June 20th, 2021

Before the service, we hear a prelude by Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-1784), a prolific Italian organist and composer who also taught a generation of illustrious pupils, including a young Mozart. This Andante is a cheerful work in so-called “trio sonata style,” which denotes pieces with two melodic lines (here played by the right hand) and a bassline (played with the left).

Today’s processional hymn, Praise to the living God is derived from Jewish roots. The text is a paraphrase of the Yigdal, principles of Jewish faith written by Moses Maimonides. The text was translated and arranged into poetic meter by William C. Gannett in the 1880s. The tune Leoni, dating to the 17th century, is the traditional tune for the Hebrew version of this text and is therefore sometimes itself referred to as Yigdal.

O for a thousand tongues to sing, our sequence hymn, was written by Charles Wesley. This text was first published in 1780 and has remained extremely popular ever since. The full original text was 18 stanzas long and is thought to have been written in 1739 on the occasion of Wesley’s evangelical conversion. The tune Azmon was written by the German composer Carl Gotthilf Gläser in 1828. The great American hymn composer Lowell Mason first brought the tune to America and altered it to triple meter from its original 4/4.

Our recessional is another Charles Wesley text, Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim. Published in 1744 as one of several “Hymns to be sung in a tumult,” the original and lengthier version contained two stanzas specifically about sea voyages and storms at sea. It is matched to a German folk melody Paderborn that has been used as a hymn tune since the mid-18th century.

Closing on a festive note, our postlude today is by the influential French Baroque composer Louis Couperin (1626-1661). The uncle of the more famous François Couperin, Louis Couperin was organist at Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais church in Paris. He was one of the founders of the inimitable French harpsichord school that influenced Bach and all keyboardists of the 18th century and was also a very well-respected organist who bridges the gap between earlier, vocal-style organ music and the mature organ music of the French Baroque.

This piece is a carillon, a popular genre for French composers which imitates the sound of carillon bells.