Music for this Sunday

Christ the King - Sunday, November 24

Firstly, let me apologize. Between my vacation and then Hurricane Helene, work has piled up and I’ve not had time to write about our Sunday music.

This Sunday is Christ the King. We will have special music with two trumpets and timpani. The prelude this Sunday is Sonata in D, TWV 44:1, by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), arranged by German organist and composer Hans-André Stamm ( b 1958 ). It consists of three movements—I Spirituoso, II Largo, and III Vivace

The Entrance Hymn is Crown Him with Many Crowns (Diademata) for which I composed an introduction and 4 trumpet descants. The tune, Diademata, Greek for an ornamental headdress, was written for this text by Sir George Elvey, sometime organist of Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor.

The Responsorial is by Reverend Jeffrey Keyes ( b 1953 ) of the Confgregation of Missionaries of the Precious Blood, and a priest at the cathedral in Santa Rosa, CA. He was composer-in-residence at Saint Mary’s, Norwalk CT. He is a proponent of the Extraordinary Form.

The anthem at Communion is King of Glory, King of Peace, to the tune, General Seminary, words by George Herbert, a favourite of King James I.

The Closing Hymn is To Jesus Christ, Our Sov’reign King, by Reverend Monsignor Martin B Hellriegel (1890-1981. The words are married to the tune Ich glaub’ an Gott, supposedly from the Mainz Gesangbuch (1870), however, it is greatly altered. The famous organist, Theodore Marier, called this revised tune Christus Rex, appropriately enough.

The postlude is a Trumpet March by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), court composer for Louis XIV, arranged by Giuseppe Galante ( b 1964 ).