ERNEST BLOCH
AVODATH HAKODESH : SACRED SERVICE
The Montview Westminster Choir & Guest Singers and Orchestra
April 23, 2023 • 7:00pm
Cantor Arik Luck, Baritone
Adam Waite, Conductor and Minister of Music
Barbara Hulac, Associate Minister of Music
with Kali Paguirigan, Alto and Rebecca Koenigberg, Soprano
Welcome
Rev. Clover Reuter Beal, Co-Pastor
Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service)
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Part I
Cantor: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!
Choir: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel! Through Thy great mercy, O God, I come to Thy house and bow down in Thy holy temple in fear of Thee.
Cantor: O Lord, I love the place of Thy house and the abode in which Thy glory dwelleth. And so I bow down, and adore Thee, O God, my Maker.
Choir: May my prayer be offered in an acceptable time; mayest Thou, in the greatness of Thy mercy, answer me according to Thy faithfulness.
Cantor: Praise ye the Lord to whom all praise is due.
Choir: Praised be the Lord to whom all praise is due for ever and ever.
Cantor: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Choir: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Cantor: Praised be his name whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever.
Choir: Praised be his name whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever.
Cantor: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Choir: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Cantor: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand,
and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house and upon thy gates.
Choir: Who is like unto Thee, O God, among the mighty? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, extolled in praises, working wonders?
Cantor: When Thy children beheld Thy sovereign power, they exclaimed: This is my God.
Choir: The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
Cantor: O Rock of Israel, redeem those that are oppressed, and deliver those that are persecuted. Praised be Thou, our Redeemer
[Choir: Blessed be Him and blessed be His name], the Holy One of Israel.
Choir: Amen.
Part II
Cantor: We hallow Thy name on earth, even as it is hallowed in heaven; and in the words of the prophet we say:
Choir: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.
Cantor: God our strength, God our Lord, how excellent is they name in all the earth!
Choir: In all places of thy dominion, Thy name is praised and glorified.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): Our God is one; He is our Father; He is our King; He is our Helper; and in His mercy He will answer our prayers in the sight of all the living.
Choir: The Lord will reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Hallelujah!
Part III
Choir: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts; He is the King of glory.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): The Torah which God gave through Moses is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. Come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Choir: Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all.
Part IV
Cantor: O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.
Choir: His glory is in the earth and in the heavens. He is the strength of all His servants, the praise of them that truly love Him, the hope of Israel, the people He brought nigh to Himself. Hallelujah.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. Behold, a good doctrine has been given unto you; forsake it not.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): It is a tree of life to them that lay hold of it, and the supporters thereof are happy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.
Part V
Cantor and choir (interspersed): We bow the head and bend the knee and magnify the King of kings, the Holy One, praised be He.
Minister (as sung by the Cantor): May the time not be distant, O God, when Thy Name shall be worshipped in all the earth, when unbelief shall disappear and error be no more. May the day come when all men shall invoke Thy Name, when corruption and evil shall give way to purity and goodness, when superstition shall no longer enslave the mind, nor fetishism blind the eye! O may all men recognize that they are brethren, so that one in spirit and one in fellowship they may be forever united, forever united before Thee. Then shall Thy kingdom be established on earth and the word of Thine ancient seer be fulfilled!
Choir: In that day shall the Lord be One, and His name One.
Minister: And now, e’er we part, let us call to mind those who have finished their earthly course and have been gathered to the eternal home. Though vanished from bodily sight, they have not ceased to be, and it is well with them; they abide in the shadow of the Most High. Let those who mourn for them be comforted, let them submit their aching hearts to God, for He is just and wise and merciful in all His doings, though no man, no man can comprehend His ways. In the divine order of nature, both life and death, joy and sorrow, serve beneficent ends, and in the fullness of time we shall know why we are tried and why our love brings us sorrow as well as happiness. Wait patiently all ye that mourn, and be ye of good courage, for surely your longing souls shall be satisfied.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): O Rock of Israel, redeem those that are oppressed, and deliver those that are persecuted.
Choir: The Lord of all did reign supreme ere yet this world was made and formed. When all was finished by His will, Then was His name as King proclaimed. And should these forms no more exist, He still will rule in majesty. He was, He is, He shall remain; His glory never shall decrease. And one is He, and none there is to be compared or joined to Him. He ne’er began, and ne’er will end, to Him belongs dominion’s power.
Cantor and choir (interspersed): He is my God, my living God;
to Him I flee when tried in grief.
Choir: My banner high, my refuge strong, Who hears and answers when I call. My spirit I commit to Him, my body, too, and all I prize; both when I sleep and when I wake, He is with me, I shall not fear.
BENEDICTION
Cantor: May the Lord bless thee and keep thee.
Choir: Amen.
Cantor: May the Lord let His countenance shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee.
Choir: Amen.
Cantor: May the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.
Choir: Amen.
Cantor Arik Luck, Baritone
Cantor Arik Luck is deeply honored to sing Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service at the Historic Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. Since 2015, Cantor Luck has served as the Ben and A. Jess Shenson Cantor at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. Previously, he served for six years at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, in Evanston, IL. In addition to his full-time work as cantor and clergy, Cantor Luck has appeared as a principal soloist in numerous concerts throughout the country, most recently at San Francisco’s iconic Fillmore Theatre, where he appeared in A Very Jewish Christmas Spectacular!, performing works of Neil Diamond, Simon and Garfunkel, Irving Berlin, and more. Other favorite appearances include Siamsa na nGael: If It Weren’t For the Irish and the Jews (Chicago Symphony Center, with Martin Sheen), Schoenberg’s A Survivor From Warsaw (Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra), Standing Out/Fitting In: Jewish Stories/American Songs (Aspen, CO), and Abraham’s Children: A Prayer for Peace (Indiana University, with Iraqi tenor Omer Turkmenoglu). In 2015, Cantor Luck received the honor of leading Shabbat evening services at the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) Biennial Convention, before an in-person congregation of 5,000 attendees from across North America and beyond. His musical revue dedicated to the life of Moishe Oysher has been performed throughout the US and internationally. A live record album of the performance, entitled Arik Luck is Moishe Oysher: The Master Singer of His People! is available online for purchase and streaming. Cantor Luck has had the tremendous honor of singing the National Anthem for both the Golden State Warriers and the San Francisco Giants, and will next sing with the Giants this coming August 15. Cantor Luck is a member of the American Conference of Cantors (ACC), was a founding member and former president of the Reform Cantors of Chicago (RCC), holds a Masters Degree of Sacred Music from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, and was ordained as a cantor by HUC-JIR DFSSM in 2009. He received a BFA from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama (2000), and it was within CMU’s College of Fine Arts where, 25 years ago, he first met and collaborated with a talented young composition major, who would one day become Montview’s Minister of Music, Adam Waite! What a thrill it is to work together once again!
Adam Waite, Conductor
Adam Waite is the Minister of Music at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church. Since arriving at Montview in the fall of 2015, Adam has been privileged to lead and collaborate with Montview’s Westminster Choir and Associate Minister of
Music Barbara Hulac in concert performances of Gustav Holst: The Cloud Messenger (Colorado Premiere); Paulus:
Heritage Songs (Colorado Premiere); Nancy Galbraith: Missa Mysteriorum (Orchestral World Premiere); Poulenc: Gloria; Finzi: In Terra Pax; Dvořák: Mass in D; Ellington: Sacred Concert, Rutter: Gloria and the commission and World
Premiere of Ike Sturm’s and Chanda Rule’s Let the River Flow. He also conducts the Ghost Ranch Chorale, a weekly choir festival held at Ghost Ranch, NM every summer. His arrangements have been performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the folk group I’m With Her, the Boulder Chorale, the Denver Choir League, and over forty
different Broadway casts as Music Supervisor and Director for Broadway Cares: Carols for a Cure. Adam is thankful to Cantor Luck and the Westminster Choir – as well as all of our orchestral musicians – for their hard work and musicality in bringing Bloch’s Sacred Service to life!
TODAY’S CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE MONTVIEW SACRED CONCERT FUND
Founded by Conductor and Composer John Kuzma, the Montview Sacred Concert Fund promotes important sacred major concert work repertoire through free annual performances.
Past concerts include Paul Hindemith’s When Lillacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Dvorak: Mass in D and Duke
Ellington’s Sacred Concert.
The fund has also commissioned important new works such as Let The River Flow, a 16-movement jazz mass by Ike Sturm and Chanda Rule, a full orchestral realization of Nancy Galbraith’s Missa Mysterium, and a multitude of works by young composers through the John Kuzma Young Composers Award.
Montview’s Sacred Concert Fund is vital to the continuation of these deeply moving pieces of music. It is only through and with your support that this will happen. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.
WAYS TO DONATE
By Check / Cash / Credit Card at our Sacred Concert Info Table
Online at Montview.org/giving (select “Sacred Concerts”)
Check by mail (1980 Dahlia St Denver, CO 80220 “Memo: Sacred Concerts”)
MONTVIEW BOULEVARD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1980 Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80220
303.355.1651 | www.montview.org