About music during Lent

Sometimes I find that art can just exist on its own and move people with no
words of explanation, other times it needs context. The music that Ive
selected for worship during Lent I think falls into the latter category,
specifically todays music.

In my study of this liturgical years, Year C, Lenten readings I was pulled

toward the words of spirituals. This is not uncommon for my mind to go to
the music of American slaves; it is something I devote lots of my life to. It is
also not difficult to see the parallels of wandering through trial and
tribulation for 40 days in the wilderness and the journey of American Slaves.
Many of the songs that slaves sang to guide them through their unbearable
plight in a context of Lent have new voice. The first that came to my mind
and in some ways began to shape the musical liturgy was the spiritual I
Want Jesus to Walk With me. The choir during the 5 weeks of Lent will
sing different arrangements of this piece as the anthem several times.
Although the melody in all of the arrangements the verses arrangers choose
to use and the way they treat the words create startling difference between
each arrangement. We have also traditionally sung the greek text Kyrie
eleison during Lent as part of our confession liturgy. This year we sing a
verbatim translation of those words found in the negro spiritual Come Here
Jesus, If You Please.
As I began to dig and read more closely the Holy Scriptures I found allusions
to more familiar texts and melodies that are uniquely American. During the
Second Great Awakening, a period that lasted from about 1790 to 1850, new
hymns where penned that would grow to form a great base of American
hymnody. Sometimes many of these pieces are referred to as white
spirituals. Two famous examples of hymns that were written and rose to
great prominence were What Wondrous Love Is This and Amazing
Grace. The former will lead us in worship as our Song of Community and
the latter will appear as service music during Lent.

Todays Anthem-
Todays anthem is the only piece of service music that is not entirely
American. God So Loved the Word is from the oratorio The
Crucifixion by an English composer who perhaps would be forgotten were it
not for this work that has become a staple with choirs in this country.
Todays Prelude & Postlude:
The prelude today is an arrangement of What Wondrous Love Is This a
hymn that first appeared in the 1811 collection entitled: Hymns and Spiritual
Songs, Original and Selected published in Lexington, Kentucky.
The postlude will be an improvisation inspired by a conversation I had with
Rev. Deibert about todays Old Testament passage. After talking with her and
re-reading the text myself Genesis 15:18 began to sound a lot like the song I
learned as a child This Land is your land from the redwood forest to the Gulf
stream waters. That association of songs I learned as a child about this
being land for me coupled with current systematic racism discussions and
the realization that even though we teach our black and brown children
these songs perhaps their messages arent true, at least not for all. So as all
of this mixed in my brain I decided that for the postlude I would perhaps play
a rendition of My Country tis of Thee, perhaps most famously sung by
Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after being banned
from Constitution Hall, and This Land Is Your Land that musically
reflect the harsh reality for many people concerning their texts. I have
chosen not to give it a title but I think if I had to I would borrow from Robert
Schumann famous set of piano pieces for children Kinderszenen: Von
fremden Lndernun Menschen which translates to Childhood Scenes: Of
Foreign Lands and Peoples.

-Phillip Morgan
2/21/2016