quartets--back in the day

Ray Denlinger gave me this CD of a quartet he sang first tenor in in the 1960s--The Heraldaires. Ray sang first tenor. Ken Sensenig (my cousin, by the way) second. Dick Weber, baritone, and Harold Rohrer, bass. Songs include "A Wonderful Savior is Jesus My Lord," "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning," "My Lord's Gonna Move," "I Need the Prayers of Those I Love," and "Abide With Me, 'Tis Eventide."

Quartets used to be an essential ingredient of our church music infrastructure. And this one was a good one. Ray, thanks a lot. Let's hear that voice again. And let's put this CD in the library.

festival of hope, Dec. 6

Here's a chance to sing in a choir and help out the cause of our Lancaster City food bank. The event is called the Festival of Hope. It will be held on Sunday, December 6th at Grace Lutheran Church, 517 North Queen Street (parking is available in adjacent lots, including LGH- north on Queen Street and follow the signs). The service will begin at 3:00 P.M. WGAL’s Katelyn Smith will be this year’s Worship Host.

Local artists performing include F & M’s Voices of Praise Gospel Choir and Voices of Cecilia Children & Women’s Choir.

Here's your chance to sing...the mass choir will rehearse from 1:30 to 2:30 on the 6th; they are to meet in Grace's Fellowship Hall. Refreshments and fellowship will follow the service.
Offering to Benefit LCCC’s Food Ministries. Please contact the Council of Churches at (717)291-2261 if you have any questions.

thanksgiving still on my mind

I'm working on the music for the first Sunday of Advent. But "The God of Harvest Praise" is still running through my mind. When I exited the church campus the other day, the sunshine on this stand of ornamental grass stopped me. I grabbed the camera. Can you tell where I was standing for this shot?

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 .

a pastor favorite

You probably recognized the preludes last Sunday: Praise to the Lord, and, O Lord How Majestic. So I won't give any more details on them.

I want to say that for the first time I put the title of the offertory in the bulletin: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Or, let's say "our desiring." If this is all the John Bach had written we would probably still remember him. It happens to be one of the instrumental favorites of Linda, who was installed.

Who is this John Bach? The dictionary tells me that German Johann is English John.