A selection of music offered at special services over the last few years:

Advent

I look from afar, a setting of a traditional Advent responsory with additional text from Psalm 24 by American composer Anthony Piccolo.

Settings of the Magnificat by Herbert Howells from the Collegium Regale, Dallas, Gloucester and St. Paul's services. The Dallas Canticles are the last setting of the Evening Canticles by Howells, and the only set written for an American choir. Although Howells set the text of the Evening Canticles twenty times, each setting has its own unique light to shine on these great texts.

The Creator, the Wisdom of God (from Two Advent Anthems) by Craig Phillips, accompanied by oboe and organ and enriched by sacred dance.

Thou Shalt Know Him, a beautiful anthem by the Canadian composer Mark Sirett.

Christmas

Et incarnatus est from the Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastiun Bach.

Michael Praetorius's joyous setting for choir and brass of In dulci jubilo from Musae Sioniae, Part II (1607).

A five-part setting of Joseph lieber, Joseph mein, for choir and brass quintet by Johann Walter, a musician who worked closely with Martin Luther in creating Lutheran hymnody.

Sweelinck's famous setting of Hodie Christus natus est for brass quintet and choir.

The mystical Salvation is Created by Pavel Chesnokov, which alternates between rapt awe and outbursts of joy at the contemplation of the meaning of the Incarnation.

In 1987, John Rutter wrote a beautiful setting of a text by Robert Herrick, What sweeter music? I actually heard the piece performed by Rutter and the Cambridge Singers at Washington Cathedral shortly after it was written, and knew that it would be part of my Christmas repertoire for years to come.

In 2008, Jay Wilcox wrote his setting of Welcome all wonders, the text of which is selected from In the Holy Nativity of our Lord by 17th century English poet Richard Crashaw.  Sung for the first time at St. Andrew's on Christmas 2008, it has now been published by Paraclete Press in its original version for choir and brass quintet and in a second version for choir and organ.

Epiphany

Videntes stellam by Francis Poulenc.

Transfiguration

Dazzling as the Sun, by Gwyneth Walker, a living American composer, setting a wonderful text by Sr. Delores Dufford that captures the mystery of the Transfiguration and makes it directly relevant to our contemporary lives .

Craig Phillips' magnificent anthem Transfiguration, a setting of a evocative text by the 13th century mystic Mechtild of Magdeburg, in which the whole creation is portrayed as rejoicing in the mountaintop glorification of Jesus.

Lent

Johannes Brahms wrote a number of beautiful choral motets; Ach, arme Welt is a perfect Ash Wednesday anthem.

 Cantique de Jean Racine was Gabriel Fauré's first major composition, winning the composition prize at the École Niedermeyer, where Fauré studied. Despite Fauré's youth—he was only 20 at the time—this piece clearly shows the elegant and refined style which was to become his compositional hallmark.

The rarely-heard, but very lovely, Mendelssohn cantata If you rely on God to guide you (Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten), accompanied by strings.

The moving motet In what torn ship (from Two Motets on Texts by Metaphysical Poets) by Daniel Gawthrop.

Just as I am, by Ralph Manuel, setting the familiar text to original music, giving the text a new life and meaning.

The famous Miserere mei by Gregorio Allegri, written for the choir of the Sistine Chapel. Tradition says that Mozart wrote down this piece from memory after one hearing despite the Vatican's ban on the use of the piece elsewhere.

O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens licht, BWV 118, by J. S. Bach, with its original instrumentation for cornetto, two litui (performed on baroque trumpets), and three sackbutts.

Palm Sunday

Crucifixus from Bach's Mass in B minor. This powerful chorus offers much evidence that Bach may have been conscious of numerology when he composed. The Creed is the central portion of the ordinary of the Mass, and Bach divided the Creed into 9 movements; 9 = 3 x 3, three represents the Trinity, and three threes represent perfection. The Crucifixus is the 5th movement of the Credo and therefore is the central movement of the central portion of the Mass, which underlines the centrality of Christ's sacrifice to the Christian faith. The theme has five notes (representing the 5 wounds of Christ, perhaps) and is set over a bass line that repeats 13 times.

Lee Hoiby's magnificent setting of Philippians 2:5-11, Let This Mind Be in You with its thrilling conclusion ("and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father").

The searing motet O vos omnes by Pablo Casals, the famous cellist, who also wrote several very beautiful choral works.

Contemporary American composer Craig Phillips' setting of the familiar text Ride on in majesty. Phillips sets this text to original music that is compelling, intense, and moving. The excellence of this anthem should ensure that it becomes a Palm Sunday standard.

Easter

The wonderful Renaissance motet Alleluia! Christus surrexit by Felice Anerio, which has sections that alternate between joyful dance rhythms and stately triumph. Anerio was a late 16th/early 17th century Italian composer, who succeeded Palestrina as the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir. This motet was done with colla parte brass.

Hallelujah from Messiah (of course) by George Frederick Handel.

Craig Phillips' exuberant setting of the 5th Century text Light's glittering morn.

Surrexit a mortuis by Charles-Marie Widor.  Originally scored for choir and two organs(!), we sang a new arrangement for choir, brass quintet and organ.

The classic British Easter anthem, Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.

Ascension

Two motets by Giovanni Gabrieli, In Ecclesiis and Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus, accompanied by cornetts and sackbutts. The latter of these two motets was sung and played with four choirs of singers and instruments placed in various locations throughout the church. Seventeenth century quadriphony!

O Clap Your Hands by Ralph Vaughan Williams, accompanied by three trumpets, three trombones, tuba and timpani. Vaughan Williams' genius is evident in the way in which he scored this work: the brass does not play while the choir is singing until the very end, ensuring that the entire text can be heard before the thrilling climax.

Pentecost

The famous seven-part responsory, Loquebantur variis linguis, by Thomas Tallis. Tallis may have chosen to write this magnificent work in seven choral parts to represent the seven gifts of the Spirit or the seven spirits of the seven Churches mentioned in Revelation. Whatever his reasons may have been, he created a brilliant evocation of the joyous response of the Church to the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Trinity

Alexandre Gretchaninov's richly sonorous setting of the Cherubic Hymn (Cheruvimskaya Pyesn'), in Russian. Gretchaninov was a 20th century emigré to the United States, but his music has the timelessness that is so characteristic of Russian choral music.

The rousing gospel anthem Worthy to be Praised by Byron Smith.

All Saints

The classic English anthem And I saw a new heaven by Edgar Bainton, with its poignant conclusion on the words "and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

And I saw the holy city, another magnificent anthem by American composer Craig Phillips, which we sang only months after its publication in 2004.

Faire is the Heaven, a beautiful All Saints motet for double choir by Sir William Harris.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's setting of Justorum animae.

Christ the King

Behold, the days are coming by Paul Bouman.

Ride on, King Jesus, a stirring spiritual by the lamentably late American choral director and composer, Moses Hogan.

Psalm Settings

The United States premiere of Brother James' Air by Stephen Johns for choir and harp, which was originally composed for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.

Alan Hovhaness's moving From the end of the earth. (Thank you, Carolyn Upshaw Bartusek for introducing me to this great piece in high school.)

The God of Love my Shepherd is, Godfrey Sampson's setting of George Herbert's paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm. This piece is a wonderfully rich example of early 20th century English church music.

Twentieth century American composer Howard Hanson's dramatic setting of Psalm 8, How excellent thy name, with its otherworldly concluding alleluias.

John Rutter's setting of Psalm 121, I will lift up mine eyes.

The gorgeous Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vesperae solennes de confessore.

The jubilant Laudate nomen by American composer Carlyle Sharpe, which won the 2000-02 American Guild of Organists/E. C. Schirmer Publishing Co. choral composition award.

Herbert Howells' magnificent anthem, Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks. Although this has been scheduled to be sung three times since 2000, it has only been sung once; on the other two occasions, church was cancelled due to heavy snow. I guess this gives a new meaning to the phrase "blizzard anthem."

Palestrina's justly famous setting of Psalm 42:1, Sicut cervus.

Stanley Hoffmann's beautiful a cappella setting of the Hebrew text Yih'yu l'ratson ("Let the words of my mouth").

Other

A new commandment by Thomas Tallis. The original sources of this anthem are missing the bass part; Jay Wilcox reconstructed it for his performing edition of this piece.

Local composer and Catholic University professor Leo Nestor wrote An American Triptych in 2002, which consists of three imaginative and fresh settings of familiar hymns. The Adult Choir has sung two of the three settings, Come, thou fount of every blessing and How firm a foundation as their final celebratory anthem for the choral year.

Consider the lilies, a lovely setting of the familiar text from the Gospel of Matthew by contemporary American composer Emma Lou Diemer.

Another of Brahms' motets, Geistliches Lied, which garbs the complexity of its construction (a double canon at the ninth) in a cloak of beauty.

John Ireland's stirring anthem, Greater love hath no man. There's a good reason this one is a warhorse of the Anglican choral repertoire.

A superb setting of Jesu, dulcis memoria by contemporary British composer Richard Shephard.

Kyrie/Christe du Lamm Gottes, BWV 233a, by Johann Sebastian Bach.  In the performing edition we used, the Adult Choir sang the Latin "Kyrie" text and the Youth Choir sang the German "Agnus Dei."

Moses Hogan's ecstatic setting of My soul's been anchored in the Lord.

Henry Purcell's penitential five-part anthem, Remember not, Lord, our offenses.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, the Prologue to the oratorio The Apostles by Sir Edward Elgar.

Stand by me, a very moving setting of the traditional gospel hymn by Moses Hogan.

Steal Away, a spiritual setting by Nicholas White (with whom I had the great pleasure and privilege of working while singing in the Choir of Men and Boys at Washington Cathedral.)

Surely he has borne our griefs, a moving setting of the text from Isaiah 53, by John Antes, an 18th century American Moravian composer from North Carolina.

Verily, verily, I say unto you by Thomas Tallis.

Verlieh' uns Frieden, a radiantly beautiful prayer for peace by Felix Mendelssohn, setting a text by Martin Luther.

Bob Chilcott used a text from the Shaker tradition to create his wonderful, but altogether too brief, anthem Walk softly. Chilcott knows how to write for voices—he was the justly famed treble soloist on the King's College Choir recording of the Fauré Requiem conducted by Sir David Willcocks.

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