Advent IV

We had guest musician, a son of the congregation, Clifford Leaman of the University of South Carolina, and his daughters Biranna (oboe) and Aubrey (piano). They presented exquisite carol arrangements for prelude and offertory. Clifford is professor of saxophone. He played a B-flat soprano sax. The saxophone journal saluted him as "an artist of the first order…intuitive, exciting, and enthralling." I wrote an arrangement of our last hymn, Angels We Have Heard on High, for him and he told me he liked the arrangement. I thought it went pretty well, myself.

For the first hymn, O Come, All Ye Faithful, I used the well-known arrangement by David Willcox. The middle hymn, Lo How a Rose, was sung very sensitively by the 400 in the congregation, with just 8 and 4 foot principals and flute on the organ, which is soft.

Advent I new music

What a musical feast today! Carol Horning did a magnificent job leading the congregation singing Sleepers Awake; O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; and Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus. The organ backed them up with moderate settings. The offertory was an arrangement I made of O Savior Rend the Heavens Wide, for flute, oboe and trumpet accompanied by organ. Julia Nolt played flute, Caitlin Landis, oboe, and Doug Brubaker, trumpet. My major prelude piece was also Sleepers Awake, the well-known Wachet Auf of J. S. Bach. I also improvised on The Angel Gabriel from the spiral hymnal.

special music offering

The offertory today, Oct. 24, was played on the piano by Carolyn North, who presented a Jos. Martin arrangement of "Nothing But the Blood," a Gospel song by Robert Lowry. Click and see the words and hear a computer play the tune. Details: Lowry wrote the words and music, published in 1876. If you follow hymns, you recognize the name Lowry. He was one of the long-lasting composers and lyric-writers of the 1800s.

Go figure: Our blue hymnal has six works of his. He wrote the music for #14, Come We That Love the Lord. He wrote words and music for #124, O Worship the Lord. He wrote words and music for Low in the Grave, to give three examples.

Lowry's hymn is not found in as many hymnals as early in the 20th century. The Church Hymnal of 1927 includes it. The words imitate a catechism, with a series of questions and answers, and then a chorus of adoration: "O, precious...."

If you can't sing very high or very low, this is the tune for you. It packs all its catchiness and beauty and rhythm in four notes of the scale: do, re, mi, sol. It can be played on the black notes of a piano. Go to the piano and start on F#. What a feat! With merely four notes, you try to write a whole song that people sing 134 years later!

The arrangement chosen by Carolyn North was not easy. It was beautiful. Thank you Carolyn!

hand chimes as prelude

This past Sunday an octave of hand chimes chimed in on the prelude. They joined with the organ in performing the hymn tune Picardy, which is a French carol first published in 1860. In our hymnal we find it at #463, set to the words, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. Thanks to Al, Claire, Velma, and Eunice, we made sounds which set a very quiet beginning to the worship time. Hand chimes were invented as a training tool for hand bells. Here's a photo from online.

organ piano duo

When people entered the sanctuary yesterday they noticed a large prelude sound. It was Janet High and Don Frank playing organ and piano duets. They produced a grand sound, bringing to life several Gospel hymns. Again at the offertory they gave their musical gifts to worship. These two accomplished musicians deserve the apppreciation everyone expressed. Thank you, Janet and Don.

student organist

Madeleine Weaver played one of the preludes on the organ Sunday morning. She did a beautiful job of playing Beethoven's "Joyful, joyful we adore Thee" from her piano book. A big thanks to her. Here's a photo of her getting ready several days before, during the C2P music camp session on keyboard to pipe organ.

music camp

Well, it's a week-long day-school called Created2Praise. I have a 45-minute class called "keyboard to organ." The students all play piano and get a thrill out of transferring their skills to a larger instrument. Here's the real exceptional bunch of kids:

guest musician Kauffman

Sunday, Ryan Kauffman, saxophonist, was a guest musician. Some have asked what he played as the offertory. It was #229 in our blue hymnal, "Lord, you have come to the lake shore." Check out Ryan and buy/listen to some of his music here.

Karla recital

Last evening the lovely soprano Karla presented a fund raising recital. She is one of our song leaders when she is not away at school or in service. Four pianists (40 fingers) took turns accompanying her selections from a Swedish folk song, to Copeland, to a Mozart aria, to a Messiah aria. Funds will assist in her going to teach music in Bolivia this fall. At the piano is Carolyn North; Jon Landis is standing in as her prop in the Mozart aria. In the line-up pic, Darlene is far left.

back on the job

Today I tackle the work piled up from nine days away. This past Sunday was just vacation, driving through the mountains, including the Blue Ridge Parkway out of the Great Smokey Mountains. The previous Sunday was an off campus working Sunday at the Hymn Society of America convention in Birmingham, Alabama. Everyday included singing in the Samford University chapel. Here's the chapel and the singing inside. Many attendees were top feeders of the hymn world--hymnal editors, writers, composers, scholars and other trend-setters. I met my classmate from my graudate studies in the early 1970s Ruth Duck who has has her name in nearly every hymnal published since the 1980s. Our blue hymnal has three of hers, including #419, Lead on, O Cloud of Presence.

lower lights

Several persons asked about the hymn tune I played for the offertory. The refrain goes: let the lower lights be burning. The first words are: brightly beams our Father's mercy. Listen to it and see the words here: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/l/llowerlb.htm

Next two Sundays, July 11 and 18, I am on working vacation. I'll be at The Hymn Society of America annual convention at Birmingham, Ala. I'll be in the office several hours both weeks.

special music for 6.27.2010

Three fine additions to our music ministry yesterday: Karla Santiago led the dynamic singing of three hymns. Karla has recently received her bachelor's degree from Goshen and will be offering a recital at church July 22, 7 p.m.

Caitlin played the oboe for the prelude and the offertory; her brother Jonathan accompanied on the piano. The offertory was a gorgeous piece was by Telemann. Telemann was a German composer who was almost completely self-taught. Lived from 1681 to 1767, pretty much an exact contemporary of J. S. Bach.

A big blessing, benediction, and thanks to these three willing to contribute to our music ministry.

title for 6.13.2010--and vacation

The second prelude was written a few years ago by a Lebanon, Pa.-based composer, Robert Lau--a variation on the doxology to the tune Old Hundredth. The last prelude was by M. Dupre, a meditation based on the Song of Songs.

The offertory was an arrangement of three African tunes by D. Hollinger.

I'm on vacation for a week. I'll be back in touch beginning June 21.

June 6 titles

Yesterday an unusually large number of people expressed appreciation for one or another piece I used in the worship service: most appreciated the offertory, Schubert's "Holy, holy, holy," #75 in the hymnal.

Preludes included the tune titled Hendon, which appears twice in the blue hymnal: once at #337, "Ask ye what great thing I know?" and as #389, "Take my life and let it be consecrated." Then I played the contemporary song, "Shout." I finished with an improv I did on Simple Gifts, since we're in a series on simplicity.

Hymn tune? Come again? Yeah, editors give tunes titles. For example, Hendon. It's just a name that usually means nothing as far as the music goes. It could be the little town where the tune was written. We usually know the hymn by the words. The titles of the words are usually the first line.

You might wonder if I just come in Sunday morning and open the hymnal. No. I have collections of hymn arrangements. Some are quite difficult. The difference in music this Sunday was that none of the pieces was classical.

How long do I work on the music I play? This varies. I'm always spending at least two hours a week on completely new things I hope to bring into the service. This past week I worked two hours on Wednesday, two on Thursday, and one hour on Saturday.

May 30, 2010 titles

Preludes were: 1)Highland Cathedral; 2) Thine is the Glory, blue hymnal #269, music by G. F. Handel, found in many hymnals; and, 3) a little piece by Mendelssohn to be played in a "tranquil"manner.

The offertory was the classic "Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring," arranged by J. S. Bach, used sometimes in wedding processionals.

During the meditation after the sermon...a quiet arrangement of "He Leadeth Me," #599 in the blue.

During the service I subbed for Beth, having the privilege of leading the young voices in a Mary/Martha song which they had first done as part of the spring musical. The girls and boys did so well.

Pentecost titles, 5.22.2010

Someone asked me for the title of the hymn in the prelude. That's a nice compliment. Thanks.

My preludes usually begin ten minutes before the hour. Last Sunday I played, first, a short Bach prelude in A major. Then I launched into a heavy version of "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" (blue #619). The tune is known as Austrian Hymn, composed by Franz J. Haydn in 1802. That was pretty loud. Then, to bring things down, and to signal the focus on the Holy Spirit, I play blue # 303, "Come, gracious Spirit, heav'nly dove, with light and comfort from above. Be thou our guardian and our guide; o'er every thought and step preside." The new hymnal has updated "be thou" to "come, be our."

Pentecost is the church's birthday.

titles 5.16.2010

Most people probably recognized the offertory yesterday, the tried and true (and possibly tired) old chestnut, Malotte's Lord's Prayer. Albert Malotte was born in Philadelphia in 1895 and died in Los Angeles in 1964. Most of his career was as a composer in Hollywood. He was trained in church music and was himself an organist.

One of the preludes, the loudest one, was an arrangement of "A mighty fortress is our God."

Don't ask me for the title of the postlude. There was none since the service ended outside with five baptisms.

Ascension Day

Pulled over for my favorite Amish roadside stand today. A scrawled sign said: closed due to Ascension Day. Ouch! I forgot it this year. I like something about Ascension Day. You have to have it to finish the story of Jesus on earth, right? Jesus didn’t die for long; he came back and went to heaven. So if I say Jesus is in my heart…. Okay, I won’t quibble with words, but I prefer the objective Bible story telling us where Jesus really is.

Also, five dollars that no one can find a praise and worship song that does what Chas. Wesley does in “Hail the day that sees him rise/ to his throne above the skies,/ Christ, awhile to mortals giv’n,/ enters now his native heav’n.” (1969 Menno Hymnal #185). And “high and lifted up” does not count.

Anyway, I’ll get those strawberries tomorrow.

Mother's Day titles

Yesterday was Mother's Day--not a church calendar day. But, with our lovely mothers on many persons minds I played at the offertory, "There is Beauty All Around When There's Love at Home." John Hugh McNaughton (1829-1901) wrote both the music and words. For a "western wedding" in Japan, this hymn is the second most popular after "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."

Prelude titles 5.9.2010 were He Shall Feed His Flock (from Handel's Messiah) and Twila Paris's How Beautiful.

titles for 5.2.2010

Two persons asked me what I played for the postlude. It was "Blessed Quietness," # 301 in the blue hymnal. Published in 1911, the first line is "Joys are flowing like a river since the Comforter has come." The poet was the Irish-born woman, Manie Ferguson, who married a Presbyterian minister, then got religion in the holiness way and founded a city mission in Los Angeles, "a holiness revival station spreading the message of Christian perfection," as Wikipedia puts it. Our hymnal supplement gives a swinging version and I used that.

"Thine is the Glory" (blue #269, resurrection section) was the prelude before the handbells finished with "Adoro Te Devote," (blue #464). At the offertory the bells gave us a version of "Jesus Shall Reign." The bells really sounded sweet to me.

middle school festival, extra-mural

I'm at Neffsville to support it. Once in a while a church musician does something extra-mural. This time is was to judge at a local Christian middle school association. Darlene Hein was also a judge. Sermon-issimo: school and church really intermingle with youth; so when you support one you support the other. Here I am, mid-morning, awaiting the next large choral ensemble to get up on the risers (far left). The other judge (beside me) was also an organist.

titl for 4.25.2010

For the offertory today (Apr 25th) I used "Jesus the very thought of Thee." Words are much more ancient than most hymns--from the pen of Bernard of Clairvaux, a real happening churchman of 12th century France, it appears. Find the hymn as #588 in our blue hymnal.

Swiss choir concert

The Swiss Baretville Reformed Choir sang Tuesday evening. The organ was integral to the music. See also the Alp Horn on step (and close up), used for call to worship. The emcee asked for hands up of those who have visited the Anabaptist cave--more than half the hands went up, a good indication of who came and the agenda of reconciliation between persecuted and persecutors of the 16th century. Our faithful Neffsville choir and others provided a meal before the concert.

subbing again: choir

After the Wednesday meal it was subbing again--leading the adult choir in a rehearsal. Again, had to snap a photo to help put names and faces together.

subbing for John

The sad news is that John is on the sick list. The good news is that the choirs continue, prayerfully, and generously accept my appearance as a sub. To make sure I know all the names I snapped this photo last evening. Here's the jolly handbell choir.

The names: l to r behind the table, Kelly, Amanda, Darlene, Julia, Elaine, Lynn, Claire, Reuben, and Al.

Easter titles

Easter tops the charts, whether you are low church or high church. I started the prelude time with the most famous organ piece, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. There are plenty on youtube. Here's one. I ended the prelude time with a short improv on blue hymnal #276, This joyful Eastertide.

On the first two hymns, #280 Christ the Lord is Risen Today and #116 Crown Him with many crowns, I played a short transition to a half step higher for the final (and 5th) verses.

To bring more Easter tunes to people's remembrances, during the offertory I did a medley of #275 Lift your glad voices, #271 Christ is arisen, and #266 They crucified my Savior.

We sent them home with Widor's famous Toccata.

titles for Mar 28, 2010, and evening program

It was Palm Sunday. Just as the crowds at Jesus's "parade" were exultant and noisy, the people coming into the sanctuary getting a palm branch made a steady din of chatter. I don't know if anyone heard the organ music before the service. But anyway, at ten till the hour I led off with "Let My People Go," to make the connection between Jesus and Moses, as liberators of the people of God. Then a Couperin 16th century light piece to signal the start of spring.

I ended the prelude time with a tune from Duke Ellington's sacred piece "Something about believing..."

In the evening the other part of my professional life, Harmonies Workshop, sponsored an evening featuring Marcy Hostetler leading the packed out Blossom Hill Church in "top ten" favorite hymns and Jim Baer of the Kraybill campus of the Lancaster Mennonite School brought his "woodshed singing boys."

details for 3.21.2010

The preludes yesterday ran 9.5 minutes, consisting of three basic pieces. First, Frank's organ classic, "Piece Heroique." Let me translate freely and call it "Victory Song." The victory comes only after a good, hard look at difficulties straight in the eye, unflinching. That's how I thought about Lent V. The piece refers to no lyrics, so I segued into a verse of "Beneath the Cross of Jesus."

The second element, taking us up to 3 minutes before the hour was the Pipers, a piece for two flutes. This was my signal that we had just entered the spring season.

Then to take us meditatively into the 10 o'clock hour of worship I played a version of "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult."

For the offertory I put end to end a Jesus suffering hymn, "Go to dark Gethsemane," with a Bach classic chorale arrangement.

titles for 3.14.2010, little more Lent

I continued my German chorales for Lent. This one was "Christ Lag," for those who do the German tune titles. It means that Christ lay bound. The evil forces eventually got Christ crucified. that's kind of like bound, I'd say.

Then a new twist. After all, we're gathering for an up-beat worship service. So right before Elaine called everyone to worship, I patched in chimes on a phrase or two of "I Owe the Lord a Morning Song," a Mennonite chestnut.

3.7.2010 hint of lent in titles

What? Already third Sunday in Lent! The music I use in the prelude would give some hint of that. The 10 o'clock prelude (the one ending at 10:00 a.m.) was the tune "Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed...? ...and did my sovereign die?" Quite a first-line title. The hymn starts with a question--kind of like today saying, "Wait, are you saying the head of this whole enterprise died?" Find it in blue hymnal #253. It's found in just about every hymnal today although written over 300 years ago, in 1707. Try to beat that! It's in the Jesus Passion and Death section of the hymnal, right before the resurrection section.

The offertory comes in on this theme, too. "When on the Cross the Savior hung." A Protestant Reformation hymn, Bach arranged it and got hung up on the word "hung." Sorry, I couldn't resist that play on words! The main motif is the descending three notes which gives a distinct droopiness to the sound.

titles for 2.28.2010

The final prelude was the Tune called Forest Green, found in our blue hymnal at #159. The tune is an English folk tune, found in most hymnals, but not associated with any one particular hymn (the words).

Is the prelude to soothe the ruffled spirit or awaken the heart? I usually do the soothing one minute before 10 a.m. This time I chose a stronger sound right up to 10 a.m.

Before this number, in view of our church calendar being in Lent, I played a complex but easy to follow arrangement of the classic German chorale tune associated with Unser Vater, or the hymn version of the Lord's Prayer.

Did you hear the chimes right after the benediction, before I blasted into the postlude? That was the very final phrase of "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

titles for 2.21.2010

I usually play three pieces before the service begins sharply at 10:00 a.m. Yesterday the three were Bach's Air in D, an arrangement of the hymn, "O Master Let Me Walk With Thee,"and finally, an improv on "The Glory of These Forty Days."

What 40 days? Here's the deal. When Christmas is approaching we count down to the day, right? Same thing with Easter, just not as widely know. Traditionally we count down 40 days, which is a number the Bible uses a lot. When we start that count-down, then it's Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

One hymn, the final one before the benediction, was "Guide My Feel, While I Run This Race," a nice closing parenthesis to the prelude about walking with the Master. The style is so Gospel that I asked Joe, the song leader, if he minded if I played it from the piano. A half dozen people stopped and said something about the music. Thanks, everybody!

titles for 2.14.2010

Yesterday was not just "2.14.2010," but it was Valentine's Day. We need more than one day a year to be romantic. But it was also a day that snow lay on the ground in 49 of the 50 states. That was my trigger to use Young's arrangement of "From Greenland's Icy Mountains." It's a famous missionary hymn of the previous century. A good reminder as snow covers the ground that what we think is out there is sometimes closer than we think. That being missional is sometimes as close as home.

Then I took the prelude up to the hour with "I Need Thee Every Hour, Most Gracious Lord, No tender voice like thine can peace afford." Annie Hawkes was so well known her 1872 obituary appeard in the New York Times. She had written poetry since she was 14. She died at age 83.

thirsty piano

Okay. When the water light goes on the Steinway's humidifier is thirsty. After one week it happened and I responded. It's easy. More and more, I see people taking up the challenge and closing the lid when they are finished using it.

Pianos don't grow on trees.... I'll end with a thank you for helping to climate control the Steinway. February, by the way, they say is the driest month for pianos.

getting Steinway up to grade

New thing: last week our Steinway got a humidifier installed. The old one was taken out. Looks like it was dead for many years, Dawn the tuner thought. Any wonder the tuning wasn't holding!

So, now, we have to take seriously closing the piano, especially the top lid, so the humidity works INSIDE the piano and does not vainly try to humidify the whole sanctuary. This is standard operating procedure for the care and feeding of pianos. We're fortunate the church last fall accepted the slightly larger budget line item so this could be done. Thanks, Carol.

I'll let the two pics tell the rest of the story.

the offertory yesterday Jan. 31

Jesus the Very Thought of Thee is a classic hymn. Here's a very complex arrangement on youtube. If you want a straightforward piano version online: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/t/jtveryth.htm. Look at all those verses.

Jan 17, 2010 titles

I juggled two external realities--the earthquake in Haiti and Martin Luther King Day--as I chose music for Jan. 17. Since the current theme is "wall," I thought of "Joshua fit the battle at Jericho" with it "walls came tumbling down" refrain. I suddenly had a nice little improv.

Only problem: it might seem to be making light of the profound distress the people of Haiti were suffering when their walls did come tumbling down during the earthquake last week. Yet it was fitting for both the tremendous walls that Martin Luther King Jr. helped identify and bring down in our society and the "wall" our current sermon series talks about. So that became the postlude.

Now, to remember Haiti? I had a rollicking version of "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," what was once THE great missionary hymn, written by Reginald Heber in 1819. All sorts of changes render it hardly suitable for today. BUT, a few lines still resonate: "They call us to deliver," one line goes, and "bliss returns to reign," the hymn ends. So I put that among the preludes.

My prayers and efforts with both these issues.