During the summer months we are offering a unique opportunity for the entire congregation to have a deeper understanding of the hymns you sing.  In addition to weekly articles with descriptions of the music, we are offering congregation-wide "hymn rehearsal" on Sundays in June and July from 9:30 to 9:45 a.m.  Simply turn up 30 minutes prior to the 10:00 service, find a good spot in the Nave, and you can join the choir in rehearsing the hymns for that service, punctuated by brief verbal descriptions or factoids about the music. The more you know, the more your worship experience will be enhanced. No reservations necessary; just turn up 30 minutes before the 10:00 service and prepare to be enriched by the glorious hymnody of the Church.

What:     Congregation-wide hymn practice

When:     Sundays from 9:30-9:45 a.m. (June and July)

Where:    Good Shepherd Nave

Why:       To further enrich your worship experience!

Sunday is the last service with our Holloway organ, as it will be removed later next week in preparation for other construction projects leading up to the installation of our new organ in January 2013. During the interim period we will be using the three-stop Steiner organ at the west end of the nave. Since this smaller organ does not have pedals, today's music features repertoire that fully exploits the use of pedals.

Samuel Barber's famous Adagio for Strings is a favorite among organ transcription enthusiasts. This work began its life as the second movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while Barber was spending a summer in Europe.  As one of the most moving pieces of the 20th century, it has earned itself a place in popular culture. It has appeared on several television and film soundtracks, most notably Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Oscar-nominated 2001 film Amélie, and has been performed for memorial services of dignitaries.  The organ transcription is by William Strickland and was published by G. Schirmer in 1949.

Bach's reason for composing the Fantasia in G Major (Pièce d'Orgue), BWV 572,may never be discerned, as the work stands unique in his output and is uniquely mysterious. In texture and temper its three sections could hardly differ more strikingly from each other, yet in conception they are clearly one. Further, although the work is in the major mode, it conveys such a sense of grief mixed with resignation- especially in the middle part, where five fugal voices interweave in unparalleled serenity and majesty-that causes some musicologists to speculate that Bach wrote it after the death of his first wife.

Whatever the truth may be, few works by any master reveal their consummate beauty more slowly or make greater demands on the listener. The title Pièce d'Orgue was adop-ted by Kenneth Gilbert and the editors of the New Bach Edition (NBA) in 1954, published by Bärenreiter, as a more appropriate reflection of the characteristically French orna-mentation and tempo indications in certain sources of BWV 572.