“Gladden” Preces and Responses

Kevin Jones (b.1965) has composed a very succinct and effective setting of the Preces and Responses that honors the legacy of Washington Gladden (1836-1918), the prolific author and early leader of the Social Gospel movement, a movement in North American Protestantism that addressed issues such as social injustice and economic inequality. Gladden served for thirty-six years as one of the early pastors of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Columbus, Ohio, where Jones is currently director of music. An expert choral director and organist, Jones masterfully balances consonant and mildly dissonant harmonies in this very accessible setting for precentor and SATB choir with a few divisi portions for the bass. – Derek E. Nickels, The Diapason, December 2018