King of glory, King of peace

King of glory, King of peace,
I will love thee;
and that love may never cease,
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
thou hast heard me;
thou didst note my working breast,
thou hast spared me.
(George Herbert)

"This is my new favorite hymn," G. told me after rehearsal. She is a second-year chorister, maybe nine years old. She had the hymnal in hand to show it to me. We had sung it a little while before in the rehearsal, along with other hymns and music for this Sunday's liturgy. It is not what the Experts would call "age-appropriate" or "child-friendly." It is by a Dead White Male, and not only that, but he lived a long time ago and wrote in old-fashioned English which, they tell us, Modern People cannot understand. That is why we are supposed to avoid Rite One with its traditional language and use the 1970's Rite Two language or the more recent "Enriching Our Worship" texts, and why we are not supposed to use the Authorized (King James) Version of the scriptures. But nine-year-old G. knows little of these issues; she recognizes that there is Something here in this text and its tune, something that is worth her attention.

Our youth choir is to sing this Sunday for the 11:00 choral liturgy. I am giving the adult choir the day off, so it is all up to the younger group. That means they have to deal with our Lenten Rite One liturgy, complete with the Decalogue and the Penitential Order. We have to sing the Psalm appointed, which is the Nineteenth, all of it, in plainsong, with congregational antiphon. We have an anthem by David Conte, the "Prayer of St. Theresa," to a text sometimes known as St. Theresa's bookmark. And we have a descant with the processional hymn, "Christ is made the sure foundation," to the tune Westminster Abbey.

Long-time readers will know that the annual St. Louis RSCM Summer Course is important to me. One of the things about the Course for which I long through the cold winter months is "That Sound," the unique choral sound made by a group of confident trebles. Every year when we start doing warmups at the first rehearsal, I get choked up at its beauty.

Back home, this year's Youth Choir is young; the oldest chorister is fifteen and he has hardly been at rehearsal, being busy for most of the year with show choir at school. Without him, we have only one non-treble: Max, of whom I am extremely proud. He has proven his ability to sing a tenor line all by himself and hold his own against all these trebles -- he has some "solos" this Sunday in the Conte anthem, tenor lines that are not really solos, but he is the only one singing them. The center of gravity of this year's choir consists of about a half-dozen girls and treble boys between the ages of about ten and twelve. And some of them are becoming first-rate singers.

A key ingredient of "That Sound" at the RSCM course is the leadership of the older girls. Currently, that would be Kyle and Bryn and Olivia and a few others; not so long ago, it included Meara and Jenna, and before that two from our choir (Jennifer and Meredith), and before that Caitlin and Laura and Margo. We are very close to having a few singers of that calibre in our own parish choir -- Lucy and Caleigh and Elise are among this group, and they get a lot of help from other girls a few years younger, and from some excellent treble boys -- Ted, Charlie, Issay, and Evan come to mind. They watch the director in rehearsal, they sing with confidence, intelligence, and leadership. In another year or two, if we don't lose them all to Show Choir, we will have "That Sound" right here at home.

So what about that descant? I view it as a possible breakthrough moment for our choir. We have sung descants, but they have not been strong enough to carry over the full congregation and organ. This Sunday, if they do it as they are capable of doing, that may change. I think they can pull it off. And if not this time, maybe the next.

Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing thee,
and the cream of all my heart
I will bring thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
thou didst clear me;
and alone, when they replied,
thou didst hear me.

-----------------------------------

The Lord be with you.
And with thy spirit.

As mentioned, this Sunday is Rite One. I have been working with the choristers on the responses, especially that one. Few of these choristers have experience with Rite One, and we have not had sufficient rehearsal time to explore it properly. There is never enough time. But we took the time at this week's rehearsal to read the beautiful post-communion prayer together. I told them that it is one of my all-time favorite prayers of those granted to the People to say, which it is (alongside the Prayer of Humble Access). It will not be enough, but if I can plant the seed that with Rite One, there is Something there, something worthy of their attention that is not present in the "People Magazine" prose of the Rite Two and EOW services, they can seek it out later. If they are very fortunate, they may find a parish where such liturgy is valued. At the least, I hope they can see that I consider this language to be important and beautiful and good.

Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;
in my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
to enroll thee;
e'en eternity's too short
to extol thee.

There are times when my work is so enjoyable I can hardly stand it. This Wednesday's rehearsals were that way, the adult choir just as much as the youth choir. And yesterday, I had the privilege of an entire day of Music -- no meetings, no bulletin issues, almost no e-mail (I ignored it until late in the day). After Matins, I did a first workout on this Sunday's postlude, the Bach setting of "These are the holy Ten Commandments" from the Clavierubung, in response to the First Lesson which is the Giving of the Law at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20). After dinner, I went to the Congregational church for three hours of work in preparation for my noontime recital over there [for local friends, that would be Wednesday, March 18, 12:30 pm]. I am playing the Franck B minor Chorale, a marvelous piece which I love -- but cannot play on our little Pilcher. And after that, a quick supper in my office and upstairs for a violin doctoral recital. The artist was Timothy Hsu, resplendent in a red Chinese silk jacket, and the bulk of his program was the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (with piano accompaniment). I do not like Tchaikovsky. I do not think that this concerto is well-built -- it is to a large degree just a bunch of tunes strung together to provide opportunity for virtuosic display. But boy, was it fun to hear! I sat in the back row with a smile on my face as one Big Tune after another came and went, and as Mr. Hsu played the heck out of the piece. "Virtuosic display," indeed!

It takes a certain panache to play something like this effectively, a panache which I entirely lack. But there are other things that I can do musically. None of us can sing the entire Song; we are granted only a part, a small part, though irreplaceable because only we can sing or play it.

The Post-Communion Prayer, from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs, through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom. And we humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.