We are pleased to announce the theme and program for the 2008 conference ofThe Good Shepherd Institute of Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music

(Sunday, November 2 through Tuesday, November 4): Lutheran Liturgy andHymnody: Theology and Practice with Confidence and Grace.

From the Co-DirectorsArthur A. Just Jr. and Richard C. Resch

THE GOOD SHEPHERDI N S T I T U T E

Pastoral Theology andSacred Music for the Church

April 2008Volume 3 - Number 1

VOICEHIS

With the successful introduction ofLutheran Service Book into ourcongregations, pastors, musicians,and the people of God are nowseeking ways to do the liturgy well.Christ is present with His giftswhether the liturgy, preaching, andhymn singing is done well or donepoorly. Yet our liturgical worship isan invitation by Christ himself toenter into communion with Him—the Creator and Redeemer of thecosmos. In the presence of the HolyOne of God we are to receive these gifts andrespond to them with the passionate confidenceof saints who know who they are and wherethey are going, and with the welcominghospitality of pilgrims summoned home inChrist. This conference will focus on how to doLutheran liturgy and hymnody well, accentingpractical ways in which pastors and musiciansmay assist the people of God to embody thefaith in their worship.

This year’s conference will be different frompast conferences in three ways. First, it will havetwo tracks: one for pastors, deacons, elders, andother church leaders; and one for organists, choirmembers, and directors of children’s, adult, and

bell choirs. Second, throughout theconference, clergy and musicians willmodel the planning process for theculminating service of the conference,All Saints’ Holy Communion offeredfor the whole campus on Tuesdaymorning. Third, this year’s sessionswill not appear in a published journal,but will be videotaped for distributionas teaching DVDs for the church.

The 2008 Conference will begin onSunday, November 2 at 4:30 PM with an organrecital by Faythe Freese, associate professor ofmusic at the University of Alabama School ofMusic, and formerly a music faculty member atConcordia University Texas. It will be followedat 7:30 PM by All Saints’ Choral Vespers,including Bach’s Cantata BWV 80, Ein festeBurg ist unser Gott, presented by the SeminarySchola Cantorum. On Monday evening KantorKevin Hildebrand will present a hymn festivalthat will allow us to sing the liturgical year in aglorious way.

It is our hope that this conference will helppastors and musicians to lead Lutheran liturgyand hymnody in ways that are as confident andgraceful as they are theologically grounded.

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Announcing the Release!

Singing the Faith: Living theLutheran Musical Heritage

This Good Shepherd Institute product may nowbe ordered from Concordia Publishing Housewww.cph.org with the product number: 99-2260.It is an 80-minute DVD for pastors, churchmusicians, and all interested in the story ofLutheran hymn singing. The package includesa 32- page booklet for the teacher andreproducible handouts for four sessions.The cost is $24.95.

Since we produced it, we cannot objectivelyreview it. We welcome your responses and hopeto publish them in a future edition of His Voice.Please send your thoughts to Yohko Masaki at:yohko.masaki@ctsfw.edu

Matthew C. Harrison,Christ Have Mercy:How to Put Your Faith in Action(Concordia Publishing House, 2008), 270 pp.[$14.99]

Writing out of several years experience as a pastorin rural Iowa and urban Indiana, and seven yearsas Executive Director of LCMSWorld Relief andHuman Care, Matthew Harrison has provided thechurch with a wonderfully textured theology ofmercy that is both dogmatic and doxological.Drawing on the Kyrie,Harrison focuses on thegift of Christ’s mercy for sinners, demonstratingthat justification by faith is the foundation for thechurch’s corporate life of mercy extended to thosewho ache under the burdens of disease, poverty,and death in this fallen world. Written in a livelyand conversational tone, this book brings solidconfessional Lutheran theology to clarify howChristian vocation, both individually andcorporately, is the extension of the Divine Serviceinto the world. The book is supplemented withstudy/discussion questions that would make itan ideal text for an adult Bible class._______________________________________

Daniel Gard, Ruth Geisler, KevinHildebrand, John T. Pless, Carl Roth,and Harold Senkbeil, Lamb of God,Pure and Holy: Resources for Lent-Easter Preaching and WorshipBased on “O Lamm Gottes”(Concordia Publishing House, 2008), 190 pp.[$28.98]

Utilizing exegetical, homiletical, and liturgicalmaterial first presented at a Lenten PreachingSeminar sponsored by The Good Shepherd Institutein 2005, this book provides pastors and parishmusicians with textual studies (Gard), sermons(Senkbeil), liturgical theology/worship resourcesfrom LSB (Pless), choral suggestions (Hildebrand),children’s messages (Geisler), and Bible studies(Roth) for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter._______________________________________

PASTORAL RESOURCESby JOHN PLESS

Recommended

HIS Voice • April 2008 3

Oswald Bayer, Theology the LutheranWay, ed. and trans. Jeffrey C. Silcockand Mark C. Mattes.(Eerdmans, 2007), 302 pp.[$32.00]

Until his recent retirement, Oswald Bayer served asprofessor of systematic theology at the Universityof Tübingen. Bayer has the well-deserved reputationas a theologian who utilizes both Luther and theGerman philosopher Johann Georg Hamann(1730–1788) in developing an approach to systematictheology that is both faithful and fresh. Theologythe Lutheran Way is a multifaceted exposition thattestifies to the vitality of Bayer’s approach.

Theology the Lutheran Way engages the question“what is theology?” Bayer refuses to settle for adichotomy between theology as a theoretical scienceand a practical discipline. In fact, theology is notsomething we do. Theology is God’s workas He both kills and vivifies the theologian. It is apassive, or, better put, receptive enterprise. HereBayer uses Luther’s famous triad oratio, meditatio,tentatio to speak of how theologians are made byprayer, meditation, and spiritual attack. ContrastingLuther’s method to medieval forms of speculativeand contemplative theology, as well asEnlightenment models influenced by Kant and Hegeland the existential approaches of Schleiermacher,Bultmann, and Jonas, Bayer argues for a return toLuther’s “catechetical systematic,” marked byreliance on God’s own promissio, a bodily wordthat accomplishes God’s purpose. This is one of themagnificent strengths of Bayer’s work.

A second significant strength is Bayer’s treatment ofthe “Divine Service and Theology.” Bayer correctlynotes that “The distinction between faith andtheology is an invention of modernity” (p. 83).Luther’s theology guards us against this deformingdistinction while providing place for necessaryacademic disciplines—but disciplines set within aliturgical spirituality. Thus, for Bayer, theology hasits genesis in the Divine Service and leads back tothe Divine Service. For Bayer, liturgical theology isnot anthropological analysis or ritual commentary,

but rather the Divine Service has to do with promiseand faith—God giving and our receiving. Hisdiscussion of the church as an “order of creation,”the externality of the word, the distinction betweengift and sacrifice, and “the day of rest” as receptivityare essential for anyone attempting to articulate aLutheran theology of worship. But this is more thana theology of worship or a theology about worship.Bayer writes: “If the divine service has this universaldimension that we have demonstrated, then theology,understood in the narrower sense as a disciplinedway of thinking, cannot go beyond it. It can neveroutstrip it, nor even catch up with it. Theologybegins and ends with the divine service.As adisciplined way of thinking, it is closely connectedto faith, which comes from hearing (Rom.10:17).Faith loves God not only with all one’s heart, butalso with every power and vitality, including themind (Mark 12:30). Broadly speaking, theology isidentical with faith” (p. 93).

Bayer is at home in the world of philosophy, and heis apt at handling the conceptualities of this world.Yet he does not build a system in conformity withany of these metaphysical paradigms of knowing anddoing, but, following Hamann (and Luther beforehim), Bayer asserts that theology’s grammar is thelanguage of the Holy Scripture. Hence forSchleiermacher, faith creates the word, but forLuther, the word creates faith.

Theology the Lutheran Way is one of the mostpromising contributions of our day to the study oftheology; it is liturgical theology at its best. By andlarge, the new curriculum at Concordia TheologicalSeminary is reflective of the thesis of Bayer’s book,even though our faculty did not have access to itwhen the curriculum was being designed. All of ourfirst-year students are working with Bayer’sexposition of oratio, meditatio, tentatio as part ofthe field education plenary lectures. Pastors woulddo well to work through this book individually or incircuit pastoral conferences. To that end, MarkMattes has provided a very helpful introduction toBayer’s work in “Theology the Lutheran Way: ASynopsis and Glossary,” Logia:A Journal ofLutheran Theology 16, no. 4 (Reformation 2007):37–46._______________________________________

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Recommended

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Oliver K. Olson, Reclaiming theLutheran Liturgical Heritage(Reclaim Resources, 2007), 89 pp.

Oliver Olson, the preeminent scholar of MatthiasIllyricus Flacius (1520–1575) and an authority onthe history and theology of Lutheran liturgy, haslong argued that worship practices ought to becongruent with Lutheran doctrine. Given thetendency for American Lutherans to borrowuncritically from other traditions, Olson’s thoughtfulresearch is condensed in a form that will beaccessible not only to seminarians and pastors but toa lay audience as well. Throughout the volume, thegift character of the Lord’s Supper is accented asOlson engages liturgical theologies often of Romanor Eastern orientation that shaped the LutheranBook of Worship and, more recently, EvangelicalLutheran Worship.Olson quotes Flacius:“Liturgical changes will be the window throughwhich the wolf will enter the evangelical fold” (p.62). This book is highly recommended as anintroduction to current challenges to a genuinelyLutheran understanding of liturgical theology andpractice._______________________________________

William Cwirla, Promise:God Is For Us; Detlev Schulz,Witness: We Share Our Faith(Concordia Publishing House, 2008).[$8.99 each]

These two studies round out the LutheranSpirituality series. Cwirla, a parish pastor inHacienda Heights, California, develops thecharacter of the Gospel as promise given us in thepreaching of Christ crucified, Baptism, Absolution,and the Lord’s Supper. Schulz, formerly amissionary in South Africa and now a professor ofmissions at Fort Wayne, provides readers with helpin speaking God’s Law and Gospel in Christianwitness. Like the previous six entries in theLutheran Spirituality series, these two booklets aredesigned for either personal or group study._______________________________________

James Arne Nestingen,“Justification by Faith inLuther’s Small Catechism,”Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology16, no. 4 (Reformation 2007): 15–21.

This is must reading for those who teach the SmallCatechism. Observing that the language ofjustification by faith alone is noticeably absent in theCatechism, Nestingen argues that the doctrine is theredynamically and functionally as it informs Luther’sproclamation without being the subject of it, shapingthe progression from the “ought” of the First Articleto the gifts of the Second and Third Articles._______________________________________

Steven D. Paulson,“Categorical Preaching,”Lutheran Quarterly 21, no. 3(Autumn 2007): 268–93.

Paulson argues for preaching that operates out ofthe center of the Gospel, justification by faith alone.Contrasting contemporary notions of preaching withLuther’s apocalyptic understanding that the sermonputs to death all that is not Christ (Law) so thatChrist alone is proclaimed as Savior (Gospel),Paulson contends that preaching enacts election. Ittakes salvation out of the hands of our “free will”and declares that it is done by Christ for you: “Theproblem the world has with preachers is that theynot only give strange and culturally local ideas likeany after-dinner speaker might, but that theyproceed to elect sinners, which is to say that theyremove the free will. They do this categorically, thatmeans not hypothetically and completely withoutany condition.Giving Christ sucks the air out foranything else, especially the free will” (p. 273)._______________________________________

Concordia Publishing Housewww.cph.org

Eerdmanswww.eerdmans.com

Reclaim Resourceswww.reclaimLutheranworship.org(800-590-6001)

PASTORAL RESOURCES continued

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HIS Voice • April 2008 5

PENTECOST AND TRINITY 2008by KEVIN HILDEBRAND

Resources for

With a very early Easter in 2008, the festivals of Pentecost and Holy Trinity alsooccur earlier—before most schools are out, and while most choirs are still

rehearsing regularly. That circumstance makes this year’s observances of these festivalsan ideal opportunity to explore some practical choral and hymn resources in yourcongregation; several ideas are included below.Two items to bear in mind: First, be sensitive about how many of these options you useon any given Sunday. (Trying all of these at one service would be highly unusual!) Alsoremember that the suggestions below for “choir” can take many forms: your regularly-rehearsing adult choir, a group of men or a group of women, a children’s choir, an ad-hocensemble, a choir of a few people who can sight read well and rehearse quickly, a groupof parents, college students home for the summer, etc.

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Pentecost: May 11, 2008

Hymn of the Day:“Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord”(LSB 497)

This strong hymn, which confesses the person andwork of the Holy Spirit, is strongly encouraged foruse on Pentecost. Participation by a choir can bevery helpful, especially on such a longer chorale.Try having the choir sing stanza 1 or 2 of the hymn,in one of the following methods:

� Simply sing the melody right from the hymnal

� Alternate singing melody and parts from thehymnal (sing the first phrase in unison, the nextphrase in parts, etc.)

� An SAB setting by Johann Hermann Schein inA Third Morning Star Choir Book (CPH 97-4972) gives the sopranos and altos lots ofenjoyable dotted rhythms, with the men singingthe melody in long notes (try having a tromboneplay along with the men). Some text adaptationwill be necessary to use this with the LSBtranslation. And since this is a longer-than-usualsetting, having the congregation seated willmake this easier to listen to.

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Something new:“Holy Spirit, the DoveSent from Heaven”(LSB 502)

This hymn, which is new toLutheran Service Book, will requirecareful planning if it is beingintroduced to a parish. It may be helpful tointroduce this hymn by having the choir sing thishymn in its entirety—at the distribution of HolyCommunion or during the gathering of the offering,perhaps. An adventurous concertato setting byRobert Hobby (CPH 97-7160), complete withpercussion, could be used. No matter how thishymn is sung, take care that the tempo is gentle(dotted quarter = 40), not rushed and overpowering._______________________________________

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Recommended

Making plainsong not so plain:“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest”(LSB 498/499)

A very easy way of presenting this hymn withvariety is to have the choir (of one or more singers,remember) sing the even-numbered stanzas to theplainsong chant (LSB 499) in alternation with thecongregation singing the odd-numbered stanzas tothe chorale (LSB 498). Handbells could ring asimple fifth (B-flat 4, F5) before each phrase of theplainsong to accompany the chorale.Or investigatethese settings by Carl Schalk:

� “Come, Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire” inA Third Morning Star Choir Book (CPH 97-5969) for unison and SAB and handbells.

� “Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove”(CPH 97-6892), a concertato for choir,congregation, brass, timpani, and organ.(Note: The text of these publications will need tobe altered in order to make them work with theLSB translation.)

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Getting more mileage from a hymn:“Hail Thee, Festival Day”(LSB 489)

If your congregation knows or islearning this hymn, it makes sense touse it in the Easter season (even morethan once), on Ascension, and onPentecost, as the text options indicate.LSB already gives the wise suggestionof having a choir sing stanzas 2, 4, and6. It could also be beneficial for somecongregations to sing only the refrain and have acantor or choir sing all of the stanzas. If that is thecase, Lutheran Service Builder could convenientlygenerate the refrain to be printed in the servicefolder. Other versions of this hymn include:

� A setting by Hal Hopson [MorningStar, 60-4004(full score); 60-4004A (choral score)] is scoredfor organ and voices, with optional parts forbrass, timpani, and handbells.

� Robert Powell’s organ setting (in the collectionby the same name, MorningStar 10-585) is astraightforward and festive setting, calling fora strong solo reed.

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A simple choral resource:“Let Songs of Praises Fill the Sky”(GIA G-3003) contains a simple unison setting ofthe chorale tune Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ,by Bartholomaeus Gesius, set to a Pentecost text.This would be ideal for young children—or any age group._______________________________________

HIS Voice • April 2008 8

CHORAL AND ORGAN MUSIC continued

Recommended

Holy Trinity: May 18, 2008Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest . . .again: This is the hymn of the day for Holy Trinity;particularly if you didn’t sing this hymn onPentecost, do so for Holy Trinity, trying one of thesuggestions listed above._______________________________________

Gloria in excelsis: The observance of theHoly Trinity is an ideal time to explore settings ofthe Gloria in excelsis. Settings from the hymnal areby no means the only musical options, but they doprovide a practical way of exploring this rich text.Two hymns are metrical paraphrases of the Gloriaand can be substituted within the liturgical settingof the day:

� “All Glory Be to God on High” LSB 947

� “All Glory Be to God Alone” LSB 948(Note: Substituting one of these chorales for theGloria is how Divine Service, Setting Five isorganized, but this option could also be used inany Divine Service setting.)

� Festival Gloria—All Glory Be to God onHigh, by John Behnke (CPH 98-3915) is anexuberant setting of LSB 947 for SATB choir,congregation, organ, optional brass quartet,timpani, percussion, and handbells. Brief choralinterludes introduce each stanza of the hymn. Alilting setting of stanza 3 is written for unisonand SATB choir.

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Sanctus: The observance of the Holy Trinity isalso an ideal time to explore the Sanctus, with itsthree-fold “holy” in the text. Like the suggestionsfor the Gloria, a hymn version of the Sanctus couldbe substituted in the Divine Service setting for theday. These include:

� “Isaiah Mighty Seer in Days of Old” LSB 960

� Asetting of the Sanctus by Mark BenderLSB 961

If your congregation does not use “Isaiah, MightySeer in Days of Old” regularly (or at all!), thissuggestion may be helpful:

Choir only: Isaiah, mighty seer in days of old . . .One to the other calledand praised the Lord,

Cong: “Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!His glory fills the heavens and the earth!”

Choir only: The beams and lintels trembled at the cry,and clouds of smoke enwrappedthe throne on high.”

Once again, Lutheran Service Builder couldbe useful here in assembling a worship folder,including the musical notation along with the textfor the congregation. Appropriate organ registrationcan also give a cue to the congregation. Use a quietaccompaniment for the choir to begin and end thehymn, and a full registration for the congregation.Instruments doubling the melody with thecongregation may also make your building’sbeams and lintels tremble!_______________________________________

Te Deum:Mark Bender’s setting (CPH 98-3921)of “We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God”(LSB 941) is recommended for use on this festival . . .and any other time as well. A variety of choraltextures (unison, two-part, SATB, descant) andoptional parts for instruments make this setting veryversatile. Use whatever instruments you have fromthe “optional orchestra” parts—strings, winds, brass,and percussion—along with the organ and voices._______________________________________

Concordia Publishing Housewww.cph.org

GIA Publicationswww.giamusic.com

MorningStar Musicwww.morningstarmusic.com

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CHORAL AND ORGAN MUSIC continued

Recommended

HIS Voice • April 2008 10

Reading

Tanya Kevorkian, Baroque Piety:Religion, Society, and Music inLeipzig, 1650–1750(Ashgate, 2007)[$99.95]

Tanya Kevorkian, Associate Professor of History atMillersville University of Pennsylvania, has writtena study that enlarges considerably our knowledge ofworship and the functional use of sacred music inLeipzig, including the period when JohannSebastian Bach worked there as cantor and musicdirector. While much has, of course, been written onBach’s years in Leipzig and the music he composedand performed there, Kevorkian focuses on areasthat have not previously been thoroughlyinvestigated, among them the question of howcongregants experienced the Sunday worshipservices in Leipzig’s two principal churches, St.Thomas and St. Nicholas. She tells us much abouthow congregants experienced the liturgy, the music,and the sermon. In so doing she updates andcomplements the earlier work (1970) of GüntherStiller, whose Johann Sebastian Bach andLiturgical Life in Leipzig appeared in Englishtranslation (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House)in 1984. Kevorkian also explores “the Pietistalternative” during this period. This book is a mostwelcome study that adds considerably to ourknowledge of church music and worship in Leipzigbefore and during Bach’s time there._______________________________________

Scott M. Hyslop, The JourneyWas Chosen: The Life and Workof Paul Manz(MorningStar Music, 2007)[$24.00]

Scott Hyslop, Director of Parish Music for St.Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, Michigan,gives us a biography of Paul Manz (in six chapters);a study of his organ, choral, and liturgical music (intwo chapters); reflections on his life and work byseven Lutheran church musicians or pastors; and aclosing reflection by Manz himself. Martin Martyand John Ferguson each provide forewords to thevolume. The biographical portion of the volume inparticular draws one in, since so much of it is basedon the author’s personal interviews with Paul andRuth Manz. All who have enjoyed playing PaulManz’s organ music and singing at his hymnfestivals will take pleasure in reading this book. LetPaul Manz have the final word:

It is a high and holy honor to stand in therich tradition of Lutheran organists—Pachelbel, Buxtehude, Bach and countlessother Old Masters. These, along with somany bright names of the present, have madethe story of salvation singable. Isn’t it amarvel? (P. 216)

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READING AND LISTENINGby DANIEL ZAGER

Recommended

HIS Voice • April 2008 11

Listening

Music of the Reformation(Himlische Cantorey)[2007, cpo 777 275-2]

The five singers and two instrumentalists (lute andorgan) of Himlische Cantorey sing chorales ofMartin Luther (in choral unison) as well ascontrapuntal settings by his contemporaries JohannWalter (1496–1570) and Caspar Othmayr(1515–1553). Thus, for example, the CD beginswith the first stanza of “Nun bitten wir den HeiligenGeist” (“To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray” LSB768) sung in choral unison; three polyphonicstanzas by Walter follow, thus giving us an idea ofthe kind of musical resources that began to emergein the early years of the Lutheran Reformation.Other chorales treated in this way on the CDinclude: “Mitten wir im Leben sind” (“In the VeryMidst of Life” LSB 755), “Durch Adams Fall istganz verderbt,” and “Mit Fried und Freud” (“InPeace and Joy I Now Depart” LSB 938). Thesinging and playing by the musicians of HimlischeCantorey is very well done._______________________________________

Samuel Scheidt,Great Sacred Concertos(La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata, Roland Wilson)[2007, cpo 777 145-2]

Samuel Scheidt (1587–1654) spent most of his lifein the German city of Halle, serving first as courtorganist and subsequently as Hofkapellmeister. Atthe time of Scheidt, the word “concerto” implied acomposition that combined voices and instruments,often in contrasting sections featuring varyingcombinations of voices and instruments. One of thesacred concertos on this recording is based on thefamiliar chorale “Nun lob mein Seel den Herren”(“My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker” LSB 820)._______________________________________

Dieterich Buxtehude, Complete OrganWorks, vol. 2, “The Bach Perspective”(Hans Davidsson, organist)[2007, Loft Recordings LRCD 1092/1093, 2 CDs]

Volume 1 of this series was noted in the August2007 issue ofHis Voice. Hans Davidsson (EastmanSchool of Music) states that volume two “consists ofpieces by Buxtehude that Johann Sebastian Bach andthe musicians who belonged to the Bach circlestudied, shared, and admired.” Among the choralepreludes included on these two discs areBuxtehude’s settings of “Es ist das Heil uns kommenher” (“Salvation unto Us Has Come” LSB 555),“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“AMighty FortressIs Our God” LSB 656), and “Komm Heiliger Geist,Herre Gott” (“Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord”LSB 497). Davidsson’s playing, characterized byimaginative registrations, is exemplary._______________________________________

Johann Sebastian Bach, Third Part ofthe Clavier Übung (1739)(Ulrich Böhme, Thomanerchor Leipzig,Georg Christoph Biller)[2005, Rondeau ROP 4017/18, 2 CDs]

The third part of the Clavierübung, one of Bach’sfew published collections of organ music, containshis settings of the chorales associated with Luther’sSmall Catechism, for example “Dies sind die heilgenZehn Gebot” (“These Are the Holy Ten Commands”LSB 581), or “Wir glauben all an einen Gott” (“WeAll Believe in One True God” LSB 954). Inaddition to Böhme’s fine performances on the organbuilt by Gerald Woehl and installed in the St.Thomas Church in Leipzig in 2000, this recordingincludes choral versions of the chorales, sung by theSt. Thomas choir of men and boys, conducted by theThomaskantor, Georg Christoph Biller. This is a veryspecial recording, not only because of the highquality of the music making, but also because themusicians are, in a very real sense, Bach’ssuccessors, playing and singing in the same spacewhere he made music for the Divine Service._______________________________________

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HIS Voice • April 2008 12

Bach, Improvisations,and the Liturgical Year(Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, organist)[2008, Rezound RZCD-5016]

Playing the two-manual and pedal organ of MartinPasi (Opus 4, 1995) at Trinity Lutheran Church inLynnwood, Washington, Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra(Eastern Michigan University) organizes herrecording project around the church year, withchorales from Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent,Easter, and Pentecost. She mixes her own skillfulimprovisations with chorale preludes of Bach, thusfor Advent her own improvisation on “Wachet auf,ruft uns die Stimme” (“Wake, Awake, for Night IsFlying” LSB 516) is followed by Bach’sOrgelbüchlein setting of “Nun komm, der HeidenHeiland” (“Savior of the Nations, Come” LSB332). This recording presents a wonderfulcombination of instrument, music, and musician—the performer allowing the musical vocabulary ofBach’s chorale preludes to infuse her own creativethinking as an improviser._______________________________________

How Brightly Shines theMorning Star: Music for Epiphany(Saint Mark’s Cathedral Choir, Seattle, Washington;J. Melvin Butler, organist and choirmaster)[2007, Gothic G-49258]

This recording is a fine collection of music for theEpiphany season, including hymns, choral music,and organ music. Highlights of this anthologyinclude organ settings of “Wie schön leuchtet derMorgenstern” (“O Morning Star, How Fair andBright” LSB 395) by Dieterich Buxtehude,Helmut Walcha, and Ludwig Lenel. Lenel’s setting(published by Concordia Publishing House in1951 as one of his Four Organ Chorales) isparticularly impressive, and is played with avirtuosic flair by Butler._______________________________________

Ashgatewww.ashgate.com

MorningStar Musicwww.morningstarmusic.com

Loft Recordings, Gothic, Rezoundwww.gothic-catalog.com

READING AND LISTENING continued

Recommended