A Beginning

It’s hard to believe that it will soon be forty years since I produced this book, during my break year between studying at the ICS and moving with Wendy to Holland for a year. I’m tempted now to call this “The Beginning and the End”, because nothing much came of it. But it did serve as a useful introduction to faculty members of the Sweelinck Conservatory, who graciously allowed me to audit church liturgy and church music courses for the year.

Included in this book are my five hymn and psalm versifications. “The Lord’s Prayer” versification was included in both the 1987 CRC “Psalter Hymnal” (208) and the 2013 “Lift Up Your Hearts: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs” (919).

• “Christ lag in todesbanden” (all seven verses)
• Psalm 42 & 43, set to the Genevan 42 melody (six verses and refrain)
• The Lord’s Prayer, set to the tune of “Vater unser im Himmelreich” (two verses)
• The obscure Luther hymn “Mitten wir im Leben sind” (three verses)
• “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” (one verse)

These texts are incorporated into various 16th century, two to four part musical settings:

• Lukas Osiander (1543-1604)
• Mattaeus Le Maistre (1505-1577)
• Caspar Othmayr (1515-1553)
• Claude Goudimel (1514-1572)

Also appearing are three of my own musical settings:

• Isaiah 58:11 (our wedding text) set in Renaissance, two-part counterpoint style
• Psalm 42, two-part counterpoint style
• The Lord’s Prayer set in two part, invertible counterpoint

One of these days yet, before I die, I would like to get recordings of performances of all of these pieces.