Choir Sunday, June 4

    May 5, 2017 | by Jeffrey Powell

    Choir Recognition Sunday, June 4

    This year’s celebration of our choir and all it adds to our weekly worship experience will be held on Pentecost—June 4th—at the 10:30 service. We will have an orchestra and a Festival Choir to offer three movements from George Frederic Handel’s sacred work, “Jubilate for the Peace of Utrecht, HWV 279.” This work was the first commission by the Royal Family, under the rule of Queen Anne; it was also the first work that Handel wrote in English. Up to this point he had not written oratorios in English, and his operas were all in Italian.

    Happily for us, the text comes directly from the Book of Common Prayer, from the Jubilate from the Morning Prayer service. It was (and is, for those who still use the Morning Prayer liturgy) one of the required Canticles which precedes the reading of Scripture. For the first movement the text we will sing comes from Psalm 100, verse 1: “Serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song.” The other two movements comprise the response after the Psalm is read in the Morning Prayer service: Glory be to the Father, and As it was in the beginning.

    The choir will be divided into five parts for some of the work, and into eight parts for the “Glory be.” It will truly be an exciting offering. Please save the date!

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