Thanks, everyone, for getting really quiet during the end of my preludes. I played nine minutes of early composers, Clerambault (1676-1749), a French organist and composer, and Pachelbel (1653-1706), one of Bach's teachers. Here's Pachelbel's signature before the days of ball point pens. I segued into a well-known traditional hymn, words and music by Clara H. Fiske Scott (1841-1897), "Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth...." That is taken straight up from Psa. 119:18. Verse two starts, open my ears; and verse three begins, open my mouth. Clara was born in Illinois and lived as an adult in Iowa. She wrote tons of hymns. This is the only one still in use.
I played the melody on a tiny little high flute. The chorus goes: silently, now, I wait for Thee, ready my God thy will to do. It was so fitting that everyone was quiet.
A detail about Clara's life--there were accidents before interstates and fast cars. Clara died an untimely early death when a runaway horse threw her from the buggy in Dubuque, Iowa.
The offertory was Bach's "Jesu, joy of man's desiring."
