titles for 3.6.2011

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."

30 Jan 2011

Several persons noted with appreciation the main part of the prelude the 30th, but asked me what it was. It was "Praise the Lord, sing hallelujah," # 50 in the blue hymnal. I was caught by several of the phrases, all vigorous and some sounding especially well played in the pedals. #50 is based on Psa. 148.

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.

the preludes 11.22.2009

Preludes for Nov. 22--Mennonite Hymnal (yes, the old rusty red 1969 book) # 521 and 522. Two traditional harvest/thanksgiving hymns--"We Plow the Fields and Scatter,"and James Montgomery's "The God of Harvest Praise." Montgomery was one of America's great hymn writers. The 1969 Menno Hymnal carried 14 of his hymns. Our current blue hymnal has 7 of his.

What is a prelude? How do you say it? Do people need quiet music to prepare for worship? Or loud?

I keep asking the questions even though the answers are a work in process, I believe. With this being the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day I pulled out some big stops and made some noise. What is a stop in organ talk? Let me show you.

Here is the console of the organ. See the two keyboards? Right above those are a row of tabs. Flip one of those and you activate a certain set of pipes. This photo looks funny because I pulled the bench out of the way .

titles for 9.13.2009

Before the service yesterday I played three pieces. First was a fairly modern piece, as classical music goes, by Marcel Dupré, who died in Paris at age 85, in 1971. The 3-minute piece is a meditation on Ps. 133:1, "Behold how pleasant and good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." That is its title, too.

Next I played the piece whose tune most people recognize as "Glorious things of thee are spoken." (Blue hymnal #619). The tune is known as Austrian, by Haydn. I included the trumpets on chamade (the loud pipes high up above the exit doors) on a phrase during one of the high moments.

Then a short piece called meditation by Nicolas Lemmens. This is quite soft, and called simply "Meditation." I think everyone was listening because of the loud Austrian piece just before.

Linda Helmus was with us. As a courtesy, I had called her and asked if she had a favorite hymn I might use as postlude. She suggested either "Be Thou My Vision" or "We walk by faith," a 1983 Marty Haugen tune, which is the one I chose to improvise on. A few people said they recognized it and appreciated it. It was a new tune to me.

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.