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!