Monday, February 17, 2014

The Catholic Organist's Book of Hymns


Hymnals have music arranged to be sung and organists are expected to take lessons and master the art of what I call "playing the invisible notes". There are things that are "understood" that are not written in hymnals - since they are written for singing. Certain notes are repeated with articulation (little puffs of air) while others are festooned with invisible ties and are never repeated unless....well, there are a whole bunch of rules. And there are no rest for breathing? In music written to be sung? And the organ HAS to breath to keep the rhythm going when the choir breaths even though the choir is not shown when to breath.

Can you see why pianists have "trouble" playing hymns on the organ and sounding effective?

So this project offers the following:

A choral prelude, useful to play when introducing the hymn before singing - but especially useful when introducing the melody by playing it 4 to 6 weeks in advance of the first singing.

Then, on the left page the usual hymn. On the right side is the exact same hymn written to be played by the organist.

On the next page is a version for three part playing, especially useful as a variation to play while singing but also for those coming from the accordion who can play two parts in the RH and are learning to play Bass Lines in the LH. And also for less accomplished pianists getting started playing hymns.

On the right page is the hymn melody and words with chords.

Both organ versions omit the words sung since they appear on the opposite page for reference - Select TWO PAGES when viewing the attached sample file.

It will be available as a set of printed books but also in PDF form so that you may print out only what you need.

Use this link to be notified on release - expected before Lent.

1 comment:

  1. I am so excited about this, Noel. I am a pianist who studied organ briefly in college over 10 years ago, but haven't played organ for churches on a regular basis since. Having suggestions for stops, and examples of preludes, etc. is exactly what I missed out on in my lessons, and something I have always struggled with, too. I'm not able to be a full-time church organist right now because of family life, but I look forward to using this and other resources from frog press to help me hold on to my talent until I can play the organ again. Thank you!!

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