Notes on “Festival Te Deum in E Flat” by Dudley Buck
Buck’s “Festival Te Deum” represents a style of music that our forebears, who had the vision to build this magnificent building, knew and loved. As the oldest sheet music stored in our music library and a piece that was extremely well known in 1907, it may well have been used during the celebration surrounding the dedication of Jarvis Memorial Church. It certainly is an example of what in the late 19th century was the very finest in American church music. I want to share with you in writing some background information and trivia about Buck and the Te Deum text in hopes it will make this musical experience more meaningful.
It is the human ego, I think, that causes us to think that what we are used to in our own time is “the way it’s always been”. Since, as a church choir, we have sung sacred music from all eras, we might be tempted to think there have always been church choirs. That is not the case, and especially not here in America. To understand and appreciate how citizens of Greenville thought about church music ca. 1907, one needs to know that, here in America, throughout our history, we have had two independent and often conflicting traditions in our music. I’ll use musicologist Gilbert Chase’s terminology (UNC/CH grad): the “Cultivated Tradition” and the “Vernacular Tradition”. The cultivated tradition, initially centered in major population centers like New York, Boston, and Charleston was shaped by the intellectual elite and was based on the idea that Europe was the source for all worthwhile art and learning. Meanwhile, the vernacular tradition held that music should arise “out of the people”. This was view of art that held sway on the frontier. We Methodists see that vernacular tradition displayed clearly in our beloved campmeeting spirituals.
When the American Revolution ended, there were a few Episcopal and Roman Catholic parishes in New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Charleston that had small choirs, most of which faded away by 1800. The only organized form of music making in most American churches was the “singing school” which a church might institute to improve congregational singing through teaching the fundamentals of music, usually by an itinerant singing master. The singing school was as much a social gathering as a musical one, one of the few where un-married men and women could appropriately be together in the same room at night! A highlight of any singing school, was the singing of anthem-like pieces, the learning of which was a goal for the entire term. Every member of the class looked forward eagerly to the singing of their big “number” for graduation.
By 1835, however, in the major cities, even the singing schools had begun to disappear. One must remember that this was the beginning of the golden age of Italian Opera in Europe. Superstar singers such as Maria Malibran and Jenny Lind had begun touring America regularly, courtesy of P. T. Barnum and other entrepreneurs. It became accepted among the elite, cultured echelons of society that the “trained solo voice” (ie. operatic voice) was the only one really worthy of making music in God’s house. Between 1835 and 1865, nearly all the church choirs in major population centers were replaced with paid soloists. Where there were four the ensemble was referred to as a “Quartet Choir”. While there were many fine and committed professional Christian singers who saw their art as a witness, the ultimate fall-out was catastrophic for American church music. The resulting negative view of paid musicians in the church still colors the view of many regarding individuals hoping to make a career in church music.
What we think of as a church choir in a Methodist church did not exist, of course, in the South. As the frontier gradually was transformed into urban and agricultural centers, organized Methodist communities like the one in Greenville began to appear and to grow. Prior to the Civil War, one was not likely to even hear the word, “choir” in a church like St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal, Greenville, unless it was being used negatively. “Choir” represented all the things these independent Methodists didn’t want to be. They feared a choir would take away their right to sing as a congregation. Choirs were symbolic of complicated liturgies, big city stuffiness, -- “too Catholic” a few would say. Nevertheless, singing schools were popular and occasionally classmates would gather to sing one of their “anthems” as entertainment for a revival or dinner on the grounds.
As the years went on, of course, the popularity of trained soloists and quartet choirs spread to places like Greenville. Ada P. Cherry (one of our Sunday School classes is named for her), who was a longtime member of St. Paul’s and Jarvis Memorial’s first music director, was known throughout the area as Greenville’s “sweet singer” because of her soloistic talent. Her singing of “The Holy City” by Stephen Adams was the only musical event our newspaper deemed memorable enough to report in their coverage of the dedication of Jarvis Church.
When the Civil War ended in 1865 the stage was set for more change, again beginning in the major cities of the eastern seaboard. By the 1860s the Anglican Church in England was well into what is called the Oxford Movement. One small aspect of the Oxford Movement was a passionate desire to renew the church by restoring the practices of the past. Because of the Oxford Movement, robed choirs, processionals, and historic liturgies were re-introduced along with a return to classic cathedral architecture.
These aspects of the Oxford Movement were hugely appealing to the cultured classes of urban America and enthusiastically imported. One can see examples of it all through the last half of the 19th century: a boom in the building of churches with Oxford-Movement-influenced architecture (Jarvis Memorial’s sanctuary for example) and a resurgence of interest in choral music. We also note in our “History of Jarvis Memorial Church” that in the second St Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1880) some space was set aside for choir singers in the front of the worship space. Greenville was becoming more cosmopolitan!
Between 1865 and 1920, churches in major cities gradually began to abandon their “quartet choirs”. Some Episcopal churches, influenced particularly strongly by the Oxford movement, established choirs of men and boys and began choir schools after the English cathedral model. Many other urban churches chose a compromise, a large volunteer choir anchored with nucleus of professional singers. This was termed a “chorus choir” to distinguish it from the “quartet choir”.
Dudley Buck, the most famous American organist, church musician, and composer of church music of the late 19th century was instrumental in this transition to choral music in American churches. Beginning in the 1870s, Buck perfected a new style of church music specifically designed for the chorus choir with soloistic and choral passages intertwined. The “Festival Te Deum in E flat” is a classic example of music for chorus choir, the music that choirs in the big city were singing in 1907, and symbolized the sophistication the Jarvis community hoped to capture with their growing membership and beautiful new building.
Who was Dudley Buck?
Dudley Buck was a true pioneer of American music. He was the first American to achieve international fame as an organ recitalist. He was highly respected as a choral and orchestral conductor, and was undoubtedly the most successful American composer of sacred choral music in the 19th century. Buck’s commitment to choral music in the church, through his work as a conductor as well as his compositions, was a major force in the shift away from quartet choirs to the choirs in churches today. He was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists.
Dudley Buck was born in 1839 in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of a successful shipping merchant. His father expected him to have a career in business, and Dudley received no formal musical training until the age of 16. However, his passion for music was apparent much earlier. As a child, Buck borrowed a friend’s flute and taught himself to play it. He also studied books on music theory, teaching himself the rudiments of harmony and composition. When the family purchased a small pump organ known as a “Melodian”, the Buck’s immediately recognized their son had unusual gifts. Shortly thereafter a piano was purchased, and Buck received his first piano lessons. Soon he was employed as a church organist.
In his junior year at Trinity College in Hartford, Dudley Buck informed his parents he intended to pursue a career in music. And so in 1858, the decision was made for him to study in Germany. He was one of the first Americans of a long line that would go Leipzig and study with the heirs to Mendelssohn. Among his classmates was the young Arthur Sullivan of “Gilbert and Sullivan” fame. Three years later Buck graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory with high honors and began touring Europe as a concert organist to outstanding reviews. Buck’s recognition was not lost on the American press, and he returned to the U.S. a cultural hero. He performed extensively before settling in Chicago in 1869 as organist at St. James Episcopal Church. In Chicago, he built a lavish new home with recital hall attached where he gave recitals. The Pullman Car Company provided him with a special Pullman Car outfitted with a pipe organ so he could perform outdoor recitals wherever the railroad could take him. Unfortunately Buck’s work in Chicago ended abruptly with the great Chicago fire of 1871, in which his home and entire music collection was destroyed.
Because of that bitter experience, Dudley Buck moved back east, eventually taking up residence in Brooklyn, New York, where he would be based for the rest of his life. Such was Buck’s stature that he was the featured composer at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. He served as assistant conductor of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, predecessor to the New York Philharmonic, and taught at the New England Conservatory where his students included Harry Rowe Shelley, W. H. Neidlinger, Clarence Eddy, George Chadwick, and Charles Ives.
Buck’s style of composition is very much in the Victorian idiom, and similarities are immediately apparent between his choral music and that of Arthur Sullivan, John Goss, John Stainer, and other Victorian composers writing for the Anglican liturgy. What sets his work apart from all other American composers of the mid-nineteenth century is its quality and substance.
The “Festival Te Deum in E Flat” was written in 1873 and was one of his most often performed works throughout the late 19th and early 20th century.
What is a Te Deum?
The “Te Deum Laudamus” is one the more familiar canticles used in Christian worship since the earliest years of Christianity. A canticle (from the Latin for “little song”) is an ancient sacred text, originally intended to be sung, but not from the Book of Psalms. Nearly all the canticles are from the Bible. The most familiar canticles, the Magnificat (Song of Mary), the Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeone), and Song of Zechariah all come from the New Testament. The Te Deum is the only canticle that does not come from scripture. It was originally a hymn attributed to St Ambrose, written in honor of the baptism of St. Augustine. It continues to be used regularly in Lutheran, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic liturgies where it is typically part of morning worship.
The name, “Te Deum” or “You God”, comes from the opening phrase of the text. Note that one of the familiar lines in the United Methodist Word & Table liturgy for communion comes directly from the Te Deum. The entire Te Deum text appears as #80 in the United Methodist Hymnal where it recommended to either be read or sung for worship on New Years Day or during Advent.
Canticle of the Holy Trinity
(Te Deum Laudamus)
We praise you, O God. We acclaim you as Lord. All creation worships you, Father everlasting. To you, all angels, all the powers of heaven, cherubim and seraphim, sing in endless praise: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. The glorious company of the apostles praise you. The noble fellowship of prophets praise you. The white-robed army of martyrs praise you. Throughout the world your holy church acclaims you, Father of majesty unbounded, your glorious, true and only Son, and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.
You, Christ, are the King of Glory, the eternal Son of the Father. When you became in incarnate to set us free, you humbly accepted the Virgin’s womb. You overcame the sting of death and opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. You are seated at God’s right hand in glory. We believe that you will come to be our judge. Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance. Govern and uphold them now and always. Day by day we bless you. We praise your name forever. Keep us today, Lord, from all sin. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. Lord, show us your love and mercy for we put our trust in you. In you, Lord, is our hope: and we shall never hope in vain.
The Canticle, “Te Deum Laudamus” has a long history for Methodists. On New Year’s Day, 1739, John Wesley recorded in his journal what had happened the night before: "Mr Hall, Kinchen, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutchings, and my brother Charles were present at our ‘lovefeast’ in Fetter Lane, with about sixty of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. In the midst of all the activity - the beginnings of a revival which was to change the face of the British Isles forever – John Wesley explains the way in which the group chose to respond: As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice, ‘We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.’"
What drew Wesley and Christians across the centuries to the Te Deum was that it combines a brilliant hymn of praise, with a faith statement or creed, and words of confession all intended to be sung. The Te Deum is unique in that it synthesizes all of the central elements of Christian worship into one statement.
A few notes on the music itself: What are some distinguishing features of Dudley Buck’s “Festival Te Deum in E flat”? Actually, Buck wrote a total of 9 settings of the Te Deum text over the course of his life, all of which were published and performed often. Four of these were called “Festival” Te Deums, meaning probably that they were intended for a festive occasion and perhaps a larger than ordinary choir. All of Buck’s accompaniments are intended specifically for the organ with many suggestions throughout for registration.
Critics of a later generation would called Buck’s writing “schmaltzy”, but it was a musical vocabulary that spoke deeply and personally to an America that had huge hope in the industrial age and had not yet experienced the horror and heartbreak of 2 world wars, the Titanic sinking, and unending other tragedies of the 20th century.
The form of the piece follows very much the form of the Te Deum itself (see above). It is in three clearly defined sections:
· 1. A hymn of praise to the eternal God
· 2. A more personal statement of faith in Christ.
· 3. A prayer of intercession to God for ourselves and the care and protection of His people.
To achieve this, Buck adopts a formal, rather regal tone for the opening and closing sections dominated by ensemble singing. Choral and ensemble singing is the focus. Even when the soloists sing, it is as a group rather than individually. At the very end, Buck returns to the majestic theme of the opening which provides a unifying touch to the entire work. There is a significant change in mood in the middle section. It deals personally and directly with Christ and what we believe about Him. Buck approaches this change in mood with a corresponding change in musical texture. The time signature, which had primarily been in a majestic, march-like 4/4, now moves to a flowing 9/8 with a lyric theme not unlike an operatic cantilena. Individual solo voices with independent lines are now featured, again making the music more personal.
A Choir Rehearsal With Dudley Buck
Dudley Buck, in addition to being a world class organist, a successful composer, and an in-demand orchestral conductor, was a committed Christian, a career church musician, and respected choral conductor. His son, who sang in his choir for many years, said he was a “born conductor, magnetic, insistent upon balance, clearness, and tone quality.” He further recalled Buck to be “at heart, a very religious man” who enthused the singers to exceptional effort and stimulated their imagination”. So well-known was Dudley Buck, that in 1897 the newspaper, The Brooklyn Eagle, published a major article about his approach to choir rehearsals. The article revealed that Buck concerned himself with many of the same things, music directors toil over today: clarity of attack, “thinking the pitch” before singing, crisp rhythm, careful enunciation, etc.
[from “Dudley Buck, Choirmaster” The Brooklyn Eagle, May 22, 1901]
“On the following Saturday, we had the pleasure of being present for the rehearsal of the choir of Holy Trinity when the unanimity of phrasing and expression was fully disclosed. Not one whit of it was the result of genius, except it be the genius of painstaking work. The librarian, having passed out copies of a setting of the Te Deum, Mr. Buck, seated at a grand piano in the lecture room with his choir seated around him exactly as in church, said, ‘Are you ready?’ A few chords and soon the choir was in full cry. The tenors at one point overblow their reeds, and Mr. Buck says, ‘Too raspy!’, in a voice not over-free of raspiness itself, and a look a the offenders of a very commanding kind, not to be misunderstood. Again the piano stops, and Mr. Buck says, ‘Oh no, no, no!’ The failure this time is more general and is in the matter of rhythm, which is not crisp enough to please his exact ear. The words are, ‘Thou art the only begotten Son.’
‘Say it like this!’ – Mr Buck plays the passage with the most clear cut rhythm. He never permits himself to illustrate any musical effect with his voice. Here is another of his directions: ‘Whisper that passage with staccato tones.’ Nor will he be satisfied with less than perfect obedience.. Mr Buck did not speak of intervals nor of pitch names during the whole time of the rehearsals. But he did say to the sopranos, ‘See that you bring out well that sol-la-sol on the words ‘be confounded’. At the words, ‘for He hath visited and redeemed his people’, he said, ‘Now it is not an accident that the composer wrote that in just that way; it was his purpose that every note should do its own work.’ Again, it was the true rhythm he was after.
In one of the anthems, the altos had a flat seventh over which they fumbled. To them, he said, ‘Now, you ought to read ahead and see what is coming and get ready for it, and not jump at it at the last minute’. At one passage a slight tendency to shout was manifest, and he said, ‘Don’t try to sing loud, but I want it forte just the same. The result showed that the choir perfectly what he meant by the distinction between trying to sing loud and a true forte.
Between the pieces, whilst the librarian is distributing the next piece, the members may talk if so inclined, but woe betide the luckless member who tries to say word during a rest in the music. The choir was about to take up a practically unaccompanied piece of some difficulty. As he was about to play the prelude, Mr. Buck said, ‘I do not want to play this over more than once nor need I if everyone will watch.’ An injunction which did not need to be repeated. Once Mr. Buck stopped suddenly stopped the piano and said, referring to the word multitude: ‘That word is made up of all the letters put together. See that you don’t leave any of them out.’ Again, ‘That passage is not to be staccato, only distinct.’
A satisfied ‘Ach!’ from Mr. Buck announced that the rehearsal was over and the choir dispersed, certainly all the more fit for Sunday’s work after their hours of earnest rehearsal.
[Dr. Stan McDaniel is a recognized authority in the history of 18th and 19th century American church music and the development of the concept of "music ministry" in American churches. His three-volume dissertation, "Church Song and the Cultivated Tradition in New England and New York" resulted in him being voted the "Outstanding Graduate in Music", University of Southern California, Class of 1984. It is a comprehensive resource that is routinely quoted or referenced by researchers writing on American music.]
