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.”
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.
New Music from CPH
This is just a heads up that CPH recently released their new choral, handbell, and organ books/pieces for 2009. As always, CPH has MP3s and PDF samples of the pieces to view before purchasing. On the organ side, at least, there were a few items that got my attention early on and I have since purchased.
If you’re in the market for some sacred music, give the folks at CPH a try. They have an abundance of resources — especially for the Lutheran musician. But if you want Paul Manz, Michael Burkhardt, or some of Robert Hobby’s pieces, you’ll need to head over to MorningStar Music.
Children and the Organ
This past Sunday as I was playing the organ postlude, I saw in my peripheral vision someone standing off to the side. I lost my focus for a beat as I wondered who it was and what he wanted. To my surprise it was a father with his 3 or 4-year old son. The little guy wanted to see the “thing” that made all the noise.
As this was happening, someone walked by and jokingly said, “Chris, it looks like you might have some competition on the organ bench.” Those words have been with me the last few days. Not the competition part, but the part of nurturing our young people to consider pursuing church music vocations.
O Sing of Christ
Some of you may be familiar with O Sing of Christ (LSB 362) by Stephen Starke – a wonderful Christmas hymn text that will be new to many, but coupled to the tune Forest Green (sometimes sung to O Little Town of Bethlehem).
While listening to my Christmas iPod playlist, I came across a recording of a delightful hymn setting of O Sing of Christ that I discovered a few years back. After a little bit of Internet research I found the source of it — Outer Rim Territories. The setting is by Kevin Hildebrand and is a rehearsal recording of one of the seminary choral groups. You can even sing along if you like.
Improvisation for Organists
My previous post on hymn introductions (aka Invitation to Sing) got me to thinking about improvisation. To the average organist, it may sound like a daunting task or something that only “experienced” organists can do. You may be thinking, “I’ll stick to playing what’s on the page.” Let me tell you fellow organists: you too can improvise.
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