The Music This Week: October 12th, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have done a terrible job maintaining this blog this fall. I believe there are fairly obvious reasons for that though! I want to tell you about a few things now, but I anticipate that over the next few weeks the updates to this blog will be non-existent as I will either be severely pregnant or taking care of a newborn. I plan to return to weekly blog posts once things settle down.

There are a couple things I am really excited about though. Specifically the upcoming choir anthems.

This week we are doing a piece called River in Judea. It's lovely and rich. The choir seems to be enjoying it and I hope you do to, because it is so pretty that I think we may sing it again some time! It's about new hope and the beauty of the Jordan River, so I thought it would be appropriate while we explore our congregation's history.

Next week (which I will hopefully not be around for!), we're doing a piece called Soli Deo. It combines those words with the hymn Praise God from Whom All Blessing Flow. It is very upbeat and lots of fun. It is incredibly joyful and I hope it will help us celebrate Anniversary Sunday.

The Music This Week: September 21st, 2014

Tomorrow our service will be about the Winnipeg Mission Trip and thus most of the music I have chose uses First Nations' melodies.

The adult choir will be singing for the first time this year! It's a piece we did in the spring called "Many and great, oh God, are your works" (301 in the hymnal). I enjoy its chant-like quality and because it comes from a First Nations' tradition, its melodic qualities are new and refreshing to our ears.

I am also delighted that Amy, Madison, and Bekah Lightfoot will be singing "On Eagle's Wings" (57 in the hymnal) for the offertory. There's always something so special about families singing together because of the way their voices blend.

The prelude and postlude didn't make it in to the bulletin properly, so I've listed them here:

Prelude: May the hope of God go with us every day - Hispanic folk song
Postlude: Land of the Silver Birch - First Nations folk song

The Music this Week: Sunday, September 14th, 2014

It's fall! I love fall, it's my favourite season. The weather, pumpkins, squash, pears, warm drinks, soup, Halloween, Christmas soon, and of course choirs and music groups everywhere are beginning their seasons!

We won't hear from the adult choir until next week, but we've started rehearsing and are working hard.

You may have noticed that I was sick last week. Terrible timing! Anyway, nothing can be done. I'm sure it was a treat to hear Brad play. Because so many things had to be shifted about, a lot of the music you saw in the bulletin last week, which was not played, will be played this week!

Mary Clifford is going to play a little piece by Handel and since Handel is such a great composer, I thought I should take my cue from her. The prelude and postlude are both organ arrangements of Handel pieces.

Madison Lightfoot will also be singing a piece for us this week! (I suppose one benefit of being sick and having to push things around is that you get a week with extra music that isn't just me playing!) It's a piece called Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United

Adult Choir Starting Again

Adult Choir will be starting again on Thursday, September 4th at 7:30. We'll rehearse for about an hour and then have some refreshments and catch up from the summer.

I hope everyone will be back from last year and new members are most certainly welcome too. You only need to be interested in singing to join!

The Music This Summer: 2014

Well! I have not done well at updating this blog through the summer! My apologies. We've been travelling quite a bit and my mind has been on summer things.

We still have a few weeks of soloists and small ensembles left which I hope you will enjoy. But now I am enjoying planning our fall and Christmas music too!

Look for more regular updates around mid-September when the adult choir starts up again.

The Music This Week: July 13th, 2014

The summer months tend to be a little more haphazard in terms of planning the music to illustrate the sermon. First of all, with both myself and Scott being away at various points, there isn't as much of an opportunity to plan things. Secondly, our wonderful soloists and small ensemble often want to chose there own music which may or may not line up with the topic of the sermon.

So this week, when I was choosing what to play for the prelude, postlude, and offertory, I thought we were going to have a very musically disjointed service. Scott's sermon is on the summer blockbuster Jaws and Gabrielle and Zoe McAndless are going to sing "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent. Seemingly completely different, but I was delighted when I realized Scott will be discussing how things don't always go according to plan (in relation to the movie) and that is basically what the musical Rent is about.

Prelude: Jaws (Theme from the Film) - By John Williams
Musical Reflection: Seasons of Love - By Jonathan Larson (from Rent), Performed by Gabrielle and Zoe McAndless
Offertory: Will I? - By Jonathan Larson (from Rent)
Postlude: I'll Cover You - By Jonathan Larson (from Rent)

The Music This Week: July 6th, 2014

This week is all about Canada and God's gifts to Canada. I've chosen an arrangement of How Firm a Foundation for the postlude because the idea of the church as a foundation reminds me the idea of our country as a foundation. For the prelude, I will be playing an arrangement of This is Our Father's World because it speaks of the beauty of our world, which Canada has an abundance of.

Roddie will be using his lovely, rich voice to help us worship during the musical reflection and the offertory.

Side Note: I will be away a lot over the next few weeks, and while I intend to update this blog every week, that may be a bit ambitious, and I apologize in advance if there is a lapse.

The Music This Week: June 28th 2014

I'm delighted that Alysha and Michelle Harris will be singing a duet for us tomorrow. Scott's sermon is on diversity and the two will be singing a beautiful piece called Al Shlosham D'Varim by Allan E. Naplan. They are very talented singers (as you will have heard last week in the Youth Choir musical interlude!) and sound great together because they are sisters.

For the prelude, offertory, and postlude I essentially chose random pieces to try to get as much variety, or diversity, as possible. The titles will not be the bulletin tomorrow, so they are listed below.

Prelude: Only Hope - By Jonathan Foreman, arr. Carol Tornquist
Offertory: He's Got the Whole World in His Hands - Traditional Spiritual, arr. Carol Tornquist
Postlude: Marche Royale - By Jean Baptiste Lully, arr. S. Drummond Wolff

The Music This Week: June 22nd, 2014

We have a very special treat this week. The topic of Scott's sermon is beauty and the Youth Choir has put together a musical interlude about the creation story and God's beautiful creation. They've been working hard for weeks. The choral pieces are sounding lovely, we have some great soloists, and one song and the script are original creations by our youth. A number of songs will illustrate different aspect of the creation story.

For the prelude, offertory, and postlude I've chosen three piece from the movie Pride and Prejudice (2005 version) purely because of the beauty of the music from that film. I've listed the pieces below because the didn't make it into the bulletin.

Prelude: Dawn - by Dario Marianelli
Offertory: The Living Sculptures of Pemberley - by Dario Marianelli
Postlude: Leaving Netherfield - by Dario Marianelli

The Music This Week: June 15th, 2014

We're into our summer season now, so the adult choir is finished for the year and most weeks we will have soloists or small ensembles.

This week Margaret McKenzie-Leighton is going to sing for us. One of her pieces is accompanied by organ and I thought it had been a little while since we had organ music for preludes and offertories, so I chose to focus on organ music this week.

The piece I am most excited about is a 20th-century piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Margaret is going to be singing "Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life." It's very different from anything I've done since I arrived at St. Andrew's. It has a folk-like melody with lush 20th-century harmonies. It won't be to everyone's tastes, but it is a beautiful piece.

The Music Last Week, The Music This Week: June 1st, 2014 and June 8th 2014 (Plus a Side Note)

Alas! My life has felt very unorganized recently!

The Music Last Week: 

I really enjoyed the music last week, and I hope you did to. This was the last Sunday the choir was singing until September and I was really pleased with the work they did. It was an arrangement of Vivaldi's "Come and Be Joyful," not necessarily the easiest piece around and they rose to the challenge. I'm am looking forward to the fall when we can continue to improve our skills and bring life to the music we are singing.

The Music This Week:

Movies! Movies! Movies!

A little bit of our departure from our normal pieces. After the service this Sunday we will be having the Academy Awards for our St. Andrew's Stars and I wanted to celebrate that by playing some movie classics during the service. I've chosen both new and old favourites, so hopefully there is something for everyone.

I am delighted that the Youth Group will be joining us to sing "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. It ties in well with the movie theme and Scott's sermon on discernment, so I want to thank them for making such a stellar choice.

Side Note: I am sure the good old rumour mill has gotten the news around by now, but if you haven't heard: Greg and I will be having a baby mid-October, so I will most likely have to leave you for a couple weeks (give you a break!) but I will certainly be back after that.

The Music This Week: May 25th, 2014

Two themes determined the music I chose for this week: women and testimony. It is the Women's Missionary Society's anniversary, which we will be celebrating in church, and our service will centre around the practice of testimony.

In honour of the Women's Missionary Society's anniversary the women from the adult choir will be singing "Woman in the night" by Brian Wren and Alfred Fedak as our anthem. We did it earlier this year as a hymn (657) and they thought it would be a good choice for this Sunday and I agreed. Beyond that, I chose to only use female composers for the prelude, postlude, and offertory selections.

I have to say that finding songs about testimony seems to be a tricky thing! At least when pulling from my collection and especially when you are restricting yourself to female composers. The music industry is unfortunately still quite dominated by men, especially conductors and composers. I ended up with three pieces that I would say are related to testimony as opposed to about testimony. I've listed them below.

Prelude: You Pulled Me Through - by Diane Warren, arr. Carol Tornquist
Offertory: I've Got Peace Like a River - Trad., arr. Carol Tornquist
Postlude: Every Time I Feel the Spirit - Trad., arr. Carol Tornquist

The Music This Week: May 18th, 2014

Reflection

The Adult Choir is singing a piece by Linda Stassen called Sing Alleluia. I learned it a long time ago at camp of all places and to me it is very meditative and reflective because of it's simple repetitive, melody. We used to sing it ten or more times in a row, but don't worry, the adult choir is only going to sing it twice.

The prelude is Sérénade sur l'eau (Serenade on the Water) by Jacques Ibert and the postlude is Auf dem See (On the Lake) by Heinrich Hofmann. I chose two pieces about water because I think many people find rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water very good places to reflect.

The offertory is Im Traum (In the dream) by Franz Liszt. Unlike Liszt's famous virtuosic works, this piece is leading towards the French impressionism of the late 19th century (think of Debussy and Ravel). It is much more subdued and the piece contains two great phrases with an almost no-existent melody and no accompaniment, almost silence.

As a side note, I would like to mention that the organ is in need of repair and I will not be playing it at all this week.

The Music This Week: May 11th, 2014

Hello all! Just a short post this week. I am delighted that the Junior and Senior Youth Choirs will be singing for us tomorrow. It's a nice little, upbeat contemporary worship piece and I've chosen pieces in the same style by Mark Hayes for the rest of our worship service.

The Music This Week: May 4th, 2014

This Sunday Mary Clifford is going to be playing the violin for us, so in choosing the music for the prelude, offertory, and postlude I thought I should take my cue from her. She's playing a lovely little piece by J.S. Bach, which was written in the Baroque Era but shares some characteristics with the Classical Era, particularly the structural symmetry, slow harmonic movement (meaning the underlying chords do not change very often), and a predictable, but satisfying melody. Because we've done quite a lot of Baroque music recently, I thought we would do some classical this week instead. So we will have lots of sonatas and sonatinas from the era Mozart wrote in!

The Music This Week: April 27th, 2014

I'm formatting this blog post a little differently this week because while there are very clear reasons for each of my choices (I promise!), there is no overarching theme to discuss.

Anthem:
This week's sermon is about justice and aboriginal issues so I wanted to chose a piece that came from or was influenced by aboriginal music. I went down a couple roads to try and find something. I contacted a friend who was an aboriginal studies major in university, but she hadn't studied music there and didn't have and connections for that here. I looked for choral pieces at Music Plus, but most of it wouldn't be appropriate for our choir. I wasn't sure what we were going to be able to do, but at the last music focused Manna Day at Crieff Hills, I learned about a piece in our hymnal which uses a Dakota melody! So the choir will be singing "Many and great, O God, are your works," hymn #301, as the anthem this Sunday.

Prelude & Postlude:
One of our hymns this Sunday, "We cannot own the sunlit sky," hymn #717, uses the same melody as the folk song "How Can I Keep from Singing," which is one of my favourite sacred pieces. So even though I played them earlier this year (don't tell anyone!) I am going to play two different arrangements of that song for the prelude and postlude.

Offertory:
I will be playing an arrangement of "Deep River." To me the longing in this piece (see the text printed below) is reflective of the longing for peace and reconciliation in regards to aboriginal issues that I think many of us feel.

Deep River
Deep river, my home is over Jordan
Oh deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground

The Music Last Week: Holy Week!

Last week I chose not to write a blog post for two reasons:

1. Holy Week is a really busy time for musicians
2. I felt the music could speak for itself

I do want to take this opportunity to say thank-you though. I am so pleased with all the hard work the adult choir did and so grateful for the guests from the congregation and outside who joined us. I hope that you enjoyed the music as much as I did!

The Music This Week: April 13th, 2014

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and the Adult Choir is singing "Jesus, the King" by Lloyd Larson. It's upbeat and celebrates "Hosanna the King of all Kings."

For the prelude and postlude I've chosen a couple marches because they are celebratory and the bass line represents feet marching which reminded me of the donkey walking into Jerusalem or a procession. 

Alexis Smith will be playing a lovely piece by Debussy called Page d'album for the offertory. 

The Music This Week: April 6th, 2014

Tomorrow is our last lenten service and the adult choir is going to sing Behold the Shepherd on the Hill by Natalie Sleeth. Sleeth is an American composer who lived in the 20th century, she primarily wrote church music and wrote the hymn In the Bulb There is a Flower in our hymnal. This song works well for lent because of its simple, repetitive melody which is ornamented by descants and singing in canons.

One of my favourite aspects of the organ is the diversity of emotion it provides because of all the different stops available. Because of this, I wanted to spend the last Sunday in Lent focusing on the organ. So I have chosen three organ pieces for the prelude, offertory, and postlude. All of the music is subdued and appropriate for lent, but you will hear more major key signatures (frequently associated with neutrality and happiness as opposed to sadness, as a minor key often is) looking forward to Palm Sunday. The three pieces I chose are unified by featuring octave leaps in the left hand.

The Music This Week: March 29th, 2014

Our anthem this week is Hymn 199 in the hymn book, If I have Been a Source of Pain. It is a very slow and sorrowful piece with an almost folk-like quality to the melody. I am using a couple of flute organ stops to maintain the folk-like quality in the accompaniment as well. I'm excited about our anthem tomorrow because the choir is doing a very good job expressing the text in this piece.

The prelude, offertory, and postlude are all contemporary piano arrangements both familiar and unfamiliar hymns.

The Music Last Week: March 23rd, 2014

In the middle of our service yesterday I realized I hadn't posted anything about the music! So my apologies for forgetting.

Yesterday I chose to focus mainly on organ music, specifically, two out of the three pieces I chose used solo stops. That means you only use on stop or set of pipes for a melody line. You generally don't hear this in hymn playing, so it was fun to play with some of the different sounds that the organ at St. Andrew's has.

Roddie sang a lovely, very lenten, solo about Jesus walking through the valley.

The Music This Week: March 16th, 2014

The sermon this week will be dealing with lament and when I consider lament and music, the two composers that immediately jump to mind are Bach and Chopin. Because we got to enjoy Bach and his contemporaries last week, I chose to focus the music selections on Chopin and his contemporaries.

Chopin often very effectively captured a sense of melancholy within his music. He had a gift for writing melodies that seem to sing on the piano. I hope you will hear this in the postlude, Nocturne in E minor, Op. posth. 72, which is one of my favourite pieces for piano.

Our anthem, sung by the adult choir, will break from this theme a little bit. It is a piece that Scott learned in Ohio while away for continuing education and he recommended it because of the relevance of the text to his preaching during lent. It is a contemporary worship piece which moves between a more subdued verse and somewhat impassioned chorus. It's very pretty and we will be revisiting it as a hymn in the coming weeks.

Easter Choir

The Adult Choir would like to invite you to join them for Good Friday and Easter.

This is a great chance for those who can't make it to choir all the time but are interested in singing or those who aren't sure if they would like being in the choir to give it a try for a short time.

The Easter Choir will meet on Thursdays from March 27th to April 17th from 7:30 to 8:15.

The Music This Week: March 9th, 2014

For the first Sunday in lent I asked Madison Lightfoot to sing a beautiful piece call Bist Du Bei Mir by Gottfried Heinrich Stötzel. The piece has often been attributed to J.S. Bach, but is stylistically significantly different from his work. Many of you will recognize the tune, it's sung with a number of different texts and is even found in some hymn books. She's going to be singing an English version.

Bist Du Bei Mir is a simple and melodic composition and I chose pieces from the same era, the Baroque era, with similar attributes for the prelude, offertory, and postlude. Somewhat ironically, the prelude, Prelude in G minor, has also been attributed to Bach (even the edition I just bought says that it's by Bach) but it was probably written by one of his pupils.

The Music This Week: March 2nd, 2014

Even though it's not Black History Month anymore I decided we should do another Sunday of African-American music. There was a lot of positive response and excitement surrounding last week's music, so I thought we should spend some more time with upbeat music before delving into lent. 

The Adult Choir is singing an African-American folk song found in our hymn book. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning has a laid-back, simple melody with rich harmonies making it a lovely little piece. 

The Music This Week: February 23, 2014

February is black history month in Canada and I wanted to honour that by devoting one Sunday to music from the African-American music traditions. The wealth of musical genres that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to slavery shaped our culture's music and brought rich rhythmic and harmonic complexities to the highly formulaic music of Tin Pan Alley (ie. pop songs as they existed before Elvis and Chuck Berry).

I believe there is a beauty and a unique sacredness in both the raw pain and overwhelming ecstasy present in gospel music. I am excited to take this opportunity to appreciate a different musical perspective for worshiping and communicating with God.

I am very pleased that Amy Lightfoot will be joining me with her saxophone this week.

New Choir Members!

Hello!

The adult choir is hoping to grow and I would like to invite you to come sing with us. We meet every Thursday (except Feb 13th) from 7:30 to 9:00. All voice types and skill levels are welcome.

Please feel free to drop in for one or two weeks to see if you enjoy it.

Corey

Hello and Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to the new St. Andrew's Hespeler Presbyterian Music Blog.

Here I hope to keep you up to date on what is happening musically at St. Andrew's and let you know a little bit more about the music we are doing each week.

Right now I am excited to be getting to know all the different music groups you have here as well as the congregation. I would like to encourage you to come say hi to me, especially if you think you may like to be involved musically in some way at the church. St. Andrew's is full of different tastes musically speaking and I'm excited to explore all those different musical voice with you in praise and worship.

- Corey