This particular Sunday in the liturgical year is bittersweet. It’s our last opportunity to sing “Alleluia” before we begin the Lenten season, while it bookends the season of Epiphany. It’s one of those Sundays where we can savor the more robust anthems and voluntaries that we so enjoy after Christmas. We often refer to this Sunday as Transfiguration Sunday, and the music and texts point us towards the radiance of Christ’s light in our lives. I love the image from today’s collect of being transformed from glory into glory and changed into the likeness of Christ. Our music today points us towards that message in many ways.  

The composer of today’s offertory anthem is Thomas Frederick Handel Candlyn, who was an English-born organist and composer who migrated to the US and spent most of his time in New York, in various academic and church positions. His most famous post was at St. Thomas, 5^th Avenue in New York, a position he held from 1943 until his death in 1954. The anthem begins with a robust, triumphant first verse. But notice how the second verse transitions into the minor mode, with the text “Dark is the morn.” Composers will often switch from the major mode to the minor mode, and indicate softer dynamics, when the text shifts to a more somber subject matter. The minor mode is a darker, more somber kind of scale. When the text becomes more celebratory, he moves back to the major mode into the third verse which ends with a robust and victorious, “Amen.”  It’s important to notice the sharp contrast of the light (major mode) and the dark (minor mode). These subtle shifts remind us of the parallels of light and darkness in our own lives.

The communion anthem provides a different kind of backdrop to today’s theological theme. Being transformed into the likeness and radiance of Christ requires not all of the trumpets and fanfares we often associate with this Sunday, but it often entails a more reflective, quiet approach. Richard Shephard has crafted a very simple, two-part anthem that’s so appropriate for today’s readings.  God be in my Head is a very old text, and one that we have heard over and over. But somehow, when we put it to an unfamiliar tune, it breathes new life into the words. This transformative process is what this Sunday is all about. It’s about the subtle process of spiritual renewal, and you can hear how the music “transforms” in its very design. The music moves from darkness to light, and from chaos into clarity. Hopefully this spiritual formation transmutes into your own countenance, into your own radiance, and into what you bring to the world. It’s always important to be reminded and re-reminded of the light of Christ. Hopefully it’s shining brightly within your own life, and if it’s not, take a moment to rekindle the flame today. Soli deo gloria!