The Bishop Was Here, But You'll Just Have to Imagine the Visuals!

(I goofed, and posted something that was copyrighted, and my post was removed. I'm not sure exactly what it was that I wasn't supposed to post, but I'm guessing it was a picture. So here is my post without the pictures. I also removed the links to the audio, although I don't think that was the offending content. Who knows? I wish they would have been more specific. Anyway, you'll just have to use your imagination... If I find out that the audio was ok, I'll put it back in later.)

(Later edit: I put the second musical link back in, because I'm pretty sure it's fair use. I'll be ready to stand corrected, if I get slapped again.)

(Edited again ~ I think it was the sound file after all, so I removed the link. Go figure!)

(Edited one last time ~ I added a picture I took on the day I went to practice the organ.)



Today the Bishop, Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, was in town. All of the Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of West Missouri met together at the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, in lieu of having services in the individual churches.

I was one of several organists who were asked to contribute seven minutes to the prelude of the service.

This was rather daunting, for several reasons. This is the biggest organ in the Kansas City area, and I am not very well acquainted with it. With four manuals, and all those stops and pistons, I thought surely there would be a button somewhere for switching off the wrong notes, but I never did find one. So I included some wrong notes in my musical offering.

I estimate that there were about 1,200 people there, including a mass choir. This was actually reassuring, though. With that many people present, that means that at the very most, only one twelve-hundredth of it was about me. That kind of took the pressure off.

But another thing did make it very intimidating for me. Some of the best organists in the area participated in this service. I knew that they would be extremely accomplished and well-prepared. Also, I predicted (correctly) that they would select very sophisticated pieces of music that would showcase their skills.

My academic musical training was not in organ ~ I came from a small liberal arts college ~ and that was a long time ago ~ so I am not very well-versed in organ literature. I am a pianist who learned to play in the "close enough" style, mostly on the job. Recently, I've done some extracurricular study, but I am not in the same league with these guys, either in repertoire or skill.

When I made my selections, I knew that they would be "service music," in contrast to the more intricate works that others would be playing. I think this is okay. It was a service, after all, not an organ recital, and service music is where I live. I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not. The prelude would be a time of commotion, as people come in chatting and finding their seats, so I thought it would be nice to have some music that didn't challenge the listener a great deal. Something with clarity and good taste.

I played two settings of a hymn called "All My Hope on God is Founded," both by Michael Burkhardt. The tune itself is wonderfully irregular in its meter, and it is a good, sturdy tune that has become one of my favorites.

I recorded these with a cassette tape recorder at my one and only practice session on the organ, and will try to post the sound files on this blog. I have never posted an audio file, so I hope it works.

The first setting is pretty straightforward, but I did not do some of the things the composer indicated. I restricted myself to the limitations of the organ I usually practice on, and although the auditorium organ certainly does not have these limitations, I didn't feel comfortable doing anything different from what I do in practice. So the organ is huge, but I only played a small fraction of it! (A footnote on the score indicates that the piece quotes Herbert Howells' Psalm Prelude, Op. 32, No. 1. Coincidentally, the organist right before me played Op. 32. No. 2!)

The second setting is festive ~ an ornamented trumpet tune with lots of sparkly stuff and a couple of sudden modulations that could sound like a cheap thrill, but I think the composer did them tastefully. Anyway, I get a kick out of this piece ~ it's kind of a guilty pleasure.

I did feel like I stuck out a little, playing pieces like this in the midst of all that organ literature. But I think they were good selections for the occasion, and for the kind of organist I am. And although I was way out of my comfort zone, I didn't screw up too badly.

The Gospel reading was something along the lines of "whoever is greatest must be the least, and whoever is least shall be the greatest." In that context, I did great!