Alleluia!

It's after Valentine's Day and we can still sing Alleluia in church, because Lent is still weeks away.  Hard to believe, isn't it?  The weather this week has only made it harder yet, because the only snow drifts left in my neighborhood are the remnants of snow piles next to driveways.  Maybe that groundhog knew what he was talking about?  (Or maybe it'll be back to reality next week, but we can still enjoy it for now!)

This week we get to open and close the service with two of my favorite hymns.  The opening hymn will be "O Holy Spirit Enter In" (ELW 786), a text that seems like such a perfect opening prayer that it will also be the meditative prelude.  The composer of this great tune is Phillip Nicolai.  He was born a decade after Martin Luther had died, and he served as a Lutheran pastor in Germany in the late 16th century.  His tunes have inspired composers ever since, particularly the chorale tune we're singing this week, which is sometimes referred to as "the queen of chorales."

Our closing hymn will be "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" (ELW 631).  The Welsh hymn tune by Rowland Prichard will be well known, and the particular text here is by the prolific Charles Wesley.  I think the strong 3/4 meter has a great lilting, lusty quality that makes it a joy to sing.

That upbeat 3/4 tempo will be echoed in the postlude as well, when I play an arrangement of the Easter tune "O Sons and Daughters of the Lord" by Deshayes.  Despite being an Easter text, the hymn is in a minor key which may be part of why it no longer appears in our hymnal.  But it's a beautiful chorale, and the setting has plenty of fun flourishes for the organ and a big ending, if you stick around for it.

Vincent Lubeck Prelude and Fugue

My regular readers and listeners will know that I tend to draw heavily from hymn-based materials for my service music selections. I take great pleasure in weaving together the hymns and service music in coordination with the choir, readings, and sermon to present a unified message for the week. On some occasions, however, it's a nice change of pace to play a piece from the standard classical organ repertoire, providing a chance to enjoy the music and your own personal silent prayer and meditation.

When you think of Baroque organ music, and in particular German organ music of the 17th and 18th centuries, the only name to spring to mind is likely Bach. If you're a regular reader of my blog or a real music connoisseur, you might know of Buxtehude as well. However, that place and period were a hotbed of organ composition. Bach is the acknowledged master of the craft, but he flourished amid very talented contemporaries.

One of those fellow organ composers was Vincent Lubeck. He was the organist at St. Nikolai in Hamburg, which was home to one of the world's largest organs at the time. Unfortunately, much of his music has been lost over the centuries. There is also added confusion because his son shared his name and profession, and it's unclear whether some pieces were composed by the father or son.

This Sunday, I'll be playing a Prelude and Fugue in a minor believed to be composed by Vincent Senior, splitting it between the prelude before the service and the fugue after. The music demonstrates several characteristics of the period - the ornamentation, virtuosic scales (particularly the opening few measures), and inversion and episodes in the fugue. It may sound like Bach to a casual listener, but it's a great opportunity to expand your repertoire of Baroque organ composers.

A quick quiz

Here's a quick, one problem quiz for you:

Name two different pieces of music that I have played during communion at a worship service any Sunday in the past 18 months.

Can you name anything other than "Blowin' in the Wind"? And that, my friends, is a primary reason that I think it was a great addition to this past Sunday's worship: it was memorable. It made people talk. (In fact, some people who came to second service had already heard about it.) Now, I'm not saying that church musicians should be controversial simply for the sake of controversy and conversation, but it can be exciting to see people actually discussing the music, rather than blithely ignoring it.

Many mega-churches have gone to the extreme of contemporary music, having no pipe organs at all in place of a praise band, for instance. Rick Warren famously said that people don't listen to classical organ music in their home (or on their iPods), so why should they have to do so when they come to church? I have three responses to such a critique. First, the unique nature of the language and music of church is what sets it apart as a santuary for our community. Second, some of the music people don't listen to is among the greatest ever composed (just as some of the books we don't read are the truly great classics), and we have a responsibility to aid their propagation. Finally, we can maintain our traditions while also being flexible and welcoming new music, technology, language, and ideas - the most promising trend in church music is toward "blended" worship.

Plus, I do believe that philosophers, artists, composers, and musicians continue to grapple with the same driving questions about the human condition that the Bible raises. In this particular instance, Bob Dylan's answer "in the wind" is not that different from the ongoing search of the book of Ecclesiastes.

I hope you enjoyed the musical change of pace, and whether you did or you didn't, I'd love to hear from you any week!

"Music Near the Market"

Last spring, I had managed to arrange my academic schedule so that I could attend the Wednesday afternoon concerts at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ohio City. I wrote then about the great experience of hearing their von Beckerath organ and the joy of an afternoon in Ohio City and shopping at the West Side Market. Unfortunately, this semester will not allow me to attend any of the concerts, but I want to help spread the word about the great opportunity to hear beautiful organ music in the area.

On Sept. 23rd at noon, Robert Myers will play a concert of "Point counterpoint," featuring the music of Bach and Pachelbel.

On Sept. 30th at noon, Linda Kempke and flutist Julie Wesolek will be performing together.

If you happen to be free, these events promise to feature incredible music in a beautiful setting!

Even Schoenberg, Cage, and Manz would have been shocked!

What the heck were all those wrong notes emanating from the organ during the introduction to the Sanctus during the second service?!?!

Well, you see, the Great Thanksgiving we're using is in the key of E, while the rest of the liturgy is in F. Normally, to correct that I simply "sight" the Great Thanksgiving up a half step. Today, though, I decided to transpose the electronic pipes and make it easy on myself.

Unfortunately, I forgot to "untranspose" before adding the real organ pipes to the electronic sounds. So when I started the introduction, you were hearing the organ being played in two keys simultaneously - a half step apart. Not a pretty sound!

My first organ teacher had a saying that she didn't charge for the wrong notes; they were thrown in for free along with the right ones. So you can just think of that intro today as twice as many notes for the same price.

It's pretty much impossible to make a quiet mistake on a pipe organ on Sunday morning, but I hope you'll all forgive the mistake. I'll do my best to avoid a repeat next week!

It had better still work!

Last week, I traveled across the midwest to meet family in Missouri. No, none of us has ever lived in Missouri, it was just a place to meet in the middle. On the way, I spent two nights in Springfield, Illinois. I hadn't been there for several years, and it was fun to return to the tourist sites like Lincoln's home and office as well as Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana-Thomas house.

I also stopped by Springfield's First Presbyterian Church, which is home to the "Lincoln Pew." The building wasn't constructed until after Lincoln's death, but it was the site of Mary Todd Lincoln's funeral, and the narthex of the church proudly displays the pew that the family rented in a previous building.

After being underwhelmed by the pew, I was amazed by the beauty of the sanctuary: the eight Tiffany stained glass windows and, to my surprise, a pipe organ built by John Brombaugh (his Opus 35). Brombaugh is among the major organ builders of the 20th century, and he has a local connection because one of his organs is at First Lutheran in Lorain.

I won't bore you with geeky arcana of organ construction, but I do want to share one of my favorite stories that the docent told about the pipe organ. One Springfield tourist who was used to everything in town dating from the 1860s had commented to her that it was amazing the organ still played so beautifully. To which the docent replied, "It had better still work! We just got it in 2000!"

Yes, pipe organs still get designed and installed in churches all around the world, and they're still playing some of the greatest music and hymns ever composed, whether the music is 300 years old, composed last month, or improvised during the service.

Local concerts at Trinity

Since I'm a transplant to the greater Cleveland area, I've always been eager to seek out the best sights and experiences the area has to offer, from parks to art museums, from restaurants to music. It never ceases to amaze me when I stumble across a gem that long-time residents have overlooked, taken for granted, or simply been too busy to explore. We sometimes forget the amazing things in our own backyard or put them off for "another day." Next week will perhaps give you the chance to rectify that by attending either of two upcoming organ recitals on Trinity Lutheran's famous Beckerath organ at West 30th.

The first recital will be July 6th at 4:00 p.m. That concert is one of the free events sponsored by the National Organ Historical Society, and it will feature the renowned organist Joan Lippincott. The church will likely be packed, so arrive early or be willing to stand.

If you'd prefer a smaller crowd, you can go to a much more informal program on the afternoon of July 11th at 1:00 p.m. The church is describing the event as a musical open house, with a range of performers from professionals to students. Refreshments will be for sale, and people are free to come and go for as much music as they'd like. This event would be a perfect break from shopping at the West Side Market on a Saturday afternoon. That sounds like a near perfect way to spend the day in Cleveland, if you ask this newcomer!

Public Radio Part 2 - Funeral music

You might not think that the NPR show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" would spark a blog entry about church music, but you'd be wrong. One of the reasons I love the show is that its witty humor encompasses not only the main headlines from the news, but also the quirky stories from around the world. For instance, this week included news of the outrage that greeted a British crematorium that is replacing their organist with a karaoke machine. (You can read the Telegraph's article about it here.)

I suppose there are some benefits to prerecorded music. With 24 hours notice, you can have almost any piece played in almost any key - from ancient hymns to modern songs of any kind - without worrying about whether the musicians are sight reading something they've never heard before. You can control the volume, and you certainly never have to worry about wrong notes.

But there are downsides too. The music can be tinny and the arrangements weak. The vocal tracks can be almost unbearably bad, and if someone does try to sing along karaoke style we all know what a nightmare that can become. Plus, you lose any personal touches and the ability to lengthen the musical interlude of a communion service running a minute longer than the selected hymn.

The bottom line, though, is that a funeral should celebrate the life of the deceased, the family, and the congregation (in that order). People turn to the great hymns of faith because not only because they are great texts set to great music, but also because they represent the familiar and comforting tunes we have sung for generations and throughout our own lives. This past Saturday, members of Bethany gathered with friends and family to remember and celebrate our friend Harry's life in words and music, especially his favorite hymn "A Mighty Fortress." It was so fitting that a man of such faith should have such a strong association with a favorite hymn.

Whether they get sung, played on the organ, or piped through a sound system, ask yourself what hymns means the most to you. The hymnal, like the Bible, can express the joy of a beautiful day, the sorrow and the hope inherent in a funeral, and the celebration of a wedding. With that song list, who needs a karaoke machine if you have a good Lutheran organist?!

Clara Schumann

This Sunday's prelude will be "Prelude and fugue in g minor" by Clara Schumann. On Mothers' Day, I feel it's only appropriate to ensure representation by women composers, and Clara Schumann is one of the most remarkable women ever to compose for the keyboard.

She was married to the composer Robert Schumann, but Clara was the primary breadwinner and performer in the family. She was born in 1819, and was already touring Europe at age 11. She was a respected virtuoso performer all her life, with her final concert at the age of 72. Her husband's career, in fact, was greatly aided by her support, and other Romantic composers sought her advice and collaboration - including a deep friendship with Brahms.

In addition to her musical career, as a 19th century woman she was certainly expected to run the household and care for her children, all seven of them. She later took on the responsibility of raising several of her grandchildren as well.

Clara Schumann's music is not performed anywhere near as regularly as it should be. There are a few possible reasons. First, she stopped composing at a young age to focus on performing, teaching, and her family. Second, she composed in a style that was not in fashion at the time, sounding more like the classical music of the 18th century than the new Romantic style of her own era. Third, her distaste for much Romantic music led to hostility with Liszt, Wagner, and Bruckner. Fighting with the major composers of her own generation could not have helped her own reputation.

If you just listen casually to the prelude, you might not notice anything too different this Sunday - just another classical organ composition, a lyrical prelude and a fast-paced 3 voice fugue. But its worth knowing a bit about the life of Clara Schumann, an amazing role model and a great composer.

Another three Bs

Most people have heard of the famous "3 Bs" - Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. They are revered as among the greatest composers of all time, and we certainly hear plenty of their music. This Sunday's organ selections, however, come from a different trio - Bohm, Bruckner, and Burkhardt.

The prelude will be another setting of the Lord's Prayer by Bohm (1661 - 1733). It provides a contemplative, prayerful contrast to the bombastic Easter hymns that we are still singing this Sunday.

The "Silent Meditation Prelude" (the name suggested by Linda in an earlier comment - Do you like it? Have another idea? Weigh in with a comment!) will be a brief Andante movement composed by Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896). His reputation has languished in the shadow of his more famous contemporaries, principally Wagner and Brahms. He is an important artist in his own right, however, and Sunday's snippet of music will give us just a taste of his late Romantic harmonies.

Finally, the postlude will be one of my favorites - "Toccata on Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" by Michael Burkhardt (b. 1957). Burkhardt serves on the faculty of Carthage College (ELCA) and is a superb composer and arranger of Lutheran church music. When we reach the postlude, we'll have traversed over 350 years of music history.

You might recognize the postlude, since I played it once last spring, but it's such an uplifting piece of music that I think its worth hearing at least annually. I hope you linger to hear the strains of the familiar hymn and that it sends you out the church door humming a hymn tune with a smile on your face, rejuvenated by the worship experience for the week ahead.

Was that as loud as the organ can play?

I heard this question a few times following the Easter services. During such a celebratory service, singing some of the most rousing and beautiful hymns of praise with a full church, I did let the organ pipes roar beyond what I would do on a typical Sunday, of course. In the last verse of the opening hymn ("Jesus Christ is Risen Today"), you heard the organ at approximately 90% of its theoretical full volume.

Why only 90%? Well, first I'll ask you: wasn't it loud enough already? Second, not all pipes on an organ can be played at the same time and sound good together. The salicional and vox humana don't get along well with the flutes and diapasons (to put it in geeky organ language).

Also, our unique mix of pipe organ and electronic keyboard means that I can add in as much volume as the lectern-side speakers will pump out. On Easter, I was using the electronic pipes mostly for the 16 foot and 32 foot pipe sounds - in other words, that low rumble you might have felt in your chest during some of the hymns.

Given the contraints of what sounds good, there's really no need to go beyond 90% capacity of the instrument, and we probably won't hit that mark again until next Easter or at least until Reformation Sunday or Thanksgiving!

Easter prelude

Some organists love to begin Easter Sunday with a bang - a bombastic, praiseful piece of music. That's not me. Don't get me wrong, there will be plenty of joyous, loud music, with trumpet descant and all our voices raised in celebration.

But I believe that the celebration and joy we feel as disciples of Christ on Easter is best experienced in contrast to the sorrow of Good Friday, the confusion of His early followers following the crucifixion, and the quiet faith that sustatined the women who discovered the empty tomb.

My Easter prelude this year will be "Credo in unum Deum" by Samuel Scheidt, a 16th century German composer. It is a chorale setting of the Creed, the centerpiece of worship.

The liturgical mass parts (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus) make it clear that the Creed is the heart of worship. Musicians throughout the ages have placed it in the center of their mass settings. This is, incidentally, one of my isues with the ELW and its division of the service into Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending. It omits the explicit mention of the recitation of the tenets of our faith!

How difficult it must have been for the followers of Christ to have faith, in the aftermath of His death and because of their own persecution. We all face challenges to our faith, personally and as a body of Christians (see the recent cover of Newsweek, for just the latest example of the latter). We are an Easter people, though, with confidence in our faith and a bold statement of belief.

So sing your heart out this Sunday on some of our greatest hymns! But use the prelude to consider as well the quiet voice of faith within us that can boldly state "I believe in one God..." Then let the celebration begin!

Stan Hywet's organ

I'm expanding the definition of the phrase "around Cleveland" to include the Akron area. Perhaps that's a stretch for a local and "around Northeast Ohio" would be more appropriate. I'm still learning the geography and language of the area, after all!


At any rate, the Akron Beacon Journal had a nice article about the organ at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. They're celebrating a major overhaul of the instrument and its return this spring with an upcoming concert.


Pipe organs are rare and expensive instruments. Outside of churches, they are only occasionally found in good working order in theatres or private homes. To maintain those instruments properly requires that they be played and maintained at great cost, so it is important news and a cause for celebration when an organ is restored. Too many of them fall into disrepair and are lost.


There are a number of unique and significant instruments around Cleveland: Trinity Lutheran, Severance Hall, Public Auditorium, the Masonic Auditorium, and now Stan Hywet Hall. I encourage you to go listen to them if you ever get the chance and to enjoy the fact that Bethany has a pipe organ of its own for us to enjoy every week.

More healing music

ELW 871:

Sing praise to God, the highest good, the author of creation!

O God of love, you understood our need for your salvation.

With healing balm our souls you fill;

All our lament with peace you still.

To God all praise and glory!

There's a strain of "new age" thinking that posits when you are thinking of something the universe responds with an answer, and there are pyschologists who say it's simply a matter of heightened awareness of things that were already there. Either way, I'm still hearing and reading more about the healing effects of music.

First, this study purports to find a link between listening to favorite songs and stroke recovery and therapy. It reminds me a bit of the "Mozart effect" (about which I think most scientists have become quite skeptical of any major effects). But there remains a fascination and ongoing study of a certain je ne sais quoi that lies embedded in the power of music. We may not be able to quantify it, but our mood and our health seem improved when we listen and sing music we love.

Also, I received a program in the mail today from my grandmother. Her 50-voice choir (all senior citizens) recently performed a Broadway tribute concert. I'm sure they all had a great time singing well-known tunes with friends, and I wish I could have heard them. She'll be turning 80 this year, and she and my grandfather (and my other grandmother who also turns 80 this fall) continue to amaze me with their health and vitality - playing golf, biking 10 miles at a time, travelling, going to church, and singing! I wouldn't say music is central to their lives, but it certainly has a place.

Music has an almost infinite variety, and it seems like everyone has some tune that enlivens their soul. Joanne shared a beautiful story in response to my previous post about the power of music. It's something to think about - what tune gives you the greatest sense of healing - is it something calming and soothing in a time of struggle or something energetic and lively to get your foot tapping?

Music Near the Market

Since I'm on spring break from classes this week, I was able to attend Trinity Lutheran's "Music Near the Market" afternoon recital. It's one of the organ institutions of the Cleveland area, but it was the first time my schedule had allowed me to go hear the instrument. And the organ itself is definitely the draw for this event - constructed by Rudolph von Beckerath in 1957, it is entirely mechanical. The instrument was hand-built using basically the same methodologies of Bach's era. It has nearly 3,500 pipes in 65 ranks and 5 divisions. (For comparison, Bethany has roughly 700 in13 ranks and 2 divisions, so we're talking about a major organ that's roughly five times as big as ours.)

The half-hour recital itself was quite nice with plenty of Bach and an overall focus on shorter hymn-based chorales that were appropriate for Lent. The playing was superb, and the audience of 25 was appreciative.

However, when it came to outreach and ministry, I felt that the event fell a bit short. I think it was a missed opportunity that no one greeted newcomers at the door, no formal introduction was made, nor was an invitation extended to join in worship. The church facilities are well past their glory days, with crumbling plaster and loudly clanking radiators. I had trouble balancing my joy from the music and the event in general with the small crowd and the dismal surroundings. Perhaps it's my theatre background - we're always glad to have an audience of any size, but we always wish the marketing effort had brought in more people!

If you happen to be free on Wednesday afternoons, the event is definitely worth the trip. You can even stop by the nearby West Side Market for some shopping after the recital, go to one of the great restaurants in the area, or just enjoy a walk around the area in the spring air like I did. A great way to spend a few hours of my spring break!

Church tour - the organ

Since we've had communion at the altar rail since the beginning of Advent, many of you have had the opportunity to walk by the organ while I've been playing. I've especially noticed some of our youngest members peeking around the corner at all the buttons. Today, I want to share some of the basic facts about our instrument.

At Bethany English Lutheran, our organ is officially titled Austin Organ Company's Opus 1649, originally installed in 1929 and extensively rebuilt in 1981. It has two manuals (keyboards) of 61 keys each, a pedal keyboard with 32 pedals, and an electro-pneumatic action.

The organ has 13 ranks of pipes. That essentially means that there are 13 distinct sounds that can be made by pulling out the stops, based on the shape, size, and characteristics of the pipes. Each rank requires one pipe for every key, which means there are around 700 pipes in the wall behind the organ (on the pulpit side of the church).

Additionally, the church has a set of Ahlborn "electronic pipes" that are controlled by the black box you can see sitting on top of the organ. The speakers for these sounds are on the lectern side of the church, so you can likely tell when I'm adding these sounds to the pipe organ, based on where the sound is coming from. (The big bass sound for the closing hymn this past Sunday was from the electronic pipes, where our best 16' and 32' sounds come from.)

I don't want to bore my readers with too much technical writing about the instrument (hopefully I haven't already), but there's a decent summary about pipe organs in general at this link, if you'd like to read more. I also encourage you to satisfy your curiosity by coming up between services or anytime you see me in church. I'm always happy to demonstrate the instrument and talk about the music at Bethany!