In the year that King Uzziah died

Q. What are the Seven Principal Feasts of the Church?
A. The Seven Principal Feasts are these: Christmas Day, the Epiphany, Easter Day, Ascension Day, The Day of Pentecost (or Whitsunday), Trinity Sunday, and All Saints' Day.

Notice that three of these fall within a span of three weeks.

The church musician certainly notices, if he is taking his work seriously. It is for most of us the end of the choir season, the end of the academic term was several weeks ago, and the operative holiday for the secular society was Memorial Day, the beginning of Summer. But these are three of the Principal Feasts and this last, Trinity Sunday, is the name-day of our parish. For the glory of the ascended Christ, for the honor of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, for the majesty of the holy and undivided Trinity, the musician ought to offer his best, just as much as he hopefully did for Christmas or Easter. For me, and probably for all of us, it is hard.

Today it mostly turned out well. My piano improvisation at the middle service was not so good, despite more preparation than usual. I was pleased that I kept control of St. Patrick's Breastplate in the manner of a fiddle tune; this was what I worked at. I was not pleased that in the coda on Deirdre (Christ be with me), I lost the very simple tune.

At the choral service, the congregation sang the hymns with strength and intelligence; I am tempted to post recordings of them. But instead, I will post the anthem: In the year that King Uzziah died, by David McK. Williams.

I have long considered this 1930's anthem to be a staple of the repertoire. To my surprise, there were no recordings of it on YouTube, until I posted ours earlier today. There is another very interesting anthem with the same title and text, sung by the choir of St. David's Cathedral, Wales here, but it is not the Williams.

Q. Describe the Trinity.
A. [….. the student goes to the organ and plays the Bach E flat prelude and fugue]

It is too simple for words. Fr. Tim had a blog post this week talking about how God is more complex than we can imagine, and He is. But He is equally more simple than we can imagine. We have a glimpse of it now and again: Moses at the bush hearing the Divine Name for the first time and being told that it means “I am.” Being. Simple beyond description. Without beginning or end. Or we have St. John saying “God is love,” a full and complete description (I John 4:8). Or, in John's Gospel account, all of the ways in which Jesus described himself – Good Shepherd, Bread from heaven. Resurrection. Vine-and-branches. Way, Truth, Life. Or in today's Gospel where Jesus speaks of the Spirit and those born of the Spirit (John 3:8).

Today's organ music, the “St. Anne” prelude and fugue that frame the Clavierübung, are a better description than any words though even this falls short. There are obvious Trinitiarian likenesses, such as the three subjects of the fugue, presented in order, the third proceeding from the first two and combined with them even as it is presented, but the inner message, that which cannot be framed in words but is there in the music, is more to the point, and more profound.

Here is my recording, with three paintings that likewise attempt to depict the Trinity. There are obviously a lot of recordings of this work on YouTube [a search gives 218,000 hits], but I think that I play it well enough to add to the collection. Astute readers will recall that I posted another playing of it a few months ago; that one is not public, for it was in memory of my friend G.F. As I wrote there, I often play this at funerals because we are, in Christ, bound up into the Trinity. It remains incomplete in this life – but not in the next, where we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (I John 3:2).