Music for Reformation Day: October 31, 2021

 

OPENING VOLUNTARY Three settings of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (Ein feste burg)

Michael D. Costello

Three sections of Costello’s partita around this famous Lutheran hymntune make up the prelude: Chorale, Tricinium, and Ayre. The final movement of this partita will be heard as the closing voluntary.

 

GATHERING HYMN Salvation unto Us Has Come (Es ist das heil) ELW 590

This is one of the oldest Lutheran hymns as it appeared (with 14 stanzas) in our very first hymnal – Etlich christlich Lieder, published in 1523.
I loved the isometric version of this tune that I grew up with (in the red Service Book and Hymnal, 1958), but the rhythmic version moves me in a completely different way. The introduction is a chorale prelude by Gerhard Krapf. Krapf was drafted into the German army in 1942 and captured by the Russians. After the war, he returned to Germany and completed his music degrees. In 1953, he came to the United States to complete additional studies. He stayed in the U. S. and became an organ professor and a noteworthy composer of church music.

 KYRIE AND CANTICLE OF PRAISE

A hallmark of the German reformation was an emphasis on congregational singing. Here we follow the tradition of a chorale service. Said to be an innovation of Martin Luther, these services take traditional liturgical texts and render them as hymns. ELW has a version of this Kyrie with a Slovak tune. I’ve decided to use a German tune that will be more familiar to our community. The opening “bids” are sung to a tone found in Evening Prayer.

The canticle of praise is the very familiar “All Glory Be to God on High.” Nikolaus Decius (1458 – ca. 1561) is credited as the composer, but he based it on a chant tune from the 10^th century.

 

HYMN OF THE DAY A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Ein feste burg) ELW 503

Today we are singing the rhythmic version of this tune. If you grew up with the isometric version, that transition can be a little difficult. Listen to the introduction for where the notes are long and where they are short. This rhythmic alternation gives the hymn a dance-like quality that is very rewarding!

 

This rhythmic version is much closer to Martin Luther’s original version than the isometric version is. Over time, tunes from the Reformation began to be sung more slowly and the short notes elongated to the same length as the long notes. Today’s Gathering Hymn is another version of a tune that has rhythmic and isometric versions.

 

MUSICAL OFFERING Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word

setting, Jeremy Bankson

 

OFFERING HYMN Now Thank We All Our God ELW 840

Nun danket all Gott is another example of a chorale that has rhythmic and isometric versions. Here we sing the isometric one.

 

COMMUNION HYMN O Lord, We Praise You (Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet) ELW 499

The introduction is a bicinium (a two-voice piece) by Kenneth T. Kosche that leads us into the singing of this happy hymn. I’ve only learned this hymn in recent years, but it has become a favorite.

 

SENDING HYMN Rise, O Church, Like Christ Arisen (Surge Ecclesia) ELW 548

This hymn was written for the 50^th anniversary of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Roseville, Minnesota. The text is by Susan Palo Cherwien. The tune was written by Resurrection’s cantor, Timothy J. Strand.

Why does the church reform? Perhaps it is to “remember well the future God has called us receive” – and then to live into it with a living faith.

 

CLOSING VOLUNTARY Fughetta on “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
Michael D. Costello