Helping Your Congregation Sing
Sometimes church musicians get so caught up with making music, whether that be choral or instrumental, that they neglect or minimize (often unintentionally) their primary responsibility — leading and encouraging the people’s song in psalmody, liturgy, and hymnody. I remember being told (by my father no less) that while I might be able to play [...]
2010 Summer Organist Workshops
Once again I’m making my annual “plug” for the summer Organist Workshops at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. I can’t recommend these enough to parish organists of all skill levels. For three of the last four summers I’ve had the joy of studying improvisation with Kantor Hildebrand, organ playing with Kantor Resch, and [...]
Bach in Today’s Parish: Still the Evangelist
Some of you may have had the opportunity in November 2009 to attend the Good Shepherd Institute’s conference on “Bach in Today’s Parish: Still the Evangelist.” While I wasn’t able to attend, I patiently await the publication of their annual journal of papers presented at the conference (and hoping that [...]
Organ Music: Chorale Preludes
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 [...]
Walter Buszin on the Lutheran Masters
Earlier this week the Concordia Publishing House music department celebrated the 60th anniversary of hiring its first full-time head of the music department – Edward Klammer. That hiring happened at the recommendation of Walter Buszin. During the 1940’s, Buszin, in the midst of his other teaching responsibilities, organized the music department catalog, served as an [...]
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