This Sunday, Sept. 19th at the 10:30 service, we are going to have a mini-Mozart festival. The service will begin with soprano Georgine Stark, singing the “Laudate Dominum” from the Vesperae de Dominica, K. 321 as the prelude. This is a real “tour de force” for both soprano and accompanist (that’s me!)

We’re actually going to try something new this week, in that Pastor Jeff will make a few brief announcements just after the first bell is rung, and will invite all to listen to the “prelude.” Then the ushers will ring three bells to begin the service. This is a change in procedure that we discussed in Worship and Music Committee this past week, with the hope that more people will be encouraged to listen to the prelude. After all, the prelude “sets the stage” for the service that follows. Sometimes we have very quiet, meditative preludes depending on the theme of the day, and on festival services, the prelude might be quite boisterous and full of excitement.

The offertory will be sung by the choir, Mozart’s “Laudate pueri,” also from the Vesperae de Dominica, then during the communion, I will play Mozart’s “Prelude on ‘Ave verum corpus,” (arranged by E. Power Biggs), followed by the choir singing the famous anthem with the same name. I will close the service with an excerpt from Mozart’s “Fantasia in F minor, K. 608.” Unfortunately due to time constraints I won’t be able to play the complete version of this brilliant work, which normally takes about 15 minutes. It was originally written for musical clock (a mechanical instrument), and many people deemed it almost “unplayable” because of its level of difficulty. On Sunday I will only be playing the first couple of pages plus the final fugue, and that will have to suffice.

Come hear us perform the elegant music of Mozart this Sunday!