Debbie Zufall's Church Music Site

http://www.lawrencephelps.com/Documents/Articles/Beginner/pipeorgans101.html

Ever found yourself coming face to face with a pipe organ, after playing on nothing but electronic organs? It can all be very confusing and a bit scary. Lawrence Phelps (1923-1999) does a good job of introducing the pipe organ. He was known for his insightful articles about organ building. He was a great pioneer in organ building.  I met him twice, once in Erie, Pennsylvania when I paid a visit to Lawrence Phelps and Associates, his company that actively built organs from 1973 through 1981. The second time was several years later when I visited the Allen Organ Company in Macungie, Pennsylvania, where he was working as a consultant. He explained, in great detail, his work in developing electronic organs that would mimic pipe organs. He was married to British concert organist Dame Gillian Weir.

Music has a tremendous power to give scriptures an even stronger voice than they already have. I often shiver with awe when I hear the words of the prophet Isaiah  “Behold all flesh is as the grass” set to music by  Johannes Brahms in his “German Requiem.” The ominous drums, the sense of an inexorable march to death have a profound effect on me. When I listen to “And the Glory of the Lord” from Handel’s Messiah, a text also taken from Isaiah 40, it uplifts me, as the joyful answer to our mortal state is “Behold your God!” These scriptures come to mind at odd times, always in the company of this music. It makes me want to delve into the book of Isaiah, the music having made this beautiful poetic book feel more accessible. Even more importantly, it reminds me of the plan of salvation, and that death is not the end of our existence but the beginning of something more beautiful than we could ever imagine.

I remember, as a teenager, singing a three-part treble arrangement of the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” At the time this hymn was not in our current hymnal, and so this was the first time I had  heard it! Two of my cousins joined me and, together with my mother on the piano, we performed it for my grandfather. We were glad to sing this for him, knowing that this was his favorite hymn, and seeing how deeply moved he was to hear us sing it. Since then this hymn has been one of my favorite hymn, as well and one of the few hymns that I can sing by memory. In retrospect, what made this occasion even more meaningful to me was that my grandfather passed away not long after that. I will always hold in my mind’s eye three high school girls gathered around the piano singing for our grandfather. It was our final gift to him.

This experience came to mind the other day when I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing this same hymn on a radio broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word.” I had recently decided that I wanted to listen to one of these broadcasts every morning. Living in Michigan, it was hard enough for me to figure out how to watch the live broadcasts on Sunday mornings. I found broadcasts at random times, once on TV on the Hallmark channel at 7:30 in the morning, and former broadcasts on BUY Television at various hours on Sundays. The live radio broadcast is reliably available from KSL at 11:30 Eastern time.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=21
However, this does not work if you need to be at church then. Also, I  wanted to listen to a different archived broadcast first thing every morning. I found what I wanted ot a radio station from Dayton Ohio that has archives available from last year. http://newstalkradiowhio.com/inside/mormontabernaclechoir.html?printer=1

I now start every day with these wonderful broadcasts, and am glad of it. I am better because of it, in every aspect of my life, and find that it gives me a renewed interest in studying the scriptures. That is because the hymns are rooted in scriptures. Time after time, while listening to the Tabernacle Choir, I hear familiar scriptures in the hymns and anthems that they sing.

This reminds me of a way in taking our hymns home with us from church meetings. With a copy of the bulletin and a hymnal, one can find the scriptures behind any hymn in our hymnal. Many people do not notice this, but printed next to each hymn are the chapter and verse of the scriptures that are the source and inspiration for the hymn. One could then use those scriptures as part of their scripture study during the week.

I am grateful for this wonderful choir, and applaud the church leaders who, not only formed the choir many years ago, but decided to have a weekly broadcast in the tabernacle at Temple Square. As both the church and audience has grown, it now takes place at the much larger Conference Center. This choir has become an ensign to the world, and a testimony of the power of sacred music.    

After three weeks of practice, I listened again to Diane Bish's performance and discovered something interesting: she plays it slower than she has indicated on the score. She indicated  quarter note = 100 on the score, but, when I checked her performance with a metronome, I found that she was playing it at quarter note = 80. For some of the piece she played a little quicker, but always came back to 80. 80 is something I can deal with. I like 80. 100 does not seem humanly possible. I am going to assume that the marking on the score is a misprint.