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hymn playing stuart forster A Modern Colloquium

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Page 1: hymn playing

hymn playing

stuart forster

A M o d e r n C o l l o q u i u m

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T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Table of Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Chapter 1: Existing information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: Obtaining new information . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 3: learning new Hymns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 4: The notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 5: articulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 6: Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 7: Tactus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter 8: Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter 9: Contrast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 10: Solo Stops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 11: acoustics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Chapter 12: Hymn introductions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 13: Between Verses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

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Chapter 14: The Choir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Chapter 15: Clergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Chapter 16: Competition for Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Chapter 17: Other instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Chapter 18: The Organ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Chapter 19: Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 20: The Essential ingredients . . . . . . . . . . 287

Chapter 21: Bad ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Chapter 22: Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

appendix a: Hymn ReferenceReferences by Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319References by Tune name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

appendix B: gTB’s Piston Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

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T a b l e o f E x a m p l e s

Example 3-1: Opening measures of In DIr Ist FreuDe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Example 3-2: Opening measures of Les PetItes soeurs. . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Example 3-3: Beginning of the refrain in earth anD aLL stars. . . . . . 29

Example 4-1: Opening measures of aureLIa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Example 4-2: measures 247–250 from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 mozart’s symphony no. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Example 4-3: Comparison of the first and third lines of nIcaea. . . . . . . 43

Example 4-4: last four measures of abbot’s LeIGh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Example 5-1: measures 9–10 of hymn to joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Example 5-2: measures 9–10 of hymn to joy as played by John Ferguson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Example 5-3: First four measures of rhuDDLan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Example 5-4: Opening measures of st. DenIo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Example 6-1: Opening measures of “amazing grace” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 with a quarter-note pulse

Example 6-2: Opening measures of “amazing grace” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 with a slow eighth-note pulse

Example 6-3: Opening measures of Freu DIch sehr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Example 6-4: Opening phrase of “lift Every Voice and Sing”. . . . . . . . . . 59

Example 6-5: Start of the refrain in “lift Every Voice and Sing”. . . . . . . . 59

Example 6-6: Third and fourth lines of In babILone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Example 6-7: Closing measures of “How great Thou art” . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Example 6-8: Opening measures of “Joy to the World” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Example 6-9: Closing measures of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 “How Brightly Shines the morning Star”

Example 6-10: Closing measures of hyFryDoL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Example 6-11: Second half of mILes Lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Example 6-12: Final measures of bryn caLFarIa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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Example 6-13: Excerpt from rePton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Example 6-14: First and last lines of hyFryDoL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Example 6-15: First phrase of roseDaLe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Example 7-1: Opening measures of aureLIa, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 showing articulation and octave equivalency

Example 7-2: Excerpt from hymn to joy, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 showing articulation and octave equivalency

Example 7-3: Opening measures of easter hymn, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 played in a fast two

Example 7-4: Opening measures of sIne nomIne, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 played in a fast two, with reversed articulation

Example 7-5: Opening phrases of orIentIs PartIbus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Example 9-1: Opening measures of sIne nomIne, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 decorated with sixteenth notes

Example 9-2: Final measures of the hymn in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 “Hear my Words, ye People”

Example 9-3: Excerpt from the last verse of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 st. PatrIcK’s breastPLate

Example 9-4: The climax of aDeste FIDeLes in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 David Willcocks’ arrangement

Example 11-1: Opening measures of sIne nomIne, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 showing articulation

Example 11-2: Opening phrase of hereForD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Example 12-1a Opening measures of DennIs in two different meters. . . 164 and 12-1b:

Example 13-1: Closing measures of rustInGton, as written . . . . . . . . . 173

Example 13-2: Join between verses of rustInGton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Example 13-3: Join between verses of rustInGton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 with a small congregation

Example 13-4: Join between verses of DIaDemata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Example 13-5: Join between verses of DIaDemata in a slower tempo . . 174

Example 13-6: Join between verses of Irby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Example 13-7: Join after exceptional verse of Irby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Example 13-8: Fast join between verses of aureLIa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Example 13-9: Fast join between verses of the FIrst noweLL. . . . . . . . 178

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Example 13-10: Strophic art song join between verses of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 the FIrst noweLL

Example 13-11: Join between first two verses of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” with modulation

Example 13-12: Brief interlude for “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” . . . . . . . 180 incorporating augmentation of the last three notes

Example 13-13: Three ways to join verses in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 reDheaD: 1) 2+2; 2) 3+2; 3) 4+2

Example 13-14: Joining verses in “For all the Saints” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 without additional beats

Example 13-15: Joining verses in “Holy, Holy, Holy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Example 13-16: Joining verses in “Holy, Holy, Holy” without rests . . . . . . 185

Example 13-17: Lobe Den herren with one measure of rests . . . . . . . . . 186 between verses

Example 13-18: Joining verses in Lobe Den herren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 without extra beats

Example 13-19: Opening of “How great Thou art” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Example 13-20: arrhythmic ending of verses and introduction in . . . . . . 192 “How great Thou art”

Example 13-21: Three ways of joining verses in LanD oF rest . . . . . . . . . 192

Example 16-1: Opening line of sonG 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Example 16-2: First phrase of truro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Example 17-1: Two possible ways of imitating percussion . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 instruments at the organ

Example 17-2: Standard rhythmic patterns for brass players . . . . . . . . . . 246

Example 17-3: Example of mis-phrasing played by a trumpeter . . . . . . . 248 in the first line of westmInster abbey

Example 17-4: a possible brass arrangement of the first measure . . . . . . 255 of easter hymn

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P r e f a c e

Until recently, regular church attendance dictated the time when most people could find themselves in the presence of hymn accompaniment, starting from early childhood. Each generation of organists built on the technique inherited by osmosis from their predecessors. many children do not attend church regularly in the twenty-first century, and so fewer people are exposed to the culture of hymnody; the passing down of tech-nique and tradition therefore does not continue as fluidly as it once did. at the time when they are first called to play in church, some organists may not have participated in, or heard, much hymnody; some may have grown up in a different tradition, while others may have experienced none at all. Therefore, the centuries-old learning technique of mimicking how one has heard hymns played before no longer exists for many organists. Furthermore, geographical growth and movement, along with denom-inational branching and recorded media, have led to a greater diversity of practice. These developments have created a need to explain the tech-niques more explicitly than before. in other words, there was less need for direct elucidation of these techniques in the past than there is now.

The places where organists seek training in technique are not expected to offer an ample amount of training in any specialized area. Organ prim-ers typically contain a very brief amount of text devoted to the technique of hymn accompaniment. Conservatories have no substantive manual to aid teaching. Organ professors, whose specialty is often in the concert track rather than in a church calling, may have had little or no exposure to hymn accompaniment themselves; many simply do not have time to

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serve the church while teaching, and so their technique has more rele-vance as a recollection than as a hands-on skill whose current experience is growing to engage the ever-changing culture of today. in earlier cen-turies, organists were often composers, but were almost always church musicians. it is stimulating to consider the effect on performance practice that service playing may have had on the composers who wrote the organ music now promoted in students’ repertoire and primers.

Hymn accompaniment often receives only a few minutes of attention in a couple of individual organ lessons or organ classes. yet hymns are when congregations engage with the organ more than in any other con-text; congregations’ physical participation in hymns—with the synergy of poetry, music, and community—easily leads to a profound and mem-orable experience in spirit, occasion, and immersion. The techniques of hymn accompaniment at the organ need to be observed, studied, ana-lyzed, and described in more detail in order to be preserved, taught, learned, improved, and shared by organists. This will, in turn, enable the congregations, who play the vital role of singers, to be further enriched by each encounter with the rich hymnody of the Church.

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I n t r o d u c t i o n

The goal of this book is to devise a teaching aid for those wishing to learn or to improve the way they play hymns on the organ. To achieve this, i will document techniques used by effective church musicians as they lead congregational song, primarily in the form of hymnody, from the organ. The starting point will be to examine materials that are cur-rently in publication in the English-speaking world. These publications take many forms, and their inclusion is based on recommendations from leading teachers, libraries, and retailers about what is available and pres-ently being used. Perhaps more importantly, leading church musicians have been interviewed about their techniques so that the most up-to-date data could be documented. after all, congregations evolve constantly, as do their repertories, theologies, and experiences. Therefore, hymn-play-ing evolves constantly as a living, breathing art in order to speak to those congregations in relevant, contemporary ways, even when the musical and textual sources may be timeless inspirations from the past.

There are many musical and non-musical factors at work in the way a well-trained musician will lead a congregation. This volume will address these factors in a sequential format, examining each category through the minds, eyes, ears, fingers, and feet of the chosen musicians. Each musician will bring their own background, their own instruments, and their own philosophy and theology into the discussion. They may not always agree, which makes the resulting document more valuable since no two situations are alike at any given time; nor is one place or person the same at two different points in time. most of the time, they do agree, thereby offering reinforcement of essential principles. This agreement naturally leads to duplication of material between different responses.

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The decision, after lengthy debate, was to retain this duplication in order that the reader may choose to read the responses of any one expert at a time, throughout the book, and study their personal style; or, if reading a chapter in its entirety, the reader is easily able to evaluate variations on similar techniques and reasons, for and against, the techniques that are in agreement or contradiction.

By the end of the book, the student and experienced organist alike will have explored a microcosm of an energized church music world, having visited numerous denominations led by musicians with enduring track records of invigorating congregational song. From here, may we be inspired to lead our own congregations with technique, communication, imagination, and the confidence to build on all that their collective expe-rience has brought to each moment.

i would not care to be sure, but my guess is that the real grow-ing point of modern church music is congregational music….Who will meet the congregation where it is and lead it, at its own pace, a step or two forward on its own road? That’s the re-ally grass-root question. my guess at its answer is that it will be somebody who knows as much about people as about music and a great deal about both. 1

yea, we know that thou rejoicesto’er each work of thine;Thou didst ears and hands and voicesFor thy praise design;craftsman’s art and music’s measureFor thy pleasureall combine.

In thy house, great God, we offerof thine own to thee;and for thine acceptance profferall unworthilyhearts and hands and minds and voicesIn our choicestPsalmody. 2

1. marilyn Keiser, quoting Erik Routley (1968) in university of alabama Keynote (2006).2. Francis Pott, 1832–1909, angel Voices ever singing.

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chapter 1

E x i s t i n g I n f o r m a t i o n

most organists have, at some stage of their study, employed the use of a printed source to aid in instruction. For methodology of hymn playing, there are three primary written sources of instruction: organ primers, manuals devoted to hymn accompaniment, and notes provided in hym-nals. This chapter is devoted to taking a detailed look at current, pub-lished sources for organists.

Books on piano accompaniment, such as The unashamed accompa-nist, 1 are enlightening for some general principles, but will not help with the technicalities related to playing the organ or accompanying a body of untrained singers.

a secondary source for instruction may be found in the form of re-cordings of hymns, which can be useful for gaining ideas. They are usu-ally staged performances, however, and don’t teach well because they are rehearsed specifically for the purpose of recording, and the singers con-sist of a trained choir with a conductor. This is clearly a contrast to lead-ing an unrehearsed congregation. Therefore, for the purpose of learning how to work with live situations, recordings are less useful.

One of the most important sources of instruction on hymn playing is conversations with people who currently engage in hymn leadership, and it is this subject that will be documented in this book from chapter two onwards.

1. gerald moore, The unashamed accompanist (new york: macmillan, 1945).

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2 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

There are numerous organ primers in the English-speaking world that are currently available and utilized so widely that their contents de-serve examination. in addition, there are several well-promoted volumes that are currently in publication, and whose sole purpose is to address service playing and hymn accompaniment.

Leading Organ Primers

Existing primers focus on basic organ-playing technique, which is, of course, the starting place for learning to play hymns on the organ. after a large portion of the book has dealt with technique and solo repertoire, primers will typically include a short section or appendix related to ser-vice playing, part of which is devoted to hymn playing. Since the primer is the first instruction most students encounter when learning to play hymns, this is an excellent place to begin discussion of hymn playing and its instruction.

method of organ Playing 2 became the teaching tool of choice in the United States soon after it was published in 1949. now in its eighth edi-tion (1996), Harold gleason’s primer is still regarded as a standard in many schools. at 369 pages, this volume covers registration, manual and pedal technique, learning technique, performance practice, and pronun-ciation of names, all in great detail. Service playing is addressed on pages 281–289, and fewer than three pages are devoted to hymn playing. There are referrals to three small publications for those students who wish to pursue further detail. One of these focuses on improvisation, 3 while the other two books discuss basic hymn playing and service playing. 4 all three books are readily available online for little cost. in addition to some general principles of hymn playing, topics addressed by gleason include introduction, phrasing, tempo, repeated notes, amens, registration, free

2. Harold gleason, method of organ Playing (new york: appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949).3. michele Johns, hymn Improvisation (minneapolis: augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1987).4. austin lovelace, The organist and hymn Playing (nashville: abingdon Press, 1962) and Samuel Walter, basic Principles of service Playing (nashville: abingdon Press, 1963).

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3Chapter 1: Existing Information

accompaniments, descants, interludes, and two written-out examples that show articulation and rests.

The organ 5 “was ubiquitous throughout the English-speaking world for almost a century” 6 as the book used by teachers. John Stainer wrote this book two years after William Thomas Best had written The art of organ Playing, 7 which was considered too advanced for many beginners. Stainer’s 131-page book covers organ history, organ construction, organ stops and their management, and a large practical section on playing technique. The author addresses service playing on pages 79–87, with most of these pages focused on hymn-playing. Stainer discusses registra-tion, introductions, adding and embellishing parts, repetition of notes, tempo maintenance, variations to contrast verses, the choir, and articu-lation (“touch”). Seven examples are given to show fingering and finger substitution, registration, and options for distribution of parts between hands and feet.

a newer primer that has re-thought organ pedagogy is organ tech-nique: modern and early. 8 in this 382-page volume, george Ritchie and george Stauffer treat the diverse styles of nineteenth- and twentieth-cen-tury organ composition separately from the articulate style of the eigh-teenth century and earlier. These two eras each receive a “part” of the book, with “Part 3” reserved for service playing. This third part receives twenty-one pages of text and examples, including nearly six pages of text about hymn playing. The hymn-specific topics covered by Ritchie and Stauffer are the combinations of manuals and pedals, the articulate per-

5. John Stainer, The organ (london: novello, 1877).6. Rollin Smith, “introduction to the Dover Edition” in Flaxington Harker (ed.) complete organ method: a classic text on organ technique — John Stainer, [mineola, ny: Dover, 2003], v.7. William Thomas Best, The art of organ Playing. Practically illustrated from the first rudiments to the highest difficulties of the instrument both in its use as an accompaniment to the different styles of church music, as well as in the various purposes of the employment of the organ as a solo instrument (london: novello, 1875).8. george Ritchie and george Stauffer, organ technique: modern and early (Englewood Cliffs, nJ: Prentice Hall, 1992).

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chapter 2

O b t a i n i n g N e w I n f o r m a t i o n

The goal of this book is to expand the documented information in chapter one to include the practical techniques related to hymn leader-ship and accompaniment as described by advanced, experienced players. Organ primers have two limitations regarding hymn-playing instruc-tion: the brevity of the hymn-related section will necessarily allow room for only one point of view, and the writing style of a primer needs to be technical and concise. Both of these issues will be addressed.

Hymn playing is an art form. it requires a palette of hundreds of tech-niques, to which the organist will have constant subconscious access. Hymn playing, when executed well, is a personal response to other art forms—poetry and music—as well as the spontaneous singing of a body of largely untrained participants. a mere handful of technical basics can-not suffice.

This book documents the responses of leading, experienced organ-ists; many techniques are recorded for posterity, for study by organists at all levels. moreover, the experts who have been interviewed have been encouraged to speak anecdotally, using “pet names” and personal expe-rience as they describe their techniques, in the hope that the reader will ingest these techniques at a more personal level, thus enabling practi-tioners to adopt these techniques as their own. The inclusion of multiple viewpoints offers an artist the opportunity to judge which techniques are the most applicable to any situation at hand.

The author of this book has been playing hymns for more than twen-ty-five years. it is a passion. it is also a source of anxiety upon hearing

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12 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

congregations who are prevented from approaching their potential as a singing community when hindered by an organist’s lack of skill or imagination. To maximize the learning potential of the writer and the reader, each expert interviewed for this book has more experience than the writer. Representing denominations well-known for congregational singing, these experts come from a variety of backgrounds so that many conditions of buildings, instruments, liturgies, and congregations may be included. Each expert has a history of leading congregations who sing together musically, intelligently, emotionally, spiritually, and with zeal to sing more.

One criterion for the final list of interviewees was that each expert had to contribute a unique perspective to the contents of the book. The first few selected were simply to represent successful musical leadership in a variety of sizes of church in a multitude of denominations. For example, many of the interviewees worked in small parishes at some point in their vocation, some have worked in cathedrals and collegiate settings, and all have been successful in multiple environments, sometimes in more than one coun-try. Their collective careers cover most regions of the United States, as well as parts of England, australia, germany, and Switzerland. additionally, several “generations” from a similar background have been included. For example, one expert was at one time assistant organist to someone else who was interviewed, who was, in turn, assistant to another interviewee. Some interviewees share a common parish in their past. Here, the reader may observe similarities as well as techniques that have been developed, or that have been dismissed, between generations. Following this same notion of techniques developing over time, some of the experts have writ-ten or contributed to major sources cited in this book. in these instances, this book captures their responses years or decades after their previous publication. The final list, then, does not represent an even distribution of musicians from around the country, and it is certainly not intended to be a “who’s who” list of the most famous organists around. Rather, it is a carefully devised set of studies with many fascinating implications.

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13Chapter 2: Obtaining New Information

after discussions with numerous respected advisors and a need to balance various criteria, the writer reduced the initial long list of poten-tial interviewees to ten practicing church musicians in the United States. This list includes a mentor from australia who was instrumental in nur-turing the author’s passion for hymnody and the development of this en-tire project. Each interviewee responded enthusiastically to the request for information. listed in alphabetical order, they are:

1. David Cherwien, Director of the national lutheran Choir and Cantor at mount Olive lutheran Church, minneapolis, minnesota

2. mark Dwyer, Organist and Choirmaster, Church of the advent, Boston, massachusetts

3. David Erwin, Director of music ministry, ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church, St. louis, missouri

4. John Ferguson, Professor of Organ and Church music, minister of music to the Student Congregation, St. Olaf College, northfield, minnesota, now retired

5. Peter Jewkes, Organist, Christ Church St. laurence, Sydney, australia

6. Stephen loher, occasional organist, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, massachusetts (The mother Church)

7. Walden moore, Director of music, Trinity Church on the green, new Haven, Connecticut

8. Bruce neswick, Director of Cathedral music and Organist, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, new york

9. John Scott, Organist and Director of music, Saint Thomas Church, Fifth avenue, new york

10. Jeffrey Smith, Visiting associate Professor of Church music and Organ, indiana University Jacobs School of music, indiana

11. Tom Whittemore, music Director, Trinity Church, Princeton, new Jersey

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chapter 3

L e a r n i n g N e w H y m n s

Q: How do you learn a hymn that is new to you?

David Cherwien

i love this question because in the early days we all probably did the same thing. We went to a keyboard and played it.

now it’s a whole different thing. With something new, i have to look at it: first, i look at where it came from, what period in history it came from, and what ethnic background it has. Those are really important questions to answer before i even go to the next step. i used to start with the text. But now i start by considering where the hymn comes from. alice Parker helped me realize this. a hymn that comes from the Renaissance would have a whole different way of being sung than a hymn that comes from Victorian England. They are two radically different things. alice talks about asking questions of the tune. When was this tune first sung? Who sang it first? What were the instruments like? What was the space like? Our goal would not be to recreate that, but it would certainly have an effect on how we encourage it to be sung.

i’m not a historian and i’m not a hymnologist. a lot of the time, i’m using my imagination; i might be making it up. Just the date alone can tell me a lot. if i see something as chant, i know i’m not going to have an articulated accompaniment, if i have an accompaniment at all. Chant could be unaccompanied and that would probably be its best form. But, in a lot of our north american dry acoustics, unaccompanied chant

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26 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

doesn’t work as well as it did in the spaces where it was first sung. But i can still create that effect somehow by doing things with the pentaton-ic scale, either with sustained chords or with very sparse, slow-moving harmonies.

Finding out where it comes from is the first question. Then i imagine how the congregation can sing it in light of that. if it’s a Renaissance tune like In DIr Ist FreuDe, i’m going to imagine tambourines, recorders,

and krummhorns, and try to get the congregation to sing it that way. i imagine how they are going to sing it and how musically i am going to encourage them to do that through how i present it to them and how i accompany it. Those are the musical questions that come first.

The next step is reading the text and catching a feel of what it means: what it is about, what it is saying, and why it was chosen for this par-ticular spot in the liturgy. Then i sing it. i really have done all of these steps without going to the keyboard yet. Singing it without any accom-paniment tells me a lot because that’s what the congregation is going to have to do. if it’s a new tune, i find out where we are going to struggle. if i can’t sing all of the intervals without stopping and thinking hard, i know that’s going to be a tripping spot for the congregation, too. Singing it is hard, but very informative. Then i go to the organ and practice it, seeing whether the print on the page is what i want to use or not, most often not, unless the congregation is singing the four parts printed there. Quite often the small print tells me more than the notes on the page. an example would be a French tune in eLw (the new lutheran hymnal) 1 that i didn’t know before.

1. evangelical Lutheran worship (minneapolis: augsburg, 2006).

6

4

Example 3-1 3.1.1

Example 3-1: Opening measures of In dIr Ist Freude

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chapter 4

T h e N o t e s

Q: How do you decide which notes to play? Do you add notes? Do you delete notes? Do you change notes? How important are the notes on the page?

David Cherwien

First of all, i understand that most hymnody is primarily unison, which is historically a lutheran thing. most chorales were initially sung in unison; it wasn’t until Bach’s time that harmony entered in. The melo-dy and the words, and the way that people sing them are the given; what i do in and around that is up for grabs. in the rock band, the music we used to play was cyclical, and we’d play three-chord sequences fifty times. We were always looking for more interesting chords. So that’s what i’m doing with the hymns. i’ve learned to harmonize from the tune, and i start with a clean slate. i see the melody but i don’t see the harmonies that are in the book. i just play what the fingers and the brain see as possible.

Some hymns are harmonized with a new chord for every single note. When the tactus—the big beat—needs to be a bigger note value, i don’t need all those chords. The harmony can propel a melody forward. it can strengthen a high note. you can get up to a high D with a secondary dominant and have it feel a lot more supported with a raised third. it can help people feel bolder. But if i do that all the time, it loses its pow-er. a lot of hymnody is best done with just the four-part settings. But there is a lot that we sing that doesn’t work that way, such as gregorian chant. Four-part setting is probably the worst setting for gregorian chant

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34 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

because it’s linear. i imagine that every note of each phrase in gregorian chant floated around the room all mixed together because the acoustics were so good in those spaces. i can do that with the accompaniment, but not with a four-part setting. i decide based on variety’s sake. Some hymns have their prescribed setting, which may be one that came with the composer or one that they’ve settled in with over time. Even then, i don’t feel obliged to stay with it unless everybody’s singing four parts. That’s different. i’m not going to fight that because getting people to sing is the main point. That means playing exactly the four parts, which can be harder for me if i have to discipline myself to play what’s in the book when i’m itching to play it differently.

learning to harmonize melodies at sight was one of the most freeing things i ever learned because i don’t see a g without imagining it could have E-flat, E minor, a7, a-flat major7, or F# minor9. all of those could be options for one pitch. i can’t limit it too much. But it can go too far. Sometimes, the text will tell me. if i see a phrase that ends with “we are one,” i will sometimes have just a unison note there. For “ponder anew” from “Praise to the lord,” i’ll do a different chord there in the third stan-za just so it brings out the text. it’s subtle. it’s not so obvious that it sounds like i’m trying to impress everybody with my cleverness. i’ve heard or-ganists do that.

Mark Dwyer

i play the notes on the page first. if it’s a really good singing harmony, i start out by playing all of them. Sometimes, there are too many notes in a keyboard arrangement. if it’s something that has a good melody, but with a specific keyboard accompaniment, i try to decide, in context, whether it needs more or less. During the course of a good hymn, you can both add and take away to good effect. you might have a lot of notes going down in one particular verse. in another verse, to add variety, you might thin it out, particularly if the singers are good. it’s nice to vary the texture if your congregation is skilled and singing it well. if the congre-gation is a little weak, or if it’s an early hour of the morning, i might find

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35Chapter 4: The Notes

something that’s solid, that doesn’t have too many or too few notes, and stick with it just to be a solid presence.

in terms of too many notes, i have a thing about dominant sevenths. it’s not necessary for the tenors to have the dominant seventh at every cadence every time you play it through. it’s a very nice thing to leave it out when you can. it’s nice to add other passing tones, but not every time, not consistently. it’s also nice to be conscious of thirds that are too low. The constant introduction of thirds low in the left hand can be tiring. it’s nice to have an ear and think, “am i constantly doubling up on thirds in the tenor register? Can i sometimes leave them out?” if it’s a four-part harmony, i actually play the four-part harmony, particularly at cadences.

David Erwin

Deciding which notes i will play varies according to the texture and according to how familiar the hymn is to the congregation. lately, i leave out notes more often than i add notes to what’s on the page. if it helps the rhythm to leave out notes, i don’t necessarily have to play a four-part chord for everything. For example, on pickup notes, i might just play the tune. Playing fewer notes sometimes encourages the singing more.

John Ferguson

i often think about how a good orchestrator would re-write for in-struments a typical part song. a hymn tune like aureLIa has lots of re-peated notes. an orchestrator, who understands how the orchestra or band works, would want to revise that because the string bass and cellos are not singing the tune, so they really don’t need four quarter notes on E-flat in the first full measure.

Example 4-1: Opening measures of aureLIa

The Chur ch's one foun da tion is

4

4

4

4

Example 4-1

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36 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

Repeated notes can start to feel clawing or annoying, and you don’t want your congregation to feel like they’re on the inside of a timpani while you’re banging on them, which can sometimes happen with lots of repeated bass notes. Which notes are important? Which notes should sound? Think in the context of simple meter. if the time signature is 44 , then that probably suggests that beats one and three are more important than two and four. So i tie beat one to beat two, then lift, and then tie beat three to beat four. That will allow me to reinforce the basic tactus, which i think is half notes. i prefer larger units of measure. So, if some-thing is written in 44 time, even if it’s not moving super fast, i’m probably thinking it in cut time. a tune like hyFryDoL is probably not in 34 meter, but in one. at St. Olaf, we use the orchestra or the band as the leader of congregational song for both baccalaureate and our Christmas festival. if i suggest to my conductor colleagues that they conduct hyFryDoL in a slow “one” instead of in three, right away both the ensemble and the con-gregation seem to respond differently in singing. There’s a kind of flow, a sense of automatic forward momentum. it doesn’t seem so ponderous and weighed down.

i think a lot about which notes to play. i start with what’s on the page. But i also think of which notes i won’t play (in the sense that i’m not going to repeat them). if we find an accompaniment that suggests it was written for piano, then not only am i doing a transcription of a vocal line into an instrumental line, but sometimes also i’m needing to do an on-the-spot transcription of a piano accompaniment for organ. i may do arpeggios or i may hold some notes. Repeated chords make me think of the mozart g minor symphony 1 with the violas and second violins.

1. Wolfgang amadeus mozart, symphony no. 40 in G minor, K. 550.

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37Chapter 4: The Notes

Example 4-2: Measures 247–250 from Mozart’s symphony no. 40 in G minor, K. 550

all that “chum chum chum chum” really doesn’t go too well on the organ. So should i repeat all those notes or find a different way to play it?

Peter Jewkes

When learning a standard four-part chorale-style hymn, i play all of the notes. When i’m accompanying the hymn, i vary the inversions ac-cording to the text. When i was in Wells last april, the catch-cry i adopted from matthew Owens was: “the text is everything.” That would do as my all-time motto for hymnody. The music is nice, but the text is everything. i vary which notes i leave out according to the text, but i don’t leave many notes out. Occasionally, when accompanying the choir, i invert accom-paniments and generally leave out the melody, playing the same chordal structure, but in a higher octave, re-inverting as i go. accompanying a

Flauto

Oboi

Clarinettiin Bb

Fagotti

Cornoin Bb

Cornoin G

Violino I

Violino II

Viola

Violoncello e Basso

f

f

f

f

f

f

f

f

f

f

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

Allegro molto

Example 4-2

Allegro molto

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38 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

choir is vastly different from accompanying a congregation. For example, there are very few times that i leave the melody out when accompanying the congregation. i might either thicken or thin chords occasionally, for effect, to accompany the text. But i don’t think i’d leave the melody out. Possible exceptions would be rePton, which we sang last night, where the accompaniment is actually written without the melody. a good con-gregation would carry that tune perfectly happily without the melody.

in plainsong hymns, the first verse should always have the melody in it. The new english hymnal 2 gives reasonably good accompaniments, though some of them have been sterilized a little bit over the years. i tend to drift off into my own, or sometimes use Vaughan Williams’, from the old english hymnal, 3 which may be more interesting than the present ones. in the soprano verses, i just play chords under the melody and let the sopranos in the congregation and the choir carry the melody them-selves. i’m not playing melody at all in those. We don’t introduce plain-song hymns, so i can’t play the tune through for the congregation. Some-times, even in the men’s verses, i just play gentle chords lower down, with pedals underpinning. The key to plainsong accompaniment is to underpin rather than to dominate. The organ can’t set the tactus terribly well; it’s up to the singers to set the tactus. Unless it’s a choir or congre-gation of very inexperienced singers, then the plainsong can look after itself quite nicely. i would normally keep harmonic language within the mode, and i avoid sharpened leading notes and anything resembling a perfect cadence. norman Caplin 4 once said to me, “if you find your-self playing a perfect cadence, then you know you’re doing something wrong.” avoid playing too many chords. less is more, and more is less, with plainsong hymns and psalms. i’ve learned over the years that the less i change chords, and the less fiddly i make a plainsong accompani-ment, the better it works and the more tasteful it is.

2. george Timms et al (ed.), The new english hymnal (norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1986).3. Percy Dearmer (ed.). The english hymnal (Oxford University Press, 1906).4. Honorary assistant Organist at all Saints’, margaret Street, london.

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39Chapter 4: The Notes

at addington, i had the opportunity to do plainsong accompaniment with michael Fleming in some of the classes. But the feeling at that stage, as a know-it-all twenty-year-old, was that plainsong was never accom-panied and should never authentically be accompanied at the organ. So i didn’t take it in terribly well. i now regret it deeply when i come back to CCSl, where the pendulum has swung back the other way. it is now required that organists there should accompany plainsong. accompany-ing plainsong psalms is one of the harder things i’ve done there. it’s an art form. Our Organ Scholar, Edwin Taylor, is on top of that nicely now. The thing that pushed him through the goalposts at the end was doing continuo work at the Con. 5 it put the icing on the cake. Once he start-ed continuo lessons, it really paid off with his psalm accompaniments, which is an interesting correlation.

Stephen Loher

David mcK. Williams 6 said that there are two things that are very important: first of all, the hymnal is a sketch; second of all, the hym-nal is written for choral singing, and not for organ playing. The score of a hymn is for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. i fill in the notes: in a g major chord, i’m not going to play gBDg, spelling it from the bass up; i’m probably going to play eight notes for that chord, filling in a richer texture to give a better accompaniment to the congregation. in a four-verse hymn, you might want to have a little salad plate: for one verse, you might scale down the texture to just those four voices for contrast.

One problem with the organ is ear fatigue. We’re not like other in-struments where we can be plastic and bend within two or three notes. The organ drones on, drones on, and drones on. a lot of organists are just concerned about playing the notes and keeping the rhythm going. We are delivering a message, reinforcing and underlining the text of the hymn. Why are we singing hymns? We are singing hymns to inspire the

5. Sydney University Conservatorium of music.6. Considered the dean of american church musicians during his tenure at St. Bartholomew’s Church, new york, 1920–1945.

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40 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

congregation or to point out something to the congregation. Even in non-liturgical churches, the hymns are picked for the sermon topic. So they are delivering a message. if you play only that skinny little choral version, i’m not sure you’re necessarily delivering the message.

Walden Moore

i do not approach any two organs the same way. i’m thinking back to an experience not long ago with a small michael Bigelow organ in a chapel in Raleigh, north Carolina, 7 where i played an RSCm week. 8 my approach on that organ was very different than anything i would have done at Trinity on the green, my home parish. i have a sound in my ear. i’m a sound junky. There’s a sound that i want to get. i am not referring to how i want the principals to sound from the organ. i am thinking of what’s going to lead this hymn. What leads a hymn from a michael Bige-low organ is so different from what leads a hymn from an Æolian-Skin-ner organ in new Haven. Once i’ve got the notes in my hands, i start going for the sound, and i experiment. i basically just lose myself in the score. at that point, the score is just a sketch, and i start trying to figure out what it is rhythmically about this hymn, in this verse, that is differ-ent from other verses. i take the hymn and try it two or three different ways. i’ll try it verse by verse, and i won’t be happy if it’s not articulate enough, depending on the organ and the acoustic. i try to remember that when i’m practicing in an empty church, it’s going to be very different from when i’m playing with a congregation, depending on the number of people. Their mood that morning matters, too. i’m going to have to articulate more if it’s a gray day outside like today; a bit of rain changes the mood of the congregation entirely, and i would play the hymn very differently if it were a bright, sunny day.

7. St. mary’s College, Raleigh, north Carolina houses a 1984 Bigelow & Co. organ.8. a Summer School of the Royal School of Church music in america.

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41Chapter 4: The Notes

Bruce Neswick

i certainly don’t advocate changing too much, at least on the first stan-za. i think people can overdo reharmonizations and do too much of it. it becomes a showcase atmosphere for the organist. you have to walk a fine line between being in the background and being in the foreground. i try to get my students to do things that i enjoy doing with some of the inner stanzas. Some of these things include repositioning the chord, taking as your cue perhaps that middle stanza of David Willcocks’ arrangement of DIVInum mysterIum, where he basically sets the harmonies from the previous stanza with repositioned chords. intended for the upper voic-es, the bulk of the notes are in the alto and soprano register, with kind of an 8' + 4' + 2' registration. if you’re doing a hymn festival, especially, you could designate some stanzas for upper voices and some for lower voices. With lower voices, you could consider a darker registration, with 32' in the pedal, putting things more in the tenor range, respelling the printed harmonies to try different textures. in some of these approaches, deciding which notes to play really has to do with how far you want to preserve the given printed harmonies. i find a lot of people stumble with this and have trouble taking an E major chord on the page and just spell-ing it differently. But it builds musicianship to be able to do this off the cuff without a lot of practice.

John Scott

i assume that one could play them all! isn’t that reasonable?

it depends on the nature of the occasion. if it’s at the end of a weekday Evensong here, with not a very large congregation, we don’t need to use as much organ as we would need to do on Sunday morning. Therefore, i think it leaves the player freer to decide if he’s going to add a little des-cant here or there, or perhaps not play the bass line on the pedals all the time. indeed, need the bass line be there all the time if it’s doubled by the choir? On a Sunday, when the place is very full, one might, in using a lot of organ, perhaps add a descant here and there, which is not something the boys would sing later.

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42 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

When i first started to play hymns as a teenager, i was certainly en-couraged to play what was on the printed page and not to feel that this was an opportunity to be more creative and more flowery in the man-ner of playing. i’ve often stuck to that because i think a congregation needs to be led, rather than lost, in the process. a fairly basic manner of accompaniment is what i tend to do. i don’t tend to add too much. if i do, it’s usually something in the last verse. i tend not to vary harmonies too often, either. i think normally the best harmonies are the ones the composer has already supplied. i’m not in the tradition of doing obliga-tory last-verse ornamentations or restructuring of harmonies. it can be effective if it’s done well, but it can be distracting. if it’s not done well, it can be horrible!

Jeffrey Smith

i like to think of hymns as strophic songs. i look at the long pattern of that genre, apart from church music. Consider a Dowland 9 lute song: you’re not going to hear six stanzas performed exactly the same way. Even if the harmony is the same, the lute player is going to ornament, and the singer is going to ornament, in different ways. now, fast forward several centuries to a Schubert song, 10 where you might have four stanzas with the same piano accompaniment. yet the text—what’s happening in that song—is varying. and a good accompanist, remembering gerald moore’s The unashamed accompanist recording and book, can vary, with subtle shades of articulation and volume, the exact same notes so you don’t hear the same accompaniment four times; you hear something new each time. you hear something that relates to the text.

Someone accompanying a Schubert or Schumann 11 song might look at a text and say, “now, what is it in this verse that i need to color so as to highlight the text?” The coloration is not just registration; it is the amount of notes, which is something that a lot of organists ignore. They

9. John Dowland (1563–1626), English composer, singer, and lutenist.10. Franz Schubert (1797–1828), austrian composer, who wrote approximately 600 lieder.11. Robert Schumann (1810–1856), german composer.

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43Chapter 4: The Notes

see four notes in the hymnal. That means: “i play four notes, and i only play these four notes.” That’s extremely limiting. Certain passages can have fewer than four notes. Certain passages could have even unison. Other passages could have more than four notes or a different four notes.

When congregations sing a wrong note in a hymn, either because of the shape of the melody or because they’ve mis-learned it (i’m thinking of the last note of the third line of nIcaea,

Example 4-3: Comparison of the first and third lines of nIcaea

or the ending of the hymntune abbot’s LeIGh).

Example 4-4: Last four measures of abbot’s LeIGh

i suddenly play every possible correct note in octaves in unison on the organ. anybody who sings a wrong note shall be chastised, realizing it’s not correct. So i might go from playing eight notes to playing a unison on that one note to provide no margin for error.

Tom Whittemore

i don’t consciously think about that, and maybe i should now that you’re getting me to think about it! i play lots of notes. in our organ situ-ation, such as it is, i’m always thickening and filling in. it’s a dry acoustic, so the room does nothing to help. it’s just a bit problematic, so i make sure i do as much as i can to enrich what’s already there. i’m not sit-ting there worrying about the tenor leading to this and the alto leading to that. it’s just very thick and very chordal, unless the hymn is written

4

4

Example 4-3

3

4

Example 4-4

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44 Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

differently. you could think of some of the David Hurd 12 hymns that are written differently; i don’t necessarily do it with that kind of stuff. But with something like “Praise, my Soul, the King of Heaven,” i plant as many fingers down as possible. Wasn’t it David mcK. Williams who told people that, when they did The hymnal 1940, 13 what’s written there is for the choir, not for the organ? So doing porcupine fingers and one hoof is ludicrous. The congregation is, by and large, singing the melody and, if you have people out there who can sing in parts, they should be encour-aged, to be sure. But it’s much more important to find the music in it and then to do everything that you can when you’re playing the hymn to encourage others to find the music in it, too. That’s what the whole thing is about: finding the music, connecting the music to the text, and really making the whole feeling, the mood, and the message just come off the page. it’s communication. it’s not worrying about the alto leading to this note, or the tenor leading to that note, because nobody out there is going to care about that.

12. David Hurd (b. 1950), Professor of Sacred music and Director of Chapel music, gener-al Theological Seminary, new york.13. David mcK. Williams et al (ed.) The hymnal 1940 (new york: The Church Pension Fund, 1940).

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C o n c l u s i o n

Conclusions to be drawn from these interviews may seem obvious when stated in print or out loud, much as the idea of this book seems ob-vious in retrospect. Since hymn playing is when the organ is heard most, it is often expected that organists automatically possess the techniques re-quired. maybe hymn playing has not been taught because it has been con-sidered too obvious. yet empirical data has shown there is a need to teach it more explicitly. We have seen just how complex this art form really is.

Hymn playing is about singing more than anything else. members of a congregation need to know their singing is desired, and they need to feel comfortable and empowered in their acceptance of an open invita-tion to sing. Organists need to use every tool at their disposal to clari-fy what the congregation should be doing at any given moment, using subtle and blatant techniques to draw every person into a willing frame of mind so that they will engage in the community and in the theology contained within each hymn.

The theme that was overwhelmingly dominant in all the discussions that led to this book, including the interviews themselves, was that hymn playing is successful when the first priority of every decision is the need of the congregation to feel supported, inspired, confident to sing, and easily able to ingest the meaning of the text. This one principal can be applied to each question discussed in the preceding chapters, and the response of each expert supports it. it is clear that the zeal of each ex-pert for the needs of the congregation is compelling, and this may well be what sets them apart from those who are less effective with hymn

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playing. as long as the congregation’s needs are at the center of any dis-cussion, the end result will be successful.

To understand the congregation’s musical needs, any accompanist must first have a wealth of singing experience. Only from singing hymns can an accompanist appreciate the basic needs of breathing, phrasing, the speed with which text can be understood and pronounced, the effect of acoustics and buildings, and the many other aspects that will nur-ture or hinder the congregation’s ability to feel supported, inspired, and confident. To understand the congregation’s liturgical needs, the organist must be fluent in liturgy, be familiar with the context of the day, and be part of the broader context of the life of that congregation in communi-ty and in corporate worship. For example, in a liturgical denomination, a thorough understanding of the lectionary, the seasons, and the local customs of symbolism is indispensable.

The second conclusion is that there is no single way to approach hymn playing. Hymn playing is an art form, and therefore has the right and the need for interpretation, discretion, and imagination. The transient mood of a congregation will vary every day; any hymn will contain a variety of factors that will affect its interpretation in the moment; each player has inimitable shapes of fingers, and experiences distinctive emotions every time he or she is seated at the organ; each building is unique; each instru-ment is customized; each context is matchless in more ways than could be numbered. So players need to be armed with a plethora of techniques from which to draw, based on the needs of the moment. One goal of this book is to share anecdotes and opinions expressed by the various experts interviewed so that they may be helpful in inspiring the imaginations, creativity, and practiced techniques of organists everywhere.

it is my hope that this book will be but a starting point for discussions, masterclasses, writing, community building, and much singing.

most importantly, it is my hope that congregations will thrive on singing the great hymnody of the Church, especially when the organ is playing.