A couple of days ago, I got an email from Carole Arenson, the editor of the newsletter for Region 4 of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), asking me to write an article for the next issue. One of the topics she suggested was “Advent/Xmas ideas — can be something which has worked in the past for your congregation, Stuff that works for organ, or something you feel people could benefit from. The idea of having Advent/Xmas now is that leaders have the opportunity to have it ‘percolate’ through the summer so by fall the germ of an idea comes into fruition.”

After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to write an article about the “O” Antiphon service, and elicit Carl Crosier’s help, of course! Here’s how I opened:

It’s April, and church musicians are already thinking about what they will be singing for Advent and Christmas — right?

Of course, I looked back at my previous post on the “O” Antiphons as a starting point. I also dug through the piles of programs we have in our closet and found out that Carl had already compiled a list of possible readings, hymns and choral music for the seven lessons. With an introduction to what the “O” Antiphon service is and how it came about at St. Mark’s Cathedral (Seattle) and the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, plus a repertoire list, my article turned out to be five pages long — with four pages of it a repertoire list of over 100 pieces of music.

I thought it would be helpful to our ALCM colleagues if I furnished the names of the publishers for all the music on the list. That’s when I was soooooo amazed that Carl could remember which company published 99% of the music. Carl was cooking in the kitchen and I was sitting at our computer. The conversation went something like this:

“Carl, do you remember who published William Boyce, O where shall wisdom be found?” “Novello.”

“How about Anton Bruckner’s Virga Jesse floruit? ” “Peters.”

“Do you know who published Jacob Handl’s Obescro Domine?” “Arista.”

And on and on it went. Isn’t it surprising what people remember? Carl can tell you what repertoire a person played on a concert forty or fifty years ago and what they wore, and I remember people’s phone numbers and email addresses.

I never knew till now that he also knows publisher information!