5 July - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 9

I just had one service to play. Here is the music featured during that service.

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church where I played the usual 10:30 am service. As usual, the numbers are out of The Hymnal 1982.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Eucharist Rite II
Prelude: Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten (G. Böhm); Largo, Voluntary in G (Op. 6, No. 7; J. Stanley); Improvisation on Es flog ein kleins Waldvögelein
Processional Hymn: 616, Hail to the Lord's Anointed (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN)
Trisagion: S-100, New Plainsong (Hurd)
Psalm: Ps 48 (Simplified Anglican Chant)
Sequence Hymn: 635, If thou but trust in God to guide thee (WER NUR DEN LIEBEN GOTT)
Offertory Hymn: 530, Spread, O spread, thou mighty word (GOTT SEI DANK)
Sanctus: S-130, Deutsche Messe (Schubert/Proulx))
Lord's Prayer: chanted (S-119 in Hymnal 1982)
Fraction Anthem: S-169, My flesh is food indeed (Urwin)
Communion Song: LEVAS II 194, Lead me, guide me (D. Akers)
Recessional Hymn: 528, Lord, you give the great commission (AUSTRIA)
Postlude: Vivace, Voluntary in G (Op. 6, No. 7; J. Stanley)

• I completely mis-estimated the time I needed to play my prelude pieces. So when I finished the Stanley piece, much to my chagrin, I had four minutes left. So I filled most of that four minutes with an improvisation on the opening hymn. Somehow, it worked, and one of my choristers complimented me, saying it was pretty.


• I wibbled over the Communion song. I will be the first to admit that I don't do folk, jazzy, or rock-type contemporary songs/hymns all that well, mainly because I cannot relate to it. (There is a reason why I haven't been programming much of that type of song during the services. Sure, it's all well and good for me to program it. I just have to remember who has to play it during services...) So I did a bit of research on how it should sound. Wouldn't you know it: I discovered a couple of very interesting YouTube videos, which gave me an idea how I should play this piece.
  
  Here is a video featuring the composer, Doris Akers, playing and singing the piece.
  
  
  
  And, interestingly enough, Elvis Presley performing the same piece.
  
  
  
  I must have done well. A couple of people approached me after the service, admiring the way I played the accompaniment. "It sounds very African-American, the way you played that." Validation, indeed. :)


• In the Hymnal 1982, the hymntune associated with "Lord, you give the great commission" is Rowthorne; in Wonder, Love, and Praise, it is associated with Abbot's Leigh. I had always sung this text to Abbot's Leigh; however, I noticed that in the in-house St. Joseph's Songbook, this text is set to Austria. And so Austria it was.

We'll be doing this again next Sunday.