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.