During my freshman year (1957) at Eastern Nazarene, College (ENC) I was involved in multiple activities in addition to my “studies”. There was Chemistry, Math, and “core” curricula, but there was also intramural sports: ”touch” football (with full pads) in the Fall, and softball in the Spring, with basketball in-between. Additionally, I found time to sing with the “Choral Union”, which performed “Messiah” in December, and Brahms Requiem in the Spring.
However, I also connected with several friends in the Spring to form a quasi Gospel quartet, with the added feature that the other three guys played trombones, while I accompanied them on piano. A “Trombone Trio”. And as the Spring semester came to a close, our “trio” was selected as one of the five summer groups touring the ENC “zone” (New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Northeast Ohio (the “Akron District”), and Ontario and Quebec. ENC did not tour the Maritimes that year, although our family had toured that area for ENC when I was 13 years old.
Incidentally, our “Trombone Trio” included Jimmy Jones, Lyle Christensen, and David Randlett.
As we would travel in one car from one town to the next, we would hopefully arrive at the new location in time to do a bit of rehearsing before the “service” where we “performed” and our ENC Representative spoke, raising money, and urging students to enroll in ENC. On occasion, we were given a day- off on Saturday. Also, at each stop, we were housed by families in the congregations, often former ENC students.
The last month of our tour was mostly in Canada; services In Hamilton, Brampton, Owen Sound (no Bobby Orr seen that day), Toronto, and on the last Friday of the tour, in or near Kingston, as I remember. We had Saturday off, and then on our final Sunday, we had Montreal “First Church” in the morning, an afternoon meeting in a small community south of Montreal, and our final service for the tour, Sunday evening in Plattsburg, NY. (Incidentally, the “Pastor” of that small church south of Montreal was Ken Sullivan, later to be an important factor at ENC, running the print shop, and being a wonderful “pastor” to many of the ENC students).
Finally, to the important point of all the above. On that Saturday, we arrived at the Pastor of “Montreal First” a little before noon, where I was “dropped off”, while our ENC representative took Lyle, Jimmy and David to other locations.
It turns out that this pastor – Rev. Archer – was an Olivet Nazarene College graduate, but also a classical music zealot! He basically gave me a “tour” of music I had never heard before; music on 33 1/3 recordings. I was able to spend several hours with him, listening to his music. There were four recordings that I remember and which I purchased a few days later, once back home in the Boston area:
Shostakovich – Symphony #5
Shostakovich – Symphony #10 – especially the cover on the 33 1/3 album
Paul Creston – probably Symphony #3
But the fourth recording – a “20th-century choral piece, with strong dynamics, and kind of wildness. What was its name? Who composed it?
It was a choral piece with some kind of liturgy that sounded like Eastern Orthodox, rather than Roman Catholic, or anything I was familiar with in the Protestant world.. Some of the lyrics and notes I did remember after all these years, but who was the composer, and what was the name of the piece? There were probably dozens if not hundreds of “modern” choral chants. However, after several decades of ignoring it, in early 2026, fragments of it came to mind. But the EXACT piece? I was drawing a blank.
I began to contact others that might help me re-find the piece. I assumed that the text was from the Eastern Orthodox church. I began my search.
I remember the first few lyrics, as well as the choral notes: “It is meet and right to hymn Thee….” was for sure how it began. There were passages about the angelic hosts, and their singing, but nothing that pointed me to the exact title.
I expressed my frustration to a friend and Orthodox clergyman, in January 2026. I asked him if he knew anyone in his contacts that might point me to the music itself, or a recording:
Here was his response:
I’m not familiar, but I think it’s probably the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. If you go to YouTube and search on that, you will find several long settings, by famous composers. Then if you put the pointer on the button and scrub through, many videos have sections, and look specifically for “It is meet…”
With this advice, I went back to YouTube, now with a bit more “information”, and I FOUND IT!! “The Cherubic Hymn”, by American composer, and an administrator at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Howard Hanson.
The Cherubic Hymn – Maybe download the Lyrics first, before listening.
Here’s the CRAZY aspect of this 2026 search. After my relief in “finding” the piece, I was looking through my music library cabinet for some Bach music, and I stumbled across the vocal and piano-reduction score of “The Cherubic Hymn”!
If interested, you can obtain a copy of the score from Carl Fischer Music.
Concluding Thoughts
Perhaps the most pressing question to ask is whether or not the musical aspects of this piece of choral music are an aid in absorbing the text? The text itself has been associated the liturgy of the St. John Chrysostim of Antioch in Syria in the 5th century A.D. His writings seem to have been embraced by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church.
Thus the real question is whether the MUSIC of this choral work enhances the liturgy, or causes distraction. Was Hanson attempting to enhance the lyrical content, or was he somehow creating distracting noise that was NOT worshipful? As noted in my own search for recovering this piece, was the result more jarring than comforting? And if it is more jarring than comforting, why am I recommending it to others? Truth be told, parts of the piece ARE worshipful, but other parts seem exaggerated and even disturbing.