Musical Notes for Trinity XXV
Prelude Fantasia in C Major J. S. Bach
Offertory Anthem This is the Hour Richard Shephard
Postlude Recessional Frank W. Asper
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born in Arnstadt, a town in Thuringia in the central region of Germany. as the eighth and youngest child of a family that had musicians going back seven generations. His fantasia, composed before 1708, begins in a sustained manner and uses a two-note motive to create movement throughout the piece.
The anthem today is an example of a familiar hymn text being set to a different tune. Its text, taken from #206 and verse 2 of #208 in The Hymnal 1940, was originally written as part of a ten verse poem for communion. The music was composed in 1997 by Richard Shephard (b.1949), English choral and opera composer who is Chamberlain of York Minster and music faculty of the University of York. The melody is heard in unison and in canon (round).
Frank Wilson Asper (1892-1973), after education in Berlin, New England Conservatory and Boston University, was organist at the Mormon Tabernacle and First United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City.
