The Church Organist's Library is a general-use anthology containing easy organ music from all historical periods primarily for manual only, and for manuals with easy pedal. Urtext editions are used whenever possible. The music is presented to show what the composer wrote and what was published in the first edition. Any editorial suggestions, additions, or alterations are enclosed in brackets and/or indicated by footnotes. The Church Organist's Library contains works previously published in The Organist's Companion.
Whether you are adding another volume to your collection or just starting your library, this set of moderately challenging classics, hymn fantasies, and choral preludes, reprinted from The Organ Portfolio, is a must-have for every church organist. Ninety-six pages and spiral bound, the music is printed on three staves in an upright format with registrations provided for all organs. Durations are also included to aid programming decisions.
This classic method for beginners provides a brief history of the instrument, an explanation of organ construction, a discussion of the various stops and their management, a section devoted to practical study, and several pieces.
The purpose of this book is to provide, within a single volume, technical studies, diverse compositions, and technical information for beginning organists. The book is also intended for those experienced organists who want to review organ technique and at the same time have a convenient collection of useful compositions.
Influenced by Robert and Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, Johannes Brahms not only learned to play the organ at the beginning of his career, but also wrote significant compositions for the instrument as a result of his early counterpoint study. He composed for the organ only sporadically or as part of larger choral and instrumental works in his subsequent career. During the final year of his life, however, he returned to pure organ composition with a set of chorale preludes--though many of these are thought to have been revisions of earlier works. Today, the organ works of Johannes Brahms are recognized as beautifully-crafted compositions by church and concert organists across the world and have become a much-cherished component of the repertoire. Until now, however, most scholarly accounts of Brahms's life and work treat his works for the organ as a minor footnote in his development as a composer. Precisely because the collection of organ works is not extensive, the pieces--composed at different times during Brahms's lifetime--help to map his path as a composer, pinpointing various stages in his artistic development. In this volume, Barbara Owen offers the first in-depth study of this corpus, considering Brahms's organ works in relation to his background, methods, and overall artistic development, his contacts with organs and organists, the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries, and analyses of each specific work and its place in Brahms's career. Her expert history and analysis of Brahms's individual organ works and their interpretation also investigates contemporary practices relative to the performance of these pieces. The book's three valuable appendices present a guide to editions of Brahms's organ works, a discussion of the organ in Brahms's world that highlights some organs the composer would have heard, and a listing of the organ transcriptions of Brahms's work. Blending unique insights into composition and performance practice, this book will be read eagerly by performers, students, and scholars of the organ, Brahms, and the music of the Nineteenth Century.
For centuries, pipe organs stood at the summit of musical and technological achievement, admired as the most complex and intricate mechanisms the human race had yet devised. In All The Stops, New York Times journalist Craig Whitney journeys through the history of the American pipe organ and brings to life the curious characters who have devoted their lives to its music. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, organ music was wildly popular in America. Organ builders in New York and New England could hardly fill the huge demand for both concert hall and home organs. Master organbuilders found ingenious ways of using electricity to make them sound like orchestras. Organ players developed cult followings and bitter rivalries. One movement arose to restore to American organs the clarity and precision that baroque organs had in centuries past, while another took electronic organs to the rock concert halls, where younger listeners could be found. But while organbuilders and organists were fighting with each other, popular audiences lost interest in the organ. Today, organs are beginning to make a comeback in concert halls and churches across America. Craig Whitney brings the story to life and up to date in a humorous, engaging book about the instruments and vivid personalities that inspired his lifelong passion: the great art of the majestic pipe organ. Hear the sounds of some of the pipe organs featured in ALL THE STOPS
"Music and silence-how I detest them both!"Screwtape, under-secretary to the devil, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. LewisIt's easy to see why the enemies of mankind would hate and fear both sacred silence and sacred music. Both bring joy, spur contemplation, and draw the soul nearer to the Lord. Both have been part of our private prayer as well as our communal liturgy for thousands of years.The Psalms-biblical songs of praise, supplication, and wonder-have been sung for three thousand years. Naturally, Jesus, His disciples, and later the early Christian community also sang hymns (from the Greek word meaning "songs of praise"), as The New Testament makes clear. We sing because we love, and sung praise elevates our words, takes them out of the realm of the commonplace, and increases our joy. The holy pleasure of singing to God involves the entire person-spirit, heart, mind, and body-and unites us not only with the Divine but also with one another as a worshiping community.This collection of hymns for the singing Catholic congregation exemplifies the best of the genre. These songs are religiously orthodox, beautiful, sacred, and-for the most part-familiar. But here you will also find worthy hymn tunes and texts that are new to you.We present this book to propose not that hymns replace the proper chants for that days Mass* but live happily alongside them. In most instances the proper chants for processions are the prerogative of cantors and choirs and, as they change very day as part of the Mass aren't practical to be sung by the congregation. Hymns, on the other hand, belong to all the faithful and serve as a key means of the "active participation" spoken of in Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Hymns have been sung as an important part of the Liturgy of the Hours for century upon century, so they are nothing new, new only to be sung at Mass. "To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence."Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II, 1963), Paragraph 30In a parish where the scriptures are sung, the introit will accompany the procession of the ministers and the cross. Clergy, choir, and people can then sing a congregational hymn. The same is true at offertory and Communion: hymns can follow the proper chants. And at the conclusion of Mass, a suitable hymn can send the people forth with the praise of Almighty God on their lips.May this book bring joy to all who sing from it! What is the source of the Sung Antiphons for the Roman liturgy Mass?The proper texts of the Antiphons of the Roman liturgy may be found in: Graduale Romanum; English translations of these texts are also widely available. The antiphons from the Roman Missal, third edition, may also serve as proper texts. For more information see: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican II, 1963), Musicam Sacram (Instruction on Music in the Liturgy, 1967)The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 2010.
"Police chief Hayden Konig is a lucky man. He's wealthy, he enjoys his work, he has a loving wife, good friends, and lives in the quaintest, most picturesque town in the North Carolina mountains. With all this going for him, you d think he d be satisfied. He's not. He longs to be a writer, a hard-boiled, noir detective word-slinger worthy of the 1939 Underwood No. 5 sitting on his desk a typewriter once owned by Raymond Chandler. You'd think a machine like this would help. It doesn't. As a detective, Chief Konig is at the top of his game. As the organist at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, he can play with the best of them. But as a writer, Hayden produces more bad prose than the St. Germaine Garden Club s annual poetry review. ... What do the bones of an ancient king, a scoodle of skunks, a farm auction, the best Christmas parade ever, and an obnoxious deacon have to do with the dead body floating in Lake Tannenbaum? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. It's up to Hayden to pull all the clues together like two cousins in a Kentucky hayloft. After all, Epiphany is right around the corner!"--P. [4] of cover.
