When I teach my young students about playing the organ, I ask them, “And what is the last thing you do after you finish playing your piece?” Push the Cancel button! That is to cancel any stops that are on to eliminate any “oops!” moments if your fingers happen to touch any keys by mistake… Read More An Organist’s ‘Oops!’
In the Lutheran liturgy, the Gospel Acclamation, once known as the Alleluia, comes right after the second reading and precedes the reading of the Gospel. Verses are appointed for the day, which are sung after the Alleluia refrain. Over the years the LCH choir has sung settings by William Byrd, Heinrich Isaac, Carl Crosier, Peter… Read More New (to us) Gospel Acclamations
Some of you may have received an email message from the Oahu Choral Society about their spring fundraising banquet and silent auction on March 10th. The Oahu Choral Society sponsors all the activities of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus and the Honolulu Chamber Choir. Their mission is “to present and promote choral music at the highest… Read More Vivace! 2012 to honor Carl Crosier
That’s what superstar organist, Ken Cowan, received at last Sunday night’s concert at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and I’m so sorry that I didn’t do more to publicize his recital through this blog so that more of you could have attended his fantastic program. His program showed not only all the colors of the Aeolian-Skinner organ,… Read More Four standing ovations
Sunday, January 8th was the Baptism of Christ and I programmed two settings of “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” by J. S. Bach. They were both from a collection called “Clavierübung” or “keyboard practice,” which is sometimes referred to as Bach’s German Organ Mass because there are chorale preludes on the Ordinary — the… Read More Amazing coincidences
Yesterday when I opened the Star Advertiser newspaper, I cannot tell you thrilled I was to see Rodney Gehrke‘s picture prominently displayed in the entertainment section. Rodney arrived yesterday from San Francisco and will be playing a recital on the mighty Beckerath organ at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, Sunday, January 15th at 4 pm.… Read More Two organ recitals in January
Former organ student, Joey Fala, has been at home for Christmas break from college, and he and I were talking about Toccata in D minor by Max Reger (1873-1916) which he has been learning. I was telling him, it was “a heck of a lot easier to play when you have a crescendo pedal,” but of course,… Read More No crescendo pedal!
Not too long ago, we were contacted by Ken Peterson, a singer in the Seattle Compline choir, for information about the Compline service at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. Ken writes an excellent blog, Compline Underground, and he is beginning a new series of articles on the fifty plus Compline services which have been started… Read More Compline Underground
I’ve just put away the Christmas decorations and it’s time again to get the guest room ready — this time for Rodney Gehrke, organist who will be giving the second of this season’s Abendmusiken Concerts on Sunday, January 15th at 4 pm. Carl and I met Rodney over twenty years ago as part of the… Read More Rodney Gehrke, Concert Organist
I just got an email from WordPress.com with the Annual Report on this blog, “Another Year of Insanity,” which states that 27,411 people visited my blog in the year 2011! This is pretty remarkable, because of course, I don’t know 27,411 people — in fact I don’t know that I even know one-tenth of that!… Read More The numbers are in!