Music Notes from Organist Michael Latsko:

Our long-time trumpeter Ryan Calonder joins me in a number of festal selections for trumpet and organ this Easter morn. Ryan was born to a military family that moved around until settling in Virginia in the early 2000’s. Ryan graduated from UVA in 2011 with a BA in Music and currently plays with Cville-based funk rock band Disco Risque.

Jeremiah Clark (1674-1707),the first organist of the then newly-rebuilt St Paul's Cathedral, wrote “The Prince of Denmark’s March” around 1700. The work was called “Trumpet Voluntary” (even though originally written for harpsichord) incorrectly attributed to Henry Purcell until the mid-20th century. It’s a march in rondo form (the main theme returns throughout) and is a favorite for weddings and other festive occasions.

The hymn arrangement "Variations on ‘Alleluia! The Strife Is O'er’" (the hymn tune name is “Victory”, #208 in The Hymnal 1982) is my own creation, incorporating fragments composed by American composers Wilbur Held, Charles Callahan, Janet Linker, Gerre Hancock, and Englishman Geoffrey Shaw.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) worked in Westminster (at the Abbey and the Chapel Royal) for three different Kings over twenty-five years and is most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera; and The Fairy Queen, his incidental music to Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream.” The first Purcell work is ”Voluntary for Double Trumpets” (here played by one trumpet with the organ playing the second trumpet part) which tosses musical phrases back and forth between organ and trumpet before a grand finish for both instruments. Like the Clarke work, Purcell’s “Trumpet Tune” was originally written for keyboard but is so well suited for organ and trumpet. A short, joyous almost dance-like work, it’s cheerfulness makes it perfect for Easter.

A sequence (Latin: sequentia) is a chant or hymn sung or recited during the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist before the proclamation of the Gospel. The bulletin text is usually sung to Veni Sancte Spiritus (Hymnal #226) for Pentecost. The text also fits the tune Puer nobis used for the Easter hymn “That Easter day with joy was bright” (Hymnal #193), and I will improvise on that tune today.

Michel Richard Delalande (1657–1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist in the service of King Louis XIV. Delalande composed 70 “grands motets,” compositions for solo voice, chorus and instruments. Collections of his ballet and opera-ballet music was published as suites or symphonies. We play “Musique Royale,” an arrangement from the First “Suite of Symphonies For the Dinner of the King.” A slow, stately introduction evokes the rising sun, followed by a joyous dance which pits trumpet and organ in a fiery display of pyrotechnics.

The closing hymn is “The day of resurrection” (Hymnal #210), text by John of Damascus (8th century). The 19th century scholar John Mason Neale freely set this first “ode of the Golden Canon” which was usually sung in Greek churches at midnight on Easter morn just as the congregation, upon a signal, lit their candles suddenly filling the gloom with light. The tune is German, dating to either 1784 or 1833 depending on which source you believe.

The postlude, “Festive Trumpet Tune,” is by American composer David German (b. 1954) and was written for the composer’s wedding. Not much is known about German, other than he served for a time as organist of the Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC. It is there that he may have found inspiration for this work since the Calvary organ has several very large and powerful trumpet stops. As with other trumpet tunes, this work is a dialogue between a solo trumpet stop and the organo pleno (full principal chorus) with a contrasting middle section for the organ.

Officiant and Homilist: The Rev. G. Miles Smith