Music Notes - October 5, 2025

Music Notes – Sunday, October 5, 2025

St. Francis of Assisi

This morning’s service celebrates St. Francis of Assisi, remembered for his humility, joy, and his love of all creation. Our music reflects those themes through hymnody, psalmody, and choral works from across the centuries.

For the prelude this week, we welcome Carolyn Green (recorder), Kim Kanevsky (flute), and Aaron Scarberry (bassoon) to join me (on the violin) for Telemann’s Trio Sonata in D minor (TWV 42:d7), showcasing the composer’s gift for elegant dialogue and counterpoint between instruments. 

The service opens with with All creatures of our God and King (H 400), the most famous hymn text attributed to St. Francis. It is paired with the tune Lasst uns erfreuen, a 17th-century German melody that Ralph Vaughan Williams re-harmonized in 1906. The same tune returns in the organ Postlude, William Faulkes’s Festal Postlude on Lasst uns erfreuen, giving today’s service a joyful symmetry.

Our psalm, Psalm 121, is a responsorial setting from the St. Martin’s Psalter, balancing chant tradition with congregational singing.

The choir offers John Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth at the Offertory. Written in 1980, it has since become one of his most beloved works, its graceful melody capturing thankfulness for the natural world.

During Communion, Alice Parker’s arrangement of the Irish tune Slane (Be Thou My Vision) highlights the beauty of the folk melody, while the hymn Lord, make us servants of your peace (H 593) recalls the words often attributed to St. Francis himself. We conclude with From all that dwell below the skies (H 380), a stirring hymn of worldwide praise as we celebrate all creation this Sunday.

Fun Fact: John Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth was originally written for a high school choir in Texas and has since been sung by choirs around the world—from small parish groups to the BBC Singers.

Did You Know? William Faulkes, composer of our postlude, never left England during his lifetime—yet his music was widely published in the United States and Germany, making him an international presence without ever traveling abroad.

Looking Ahead: Join us as the Choir of St. Martin-in-the-Fields sings Choral Evensong at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral next Sunday, October 5, at 4:00 p.m. This beautiful, reflective service of evening prayer is one of the treasures of the Anglican tradition, and we are delighted to share it in the wonderful acoustic of the Cathedral. All are welcome—invite your friends!