Music Notes for March 1, 2026

Music for Second Sunday in Lent

Dudley Buck was perhaps the first “classically-trained” concertizing organist on this continent, pioneering solo technique at a time when most churchgoers had heard but the occasional chamber organ employing its 1-3 stops to accompany singing. On the heels of the Second Industrial Revolution, organbuilding firms in New England produced in three years the quantity of instruments that the preceding generation had made in a lifetime, and before long, even village parishes had new instruments with several manuals and a full-compass pedalboards. Returned from studies at the Mendelssohn Conservatory in Leipzig, Buck demonstrated how these instruments could be used to play the serious solo repertory of Bach as well as his own compositions – yet, unlike some of his peers, he balanced the more highbrow programming with strains of the popular: virtuosic variations on popular Stephen Foster songs and transcriptions of popular orchestra numbers delighted his audiences in New England. At one standing-room-only recital, an eager public demanded three reprises of his rendering of Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, a request he obliged.

Buck was also an accomplished church musician and one of the first in North America to advocate for the hiring professional quartets to support his volunteer choir. He moved to Chicago in 1869 to direct the music at St. James Episcopal Church, where the anthem “Judge me, O God” was likely sung for the first time. Tragically, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his home, house organ, and possessions in 1871, prompting a return to the east coast, where he worked in Brooklyn, NY and Boston, MA for the remainder of his life.

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 February 22, 2026

Music for First Sunday in Lent

As we enter the season of Lent, marked by solemnity and inward reflection, we will continue to observe an Anglican tradition: a reduction in our use of the organ, or a “fasting” from some of its resources typically heard at Solemn Mass. While some organ voluntaries will still be played, they will be of a more contemplative nature. Indeed, you might notice a new marking just after the postlude in your service booklet requesting that we honour the silent reflection of those leaving the sanctuary.

The postlude (or closing voluntary in some traditions) originates from a chant of the Mass ordinary called “Ite missa est,” where the priest would chant “Mass is ended.” Over the centuries, a tradition evolved where organists would improvise the chant after it was sung, providing a musical reflection on the preceding prayer. The music that followed the Ite missa est evolved into our current notion of a postlude, providing a moment of reflection while members of the altar party continue their recession towards the exit.

The postlude is as much an offering to God as the introit we sing at the very beginning of this Mass, meant to focus our minds and hearts on our sung, spoken, or inward prayers. No matter how grateful the organist may be for an outpouring of applause in the moments following a challenging voluntary, a comment of appreciation at coffee hour is equally meaningful. Thus, we request a moment of silent meditation as the congregation exists after each postlude at Solemn Mass.

Abraham Ross

 

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

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