Music Notes: Palm Sunday - Year C

As Jesus continues his journey and enters the City of Jerusalem, so do we continue our journey together into Holy Week this Palm Sunday.

A special addition to this Palm Sunday will be a performance by Philadelphia-based Positive Movement Drumline starting at 10:15am, whose “sole focus is to encourage and inspire young people and adults so they may find a safe haven through drumming, while simultaneously spreading a positive community message, showing leadership, and raising awareness to decrease gun violence in Philadelphia.” I am very grateful to them for their performance this Sunday and if you are able, please do support the Music Fund to help fund them and all the musicians we engage including our Brass for Easter Day. All contributions are gratefully received and acknowledged.

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This performance combined with our choral and organ music during the Holy Eucharist will help us transition from Lent, into Passiontide, Holy Week, and then to the miracle of the Easter Story. Music this week comes from the very beginnings of Church music with our plainsong Introit and Psalm, to the modern day with Barber’s Adagio for Strings as our Postlude.

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[Repost from the Seventh Sunday of Epiphany] A Knight of the British Empire, Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) had a prolific career as organist, composer, educator, Royal Air Force Officer, radio presenter, and Master of the Kings music (succeeding no less than Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1937)!)… to name but a few of his jobs! Oh, he also taught Leopold Stokowski, the conductor of the famous Disney classical music animation, Fantasia.

His vast output for much larger forces than 4-part choir somewhat shadow his God be in my Head and yet the latter remains one of his most well-known works, first published in 1910. Its text is taken from French in the frontispiece the Book of Hours (1514) and was translated to English in 1558.

Walford Davies was taught by Charles Villers Stanford at the Royal College of Music. He was for a short time Organist at St. Anne’s Church, Soho, London, which today is one of London’s most liberal and progressive churches (to learn more, when you see me, ask me about Lady Lambrini!).

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I am going to have to say it… I truly think that O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded is one of the finest harmonisations J. S. Bach (1685-1750) ever wrote! Originally a secular melody (Herzlich tut mich verlangen) by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) with text from the Middle Ages, we hear it this Sunday as our Communion Motet. His ingenious use of harmonic progression to further illustrate the text allows us to deepen the meaning of this beautiful hymn, particularly in the context of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion from which this is taken, while also being found in many of this other works. The Danish composer Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) composed a set of variations for string quartet on this tune.

Cool Fact: J. S. Bach’s influence extends well into the 20^th century and the present day as can be heard here in Paul Simon’s American Tune which uses the same melody and some of the harmonic progressions as Bach’s arrangement in this secular pop song from the 1970s!

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Used at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral and in a performance to an empty hall by the National Symphony Orchestra after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Samuel Barber’s (1910-1981) Adagio for Strings has been coined as the piece that did for the North American music traditions what Elgar’s Nimrod Variations did for the British music traditions. In 1938, Barber sent a score of the piece to Arturo Toscanini who returned the work without comment. Despite this apparent rudeness, Toscanini had supposedly memorized the piece and had no use for the score ahead of him conducting its first performance later that year!

From its first fragile B-flat that seems to hang, suspended in time, to the penetrating climax, and resulting calm of hope, one can almost map the journey of Holy Week through each and every note… Use this moment of quiet at the end of our Palm Sunday service this year as a way to prepare your hearts and minds for the Holy Week ahead.

Take a Listen: Barber’s famous string orchestra work can be heard performed in a beautiful arrangement with voices in a setting of the Agnus Dei, as heard here in a recording by the incredible vocal group, Voces8.

Cantate Domino!

Tyrone Whiting
Director of Music
[email protected]

Tyrone Whiting

Director of Music
(215) 247-7466 ext. 105 |

Tyrone (he/him) writes, “I am beyond excited to have been appointed as the next Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and I cannot wait to begin working with you all. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work in such a faithful, progressive, and musical church with such a wonderful tradition. My husband, Sean and I look forward very much to meeting you all.”

A prize-winning organist and conductor, Mr. Tyrone Whiting is a graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and the Royal College of Music, both in London, UK.

In September 2017, Tyrone was appointed Director of Music at Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey, USA and began work there in February 2018. At Grace Church, Tyrone extended the Chorister Choir School program, developed and expanded the adult choir, and founded a brand-new adult chamber choir, Brick City Chorus, raising the profile of music at Grace Church and the Arts in Newark, NJ.

He has been fortunate to perform at some of the top churches and venues including Westminster Abbey, the Royal Albert Hall, St. Sulpice and Le Mans cathedral in France, as well as featuring in Trinity Wall Street’s Pipes at One series last summer.

Prior to Tyrone’s arrival in the USA, he was Director of Music at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Battersea from 2012 to early 2018. At St. Mary’s, Tyrone established a biennial recital series as well as a new fully funded choral scholarship program, and conducted several large-scale concerts including Mozart and Fauré’s requiems, J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion, and Stainer’s Crucifixion. Collaborative work included conducting a recent commission by prominent British composer Simon Bainbridge written for the Choir of St. Mary’s, as well as working as accompanist for the Philharmonia Chorus under conductors Stefan Bevier and Yaron Traub.

Passionate about teaching, Tyrone was awarded the Licentiateship diploma of Trinity College, London (LTCL) in Instrumental/Vocal Teaching with a high distinction and worked in and around London as a teacher of organ, piano, and theory. He was formerly Head of Music at Elmhurst Independent School for Boys for 3 years and worked as an animateur in London schools and the London Mozart Players.

As a pianist, Tyrone has studied with Philip Fowke, Andrew Zolinsky, and Alvin Moisey. He performs often as a soloist, accompanist, and répétiteur, holding the Licentiateship diploma of the Royal School of Music (LRSM) in Piano Performance.

More information about Tyrone can be found at www.tyronewhiting.com.