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.

titles for 10.18.09

I forgot to give titles for last Sunday. I played three preludes totalling eight minutes.

The first prelude was just called "Prayer" by Lemens. The second was an arrangement of the hymn tune we know as "Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult." Then bringing us up to the call to worship was "A Little More Faith," a spiritual.

The offertory was an arrangement of "My Shepherd Shall Supply My Need." The postlude was a fast, punchy allegro by Buxtehude, from way back in history, about 1700 in northern Germany.

Pass along your suggestions to me.

musical wound

Okay, kind of dumb and kind of funny. Working at the organ last week, working from a new piece of music, I slid my thumb down the crease of the booklet to keep it open. A staple was sticking out and it drew a little blood. A quick trip to the office and Julie finds the first aid kit and I'm soon good to go with this bandage. The funny part? Well, it was kind a joke in the office that an organ player entails occupational hazards such as this. Thanks to Julie for finding the bandage!