a short note

Yesterday was a very productive day. I completed two new pieces of music. One, an anthem version of the lds hymn Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake!, I had started the previous evening, writing about half of the piece. I got up early the next morning, put in a couple of hours, and had a finished piece. I'm taking it with me today to see if the organ part works on an organ (it sounds fine through my computer's speakers, which isn't saying much).

The other piece, a tocatta-style chorale prelude on Shout to the Lord, came about as a result of my trying to find some organ music to fit in with Sunday's service, which features the guitar-supported Praise Team. I wanted to have something that harkened back to traditional for those who like the usually more even mixture of styles in our service, and yet I didn't want the organ to seem as though it had no connection to the rest of the service. I already had a prelude: a reflective setting of How Great Thou Art, which I wrote a while back. None of my existing music seemed to do for postlude. Rather than keeping digging until I unearthed something, I impulsively decided to write a piece based on the closing song.

I gave the church secretary my title, after playing around a bit on the organ and developing an opening idea. I'm trying the finished piece out today, so I'll report on it soon.

It was nice to have cousin Michael drop by, even if he wrote me a note directly rather than commenting. I expect to have a post from him soon about his musical and other adventures in Norway (far from his usual San Francisco haunts).

As usual, all this is music to my ears.