Listen to my Lakeside organ

I had a friend coming over with some recording equipment and recorded the sound from my beloved reed organ. We had to do some fiddling about before we got a recording that wasn't too embarrassing to put on the web, but still it could have been a lot better. Anyway, the point isn't to show off, but to get an idea of how the organ sounds like. Below you can hear Andante in G by Charles Macpherson which I adapted for my one manual reed organ: You can hear me taking the 16' out and in a couple of times; The Vox Humana is very hard to hear, but it is used in a two bar passage; Right after the Vox Humana I pull out the Celeste in a similar reponsorial passage before returning to the opening theme; Then I use the crescendo knee "pedal" or "wing" (left hand side) followed by the swell pedal (right) at the beginning of the loudest passage.

Download the mp3 file at The Organ Amateur Page

Geistliche Lieder

I went to a second hand book shop in Oslo last Wednesday. I do that from time to time, but I never find anything related to church music. I don't know why that is. Perhaps there aren't many books out there, or perhaps there are some very keen collectors that hoovers (british word for vacuum cleaning) the market constantly. This time, however, I found something: J. S. Bach's Geistliche Lieder (35 of them) translated to Norwegian with simple melody scores. I'm not sure how useful this little book is to me, but perhaps I can get some fun out of it sometime in the future. Maybe I can use some of the words in an anthem. Maybe I can compose arrangements and then compare what I have done to e.g. Bach's own arrangements.

This book of Geistliche Lieder (Sacred Songs) is not strictly speaking church music, but could be used as such. The words are written after the reformation, so I think anyway, jugded from both credits given and the content. There are very much "Herz" and "Schmerz" (heart and pain), in a sort of a pietistic style. I'm not sure if those are true pietistic poems, but they could have been, anyways. That's why I am not too excited about this little book, because I don't like Pietism very much. All this focus on life after death and overly self-repenting stuff.

Anyway, this is none-the-less the most exciting thing that have happpend since my last blog entry...

Luther's Hymn / Nun freut euch

As I mentioned in a previous post the hymn tune called "Luther's Hymn" (in Anglican hymn books) is not used in Norway. I can not be 100% sure that it is not used, because I have not actually checked the Norwegian hymn books, but I have never heard it sung. Norwegian hymns are difficult to search because they don't name the tunes, and nothing is electronically searchable. Anyway, to make things a bit clearer, I have found some info on this tune on the internet for you. Luther's hymn is (or can be) the same as Nun freut euch, lieben Christen. The tune is composed by Joseph Klug, to be seen here. Luther wrote the words. J.S. Bach has of course harmonised it, and Bach's version (BWV 307) can be seen here and heard here. I hope this has been an enlightenment for you all, because it certainly was for me ;-)

New organist in my local church

Since the previous organist left in February my local church has not had a regular organist. Today I had the pleasure to meet Jo (from England!!!) - our new organist. My first impression was very good, and I was very much satisfied with her musical skills. She also speaks Norwegian just after one year of living in Norway. Impressive!

For all I know, Jo might read this because I gave her the URL to my blog in case she was interested to learn more about who this person is that keeps moving the organ bench form time to time. If I had not said anything, she might believe that the organ is haunted, quit her job and leave Norway altogether, and I do not want that to happen, do I? No, that would be a very bad thing to do for an anglomaniac as myself.

And Jo, if you are reading this: I have a homepage in addition to this blog, there is a link in the heading at the top of this page.

New Norwegian hymn (number 18)

My eighteenth hymn tune, and the words to go with it, are one of those inspired-by-the-moment creations. I wrote the words and composed the music in a matter of hours. Compared to my sixteenth hymn, which troubled me every day for two weeks, this came about very easily. Even though I feel that I have finished it, it can still be improved upon, and any musical, literate and creative person will find ways to make it more suitable to a specific use without changing the fundamental idea. The words of my eighteenth hymn are in Norwegian, and are basically inspired by my own frustration over Church of Norway. I try to describe a situation that I regard to be in accordance to my own beliefs, implying that Church of Norway lacks or suppresses this dimension, making the described situation closer to wishful thinking rather than reality. The hymn are however theologically sound (I think) and embraces the ideas of Real Presence and Epiclesis.

You'll find my eighteenth hymn at the Organ Amatuer Page by clicking "Music" and "Music by me". You can also access the words here and the tune here.

I also wish to point out that all of my music and lyrics are intellectual property that belongs to me, but I welcome any use that are not commercial nor deceitful. If you want to use any of my material for, let's say, a church service, that is fine by me. Putting the printed music on the market for sale is NOT OK (just an example, many other things are also NOT OK - use common sense).