This Sunday’s music will be transcendent!

As the last Sunday after the Epiphany, all of the readings highlight Jesus’ transfiguration, so the hymns and anthems are all about light and joy, with plenty of “Alleluia”s thrown in before we say goodbye to them for Lent. The choral offertory anthem by American composer Gwyneth Walker is called “Dazzling as the Sun,” which is immediately emphasized in the sparkling organ introduction.

The 9am and 11am services will conclude with a dazzling, angular organ postlude by Peter Hurford (1930-2019) that pulls out all the stops, in contrast to Lent’s more reflective season. At the beginning of the services, meanwhile, is a prelude by the British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), often known as the African Mahler, who achieved a great deal of success during his lifetime despite society’s bias toward being of mixed race.