Music Notes for August 2, 2026

Music for Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Today’s prelude is one of the most sublime of Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale preludes: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (“Adorn yourself, dear soul”), known in English as “Deck Thyself, My Soul, with Gladness” (New English Hymnal 280).

The hymn, written by Johann Franck in 1653 to a melody by Johann Crüger, is one of the great Lutheran Communion hymns. Its opening words, “Adorn yourself, dear soul,” are an invitation to prepare worthily to receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The adornment of which the hymn speaks is not outward display but the inward beauty of faith, repentance, thanksgiving, and love, as the faithful draw near to the Lord’s Table.

Bach’s musical setting is a profound meditation on this sacred text. The chorale melody, heard in the soprano voice, is richly ornamented, as though the melody itself has been clothed in beauty. Beneath it unfolds an intricate accompaniment whose flowing lines are themselves derived from the hymn tune, creating music of remarkable unity, tenderness, and serenity. The effect is one of quiet contemplation, inviting the listener to enter more deeply into the mystery and grace of the Eucharist.

During the nineteenth-century revival of Bach’s music, Schmücke dich became especially cherished. After performing it at an all-Bach organ recital in Leipzig in 1840, Felix Mendelssohn is reported to have remarked, “If life had robbed me of all hope and faith, this single chorale would restore them.” Robert Schumann likewise described it as “as priceless, deep, and full of soul as any piece of music that ever sprang from a true artist’s imagination.”

Heard before the celebration of the Holy Mass, this chorale prelude invites us into a spirit of prayerful recollection. Like the hymn on which it is based, it prepares the heart to receive with reverence and joy the Body and Blood of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

PJ Janson

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.

 

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Music Notes for July 19, 2026

Music for Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

In musicology, we talk about musical “text” as more than a libretto, or the words being sung. The notion of a readable text can apply to the notation in the score, the preface printed along with it (in prose or poetry), or the allusion to concepts or elements that might evoke a certain experience. Such is the case with my favourite composer, Charles Ives, who incessantly “quotes” passages from hymns, folk songs, and pieces from the classical canon in his scores – prompting many lifetimes spent untangling this text, its many hidden inclusions imparting new possible associations.

In organ music, one often finds symbolisms of faith woven into the score. When the genre of the solo “Sonata” came into vogue in the nineteenth century, composers faced a decision: whether to compose completely original material as was standard, or whether to acknowledge the tradition of setting liturgical melodies in organ music (Julius Reubke took another path entirely with his musical depiction of the 94th psalm in the style of a tone-poem!).

Felix Mendelssohn’s six sonatas for organ set only three Lutheran chorales, one set of variations in the final sonata and two near-hidden inclusions in the first and third. I’ll play the first instance (part of Sonata 1) as the opening voluntary today, where a fiery, F-minor introduction alternates with a placid statement of the chorale Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit on the swell division. Mendelssohn would have known this melody from its pivotal setting in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, which he was responsible for reviving, and the reverence with which he regards it is evident in this profound movement for solo organ.

Abraham Ross

Solemn Mass takes place at St. James’ Anglican Church, Vancouver at 10:30 am every Sunday.

 

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