The TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH CHOIR, led by Cantor Mark Mummert, helps to lead the congregational singing of liturgy and hymns at Sunday Services, and performs a motet or anthem each week to enhance worship.  They also lead seasonal Choral Vespers. For this performance they are pleased to welcome several community members who have joined the more than twenty usual singers.  They are proud to join in this occasion to honor and celebrate the birthday of the most famous Lutheran composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Mark Mummert (b. 1965) is the Assistant Director & Accompanist for The Worcester Chorus of Music Worcester, Inc., (Dr. Chris Shepard, Artistic Director) and the director of The Worcester Chorus Women’s Ensemble. Mark is also Cantor at Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA), Worcester, MA where he leads the music in all worship services, conducts the exceptional Trinity Choir, and is artistic director of the Music at Trinity fine arts series. Mark also serves on the voice faculty at Hanover Theater Conservatory in Worcester. Prior to moving to Worcester, Mark was the 2015 Distinguished Visiting Cantor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Mark served as the Director of Worship at Houston’s Christ the King Lutheran Church (2008-2015) and as Seminary Musician at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (1990-2008).

Mark is also a tenor chorister with CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists), a professional choral ensemble based in Hartford, CT.
Mark is a composer of portions of the first musical setting of Holy Communion in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), the commended worship book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is the editor of Psalm Settings for the Church Year (2008, Augsburg Fortress) and Music Sourcebook for Lent and Three Days (2010, Augsburg Fortress). His numerous compositions for Christian worship are available from Augsburg Fortress. Mark’s recording Reformation Chorales Reformed (2017) includes organ works by J. S. Bach, Mendelssohn, Distler, and Clarke. The album is available for download and for streaming on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, and Youtube. Numerous recordings are available at Mark’s Soundcloud site. Mark was principal musician for the 2005 National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the 200 ELCA Churchwide Assembly and Worship Jubilee, and visiting scholar for Emory University’s Candler School of Theology’s “The Singing Church” Project in 2012. Most recently, Mark was organist for the International Choral Festival Barcelona in 2024.

As a singer, Mark has performed professionally with The Worcester Chorus, Choral Arts Philadelphia, the Bach Society Houston, and the Houston Chamber Choir. Mark’s voice can be heard on the Grammy nominated recordings, “soft blink of amber light” and “Rothko Chapel.” Mark studied organ with Earl Ness and John Binsfeld, voice with Robert Grooters, and choral conducting with Alar Harler at Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music. He is currently pursuing advanced vocal studies with Jane Shivick.

At the heart of the church’s musical activity, the All Saints Choir provides music for the liturgy at Eucharist every Sunday. The choir also sings monthly Choral Evensong and occasionally Choral Compline and Taizé services, as well as on major feast days, weddings, funerals, and concerts. Historically based around the Men and Boy choir model, the All Saints Choir currently maintains an intergenerational roster with treble choristers (age 8-18) of all genders leading the soprano part, changed-voice teen choristers singing tenor and bass, and adult volunteers singing soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.

Dr. Joshua W. Rohde is the Director of Choral Activities at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he conducts all four of the university’s choral ensembles – Men’s Glee Club, Women’s Alden Voices, Festival Chorus, and the Chamber Choir. He is also the Music Director of both the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra and the Quincy Choral Society, and performs as an active professional cellist throughout the Boston area.

Dr. Rohde’s work spans multiple musical genres, with an emphasis on new music from living composers. This is seen in his dissertation on living Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan and work as the founding manager of Harvard University’s New Music Initiative. Notable world premieres include Rohde’s work with Pulitzer Prize winning composers David Lang (Birmingham New Music, England, 2014) and John Luther Adams (Lincoln Center, New York City, 2018).

Previous experience includes work at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, the Harvard University Choruses, the University of Birmingham (UK), and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus (UK). He has prepared choruses to sing for conductors such as Harry Christophers, Andris Nelsons, and John Storgårds. As a cello soloist, he has played cello concertos with orchestras including Elgar, Haydn, Boccherini, and Shostakovich, and regularly works as a continuo cellist playing the choral-orchestral works of Bach. Dr. Rohde holds degrees from Boston University (DMA and MSM – Conducting), the University of Birmingham in England (MM – Conducting), and the University of Minnesota (BM – Cello Performance and BS – Civil Engineering).

Conducting performances for the 2018-2019 season include: Johannes Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem; Jessica Curry – The Durham Hymns (USA premiere); James MacMillan – St. Luke Passion (Massachusetts premiere); Ralph Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem; and works by living Norwegian composers Kim André Arnesen and Ola Gjeilo.

Conducting performances for the 2019-2020 season include: Handel – Messiah; Mozart – Requiem; Haydn – Lord Nelson Mass; Beethoven – Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”; Copland – Appalachian Spring; and works by living composers Jocelyn Hagen – Soft Blink of Amber Light; Martin Sedek – Nature has a Thousand Choirs; and Joel Thompson – The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.

Founded in 1976, THE MASTER SINGERS OF WORCESTER, INC. (MSW) has distinguished itself through consistent, high-quality presentations of a wide range of great choral music spanning several centuries. Our repertoire includes not only more familiar masterworks, but also lesser known sacred and secular choral works as well as many first performances and area premieres of works by contemporary composers. The Master Singers are a self-supporting, non-profit, volunteer-administered and professionally directed community chorus for men and women from young adult to senior. MSW performs three to four concerts annually. The chorus numbers approximately 40 members from Worcester and surrounding communities as well as the newly formed Manchester, CT chapter. Edward Tyler has directed the chorus since the fall of 2017. MSW’s next performance is Saturday, May 17— “Stranger Sings,” featuring the odd, the weird, the funny… and the music is strange, too! Visit www.MSWMA.org for more information.

EDWARD TYLER, a native of Auburn, New York, received his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Connecticut, where he served as Graduate Assistant to Dr. Peter Bagley. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from the Crane School of Music, where he studied conducting with Brock McElheran & Calvin Gage, and composition with Elliot DelBorgo.

Ed recently retired from music education after 35 years. He was the Director of Choral Music and Drama at Manchester High School for 33 years. He has also taught music theory and ear training at The University of Connecticut and conducted the University Chorale at Central Connecticut State University. Ed has been a professional vocalist his entire adult life, as both a freelance soloist and as a member of The Woodland Scholars, CONCORA, and several church choirs in the greater Hartford area. In 2019, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Connecticut Chapter of The American Choral Directors Association.

Ed is a composer of choral music with over 70 titles to his name, and he has enjoyed performances of his works by groups across the United States and Canada. During a brief hiatus from writing music, he turned his attention to educational materials and completed two textbooks: “Music Literacy for the High School Vocalist, Volumes 1 4,” and “A Comprehensive Study of Music Theory.” His music literacy books are currently being used by more than two dozen school districts in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. He is a popular clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator, and has presented programs throughout New England and New York.

Next up for Ed is the premiere of his most ambitious composition to date. On Sunday, May 4, CONCORA (under the direction of Chris Shepard) will present “An American Requiem,” in Hartford, CT. This is a full Latin Requiem Mass with added English texts. It is both a tribute to the victims of mass and school shootings in America, and a criticism of the systems which make these tragedies far too commonplace in our society. Tickets for this premiere are available by going to www.CONCORA.org

BWV 133: Ich freue mich in dir — Bach composed at least three annual cycles of cantatas, each of which is known as a Jahrgang, although Bach’s obituary suggests that he may have composed as many as five. The cantatas of the second cycle, composed in 1724, are based more often than not on a single chorale tune. These cantatas close with a standard 4-part setting of the chorale, and the first movement uses the same chorale melody, but with a stile concertato instrumental accompaniment. The other movements are arias and recitatives based on other stanzas of the chorale, or responses to the bible readings of the day—usually two recitatives and two arias. Ich freue mich in dir, composed for 27 December 1724, fits this mold perfectly. The cantata is based on the chorale of the same name, written by Caspar Ziegler in 1697. The unidentified librettist paraphrases the two remaining stanzas of the hymn in the two recitatives and two arias. 

The opening chorus is particularly vibrant, with the soloistic first violin part acting almost as a violin concerto. The instrumental fireworks capture perfectly the mood of rejoicing, a song of welcome to Jesulein, the little baby Jesus. Although the choral parts are straightforward 4-part settings of the chorale melody, Bach expands them for two of the hymn’s ideas: the “sweet sound” and the “great Son of God.” The rejoicing continues for the triumphant alto aria, with the clarion call of the opening “Take heart!” with its dotted anacrusis and repeating motto serving to stir the faithful. Although the text deals with the mystery of the Incarnation, this is not one of Bach’s introspective arias, but remains buoyant, with a steady eighth-note accompaniment in the continuo throughout the movement. 

The two recitatives in this cantata stand out from others in Bach’s output because each contains short arioso sections, in which the speechlike recitative writing becomes more fluid and melodic. In these sections, the librettist quotes the two stanzas of the chorale not otherwise set by Bach. 

As we saw in the opening chorus, the first violin again comes to the fore in the soprano aria. This reflection on the sweetness of the words “My Jesus is born” echoes Bach’s emphasis on the “sweet sound” in the first movement, where he had expanded the choral setting. Here, it is the filigree of the first violin that represents the message—the violin escapes from the texture on a number of occasions in colourful melismas. Throughout the A section, there are a number of terraced dynamic echo effects, illustrating the echo of the words themselves. In a radical departure from the cut common time A section, Bach shifts to a 12/8 siciliano (typical of Nativity music) for the B section. In this section, the soprano laments that those who do not understand the infant’s message must be “hard as a rock.” Bach removes the continuo, leaving the viola and second violin playing in unison, to act as the bass of the ensemble. Bach often uses this technique, called bassetto, to represent the absence of God. He does not leave us there, however; we return to the beginning to complete the da capo form before the final recitative and chorale. 

BWV 36: Schwingt freudig euch empor — Bach must have thought very highly of the material in this cantata, because he reworked it no fewer than five times over a decade. It began life as a secular cantata in 1725, offering a birthday tribute to a Leipzig university professor. In the late 1720s, Bach re-set the music to a text by an unidentified librettist, transforming the cantata for Advent. The version presented today, dating from 1731, expands the first sacred cantata parody from five to eight movements, most notably including the interpolation of several settings of the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, which explore several different Advent themes. 

The opening chorus retains the joy and thrill of the original celebratory secular cantata, while at the same time taking on new meanings for Advent. We see the same mixture of upward and downward themes, with the delicacy of the violin figuration rising like incense, while the descending oboe d’amore (an instrument which often represents God’s love for man) represents God’s descent in the Incarnation. 

Bach added the three settings of the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland in this second version of the sacred cantata in order to place the text more squarely in the season of Advent. The soprano and alto sing the text of the first verse, forming a trio with the continuo, with the double bass representing the descent of God to earth. Again, Bach takes great care in handling the text carefully, setting it phrase by phrase. Beautiful little touches abound, such as the rocking of the continuo cradle against the words “der Jungfrauen Kind” and the more active setting again for the words “des sich wundert alle Welt.”

BWV 28: Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende — This cantata dates from Bach’s third cantata cycle in Leipzig, receiving its premiere performance on 30 December 1725. As the date would suggest, it is a cantata that offers thanks for the old year and prayers for the coming one. The libretto was written by Erdmann Neumeister in 1714. Neumeister created the form of the cantata so favoured by Bach, but this is actually one of only two examples of a Neumeister libretto dating from his Leipzig years.

In a departure from the bulk of Bach’s Leipzig cantatas, this opens with a soprano solo instead of a choral movement. The orchestral ritornello is quite Italian, with elements of a concerto grosso interplay between the winds and strings. Bach immediately juxtaposes this “modern” style with a look back to the stile antico, with a choral movement reflecting the tradition of Palestrina, whose music Bach regularly used in the Leipzig services. The use of the ancient polyphonic style, coupled with a text based on Psalm 103, is an allegory for the old year as the new one approaches. As a cantus firmus, Bach uses the 1530 chorale tune Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren. 

Reflecting the text’s depiction of a loving, gift-giving God, the middle three movements are quite intimate. Just as the chorale-prelude represented the old year with a psalm-derived text, the bass arioso is a prophecy of God’s blessing from Jeremiah. As so often is the case, Bach uses the bass as the voice of the prophet. The tenor then sings a beautiful accompanied recitative extolling the characteristics of God as provider. 

The alto-tenor duet that follows is scored for continuo only, in three non-repeating sections. It is a song of praise to God, thanking him for the blessings of the year. The cantata ends with the sixth verse of the Paul Eber chorale, “Helft mir Gotts Güte preisen”. The first half is a song of praise, but the mood shifts in the third phrase, with the choir asking for a peaceful year marked by God’s kindness. 

Bach illustrates the character of Christus Victor in the tenor chorale with the oboe duet. The tenor sings the chorale tune in long notes against the oboes, who fight in counterpoint, reminiscent of a similar oboe duet representing chains in the alto aria Von dem Stricken from the St John Passion. The third appearance of the Advent chorale in BWV 36 is a straightforward homophonic setting of the final doxology from Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. 

The text of the other tenor and bass arias, which existed in the first version of this sacred cantata, reflect the preparation for the Incarnation, the core meaning of Advent. The image of the church as bride and Jesus as bridegroom was very popular during this period of Lutheran poetry. In this tenor aria, the steps of the bridegroom are represented by the scalar movement of the continuo. The gracious bass aria, in which the church’s preparation becomes the individual’s preparation, revisits the quick triplets of the violin part from the opening movement. Bach uses a verse from Nicolai’s hymn Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern in this cantata, again placing it squarely in Advent. This chorale verse, full of music and dance imagery, features a particularly buoyant bass part. 

BWV 64: Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget— Like BWV 133, this cantata was composed for the third day of Christmas, but this time for 1723, Bach’s first Jahrgang, and his first Christmas season in Leipzig. Two days previously, the Thomanerchor had sung BWV 63, Christen, äztet diesen Tag, which famously features four trumpets rather than the standard three. Two cantatas could hardly be more different: where BWV 63 was exuberantly festive, BWV 64 is more introspective. This cantata reflects on the nature of God’s love implicit in the Incarnation, and calls the faithful believer to leave behind the meaningless treasures of the world in favour of a higher treasure. 

Such introspection is evident from the outset of the opening chorus. As we saw in BWV28, Bach uses the Renaissance-based stile antico rather than the brilliant stile concertato to set the text from John’s first epistle. There are two ideas that Bach explores musically: “behold”, which returns almost as an imploring challenge for the listener; and the running melisma of “has shown”. The main theme reflects the archaic nature of the form, sounding almost modal. In this motet style, the instruments double the voice (as they would have done in Renaissance polyphony) rather than providing an independent accompaniment. The archaic setting of this chorus is a wonderful counterpart to the Gospel reading for the day from the opening of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.” Bach chooses an ancient form to represent the connection between the Old and New Testaments implicit in John 1. 

The librettist for BWV 64 and BWV 40 are unknown, but it is possible that the libretti were penned by the same author, given the extensive use of chorales in both cantatas. Each cantata features three chorales, though in neither case is the opening chorus based on a chorale tune. In BWV 64, the chorales frame the theological progression from a meditation on God’s love to the need for the believer to leave behind things of the world. This progression is echoed in the recitatives as well, with first the alto and then the bass contrasting the transient things of the world with the everlasting love of God. 

The soprano aria articulates this dichotomy beautifully. Accompanied by strings, this aria is set in the form of a gavotte, a classically proportioned French dance that has pastoral associations appropriate to the Christmas season. In this text, the soprano likens the world’s treasures to smoke that fades away, represented here by the violin arabesques. This aria is similar in form to the soprano aria from BWV 133: it, too, is a da capo aria in which the B section (at least for a time) uses the bassetto technique. Through the use of long notes on the words “lasts forever”, Bach contrasts the cheap temporal delights with everlasting treasure. 

The alto pronounces that they will ask nothing of the world, sure in the inheritance of heaven. Bach uses the spare instrumentation of a single oboe d’amore—which often represents God’s love—and basso continuo to craft a delicate lace of counterpoint. Textually, Bach juxtaposes the nicht, nicht—“nothing, nothing” of the A sections with the alles, alles—“all, all” of the contrasting B section, as the believer turns from the world toward heaven. 

The final chorale is the last verse of Jesu, meine Freude, the hymn that Bach set in its entirety as one of his funeral motets. On the face of it, this is an odd choice for the festive Christmas season, but for the Lutheran of the 18th century, death and life were theologically inseparable.

BWV 40: Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes — Bach began his work in Leipzig in the spring of 1723, and it is clear from the extraordinary level of the music during his first Christmas season that he wished to make a good impression on the congregants of St Thomas and St Nicholas. From this vantage point, the Bach lover is continually amazed that the town fathers seemed to have had no idea of their great good fortune, even in the face of the remarkable music that Bach composed for Christmas 1723: BWV 61 on 28 November, the Magnificat and BWV 63 on Christmas Day, BWV 40 on 26 December and BWV 64 on 27 December. 

Sandwiched in between the festive BWV 63 and the reflective BWV 64, BWV 40 shares elements with both. Like Christen, äztet diesen Tag, BWV 63, this cantata is ultimately one of rejoicing. But like Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64, BWV 40 reflects on the meaning of the Incarnation for the believer. Specifically, this cantata celebrates the trampling of Satan through the birth of Jesus—and just as death was never far from life in BWV 64, in this cantata, Satan is never far from the believer, hoping to snatch back his salvation. 

The opening chorus shuttles seamlessly between these two ideas. The use of horns announces the appearance of the Son of God in an echo of royal pomp and ceremony. Even the opening choral motto is annunciatory and regal, but this is quickly contrasted by one of the great Bach tongue-twisters, dass er die Werke des Teufels zerstöre. Rather than giving us confidence that Satan is destroyed, Bach gives the impression that Satan is still hammering at the gate, even though the victory has been won. This is only reinforced in the central fugue, in which the confident, beautiful fugal exposition is marred by the hammering of Satan outside the fortress. The chorus finishes with a repeat of the A section. 

The tenor recitative reflects on the miracle of the Incarnation, that the king becomes a servant. The following chorale declares that God is with us in our need. In a return to the cantata’s main theme of the vanquishing of Satan, the bass aria explores the idea from Genesis that man (in this case Jesus) crushes the serpent under his foot. Bach uses a form from opera of the period known as a “rage aria” (an excellent example of which is “Why do the nations so furiously rage” from Handel’s Messiah) to depict the enmity between God and Satan. The harshness of the heavy theme represents the stamping out of the serpent. 

In the second recit-choral-aria section, Bach again explores the power of God over the powers of darkness. The alto recitative extrapolates on the idea of the serpent, declaring that the Savior’s arrival removes all of its poison. The congregational hymn acclaims that the serpent is truly crushed. This triumph is asserted again in the tenor aria, one of the most vocally challenging ever composed by Bach. The soloist is accompanied by pairs of oboes and horns, in a gigue-like song of rejoicing over God’s triumph. The threat of Satan remains, however, particularly in the middle section, where Bach depicts the rage and fury of Hell. But the da capo form asserts God’s final victory. 

The final chorale is the fourth verse of Freuet euch, ihr Christen alle, a particularly beautiful 1646 melody by Christian Keymann. Carrying on from the image in the tenor aria of God taking care of His chicks, from the story of St Stephen’s martyrdom (26 December is St Stephen’s Day), the congregational hymn asks for God’s blessing for a new year.