This piece is a short Hymn Intonation for pipe organ on the tune CONSOLATION written for the Advent hymn “The King Shall Come.” It features a pedal ostinato and a quasi-canon at the unison. To obtain a copy, click on the picture below. on Square Market
In these past few weeks we have celebrated the lives of quite a few members at Trinity, including this past weekend the all too short earthly life of Avonlea Warner. Hymns and songs take a whole new meaning in the context of a funeral. I was especially touched by the ones we sang last Saturday: “Father Welcomes All His Children,” “Children of the Heavenly Father,” “All Through the Night,” and “Alleluia!… Read More »
One of the best ways to pass our faith along is to involve children in the ministry of the church, and one of the best ways to do that is to involve children in the proclamation of the Music Ministry as much as possible. This Sunday morning at Trinity could be called Youth Music Sunday because close to 80 children will be leading the music at our worship services. At… Read More »
On Thursday evening our choir rehearsed the great Martin Franzmann hymn “O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth” for Reformation Sunday. Among the many powerful phrases and metaphors are these lines drawn almost directly from Scripture: How beautiful the feet that trod the road that leads us back to God! How beautiful the feet that ran to bring the great good news to man! (Lutheran Service Book #834 – St. 3)… Read More »
When we are given a great treasure, we are also given great responsibility. Whether the treasure we receive is of an earthly or of a heavenly nature, it always comes with a responsibility to first cherish the gift and thank the giver; to then protect, grow, and nurture the gift; and then finally to share the gift with the world around us so they too can be blessed and nurtured… Read More »
Most people know about the “Love Chapter” of the Bible, but few people know about the “Resurrection Chapter.” 1 Corinthians 13 is the “Love Chapter,” but only two chapters later you will find what I like to call the “Resurrection Chapter.” Some parts of 1 Corinthians 15 may be familiar to you, especially if you frequently listen to or have sung some of the great choral works of the ages like Handel’s… Read More »
Fuga 4 a 5 from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, Book I (WTC I) is not only an amazing piece of music, but also a powerful statement by Bach of his personal faith (click here to hear this fugue and see it unfold). One would not expect to find statements of faith in a purely instrumental work such as the WTC I, but for Bach there was virtually no difference… Read More »
The hymn “My Song is Love Unknown” features a text from the 1600s coupled with a melody composed in the early 1900s by the English composer and church musician John Ireland (1879-1962). This haunting and beautiful melody was apparently composed casually one day over lunch at the suggestion of fellow church musician and composer Geoffrey Shaw (1879-1943). The poet of this hymn, Samuel Crossman (c. 1624-1683), was a pastor who… Read More »
In this Lenten season, it is good for Christians to realize that our world, including our religious world, is a highly sanitized one, especially when compared to past civilizations. We gather in beautiful churches and finely decorated homes and speak, sing, and pray of sacrifice, but we tend to forget that sacrificial laws of the Old Testament were very real and very bloody. If we were able to observe these sacrifices,… Read More »
Contrary to what Bill Nye the Science Guy says, when we die, it’s NOT over. In the Book of Revelation, St. John tells us many times of an Eternal Song that is being sung continually by the Saints and Angels. It is a song of redemption that extends all the way back to Moses: “And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the… Read More »
