FROM DR. DAVID HURD: ANOTHER SEASON OF CHORAL MUSIC AT SAINT MARY’S

The Choir of Saint Mary’s has been on summer break for fifteen weeks since Corpus Christi with the exception of the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August when we donned our surplices and sang at the Solemn Mass. During this summer’s choral hiatus, individual members of the choir have sung as cantors for the Sunday Masses, providing support for the congregation’s singing as well as singing portions of chant and vocal solos while the assembly receives Communion. We have alternated Mass settings sung by the congregation with a variety of unison settings sung by cantors, which would not otherwise be scheduled during the choir season. The Church’s song has gone on. However, this Sunday, 1 October, the full choir returns for our 2023-2024 season.

The Choir of Saint Mary’s is a professional vocal octet composed of two sopranos, two altos, two tenors, and two basses. On a typical Sunday, the choir sings traditional plainsong minor Propers at the entrance of the ministers, before the Gospel, at the Offertory, and at the Communion. The choir also sings choral settings of the Mass Ordinary, namely Gloria in excelsis, Sanctus, Benedictus qui venit, and Agnus Dei. These settings are frequently sung in Latin, but also are often in traditional or contemporary Prayer Book English or another language. The texts, and translations when warranted, are always provided in the service bulletin. Finally, in addition to supporting the congregation’s singing of hymns, responses, and other musical components of the liturgy, the choir offers an anthem or motet as the congregation receives Communion. We are fortunate at Saint Mary’s to have a long history of fine liturgical music, and I am privileged to conduct the skilled musicians who have constituted our choir over the past seven years.

Personnel changes have naturally occurred as singers’ careers have developed and life circumstances have changed. An extended family of choir ‘subs’ has provided continuity in times of transition. For the upcoming season, two valued former choir members will no longer be with us. We will miss Christopher Howatt and Daniel Castellanos, tenor and countertenor, but we look forward to their being with us as ‘subs’ from time to time in the season ahead. On the other hand, Emma Daniels, Joy Tamayo, Kirsten Ott, James Ruff, Muir Ingliss, and Jonathan Roberts will be returning to the choir for the upcoming season. In addition, we are happy to have George Luton joining the tenor section.

As the 2023-2024 choral season begins at Saint Mary’s, the choir and I look forward to revisiting historic liturgical choral masterworks and presenting music of more recent time, even up to the present, as we share and return to God, in the worship assembly, the gift of music which God has bestowed upon us all. As we sing and as we listen, may the Holy Spirit stir in all our hearts while our song is offered. 

The Book of Common Prayer includes the following prayer for Church Musicians and Artists (p. 819):

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

— DJH

THE PARISH PRAYER LIST

We pray for the sick, for those in any need or trouble, and for all those who have asked us for our prayers. We pray for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries this week; for those who are traveling; for the unemployed and for those seeking work; for the incarcerated and for those recently released from prison; for all victims of violence, assault, and crime; for all refugees and migrants, especially those sheltering in our neighborhood; for those struggling with depression, anxiety, or addiction; for those whom we serve in our outreach programs, for our neighbors in the Times Square neighborhood, for the theater community, and for those living with drought, storm, punishing heat, flood, fire, or earthquake.

We pray for those for whom prayers have been asked: For Michael, Daniel, MaryJane, Luis, Liduvina, Maggie, Mary, Eleanor, Eugene, Kait, Richard, Aston, Joe, Tristan, Mary Lou, Mary Barbara, Emily, Frank, Steven, Ingrid, Janet, Claudia, Joyce, June, Cooki, Sharon, Don, Andrew, Bruce, Robert, Carlos, Christopher, Brendon, Charlotte, Jennifer, Harka, Suzanne, Quincy, Gigi, José, Brian, Susan, Carmen, Charlotte, Jennifer, Harka, Suzanne, Quincy, Don, Andrew, Bruce, Robert, José, Brian, Carmen, Susan, Abe, Bob, Gypsy, Hardy, Robert, John Derek, and Margaret; for Lain, Jamie, and Keith, religious; Lind, deacon; Alison, Carl, Allan and Stephen, priests; and Michael, bishop.

We pray for the repose of the souls of Michael Gambon, the departed rectors of Saint Mary’s, Thomas McKee Brown, George Martin Christian, Joseph Gail Hurd Barry, Selden Peabody Delany, Granville Mercer Williams, S.S.J.E., Grieg Taber, Donald Lothrop Garfield, and Edgar Fisher Wells, Jr., and those whose year’s mind falls on October 1, William B. Coolidge (1909); Rosetta Booth (1969); William Wolf (1996).

AND WE THANK YOU

We are thankful to all those who continue to make donations to support the work and ministry of the Saint Mary’s Flower Guild.

We are grateful to Dr. David Hurd and the Members of the Saint Mary’s Choir, who begin the new choir season on Sunday.

THIS WEEK AT SAINT MARY’S 

The Sung Mass for the
Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
has been cancelled.

We hope you will join us on Sunday afternoon, October 1,
for Evensong & Benediction at 5:00 PM.

 Our regular daily liturgical schedule: Monday through Friday, Morning Prayer 8:00 AM, Mass 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer at 5:30 PM. Holy Hour is offered on Wednesday at 11:00 AM and Thursday’s Mass includes anointing and prayers for healing. On Saturdays, Confessions are heard at 11:00 AM (starting on October 7), Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM, and Evening Prayer is prayed at 5:00 PM. On the third Saturday of each month, a Requiem Mass is celebrated at 12:10 PM in the Mercy Chapel. On Sundays, A Low Mass (Rite One) is celebrated in the Lady Chapel at 9:00 AM. Solemn Mass is offered at 11:00 AM and Evening Prayer at 5:00 PM. Evensong and Benediction (E&B) is normally offered on the first Sunday of every month and will be offered on October 1, November 5, and December 3.

Friday, September 29, Saint Michael and All Angels, Mass 12:10 PM and Sung Mass 6:00 PM. ** The Sung Mass has been cancelled **

Sunday, October 1, 9:45–10:30 AM, Adult Formation Class: “Conversion, Transformation & Life in Christ.” This week: Renee Wood talks about her own experiences of conversion and transformation. Discussion follows. The class is moderated by Father Jay Smith. Read more about formation at Saint Mary’s here.

Sunday, October 1, The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Proper 21 (Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, c. 530) The lessons are  Ezekiel 18:1–4, 25-32, Psalm 25:3–9, Philippians 2:1–13, Matthew 21:23–32. Father Matt Jacobson is the preacher.

Sunday, October 1, Evensong & Benediction 5:00 PM

Wednesday, October 4, Francis of Assisi, Friar, 1226

Friday, October 6, William Tyndale, Priest and Reformation Martyr, 1536

Sunday, October 8, The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, Proper 22

Sunday, October 8, Blessing of the Animals 4:00 PM

LIFE AT SAINT MARY’S: NEWS & NOTICES

Remaining Dates to Donate the Altar Flowers in 2023 are Sundays, October 22 and 29; Sundays, November 12 and 19; and Advent 3 on Sunday, December 17. The suggested donation is $250. We are also always happy to receive donations for flowers at Christmas. To make a donation, please contact Chris Howatt. If you’d like to check about other dates available or have questions about the flowers or the Flower Guild, please speak with Brendon Hunter.

Father Sammy Wood will be away from the parish on retreat this week, October 2–5. He will return to the parish on Friday, October 6, and will be at Mass on Sunday, October 8.

Maui, Morocco, Libya & Midtown Manhattan
Some links with suggestions for aid and assistance:

• Global Citizen

• CBS News

• Charity Navigator

• Neighbors in Need at Saint Mary’s

• The Little Shop of Kindness (Pequeña Tienda de Bondad)

Website updates . . . Have a look at the newly designed Christian Formation portion of the parish website. There is information about classes, quiet days, and a parish retreat in January. More details about the spring semester will be posted soon. We also updated the sermon page and will be posting videos of the sermons after each Solemn Mass. Older sermons can be read by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, OCTOBER 1

Jean Adam Guilain is the composer of the organ voluntaries on Sunday. His dates are not certain, his nationality was actually German, and his original name was Johann Adam Wilhelm Freinsberg. However, he came to Paris sometime before 1702 and probably soon became a student of Louis Marchand (1669–1732). In 1706, he published his two-volume Pièces d’orgue pour le Magnificat sur les huit tons différents de l'église (“Organ pieces for the Magnificat on the eight church tones”). Only the first of these two volumes is extant. It contains a suite of seven pieces for each of the first four church modes. The lost volume undoubtedly contained pieces of very similar character for tones five through eight. Guilain’s suites were intended to be played at Vespers, their movements in alternation with chanted verses of the canticle. Despite his German origin, Guilain’s organ suites are idiomatically very French. Typical of organ suites of his time, each movement is designated by a description of the character of the piece, indicating the organ stops intended to be used. Thus, in the course of such a suite, one hears the characteristic timbres of the instrument in stylized segments. The first three movements of Guilain’s suite on the second tone are played for the prelude this morning, and the sixth movement is the postlude.

The setting of the Mass on Sunday is the four-voice Missa secunda of Hans Leo Hassler. Born in Nuremberg and baptized on October 26, 1564, Hassler’s musical career bridged the late Renaissance to the early Baroque periods. His initial musical instruction was from his father, Isaak Hassler (c. 1530–1591). Hans Leo left home in 1584 to study in Venice with Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1532–1585) and become a friend and fellow pupil with Gabrieli’s nephew Giovanni (c. 1554–1612). Thus, Hassler was one of the first of a succession of German composers to experience in Italy the musical innovations that were shaping what would later be identified as Baroque style. Hassler was recognized in his day not only as a composer, but also as an organist and a consultant on organ design. Although he was a Protestant, Hassler’s early compositions were for the Roman church. His Missa secunda, first published in Nuremberg in 1599, is a model of efficient and concise text setting. The text is mostly set syllabically, and much of the musical texture is homophonic and rhythmically energetic. Hassler often has the higher two voices and lower two voices singing phrases in playful alternation. These aspects all help to set forth the text with particular clarity.

The Communion motet, An Angel Stood, was composed by Walter Hilse (1941–2022). It was commissioned by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for the Guild’s Centennial National Convention in New York City in July 1996. Dr. Hilse was a much-esteemed scholar, teacher, composer, and performer in the New York music community. He was a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music and performed collaboratively with many ensembles throughout the city. Several of his solo organ recitals were played at Alice Tully Hall and at Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in midtown Manhattan where he was Artist-in-Residence. In the 2019–2020 season Dr. Hilse performed one of the feast-day recitals here at Saint Mary’s. His compositions include over eighty art songs, keyboard and other instrumental music, a Mass, and varied other choral music. His motet An Angel Stood draws its text from the eighth chapter of the Book of Revelation. The writing is finely crafted modern counterpoint throughout as it presents the text, the content of which is particularly suitable to be sung at Saint Mary’s, especially in the Octave of the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels.

AT THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY
170 CENTRAL PARK WEST AT RICHARD GILDER WAY (77TH STREET)
Acts of Faith: Religion and the American West, September 22, 2023–February 25, 2024.

From the museum website:

This is a new exhibition that explores the interplay between religion and US expansion in the nineteenth-century West in order to illuminate how religion became such a vital and contested part of American life. Acts of Faith takes visitors beyond the mythologized “Wild West” of popular culture to present a fuller and surprising picture: a West populated by preachers, pilgrims, and visionaries and home to sacred grounds and cathedrals that kindled spiritual feeling from the woodlands of New York all the way to the valleys of California. The narrative highlights the experiences and traditions of people who, voluntarily or involuntarily, took part in this chaotic and transformative era—including diverse Native peoples, Protestant missionaries, Mormon settlers, Catholic communities, African American migrants, Jewish traders, and Chinese immigrant workers.

Among the highlights of the exhibition, which comprises more than 60 objects and dozens of images and documents, are Robert Weir’s portrait of the famous Seneca chief Sagoyewatha, or “Red Jacket”; a bulto (wooden statue) of San Ysidro Labrador from 19th-century New Mexico on loan from the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe; and an emigrant trunk labeled “From Basel to Salt Lake City, Utah” that belonged to a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on loan from the Utah Historical Society.

These are accompanied by specially commissioned installations, multimedia elements, and immersive displays, including a dollhouse-sized diorama of St. Louis’s first Rosh Hashanah ceremony; a large mural depicting a San Ysidro Feast Day in Taos, New Mexico; an illustrated interactive journey to the California goldfields with 49er Sarah Royce; a life-size, lifelike figure of African American pioneer Clara Brown; and an evocation of a 19th-century classroom. Media elements include visualizations of the Mormon exodus to Utah and the saga of Indian boarding schools as well as an audio guide on the Bloomberg Connects app, offering readings, music, and expert commentary from a range of historical and contemporary voices.

COMING UP AT SAINT MARY’S

Sunday, October 1, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Beginning of Program Year 2023–2024 & Return of the Choir of Saint Mary’s!

Sunday, October 1, 5:00 PM, Evensong & Benediction

Sunday, October 8, 4:00 PM, Blessing of the Animals

Monday, October 9, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day
Federal Holiday Schedule: Mass at 10:00 AM, No Daily Office

Wednesday, November 1, All Saints’ Day
Mass 12:10 PM, Organ Recital 5:30 PM, Solemn Mass 6:00 PM

Thursday, November 2, All Souls’ Day
Mass 12:10 PM, Sung Mass 6:00 PM

Sunday, November 5, Daylight Saving Time Ends

Wednesday, November 22, 2023, The Eve of Thanksgiving Day
Sung Mass 6:00 PM

Thursday, November 23, 2023, Thanksgiving Day
Said Mass 10:00 AM

 We need your help to keep holding our services.
Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s.
We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.