His Voice - Volume 7, Number 2

Volume 7 - Number 2

September 2012

HIS

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oon after the announcement of this year’s topic for the thirteenth annual Good Shepherd Institute conference, Dr. Just and I realized that “Shepherd of Tender Youth: Connecting Postmoderns to Christ” hit a nerve. We believe that this conference will be a gathering of pastors, church musicians, elders, interested laity, youth leaders, and youth—all wrestling with the complex questions we face in a challenging time for and with our youth. In fact, this year we decided not to have sectionals or break-out sections, so that all could hear every word from what we believe is an outstanding list of plenary speakers.

Here is some additional conference information not in the GSI brochure: The Sunday afternoon organ recital, by the amazing young performer, Stephen Buzard, will include “Sonata on the 94th Psalm,” by Julius Reubke.

All Saints’ Choral Vespers will include: ✠ “I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills,” from Herbert Howells’s “Requiem” ✠ J. S. Bach’s funeral motet (BWV 118) “Lord Jesus Christ, My Light and Life” ✠ Three movements from Heinrich Schütz’s Musicalische Exequien ✠ “Oh, How Blest Are They,” by Theodore Beck ✠ “Lord, Now Let Your Servant Depart in Peace,” Luther’s hymn set by Donald Busarow ✠ The tenor soloist for this service will be Jonathan Busarow (grandson of Donald).

A large portion of the service will be accompanied by strings and brass from the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Monday’s Hymn Festival will be a part of the on-going “pull out all the stops” celebration at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in her 175th anniversary year. Without a doubt, this will be a memorable evening, in a stunningly beautiful historic sanctuary, led by Kantor Hildebrand, two choirs, and a professional brass ensemble. The whole Hymn Festival will be recorded for future release from The Good Shepherd Institute.

But there is nothing like being there! continued on next page

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continued from previous page We are pleased to announce that the Journal of the Good Shepherd Institute, containing lectures from the last two years (2010 and 2011), will be available for purchase at the November conference: Sing with All the Saints in Glory: The Theology of the Christian’s Death in Rite and Song and What God Has Joined Together: The Theology and Practice of Christian Marriage in Rite and Song It gives us great pleasure to announce that The Good Shepherd Institute will be the publisher of Dr. Daniel Zager’s new book, The Gospel Preached Through Music: The Purpose and Practice of Lutheran Church Music. Dr. Zager has been responsible from the beginning for a large part of what is offered from The Good Shepherd Institute. He has served as editor of the Institute’s first monograph, Music for the Church: The Life and Work of Walter E. Buszin, for the eight journals, and for two issues annually of the newsletter HIS VOICE. He was also the writer for the DVD Singing the Faith: Living the Lutheran Musical Heritage. It is so right that his new book on this important topic be the latest resource available from The Good Shepherd Institute.

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Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music for the Church

Journal for the Eleventh and Twelfth Annual Conferences 2010/2011

Sing with All the Saints in Glory: The Theology of the Christian’s Death in Rite and Song

What God Has Joined Together: The Theology and Practice of Christian Marriage in Rite and Song

We are hoping to have this new book available at the November conference. However, if it is not ready in time, there will be proofs to view, and it may be ordered.

The Gospel Preached Through Music is remarkable in that it takes a complex subject and makes it highly accessible and even enjoyable reading. Here Lutheran pastors and musicians will learn about the wealth of resources that have been handed down and are a perfect fit for us in our life together. I am eager for the church to receive this book, for I believe it will be of great benefit.

At the Seminary’s Opening Service on September 9, I talked with a young lady from Kenya who is so excited about the new Kenyan hymnal Ibada Takatifu, scheduled to be released in late fall. If you have not heard about this project, a number of agencies, including many of us at The Good Shepherd Institute, have been working together for about three years to produce the first Lutheran hymnal for the Lutheran Church of Kenya. I am writing to you about this because the Schwann Foundation has offered $60,000 toward this project—if $30,000 is raised by November 1. The total of $90,000 is the amount needed for printing and shipping to Kenya. $18,000 has already been raised, leaving $12,000 still needed to receive the $60,000 match. If you are able and so inclined to support this wonderful new resource for Kenya, please send your donation to “Kenyan Hymnal” at Concordia Theological Seminary, 6600 N. Clinton St., Fort Wayne, IN 46825.

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Th Gospel The ospel p l Preached eached h d Th h hrough h Music: M i Through The Purpose urpose p and d Practice off L Lutheran theran h heran Chur rch hM Music i Church By y Daniel Zager

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PASTORAL RESOURCES

by JOHN PLESS

Albrecht Peters, Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Lord’s Prayer, trans. Daniel Theis. (Concordia Publishing House, 2011), 221 pp. ISBN 9780758611505. [$42.99] Albrecht Peters masterfully unfolds the development of Luther’s understanding of the Lord’s Prayer in the context of the reformer’s theological career. Foundational for Luther was God’s command and promise, which authorizes prayer and gives certainty to the believer’s petitions.

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of faith, for it embodies God’s command to pray and it promises that we will be heard. Comparing and contrasting Luther’s insights with earlier theologians as well as more recent exegetes, Peters provides a treasurefilled commentary on the use of the Lord’s Prayer in the catechisms, with frequent gems that cannot help but enrich preaching and teaching. _______________________________________

Albrecht Peters, Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Baptism and Lord’s Supper, trans. Thomas Trapp (Concordia Publishing House, 2012), 248 pp.

ISBN 9780758611512. [$42.99] After an introductory section on “Luther’s Sacramental Witness: Relationship to the Western Tradition and Internal Development,” where Peters locates Luther’s “new beginning” with his use of “promise and faith,” the author turns to an exposition of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Peters’s treatment is a systematic unfolding of Luther’s confession of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is both a commentary on Luther’s catechisms and a miniature dogmatic theology of the Sacraments. _______________________________________

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Robert Kolb, Luther and the Stories of God: Biblical Narratives as a Foundation for Christian Living (Baker Academic, 2012), 188 pp.

ISBN 9780801038914. [$21.99] Readers will reap a bountiful harvest from Robert Kolb’s prolific career of researching, teaching, and writing about Martin Luther. Kolb demonstrates how Luther preaches and teaches the biblical narratives so that Christian lives are geared to repentance, faith, and vocation. Seeing repentance as the “metanarrative” of the Christian life, Kolb paints a robust picture of Luther as “the story teller,” drawing on recent Luther scholarship along the way. Kolb accents Luther’s commitment to the pastoral care of the Lord’s people in and through the use of God’s Word. Crisply written, this little volume is a must for parish libraries and could easily be used as a centerpiece for lay study groups. It is a good practice for pastors to set aside time to read Luther and a book on Luther each fall before Reformation. This would be an excellent pick for 2012. _______________________________________

Ernst Walter Zeeden, Faith and Act: The Survival of Medieval Ceremonies in the Lutheran Reformation, trans. Kevin G. Walker (Concordia Publishing House, 2012), 147 pp. ISBN 9780758627018. [$36.99] This meticulous historical study examines the complexities of liturgical practices in sixteenthcentury Lutheranism as reflected in the church orders. Faith and Act is an invaluable handbook providing detailed and documented data that gives contemporary readers a glimpse into the way that liturgical texts and ceremonies were retained, modified, or rejected in various territories.

Liturgical scholars as well as pastors will find this volume to be a useful guide to understanding the evangelical reception and appropriation of the catholic legacy of liturgical forms and practices in light of the immediate background of the medieval church. _______________________________________

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PASTORAL RESOURCES Justification Is for Preaching, ed. Virgil Thompson (Pickwick Publications, 2012), 261 pp. ISBN 9781610974097. [$31.00] Justification Is for Preaching is refreshingly radical—not in the sense that it promotes yet another rhetorical device for the homiletic craft, but because it goes to the root of God’s own design for preaching, the bestowal of a promise that creates faith in Christ Jesus. Preaching is not about transformation of character or political advocacy but God’s own declaration of righteousness for the ungodly. In essays from both sides of the Atlantic, theologians in the tradition of Luther carry out his approach to the renewal of the church, that is, the reformation of the church through the preaching of Christ crucified. Authors include Oswald Bayer, Mark Mattes, Gerhard Forde, Steven Paulson, Wilfried Härle, Virgil Thompson, James Nestingen, and Klaus Schwarzwäller. Seminarians as well as seasoned preachers will be invigorated and challenged by and for the proclamation elucidated in this fine book. _______________________________________

Walter Sundberg, Worship as Repentance: Lutheran Liturgical Traditions and Catholic Consensus (Eerdmans, 2012), 190 pp. ISBN 9780802867322. [$18.00]

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Gregory P. Schulz, The Problem of Suffering: A Father’s Hope (Concordia Publishing House, 2011), 144 pp.

ISBN 9780758626615. [$14.99] Gregory Schulz, Lutheran pastor and philosopher, writes in a way that brings together careful theological reflection and his own deep experience with suffering. Readers might readily recall C. S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed. Not only did Schulz encounter suffering in the lives of his parishioners, he and his wife endured the deaths of an infant daughter and adolescent son. Werner Elert describes the problem with theodicy projects post-Leibniz as attempting to defend God by ensnaring Him in human ethical categories. You will find none of that in Schulz’s work. He knows that the truth of the Gospel is sufficient even in the face of suffering that cannot be explained. The book is written in a conversational style and is accompanied by “A Companion Study Guide and Resources for Pastors and Christian Caregivers” in electronic format. Both the book and the accompanying study guide/resources are highly recommended. _______________________________________

Mark C. Mattes “Discipleship in Lutheran Perspective,” Lutheran Quarterly 26 (Summer 2012): 142–63.

This book is a fine-tuned polemic against the replacement of the historical Lutheran emphasis on repentance and faith in liturgical life with themes of celebration and affirmation that have emerged over the last half century. Sundberg describes this as a clash between “penitential piety” and “eucharistic piety.” The author, a church historian at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, takes a careful look at the history of confession and absolution in Lutheran history but especially on the use of the binding key.

While some of his proposals are debatable, this book is worthy of careful study by pastors who are charged with both forgiving and retaining sins. _______________________________________

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The language of discipleship is both biblical and Lutheran. Mark Mattes recognizes and affirms this but raises questions as to how the term is used in contemporary Lutheranism. For example, Mattes points out that some would make the (unbiblical and un-Lutheran) distinction between “members” and “disciples,” failing to grasp that to be baptized into the Body of Christ is to be a disciple. Others would equate discipleship with commitment to a particular social agenda (peace and justice, etc.).

Mattes takes a more careful look at the Lutheran tradition, suggesting that discipleship does not have to do with “fixing the church” or “fixing the world” but living in repentance and faith within one’s calling in the world. Mattes provides a coherent and clarifying corrective for the misuse of an important word in our Christian vocabulary. _______________________________________ 4

PASTORAL RESOURCES “Logia After Twenty Years,” Logia 21 (Holy Trinity, 2012).

Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology was founded on Easter Monday, 1992 in a meeting held in the Walther Room at University Lutheran Chapel in Minneapolis, the first issue appearing at Reformation that same year. One critic opined that the journal would not last five years. Launched in the heat of the “worship wars,” and in skirmishes over the “Church Growth Movement” and “Lutheran substance with Evangelical style,” Logia hit the ground running as a journal beholden to no Lutheran body, global and pan-Lutheran in scope.

After twenty years it is still moving along at a steady pace as a vehicle for confessional Lutheran theology. This twentieth anniversary issue features articles published over the last two decades, articles selected by the editors as “the best of Logia.”

Articles in this anniversary issue include Norman Nagel, “Lured from the Water, the Little Fish Perish”; James Nestingen, “Forgiveness of Sins and Restoration to Office”; John Kleinig, “Bach, Chronicles, and Church Music”; James Tiefel, “Liturgical Worship for Evangelism and Outreach”; Leiv Aalen, “The Word as Means of Grace”; Gerald Krispin, “Philip Jacob Spener and the Demise of the Practice of Holy Absolution in the Lutheran Church”; and much more. _______________________________________

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Lucas V. Woodford, Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? The Mission of the Holy Christian Church (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2012), 230 pp.

ISBN 9781610978774. [$28.00] Lucas Woodford, senior pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Mayer, Minnesota, has provided the church with a thoughtful approach to mission anchored in the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed.

Woodford describes his own struggles and disappointments as a young pastor and the magnetic power of the church’s Confessions and liturgy to orient and sustain his life and ministry.

Conversational and somewhat autobiographical in tone and content, this book grows out of Pastor Woodford’s work in our Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry program, and it demonstrates how a pastor might work to lead a congregation away from a merely programmatic approach to mission, to one that is driven by the Gospel, which alone is the power for salvation. Woodford provides a critique of the Church Growth Movement and the new spirituality of the “emerging church,” but he is more than a critic; he is a theologically informed shepherd seeking to be faithful to the Lord’s mandate in Matthew 28:18–20. This would be an excellent book for discussion in the circuit Winkel or for use with the lay leadership in the congregation. _______________________________________

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Charles P. Arand, Robert Kolb, and James A. Nestingen, The Lutheran Confessions: History and Theology of The Book of Concord (Fortress Press, 2012), 341 pp. ISBN 9780800627416. [$39.00] Not since the publication of F. Bente’s Historical Introduction to the Lutheran Confessions in the early twentieth century have English-speaking readers been treated to such a comprehensive study of the history of the documents included in The Book of Concord. Bringing a wealth of fresh scholarship combined with a deep love for the Lutheran Confessions, Arand, Kolb, and Nestingen have provided scholars and pastors with a comprehensive yet compact guide to the history and theology of The Book of Concord. This will be the standard reference work in English on The Book of Concord for years to come. _______________________________________ Baker Academic www.bakeracademic.com Concordia Publishing House www.cph.org Eerdmans www.eerdmans.com Fortress Press www.fortresspress.com Pickwick Publications www.wipfandstock.com/pickwick_publications Wipf and Stock www.wipfandstock.com

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TEN RESOURCES FOR FALL, ADVENT, AND WINTER

by KEVIN HILDEBRAND

A Mighty Fortress

Comfort, Comfort Now My People

Nancy Raabe SATB, Organ, Trumpet, Congregation Augsburg Fortress ED018818, $1.90

Donald Busarow SATB, Organ, C Instrument CPH 98-4102, $2.00

Nancy Raabe’s energetic and well-written setting, which enjoyably employs the original rhythmic version of the tune, is a welcome new addition to hymn settings of this well-known Reformation chorale. Scored for organ, trumpet, choir, congregation (and optional tambourine!), stanza three is set for SATB choir only (a cappella or accompanied). The choral writing has a comfortable ruggedness appropriate for this chorale, and the final words of the third stanza (“one little word . . .”) are appropriately subdued. Translation adjustments for Lutheran Service Book will be necessary. _______________________________________

The musical legacy of the late Donald Busarow (1934–2011) includes this wonderful commissioned piece, joining the text of Isaiah 40 with the chorale “Comfort, Comfort Now My People.” The writing, alternating with unison, SA, SAT, and SATB voicings, pairs quasi-chant writing of the Scripture verses with chorale harmonizations. A C instrument weaves the two themes together. These verses are the Old Testament reading for Advent 2B or Advent 3 (one-year lectionary), and could also be reused throughout the Advent season, particularly for special choral services. _______________________________________

Come and Rejoice! Seasonal Music for Trumpet and Organ

Continue in the Things That You Have Learned

Dallas Blair MorningStar Music 20-245, $18.00

Barry Bobb SATB, Piano, Optional Congregation, Flute, Violoncello, Percussion CPH 98-4094, $2.00

Some church music libraries are full of resources that assume professional-level instrumentalists. For those of us who also work with volunteer and student musicians, this collection provides enjoyable and useful settings. Both range and rhythms are within the grasp of most church trumpeters of moderate ability. For that matter, the organ parts are written in a moderate range of difficulty as well. Included are tunes especially for Advent and Christmas: VENI EMMANUEL, IN DULCI JUBILO, PICARDY, ADESTE FIDELES, and PUER NOBIS. _______________________________________

Come, Let Us Fix Our Eyes on Jesus Bret Heim SATB CPH 98-4096, $1.85

A new tune by fellow Hoosier Barry Bobb (Carmel Lutheran Church, Carmel, Indiana) paired with a new text by Rev. Stephen P. Starke becomes a useful and flexible setting centering on a paraphrase of 2 Timothy1 (“Guard well that treasure given to you—the Word of God’s pure truth”). Originally composed for a pastor’s anniversary of service to the church, it would be appropriate for installations and ordinations, or a focus on remaining steadfast in God’s Word (perhaps this could be a reflective addition to Reformation Day). The instrumentation of keyboard, flute, cello, wind chimes, and suspended cymbal provides a fresh accompaniment. _______________________________________

This piece is written in a classic a cappella motet style (think Healey Willan or Carl Schalk), with homophonic phrases alternating with polyphonic phrases, treating the short text of Hebrews 12:2 in a thorough manner. This text is part of the Gradual for Lent; it could be sung several Sundays in Lent to get more mileage out of your well-spent rehearsal time. _______________________________________ HIS Voice • September 2012

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RESOURCES continued For the Lord Is Good

Psalm 100

Matthew Machemer Two-part Equal Voices, Organ CPH 98-4112, $1.90

Kenney Potter Two-part Voices, Piano Choristers Guild CGA1270, $2.10

This reflective, ethereal setting of Psalm 100 (a tasteful textual paraphrase by the composer) employs unison and two-part singing, and would be accessible for any combination of voices, but would sound particularly good with treble ensembles; it would also work very well with two soloists. It could be a quiet addition for Thanksgiving services, or a nice psalm-solo for a wedding. _______________________________________

This setting for two-part treble voices uses the text of Psalm 100 (a usable translation, not a paraphrase) in an enjoyable 6/8 meter (with a few hemiolas for good measure). The two-part writing is easily learned, as the parts are more partner tunes than soprano and alto harmonies. The keyboard and vocal parts also include quotations of LASST UNS ERFREUEN. The ability level, key (E Major), and usefulness makes this just right for children to sing, although the writing is easy enough even for adults to handle! _______________________________________

God So Loved the World K. Lee Scott SATB, Organ, Optional Violin CPH 98-4109, $2.25 As ubiquitous as John 3:16 is in slogans, sermons, religious merchandise, and the like, there really is a dearth of usable choral settings on this text, save the classic John Stainer setting. K. Lee Scott’s setting helps to fill that void. Written for SATB, organ, and a moderately skilled violinist (optional), the “God so loved” text frames the piece, set in the reflective key of D minor. The B section employs the text of 1 Timothy 1:15 (“This is a true saying . . . Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”), a wellchosen pairing of Scripture verses. The B section is a little more aggressive in rhythm, harmony, and ability level, but is still well within the grasp of church choirs accustomed to singing in four parts. _______________________________________

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Sing It Simply (25 Congregational Hymn Accompaniments for Piano, with opt. Guitar, Bass, and Handbells) Thomas Keesecker MorningStar Music 80-790, $25.00 This unique collection contains simple keyboard accompaniments for hymns (all but two tunes are found in Lutheran Service Book), with options for handbells (just a few per setting), guitar, and bass.

These might not be useful for every parish, but could be a very usable resource for a congregation that uses this instrumental ensemble and desires more congregational singing from the hymnal.

Several music examples are available for viewing and listening at the publisher’s website. _______________________________________

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RESOURCES continued This Is My Beloved Son John Behnke Two-part Voices, Keyboard or 3-Octave Handbells/Handchimes CPH 98-4106, $1.90 John Behnke’s setting of Matthew 17:5–7 is an example of a historic Gospel motet in an accessible and useful arrangement. The accompaniment is set for either handbells or keyboard, with two-part voices telling the story of Christ’s transfiguration.

An option is for a solo voice to sing the words of Christ; optional windchimes also add an ethereal tone. It is reminiscent of a Heinrich Schütz two-part motet, but using twenty-first-century musical writing. _______________________________________ Augsburg Fortress www.augsburgfortress.org Choristers Guild www.choristersguild.org Concordia Publishing House www.cph.org MorningStar Music Publishers www.morningstarmusic.com

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READING AND LISTENING

by DANIEL ZAGER

READING

Mary Jane Haemig, “Putting the Advents Back into Advent,”

Jaroslav Vajda, “Slovak Lutheran Hymnody and Its Influence,”

Lutheran Forum 46 (Summer 2012): 27–30.

Lutheran Forum 46 (Spring 2012): 30–32.

In 1988, Lutheran pastor and hymn writer Jaroslav Vajda (1919–2008) delivered a lecture on Slovak Lutheran hymnody as part of the Slovak Zion Synod Lecture Series, held at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. It is good to have this lecture available now in printed form, providing a succinct historical outline of Slovak Lutheran hymnody as well as a brief assessment of its influence. I was also struck by Vajda’s introductory remarks, especially the following: “I hardly need repeat the truism—but I shall—namely, that one should never underestimate the power and importance of hymnody. . . . it not only reveals but expresses and molds the theology of most worshipers” (30). _______________________________________

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Mary Jane Haemig (Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota) states her premise early on: “In many churches we hear what we are supposed to do during Advent, rather than what God does for us in the past, present, and future advents (arrivals or comings) of Christ. . . . The result? Instead of a joyous proclamation in preaching, teaching, and song of the coming of God to us, listeners are urged to focus on themselves, prepare, wait, and plead for God to come (as if that were somehow in question)” (27). Haemig reviews the Advent preaching emphases of Reformation-era Lutheran pastors, including Martin Luther, concluding: “For Lutheran preachers, preparation was something God does through the preaching of the word, not something we do through virtuous actions” (29). She also compares more recent Advent hymn texts with traditional Lutheran Advent hymns (cf. pages 29–30), with telling results. Haemig concludes that “It is time for Lutherans once again to use the Advent season as the Lutheran Reformers did and reject recent moves that focus on human activities during this season” (30). This thoughtful article will benefit Lutheran church musicians as they choose hymns and choral music for the Advent season. _______________________________________

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READING AND LISTENING LISTENING Johannes Eccard, Mit Freude musizieren: Sacred and Secular Works (Opella Musica, Ensemble NOEMA, Gregor Meyer) [2011, cpo 777 700-2] For the third consecutive newsletter, here is yet another new recording of music by Johannes Eccard (1553–1611), the 2011 anniversary of his death bringing the welcome appearance of several CDs devoted entirely to the music of this lateRenaissance master. Eccard’s work as a composer focused largely, though not exclusively, on the Lutheran chorale. Together with the composer Lucas Osiander (1534–1604), Eccard contributed to the socalled cantional style of setting chorales, where the melody was made more prominent by transferring it from its earlier position in the tenor voice to the soprano voice. Among the sacred works recorded here are cantional-style settings of Lutheran chorales from Eccard’s 1597 Geistlicher Lieder auff den Choral: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” (LSB 332), “Christ ist erstanden” (LSB 459), and “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” (LSB 497). Gregor Meyer elicits rhythmically vital performances from the singers of Opella Musica and the instrumentalists of Ensemble NOEMA Leipzig. _______________________________________

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Michael Praetorius, Ostermesse/Easter Mass (Weser-Renaissance Bremen, Manfred Cordes) [2012, cpo 999 953-2] Michael Praetorius, one of the great Lutheran cantors, was amazingly productive, both as a composer of Latin polyphony and German chorale settings for the Lutheran church, and as a music theorist writing comprehensively on the musical art of his age. On this recording, Manfred Cordes draws solely on the music of Praetorius—Latin- and German-texted settings—to furnish a complete Proper and Ordinary for Easter, according to the 1569 church order of Duke Julius of BraunschweigLüneburg, the church order that was in effect during the years Praetorius worked in Wolfenbüttel. Thus, the present recording provides us an opportunity as twenty-first-century listeners to imagine the Lutheran Divine Service as heard and sung by some of our Lutheran forebears in the early seventeenth century. As always, Manfred Cordes and the singers and instrumentalists of Weser-Renaissance Bremen provide excellent performances. _______________________________________

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READING AND LISTENING Philipp Dulichius, Sacred Motets (Weser-Renaissance Bremen, Manfred Cordes) [2012, cpo 777 352-2] While the name Michael Praetorius is reasonably well known to twenty-first-century Lutheran church musicians (not least for his cantional-style setting of the Christmas chorale “Es ist ein Ros” [LSB 359]), the same cannot be said for Philipp Dulichius (1562–1631). Born in Chemnitz and educated in Leipzig and Wittenberg, he spent his career working as a Lutheran church musician in Stettin. All of his surviving compositions are liturgical works, most of them Latin-texted works rather than settings of chorales. He paid particular attention to central passages from the Gospel texts appointed for Sundays and feast days, i.e., Gospel motets.

Manfred Cordes includes Dulichius’s motets on Matthew 6:31–32, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 22:17–22, and Luke 24:46–47, in addition to psalm motets and settings of other Old Testament and Epistle texts. This recording illumines a little-known corner of our Lutheran musical heritage. _______________________________________

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René Clausen, Life and Breath: Choral Works (Kansas City Chorale, Charles Bruffy) [2012, Chandos CHSA 5105] René Clausen (b. 1953) is well known as conductor of the Concordia Choir at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He is also a prolific composer of choral music, a sampling of which is provided on this recording, expertly sung by the Kansas City Chorale conducted by Charles Bruffy.

While you likely won’t find repertory for your parish choir among these a cappella works, there is much beautiful choral writing and singing here, not least Clausen’s well-known setting of “Set Me as a Seal Upon Your Heart.” _______________________________________ ArkivMusic www.arkivmusic.com Chandos www.chandos.net cpo www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/home

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