New Territory: Organ Offertories

During my recent trip to the state music teachers' conference, I picked up a couple of organ books by Gordon Young: Organ Voluntaries: Eleven Short Solos for Church or Recital, and Eight Organ Voluntaries on Familiar Hymn Tunes, both published by Theodore Presser Company. They are clearly a different style from what I usually play for the service (which would be Baroque-esque preludes or hymn arrangements), but majestic and perfect for Sunday mornings. From the first volume above, I recently played "Antiphon," a two-page selection with simple pedal points, modified by yours truly to be played with the left hand, since our church "organ" is actually a keyboard--no pedals available. Whether you have pedals or not, this is a lovely piece; and its form is conducive to repeats as needed, which makes it perfect for an offertory. I'm looking forward to checking out other pieces by Young in the coming weeks!

I've also found some nice offertories in simpler Bach pieces, many of which my students are also playing. I was inspired by a workshop on improvisation at the teachers' conference to improve my stylistic performance of Baroque pieces (and organ music in general) by improvising--adding ornaments on the repeats. Of course, I experiment and plan out most of the ornaments beforehand, but that still counts as improvisation--pulling from your own bag of tricks to make an arrangement your own. I've enjoyed doing this with Bach's Minuet in G Minor (from the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook). You can find this piece in collections such as Bastien's Piano Literature: Volume One.

Another favorite resource for organ offertories is The Organist's Manual by Roger E. Davis. Yes, this is your textbook from college organ lessons. Besides having exercises to help you develop better technique, and plenty of reference material for style and ornamentation, there are two sections in the back of the book with repertoire pieces: one for manuals only, and one for manuals and pedals. At the moment, I am making good use of the selections for manuals! An everyday favorite that I use often is #11 "All Glory Be to God on High." Another one I love is #1 "There Jesus Hung Upon the Cross." This one is perfect for Lent, because of its contemplative character. No tempo indication is given, but I like to take it Andante.

For special music, I encourage you to involve members of your congregation when possible, as I discuss in this post. On Easter Sunday this year, I accompanied two young violinists (and their teacher!) in playing a hymn from our hymnal. It was simple to put together--we all are familiar with the hymnal already, and have copies at home--and we enjoyed bringing our talents together in the worship of our Lord. The congregation loves to see other members participating in the service, especially the young ones! During the past year, we have also had special vocal solos by friends or students of our members, who are studying voice and come to the church to sing their sacred solos as an offertory. This is a great way to minister to musicians outside of our church, by providing them with a venue, an accompanist (me!), and a paycheck.