Music at WPC-
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Lent IV
​Voluntary: Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley Jason Krug (b. 1978)
Offertory: If Thou But Suffer, God to Guide Thee Jody Lindh (b. 1944)
Voluntary: O How Vain, O How Fleeting Marcel Dupre (1886-1971)
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Hymns
Opening Hymn: 461- God Is Here! ABBOT'S LEIGH
Sequence Hymn: INSERT- Longing for Light, We Wait In Darkness CHRIST BE OUR LIGHT
Closing Hymn: 172- My Shepherd Will Supply My Need RESIGNATION
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Next Week's Music at WPC:
Sunday, March 22: Bob Carlyon, Organ; WPC Choir;
Prelude- About the Music
“Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley” is a traditional American spiritual that reflects the deeply personal nature of faith and discipleship. Emerging from the African American spiritual tradition of the nineteenth century, the song draws on imagery of Christ’s journey toward the crucifixion, particularly the lonely path he walked to Calvary. Its simple but powerful refrain—“You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley, you’ve got to walk it by yourself”—reminds singers that certain spiritual struggles and decisions must ultimately be faced individually. At the same time, the text connects the believer’s experience with that of Jesus, suggesting that Christ understands human suffering because he too endured loneliness, trial, and sacrifice. Because of its direct message and reflective tone, the spiritual has become a meaningful hymn during Lent and Holy Week, inviting singers to contemplate both Christ’s suffering and their own personal journey of faith.
Offertory- About the Text
“If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee” is a beloved hymn text written in 1641 by the German pastor and poet Georg Neumark during a period of great personal hardship. After being robbed while traveling to university, Neumark struggled for months to find work and survive, and the hymn was written as an expression of the deep trust he learned through those trials. The text reflects a strong theme of surrender to divine guidance, encouraging believers to place their worries and fears in God’s care rather than relying solely on their own strength. Its poetry speaks of patience, faith, and the assurance that God’s wisdom unfolds in ways that may not always be immediately understood. The hymn is most commonly sung to the tune Wer nur den lieben Gott, which Neumark himself composed, and it has become one of the most treasured chorales of the Lutheran tradition, later inspiring settings and variations by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach.
Postlude- About the Music
Marcel Dupré composed his Seventy-Nine Chorales, Op. 28 between 1931 and 1932 as a pedagogical and artistic project modeled after Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orgelbüchlein. Like Bach’s famous collection, Dupré’s chorales are concise liturgical preludes based on well-known hymn tunes, each designed to illuminate a particular musical or technical idea while remaining suitable for church use. The set includes chorales for the entire church year and demonstrates Dupré’s remarkable ability to combine French harmonic color with the structural clarity of the German chorale tradition. The prelude on “O How Vain, O How Fleeting” (O wie flüchtig, o wie nichtig) reflects the hymn’s meditation on the fleeting nature of earthly life, often using flowing, restless motion to evoke the passing of time and the transience described in the text. In this way, Dupré pays homage to Bach’s model while speaking in a distinctly twentieth-century musical language, creating works that are both devotional and deeply expressive.