Organ works inspired by scripture, hymns, and sacred texts

The liturgical function of the organ is obvious when one looks at the amount of repertoire that has been written for the instrument based on biblical texts and ideas.  Bach’s Clavieruebung, Part 3 contains large and small chorale settings based on well-known Lutheran hymns of his day.  Mendelssohn wrote his 6^th Sonata as variations on the chorale “Vater Unser im Himmelreich” (The Lord’s Prayer).  Each movement from Margaret Sandresky’s Sacred Dances is based on a passage of scripture that refers to dancing – both joyful, wild, ecstatic dancing and calm, meditative, peaceful dancing.  Dan Locklair’s Aeolian Sonata contains references to the chorale “Aus tiefer Not” (Out of the Depths, based on Psalm 130).   Messiaen’s Ascension Suite was written for the liturgical feast of Ascension and each movement includes a liturgical passage which was the inspiration for the music.  Each of these composers, writing from vastly different times and places, finds inspiration in these ancient, sacred texts, and uses them to create something both uniquely personal and universally transcendent, helping us to understand the texts in a new way, as we see and hear them through their eyes and ears.

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Works to be performed on the “Sacred Inspiration” program include:

Bach, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, from the Clavieruebung
Mendelssohn, Vater Unser Sonata
Brahms, Chorale Preludes
Sandresky, Sacred Dances
Locklair, Aeolia Sonata
Messiaen, excerpts from the Ascension Suite
Bernard Wayne Sanders, Rhapsody on Two Southern Harmonies

Program offered in spring 2013.