Tag Archives: chorale

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.

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Diving into Hymnody

If you like hymnody, and Lutheran hymnody in particular, there are several blogs you should visit.

I recently discovered Southern Lutheran Kantor who has some thoughtful and extensive commentaries on a number of hymnic treasures – Including “Lord, Thee Will I Love With All My Heart.” This is a wonderful hymn to be sung at a funeral (particularly stanza 3). At most any funeral I will without doubt play an organ chorale prelude on it even if it is not sung.

Another blogger I follow is Vicar Josh Osbun at Holy Holy Hymnody. He has reviewed a number of Stephen Starke hymns. Josh has also tackled the questionable, bad, and ugly of hymnody — past and present. By the looks of it, he has an extensive hymnal collection.

If your church uses Lutheran Service Book or Hymnal Supplement 98, it’s likely you have become acquainted with some of the hymn texts of Stephen Starke. He has his own blog starke Kirchenlieder where he provides occasional brief commentaries, but generally just posts of some great hymn texts by himself and others.

Heirs of the Reformation CD Set

Today the good folks at FedEx delivered one of two long awaited items I’ve had on preorder from CPH.  Hot off the press is a “sequel” (for lack of a better word) to the 4 CD set Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth.  This next 4 CD set – Heirs of the Reformation – focuses on Lutheran hymnody after Luther during the 16th and 17th centuries.  Audio samples are available on the CPH product page.

This evening I copied the CDs over to my iPod and have been listening to them as I walked the dog and did other evening tasks.  The music is glorious – a melding of instrumental and vocal settings – some old and some new – some on period instruments and some on the organ.  This set is truly a feast for the ears; a proclamation of the Word through some great texts and music.

One thing I appreciate about this set, the Martin Luther set, and the Hymns for All Saints series is the clear diction of the singers.  The singing is clear and the listener does not have to strain to listen.  This set and the Martin Luther set come with a booklet with complete hymn texts and also commentaries of each text. Both of these booklets are available on the CPH product page at the above links.

And if you’re a music director, organist, or choir director, the booklet has the CPH item numbers for most of the settings.  You might get some ideas for your own use.  I’ve already rediscovered some organ settings that I use (Kevin Hildebrand’s organ setting of In Thee Is Gladness and Mark Sedio’s organ setting of Jesus Thy Boundless Love).

The Heirs of the Reformation set and Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth would both be excellent resources that complement the Good Shepherd Institute’s Singing the Faith DVD.

Just as the title says, these are “Treasures of the Singing Church.”  We are the heirs of these treasures, just as the composers and poets were the heirs of what came before them.  Moreover, though, we are all heirs of Christ through the gracious gifts God richly gives us through Word and Sacrament.

Now I’m just awaiting the arrival of the Treasury of Daily Prayer.  Can we all say, “CPH, ship that book!”?

Singing Difficult Hymns

It is unfortunate that many of Luther’s hymns and other Lutheran chorales have fallen out of use in the typical Lutheran congregation. I have been told more than once that those old chorales are difficult to sing. My response: These hymns have to be taught to be appreciated. Otherwise we get in an endless circle of: we don’t sing those hymns because they are unknown/difficult and they are unknown and seem difficult because we never sing them.

Take for example this last Sunday – The Baptism of Our Lord. The “official” Hymn of the Day from Lutheran Service Book was Luther’s wonderful baptism / catechism hymn “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord” (LSB 406/407). How many of our Lutheran congregations sang this hymn? My congregation didn’t, but they did get to hear an organ prelude by Zachau.

Lutheran Service Book has made an attempt to make some of these unsung hymns more accessible. In addition to the tune Christ, Unser Herr typically associated with “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord,” LSB also has a new tune Elvet Banks. This last tune also happens to be paired with another of Luther’s hymns “May God Bestow on Us His Grace” (which happened to be the Office Hymn for Morning Prayer at Concordia Theological Seminary on 1/16/08). There are a number of other hymn texts in LSB that have been paired with “new” tunes in hopes they get sung more frequently.

Here’s my plea:

Dear Choir Directors and Choirs – Take the time to learn unfamiliar hymns and gradually share and teach them to your congregation. See my previous post on The Lutheran Choir.

Dear Organists and Instrumentalists – Take the time to learn chorale preludes on unfamiliar hymn tunes and introduce the tune over several weeks or months in different parts of the service. You are preparing the people.

Dear Pastors – Take the time to talk to your parish musicians about choosing hymns. Don’t shy away from a hymn because it is difficult or unfamiliar. Your musicians are valuable assets in introducing and leading the people’s song.

Dear People in the Pews (and Choir Directors, Choir, Parish Musicians, and Pastors) – Take the time to read and meditate on the hymns in the hymnal – at home and church. Deepen your familiarity with the church’s song by listening to CD’s that focus on this hymnody. For example:

All of these resources should be available by contacting the Concordia Theological Seminary Bookstore at CPHBookstore@ctsfw.edu. Many are available by contacting Concordia Publishing House.

Blessings as you grow in your understanding of our rich hymnic heritage.