Sunday Song: Organ Registration: Your Own Orchestra (1972)

Okay, once again this isn't a true Sunday Song. Here's another oldie but goodie organ resource from the LDS Church. It was actually a filmstrip--do you remember those?  I loved it when I was chosen to advance the frames!

Sunday Song: Organ Fundamentals Training Video

Okay, so this isn't really a Sunday Song, but it is an old training video from 1972 with Tabernacle organist Alexander Shriner providing the introduction. The information shared is still very valuable. Enjoy!

Sunday Song: Beyond the Sunset

When we think of organs, most of us think of using them in a church setting.  However, around the middle of the 20th century, they were used in many different venues. I'm too young to have experienced most of it, but I have watched old episodes of Lawrence Welk where the organ was featured in a very different setting than religious worship!

Here Wally Hammel plays Beyond the Sunset, a beloved funeral song, on a Lowry organ.

Beyond the sunset, O blissful morning
When with our Savior heaven's begun
Earth's toiling ended, O glorious dawning
Beyond the sunset when day is done.

Beyond the sunset, no clouds will gather
No storms will threaten, no fears annoy
O day of gladness, O day unending
Beyond the sunset eternal joy.

Beyond the sunset, a hand will guide me
To God the Father whom I adore
His glorious presence, His words of welcome
Will be my portion on that fair shore.

Beyond the sunset, O glad reunion
With our dear loved ones who've gone before
In that fair homeland we'll know no parting
Beyond the sunset forever more...

Sunday Song: "Perpetuum Mobile for Pedals Alone"

Brink Bush performs "Perpetuum Mobile for Pedals Alone" by Wilhelm Middelschulte live at the Wilhelm Middelschulte Sesquicentennial Celebration. This program was presented by the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, April 13, 2013, at Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts. The organ is an Aeolian-Skinner.

Sunday Song: Buxtehude's Prelude in d

Jens Korndoerfer plays Dietrich Buxtehude's Präludium in d, BuxWV 140 live during the Canadian International Organ Competition in October 2008 on the von Beckerath organ in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Montreal.

Sunday Song: Batalha de 6º Tom

Jens Korndoerfer plays Pedro de Araújos Batalha de 6º Tom at Basilique St. Nazaire,Carassonne, France, August 3, 2008.

Sunday Song: Variations on "America"

Sixteen year old Charles Edward Ives composed this set of variations on "America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" for organ in 1891. In 1948, E. Power Biggs contacted Ives inquiring if he had composed any organ music that Biggs might perform on his weekly radio program. After Biggs helped Ives recover this long-forgotten piece, he performed it on his July 4th broadcast that year, and the work was finally published in 1949.

Sunday Song: The Rejoicing

Richard Elliott plays his own arrangement of The Rejoicing, from Music for the Royal Fireworks  by George Frederic Handel.

Sunday Song: Summer from Vivaldi's Seasons

Happy SUMMER!

Yevgeniya Lisicyna (Riga) at Livadia-Fest 2009 Recorded live September 2009 Yalta, Ukraine plays A. Vivaldi's Seasons, Summer, Presto (III).

Sunday Song: Fanfare for a Common Man

Aaron Copland's Fanfare for a Common Man, arranged by Brad Slocum, opens with Westminster's State Trumpet and finishes with full organ.

Sunday Song: Bach Fugue BWV 552

Marcel Dupré plays Bach Fugue BWV 552 at St. Sulpice in 1955.

Sunday Song: Using Glass Organ Pipes

Today's Sunday Song is a bit different.  It's more eye candy than ear candy, but I found the idea of glass organ pipes very intriguing and wanted to share.  Feel free to stop the video at 8:00:



Listen to the sound that glass pipes make.

The American flag rank of glass pipe organ pipes was created in response to the tragedy of the terrorist attack on the U.S. on September 11th, 2001. This series of 14 glass pipe organ pipes were made of glass using kilnworking and stained glass techniques and delicate pipe organ engineering. The pipes were innovated, designed, and created by a certified pipe organ builder and master craftsmen, Xaver Wilhelmy. He has created the first sets of glass pipe organ pipes in the world, and this is one of two existing glass organ pipe ranks in the world at this time. The series of pipes comes with a wooden base that contains the technical inner works of a pipe organ, and is controlled with a portable keyboard unit. Yes, the pipes actually play, they were professionally voiced and tuned by Wilhelmy.

The pipes took Wilhelmy and his crew 18 months to create from conception to completion in June 2004.

In Remembrance

Memorial Day Organ Prelude from Matthew Morrison on Vimeo.

Performed by Tom Leonard on the Hazel Wright Organ of the Crystal Cathedral.

Sunday Song: Triumphal March

Marko Hakanpää playing Geroge Frederick Broadhead's Triumphal March at the biggest organ in Finland: Lapua Cathedral (85 stops), built by Kangasalan Urkutehdas in 1938.

Sunday Song: Improvisation on America (from West-Side-Story)

Improvisation recorded live in concert 27th of April 2013 at the Nathanaelchurch in Berlin-Schöneberg.
At the Schuke-Pipe organ: Maria Scharwieß.

Sunday Song: Mother Knows Best

Mother Knows Best, El Capitan Theatre Organ w/ Rob Richards and Alex Zsolt. Filmed January 15, 2011 as part of Pipes and Pops Wurlitzer Weekend.

Sunday Song: Vierne's Symphonie II

It's past time for a new Sunday Song!


Johann Vexo play Louis Vierne: Symphonie II at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris


From the YouTube description:  Johann Vexo is the Organist of the Choir Organ and in this video plays the Great Pipe Organ in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. This was recorded as an "extra" while recording a CD of him on the pipe organ in the cathedral. The work is Louis Vierne's Symphonie II in e minor, Opus 20; composed in 1903 and dedicated to Charles Mutin.

Sunday Song: Rhosymedre

Today's Sunday Song is Ralph Vaughn Williams' arrangement of Rhosymedre, played by Leslie Ryan on the organ of All Saints Church Oystermouth Swansea. In the LDS hymnal, this hymn tune is set to the text of "Our Father, by Whose Name."

Sunday Song: Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals

Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals (Festliche Musik alla Händel) by Sigfrid Karg-Elert performed on the 62 rank A. E. Schlueter pipe organ of Briarlake Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia by staff organist, Jason Payne.

Sunday Song: Olympic Fanfare and Theme

Organist Sean Jackson of http://www.seanjacksonmusic.com plays a slightly abridged version of John Williams' Olympic Fanfare and Theme in celebration of the 30th Olympic Summer Games, London 2012. The audio includes some percussion from the score which Dr. Jackson added using Logic Pro and EWQL Symphonic Orchestral samples.

Enjoy!