titles for 8.30.2009

Yesterday I played the traditional "Lord's Prayer" as the last prelude before the service began. During the offering I played "Simple Gifts," the song written by the Shakers. The postlude was Highland Cathedral.

Let me know what you like to hear.

tuning up

Last weekend two weddings both used the Steinway in the sanctuary. I wanted it to be in tune, so I called the tuner at the last minute. She agreed to fit us in and I met her at the church at 6 a.m. Oh, yes, 6! A big thanks to her. By 6:30 I got this pic.

See that stick top center? Well, a lot of the notes on a piano have two or three strings each. You use that to separate out one at a time.

The organ will need a tuning this fall.

titles for 8.23.2009

Yesterday the first, and longest prelude piece was an alla breve from Bach's D major prelude and fugue. I ended the prelude with an arrangement of the famous hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

The music during the offering was an arrangement of "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult." This hymn is still very much alive, but it doesn't happen to be in the blue hymnal. It does appear in the 1969 red Mennonite Hymnal as #229. Find the entire original here and even listen to it. Her photo above.

If you you want a woman hymn writer for the ages, you have one with Cecil Francis Humphreys Alexander, 1818-1895, a prominent Irish Church of England figure. She wrote 400 hymns in her life. We know her also by "Once in Royal David's City," and "All Things Bright and Beautiful."

The postlude was a take-off of the Westminster chimes, with a lot of bubbly fast notes in the hands and a few large and low pedal notes.

outside music

Here's a news release from Karen Fretz, director of music at Stumptown. It's the first one in which I am described as organist at Neffsville. Hey, I'm feeling a little pride in that.

Community Hymn Sing at Stumptown Mennonite Church will take place on August 30 at 7 p.m. Featured music: Singing Men of Praise with approximately 30 singers. Guest songleaders from the men's chorus will be Glenn Lehman, director of Harmonies Workshop and organist at Neffsville Mennonite and Elvin Boll of Elizabethtown Mennonite. The offering will benefit The Potter's House, a Christian rehabilitation ministry providing transitional housing for men re-entering society after prison incarceration.

I like that they call the event a "community" hymn sing. That's reaching out and missional. Although the chorus was begun some 30 years ago, I only directed it for two years about the year 1997. It has not been together (except for this reunion) for some ten years.

pipes in Montreal

I went to Montreal for my vacation. Three days there and two days on Amtrak's Adirondak. Impressed with the old city section of Montreal. One visual delight was the old church. In the front lots of tourists were looking at the elaborate backdrop to the altar. I turned around to the back and saw the pipes of the organ in the loft. It is made by Casavant-Freres. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear the organ. Unfortunately, I was away from Neffsville, but I will be back this Sunday.

title for 8.2.2009

The postlude yesterday was an except from a passacaglia by Buxtehude. The whole piece is almost eight minutes long. I played a one-minute episode from it. A happy, major, get-up-and-go section. If you play it on you tube (click on it above) the section I played begins at 3:35. It seems that one minute is about the right length for a postlude.

Let's break this down a bit. A passacaglia is a piece of music where a simple melody is played on the pedals and repeated over and over and the keyboards do a lot of fancy stuff on top. Buxtehude was born about 1637 and died 1707 (12 years before the Herr House was built in Lancaster County). Both Handel and Bach visited him to study with him.