Music Notes
Sunday, May 24, 2026
Eighth Sunday of Easter
Service Music
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PRELUDE | Speak to One Another (Choir) … Jean Berger
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OPENING HYMN #516 | Come Down, O Love Divine
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SEQUENCE HYMN #511 | Holy Spirit, Ever Living
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OFFERTORY ANTHEM | I Will Sing with the Spirit … John Rutter
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COMMUNION HYMN #513 | Like the Murmur of the Dove’s Song
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CLOSING HYMN #512 | Come Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove
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POSTLUDE | Toccata from Organ Symphony #5 … C. M. Widor
Organ Voluntaries
“Toccata” from the Symphony for Organ No. 5 in F Minor, Opus 42, No. 1, is an organ symphony composed by Charles-Maris Widor (1844-1937) between 1878 and 1879, while he was organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris. It was first first performed in public on October 19, 1879, when it was played by the composer at the city’s Trocadéro Palace. The “toccata” is the final movement, and is one of the most commonly-known and frequently recorded organ works, having come to widespread attention when it replaced Mendelssohn’s Wedding March for many royal weddings, including Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
Choral Works
For the Day of Pentecost the choir will sing the prelude. “Speak to One Another” is by Jean Berger (1909-2002). Berger was a German-born American pianist, composer, and music educator. As a member of a Jewish family from Hamm, Westphalia, his birth name was Arthur Schlossberg. “Speak to One Another” is from a set of four Devotional Songs based on traditional Pennsylvania Dutch texts. He composed extensively for choral ensembles and solo voice. While working as the assistant conductor at an opera house in Mannheim, he was forcibly removed from a rehearsal by Brown Shirts. After the Nazi Party seized power in Germany in 1933 he moved to Paris, where he took the French name, Jean Berger, and toured widely as a pianist and accompanist. From 1939 to 1941, he was assistant conductor at the Municipal Theatre in Rio de Janeiro and on the faculty of the Brazilian Conservatory. He also toured widely throughout South America. In 1941, he moved to the United States and served in the U.S. Army starting in 1942. In 1943, he became a US citizen. He worked in the Office of War Information producing foreign-language broadcasts and USO shows until 1946. From 1946 to 1948, he worked as an arranger for CBS and NBC and toured as a concert accompanist. From 1948 - 1971 he moved into the academic world with faculty positions at Middlebury College, Vermont, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Colorado, Boulder. after 1971 he lectured widely throughout the world on various aspects of American music.
“I Will Sing with the Spirit” by John Rutter (b. 1945) is a sacred choral work. The biblical text is taken from 1 Corinthians 14:15, adding to the second half of the verse an often repeated “alleluia”. Rutter scored the choral work for four vocal parts (SATB) and organ. He composed it in 1994 for the Royal School of Church Music in England. The text, with its juxtaposition of “spirit” and “understanding”, interpreted also as “heart” and “mind”, has been used by church musicians to reflect the synthesis of the two elements needed in good church music. The choral work has been recorded numerous times including the 2008 Anniversary Collection of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.