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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Sing-a-long and a smile on my face

The blue hymnal does not have a New Year's section as such. It has several hymns which refer to the changing of seasons and the changing of the years.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of the new year. Instead of choosing one I talked to Pastor Hunter about doing a sing-a-long of four. With his permission I planned that, but was scared about the whole thing. This meant, I understand it, that I would direct the singing with my voice very informally. This is a congregation used to singing along with the organ. Maybe that would be called organ-a-long.

Two tricks up my sleeve as I flicked the mute off on my portable mic--just one verse each hymn and pitch them much lower than written. This was, afterall, at 9 in the morning when voices don't like going very high.

What I heard was a new sound to me. It sounded spontaneous, rising up and benefiting from the great acoustics. It sounded like the people were hearing their congregational voice.

Hearing their congregational voice. That's the starting point for church music. One builds from that. It's not an ingredient one adds to a rich stew of piano or organ or orchestra.

While I saw the beauty and success of what was happening, I guess I'll have to check with people who want all the lyrics on the screen. I wanted the lyrics on my face, in the books, and on their hearts. At moments like that, the screen moves down the list of tools doing the heavy lifting. I'll listen to what others say.

First shall be last

In the sermon Pastor Hunter mentioned that famous phrase, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Well, the last hymn comes on Sunday. I'm waiting for the organist to lead it. I look to the accompanist for direction. Then it struck me--I'm in charge of the singing, duh!

I'm "first" but I was last to catch on. The organist shakes her head. Pianist signals, I don't know. What is wrong? Okay. I sit at the piano and bang out the last hymn, "Go Tell It on the Mountain."

And who would have guessed it? They sang with full heart.

Third week on the job and I'm learning faster all the time. Nobody else is getting these ducks in a row. That's what I'm here for.