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.

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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.

So what did I learn from the video? That I should pull out the ladder to the organ chamber and go blow on some pipes! (The video did not explicitly suggest this, but I extrapolated it as a reasonable experience to get to know my organ better.)