This morning’s solo text is reprinted under onelicense.net #A-717945. On Eagle’s Wings – words by Michael Joncas, © 1979 New Dawn Music. All rights reserved.

♪ Music Notes ♪

HENRY PURCELL (1659-1695) is regarded by many today as the finest and most original English composer of his day. Although his life was brief, he left a large body of work. His father was employed at the Chapel Royal, a training ground for court musicians, and Henry was a chorister there as a young boy. After his voice changed, he continued to work for the court in a variety of music positions. These positions included keeper of the king’s instruments, organist, composer, and organ tuner. Purcell’s most important appointments were as organist for Westminster Abbey and organist for the Chapel Royal. He spent his entire life in Westminster, employed in the service of King James II, King William III, and Queen Mary. There is hardly a department of music, as known in his day, to which Purcell did not contribute with true distinction. His anthems have long since been accorded their place in the great music of the church; as well, he wrote incidental stage music for the theatre, chamber music, keyboard works, and songs. His one true opera, Dido and Aeneas, is an enduring masterpiece. To honour his stature as the most important English composer of his day, he was buried under the organ of Westminster Abbey.

MARTIN HERBST (1654-1681) was a German Lutheran clergyman. He was educated at the St. Lorenz School in Nüremburg, and then went on to study theology and philosophy at Âltdorf and Jena. In 1680, Herbst was appointed pastor of St. Andrew’s Church in Eisleben, and also became rector of the church’s gymnasium (high school), but tragically died only a year later of the plague.

JOHN DONNE (1572-1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier, member of Parliament, and cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was also Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral from 1621 until his death. Considered to be the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets, his works include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, sermons, Latin translations, elegies, songs, and satires. Despite his great education and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on his wealthy friends. In 1615, he was ordained deacon and then Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Holy Orders, and only did so because the king (James I) ordered it.

GEORGE HUNT SMYTTAN (1822-1870) studied at Corpus Christ College, Cambridge. He became an ordained deacon in 1848, a priest in 1849, and in 1850 was appointed the Rector of Hawksworth, Notts. He published small volumes of poetry, and was the original author of the text of the hymn “Forty Days and Forty Nights”.

FRANCIS POTT (1832-1909) was born in Southwark, Surrey, England. He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was ordained Deacon in 1856, and Priest in 1857, then going on to serve a number of parishes. Pott wrote several original hymn texts, but is better known as a hymn translator and text reviser – “Forty Days and Forty Nights” being one of his most popular and widely sung.

MICHAEL JONCAS (b. 1951) is a priest, liturgical theologian, and composer of contemporary Catholic music, best known for his hymn, On Eagle’s Wings. He received a Master of Arts degree in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame in 1978 and went on to study at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1980, and teaches at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota), at the University of Notre Dame, and summer courses at the Saint John’s School of Theology – Seminary (Collegeville, Minnesota).

CHARLES H. PURDAY (1799-1885) was an English composer, publisher, lecturer, and writer. He was also a fine vocalist, and sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria. In the 1840s, during the ministry of Dr. John Cumming, Purday was appointed conductor of psalmody at Crown Court Scots Church in Covent Garden, London. It was said that the church services were so popular that traffic could not move in Drury Lane for the throng of carriages making their way to church! In the publishing field, he was a strong proponent of better copyright laws to protect the works of composers, authors, and publishers, and became a pioneer in the movement to reform the law in that regard. Purday’s hymn tune Sandon (heard in this morning’s middle hymn) first appeared in his 1857 publication, “The Church and Home Tune Book”.

The oratorio Elijah by FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) is modelled on the oratorios of his Baroque predecessors Bach and Handel, whose music he loved. However, in its lyricism and use of orchestral and choral colour, the style clearly reflects Mendelssohn’s own genius as an early Romantic composer. Elijah was first performed on August 26, 1846 at Birmingham Town Hall in its English version, conducted by the composer, and it was immediately acclaimed a classic of the genre. As The Times critic wrote: ‘Never was there a more complete triumph – never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art”. Notwithstanding the work’s triumph, Mendelssohn revised the oratorio wholesale before another group of performances in London in April, 1847 – one (23 April) in the presence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

JAMES GERTMENIAN (b. 1947) was raised in Southern California and received degrees from Oberlin College (Ohio) and Union Theological Seminary (New York City). Ordained by the United Church of Christ, he served a rural parish in upstate New York, founded a new church development in Danbury, Connecticut, and led an historic parish in Weston, Connecticut before becoming Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church in downtown Minneapolis, MN. In that role from 1996 until 2015, Gertmenian was heavily involved in combatting homelessness, and also led his congregation to take an active role in efforts that contributed to the acceptance by Minnesota’s voters of marriage equality for LGBTQ people. His hymns appear in various denominational and independent hymnals.

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN  was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music, against his family’s wishes. He held important positions in a number of German cities before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of that city’s five main churches. One of the most prolific composers in history (at least in terms of surviving works), Telemann was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, and to George Frideric Handel, whom he also knew personally. His music incorporates French, Italian, and German national styles, and he was at times even influenced by Polish popular music. Telemann’s enormous output, perhaps the largest of any classical composer in history, includes parts of at least 31 cantata cycles, many operas, concertos, oratorios, songs, music for civic occasions and church services, passions, orchestral suites and abundant amounts of chamber music – his music stands as an important link between the late Baroque and early Classical styles.