread of heaven" does not actually occur in the original - it is a paraphrase of the original Welsh references to manna.

Hank Williams’ song I Saw The Light was inspired in 1947 when, during a road trip with his mother at the wheel, she woke him up to tell him “I just saw the light”, referring to the lights of Dannelly Field Airport, meaning they were close to Montgomery. It was written in 1947, recorded and released in 1948 and, while it didn’t enjoy great success during his lifetime, it became a gospel standard and also became the closing song for all of his shows.

Jim Raycroft 9/22/24 Jim Raycroft 9/22/24

Music Notes 9-22-24

I’m Goin’ Up is an original anthem written by Mary McDonald. A native of Tennessee, she served as Senior Music Editor for Lorenz Publishing in Ohio and was the accompanist for the accompanist for the Tennessee men’s Chorale for 36 years. She was the first woman President of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference, and has performed at Carnegie Hall 3 times, both as accompanist and as conductor. Her anthem I’m Goin’ Up is a popular, bluesy gospel anthem that references the old hymn Love Lifted Me and is guaranteed to get the toe tapping.

Holy, Holy, Holy is a classic hymn that, at last count, has been published in 1421 hymnals. The words were written in by Reginald Heber, an English clergyman born in 1783. He entered Oxford at age 17, winning awards for his poetry, and was appointed to the post of Vicar of Hobnet (near Shrewsbury) in 1807. All 57 of his hymns were written during his time at Hobnet, were he resided for 16 years before being appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823. He was inspired by the Nicene Creed to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter. The tune was composed by John Bacchus Dykes in 1861 and is considered to be one of his best melodies. He was called his tune NICAEA, in recognition of Heber’s text, and after their first publication together in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, the tune and the text have been inseparable.

Michael Joncas (born Jan Michael Joncas) is a priest, liturgical theologian and a composer. He did his Master’s degree in liturgy at Notre Dame and studied at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. He was ordained in 1980 and now teaches at the University of St. Thomas (in Minnesota), at Notre Dame and at the St. John’s School of Theology. He is best known for his hymn On Eagle’s Wings, which he wrote in the late 70’s, basing the lyrics on Psalm 91 and Isaiah 40. He recorded it in 1979, and it has become a standard in the liturgical music world (it’s even in our hymnbook). It was performed at the funerals of many of the victims of the 9/11 attack, as well as the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti. He has stated that his preference for the title would be "On Eagle's Wings," indicating that the wings belong to a single eagle as a metaphor for God, but he said he could make an argument for the plural "On Eagles' Wings," since many wings would be needed to lift up the multitude of people in covenant with God.

Jim Raycroft 9/15/24 Jim Raycroft 9/15/24

Music Notes 9-15-24

This week we welcome a new member of our musical staff. Eric Thornburgh is taking some time off to care for his mom, Bunny Thornburgh, so our new bass section leader is Grant Heineman. Grant is a multifaceted emerging musician and recent graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a double major in Contemporary Writing & Production and Performance. An accomplished jazz pianist and vocalist, the Cleveland native melds a choral and classical piano upbringing with a deep understanding of contemporary jazz harmony and rhythms to assert himself as a 21st century musician capable of excelling in any given situation. While at Berklee, he created and directed The Bean Tones (award winning barbershop/vocal jazz quartet), co-directed and arranged for Point of Departure (DownBeat award winning vocal jazz group), played keys and sang with indie rock band Champagne Charlie & the Wah Wahs, composed and played piano for contemporary jazz sextet tanline! as well as arranged for orchestras, big bands, string quartets, and more. Welcome Grant!

Dr. Robert J. Ray, composer, conductor, and clinician, was Professor of Music and conductor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Community Chorus. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and in May 2003, received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Vincennes University. As a pianist, he has performed as a soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony and others. As accompanist, he was privileged to have worked with the outstanding and legendary singers Robert McFerrin and Dr. William Warfield. Ray’s compositions are known nationally and internationally. The Gospel Mass, Gospel Magnificat, and this week’s anthem, He Never Failed Me Yet, are regularly performed in Europe, Asia, South Africa, and South America. He has traveled extensively throughout the world conducting his music. In April 2002, Ray returned again to Carnegie Hall as guest conductor to perform his Gospel Mass with chorus and orchestra. In February 2008, his Gospel Mass was performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus. He died in 2022.

Matt Redman is an English Christian worship leader currently based in Brighton. He has won 10 Dove Awards for everything from Worship Song of the Year 2005 (for Blessed Be Your Name) to Songwriter of the Year 2013. His album 10,000 Reasons was released in 2012 and the title track went on to be #1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, where it remained for 13 weeks. 10,000 Reasons also won Grammy Awards in 2013 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance. One Day (When We All Get To Heaven) is a song from his album Glory Song, released in September of 2017. Glory Song takes a more “gospel” approach, using lots of background singers that gives the album a choral feel. There is a video of Matt singing One Day with just a keyboard player and 6 backup singers that was recorded on the roof of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Today, Matt and his wife, Beth, are members of St. Peter’s Church in Brighton, England and have 5 children

Jim Raycroft 9/8/24 Jim Raycroft 9/8/24

Music Notes 9-8-24

The summer break is behind us and the season is before us. This Sunday we welcome back our illustrious choir, who should be well rested after the August break. Our wonderful Jose has been consumed by his job – his boss retired and he got promoted – so he has handed the baton to James Gillen, from whom we will be hearing a lot of wonderful things. James, originally from Philadelphia, PA, is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he studied voice and music directing, as well as the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where he studied voice and dialect coaching.

How Marvelous! How Wonderful! was composed by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (1856-1932) in 1905. It is also known by the first line “I stand amazed”. The tune My Savior’ s Love shows up in 127 hymnals. He is said to have composed between 7,000 and 8,000 songs, which were published under several pseudonyms, including Charlotte G. Homer, H. A. Henry, and S. B. Jackson. There is one folklore story, that the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilton (Pastor Pollock or McAulay) once saw Gabriel walking in town early in the week. He asked Gabriel if he knew a good song to go along with his sermon. The pastor shared the sermon topic and by the end of the week the boy had written a song for that Sunday, words and music. The Rev. N. A. McAulay was a pastor at the Wilton church for many years, and it is also said that young Gabriel wrote the music for one of McAulay's songs. The song, How Could It Be, was later published in Songs for Service, edited by Gabriel, with the music being credited to "Charles H. Marsh," possibly one of Gabriel's pseudonyms. He eventually served as pastor of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in San Francisco. He died in Hollywood and was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1982.

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, which Eileen and I visited when we were in Paris in April). John Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing, also known by its opening line Deep Peace, was commissioned by the chancel choir of 1st United Methodist Church of Omaha, Nebraska, and their conductor Mel Olsen in 1978. The original text was not a specifically sacred text, but rather an old Gaelic rune that made reference to elements of nature. Rutter added a line referencing Jesus and Amen to it to make it a Christian anthem. It has become popular for baptisms, weddings and funerals, and was performed at the funeral Mass for Tip O’Neil. It became a hit when a recording by Aled Jones was released in 2003, and has been recorded often, including by the composer with the Cambridge Singers and the City of London Sinfonia.

Awesome God is a song written and recorded by Rich Mullins and first recorded in 1988 on his album Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth. It was the first single released from the album and rose quickly to #1 on all the charts, spending several months on Christian radio. It was so popular that it became his signature song and became a popular congregational song. Since his passing in 1997, it has been covered by numerous artists, including Michael W. Smith and the heavy metal band Unashamed.

Jim Raycroft 9/1/24 Jim Raycroft 9/1/24

Music Notes 9-1-24

This Sunday we welcome my wife, Eileen, to our worship service. Our faithful section leaders have been covering the month of August musically, so I told them I’d look after Labor Day weekend. This week’s offertory, Kingdom of My Heart, is kind of “our song”. It’s a favorite of Eileen’s - she had me sing it, with her accompanying me, at her retirement Sunday at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, where she was music director, and we performed it a year ago at her current church, Bethlehem Lutheran Church where she is bell choir director, on the day of our 40th anniversary. So, when I started to plan for this week, it seemed entirely appropriate to ask her to play for me, as it’s her first time playing in public since getting her knee replaced. Welcome, sweetheart.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot belongs to a genre of spirituals called “code songs”. The slave owners didn’t allow the slaves to gather and congregate, for fear that they would plan rebellion or escape. They did allow them to sing in the fields, but there again, the song topics were limited. All the slaves were required to go to church, so religious subjects were considered safe topics for songs, thus the development of spirituals. But the slaves were crafty, and some spirituals were used to impart information to other slaves about escaping, but in code. Wade In The Water reminded the slaves to walk lengthwise down streams, not just across, so that the dogs following would lose their scent. Swing Low Sweet Chariot was very specific. It referred to the town of Ripley, Virginia, on the banks of the Roanoke River and whose residents were wellknown as supporters of the Underground Railroad. The knowledge was, if you could get across the Roanoke, you were safe. It was basically free sailing to Toronto, which was the end of the Railroad. The slaves would get to the banks of the Roanoke, across from Ripley and hide in the brush until nightfall. After midnight, residents of Ripley would come across in rowboats and take the slaves to freedom. So, the “sweet chariot” referred to the rowboats, “I looked over Jordan” referred to the Roanoke and the “band of angels comin’ after me” referred to the residents of Ripley. Swing Low Sweet Chariot was Harriot Tubman’s favorite spiritual, and her friends and relatives, who were gathered around her deathbed, were singing it to her as she passed.

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. This week’s offertory is an original song he wrote with lyricist Barbara Axton called The Kingdom Of My Heart. It 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. Kingdom Of My Heart talks about the inner struggle we all feel from time to time, and coming to the realization that, in the end, there’s always something to be thankful for. This is Eileen’s favorite song, one she loves to accompany and one she asked me to sing on her last day as music director at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, so I’ve invited her to accompany it this morning.

Jim Raycroft 8/25/24 Jim Raycroft 8/25/24

Music Notes 8-25-24

Charles Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist movement, wrote the text for Christ the Lord Is Risen Today in 1739 where it was initially titled Hymn for Easter Day. The new hymn was first performed at the first service at The Foundery Meeting House after Wesley had adapted it into the first Methodist chapel. Following this, Wesley published it in the Hymns and Sacred Poems hymnal of 1739, initially with eleven verses of four lines each. The hymn was subsequently published in the hymnal A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists, and in 1754, it appeared in Harmonia Sacra, a hymnal compiled by Thomas Butts. When Christ, the Lord, is ris'n today was published by Thomas Butts in his 1754 hymnal Harmonia Sacra, it was paired with the tune Maccabaeus. The rousing melody was originally composed by George Frideric Handel, initially for his 1747 oratorio Joshua, and later added to his 1746 oratorio Judas Maccabaeus. This choice of a militaristic theme was intended to reinforce the metaphorical depiction of the resurrected Christ as a victorious warrior who has vanquished death and the powers of evil. Today, this tune is popularly associated with the 1923 hymn Thine Be the Glory. Today there are two tunes commonly used for Christ the Lord Is Risen Today: these are Easter Hymn and Llanfair. Easter Hymn, the most used tune for the hymn, was originally titled The Resurrection and published anonymously in Lyra Davidica in 1708. Despite being anonymous, over time it has been misattributed to J. W. Worgan, Henry Carey and George Frideric Handel. The writer James T. Lightwood said of it: "there is probably no tune in Christendom so universally sung on any festal day as the Easter hymn, with its rolling "Hallelujah", on Easter morning.” Christ the Lord Is Risen Today also gained popularity as a children's hymn by editors of children's hymnals. This was attributed to the tune being easy to learn despite the complex language within the text. In our hymnal, the Easter Hymn tune is paired with the slightly altered lyrics “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today”. Llanfair is the tune we use in our hymnal and was written by Robert Williams in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey, Wales (the tune was named after the town). This hymn tune was harmonized by the Director of Music of University College, Oxford, David Evans in 1927.

The lyrics to Christ Is Risen! Shout Hosanna! were written by Brian Wren, an English hymn poet and writer in 1984 and incorporates the well-known melody from the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – Ode To Joy, also known as “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”. Wren’s hymn has been published in 23 different hymnals, and the Ode To Joy melody has shown up in over 450 hymnals. The 9th Symphony was not Beethoven’s last work, but it is certainly his largest and most well-known. Completed in 1824, it is considered to be a masterpiece of western classical music and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music. Even more remarkable is the fact that Beethoven was almost completely deaf when it was being written and not only never heard it performed (he was at the performance and sort of conducted – he stood in front of the conductor’s podium and waved his arms in the air), but he didn’t know the audience was applauding at the end, and the contralto soloist had to turn him around to see the adulation of the audience. He was given 5 standing ovations with hats and handkerchiefs in the air, as they knew he couldn’t hear the applause. The symphony is a staple of most symphony orchestras, and personally, I’ve sung it probably 35-40 times. Roger Wagner used to tell the story of the great conductor Otto Klemperer, when asked how many times he had conducted the piece, he replied, “Oh, about a thousand times.” Roger asked him if he ever got tired of it, and Klemperer replied that every time he studied the score, he saw something new.

Jim Raycroft 8/18/24 Jim Raycroft 8/18/24

Music Notes 8-18-24

Tracy Saliefendic began singing in church when her mother was directing the childrens choir. She then sang in school choirs until high school and discovered her love of performing in her senior year when she was the “Day by Day” disciple in her schools production of Godspell. While studying music at Pierce College she sang in a rock band with her future husband playing guitar. She then dabbled in classical voice lessons but it was when her husband surprised her by taking her to see Don Giovanni at LA Opera that she realized she wanted to sing opera. She went back to school at USC and studied with Judith Natalucci. She sang in the LA Opera Chorus for 3 years and did apprentiships with Glimmerglass Opera and Utah Festival Opera before starting a solo career that included singing Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana) with Santa Barbara Opera; Leonora (Il Trovatore) with Opera South (Ireland); Gertrude Stein (The Mother of Us All) with Glimmerglass Opera; Tosca with West Bay Opera (Palo Alto) and Intimate Opera (Pasadena); Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) with Bel Canto Opera (Santa Monica); Lady in Waiting (Macbeth) with Florida Grand Opera; Inez (Il Trovatore) with Virginia Opera as well as soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Los Robles Master Chorale and the Ventura Master Chorale. She has also appeared in concert with the San Bernardino Symphony in a concert of Mozart arias. Since 2007 she has been the soprano section leader/soloist at the First Presbyterian Church of Encino and has performed several recitals as well as The 1st & 2nd Penny & Tracy Shows in 2014 & 2015.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famous composers in history. Born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685, he spent the bulk of his most renowned composing time – the last 25 years of his life (1723-1750) - in Leipzig at St. Thomas Church, where he provided music for 4 churches in the area. He was a bit of a maverick, disagreeing with his employers and taking unannounced leaves of absence to go hear other musicians perform. There is even a story of him pulling a sword in the middle of the street during an argument with a local bassoon player (Bach publicly called him a “nanny goat bassoonist”…the bassoonist didn’t like it). He had 22 children with 2 different wives – Phyllis Diller used to joke that his harpsichord bench made out into a bed. His music, however, is what he is most renowned for. His catalogue is enormous, containing over 1100 pieces of music (that’s what has survived – we know a lot of his music was lost after he died), from small pieces for harpsichord to huge choral works (The St. Matthew Passion is written for 2 orchestras and 2 choirs). He is the god of organ music, however, and organists around the world defer to him and his music. During the time period between 1723 and 1729, right after he moved to Leipzig, he wrote most of his cantatas – small performance works that usually consist of a choral piece, a few arias and a couple of chorales (hymns). He wrote over 220 of these pieces, which were all written with orchestra. His Magnificat, written in 1723 and revised 10 years later, is also universally revered as a masterwork. Roughly 30 minutes in length, it has 12 movements that include pieces for chorus and soloists. This week’s anthem is the 5th movement duet Et misericordia – “And mercy…”, sung by our own Jose and Tracy.

Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace is also commonly known as the Prayer of St. Francis. However, it was almost certainly not written by St. Francis. The true author is unknown and it was more probably written around the time of the outbreak of World War One. It is also incorrectly called the Serenity Prayer of St. Francis. The Serenity Prayer is, in fact, a different prayer from the 20th century written by Reinhold Neibuhr. Sebastian Temple adapted the words in 1967 to create the hymn that we know now.

Jim Raycroft 8/11/24 Jim Raycroft 8/11/24

Music Notes 8-11-24

This week we have all four of our wonderful section leaders assisting with the service, and we welcome back Kylie, who has been buried in the “Cone of Silence” – taking time off from singing while her vocal cords healed.

How Great Thou Art took quite a while to get here, and went through several versions before ending up in the form we all know. The poem "O Store Gud" (O Great God) was written in 1885 by Swedish poet Carl Boberg in Mönsterås, Sweden. He said at the time that it was a paraphrase of Psalm 8. The poem was then matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first time in 1888. It was then translated into German as "Wie groß bist Du" (How Great are You) by wealthy Baptist nobleman Manfred von Glehn, after which it became very popular in Germany. In 1912 it became “Великий Бог” (Great God in Russian), produced by Ivan S. Prokhanov, called “The Martin Luther of Russia”. The first English translation was written by E. Gustav Johnson, who was a professor at North Park College in Illinois, in 1925. The version we know began its life when Stuart K. Hine heard the Russian version while on an evangelical mission to the Ukraine in 1931. He began translating it and using it in his evangelical services, adding the 4th verse after the 2nd World War in 1948. It became a monster, however, when it was discovered in London in 1954 by the Billy Graham Crusade. They sang it for the 1st time in Toronto in 1955, but when they took it to Madison Square Gardens in 1957, they sang it over 100 times, because the people wouldn’t let them stop.

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 is an arrangement of a true classic, How Great Thou Art. There’s always a danger when you work with a song from that generation – How Great Thou Art, Shall We Gather At The River, Old Rugged Cross, and so on – that the Wisconsin factor can get out of hand…they can get really cheesy. But in the hands of a master, it becomes dignified and meaningful. His treatment of this old classic is both wonderful to sing and to listen to. Enjoy.

Now Thank We All Our God is a popular Christian hymn. Catherine Winkworth translated it from the German Nun danket alle Gott, written around 1636 by the Lutheran pastor Martin Rinkart. Its hymn tune, Zahn No. 5142, was published by composer Johann Crüger in the 1647 edition of his Lutheran hymnal Praxis Pietatis Melica. Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor who came to Eilenburg, Saxony, at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The walled city of Eilenburg became the refuge for political and military fugitives, but the result was overcrowding, deadly pestilence and famine. Armies overran it three times. The Rinkart home was a refuge for the victims, even though he was often hard-pressed to provide for his own family. During the height of a severe plague in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in Eilenburg, conducting as many as 50 funerals in a day. He performed more than 4000 funerals in that year, including that of his wife. Rinkart was a prolific hymn writer. In Rinkart's Jesu Hertz-Buchlein (Leipzig, 1636), "Nun danket alle Gott" appears under the title "Tisch-Gebetlein", as a short prayer before meals. Composer Johann Crüger was active during the 1600’s, living most of his adult life in Berlin, working as a teacher in a Gymnasium (basically, a college prep high school) and as cantor at the Nicolaikirche, the oldest church in Berlin. In addition to numerous concert works and editing the hymnal Praxis Pietatis Melica, the most important Lutheran hymnal of its time, he also wrote the tune to Johann Franck’s hymn Jesu, Meine Freude (in English, Jesus, My Joy), and Rinkart’s Nun danket alle Gott, which was set to it’s now standard harmonization by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840 when he used it for the chorale for his Symphony #2. Translator Catherine Winkworth was born in London and spent a year in Dresden, Germany, where she took an interest in German hymnody. She published several books of translations of classic German hymns, including From Heaven Above to Earth I Come (Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, Martin Luther, 1534), Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying (Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, Philipp Nicolai, 1599), How Brightly Beams the Morning Star! (Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, Nicolai, 1597), and the Christmas hymn A Spotless Rose (Es ist ein Ros entsprungen), known in our hymnal as Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming. According to The Harvard University Hymn Book, Winkworth “did more than any other single individual to make the rich heritage of German hymnody available to the English-speaking world”.

Jim Raycroft 8/4/24 Jim Raycroft 8/4/24

Music Notes 8-4-24

This August marks the end of an era – Jose is leaving us, at least from his position as section leader. He’s been promoted at work and his job is becoming sufficiently demanding that he’s been having trouble balancing his job and his time with us. He’s promised us that he’ll still be around – we’ll see him again at the end of August – and I’m determined to get him to sing for us from time to time, when his job allows. So please take a moment to thank him after the service for his dedication and commitment to our worship. We’ll miss you, Jose!

Jose Meza holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and a Masters in Music Industry Administration from California State University, Northridge. Some of his performed soloist concert repertoire include: Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Handel’s Messiah & Dettingen te Deum, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s Magnificat & Wachet auf, Schubert's Mass in G, and Mozart’s Requiem. José has received the Desert Opera Theater Scholarship and the David & Judith Scott Voice Scholarship. He has also been a winner in the Pasadena Schubertiade Lieder Competition and in the Center Stage Opera Vocal Competition. José has participated in summer programs with Opera San José, Angels Vocal Art, and CSU Summer Arts. Currently, Jose is the Education Programs Manager at Los Angeles Master Chorale and leads The Sunday Night Singers, a non-profit community choir in Palmdale, CA. He has been the tenor section leader at First Presbyterian Church, Encino since January 2018.

In 1971, Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Leonard Bernstein to write a piece for the opening ceremonies of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Initially, he intended to write a traditional Mass, but ultimately chose to create a more innovative format. Its official title is MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers. It was intended to be staged but is often presented in a standard concert presentation. The liturgical parts are in Latin, but there are additional texts in English written by Bernstein, Broadway composer Stephen Schwarz and Paul Simon. It premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress. A Simple Song is the second piece in the work, following the opening Kyrie Eleison, and is sung by “The Celebrant”.

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 1st Christian artist to receive the “Billionaire” award from Pandora for reaching one billion Pandora streams. His song Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone was part of the album See The Morning, his 4th studio album that was released in 2006 and arguably was the album that established him as one of the bright lights of the contemporary Christian music world. In this song, he takes the beloved classic and adds a “chorus” to it, treating the words of Amazing Grace as if they were the verses.

The text to Blest Be The Tie That Binds was written in 1782 by John Fawcett, a self-educated orphan who was apprenticed to a tailor, but was called to preaching at the age of 16. He was preaching at a small Baptist country church in Wainsgate, Yorkshire, England when he wrote the words to this familiar hymn. Lowell Mason, who we all know from his setting of Joy To The World, was an American musician and banker (!) who wrote an arrangement of the tune we know and attributed it to Swiss composer Johann Nageli. The resulting hymn has been published in 2,273 hymnals around the world.

Jim Raycroft 7/28/24 Jim Raycroft 7/28/24

Music Notes 7-28-24

This is the last week we get to hear our faithful choir for a while. They get the month of August off and we’ll get to hear them again on September 8th, the Sunday after Labor Day. During the month of August, our section leaders will be filling the gaps, and I’ll take the Sunday of Labor Day weekend so they can take that weekend off. Please take a moment to thank our wonderful choir. Our visiting pastor last week came over to me after the service and said, “You’re doing really good things here!” I know. He said that he’s hearing gossip around the Presbytery about us. It’s all thanks to the faithful members of our choir and staff who contribute their time and talents week after week so our worship can be elevated. Thanks, folks. It’s truly a pleasure.

People Need The Lord is a ballad by Greg Nelson and Phill McHugh written in 1983 and recorded by Steve Green. Greg Nelson is a composer/arranger/orchestrator who is also a Nashville record producer with 20 Dove (Christian Music) awards and has produced 13 gold records and 7 platinum records. He gave People Need The Lord to singer Steve Green, who released it on his self-titled album in 1984. It is now considered to be a Christian classic, and I thought it would make a nice duet.

The lyrics to the classic hymn Praise Ye The Lord, The Almighty were written in 1680 by Joachim Neander, who was born in Bremen in 1650. His text, Lobe Den Herren (Praise to the Lord), was written very near to the end of his life and was translated into English by Catherine Winkworth in 1863. She was born in 1827 in London, was initially educated by her mother and lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany in 1845, where she learned German and developed an interest in German hymnody. Upon returning to England, she began translating German hymns into English. Her translations are known as polished and yet don’t stray too far away from the original text. She translated over 400 hymns and Praise To The Lord, The Almighty appears in over 300 hymnals around the world. The melody first appeared in 1665 in the German hymnbook Stralsund Ernewerten Gesangbuch and was harmonized into the hymn tune we know now by Sir William Sterndale Bennett. Bennett was born in Sheffield, England, in 1816 and studied first at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1826, and then in Leipzig, Germany, in 1836. The hymn, in the form we know now, first appeared in The Chorale Book For England in 1863, and has appeared in over 40 hymnals.

Matt Redman is an English Christian worship leader currently based in Brighton. He has won 10 Dove Awards for everything from Worship Song of the Year 2005 (for Blessed Be Your Name) to Songwriter of the Year 2013. His album 10,000 Reasons was released in 2012 and the title track went on to be #1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, where it remained for 13 weeks. 10,000 Reasons also won Grammy Awards in 2013 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song and Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance. One Day (When We All Get To Heaven) is a new song from a new album – Glory Song, released in September of 2017. Glory Song takes a more “gospel” approach, using lots of background singers that gives the album a choral feel. Today, Matt and his wife, Beth, are members of St. Peter’s Church in Brighton, England and have 5 children.

Jim Raycroft 7/21/24 Jim Raycroft 7/21/24

Music Notes 7-21-24

Jester Hairston was a local treasure. One of the most recognizable names in the world of spirituals, Jester was born the grandson of slaves, who worked the Hairston Plantation in Belews Creek, North Carolina. His parents moved to Homestead, PA (outside Pittsburgh), where he graduated high school. He then studied at, as one of the first black individuals admitted, and graduated from Tufts College outside Boston in 1929. He sang with the Hall Johnson Choir in Harlem for a while, but was almost fired because of his Boston accent (Johnson told him “we’re singing ain’t and cain’t, and you’re singing shahn’t and cahn’t – they don’t mix!”). His work on Broadway with that choir took him to Hollywood, where he began working regularly on movies, television and radio. He began writing and arranging, especially spirituals, with Mary’s Little Boy Child composed in 1956. Most of us have seen the movie Lilies of the Field (1963), starring Sidney Poitier. Those wonderful scenes where Sidney is singing “Amen, amen, amen”, which he teaches to the nuns – that song was composed and arranged by Jester for the movie, and Sidney’s singing isn’t Sidney – it’s Jester. Jester lived out his life in Los Angeles, traveling all over the world teaching and conducting and spreading the word of spirituals. He also worked as an actor in front of the camera, in such movies as The Alamo, To Kill A Mockingbird and In The Heat Of The Night, to name a few. Many of the singers in town were his protégés, and “Jester stories” abound at local music events. We lost Jester on January 18, 2000, at the age of 98, and most of the musical world in Los Angeles attended the funeral service. Our anthem this week, Give Me Jesus, is one of his classics.

In the spring of 1863, Folliott S. Pierpoint, born in Somerset, England in 1835, sat on a hilltop outside his native city of Bath, England, admiring the country view and the winding Avon River. Inspired by the view to think about God’s gifts in creation, he wrote this text for For The Beauty Of The Earth. He was educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and periodically taught classics at Somersetshire College. But because he had received an inheritance, he didn’t need a regular teaching position and could afford the leisure of personal study and writing. His 3 volumes of poetry were collected in 1878. He contributed hymns to The Hymnal Noted (1852) and Lyra Eucharistica (1864). The text of For The Beauty Of The Earth has been set to music by numerous composers over the years, adapted for our hymnal to an 1838 chorale tune by German composer Conrad Kocher (1786-1872) and more recently and notably set to music by English composer John Rutter. For The Beauty Of The Earth is the only Pierpoint hymn still sung today.

Holy, Holy, Holy is a classic hymn that, at last count, has been published in 1421 hymnals. The words were written in by Reginald Heber, an English clergyman born in 1783. He entered Oxford at age 17, winning awards for his poetry, and was appointed to the post of Vicar of Hobnet (near Shrewsbury) in 1807. All 57 of his hymns were written during his time at Hobnet, were he resided for 16 years before being appointed Bishop of Calcutta in 1823. He was inspired by the Nicene Creed to write this great hymn of praise to the Triune God, with the intent that the hymn be sung before or after the creed was recited in a service, and on Trinity Sunday – eight weeks after Easter. The tune was composed by John Bacchus Dykes in 1861, and is considered to be one of his best melodies. He was called his tune NICAEA, in recognition of Heber’s text, and after their first publication together in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, the tune and the text have been inseparable.

Jim Raycroft 7/14/24 Jim Raycroft 7/14/24

Music Notes 7-14-24

Andrew Lloyd Webber has become an icon in the world of theatrical music, writing his first pieces, a suite of 6 pieces, at the age of nine. Over the years he has written 21 musicals (several of which have run for over a decade both on the West End of London and on Broadway), a song cycle, a set of variations, 2 film scores and a Latin Requiem Mass. The Requiem was written during 1984 in memory of his father, William Lloyd Webber, a composer and organist. It was premiered in 1985, conducted by Lorin Maazel, with soloists Placido Domingo, Sarah Brightman (Webber’s wife at the time) and boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston. It contained elements of his melodic, pop-oriented style with more angular, austere musical environments. The recording proved to be quite popular, although the piece is seldom performed live, partially due to the large forces needed and the fact that the vocal writing is very tricky and demanding. The Requiem debuted in Los Angeles in 1986 at the Shrine Theatre. It was the backdrop for the American Ballet Theatre, under the leadership of Mikhael Baryshnikov. I was singing with the Roger Wagner Chorale at the time, and we were hired to be the pit choir for the performance. It turned out that the iconic Pie Jesu was choreographed and danced by Baryshnikov himself, and subsequently, none of us were paying much attention to the conductor (our eyes were glued to the stage – we had, after all, the best seats in the house). The Pie Jesu features both the soprano soloist, the boy soprano (although this week we’re substituting a real soprano) and the choir. Probably the most popular piece in the Requiem, the Pie Jesu is, for my money, also the best piece of music in the work.

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise is a Christian hymn with words written in 1867 by the Free Church of Scotland minister, Walter Chalmers Smith. It is usually sung to the tune, St. Denio (referring to St. Denis, the patron saint of France), originally a Welsh ballad tune, which became a hymn (under the name Palestrina) in Caniadau y Cyssegr (Hymns of the Sanctuary), edited in 1839 by John Roberts, also known by his Welsh name, Ieuan Gwyllt (wild John), to distinguish him from numerous other John Roberts. Of this hymn, musicologist Erik Routley has written: "Immortal, Invisible should give the reader a moment's pause. Most readers will think they know this hymn, the work of another Free Kirk minister. But it never now appears as its author wrote it, and a closer look at it in its fuller form shows that it was by no means designed to be one of those general hymns of praise that the parson slams into the praise-list when he is in too much of a hurry to think of anything else but a hymn about the reading of Scripture. Just occasionally editorial tinkering changes the whole personality of a hymn; it has certainly done so here."

All Creatures Of Our God And King is a hymn written by William Henry Draper, based on a poem by St. Francis of Assisi written in 1225 in his poem Canticle of the Sun, which was based on Psalm 148. William Henry Draper was rector at a Church of England parish in Abel, near Leeds. He paraphrased St. Francis’ poem and set it to music sometime between 1899 and 1919 (the exact date is unknown). It was written for his church’s children’s Pentecost celebrations, and was first published in 1919 in The Public School Hymn Book. It is usually associated with the tune Lass Uns Erfreuen, a German Easter hymn published by Friedrich Spee in 1623 in his book Auserlesene Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng. The most famous arrangement of the melody was written by Ralph Vaughn Williams in 1906 when he was on the committee for the Church of England hymnal. At last count, it has been published in 264 hymnals.

Jim Raycroft 7/7/24 Jim Raycroft 7/7/24

Music Notes 7-7-24

This week we have our wonderful band with us, and our anthem is a tune I have had on the brain for literally decades. Back in 1999, The New Covenant Singers, the contemporary choir from Bel Air Presbyterian Church, came to my wife’s church (St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Granada Hills) as guest artists and asked if our resident band could accompany them on their anthem piece. I orchestrated it for them, and lost track of the choral score. Finally, a couple of months ago, after a lot of detective work, I discovered the song had been written by Dan Adler. Dan and his wife run a coffee house/performing space/ministry in Minneapolis. The piece was out of print, but I contacted Dan, and he gave me a copy of the choral score and the brass parts that were on the recording (you can hear it on YouTube). The piece, It Is Good, is a calypso tune that was released on the album What We Really Need by his band the Heart of the City Worship Band and is so infectious, it makes you want to dance in the aisles.

You Raise Me Up was originally composed by the Norwegian-Irish duo Secret Garden and was initially an instrumental titled Silent Story. Composer Rolf Løvland approached Irish novelist/songwriter Brendan Graham to write the lyrics (which probably appealed to Graham due to the similarity between the tune and the tune for the Irish folk song Danny Boy). It was released in 2002 on Secret Garden’s album Once In A Red Moon, sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy, and sold well in Ireland and Norway. In 2003, David Foster decided to produce the song and chose young up-and-coming singer Josh Groban to sing it. It was released on the album Closer in 2003 and rose to #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary Chart in early 2004, where it remained for 6 weeks.

Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, Third Day is a Christian rock band formed at YMCA Camp High Harbour in 1991 by high-schoolers Mac Powell and Mark Lee. The name Third Day is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection on the third day after crucifixion. Over the years, like most bands, they had several different musicians playing with them and released their first independent album, Long Time Forgotten, in 1994. In 1995, they signed a contract with Reunion Records and released their second album Third Day in 1996. That year they were nominated for a Dove Award for New Artist of the Year and their video Consuming Fire won a Billboard Music Award for Best Christian Video. In 2004, they released their seventh album Wire, toured the U.S. and Europe, collaborated on Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ, played at the Republican National Convention and were featured on 60 Minutes. Their hit single, Soul On Fire, is from their album Soul On Fire of 2014, and spent 19 weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at No. 2 on Hot Christian Songs and No. 3 on Christian Digital Songs.

Hailing from the small coastal town of Bangor in Northern Ireland, the Rend Collective is a group of “twenty-somethings” that gathered at Rend, what the band describes as “a ministry for spiritually hungry young adults, desperately seeking an authentic, raw and real expression of church, which was informally pastored by bandleader, Gareth Gilkeson.” Their first album – Homemade Worship by Handmade People – was released in 2012, and was followed by a string of hits in the contemporary Christian music world. Their music is based around older instruments - their native Irish folk instruments, old rock and roll guitars and assorted other whimsical musical toys - and has a raw, uninhibited style that gets the toes tapping and the feet stomping. They don’t call themselves a folk band, but insist rather “We are not actually an indie-folk band - despite all the beards and bow-ties and banjos. We are a celebration band. It’s just a coincidence that folk music and celebration make a great pairing!” Their song My Lighthouse is a classic foot-stomper that never fails to engage the listener and was released in 2014 on the album The Art Of Celebration.

Dan Schutte is one of the most renowned of the contemporary composers in the Catholic world and is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Jesuits, who popularized a contemporary style of church music set to sacred texts sung in English. This was a result of the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960’s (also known as Vatican II), which revamped and reformed the Catholic liturgy in an effort to bring it closer to the people (before that, the mass was sung in Latin and the priest kept his back to the congregation throughout). He is based in San Francisco, has written over 120 popular hymns and mass settings, and continues to be one of the most influential figures in the world of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. His most famous composition is Here I Am, Lord, based on texts from Isaiah and Samuel. Despite its Catholic origins, it is found in most Protestant hymnals and has been translated into over 20 different languages. In 2008, a survey conducted by the United Methodist Church found it to be 2nd favorite after Amazing Grace.

Bob Marley was a Jamaican composer/singer/recording artist who became a world-renowned cultural icon and synonymous with Jamaica and reggae music. In fact, today Jamaica still uses his song One Love in their tourism ads. He was born in 1945 and fused reggae, ska and rocksteady styles of music into his compositions. He started his career with his band The Wailers in 1963, which released some of the earliest reggae recordings. When the band disbanded in 1974, he moved to England and embarked on a solo career with the 1977 release of his mega-hit album Exodus. It had 4 hit singles – Exodus, Jamming, Waiting In Vain and One Love. It went stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks, sold 75 million records and established him as one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. He tragically died young, at the age of 36, of melanoma in Miami in 1981.

Jim Raycroft 6/30/24 Jim Raycroft 6/30/24

Music Notes 6-30-24

Next week, on the 4th of July weekend, we’ll be welcoming back our wonderful band. The musical menu will include music to uplift your soul, and music that will make you want to dance. So, spread the word – FPCE is the place to be Sunday mornings!

Wade In The Water is a negro spiritual that belongs to the genre “code songs”. Slaves were not allowed to congregate, for fear of fomenting revolution, but they were allowed to sing in the fields, as long as the lyrics weren’t too revolutionary. Biblical subjects were considered relatively safe, which gave birth to the “spiritual”. However, the slaves got past the problem of disallowed communication with code songs, which were spirituals that had a secondary meaning. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot referred to the town of Ripley, West Virginia, which was a station in the underground railroad. Slaves would make their way to the banks of the Ohio River and wait for the people of Ripley to come across in rowboats at night to take them to safety – “Well, I looked over Jordan and what I did I see….a band of angels comin’ after me…”. Wade In The Water was a code song that told the listener that there were slave hunters or bounty hunters ahead, and to go in the opposite direction. Harriet Tubman used the song to remind escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water so that the dogs employed by slavers lost the trail. This groovy arrangement by Mark Hayes is immensely fun to sing. 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. The feel of the stride piano in this arrangement evokes the nightclubs of the 20’s and 30’s – I’ve been telling the choir to imagine themselves in the “Ink and Paint Club” (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit) or the nightclub from the Harry Potter prequel movie Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Sarah McLachlan is a Canadian singer/songwriter known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range. As of 2015 she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians on an unprecedented scale. The Lilith Fair concert tours took place from 1997 to 1999, and resumed in the summer of 2010. She also funds an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2007, the provincial government announced $500,000 in funding for the outreach program. Originating at the "Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach", this program evolved into the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. This program provided children with high quality music instruction in guitar, piano, percussion and choir. In 2011 McLachlan opened the Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, a free music school for at-risk youth. The School of Music provides group and private lessons to hundreds of young people every year. It is their goal that through music education, students will develop a love of the arts and have greater self-esteem. On May 25, 2016, the Sarah McLachlan School of Music expanded to Edmonton, Alberta (my hometown), opening in Rundle Elementary School and Eastglen High School. The music school contains the same initiative as the Vancouver school. Her version of The Prayer of St. Francis, simple and meditative, was released in 2015 on the album Surfacing, noted above as her best-selling album to date.

Jim Raycroft 6/23/24 Jim Raycroft 6/23/24

Music Notes 6-23-24

What began as a Gregorian chant that some music scholars believe originated before the formation of the Catholic Mass, Ubi Caritas ("Where Charity Is") has evolved into many iterations and compositions. The actual origin of the chant is unknown and ambiguous, although musicologists and researchers believe it was written between 300 and 1100 CE. Today Ubi Caritas is performed in a variety of settings and traditions, including its typical use as an antiphon during the Catholic Church's washing of feet ceremony. That ceremony is performed on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), which is the Thursday before Easter Sunday commemorating the Last Supper where Jesus's washed his disciples' feet. Ubi Caritas is also sometimes performed during Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Perhaps one of the most popular compositions of Ubi Caritas is by Maurice Duruflé. Maurice Gustave Duruflé was a French composer, born in Louvier in 1902. After studying with a variety of famous French composers, he ended up as assistant to organist/composer Louis Vierne at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and was named the titular organist at St-Étienne-du-Mont. His most renowned works were his Requiem Mass, which received its North American premier right here in Los Angeles under the baton of renowned conductor Roger Wagner, and his settings of four motets based on Gregorian chants. Duruflé composed the arrangement of Ubi Caritas in 1960 as part of his Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, Op. 10, by using only the first stanza of the original chant. He also used the chant's original melody, layering and weaving it into a sublime, polyphonic, and understated choral work. Ubi Caritas is one of the “Top 10” choral works for a cappella choir and is basically part of every choral singer’s repertoire. I remember singing it at the spur of the moment in the Sony Studios scoring stage for film composer Jerry Goldsmith after we recorded the music for the movie First Knight.

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.

One Thing Remains is a song that was written in 2010 by Brian Johnson, Jeremy Riddle and Christa Black Gifford. It was recorded and released as part of the live album Come Away, which was recorded at the 2010 Jesus Culture Encounter Conference. The Jesus Culture Conference began as part of the youth group of Bethel Church in Redding, California, with the first conference being held in 1999 and attracting 500 attendees. Since then, it has grown into a musical force for worship with a full time staff of dozens and a discography that numbers 33 albums. It recently expanded to Sacramento, where they meet at Folsom High School. One Thing Remains has been covered by numerous artists, including Kristian Stanfill, Israel Houghton and Chris Tomlin.

Jim Raycroft 6/16/24 Jim Raycroft 6/16/24

Music Notes 6-16-24

Father’s Eyes is the title track of the album My Father’s Eyes, written by Gary Chapman and released in 1979 by 19-year-old Amy Grant. It was her 2nd studio album, released on Myrrh Records, and was a turning point in her career. The title track gave her her 1st Christian Top 10 hit, as well as the Christian Top 10 hit Faith Walkin’ People. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary, and was certified Gold in 1987. I’m always on the lookout for good songs for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and was delighted to find this one.

Total Praise is a powerhouse gospel ballad by Richard Smallwood, who is a legend in gospel music circles. It’s best to let him tell the story: “In October 1995, my mother was ill, my godbrother was terminally ill, and I was a caregiver, going from the hospital to my house, taking care of everything. Caregiving is a very difficult thing to do. It’s time-consuming, and if you don’t watch out, you’ll end up in the hospital, too. I also began to feel that I wasn’t doing enough for my loved ones. I felt helpless and inadequate in what I was doing. At the same time, I had just founded Vision and was starting early rehearsals in preparation for a recording the beginning of that next year, 1996. I was coming up with music for the album, so from time to time, I would sit at the piano and fiddle around and see what I could come up with. I don’t remember specifically trying to write a song that day in October. I just sat down at the piano in my living room and started playing, and Total Praise just started coming out. I remember distinctly recognizing that it was a praise song, in terms of a theme, but I was trying to pull it back the other way and go into a pity party kind of song: “Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hills, I know you’re my help, so I need you to hold me, to dry my tears”- that kind of thing. But the more I pulled it that way, the more it pulled the other way, in terms of praise.

I thought, “This is a song we probably could use. Let me see if I can’t finish it.” I wrote Total Praise pretty fast - in an hour or an hour and a half. I was putting it down on my cassette recorder, which was sitting on my piano. I could hear the amens in my head, but I wanted to hear them back at me. I had a four-track cassette player on which you could record separate tracks. I recorded the amens on it so I could make sure the harmony was what I was hearing in my head. It took about a half hour to record the amens. But at the rehearsal, we couldn’t move on from the song. After I taught it and we sang it, I remember God coming through and stopping the rehearsal. The same thing happened the following year, in Atlanta, during the sound check the day before the recording. Total Praise was to be the opening song for the recording. I’m not sure why I put it first; it was just a good opening. It was sort of a new chapter for me. I’d done the Smallwood Singers for almost fifteen years, and this was the first time I had done a choral ensemble aggregation. So, I thought it would just sort of set the tone. But it was even hard to move past it the night we recorded it.”

Total Praise has become a “Top 10” standard in the world of gospel music, has been covered by just about everybody, from Patti LaBelle to Destiny’s Child, and was sung on the White House lawn for President Obama and Pope Francis.

First Presbyterian Church Encino