The Cathedral released this recording with the Episcopal Church Radio-TV Foundation’s Parish of the Air program of which Wayne wrote, “Since 1945 [it] has been strengthening the moral and spiritual fiber of the nation through radio and television programs and sacred music recordings of significance and quality.” There was plenty of other media coverage as well: the BBC broadcast a live Evensong and CBS made an hour-long documentary about the trip.
EASTER TRIUMPH is a brilliant setting of the Easter Canticle, “Christ Our Passover is Sacrificed for Us,” composed by Ronald Arnatt in 1954. Arnatt was born in London, England in 1930, began his musical study at Westminster Abbey and Kings College Chapel as a chorister, and Trent College, Nottingham on an organ scholarship. He moved to America in 1947 and continued his education with Dr. Callaway at the Cathedral. He has achieved the degrees of Fellow of Trinity College, London; Fellow of the American Guild of Organist and Bachelor of Music, Durham University, England. For the past 12 years he has been Organist and Choirmaster of Christ Church Cathedral and Director of Music at Mary Institute, St. Louis, Missouri. Ronald Arnatt, already much in demand as a lecturer and teacher in every important church music seminar offered in America, continues to develop major talents as a conductor, composer and organist.
CHRISTIANS, TO THE PASCHAL VICTIM was composed by Leo Sowerby for performance in Westminster Abbey during the Spring of 1966, on the occasion of the Cathedral Choir’s three week residence at the Abbey during its 900th Anniversary Year. Dr. Sowerby retired from The Cathedral of St. James, Chicago, in 1962 to found the College of Church Musicians at the Washington Cathedral. His compositions are often sung in the Cathedral. The text is from Hymn 97 in the Hymnal 1940, the official hymnal of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.
ALL GLORIOUS GOD is the second of Three Hymns composed in 1955 by Ned Rorem. Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana in 1923. He studied at Northwestern, the Curtis Institute, Berkshire Music Center, and Juilliard, after which he spent eight years in France. He has won the Gershwin and Lili Boulanger Awards, has held Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, is the recipient of three Ford Foundation grants, and has been Professor of Composition at Buffalo and Utah Universities. He is also the author of two books: “The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” and the forthcoming “Music From Inside Out”, both published by Braziller. His many compositions embrace all forms, from such short and expressive anthems as this, through some 300 songs and larger orchestral works, to the exciting “Miss Julie”, his opera of 1965 which received a highly acclaimed premier at City Center.
SING WE MERRILY, an exciting setting by Cecil Effinger from Psalm 131, was composed in 1946. The effective organ accompaniment drives skillfully contrived choral lines before and above it, with high melodic interest and great rhythmic energy. Mr. Effinger, born in Colorado Springs in 1914, studied at Colorado College in Mathematics, and with Frederick Boothroyd, Bernard Wagenaar, and Nadia Boulager in composition. His “Little Symphony No. 1” has been recorded by the Columbia Symphony under Zoltan Rosznyai. Of his larger sacred works, “The Invisible Fire” and the “St. Luke Christmas Story” are widely and regularly performed. Dr. Effinger is head of the Theory and Composition Department, College of Music, University of Colorado.
CHRIST OUR PASSOVER IS SACRIFICED FOR US was first performed in the Cathedral on Easter Sunday, 1949. Richard Dirksen, at that time Associate Organist and Choirmaster of the Cathedral, is its composer. Trumpets, trombones and timpani combined with the great organ are brilliantly displayed in dialogue with the choir. In its final passages, the severe dissonances created awaken the full reverberation of the Cathedral so that great bells seem to ring in the high, distant vaulting. Now the Cathedral’s Director of Advance Program, Mr. Dirksen continues a creative career which began at the Washington Cathedral in 1942, when he was appointed Assistant Organist and Choirmaster while a student at Peabody Conservatory. Among his many new responsibilities, as a producer of the performing arts in the Cathedral, was the creation and supervision of this recording.
FUNDAMENTUM EJUS was composed by David Koehring, the Assistant Organist and Choirmaster, for the visit to the Washington Cathedral in 1965 of Her Royal Highness, Princess Margaret. She and her husband, Lord Snowdon, were received at the South Transept by the Dean, then ushered into the War Memorial Chapel for Evensong, during which this glorious setting of Psalm 87, verses 1, 2, 6 and 7, was first performed. The trompette-en-chamade, newly installed in 1965 on the triforium level above the reredos, sounds the fanfares which punctuate the intense and sustained excitement of the music. Mr. Koehring came to the Cathedral in 1962 as one of the first appointments to the College of Church Musicians. He graduated as a Fellow in 1964 and was appointed Assistant Organist and Choirmaster. Born in Richmond, Indiana, he studied at Butler University and Indiana University.
JUBILATE DEO was composed during the summer of 1958. The Great Organ console was being replaced, and for two months a small, positive organ was used for accompanying the choir. The organ accompaniment, therefore necessarily light, contributes to the gay dance-like character of this two-voice setting of Psalm 100.
NUNC DIMITTIS by Leo Sowerby is from his D major Evening Service written in 1930. It has been performed often in the Cathedral, perhaps because of the flowing beauty of the opening solo when sung by all the boys. The sure mastery of song and the marvelous balance in form and of sonorities are combined with the descriptive simplicity that hallmarks the greatest talent.
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO from the Easter Festival Communion Service in E Major combines brass quartette and timpani, organ and choir in a blazing anthem of praise. The racing irregular measures spring the rhythm freely throughout, excepting “thou only art Holy”, which is a quotation from the Christ our Passover concluding side one. The service was composed in 1956 and first performed on Easter Sunday.
THE STRIFE IS O’ER
COME RISEN LORD
JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY
Of these three hymns, the first by Palestrina and the third from Lyra Davidica are so well known as to require no description. These are included because of the rich brass accompaniment which enhances the Easter Sunday Music in the Cathedral.
COME RISEN LORD (Hymn 207 in The Hymnal 1940) a poem by George Wallace Briggs, written in 1933, was given a new tune for the dedication of the Gloria in Excelsis Tower, May 7, 1964. The genius of its creator, Leo Sowerby, is evident in this marvel of a hymn tune. It was recorded for the limited edition of the Tower Dedication Recording, but is here made more widely available. It is certain to gain a place in hymnals and remain as long as man’s unceasing praise and petitions are addressed to his Creator through Our Lord Jesus Christ. It sets forth the beauty of the first two stanzas with simple and gentle loveliness. An elegant, regal interlude for brass introduces the third stanza in which a majestic descant ennobles the melody and newly illumines the poetic idea.