“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. The quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
PSALM 100
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
ART APPRECIATION
In this Impressionist work, you can see bright colors and choppy brushstrokes. You see a scene from everyday life. Cassatt loved to capture mothers and their children in everyday life. When her family moved to Paris, she would often paint them drinking tea or relaxing in the garden.1
Mary Cassatt (1845 – 1926) was born into a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a child, she visited Paris’s great art museums, and she wanted to become an artist. Her family at first disapproved of this idea, because women in that day were usually not permitted to study art and to sell paintings. However, Cassatt attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and then moved to Paris to further her art studies. Cassatt’s paintings were accepted into the Salon, an important exhibit in Paris. She traveled around Europe as a successful artist, and later became friends with Edgar Degas, another famous Impressionist artist.2
MUSIC APPRECIATION
Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052: I. “Allegro” by Johann Sebastian Bach
The music of J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052, has an interesting, hybrid genealogy: it contains repurposed material from two of his cantatas and may have originally been written as a violin concerto. The three-movement concerto begins with a driving, menacing opening theme and virtuosic passages, followed by a slow a mysterious middle movement in G minor. By contrast, the intricate counterpoint and brisk tempo of the third movement are characteristic of Bach’s finales with an extravagant keyboard cadenza that guides the music toward a major key before a final, enthralling return to D minor.3
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born in what is now Germany. He came from a family of musicians and was taught to play the organ by his eldest brother. Soon after this, in his teenage years, he began to focus on composing and performing keyboard and sacred music. Hundreds of his compositions, such as his church cantatas, were created for a religious context; he also composed an enormous amount of secular music, much of it purely instrumental.4
- Lange, Krista, and Leigh Lowe. First Grade Enrichment: Classical Core Curriculum. Teacher Guide. Memoria Press, 2017. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- “Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 • Orchestra of St. Luke’s.” Orchestra of St. Luke’s, 9 July 2020, oslmusic.org/bach_posts/harpsichord-concerto-no-1/. ↩︎
- “Who Was Johann Sebastian Bach? A Brief Introduction.” Who Was Johann Sebastian Bach? A Brief Introduction – Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, 4 Dec. 2023, http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/news/who-was-johann-sebastian-bach-a-brief-introduction/. ↩︎
Providence School of Tifton 