March Resources
Today’s post is a mixed bag of several resource items that have caught my eye over the last few weeks including items from His Voice (Good Shepherd Institute) and Gathered Guests (book on Lutheran Worship) from CPH.
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.
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.”
LSB Resources: Additional Indexes
For a number of years I’ve had lofty goals to catalog my music library — not just the books, but also the individual pieces within the book, associated hymn tunes, composers, when I used a piece, etc. While I haven’t made much progress on the cataloging, awhile back I did create the underlying structure that would link everything back to Lutheran Service Book and the associated hymn tunes. Through that project I had the data to create several indexes that had more detail than those provided in the back of the LSB editions — primarily around the hymn tunes used in LSB.
St. Olaf Christmas Festival
One of my Christmas season traditions (OK. . . it is technically an Advent tradition) is to listen to the St. Olaf Christmas Festival. While I haven’t actually been to Northfield, MN, Minnesota Public Radio will be broadcasting the concert live on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009 at 3:30 PM (Central Time). You can learn more about the Festival, link to the live broadcast, and download a service program by visiting the Festival site. Each year there is some fine choral and orchestral music.
LSB 334: O, Lord, How Shall I Meet You
Some of you may have already discovered this, but I’ll pass it along for those that don’t know.
The stanza numbering for O, Lord, How Shall I Meet You (LSB 334) is incorrect in the LSB pew edition (or at least the copies I have seen). The six stanzas are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, but omit 5. The Hymn Accompaniment edition and the Guitar Chord edition have the stanzas numbered as 1-6.
11/24/09 UPDATE: I have been informed that some pew editions don’t have this stanza numbering issue. Perhaps later print runs fixed it. My editions are probably from the initial print run.
Good Shepherd Institute
This past week I discovered that the Good Shepherd Institute has released the latest edition of His Voice, a newsletter of GSI that has a number of recommended resources for pastors, laity, and musicians. I’d encourage you to download and scan through it (only 9 pages).
Of particular note are 3 pages devoted to the published resources of GSI, most of which are part of my own library. These resources have been formative and valuable in my growth and continuing education as a parish musician.
Coil Binding! The Musician’s Friend
I’ve written about this in a previous post, but I think it bears repeating. Why do music publishers publish a book that will be put on a music rack that will not stay open on its own? It seems ridiculous to have to rebind the books before you can even use them.
Pipe Organs: Q&A with Grime and Hildebrand
So how does the pipe organ work? Paul Grime, Kevin Hildebrand, and the multimedia crew at Concordia Theological Seminary have put together an introductory YouTube video on the pipe organ and answer 5 or so common questions. The content is geared for both organists and non-organists. Listen closely and you can hear the nice reverberation in Kramer Chapel.
Church, Children, and Autism
Dan at Necessary Roughness has written an informative post on “How Churches Should Handle Autism”. He offers practical suggestions to help congregations understand and help these families affected by autism during the worship service.
And what is Dan’s number 1 suggestion? “The real world has no Gospel and has no forgiveness. The best thing a church can do is preach the Word.” Thanks Dan!
The Concordia Organist
I received an e-mail today from CPH that startled me even though I “knew” their new product would be coming eventually.
Wanted: One Outstanding Church Organist.
Music adds much to our worship, but musicians can be hard to find. Well, look no further.
The reality is that many churches have a difficult time finding an organist or even someone who can play the piano for worship services. Enter CPH. They have created Concordia Organist, a 31-CD set of all the hymns in LSB which can be used to accompany hymn singing.
Share your thoughts . . .