Music Notes - September 14, 2025

Welcome back to Music Notes! Each week, I will write an article about our service music and highlight important liturgical, musical, and historical contexts and facts to deepen our understanding of the music and broaden our appreciations of its context in worship. 

This Sunday, we joyfully welcome back our Adult and Children’s Choirs as they lift their voices in worship at the 10:30 a.m. service. With rehearsals now back in full swing after the summer break, I’m excited for the jam-packed year of Music & Arts we have ahead of us at St. Martin’s.

I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks to all the musicians in our congregation who shared their gifts over the summer. From high school seniors to veteran church musicians, so many stepped forward to enrich our worship in beautiful and meaningful ways. I am deeply grateful—thank you, thank you!

Our service begins this Sunday with Christa Rakich’s playful and engaging Variations on Lauda Anima. A prizewinning organist and composer, Rakich currently serves as Visiting Professor of Organ at Oberlin College and Conservatory and holds residencies with two Connecticut churches: the Congregational Church of Somers and the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in West Hartford. Her delightful variations lead us directly into our opening hymn, Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven (Lauda Anima), inviting the whole congregation to sing together.

For the Offertory Anthem, the choir will offer a radiant setting of There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy to a tune that may be less familiar: Corvedale, by British bass-baritone and composer Maurice Bevan (1921–2006). Known for its warm lyricism and lush harmonies, Bevan’s melody beautifully supports Frederick W. Faber’s beloved text, capturing both its depth and tenderness.

This past Wednesday, our Children’s Choir returned for rehearsals—a true highlight of my week. The building instantly came alive as choristers reconnected, new singers were welcomed, and parents watched the joyful energy unfold. After rehearsal, a member of the congregation who had listened to the children rehearse walked by singing Tryggare kan ingen vara—the Swedish hymn tune that forms the basis for this week’s Communion Anthem. Hal Hopson’s We, the Children, Lift Our Voices—a piece that allows our young singers to praise in both English and Latin—will be sung in his memory, as we give thanks for Hopson’s extraordinary legacy. Having published over 3,000 works during his long career, he left an indelible mark on church music before his death this past July.

The service concludes with Henri Mulet’s exhilarating Carillon-Sortie. Written during his tenure as professor at the École Niedermeyer and organist of St. Roch in Paris, the piece mimics the joyful pealing of bells in brilliant toccata style. Mulet dedicated the work to Joseph Bonnet, one of the great virtuoso organists of the time and organist at St. Eustache. 

Fun fact: Frederick Faber, who wrote the text There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy, originally trained as a poet before becoming a priest. His gift for lyrical language is part of why so many of his hymns—written over 150 years ago—still speak so beautifully to us today.

Did you know? Henri Mulet, whose Carillon-Sortie we hear this Sunday, almost abandoned music altogether later in life and lived alone in a convent while his wife opened a toy store to provide some income. This makes his vibrant, bell-like toccata all the more remarkable—it’s a joyful burst of sound from a composer who eventually chose silence.

Cantate Domino!

— Tyrone Whiting, Director of Music & Arts