Jim Raycroft 4/7/24 Jim Raycroft 4/7/24

Music Notes 4-7-24

The week after Easter is always a well-deserved rest for our faithful choir. The drive up to Easter morning is always intense and heavy with additional music, so by the end of the Easter morning service, they are all ready to kick back on a beach in the South Pacific somewhere and watch the sunset, and deservedly so. They also show up every Thursday night at 7:30 to spend the evening rehearsing music that will help to uplift the worship. They even show up an hour early Sunday morning, at 9 a.m., to refresh the memories before the service. That’s over 120 hours a year that they give to the church, over and above whatever else they might contribute, whatever other groups and committees they might serve on, to make our Sunday worship more meaningful and inspirational. We owe our choir a big debt of thanks for their contributions that make our worship so much better. Anybody have a jet we could borrow to take them all to Maui….?

Great Is Thy Faithfulness is a hymn written by American composer William M. Runyan and author Thomas O. Chisholm. William Runyan composed the tune in 1923 to an original poem by his good friend and fellow Methodist minister Thomas Chisholm. The hymn has been included in more than 95 hymnals, and his family endowed the "The Rev. William M. Runyan Endowed Memorial Scholarship" at Baker University, in Baldwin City, Kansas (where he is buried), with the royalties from his song Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Break Forth, Oh Beauteous Heavenly Light is a classic hymn that began its life in the German language. The author, Johann von Rist, was born in 1607 and dedicated his life to the church, eventually becoming a pastor in Ottensen, a small town just outside Hamburg, Germany. Although the text was written in 1641, it wasn’t until 1873 that it was translated into the English text we know by John Troutbeck, who became Chaplain and Priest in Ordinary to the Queen (Victoria) and was known for having compiled the Westminster Abbey Hymn Book in 1883. The melody was written in 1641 by Johann Schop, who was a Lutheran composer and violinist known for his virtuosity, and harmonized by J.S Bach in 1734.

Jim Raycroft 3/31/24 Jim Raycroft 3/31/24

Music Notes 3-31-24

Once again, it’s Easter morning and it’s time to celebrate. We welcome our extra musicians, artists that play with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Disneyland Band and in the studios. The glorious sound of the brass, the organ, the timpani, the voices, all combine to bring the joy of the resurrection to a level that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I hope you leave the service with a sense of euphoria – that means I did my job. Happy Easter!

Also Sprach Zarasthustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) is an orchestral tone poem by German composer Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 when he was 32 years old. It was inspired by the philosophical novel of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche. The opening fanfare, which he titled “Sunrise” in his program notes, became wildly famous when it was used extensively in the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001, A Space Odyssey. By the time of the 2nd World War, Richard Strauss was the most famous composer in the world. He had written orchestral works and operas that had put him on the very short list of composers who were absolute masters of both melody and orchestration. To this day, his opera Der Rosenkavalier (“The Knight of the Rose”) is considered to be one of the very best in history, and the closing trio, even if you don’t particularly like opera or understand the German language, is considered to be the closest thing to musical ecstasy ever written. Listen to it on YouTube sometime – turn up the volume, because with the specified 125 piece orchestra, it will blow your mind. Wanting to take advantage of his fame, the Nazis appointed him, without his consent, to the position of music master of the Third Reich. He took advantage of his position to save a number of Jews from prosecution (including his daughter-in-law), then packed up his family and escaped to Austria, where he hid for the remainder of the war. Ironically, the first Allied soldier to find him and tell him the war was over was an oboe player from the New York Philharmonic, who recognized him and immediately asked him to write something for oboe (he agreed).

John Williams is an international icon and national treasure. He attended North Hollywood High School, then UCLA, then was drafted into the US Air Force, where he conducted and wrote arrangements for the Air Force Band. He then went to Julliard School of Music, where he studied piano, and worked as a jazz pianist in the New York nightclubs. After moving back to Los Angeles, he began working as a session pianist (in those days, he was known as Johnny Williams), especially with Henry Mancini. He was the pianist on the famous recording of Peter Gunn (we know that piece as the background music for the movie The Blues Brothers), and was the pianist for Marilyn Monroe on the movie Some Like It Hot. He wrote music for TV shows like Lost In Space and the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island, and began transitioning to movies. His first movie score was a B movie called Daddy-O, his first Oscar nomination was for 1967’s Valley of the Dolls, and his first Oscar win was for 1971’s Fiddler on the Roof. In 1974 he was approached by Steven Spielberg to write the score for The Sugarland Express, and the rest is history. Spielberg recommended John to his pal George Lucas to write the score for a little movie called Star Wars, and history exploded. In 1984, the Olympic Organizing Committee commissioned him to write a fanfare to be debuted at the opening ceremonies, and it has become part of the Olympic tradition, as well as one of the most recognized orchestral pieces of the 20th century. The composer told Jon Burlingame in 1992 that his music was intended to musically represent “the spirit of cooperation, of heroic achievement, all the striving and preparation that go before the events and all the applause that comes after them.”

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. This Easter, we’re singing the first movement of his Gloria, which was written for Mel Olsen, a choral conductor in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1974, and was his first American commission. Rutter composed it according to Olson's specifications, noting his influence: "Much of the credit must go to Mel Olson … because, in telling me what he was looking for in a new choral work, he was telling me what thousands of other choral directors were looking for too”.

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 offertory, Coronation, was composed in 1986 and invokes visions of the Coronation of King Charles of England – a slow, majestic procession and text that talks about “crowning Him Lord of All”

Jim Raycroft 3/24/24 Jim Raycroft 3/24/24

Music Notes 3-24-24

Jesus Christ Superstar began as a concept album in the late 1960’s, with Webber working with his school friend Tim Rice. They began recording the music piecemeal, and released I Don’t Know How To Love Him as a single in 1970, which peaked at #28 in the U.S in 1971. The lead role of Jesus was sung by Ian Gillan, who had just joined the English rock band Deep Purple and brought with him a degree of fame and following to the project. Mary Magdalene was sung by Yvonne Elliman, who was born in Honolulu (Irish father, Japanese mother) and was singing in London clubs at the time she was discovered by Webber and Rice. She and Barry Dennen (Pilate) were the only cast members to do the original concept album of 1970, the first authorized stage performance at the Pittsburgh Civic Auditorium in July of 1971, the original Broadway production, which opened in October of 1971, and the movie, which was released in 1973 (starring Ted Neeley as Jesus, who was the Jesus understudy for the original Broadway production). The music director on the movie was Andre Previn, who began his career scoring movies and was hired to be the music director for the London Symphony in 1968. He told me about his experience working on the movie while we were preparing a performance of the Britten Spring Symphony. “I was knee-deep in the London Symphony when Norman Jewison called and told me he needed me for a movie. I told him I didn’t have time. He said, “It’s Jesus Christ Superstar” and I said, “Then especially NO, because I hate the piece”. He told me that Webber had insisted on being music director and they had spent 18 three-hour sessions with the London Philharmonic and had only 2½ minutes of usable music. I agreed to go look at what they had, and when I saw it, I told him that the problem was that the music wasn’t laid out for a movie (aside – all movie music has to be time-coded, so that it can be syncopated to the action on the screen). After much groveling, I told him that I would do it, but I needed 2 orchestrators and 6 copyists at my disposal immediately, there was a specific music editor that he would fly out from Hollywood first class and, sorry to be crass, but it’s going to cost you a lot of money. Jewison said “Fine. Right now, I have no movie”. I rewrote the score and we recorded it in 6 weeks.” Hosanna is the song underscoring the Palm Sunday entrance of Jesus into the temple. The Broadway production of Superstar ran for 711 shows and was nominated for 5 Tony Awards (but didn’t win any), including Best Score, and Andrew Lloyd Webber won a Drama Desk Award for “Most Promising Composer” (Oh, really? Ya think?).

Jack Walker is a composer based in Santa Monica. He’s written mostly for the church, including anthems, instrumentals, and musicals, including a musical called Moses (yup, it’s about exactly what you think it’s about) that was received to critical acclaim (I recorded a couple of tunes from it for him a few years ago). He was music director at Brentwood Presbyterian Church for many years, retiring in the late 90’s, and was there when I was the bass section leader from 1987 to 1991. One day he was complaining to me that no one would publish a communion anthem he had recently written called Come To The Table because it was a cappella (no accompaniment). In those days especially (and even now), publishers were in the business of selling music, not publishing it, and they were looking at studies that showed that the average church choir in the country had 12 members with no tenors. The publishers became increasingly specific about what kinds of music they would consider for publication, and for many years, the church music world was drowned in a sea of poorly written, uninspired little anthems that would never float in the real world of music, but they were easily accessible for the “average” church choir. I told Jack to simply add a “Chopinesque” piano accompaniment and submit it, because it was a good piece of music. He told me “Well, DO it!” So I did, and it got published by Fred Bock Music and went on to be his best-seller. Jack has been to visit our congregation a couple of times since I’ve been here, and gave us a copy of Come To The Table for our library.

Jim Raycroft 3/17/24 Jim Raycroft 3/17/24

Music Notes 3-17-24

Once again, it is St. Patrick’s Day, and everyone is automatically an honorary Irishman. My own family traces its roots back to County Cork, where John and Jane Raycroft got on a boat in 1812 and traveled across the ocean to Montreal. Of course, the fun myth about St. Patrick’s Day is celebrating how he chased all the snakes out of Ireland, but the reality is very different. I won’t go into here but would urge you all to look it up – the real story is very interesting. The music and culture of Ireland is fascinating – the original language, which they still speak, is Gaelic, the music is a more folk-based music – remember the music we’ve done by the Rend Collective? They have their own version of bagpipes, where the player can actually create a vibrato and play a melody with expression and soul. The accordion is big – I have a colleague in the Master Chorale – Dermot from Dublin – who actually did a master’s degree in classical accordion and played in an accordion orchestra and was taught to play the penny whistle from age 4 (interestingly, my Italian professor in college was from Venice and played in an accordion orchestra). Of course, not all their music is folk based – there’s the matter of that little band called U2……

The Lord Is My Shepherd is a monumental work that features a tenor soloist and choir, with a big orchestra accompaniment (for our purposes, we have our own orchestra in the 10 fingers of Paul). It was composed here in Los Angeles by Meir Finkelstein 30 years ago. Meir is a British national who was brought to Los Angeles by the Sinai Temple in Westwood to be their cantor and composer in residence, where he flourished for decades. These days he is in Detroit and continues to write what is, in my humble opinion, some of the best music in the Jewish world. Back in 1995, the Jewish community staged a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. They rented the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, hired the L.A. Philharmonic and the L.A. Master Chorale (I can’t begin to imagine what it must have cost) and filled the concert with Meir’s music. They had celebrity MC’s (I remember Billy Crystal talking about growing up in an Italian neighborhood and splitting the cultural difference by having spaghetti with matzo balls). I was absolutely floored singing The Lord Is My Shepherd – my first thought was “where has this been all my life and WHY isn’t it a part of international standard repertoire?” Of, course, for the basic church choir, it’s not for the faint of heart…it’s advanced music that requires a serious tenor soloist – of course, we have a serious tenor in Jose and the choir has been tackling the piece with gusto. We’re cutting parts of it for time, but it’s such a marvelous piece that we’ll circle back to it, perhaps in the fall and do it again with all the parts. Several years ago, I was looking for a big concert work to do with my choir of lawyers, so I sent a note to Meir and asked him if we could do this. He sent me not only the vocal score, but the orchestral parts as well. It’s truly magnificent, and I hope it impacts all of you the same way it impacted me. You can hear it on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5-Z0X5eSVI

Phil Wickham is a Christian artist from San Diego. He grew up in a musical home, with both his parents at one time being members of the Christian band Parable. His father, John, is still a worship leader and his brother, Evan, started as a musician in a worship band and now is pastor of Park Hill Church in San Diego. Phil released his first album, Give You My World, in 2003 and has since released a total of 9 albums. The song Living Hope was the title song released on the album Living Hope in 2018. You’ll be able to catch his act in Bakersfield on April 19 this year. Check out his website for more information.

Jim Raycroft 3/10/24 Jim Raycroft 3/10/24

Music Notes 3-10-24

It was, as always, a great joy to have our wonderful band with us last Sunday. The next big musical extravaganza will be Easter morning. I’ve mentioned this before, but the various holidays in the Christian calendar suggest different things to me musically. Christmas celebrates the birth of a baby – as a musician, this translates to me as a sound world of harp and strings. Easter, on the other hand, is a party. There have been many prophets over the millennia, but ours actually rose from the dead. His resurrection is the reason we’re here, celebrating his life and messages, spreading his philosophies and living by his commandments. Now that’s a reason to celebrate. From a musical standpoint, that suggests brass and timpani to me. Over the years I’ve developed my musical language and my concepts of the ideal Easter ensemble. I’ve been busy writing orchestrations for our Easter celebration, and it’s going to be spectacular. Of course, we might have to get a permit from the city to relocate the roof of the church out onto Balboa Blvd., but I promise you, you’ll walk out of the church on a cloud. Spread the word.

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 based on Psalm 91 and was written for a commission in memory of Margaret Ashworth Craig in 1996.

What Wondrous Love Is This is a hymn that has a multi-layered past. The text’s author is listed as “Anonymous”, which means that it could have gone through a variety of authors, iterations, and rewrites before arriving in the form we now know. It was first set to the tune we know in William Walker’s 1840 second edition publication of Southern Harmony. Interestingly, the tune comes from an old English ballad about the infamous English pirate Captain Kidd:

My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed, when I sailed;
My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed;
My name was Robert Kidd, God's laws I did forbid,
So wickedly I did when I sailed, when I sailed
So wickedly I did when I sailed.

Jim Raycroft 3/3/24 Jim Raycroft 3/3/24

Music Notes 3-3-24

This week we welcome back our fabulous band. The postlude music this week will be provided by pianist Jeff Colella. Jeff was conductor and pianist for Lou Rawls for 16 years and for Jack Jones for several years before that. His legendary piano is all over the musical world and he has recorded several jazz albums, excerpts of which you can listen to here - http://jeffcolella.com/music/ . The piece he’ll be playing is Lotus Blossom by jazz great Billy Strayhorn. We are very lucky to have him with us and sharing his music.

Duke Ellington was a very spiritual man, who carried a Bible and crucifix everywhere he went. He studied scripture every day, and so when he was approached in 1962 to create and execute a concert of music for the opening of the new Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, it was dream come true. Finally, he was allowed to write the music HE wanted to write – it didn’t have to be commercial to make the publishers happy, and it didn’t have to be 2 ½ minutes long to play on the radio. Most of all, it could be music that came from his soul, a soul that was deeply rooted in the church. He undertook what he called “the most important work I’ve ever done” and created what ultimately became three concerts that became known as “The Sacred Concerts”. He stated publicly many times that he was trying to avoid writing “a mass”, and observers at the time commented that he brought the Cotton Club revue to the church. The music was familiar Ellington, and yet had modern esoteric elements that even today make music aficionados sit up and take notice. The most lasting thing to come out of all that is the song we know from the hymn book, known variously as “Come Sunday” or “Savior God Above”. Like all good composers, he took that tune and reused it in a variety of places in the concert, including the tap dance number “David Danced” – yes, there were tap dancers in church. Today’s anthem, Ain’t But The One, is the 4th piece in the original concert. The original 1965 concert was filmed and can be seen on YouTube.

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 Saviors 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.

Jesus Christ Superstar began as a concept album in the late 1960’s, with Webber working with his school friend Tim Rice. They began recording the music piecemeal, and released I Don’t Know How To Love Him as a single in 1970, which peaked at #28 in the U.S in 1971. The lead role of Jesus was sung by Ian Gillan, who had just joined the English rock band Deep Purple and brought with him a degree of fame and following to the project. Mary Magdalene was sung by Yvonne Elliman, who was born in Honolulu (Irish father, Japanese mother) and was singing in London clubs at the time she was discovered by Webber and Rice. She and Barry Dennen (Pilate) were the only cast members to do the original concept album of 1970, the first authorized stage performance at the Pittsburgh Civic Auditorium in July of 1971, the original Broadway production, which opened in October of 1971, and the movie, which was released in 1973 (starring Ted Neeley as Jesus, who was the Jesus understudy for the original Broadway production). Music director on the movie was Andre Previn, who began his career scoring movies and was hired to be the music director for the London Symphony in 1968. He told me about his experience working on the movie while we were preparing a performance of the Britten Spring Symphony. “I was knee-deep in the London Symphony when Norman Jewison called and told me he needed me for a movie. I told him I didn’t have time. He said “It’s Jesus Christ Superstar” and I said “Then especially NO, because I hate the piece”. He told me that Webber had insisted on being music director and they had spent 18 three hour sessions with the London Philharmonic and had only 2½ minutes of usable music. I agreed to go look at what they had, and when I saw it, I told him that the problem was that the music wasn’t laid out for a movie (aside – all movie music has to be time-coded, so that it can be syncopated to the action on the screen). After much groveling, I told him that I would do it, but I needed 2 orchestrators and 6 copyists at my disposal immediately, there was a specific music editor that he would fly out from Hollywood first class and, sorry to be crass, but it’s going to cost you a lot of money. Jewison said “Fine. Right now, I have no movie”. I rewrote the score and we recorded it in 6 weeks.” I Don’t Know How To Love Him was originally written in 1967 with different lyrics and called Kansas Morning (people in the know commented on how similar the melody sounded to a theme from Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor). The lyrics were re-written, and the piece re-named, in January of 1970 to give the character of Mary Magdalene a primary solo song. When presented with the song, Yvonne Elliman was puzzled by the romantic nature of the lyrics, because she thought that the Mary she’d been recruited to play was Jesus’ mother. The song is one of those rare songs to have 2 versions reach the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart at the same time - Elliman’s at #28 and Helen Reddy’s cover at #13. Recorded in 1 take in June 1970 at Olympic Studios in London, it has been universally acclaimed as the high point in the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack since the album's September 1970 release. In 2003, The Rough Guide to Cult Pop would assess Elliman's performance: "It's rare to hear a singer combine such power and purity of tone in one song, and none of the famous singers who have covered this ballad since have come close."

Jim Raycroft 2/25/24 Jim Raycroft 2/25/24

Music Notes 2-25-24

On March 3rd, we welcome back our wonderful band. This time around, we’re going to celebrate worship with the music of Duke Ellington and Tracy is going to fill the communion time with that wonderful song from Jesus Christ, Superstar, I Don’t Know How To Love Him. Duke Ellington was a deeply spiritual man who took a crucifix with him everywhere and read the Bible every day. When he was asked to write a concert of sacred music for the opening of Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco in 1965, he jumped at the chance. Spread the word – where else would you hear Duke Ellington in a church service?

The Lord Is My Light is a song written by Southern California native Walt Harrah. Walt, who lives in Irvine, is a singer and a friend and colleague who has written several gospel songs that have become classics, a couple of which are included in The Faith We Sing. It has a relatively simple message: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, so I will not be afraid.” This arrangement of the song was written for Maranatha! Music back in the early 1990’s by Texas-based composer/arranger J. Daniel Smith, who specializes in sophisticated contemporary arrangements of songs that are accessible to groups with smaller forces. This particular arrangement has always been a favorite of mine, as it’s easy to learn and sing, and is especially groovy. The book that it came from has, sadly, gone out of print, but Eileen and I have a couple of copies in our library, and we’ll be featuring more from this book as time goes on. On a personal note, those of you that watch CBS might have seen Walt and I singing in a barbershop quartet together in a TV show called Living Biblically a few years back.

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. One interesting side note – he has a live YouTube video of him singing this song with just a keyboard player and 6 vocalists. If you look closely, they are performing it on the roof of the Capitol Records building in downtown Hollywood. For those of you who don’t know, when Capitol Records decided to build a headquarters building in Hollywood in 1955, it is rumored that it was Nat King Cole who suggested the iconic shape to resemble a stack of records (remember those?). It’s been called the “world’s first circular office building” and “the house that Nat built”, due to the enormous number of recordings and vast amount of merchandise Nat sold for Capitol. In 2006, it was sold to a New York developer to be turned into condos, but the iconic recordings studios are still there and when you walk into the main studio, there are large black and white photos of the artists who recorded there, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. Personally, I’ve recorded in there several times and the history of the building always overwhelms me.

Hosanna, Loud Hosanna was written by Jeannette Threlfall, who was born in the Lancashire town of Blackburn in 1821. Her life was extremely difficult, being orphaned at an early age, and then 2 consecutive accidents left her mutilated and an invalid for life. But she bore her misfortunes with grace and fortitude and maintained a ministry for others throughout her life. She wrote devotional verse, that was published anonymously and later collected in 2 volumes, including Sunshine and Shadow, assembled in 1873 and containing the verse we know as Hosanna, Loud Hosanna. It was subsequently paired with the tune ELLACOMB, which was first published in a chapel hymnal for the Duke of Württemberg in 1784. The hymn we know has been printed in over 150 hymnals to date.

Jim Raycroft 2/18/24 Jim Raycroft 2/18/24

Music Notes 2-18-24

Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord) is an African-American spiritual that was first printed in 1899. It was likely composed by African American slaves in the 19th century. The song was first published in William Eleazar Barton's 1899 Old Plantation Hymns but was described in writings prior to this publication. In 1940, it was included in the Episcopal Church hymnal, making it the first spiritual to be included in any major American hymnal. It is also unique in that it is the only African-American song included in the Catholic Church's Liturgy of the Hours. The text utilizes a system of coded language in its lyrics like most, if not all, African-American spirituals. Metaphors, especially those involving Old Testament figures, as well as Jesus, are often central to the meanings of spirituals. Were You There tells the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. Underneath this narrative, however, is a metaphor likening Jesus's suffering to the suffering of slaves. As reported in Howard Thurman's autobiography, the song was one of Mahatma Gandhi's favorites. The song has been recorded by artists including Paul Robeson, Marion Williams, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Phil Keaggy, Max Roach, Diamanda Galás, Harry Belafonte, Mahalia Jackson, The Seldom Scene, Diamond Version (with Neil Tennant), Bayard Rustin, Rajaton, and Chris Rice. A writer from the Indianapolis News wrote about Paul Robeson's rendition, saying that "It was as startling and vivid a disclosure of reverent feeling of penetrating pathos as one could imagine." I wanted to create something fresh for the choir, a more theatrical approach to the song. This week’s anthem will be the premier of the piece.

Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal megachurch based in Sydney, Australia. Founded by Brian and Bobbie Houston in August of 1983, the church grew to the point where the word “megachurch” is utterly redefined by them, with campuses in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Gold Coast and Noosa. In addition, they have international churches in London, Bermondsey (Greater London), Oxford, Guildford, Kent and Newcastle (United Kingdom), Cape Town and Pretoria (South Africa), Kiev (Ukraine), Paris, Lyon and Marseille (France), Konstanz and Duesseldorf (Germany), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Moscow, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and 3 campuses scheduled to open this year in Arizona. The band Hillsong United was formed in 1998 from close friends within the Hillsong youth ministry (called “Powerhouse Youth”). So many songs were being written within the youth ministry that it was suggested they make an album. The songs One and Everyday were recorded and released with the annual Hillsong worship album in 1999. They both achieved gold sales status in Australia, and the band has gone on to win five Dove Awards in 2014 and were nominated for an American Music Award and won the Billboard Music Award Top Christian Artist in 2015. Their song From The Inside Out was released in 2007 on the album Almighty To Save: Powerful Songs of Transforming Worship.

All Glory Laud And Honor is one of the earlier hymns in the hymn book. The author was Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans (France), who was born around 750 and died in prison in 821 - the usual political intrigue (he was suspected of being involved in a plot against Emperor Louis). The text to this hymn was translated into the familiar form in 1854 by John Mason Neale. Neale was born in 1818 and, despite being in perpetually poor health his entire life, was incredibly prolific. He translated hundreds of hymns from a variety sources, especially Greek and Latin, wrote original hymns, including two volumes of hymns for children and wrote hundreds of books. He won the Seaton prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College in Cambridge, was ordained by the Church of England in 1842 (although his poor health kept him from the pulpit) and later in life founded the Sisterhood of St. Margaret, which became one of England’s finest training orders for nurses. The tune, named ST. THEODULF (after the author, obviously), was composed by Melchior Teschner in 1613. Teschner was born in what is now Poland in 1584. He studied music, theology and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and spent his life first as a cantor at the Lutheran church in Fraustadt and then, until his death in 1634, as pastor of the church in Oberpritschen. He wrote 3 hymn tunes that are still in use, but his magnum opus is All Glory Laud And Honor, which has been published in almost 600 hymn books to date.

Jim Raycroft 2/11/24 Jim Raycroft 2/11/24

Music Notes 2-11-24

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. Probably the most famous single piece of music to come out of his cantatas is the piece we call Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, which is actually a chorale from cantata #147 – Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life). A wonderfully lilting countermelody underscores the main hymn tune, and is probably his most universally recognized piece of music, other than the organ piece Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which owes its renown to Hollywood.

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.

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."

Jim Raycroft 2/4/24 Jim Raycroft 2/4/24

Music Notes 2-4-24

This week we welcome back our marvelous band, who will bring us a smorgasbord of musical styles to support the worship. Tell your friends, bring them to church.

Written in 1984, Canadian song writer Leonard Cohen struggled with his song “Hallelujah”, writing as many as 80 verses before paring it down to the song we know. It was named one of the 500 Best Songs by Rolling Stone magazine, in 2005 Chart magazine named it the 10th best Canadian song, and on December 21, 2008 became the first song in 51 years to be both #1 and #2 on the UK Singles Chart. But, it’s John Cale’s soulful rendition used in the movie Shrek that most of us know and love. His passing, at the age of 82 at his home here in Los Angeles, caused a surge in interest in his music, with sales skyrocketing.

On September 26, 1976, 14-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. placed a note on the bulletin board of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, Ireland, looking for members to form a band. 6 people responded. They began as Feedback, performing covers of other artists’ music, then in 1977 changed their name to The Hype with 5 members. In March of 1978, they phased out their fifth man and changed their name to U2, playing their own original material. Their 1st big break came when they won a competition on St. Patrick’s Day, 1978, which provided them with the opportunity to record a demo that would be heard by CBS Ireland, a record label. Since then, U2 has gone on to release 13 studio albums and have become one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, selling over 170 million albums worldwide. They have won 22 Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked U2 as 22nd on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”. Love Rescue Me was part of the album Rattle and Hum, which was released in 1988. The album explores American root music and incorporates blues rock, folk rock, and gospel elements in the music. In November of 1987, Bono met Bob Dylan and they wrote a song together called Prisoner of Love, which later became Love Rescue Me. The original recording was recorded with Bob Dylan singing lead vocals and was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, which had been home to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, to name a few. Dylan asked that his version not be included in the album because of previous commitments.

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.

David Wallace Crowder, who goes by the mononymous stage name Crowder (in the finest tradition of Cher, Madonna, Adele and Prince), was the lead singer in the now defunct David Crowder Band, a contemporary worship band that disbanded in 2012. He has since gone on to a solo career, releasing his first solo studio album in 2014, under the sixsteps/sparrow label, called Neon Steeple. Come As You Are, one of the cuts from that album, peaked at #3 on the US Christian Songs chart and went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 2015 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song. His song I Am A Seed was released on the 2012 album Give Us A Rest (or A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]).

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 1/28/24 Jim Raycroft 1/28/24

Music Notes 1-28-24

It all begins with an idea.

Next week we’ll be welcoming back our marvelous band to our worship. We have some wonderful music planned, including Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and U2’s Love Rescue Me. I would encourage you to come over after the service and chat with the members of the band. They are all giants in the music industry here. Jeff Colella, the pianist, was Lou Rawls’ music director for 16 years, and has several albums available on his website. We are talking about featuring him with a piece from one of his albums for the postlude when the band is with us on March 3rd. Drummer/percussionist Ed Zajac is a working professional in town and plays on movie soundtracks and in pit orchestras for musicals. He is also a singer who has sung on the soundtracks of movies like Star Trek Beyond, Tomorrowland and Jurassic World. When I started at the church, I brought him over to see the facility, and after taking one look at the sanctuary, stated that we couldn’t put a drum set in the sanctuary – it would overwhelm the room. After several weeks of thought, he designed and created an ingenious kit that gets the flavor of a drum kit without the physical size or volume. Bassist Bryan Fougner, who also comes out to sing with our choir when he’s in town (and when the band isn’t playing) has toured with Pat Benatar and has shared the stage with bands like Kansas, Loverboy, STYX, Grand Funk Railroad, Joan Jett and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. My favorite story about Bryan is when he was playing with a Metallica tribute band. While he was onstage, during the concert, instead of tuning his in-ear monitor to the music of the band he was playing with, he had it tuned to the online bible study that my wife was conducting and would contribute his thoughts between songs. Guitarist Stan Ayeroff has been a friend and colleague for many years. Years ago, he hired me to provide singers for a Christmas party at the home of Gene Roddenberry and the dance band he provided was the Tonight Show band. He’s an acoustic guitar specialist but has played and recorded with Roger Daltry of The Who, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and has a YouTube channel where you can hear him playing solo pieces on his acoustic guitar. He was especially prolific on YouTube during the lockdown, and has published several books on guitar, including several books of arrangements - his book of arrangements of Christmas carols for classical guitar is considered to be definitive. I took Eileen to the Canyon Bistro in Topanga to hear him play for Mother’s Day a couple of years ago.

Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal megachurch based in Sydney, Australia. Founded by Brian and Bobbie Houston in August of 1983, the church grew to the point where the word “megachurch” is utterly redefined by them, with campuses in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Gold Coast and Noosa. In addition, they have international churches in London, Bermondsey (Greater London), Oxford, Guildford, Kent and Newcastle (United Kingdom), Cape Town and Pretoria (South Africa), Kiev (Ukraine), Paris, Lyon and Marseille (France), Konstanz and Duesseldorf (Germany), Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Moscow, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and 3 campuses in Arizona. The band Hillsong United was formed in 1998 from close friends within the Hillsong youth ministry (called “Powerhouse Youth”). So many songs were being written within the youth ministry that it was suggested they make an album. Their song Oceans was released in 2013 on their album Zion and was certified Platinum – 1,000,000 copies sold. It’s considered to be a “Top 10” song in the world of Christian contemporary music, and you can find it on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GGFb6LcX3U – if you’d like to listen to it. It’s a profound, contemplative song that invokes images of nature and spirituality.

Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1809 and was only 38 when he died in Leipzig in 1847. During that short period, he became one of the most renowned composers of his time and was responsible for renewing interest in the music of J.S. Bach. Today, we know him for his incidental music for the Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream (within which is the tune we all know as the traditional “there goes the bride”, while the traditional “here comes the bride” tune was written by Richard Wagner for his opera Lohengrin) and the melody for Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. He was an admirer of the oratorios of Bach and Handel and organized the 1st performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion since Bach’s death. He was commissioned to write an oratorio for the Birmingham Festival in 1845, and created the oratorio Elijah, based on text by Julius Schubring. He wrote it twice, once in English for Birmingham, and then revised in German, being careful to make the music fit the intricacies of the languages. The Birmingham version was debuted August 26, 1846, and the German version was first performed on his birthday, February 3rd, 1848, a few months after his death. He Watching Over Israel is arguably the most famous chorus from the work, being #29 in the work and based on Psalm 121 and Psalm 138.

Jim Raycroft 1/21/24 Jim Raycroft 1/21/24

Music Notes 1-21-24

It all begins with an idea.

This Sunday we feature our marvelous tenor section leader, 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.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a non-denominational, multi-cultural church in the heart of downtown Brooklyn that began as a small congregation worshiping in a rundown building, and has grown into a congregation of over 16,000. The husband and wife team of Pastor Jim Cymbala and music director Carol Cymbala took over leadership of the 30 member congregation in 1971. By the 1980’s, the church had grown enough to purchase the 1383-seat Carlton Theatre and convert it into their sanctuary. By 2002, they had outgrown that facility and purchased Loew’s Metropolitan Theatre, a former vaudeville theatre, and renovated it into a state-of-the-art, 3,200-seat worship facility. The choir began with just 9 members in 1971 and grew with the church. Carol Cymbala began writing music for the choir, and they recorded their first album in the 1980’s. Now numbering over 280 members, their music is sung all over the world, and they sang at the 2013 inauguration of President Obama. Jesus Will Make A Way was written and arranged by Carol Cymbala and was released in 1992 on the album Only To Him.

Matt Maher is a Canadian Christian artist who was born in Newfoundland, studied jazz on a scholarship from Arizona State University in Tempe and now lives in Nashville. He’s written and released 7 studio albums to date, 3 of which have reached the top 25 of Billboard’s Christian Album chart, and 4 of his singles have reached the top 25 of Billboard’s Christian Songs chart. A practicing Catholic, he was asked to lead worship for crowds of thousands at the Rally for Youth and Seminarians in Yonkers, New York during the visit by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, and in 2013 he sang Lord, I Need You for an audience of about 4 million, including Pope Francis, for World Youth Day in Rio de Janerio. His song Your Grace Is Enough was released on his independent album Welcome To Life on January 1, 2003, and then re-released on his first major studio album Empty & Beautiful, where it peaked at #4 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart.

Come Thou, Almighty King is a classic hymn with a murky authorship. The earliest known publication of this hymn is a leaflet that was bound into the 6th edition of George Whitefield's Collection of Hymns for Social Worship, 1757. In this leaflet, the hymn had five verses of seven lines each, and was titled An Hymn to the Trinity. The leaflet also contained the hymn Jesus, Let Thy Pitying Eye by Charles Wesley, and because of this hymnologist Daniel Sedgwick attributed Come Thou Almighty King to Wesley as well. However, there is no record of this hymn in any of Wesley's collections of hymns, nor is there any hymn known to be Wesley's that uses the same meter as this hymn does. These days, Come Thou Almighty King is usually sung, as it is in our hymnbook, to the tune Italian Hymn (also called Moscow or Trinity), which was written as a musical setting for this hymn by Felice Giardini at the request of Countess Selina Shirley. This hymn tune along with three others of Giardini's were first published in Martin Madan's Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, 1769

Jim Raycroft 1/14/24 Jim Raycroft 1/14/24

Music Notes 1-14-24

It all begins with an idea.

This week we welcome back the band for a service filled with joyous music. There’ll be a little something for everyone, from Latin rhythms to big band swing to modern classics.

We will be singing a couple of modern classics this Sunday. The first is Ten Thousand Reasons, by Matt Redman, a big powerful ballad, and the second is And All The People Said Amen by Matt Maher, a true foot stomper. Take a minute before Sunday morning to listen to these tunes - you’ll love them.

Take My Hand, Precious Lord is a classic gospel hymn written by Thomas A. Dorsey, who is generally considered to be the father of the gospel hymn. He wrote the words in his inconsolable grief after finding out that his wife, Nettie Harper, and infant son, August, had both died during childbirth in 1932. He later adapted the melody, drawing largely on the 1844 hymn tune Maitland. It was the favorite song of Martin Luther King, who frequently asked Mahalia Jackson to sing it at gatherings to help inspire the crowd. In fact, King’s last words, before being assassinated, were a request for it to be played at a Mass he was scheduled to attend that night. Leontyne Price sang it at the funeral of Lyndon B. Johnson, and Aretha Franklin sang it at the funeral of Mahalia Jackson.

Written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell, He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother was a hit in 1969 for the “British Invasion” group The Hollies (named for Buddy, and for Christmas), and in 1970 for Neil Diamond. The history of the unusual title goes back a long way, however. In 1884, James Wells, Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland, in his book The Parables of Jesus, tells the story of a little girl carrying a big baby boy. Seeing her struggling, someone asked if she wasn't tired. With surprise she replied, "No, he's not heavy; he's my brother.” In a 1918 publication by Ralph Waldo Trine titled The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, he relates the following anecdote: "Do you know that incident in connection with the little Scottish girl? She was trudging along, carrying as best she could a boy younger, but it seemed almost as big as she herself, when one remarked to her how heavy he must be for her to carry, when instantly came the reply: 'He's na heavy. He's mi brither.'" Then, the first editor of Kiwanis magazine, Roe Fulkerson, published a column in September 1924 carrying the title "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", the first use of the phrase exactly as it is rendered in the song title. In the 1940s, the words, adapted as "He ain't heavy, Father, he's my brother", were taken as a slogan for Boys Town children's home by founder Father Edward Flanagan.

Matt Maher is a Canadian Christian artist who was born in Newfoundland, studied jazz on a scholarship from Arizona State University in Tempe and now lives in Nashville. He’s written and released 7 studio albums to date, 3 of which have reached the top 25 of Billboard’s Christian Album chart, and 4 of his singles have reached the top 25 of Billboard’s Christian Songs chart. A practicing Catholic, he was asked to lead worship for crowds of thousands at the Rally for Youth and Seminarians in Yonkers, New York during the visit by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, and in 2013 he sang Lord, I Need You for an audience of about 4 million, including Pope Francis, for World Youth Day in Rio de Janerio. His song And All The People Said Amen was the title track for his first compilation album, released in 2013. The album charted at #5 on Billboard’s Christian Albums.

Give Thanks With A Grateful Heart was written by Henry Smith in 1978. Following the introduction of the song during a worship service at the Williamsburg New Testament Church in Virginia, a military couple reintroduced it to a congregation in Germany. The song eventually caught the attention of executives at Integrity Music. When Integrity's Hosanna! Music copyrighted the song in 1986, the author was unknown.[8] After Don Moen’s Give Thanks album was released in 1986, the song was brought to the attention of Smith, who contacted Integrity with authorship information. Integrity later included songwriting credits on all subsequent releases, along with a writer-publisher agreement. As of 2010, the song has been recorded by over 50 companies and published in songbooks around the world.

Jim Raycroft 1/7/24 Jim Raycroft 1/7/24

Music Notes 1-7-24

It all begins with an idea.

As we ring in the New Year, I would like to wish you all a very happy New Year, and express my gratitude for the kindness and warmth you have all shown me in my first 10 months at 1st Pres. It’s been a busy year, with a lot of refurbishing, restoring and renovating of the music department. And now that it’s mostly done, we can focus on the future. I’m looking forward to a wonderful year of music and worship, of working with our marvelous choir and all the talented people we have involved with the worship service.

Starting this Sunday, we are going to start adding a contemporary worship song to each service. If you don’t follow that particular bandwagon, I’ll be mentioning the name of the song here in this article each week, so you can check it out on YouTube so you’ll be ready to sing on Sunday. This week, we’re singing a barn-burner called Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone by Chris Tomlin. The familiar half is easy, and the other half is very singable. I think you’ll love it.

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). Ave Verum Corpus is a short motet for choir and strings that Mozart wrote for his friend Anton Stoll, who was the musical coordinator for the parish of St Stephan in the town of Baden Bei Wien, near Vienna. The year was 1791 (6 months before his death), and he was in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), while his wife, Constanza, pregnant with their 6th child, was staying at a spa in Baden. Exquisitely beautiful, it is considered to be one of the most perfect pieces of music ever written.

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. The song God Of This City was written by a worship band from Belfast, Ireland called Bluetree. They composed the piece (and I’m not making this up!) in Padia, Thailand at a bar that also doubled as a brothel. Chris Tomlin heard the song at concert of worship bands in Belfast when the band took him aside and played the song for him. He was so inspired by the message that he gave the song his own unique treatment and recorded it on the 2008 album Passion: God Of This City, which won the Dove Award in 2009 for Special Event Album of the Year. 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.

First Presbyterian Church Encino