Music Notes for March 15, 2026

Music for Fourth Sunday in Lent

This Sunday, often referred to as Mothering Sunday, Laetare Sunday, or “Refreshment” Sunday marks the halfway point of Lent, with twenty-one calendar dates remaining until the Great Vigil of Easter. Traditionally a Sunday where early Christians honoured the “Mother Church,” some may choose to take a break from their Lenten fasting, and the appointed antiphons and lectionary are somewhat more joyful than those of adjacent Sundays. Likewise, today’s music breaks from our Lenten focus on plainchant Mass ordinaries and reduced choral offerings, featuring some beautiful music traditionally heard at St. James’ at the halfway point from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

Before Solemn Mass, an extended prelude offers a backdrop for contemplative prayer: a meditation on a German chorale written in 2021 by Canadian composer Joel Peters. Peters creates an atmosphere of quiet, almost enthralling reflection by dynamically shading divisions of the organ to create a wave effect, pairing the comfort imparted by a German traditional lullaby with the melody of the cited chorale, whose text asks God for radical acceptance of one’s present being in the world: “not to want too much, not too want too little.. but only to be quiet.”

At communion, the choir presents one of the great choral anthems of the twentieth century, Edgar Bainton’s “And I saw a new heaven,” which sets a striking text from Revelation 21, describing a fleeting vision of heaven’s eternal promise, emphasizing that the “tabernacle of God” is with humankind; that God remains with us and protects even before we reach our eternal rest. The tenor echos the soprano’s text and melody in canon throughout much of the piece, perhaps depicting this duality of God’s eternal promise on earth and in heaven alike.

Abraham Ross

 

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

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Music Notes for March 8, 2026

Music for Third Sunday in Lent

Today’s service opens with a short chorale prelude by the German organist and conductor Johanna Senfter. From a collection of 10 such preludes spanning as many different aesthetics, Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten is a chorale of assurance, emphasizing the importance of faith in a world that challenges us with difficulty, pain, and sorrow. Senfter moves to adjacent keys through chromatic motion (for fellow music theory enthusiasts, an almost inconceivable modulation from A-flat minor to G minor in the first five beats) to create a backdrop of uncertainty. The chorale set in the treble voice is often echoed or foreshadowed by the bass. The hymn swells out of the murky undercurrent before resting conclusively on the assurance of the final chord.

Listening to the music of George Dyson, one might be convinced that he was born one or two generations earlier than he was; his music embraces the idiom of his teachers, Parry and Stanford, more than that of his contemporaries, Britten and Howells. On the other hand, many of his choral anthems follow contemporaneous trends in setting devotional poetry of the British tradition in addition to scripture and hymn stanzas. Today’s communion motet sets the poetry of John Keble, a 19th century priest and visionary of the Oxford movement. The text beautifully depicts the holistic unity of God’s creation, despite hardship and differences, that all creation conveys one inevitable utterance: “God made us all for good.”

Abraham Ross

 

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

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