Music Notes for November 1, 2015

The music for All Saints Sunday includes our favorite All Saints hymns: at the processional announcing the day’s theme, “For all the saints, who from their labors rest,” and, at the Sequence, “I sing a song of the saints of God.” At the offertory the choir sings the grand chorus from Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem, “How lovely is Thy dwelling place,” and, at the Communion, Franz Schubert’s setting of the Agnus dei from his German Mass. Regarding the Brahms, the term "Requiem" is usually used to describe a setting of a sacred composition on Latin texts appropriate for a funeral mass. Brahms' work was called Requiem because the texts were taken from Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible rather than the original Requiem Mass Latin texts. Brahms’ Requiem focuses on the sorrow of those who mourn, rather than those who have died. “How lovely” is both a soothing and intense setting of Psalm 84.

In just three weeks at the 10:45 am liturgy, the Chancel Choir with soloists and small orchestra will present the J.S. Bach Cantata, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (What God does is done well), BWV 100. Throughout the cantata the title’s message is made explicit in arias and choruses and their uplifting message is suitable for the Sunday of Christ the King!