Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian Church

Hymn Sing Sunday at STHPC! Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for February 16, 2020 Welcome to the February installment of Hymn Sing Sunday! Today’s service includes hymns chosen by members of the Chancel Choir. Several members of the choir will also be sharing meditations on these hymns. In addition to lots of congregational singing, the choir will sing arrangements of three hymns. Our introit, El Cielo Canta Alegrìa (Heaven is Singing for Joy), appears in the G...Continue reading

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for February 2, 2020 Our latest Presbyterian hymnal, Glory to God, (also known as The Purple Hymnal) is a wonderful resource, not only for congregational singing, but also for music for the choir. This morning’s music features two selections from GtG. Evie’s lectionary texts this morning include the Beatitudes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and the well-known exhortation on righteous living from the prophet Micah. Minnesota co...Continue reading

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for January 26, 2020 Composers of sacred music often draw directly on texts from the Bible. Contemporary composers Denis Drobinski and Jon Paige have used both Old and New Testament scriptures as the basis for this morning’s Chancel Choir music. Our introit, This is My Son, describes Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan river, as told in the gospel of Matthew. Denis Drobinski, director of music at the South Freeport United Church of Christ... in Maine, composed this for his church choir just two weeks ago and shared it with our choir for its West Coast premiere. Drobinski paints the descent of the Spirit with overlapping, descending lines in all four voice parts and marks the voice from heaven with a trumpet-like fanfare in the accompaniment. The piano continues to voice the anointing of Jesus with repeated, descending octaves in the left hand, while the piece concludes with an uplifting three-part voice of God saying This is My Song, My Beloved who brings me joy! Passages from both the Old and New Testaments describe the awe and wonder that should pervade our worship of God. In On That Day, Jon Paige combines verses from the prophet Zechariah and the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans to describe a day where everyone will worship God together. Paul’s text mirrors an early church hymn that he also quotes in Philippians: Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. May our worship of God not only look forward to that day in the future where all people will worship together, but also worship in that spirit this morning. This anthem was a special request from our choir mom Marylyn Goode. The Hebrew word chesed appears almost 250 times in the Hebrew scriptures with almost 150 occurrences in the book of Psalms. It is a difficult word to translate into English because it takes on many meanings in Hebrew. Many translations replace it with loving kindness or steadfast love. Our friend Denis Drobinski also composed our offertory, I Will Always Sing About the Lord’s Love, which he based on Psalm 89, whose first line is I will sing of thy steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim thy faithfulness to all generations. What is steadfast? God’s love for us. What is our response? Steadfast song and proclamation of God’s faithfulness to all generations. Drobinski writes a chorus that repeats multiple times throughout the pieceas a unison refrain, as a refrain with harmony in the lower voices, with a descant in the upper voices, and finally modifying both the melody and descant while switching the voice parts. Denis has a talent for composing music that focuses our exuberance on God’s chesed, His steadfast love for us!

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for January 19, 2020 Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty....Continue reading

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Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for December 1, 2019 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2) Happy New Year! It may seem a month early, but the first Sunday in Advent marks the first Sunday of the new church yearlectionary year A if you are keeping score. Are you unsettled with the early darkness that comes with the return to standard time every year? Advent is the perfect season for thinking about the physical darkness of December c...ontrasted with the hope of light that comes with the start of the Winter Solstice and our celebration of the light prophesied by Isaiah. German theologian and martyr Dieterich Boenhoffer wrote: Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life, however, is Adventthat is, a time of waiting for the ultimate, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when all people are brothers and sisters and one rejoices in the words of the angels: ‘on earth peace to those on whom God’s favor rests. (Quoted in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas.) The choir will sing two selections from Patrick Liebergen’s cantata The Christmas Light this morning. In each movement of this cantata, Liebergen fashions new music from the combination of well-known Advent and Christmas music with fresh words. Our offertory, A Great and Mighty Wonder is a quodlibet, a piece of music that merges multiple melodies. Here, Liebergen uses the German melody for Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming and the French melody associated with the carol Il Est Ne (He is Born, the Divine Christ Child) to announce the arrival of a child of grace and invites us to Proclaim the sacred story; sing with joy to the Lord on high. The piece starts with all voices singing the Lo, How a Rose melody, continues with the men singing He is Born under the women’s Lo, How a Rose, and concludes with all voices on He is Born. A triumphant start to our Advent journey. Liebergen’s haunting setting of O Come, O Come Emmanuel includes two of the seven original medieval Latin responses for the week before Christmas. Each of these responses explores a different name for JesusWisdom, Emmanuel, root of Jesse, key of David. The second verse calls Jesus the Dayspring and asks God to disperse our darkness. The mystery, and sometimes gloom, of each the verse contrasts with the hope that our Emmanuel, God with us, comes to liberate us and give us love in new and unexpected ways. May we walk through this Advent season acknowledging the darkness in our existence but looking forward to the joy of God’s arrival in every daily Advent of our lives.

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for Sunday, November 24 2019 The Sunday before Thanksgiving this year doubles as both Thanksgiving Sunday and Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in our liturgical calendar. Contemporary hymnist and recording artist Twila Paris writes I worship God through songs, but I’m learning that worship is much more than singing alone, my individual voiced raised in worship. It’s the response of the whole people to God, the response of th...e entire company of the redeemed. (from In This Sanctuary: An Invitation to Worship the Savior.) We open this morning’s worship service with Paris’s He is Exalted, an exuberant celebration of the lordship of the risen Savior. This composition echoes the psalms with the proclamation of heaven, earth, and all believers rejoicing in God’s holy name and eternal reign. May this be our response to the wonderful news of our redemption. Should church choirs sing in languages other than English? Absolutely, although maybe not every Sunday. This morning’s offertory is Hans Leo Hassler’s lively Latin setting of Psalm 96, Cantate Domino (or Sing to the Lord.) First published in 1604, Hassler used several choral styles in this short composition. Listen for homophonic singing (all voices together), at the very beginning; polyphonic (each part singing its own, independent line) on the second occurrence of Cantate Domino; and finally antiphonal (groups of voices answering each other) on the word annunciate where the basses and tenors are answered by the altos and sopranos. Although a German, Hassler traveled to Venice where he associated with the great poly-choral composers Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Cantate Domino shows the profound influence of the Italian choral style on Hassler’s music. Let us all Sing to the Lord a new song! Over the summer, I review dozens of new anthems as potential additions to our church music library. Occasionally I take advantage of a the work of musical colleagues who their create their own lists of potential church choir music. One of my favorite pieces from such a list is a new setting by contemporary composer Gwyneth Walker of The King of Love My Shepherd Is titled Good Shepherd. Walker’s unique contribution to this well-loved hymn is the insertion of portions of the hymnSt Patrick’s Breastplate at the end of each verse: God before me, God beside me, God behind me, God above me. According to Walker: The intent in combining these sources is to speak of God's presence guiding (as a "Good Shepherd"), surrounding (as in the St. Patrick’s lines), infusing the spirit (living in my heart) and even manifested in our beloved livestoc

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Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for Sunday, November 10 2019 In his book Practice for Heaven: Music for Worship That Looks Higher, Dr. Gabriel Statom writes We believe that congregational-sung texts in the church should express, explicitly or implicitly, the glory of God in musical settings that are both beautiful and accessible to the people. Today’s Chancel Choir music is based on words that aspire to that beauty and accessibility. Today’s introit features the... text of 17th-century Anglican cleric and metaphysical poet George Herbert’s Antiphon (I). Herbert’s personal relationship with God and an economy of language characterize his poetry. Let all the world in every corner sing reflects Herbert’s joy in encountering God everywherein nature, in his parish church, and in his friends and neighbors. English composer Eric Routley models the title of the poem--Antiphon--in his setting of the text by surrounding the verses with the unison text Let all the world. Herbert writes that no place is too high or too low not to nurture the praise of God. As a church we are called to shout psalms in a way that will break down doors and also to cherish God’s praise individually in our hearts. Mary McDonald uses different verses from scripture in her setting Holy, True and Faithful God. The very first phrase, Every eye shall see; every knee shall bow; every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, comes from what may be the first Christian worship song, which the apostle Paul quotes in Philippians 2:5 11. The chorus of the anthem enumerates God’s attributes: Lord, rock of my salvation, true anointed Son, King, holy, true and faithful God. This anthem and text joins us to the company of believers who have worshiped God in music for almost two thousand years. Our final piece this morning is a director’s choice. The 20th-century English composer Herbert Howells is my favorite composer of sacred music. Howells composed several anthems using the verse of British Poet Laureate Robert Bridges. My Eyes for Beauty Pine combines the mystical and singular desire for God’s grace with chant-like melody lines that mirror the meter of the poetry. Bridges writes that all of the qualities of God are expressed in one name: ’tis Love,‘tis heavenly Love. In our worship of God today may we feel that every gentle heart that burns with true desire, Is lite from eyes that mirror part of that celestial fire.

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for Sunday, October 6 2019 On the first Sunday in October, churches around the globe celebrate World Communion Sunday. The Chancel Choir music for October 6th celebrates those two words: world and communion. The Glory to God hymnal contains a wealth of music from other countries. Our introit, Este es el día, composed by Argentinian pastor and musician in 1983, is a paraphrase of Psalm 118. The music is a chaya, a festive son...g-dance from the Diaguita culture in Northern Argentina, associated with harvest celebrations. (Quoting from Glory to God: A Companion.) Sosa has worked for decades advocating for inclusion of music from many cultures in hymnals around the world. The choir will be singing the chorus in Spanish and the verses in English. This morning’s offertory is an arrangement of Cantad al Señor, a Brazilian folk tune that appears in a number of contemporary hymnals. If you know your South American history, you may wonder why a Brazilian song has a Spanish rather than a Portuguese title. Gerhard Cartford, a Lutheran pastor then working in Argentina, encountered Cantai ao Senhor at a pastor’s conference in southern Brazil in 1982, took it to his home parish where he translated into Spanish, and then translated it into English when he returned to the United States. The lively and joyful dance rhythm accompanies the text Sing to the Lord a new song from Psalm 98surely a universal expression of worship that transcends culture and language! Finally, we celebrate communion this morning with Lee Dengler’s Come and Feast. Dengler’s text celebrates the community and healing we find at the communion table. There is life for all who eat, so come and feast, be made complete. Listen for the sense of tension and release in Dengler’s music, in both the vocal lines and the piano accompaniment, through the use of suspensions and anticipatory held notes. I found out last week that our own Jay Hartley knew Mr. Dengler while they were both going to college in southeast Pennsylvania! May you experience the community of our shared meal this morning. Come and feast, and be made whole.

Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for Sunday, September 29 2019 Church choirs across the United States will be singing Jester Hairston’s lively arrangement of the spiritual Poor Man Laz’rus this Sunday. It isn’t very often that that the lectionary scripture text exactly matches a choral anthem like this morning’s story of Lazarus and Divies from the gospel of Luke. This call-and-response African-American spiritual weaves the story of the suffering beggar and his...Continue reading

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If you don't want to download the bulletin. Reflections on STHPC Chancel Choir Music for Sunday, September 15 2019 So, how do we choose music that the choir sings each Sunday? We have been fortunate that both pastors Tom Coop and Evie Macway plan their sermon themes several weeks in advance. Both pastors also preach using texts from the Revised Common Lectionarya three-year cycle of readings that takes you through the entire Bible. This week’s gospel reading from Luke 1...5 highlights Jesus’s care for each individual through the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. The words to our introit, Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us, first appeared in the 1836 collection, Hymns for the Young, and are attributed to Dorothy Thrupp. William Bradbury, one of the most important 19th-century gospel writers, composed music for these words, as well as Jesus Loves Me, The Solid Rock, and Sweet Hour of Prayer. Bradbury’s music, soft and full of movement, accompanies the text that envisions our relationship to the Saviorneeding Jesus’s guidance and sustenance, and responding with obedience and love. The piano accompaniment for my arrangement quotes two other 19th-century hymn tunes: At the River, and What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Sometimes new music just drops in your lap. I had lunch this summer with Kyle Jones, the director of music at Advent Lutheran Church in Morgan Hill, where we discovered mutual interests in poetry, music, and composing. Kyle loves composing new music for familiar hymn texts. His 2017 setting of All the Way My Savior Leads Me combines a beautiful folk-like melody and stunning piano accompaniment which bring depth to this Fanny Crosby text, which also speaks about God’s guidance through each winding path I tread. Members of our choir will be participating in a Hymn Festival concert conducted by Kyle at Advent Lutheran Church on October 20th. Sometimes music has a personal connection to someone in the choir. Our final anthem, Allen Pote’s A Covenant Prayer, is based John Wesley’s 1780 Covenant Service, where the congregation acknowledged their utter dependence on God for everything in their lives and committed to God’s leading. As Paul says in Philippians 4, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. What is the connection to our choir? The composition is dedicated to Steve DeJarnett’s great uncle and aunt, on his uncle’s retirement after 40 years as a church director of music in Georgia. So, Lord, be our shepherd, lead us, and make us what you will!