April 12, 2020 

Rev. Douglas duCharme 

Eleanor Daley, Director of Music

Opening Hymn Jesus Christ is Risen Today

Jesus Christ is risen today, hallelujah!
Our triumphant holy day, hallelujah!
Who did once, upon the cross, hallelujah!
Suffer to redeem our loss, hallelujah!

Hymns of praise then let us sing, hallelujah!
Unto Christ, our heavenly King, hallelujah!
Who endured the cross and grave, hallelujah!
Sinners to redeem and save, hallelujah!

But the pains that He endured, hallelujah!
Our salvation hath procured, hallelujah!
Now above the sky He’s King, hallelujah!
Where the angels ever sing, hallelujah!

Anthem Sing Out with Joy!          Mark Patterson (b. 1969)

Sing out with joy, sing out with joy! Christ the Lord is risen!
Sing out with joy, sing out with joy! Jesus is alive!

Sing alleluia, sing alleluia, sing alleluia;
He is risen indeed. R

Sing out with joy! He is alive!
(Mark Patterson)

Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah) G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Hallelujah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah!
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ;
And he shall reign forever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
And he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!
(excerpted from Revelation 11 and 14)

Anthem He is Risen! Craig Courtney (b. 1948)

He is risen! Christ is risen!

He is risen! He is risen!
Christ the Lord is risen indeed!

Prophecy now is fulfilled in the crucified Lord.
Death could not hold Him, the temple destroyed is restored.
The power of sin has been broken by God’s only Son,
Christ over Satan has triumphed, the victory won. R

Come to the tomb, it is open, the stone rolled away.
He is not here, He is risen, O glorious day.
Join in the glad celebration of Jesus our King!
Sing to the world of His victory, sing to Him, sing! R
(Susan Bentall Boersma)

Hymn This Joyful Eastertide          arr. Charles Wood (1866-1926)

This joyful Eastertide, away with sin and sorrow.
My Love, the Crucified, hath sprung to life this morrow.
Had Christ, that once was slain, ne’er burst his three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain: but now hath Christ arisen.

My flesh in hope shall rest, and for a season slumber:
Till trump from east to west shall wake the dead in number. R

Death’s flood hath lost its chill, since Jesus crossed the river:
Lover of souls, from ill my passing soul deliver. R
(George Ratcliffe Woodward 1894, alt.)

Anthem Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise          Dan Forrest (b. 1978)

If God be for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His only Son,
But gave him up for all,
Shall He not with Him freely give us all things?

Hail the day that sees Him rise, alleluia!
To His throne beyond the skies, alleluia!
Christ, the Lamb for sinners giv’n, alleluia!
Enters now the highest heav’n, alleluia!

Circled round with angel pow’rs, alleluia!
Their triumphant Lord and ours, alleluia!
Christ has conquered death and sin, alleluia!
Take the King of glory in, alleluia!

Hail the day that sees Him rise, alleluia!
To His throne beyond the skies, alleluia!
Christ, the Lamb for sinners giv’n, alleluia!
Enters now the highest heav’n, alleluia!
(Romans 8:31-32, and Charles Wesley, 1742)

Hymn The Day of Resurrection

The day of resurrection! Earth tell it out abroad;
The passover of gladness, the passover of God!
From death to life eternal, from earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over with hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light,
And listening to his accents, may hear so calm and plain
His own “All hail!” and, hearing, may raise the victor strain.

Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
The round world keep high triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes of gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end.

Offertory Anthem My Master from a Garden Rose          E. Daley (1999)

My master in a garden lay, perfumed with spices rare,
for tender hands had laid Him there to rest amid the roses.

‘Twas on a cross they laid him bare and pierced His hands with nails
that we poor men might live again and be with Him in glory. Alleluia.

My master from a garden rose to go for us to heaven,
and He will come and take us there to be with Him forever. Alleluia. Amen.
(Gordon Young, 1919-1998)

Recessional Hymn Thine is the Glory

Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the vict’ry Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes where Thy body lay.

Thine is the glory, risen, conquering Son;
endless is the vict’ry Thou o’er death hast won.

Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb.
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let His church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
for the Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting. R

No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life,
life is nought without Thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors, through Thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan with Thy power and love. R

Choral Amen E. Daley (2009)

Postlude Worthy is the Lamb and Amen (from Messiah)          G. F. Handel (1685-1759)

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
And hath redeemèd us to God by His blood,
To receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
And strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
Blessing and honour, glory and pow’r be unto Him
That sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb,
For ever and ever. (Revelation 5:12, 13b)
Amen.

This morning’s Anthem texts are reprinted under onelicense.net #A-717945. Sing Out with Joy! – words by Mark Patterson, © 2005 Choristers Guild. He is Risen! – words by Susan Bentall Boersma, © 2010 Beckenhorst Press, Inc. My Master From a Garden Rose, words by Gordon Young, © 1983 Harold Flammer, Inc. All rights reserved.

♪ Music notes ♪

Mark Patterson (b. 1969) is a nationally acclaimed composer, conductor, clinician and teacher, who currently serves as the Director of Music at Salisbury Presbyterian Church in Midlothian, Virginia, US. He has worked with choral groups of all ages in public school, university, and church settings, and his compositions feature poetic texts, soaring melodies and stirring rhythms.

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) was born in Halle, Germany. One of the most prolific, successful and revered composers and musicians of the Baroque period, he is to this day considered to be one of the greatest composers of that era, enjoying both public favour and royal patronage during his lifetime. Despite his eagerness to become a musician, he was disallowed by his father, and so had to conduct his musical training in secret. After spending a brief spell in Italy studying law to appease his father, but at the same time expanding his musical pursuits while out of his father’s control and knowledge, Händel was appointed as Kapellmeister for Prince George of the German Hanoverian family in 1710. He moved with Prince George to London, England, where the prince was crowned King George I of Great Britain and Ireland. At this point Händel became George Frederic Handel, and in 1712 he decided to settle in England permanently, receiving an annual income of £200 from the royal family. His compositional output was immense: 42 operas, 29 oratorios (including Messiah, which has taken its rightful place as one of the most frequently performed and most beloved choral works of all time), more than 120 cantatas, duets, trios, arias, anthems, chamber music, organ works, sonatas and concertos. Three days before his death in 1759 Handel signed a codicil to his will saying he hoped he might be buried in Westminster Abbey, and desired that his executor erect a monument for him. The funeral was attended by about 3,000 people and the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Chapel Royal sang the service. His black marble gravestone in the south transept reads: GEORGE FREDERIC HANDEL BORN YE 23 FEBRUARY 1685 DIED YE 14 OF APRIL 1759.

Various legends, registering differing degrees of reality and truth, inevitably surround such a famous and long-lived composition as Handel’s Messiah . It is known that he wrote most of the work in an astonishingly short three weeks time, beginning on August 22, 1741. Another legend attached to the work relates to his inspiration, which casts the frenzied composition as a sort of divine dictation. Handel is said to have emerged at some point (usually, it is noted, after finishing the “Hallelujah Chorus”,) and proclaimed: “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself!” The first performance of Messiah took place in Dublin, on April 13, 1742. Handel gave the London premiere less than a year later at Covent Garden, and in the almost 300 years since then, Messiah has taken its rightful place as one of the most frequently performed and most beloved choral works of all time.

Craig Courtney (b. 1948) is an internationally renowned choral composer, arranger, pianist, accompanist, clinician, and choir director. A native of Indiana, he began playing the piano at the age of three and the cello at the age of eleven, and received a Bachelors and a Masters degree in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati. Following a three-year stay in Milan, Italy, where he studied the piano and worked extensively as a vocal coach, he was invited to join the music faculty of the famed Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. It was during this period, while serving in the music ministry of the Salzburg International Baptist Church, that Courtney began directing a church choir and composing sacred choral music, due to the unavailability of English language music.

Susan Bentall Boersma was born and educated in Michigan and began her study of music with her parents, both of whom were performing artists. Her piano/organ/voice studies continued while attending Hope College. She has served as accompanist for college choirs and touring groups as well as for various solo artists and community choirs; has led workshops, and has held positions as pianist, choral director and director of music ministries at churches in Michigan, Wisconsin, Vermont and Ohio. Susan often collaborates as a lyricist with composers Craig Courtney, Lloyd Larson and Mark Hayes, to name a few – on both sacred and school repertoire.

Charles Wood (1866-1926) was an Irish composer, organist and teacher; his pupils included Ralph Vaughan Williams at Cambridge, and Herbert Howells at the Royal College of Music in London. One of the more important minor composers from the British Isles of his generation, he composed songs, cantatas, works for the stage, as well as orchestral and chamber pieces, but is best remembered for his large output of anthems, communion service settings, psalm settings, and other religious compositions.

George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934) was an English Anglican priest who wrote mostly religious verse, both original and translated from ancient authors. The best known of these were written to fit traditional melodies, mainly from the Renaissance era. He sometimes harmonized these melodies himself, but usually left it to his frequent collaborator, composer Charles Wood. In 1894, he and Wood published Carols for Easter and Ascensiontide, which included the popular Easter carol This Joyful Eastertide, heard sung this morning by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.

Dan Forrest (b. 1978) has been described as having an undoubted gift for writing beautiful music that is truly magical, with works hailed as magnificent, cleverly constructed sound sculpture, and superb writing … full of spine-tingling moments. In the last decade, Dan’s music has become well established in the U.S., Canada, and abroad. The Fairlawn Senior Choir has presented the Canadian premieres of two of his critically acclaimed major works for choir and orchestra – Requiem for the Living (2014) and Jubilate Deo (2017). Jubilate Deo features the text of Psalm 100, sung in seven languages: Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Zulu, Spanish, and English. Dan holds a doctoral degree in composition from the University of Kansas, as well as a master’s degree in piano performance. He keeps a busy schedule doing commissions, workshops, recordings, adjunct professorships, and residencies with universities, churches and community choirs, teaching composition, coaching, and collaborating as an accompanist.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement, most widely known for writing about 6,500 hymn texts. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and after graduating with a master’s degree in classical languages and literature, Charles followed his father and brother into Anglican orders in 1735. He was a younger brother of Methodist founder John Wesley, and Anglican cleric Samuel Wesley the Younger, and he became the father of musician Samuel Wesley, and the grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley.

My Master from a Garden Rose was commissioned by the Chancel Choir of Trinity United Church in Kitchener, Ontario, under the direction of Sheryl Loeffler, and was dedicated to the ministry of Rev. John Ambrose.

Gordon Young (1919-1998) was an American organist and composer of both organ and choral works. His undergraduate degree in music was earned at Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas. Following that he was a scholarship pupil at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in the 1940s, and later he received his Doctor of Sacred Music from Southwestern in 1964. His published works total over 800, and a number of his church anthems and organ compositions have become standard repertoire.