Drawing the Circle Wider - Music this Fall for Worship

The repertoire of Anglican choral music is vast, varied, deep, and broad. It also tends to be very specifically ordered music for particular feast days, liturgical musical slots, and written overwhelmingly by white male composers. St. Paul’s Choir has a unique heritage of celebrating American composers writing for the Episcopal Church, yet most of the entries in our choral library are, not surprisingly, written by white male composers. We aim to broaden the scope going forward, not forsaking any of the beloved gems of the Anglican tradition we earnestly love to offer, but including new and previously overlooked composers that more fully reflect the image of God. 

 Several Sundays this fall include anthems by female, Black, and LGBTQ+ composers. You will hear arrangements of spirituals by Jester Hairston (Sept. 25) and William Dawson (Sept. 18), both Black pioneers of choral music in the 20th century. Also represented is an original composition (“St. Francis’ Prayer” on Oct. 2) by Margaret Bonds, a noted Black American composer who collaborated with poet Langston Hughes. Incidentally, Bonds taught piano lessons to Ned Rorem, one of America’s most celebrated contemporary composers whose works St. Paul’s Choir regularly sings . For Choral Mattins and Choral Evensong the choir is learning and repeating the set of Responses by rising star Margaret Burk, which highlights the fact that our tradition is a living one, juxtaposing ancient music alongside pieces written in the past few years by a female composer in her thirties. The incomparable Jane Marshall (represented in The Hymnal 1982 in a few places, but most recognizably for her tune Jacob, sung to the text “Eternal light, shine in my heart”) wrote dozens of anthems, and we selected “Of hospitality” (Oct. 23) to begin the service as an introit. David Hurd’s name is recognized in most Episcopal churches in this country if for no other reason than his large body of work represented in The Hymnal 1982. As a Black composer he draws largely on African American musical traditions, including blues and jazz, and St. Paul’s Choir has a sizeable collection of his anthems in our library (some commissioned specifically for St. Paul’s Choir), including “Love bade me welcome.” (Oct. 16)

 Including these works of neglected voices, and members of Christ’s body, is but a beginning. Our singers, both choir youth and adults, belong to a ministry that aims to celebrate the fullness of our humanity. To do that, we need to see the face of God in honest and new ways in our repertoire, in addition to continuing to offer sacred works that are beloved and familiar to us. 

– Brad Hughley, Organist & Director of Music