Music Notes 6-9-24

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.  This week’s anthem is his take on the old spiritual Go Tell It On The Mountain.  Like so many of Mark’s works, it infuses jazz, blues and gospel together to get a musical jambalaya that is guaranteed to get your motor running and the juices flowing.  It’s a kick to sing, and I love to program it for the choir.

All Things Bright And Beautiful is an Anglican hymn that incorporates text written by Cecil Frances Alexander.  It was a poem that appeared in a book of poetry entitled Hymns For Little Children, published in 1848.  The inspiration for the text has been suggested to be Psalm 104 - "Oh Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts" – or possibly passages from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner - "He prayeth best, who loveth best; All things great and small; For the dear God who loveth us; He made and loveth all."  Mrs. Alexander was well traveled, and it’s been suggested that the references to the “purple headed mountain” referred to Benevenagh in Ireland, and "the river running by" to the River Roe which flows past Bellerena House in Londonderry, which she visited several times.  The tune which we use is ROYAL OAK, which is an adaptation of the 17th century folk song The Twenty-Ninth Of May, which was first published in The Dancing Master in 1686.  The tune was first arranged for the hymn by Martin Shaw in 1916 and published in his book for children Song Time.  The arrangement became widely associated with the text when it was included in the 1925 hymnal Songs Of Praise, assembled by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughn Williams.  Ironically, the popular 1906 English Hymnal was considered by many to be too “high church”, so the three composers were charged with assembling a book of lighter material.  It’s interesting that this hymn was considered a “praise song” at that time.  The text has been used by many composers over the years, John Rutter’s famous anthem being one of the most well-known.  The opening lines of the poem were used for the titles of his famous books of stories of English countryside veterinary adventures by James Harriott (pseudonym for Alf Wight).  The first book’s title, All Creatures Great And Small, became a renowned British TV show (which we used to watch every Sunday evening after The Wonderful World of Disney) and has recently been rebooted.  In 1970’s Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, composer Leonard Rosenman (who was teaching at CalArts when I was there) created a discordant version of the hymn that was sung by a dystopian cult that worshipped a nuclear bomb.  Monty Python also got into the act with a parody of the hymn on their 1980’s album Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album in which the choir sings in praise of “All Things Dull And Ugly”.  This hymn has shown up in over 325 hymnals and is known and beloved the world over.