Calvary Presents

A Time to Weep

Music for Good Friday Concert Series, no. 5

A Benefit Performance for the Shalom Scholarship Fund

Calvary Baptist Church

755 8th Street NW Washington, DC 20001

April 22, 2011 7:30 p.m.

Tonight’s Performers:

Soloists

Elaine Dalbo Soprano Susan Sevier Contralto Jason Rylander Tenor

Ensemble

Annie Loud, Jennifer Ries Violin Marta Howard Viola Daniel Shomper Cello Ken Watson Oboe Ashley Dalton, Elisabeth Mehl Greene Flute Christian Clough Organ

Chorus

Rachel Barham, Rachel Carlson Soprano Kim Machado, Maggie Toscano Alto Irvin Peterson, Dwayne Pinkney Tenor Rameen Chaharbaghi Baritone James Rogers Bass

Cheryl Branham, Conductor

Produced by:

Tonight’s concert is a production of Serate Musicali LTD and the Calvary Presents concert series. The proceeds from this performance benefit the Shalom Scholarship Fund, a scholarship created to help students in El Salvador continue their education. There, public education ends at the 8th grade. With the assistance of Shalom, future leaders without the means to do so can finish high school and go on to college.

Program

Welcome

Rev. Dr. Amy Butler

The Hymn Tune: O Sacred Head Now Wounded (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden) Text: Paul Gerhardt (1613) Trans. James W. Alexander (1830) Music: Hans L. Haβler (1601) Harmonization: J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

We invite you to stand and sing Chalice Hymnal (in pews), no. 202

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (1904) Chorale Cantata no. 3, for Soprano and Alto, Mixed Choir, Violin, Oboe and Organ Text: Paul Gerhardt (1613) Music: Max Reger (1873-1916) Hymn tune: Hans L. Haβler (1601)

Ms. Dalbo, Ms. Sevier, Ms. Loud, Mr. Watson, Mr. Clough

About the Shalom Scholarship Fund

Ms. Carol Blythe-Goodman

O Sinner, Come thy Sin to Mourn (O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde Gross) Orgel-Buchlein BWV 622 (1713) Music: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Chalice Singers

Komm, du süße Todesstunde BWV 161 Text: Salamo Franck (1715) Music: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Aria: Komm, du süße Todesstunde Ms. Sevier

Recitativ: Welt, deine Lust ist Last Mr. Rylander

Aria: Mein Verlangen ist, den Heiland Mr. Rylander

Recitativ : Der Schluß ist schon gemacht Ms. Sevier

Aria: Wenn es meines Gottes Wille Ensemble

Chorale: Der Leib zwar in der Erden Tutti

Please NO APPLAUSE due to the sacred nature of the performance and in reverence to the meaning of Good Friday. Please join us in Woodward Hall, to the left as you exit the sanctuary, for a brief reception afterwards. Donations for the Shalom Scholarship Fund will be collected as you leave the Sanctuary and in Woodward Hall. Program duration: approximately 1 hour.

Biographies

Elaine Dalbo, soprano, a native of Buffalo, New York, made her solo operatic debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. Since that time, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, with Opera Theater of Northern Virginia (Dorabella, Hansel, Angelina), Lyric Opera Theater (AZ), Opera Bel Canto (DC), the Washington Savoyards, Alexandria Symphony, Capital City Symphony, and the Buffalo Opera Workshop. In 2007, Ms. Dalbo made her Summer Opera Theater Company debut as Meg in Mark Adamo's Little Women

and recently performed at Music Fest Perugia (Italy), where she was selected to represent the festival at competitions throughout Italy and Germany. In addition to her opera, operetta and oratorio performances, Elaine is an active organist, pianist, has collaborated with composers Chinery Ung and John Cage. As a conductor, she studied with Dr. Harriet Simons. This spring, Ms. Dalbo makes her New York operatic debut as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.

Susan Sevier, contralto, equally at home in oratorio, opera, and theatrical musicals, with repertoire from Handel to Wagner to Sondheim, receives general acclaim for her sacred music performances: for her recent performance of Haydn’s rarely performed Stabat Mater, the Concertnet.com critic said: “Contralto Susan Sevier is always a joy to hear. A ‘true’ contralto of enormous depth and range, she conveyed a great sense of pathos and sorrow in her singing”, and, for her performances in the Opera Bel Canto production of Rossini’s

Petite Messe Solennelle , the Washington Post critic called her performance of the “Agnus Dei” as “eloquent”. Recent opera performances include Wagner’s Das Rheingold Erda with the Washington National Wagner Society and the West End Opera in NY, and as Rossweisse in Act III of Die Walküre, featuring James Morris as Wotan and Christine Brewer as Brunhilde at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall; as “The Witch” in Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel , and as Acuzena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore with the Maryland Opera Society; as Marcellina, in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Tuscia Opera Festival (Italy); and as Verdi’s Amneris in Aida, Acuzena in Il Trovatore, and as Mozart’s Dritte Dame with the Bourgas Philharmonic and Opera Society (Bulgaria). Her musical theatre credits include appearances as the Duchess of Plaza Toro in the Mt. Vernon Players production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Gondoliers; Bloody Mary in South Pacific at the Ashlawn Summer Festival; and Frau Peachum in the Brecht/Weill Three Penny Opera at the Theatre Project in Baltimore, for which Baltimore’s City Paper review cited her “excellent performance”. Ms. Sevier appears courtesy of Serate Musicali, Ltd. (www.seratemusicali.org).

Jason Rylander, tenor, has been hailed by the Washington Post for his "strong, clear tenor" and for performances that "coupled sonorous warmth and emotional depth." Solo performances this season include the Mozart and Salieri Requiems with the Bach Sinfonia, Bach Cantatas 162, 182, and 31 with the Washington Bach Consort, and Cantata 106 with the Norfolk Chamber Consort. He has appeared with the Orchestra of the 17th Century, New Dominion Chorale, National Men's Chorus, University of Virginia Glee Club, and

numerous area chorales in such works as Bach's B-Minor Mass and Magnificat, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation and St. Cecilia Mass, and Monteverdi's Vespers 1610. In 2010, he participated in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. An accomplished ensemble singer, Jason can regularly be heard with the Bach Sinfonia, Washington Bach Consort, the Washington National Cathedral Choir, and the Pro Core of the Cathedral Choral Society.

Christian M. Clough, Organist, is in his sixth year as Director of Music Ministries for The Church of the Epiphany, where he plays the organ for services throughout the year and conducts the Epiphany Choir. He oversees the Welcome Table Choir, leads the congregations in singing, and manages the weekly, year-round Tuesday Concert Series. Mr. Clough is a double-Master’s-degree alumnus of Yale University, a Master of Music (Organ Performance & Choral Conducting) from the Yale School of Music (YSM), and a

Master of Arts in Religion (Liturgical Studies), magna cum laude, from Yale Divinity School (YDS), and earned two Certificates from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM). As an organist, he was awarded the Charles Ives Scholarship by the YSM. the Peter B. Knock Memorial Music Prize and the John R. Rodland Memorial Scholarship. For his liturgical studies, he received the ISM Liturgical Studies Prize, and the Thomas Philips Memorial Award in Liturgics from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Christian also has varied conducting experience outside the church. He was Conductor of the Wallingford (Connecticut) Chorus, a fifty-voice volunteer ensemble, for three seasons. During the Summer of 1996, Mr. Clough was a Conducting Fellow under Sir David Willcocks at the annual Choral Symposium at Ogontz, sponsored by the Chorus of Westerly (RI). While at Yale, he was an Assistant Conductor to the Yale Camerata, and Assistant Conductor and Organist to the Marquand Chapel Choir at Yale Divinity School. He was Music Director for the Walsh Intermediate School (Branford, CT) musical in May 1998 and assisted with music for the Hamilton (NY) Central School Masquers musical in 1994. In 1998, Christian was the recipient of a Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship (Boston) and a Charlotte H. Bagnall Memorial Music Prize (Simsbury, CT), and spent the 1998-9 academic year in London, studying organ performance with Anne Marsden Thomas, Kevin Bowyer, James Parsons and David Sanger. He was a featured performer in Master Classes taught by Alexander Fiseisky and Stephen Cleobury. He teaches organ and piano lessons privately. He lives in Takoma Park, MD, with his partner of eleven years, and enjoys gardening, cooking, bicycling, writing, playing with his dog Putney and various outdoorsy pursuits in his free time.

Cheryl Branham, conductor, has been a fixture in the Washington arts community since 2000. Currently she serves as Director of Music at the historic Calvary Baptist Church in Washington’s Penn Quarter. She is Founding Director of Chalice Singers and Chamber Orchestra at CBC. Previously she served as staff conductor at St. Luke Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, working with Director of Music and Liturgy, Paul Skevington. She later served as a guest conductor with the St. Luke Choir and Chamber Orchestra, both in

concert and for the ever popular Messiah Sing Along events. For four seasons, she served as Assistant Conductor of The Washington Chorus (TWC) with Robert Shafer. She conducted the 200-voice chorus on the Kennedy Center Concert Hall stage and prepared the chorus for engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra. She directed TWC’s Outreach Singers, conducting concerts throughout the Metropolitan DC area in venues ranging from hospitals and hospices, nursing homes and retirement communities, to the National Cathedral, Willard Hotel, ambassador residences and embassies.

Cheryl holds degrees in conducting and in piano performance from Boston University, the University of Maryland and Furman University. Her primary choral conducting instructors included Ann Howard Jones and Bingham Vick. She sang and studied on several occasions with the late Robert Shaw. She studied orchestral conducting with David Hoose in Boston, and for five seasons she studied orchestral conducting with John Farrer, Daniel Lewis and Donald Thulean at the California Conducting Institute. Cheryl’s primary piano instructors included John Noel Roberts, Nelita True, Stewart Gordon, Roy Hamlin Johnson, and dissertation preparation with Bradford Gowen. Currently Dr. Branham serves on the piano faculty at the Center of the Arts of the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland.

About the Chalice Singers and Ensemble The Chalice Singers and Ensemble were founded in 2009 to celebrate life through music-making, using performances and educational programs to lift up the soul and to help heal the bodies of those in need. This is their third benefit program, the first being the very successful “One Child, One Life, One Light” concert, featuring as guests the Kieskamma Gospel Choir from Hamburg, SA. Please contact Cheryl Branham, cbranham@calvarydc.org for more information.

About the Concert Series Calvary Presents is a performance series created to showcase the work of local artists and arts organizations, residing at and supported by the ministry of the Calvary Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. For more information, visit our website, www.calvarydc.org.

About Tonight’s Program

The great Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, once wrote: “It is not the act of a good disciple to flee from the Cross in order to enjoy the sweetness of easy piety.” Tonight, we do not flee.

We’ve called our program A Time to Weep: O Sacred Head Now Wounded, because, if we are Christian, we gather tonight to remember Jesus at his most human, at that time in the liturgical calendar set aside to remember his physical death. We weep for his humanity and for our own, as we wonder what is next. And if we are not Christian, we gather simply because we are human ourselves and experience in that humanness the same trials and challenges that are part of Jesus’ story on this day.

The Hymn Tune: O Sacred Head Now Wounded

If you were raised in a church or attend a Christian church now, you most assuredly know this very famous hymn tune. Many of us know it as one of the great hymns that have come down to us from the Protestant Reformation. The ancient origin of the text is the last section of the medieval Latin poem Salve mundi salutare, written in the 13th century. In Salve mundi salutare, each of the seven sections of the poem addresses one part of the body of Christ as it hung on the cross. The last section referred to the head. The German poet, Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676), translated the last stanza into the version of O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden that we know today. Gerhardt’s poem was married to a tune written by Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), a secular love song, Mein G'müt ist mir verwirret (My Mind is so Confused). The tune was first used liturgically as the setting for another Gerhardt poem, Herzlich thut mich verlangen (My heart is filled with longing), a hymn written for the dying in the plague of 1599. Today, it is a tune in imbedded into the cultural consciousness: set five times alone in the St. Matthew’s Passion by Bach, and used by Reger, Liszt, and Mendelssohn among others, it has even made its way into popular music (forming the foundation of Paul Simon’s American Tune.

Our major works this evening use both the music and the theme of the text literally, as in the case of the Reger, or inspirationally, as in our Bach cantata, where the chorale tune functions as the cantus firmus, or the melodic theme used as the base of the composition, and then re-appears in the finale chorale movement.

The Musical Forms: Cantata and Chorale

Both Reger’s and Bach’s works heard tonight are called cantatas. A cantata is a musical work to be sung, in several movements, to an instrumental accompaniment. It is the vocal version of a sonata, which is a work in several movements to be played on an instrument.

A cantata, particular in the Baroque period, is often based on a tune called a chorale and often, in fact, contains a chorale setting. A chorale is simply this: a hymn or psalm sung to a traditional or composed melody in church. Chorales tend to have simple and singable tunes, because they were originally intended to be sung by the congregation rather than a professional choir. They generally have rhyming words and are in a strophic form (with the same melody being used for different verses). Chorale tunes were often used by composers like Reger, Bach, and Brahms as the basis of organ preludes, and larger works.

“Max” Reger

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (1873 –1916) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher. Reger is considered by some to be the most important successor of Johannes Brahms.

A prolific composer and a driven man, consumed by hard living, Reger composed in most every form of the time, except opera and the symphony proper. Although himself a Catholic by faith, he was by his own admission obsessed with the Protestant cantata form, and with the music of Bach in particular. The choral cantata had fallen out of favor as a musical form by the turn of the 20th century. During Reger’s lifetime, in fact, he often performed or conducted his music at “Bach-Reger” festivals, his favorite way to showcase his own work.

As a composer, he revived the fugue form in composition, an homage to his beloved Bach. His organ music is considered by many to be second only to Bach's in depth and significance. That music, along with much of his output, requires a large degree of virtuosity.

Reger wrote avidly for the voice and for the organ, and made extensive use of various chorales and settings from Bach in his work. In fact, he famously wrote a setting of our other choral offering for this evening’s program, O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß. His own cantatas, such as his setting of Vom Himmel Hoch, da komm ich her, and the one we perform tonight, generally combined soloists, choir, organ and various obbligato instruments into a unique chamber ensemble setting.

Tonight, we will perform O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden from the Carus Verlag Edition, edited by Günther Massenkeil.

Bach Basics

The remainder of our program tonight comes from the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) .Bach was a German composer, organist, violist, and violinist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and keyboard might be called the great summation of the musical Baroque. It is in his work that we find the

weaving together of the various threads of that musical style, a style in fashion during the century before his birth. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer during his own day. The “rediscovery” of his compositions in the 19th century by Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn changed everything: he is now regarded as the supreme composer of the Baroque, and as one of the greatest composers of all time.

The early years of Bach’s career were spent in the towns around Weimar, and in court of Weimar itself. It is from these years before his fame at Leipzig that we get the works for our concert tonight.

It was not until 1714 that Bach was appointed Konzertmeister (Concert Master) in Weimar. His contract for that appointment required that he compose a cantata for worship use every four weeks. Either he did not keep to his schedule, or some works are lost, because, today we have 20 works extant from this period (of which BWV 161 is one). In private, however, he also began the composition of his Orgel-Büchlein, which contains tonight’s work O Sinner, Come thy Sin to Mourn (O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde Gross).

Church Music in Bach’s Day

Bach worked as a church musician in the heart of Martin Luther’s Germany, as an employee of the State of Saxony, in an orthodox Lutheran city. The church year was dictated by the lectionary texts of the Lutheran church (the “lectionary” is a traditional organization of Biblical texts, designed to lead a Christian through the church year in a somewhat orderly fashion by applying specific texts to Sundays of the calendar). Scholars today use these “lectionary” texts to ascertain when various cantatas or other works were performed in worship service by Bach, since we have very few letters, journals or notebooks as reference.

Much of Bach’s music (and the sacred music of other Baroque composers) falls on our ears as a love song to death itself; the Pietist theological current of Bach’s day supported this belief Biblically with the words of Paul in Philippians 1:23, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. The first recitative of BWV 161 directly quotes this text. No other text so captures the message of the Baroque and of Bach’s music.

In Bach’s day, BWV 161 would not have been performed at service on Good Friday, because the church of the day did not allow musical instruments to be played in service on holy days of penitence, such as Good Friday. But the suitability of its message for this day, its use of the great Passion hymn “O Sacred Head” as the foundation of its music, these things make the work indeed suitable for our remembrance.

Komm, du süße Todesstunde BWV 161 (Come, sweet hour of death)”

The second work on our program is one of Bach’s choral church cantatas, BWV 161 [BWV means Bach Werke Verzeichnis or Bach Works Listing, and refers to the cataloging sequence developed in Germany by which his works are listed]. The title, based on the opening of the first aria, is “Komm, du susse Todestunde [Come, sweet hour of death]”. The work was first performed at the Court of Weimar on September 27, 1716.

The cantata is intimately scored for alto and tenor soloists, a four-part choir, two recorders (or flutes), two violins, viola, and basso continuo. Movements 1,3 and 5 all quote the theme of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded” in some manner, uniting the music of the cantata.

The first aria in BWV 161 is taken from the text of Judges 14:8, the story of Samson’s brief marriage to Timnah, the source of his riddle: “Out of the eater came something to eat./Out of the strong came something sweet. (Jdg. 14:17)”.

The tenor recitative (Movement 2) ends in an arioso when the words paraphrase that very quotation from Philippians 1:23 so important to the nature of the Baroque:, Ich habe Lust abzuscheiden und bei Christo zu sein (I desire to pasture soon with Christ. I desire to depart from this world.). The alto recitative (Movement 4) is accompanied by all instruments, creating the images of sleep (in a downward movement, ending in long notes), the waking up (in fast movement upwards), and funeral bells in the recorders and pizzicato of the strings. Movement 5 is set for four parts by Bach, and is like a song. The addition of the flutes in counterpoint brightens the closing chorale, stating in musical language the hope of the Resurrection to come.

The Epistle reading associated with this cantata is Ephesians 3:13-21, Paul’s prayer that the Ephesians may know the love that God offers, a love that is present no matter what the trial or suffering. The Gospel reading for this particular cantata is Luke 7:11-17, the story of the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. In Bach's time the story pointed immediately at the resurrection of the dead, expressed in words of desire to die soon.

Tonight we perform this work from the edition Stuttgarter Bach-Ausgaben. Urtext In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Bach-Archiv Leipzig, printed by Carus Verlag.

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

Text: Paul Gerhardt (1613)

1. O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, Voll Schmerz und voller Hohn, O Haupt, zum Spott gebunden Mit einer Dornenkron; O Haupt, sonst schön gezieret Mit höchster Ehr' und Zier, Jetzt aber höchst schimpfieret: Gegrüßet sei'st du mir!

2. Du edles Angesichte, Davor sonst schrickt und scheut Das große Weltgewichte, Wie bist du so bespeit! Wie bist du so erbleichet! Wer hat dein Augenlicht, Dem sonst kein Licht nicht gleichet, So schändlich zugericht't?

3. Die Farbe deiner Wangen, Der roten Lippen Pracht Ist hin und ganz vergangen; Des blaßen Todes Macht Hat alles hingenommen, Hat alles hingerafft, Und daher bist du kommen Von deines Leibes Kraft.

4. Nun, was du, Herr, erduldet, Ist alles meine Last; Ich hab' es selbst verschuldet, Was du getragen hast. Schau her, hier steh' ich Armer, Der Zorn verdienet hat; Gib mir, o mein Erbarmer, Den Anblick deiner Gnad!

5. Erkenne mich, mein Hüter, Mein Hirte, nimm mich an! Von dir, Quell aller Güter, Ist mir viel Gut's getan. Dein Mund hat mich gelabet Mit Milch und süßer Kost; Dein Geist hat mich begabet Mit mancher Himmelslust.

1. O Head full of blood and wounds, full of pain and full of derision, O Head, in mockery bound with a crown of thorns, O Head, once beautifully adorned with the most honor and adornment, but now most dishonored: let me greet you!

2. You noble countenance, before which once shrinks and cowers the great might of the world, how you are spat upon! How you are turned pallid! Who has treated those eyes to which no light is comparable so shamefully?

3. The color of your cheeks, the splendor of your red lips has vanished completely; the might of pale death has taken all away, has snatched up all, and you have come to this through your love's strength.

4. Now what you, Lord, endure, Is all my burden; I have myself deserved what you have borne. See, I stand here a poor man who has deserved your wrath; grant to me, O my comforter, a glimpse of your grace.

5. Recognize me, my guardian, my shepherd, take me with you! By you, the source of all goodness, has so much good be done for me. Your mouth has refreshed me with milk and sweet food; your spirit has bestowed on me so many heavenly pleasures.

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

Text: Paul Gerhardt (1613)

6. Ich will hier bei dir stehen, Verachte mich doch nicht! Von dir will ich nicht gehen, Wenn dir dein Herze bricht; Wenn dein Haupt wird erblaßen Im letzten Todesstoß, Alsdann will ich dich faßen In meinen Arm und Schoß.

7. Es dient zu meinen Freuden Und kommt mir herzlich wohl, Wenn ich in deinem Leiden, Mein Heil, mich finden soll. Ach, möcht' ich, o mein Leben, An deinem Kreuze hier Mein Leben von mir geben, Wie wohl geschähe mir!

8. Ich danke dir von Herzen, O Jesu, liebster Freund, Für deines Todes Schmerzen, Da du's so gut gemeint. Ach gib, daß ich mich halte Zu dir und deiner Treu' Und, wenn ich nun erkalte, In dir mein Ende sei!

9. Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden, So scheide nicht von mir; Wenn ich den Tod soll leiden, So tritt du dann herfür; Wenn mir am allerbängsten Wird um das Herze sein, So reiß mich aus den Ängsten Kraft deiner Angst und Pein!

10. Erscheine mir zum Schilde, Zum Trost in meinem Tod, Und laß mich sehn dein Bilde In deiner Kreuzesnot! Da will ich nach dir blicken, Da will ich glaubensvoll Dich fest an mein Herz drücken. Wer so stribt, der stirbt wohl.

6. I shall stand here with you, do not then scorn me! I do not want to leave you when your heart is breaking; when your set turns pale in the last throes of death then I want to grasp you think in my arm and bosomui1e.

7. It serves to give me joy and does my heart good when in your sufferings, my savior, I can find myself. Ah, if only I could, O my life, here at your cross give my life away from me, what good fortune that would be for me!

8. I thank you from my heart, O Jesus, dearest friend, for the sorrows of your death, where what you intended was so good. Ah grant that I may keep myself with you and your faithfulness and if I grow cold, may my end be with you!

9. When I must once and for all depart, then do not depart from me; when I must suffer death, then stand by me; when my heart will be most fearful, then snatch me from the terrors by the virtue of your own fear and pain!

10. Appear to me as my shield, as comfort in my death, and grant that I may see your image in your agony on the cross! Then I shall look towards you, then full of faith I shall press you closely to my heart. To die in this way is to die well.

Komm, du süße Todesstunde

Kantate Nr. 161/BWV 161 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

1. Arie Komm, du süße Todesstunde, Da mein Geist Honig speist, Aus des Löwen Munde; Mache meinen Abschied süße, Säume nicht, Letztes Licht, Daß ich meinen Heiland küsse.

1. Aria Come, o sweet hour of death, when my spirit laps honey out of the lion's mouth; Make my departure sweet, do not delay, last light, so that I might kiss my Savior.

2. Rezitativ Welt, deine Lust ist Last, Dein Zucker ist mir als ein Gift verhaßt, Dein Freudenlicht Ist mein Komete, Und wo man deine Rosen bricht, Sind Dornen ohne Zahl Zu meiner Seele Qual. Der blasse Tod ist meine Morgenröte, Mit solcher geht mir auf die Sonne Der Herrlichkeit und Himmelswonne. Drum seufz ich recht von Herzengrunde Nur nach der letzten Todesstunde. Ich habe Lust, bei Christo bald zu weiden. Ich habe Lust, von dieser Welt zu scheiden.

2. Recitative World, your pleasure is a burden, your sweetness is as hateful to me as poison, your light of joy is my comet, and where your roses are plucked there are thorns innumerable to the torment of my soul. Pale death is my rosy dawn, with this rises for me the sun of glory and heavenly delight. Therefore I sigh truly from the depths of my heart for the last hour of death alone. I desire to pasture soon with Christ. I desire to depart from this world.

3. Arie Mein Verlangen Ist, den Heiland zu umfangen Und bei Christo bald zu sein. Ob ich sterblich' Asch und Erde Durch den Tod zermalmet werde, Wird der Seele reiner Schein Dennoch gleich den Engeln prangen.

3. Aria My longing is, to embrace my Savior and to be with Christ soon. Although to mortal ash and earth I shall be ground through death, the pure radiance of my soul will then blaze like the angels.

4. Rezitativ Der Schluß ist schon gemacht, Welt, gute Nacht! Und kann ich nur den Trost erwerben, In Jesu Armen bald zu sterben: Er ist mein sanfter Schlaf. Das kühle Grab wird mich mit Rosen decken, Bis Jesus mich wird auferwecken, Bis er sein Schaf Führt auf die süße Lebensweide, Daß mich der Tod von ihm nicht scheide. So brich herein, du froher Todestag, So schlage doch, du letzter Stundenschlag!

4. Recitative The end has already come, world, good night! And I can only achieve comfort by dying soon in Jesus' arms: He is my gentle sleep. My cool grave shall be covered with roses until Jesus shall reawaken me, until His sheep shall be guided to the sweet pasture of life, since death does not separate me from Him. Therefore break forth, o joyous death-day, therefore strike, o final hour!

Komm, du süße Todesstunde

Kantate Nr. 161/BWV 161 (Johann Sebastian Bach)

5. Chor Wenn es meines Gottes Wille, Wünsch ich, daß Leibes Last Heute noch die Erde fülle, Und der Geist, des Leibes Gast, Mit Unsterblichkeit sich kleide In der süßen Himmelsfreude. Jesu, komm und nimm mich fort! Dieses sei mein letztes Wort.

5. Chorus If it is my God's will, I wish that the weight of my body might even today occupy the earth, and that the spirit, the body's guest, clothe itself in immortality in the sweet joy of heaven. Jesus, come and take me away! May this be my last word.

6. Choral Der Leib zwar in der Erden Von Würmen wird verzehrt, Doch auferweckt soll werden, Durch Christum schön verklärt, Wird leuchten als die Sonne Und leben ohne Not In himml'scher Freud und Wonne. Was schadt mir denn der Tod?

6. Chorale The body, indeed, in the earth will be consumed by worms, yet it shall be resurrected, beautifully transfigured through Christ, it will shine like the sun and live without grief in heavenly joy and delight. What harm can death do me then?.

The Shalom Scholarship Fund

In 1998, Laura Beth Blythe-Goodman initiated the Shalom Scholarship Fund (known in the Mayan language as Colmecac – a Mayan word for school) along with the help of the Latino Fellowship, the Women’s Missionary Society and the rest of Calvary Baptist Church as an outgrowth of her Girl Scout Silver Award project. In recent years, the Mission Board has become a co-sponsor for the annual fund-raising dinner and other fund raising events throughout the year.

The fund supports students from two Baptist churches in El Salvador with scholarship assistance. Currently, we have 11 students from the Shalom Baptist Church in San Salvador or the Church of Light & Peace in San Juan Nonuelco (a small village a couple of hours south of San Salvador). In 2010, we are working to raise $10,000 to ensure that all can attend University.

Motivated to complete their education, many of these students also work to support their families. One young woman rises each morning at 4:00 am to sell bread before she goes to class. This is just one example of the dedication these students demonstrate while pursing their education.

The cost of a university education is around $1500 a year in El Salvador. But even this minimal cost is a challenge to the students in our sister churches as their families have very limited resources.

Because our own Pastor Edgar's daughter, Xochitl lives in San Salvador and manages the scholarship for us on that end, we have no administrative costs. Every dollar you give goes directly to helping the students.

During a recent visit to El Salvador, members of our congregation had an opportunity to meet with many of the students, and with Pastor Fito, their mentor. Pastor Fito thanked us and thanked God for this scholarship assistance. He explained that the support we give to these students means they can then help their communities and their country which still struggles with the devastation from the civil war of the 1980's.

Tonight, you too, can contribute to the education of a student who wants to help make their world, and ours, a better place. Please, give whatever you can to help a young person’s dreams become reality. As you exit the Sanctuary, there will be people standing by to collect your donation.

Calvary Baptist Church

755 Eighth Street NW

Washington DC 20001

202.347.8355

fax 202.347.6360 www.calvarydc.org