We hope you will enjoy listening to this music!
Ascension
Day by Day
Day by Day, arranged by Mark Hayes
Sung by Tom Jahnke with a special part with Marcia Hempel Played by Marcia Hempel
Listen to Day by Day
None Other Lamb
Written by Craig Courtney for the Easter season, which ends on Ascension
Sung and played by Marcia Hempel
This piece captures the feeling of Ascension.
Listen to None Other Lamb
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Bright and Beautiful
Arranged by Mark Hayes and sung by Tom Jahnke
This is a beautiful medley of children’s hymns and songs.
Listen to Bright and Beautiful
Safe within Your Arms
This piece, based on “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:22-31), affirms that we are all children of God.
Listen to Safe Within Your Arms
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lord of the Dance
This song tells the story of Jesus’ life.
It is arranged by Mark Hayes (who is playing piano in this recording), and sung by our own Tom Jahnke.
Listen to Lord of the Dance
The Gift of Love
This well-known song was originally the folk tune, “Waly, Waly,” and was used in Hal Hopson’s hymn, “Though I May Speak With Bravest Fire.” This arrangement is by Lloyd Larson. The words are based on I Corinthians.
Played by Marcia Hempel.
Listen to The Gift of Love
Fourth Sunday of Easter
I Then Shall Live. Words by Gloria Gaither, music of Finlandia by Sibelius
This piece is based on the well-known song from Finlandia by Sibelius, with words by Gloria Gaither. The words say, “May your living kingdom come in me.” It includes a wish that all of us be brought together in love. Marcia Hempel, soloist and pianist.
Listen to I Then Shall Live
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes based on Psalm 121 with music by Marcia Hempel
I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes is an original duet newly composed by Marcia Hempel. It speaks of God’s protection and safety. Duet sung by Marcia Hempel and Tom Jahnke.
Listen to I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
Third Sunday of Easter
Because He Lives by William and Gloria Gaither
This is perhaps the Gaithers’ best-known song.
Sung by Tom Jahnke, a member of the First Church Choir, and accompanied by Marcia Hempel.
Listen to Because He Lives
Give Me Jesus, an African American Spiritual
This Spiritual calls for Jesus (even after his death).
Sung by Tom Jahnke and accompanied by Marcia Hempel.
Listen to Give Me Jesus
Second Sunday of Easter
I Know That My Redeemer Lives by Craig Courtney
I Know That My Redeemer Lives was written by Craig Courtney, whose pieces always have beautiful melodies. The text is from Job 19: 25-26, and Corinthians 13:12.
Marcia Hempel, soloist and pianist.
Listen to I Know That My Redeemer Lives
I’ve Just Seen Jesus by William and Gloria Gaither
I Just Saw Jesus is a well-known song by William and Gloria Gaither. Award-winning musician Bill Gaither started singing in a trio in high school. He eventually went to work in the Christian music industry, and now has his own TV shows that are much loved.
Marcia Hempel, soloist and pianist.
Listen to I’ve Seen Jesus
Easter
For Easter we have 4 pieces.
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today – Hymn
Christ the Lord is Risen Today is our stand out, stand up, festive hymn for Easter Sunday. Its words were written by the famous Methodist hymnodist, Charles Wesley, in the late 18th century. Join us from our UCC Pilgrim Hymnal 182.
Listen to Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today UCC Pilgrim Hymnal 182
Christ the
Lord is risen today, Alleluia
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia
Sing ye heavens and earth reply, Alleluia
Lives again
our glorious King, Alleluia
Where o death is now thy sting, Alleluia
Dying once, he all doth save, Alleluia
Where thy victory, O grave, Alleluia
Love’s
redeeming work is done, Alleluia
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia
Soar we now
where Christ has led, Alleluia
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia
Hail the Lord
of earth and heaven, Alleluia
Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia
Hail the Resurrection now, Alleluia
Bells Ringing by Edvard Grieg
Continuing the bell theme for Easter, this programmatic piano piece by Grieg sounds like bells ringing. Happy Easter! Maybe it resembles the way the First Church bell used to ring!
Listen to Bells Ringing
The Day of Resurrection – Hymn
The hymn, Day of Resurrection, was translated by John Neal in the 19th century from 8th century words. They link Christian Easter with Jewish Passover as “the Passover of gladness…the Passover of God.” Sing from the UCC Hymnal 192.
Listen to Day of Resurrection
The Day of Resurrection! UCC Pilgrim Hymnal 192
The day of
resurrection, earth tell it out abroad
The Passover of gladness, the Passover of God,
From death to life eternal, form earth unto the sky
Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory
Our hearts be
pure from evil, that we may see aright,
The Lord in rays eternal, of resurrection light
And listening to his accents, may hear so calm and plain
His own “All hail” and hearing, may raise the victor strain
Now let the
heavens be joyful, let earth her song begin
The round world keep high triumph, and all there is therein
Let all things seen and unseen, their notes of gladness blend
For Christ the Lord is risen, Our joy that hath no end.
Ring Them Bells by Bob Dylan
This song, while not strictly an Easter song, has strong religious references. Here songwriter, Bob Dylan, advocates for everlasting justice and truth. The last line is “they’re breaking down the distance between right and wrong.”
Listen to Ring Them Bells
Good Friday (Tenebrae)
All Is Well – Sacred Harp/Peter Amidon
All Is Well is a choral arrangement by Peter Amidon, a Guilford, Vermont, United Church of Christ choral director. It is based on his son Sam’s recreation of the Sacred Harp piece.
Listen to All is Well
Were You There? – African American Spiritual
This well-known spiritual, found in the UCC Pilgrim Hymnal 179, speaks directly to the heart. It describes Jesus’ crucifixion of being nailed to the cross like a common criminal then laid in his tomb. It repeats the word, tremble, three times; and as the word and we tremble, we are reminded of the earthquake that occurred at the very time of Jesus’ death.
Listen to Were You There?
Love Call Me Home, by Peggy Seeger
Peggy Seeger wrote the words and music to this beautiful song about friends, love, time, and death. Peggy is one of Pete Seeger’s sisters.
Listen to Love Call Me Home
Maundy Thursday
Mein Jesu Der Du Mich, by Johannes Brahms
Mein Jesu Der Du Mich (My Jesus Calls To Me)
Close to the time of his death, Brahms wrote eleven chorale preludes based on Lutheran hymns. This is the longest and grandest of all, and expresses pain, faith, and also triumph.
Listen to Mein Jesu Der Du Mich
O Thou Great Friend – Welsh Hymn Melody
Written by the great abolitionist Theodore Parker in the mid-19th century in Boston, and set to a Welsh melody, O Thou Great Friend describes Jesus as our Great Friend. Sing along with the UCC Hymnal 219.
O thou great friend to all the [heirs] of men,
Who once appeared in humblest guise below,
Sin to rebuke, to break the captive’s chain,
To call thy [children] forth from want and woe.
Thee would I sing: thy truth is still the light,
Which guides the nations groping on their way,
Stumbling and falling in the disastrous night,
Yet hoping ever for the perfect day.
Yes, thou art still the Life; thou art the Way,
The holiest know – Light, Life and Way of heaven,
And they who dearest hope and deepest pray
Toil by the truth, life, way that thou has given. Amen.
Listen to O Thou Great Friend
Liebster Jesu, Wir Sind Hier by J. S. Bach.
This gentle chorale prelude is plaintive and worshipful. The second verse of this hymn has advice for Maundy Thursday: “Our knowledge and understanding are overshadowed with darkness, where the hand of [God’s] spirit does not fill us with clear light.”
Listen to Liebster Jesu, Wir Sind Hier
Lent, Week 6
Ride on Ride on in Majesty
Ride on Ride on in Majesty is a well-known Palm Sunday hymn. Do sing along! It is in the UCC Pilgrim Hymnal, number 176, melody by John Dykes and words by Henry Milman.
Listen to Ride On Ride On in Majesty
Ride on ride on in majesty
Hark all the tribes hosanna cry
Thy humble beast pursues his road
With psalms and scattered garments strowed.
Ride on ride on in majesty
In lowly pomp ride on to die
O Christ thy triumphs now begin
O’er captive death and conquered sin.
Ride on ride on in majesty
The winged squadrons of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice
Ride on ride on in majesty
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain
Then take O Christ thy power and reign.
Notturno by Grieg
This Notturno by Grieg is moody and full of images. It connects to Lent by demonstrating the amazing progression from dark to light. Grieg wrote music that painted a picture. He lived from 1843 to 1907.
Listen to Notturno by Grieg
Lent, Week 5
Glory Train by Al Gausz
This is a song that Al Gausz was encouraged to record by musicians at the Gaither Studio. it. It’s a toe tapper! Al is a parishioner at First Church and has written about thirty sacred songs.
Listen to Glory Train, by Al Gausz
Courante by Scarlatti
Scarlatti’s emotionality in this piece stands out. It expresses the complexity of Holy Week. Scarlatti lived from 1685 to 1757, around the same time as Bach.
Listen to Courante, by Scarlatti