Gloria

In celebration of the 4th of July weekend, enjoy again this clip of St. Michael’s Music Director/Organist Hannah Brewer playing an arrangement of the classic patriotic tunes “O beautiful for spacious skies” and “America,” recorded last year. This coming Sunday, July 4, at the 9:00 am service, we’ll sing the moving Finlandia hymn This is my song for our national holiday, which calls for unity, peace and an appreciation for all nations: “My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean, and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine./ But other lands have sunlight too, and clover, and skies are ev’rywhere as blue as mine.”

The prelude and postlude for Sunday, June 20, are offered in celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. The prelude, which you can hear a creative arrangement of here, is by Florence Price (1887-1953), the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. She was a pianist, organist and teacher as well. Trained in the European tradition, her compositional style nevertheless reflects her Southern roots.

Our wonderful Choristers sang the virtual choir anthem last Sunday to officially wrap up the 2020-2021 choir season. Watch their “Alleluia Canon” again, with Brian Fairbanks on flute, on our YouTube channel, STMAA Connection.

Music for last Sunday, the Sunday after the Ascension, included organ repertoire from two of the most significant, beloved—and contrasting—composers for organ: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).