CPH Spring 2011 Music Sale

Church musicians are often in a quandary when selecting sheet music to add to their libraries: a finite budget and seemingly infinite choices from music publishers.  The musician needs a discerning eye to determine what will be useful at their skill level and worship context.  Random selection might yield a few gems, but also result in a bloated collection.  A quality library doesn’t necessarily have to be large.  It does, however, have to be well chosen. (Organ Music: Chorale Preludes)

Concordia Publishing House is one of the few publishers that I routinely use that has substantial sales on some of their music products.  Vendors like SheetMusicPlus will often have rotating 20% sales on different publishers or types of music (e.g., choral), but CPH usually has a limited selection of choral, handbell, organ, and piano music at significant savings (50% – 75% off). If your congregation subscribes to Creative Worship from CPH, you can also work directly with their Music Department to order “suggested” products at 20% off.  I know this sounds like an advertisement for CPH, but it’s more of an FYI of how to make a music budget stretch further (assuming you have a need for their products).

One word of caution: just because something is on sale does not mean you need it!

As I scanned through the latest CPH Music Warehouse Sale, I’ve listed a handful of organ music items that are frequently on my music rack (and a book about handbells) with the thought that someone might also find them useful. If you’re looking for other recommendations, Kevin Hildebrand normally has organ and choral music reviews in each edition of His Voice from the Good Shepherd Institute.

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Church Musicians & Concordia Theological Seminary

If you’ve been a visitor of this website for some time, you’ll notice I have a certain affinity for the work of Concordia Theological Seminary (CTS) in Fort Wayne, IN.  As a church musician, CTS has been an important component to my growth as a musician — both musically and theologically and how the two intersect.  The chapel staff in particular make a concerted effort to reach out to church musicians, primarily through their yearly Organist Workshops and the Good Shepherd Institute.  It was at one of those organist workshops that sparked an idea that blossomed into this website.

Each year around the All Saints Sunday weekend the Good Shepherd Institute hosts their annual conference which features fellowship, recitals, a hymn festival, and a number of presentations for pastors and musicians.  The conference that is presently underway is entitled “Sing With All the Saints in Glory.”  In March 2010, Dr. Just remarked in their newsletter how the staff determined the conference theme.

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On New Music

Of making many books there is no end . . . Ecclesiastes 12:12

And so goes the publishing industry.  Now don’t get me wrong: I love books.  I’m eagerly anticipating the FedEx delivery truck dropping off a box from CPH on Friday with the new edition of Walther’s Law and Gospel, a volume of Sasse, and two volumes of essays by Robert Preus.

As a church musician I get excited (or at least a bit interested) when music publishers, primarily CPH and MorningStar Music, release their new music (which CPH has been doing over the last few weeks).  Is there a new treasure waiting to be found?  A new (or old) text just waiting to burst in song?  Did any of the composers on my short list compose anything new?

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Johann Walter – Composer and Poet

On April 24 the church commemorates Johann Walter, the first Lutheran kantor (brief bio).  This year I’m sharing a selection of his poem “In Praise of the Noble Art of Music” that Carl Schalk included in Music in Early Lutheranism.  Schalk notes that Walter’s musical “work was clearly related to the theology of the church and his understanding—which he derived from Luther—that the role of music in the church was to proclaim the Word rather than to interpret it.”

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