As I was filing away some of the Lenten and Easter music, I realized Paul Manz’s Varied Hymn Accompaniments for Lent and Easter got a lot of use this year. I particularly appreciate that these collections are accessible for organist and congregation alike.
Category Archives: Church Musician
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 a very nice prelude, I should strive to be a good leader of hymn singing.
Mark Lawson, president of MorningStar Music, reflects on the importance of congregational song to Richard Proulx and Richard Hillert in the March edition of their e-newsletter. Special thanks to MorningStar Music for granting permission to post this article.
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 handbells with Kantor Muth, in addition to studying theology, meeting fellow musicians, and being fed with the daily rhythm of prayer services.
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 they might post MP3s of the presentations). In the meantime, the folks at GSI have posted two of the conference papers on their website (NOTE 11/11: It appears these papers are no longer posted). They are interesting readings for musicians and non-musicians alike.
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 in a bloated collection. A quality library doesn’t necessarily have to be large. It does, however, have to be well chosen. (I previously wrote about The Other Essential Lutheran Library – Musician Edition which included some of my “core” organ books.)
So where does a musician find resources to sift through all the choices? I have usually received the best advice from my mentors and friends who are Lutheran musicians. (Organists and Choir Directors: The Good Shepherd Institute’s bi-annual newsletter His Voice normally has music recommendations from Kantor Kevin Hildebrand).
To that end, I would like to share with you a recent acquisition to my organ music library which I think will be quite valuable: the six volume series “Choralvorspiele Zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch.” The journey to this collection began in the summer of 2007 while I was at an Organist Workshop at Concordia Theological Seminary with Kantor Resch. He had a volume of this series on the organ console and this gave me a hint to consider adding it to the library. I recently inquired with Kantor Resch about the series and he highly recommended it.