Godspeed George Sargeant

On Sunday, July 21st, at 11:00am Old South will be honoring organist George Sargeant for his 19 years of inspired service to the church. There will be amazing service music with a special massed choir, and you won't want to miss it! George is a consummate professional who earned the deep trust of all his colleagues. George will be missed, and we are also thrilled for him to be taking the reins at Plymouth church in Shaker Heights Ohio. There, he will helm a fabulous music program--soon to be all the more fabulous. And he'll also be a one day drive closer to tornado alley. Did you know George is a passionate storm chaser and weather enthusiast?

Contribute to George's Purse

In keeping with Old South tradition, we’re gathering a purse to honor George’s considerable tenure at Old South, and to celebrate his new role as Director of Music and the Arts at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, Ohio. You can click here to make a donation; or, to contribute via check, please include "George’s purse" in the memo line (made out to Old South) and drop your check in an offering plate or mail it to the church (attention: Remy Hatfield-Gardner). Gifts can be made any time between now and the end of July. Please note: all gifts will be accounted so as to ensure tax deductibility for contributors.

Music Notes from George's on his final Sunday Service

Central to the music for my final Sunday at Old South are the congregational hymns.  All three will feature arrangements I have created over the years.  My gift for writing hymn arrangements is arguably my greatest musical talent.  I wrote my first reharmonization and descant way back in 1985, but it was not until I arrived at Old South with its exceptional choir and the mighty E. M. Skinner organ occasionally augmented by the Old South Brass that I first heard them the way they were truly meant to sound.

As many of you know, British composer Herbert Howells is my favorite composer, and his music plays an important role in today's service.  Howells began his musical studies as a protégé of Herbert Brewer at Gloucester Cathedral.  In 1912 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music and later became an instructor there himself.  He eventually became the Director of Music at St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith and King Edward VII Professor of Music at London University.  The tragic death of his nine-year old son Michael shaped the development of the distinct harmonic language he employed in his most mature compositions.

Like many of Howells' solo organ works, the seldom-heard Fugue, Chorale, and Epilogue begins softly, builds to a majestic climax, and gradually dies away.  The Fugue is in two sections, each with its own subject.  Howells' highly personal style of counterpoint is brought out clearly by the soft accompanimental flute and solo reed stops of Old South's E.M. Skinner organ.  The Chorale transforms the two subjects into an original hymn-tune for full organ.  Contrapuntal treatment of the themes reappears in the Epilogue, which invites the use of the organ's rich palette of orchestral string stops.

Howells' lesser-known choral work A Hymn for Saint Cecilia was commissioned by The Livery Club of The Worshipful Company of Musicians to mark the composer’s Mastership of the Company (1959 - 1960).  The text is by Ursula Vaughan Williams (widow of Howells' colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams), and Howells' treatment of it takes the form of a hymn arrangement.  The title is a reference to the patron saint of music in the Roman Catholic tradition.  The melody is Howells' own and is presented first in unison, then in four-part harmony, and lastly in unison with a descant.

During my time at Old South, the music program evolved from one based almost entirely upon classical music into one that prizes a variety of styles, better reflecting its commitment to and celebration of human diversity.  It has long been my feeling that such a program should not merely cater to the tastes of different constituencies within the congregation, rather, there needs to be a conversation between styles that seeks out common themes.  What better complement to Howell's rather highbrow anthem about singing than a setting of the African-American spiritual I'm Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing by André Thomas?  Dr. Thomas is currently Visiting Professor of Conducting at Yale University and Interim Conductor of the Yale Camerata.  He previously served on the faculty of Florida State University, where he is Emeritus Professor of Music and where he was a mentor to Mitchell Crawford.

My postlude is based on another spiritual. It comes form the pen of Iain Farrington, a contemporary British organist, pianist, composer, and conductor.  As a young man he was organ scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge.  One might not imagine that someone schooled in the high Anglican musical tradition would take an interest in spirituals, yet his compositions are suffused with a unique blend of classical, jazz, gospel, and blues influences.

Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit comes from a set of five spiritual settings entitled Lay My Burden Down.  It begins with a fanfare and flourish before the spiritual melody enters.  After it is heard several times, it is interrupted by an interlude reminiscent of a jazz ensemble's jam session in which the various instrumentalists riff off each other.  After the spiritual makes a brief return, another fanfare heralds a more dissonant interlude.  A spinning figure in the left hand suggests the churning wheels of a stream locomotive, perhaps a musical metaphor for the Underground Railroad.  The interlude dissolves into a brief but frenzied toccata which leads to the final triumphant appearance of the spiritual.  A final fanfare and brief cadenza bring the work to a close.