By Mark Heiskanen
Summer Choir returns for the first of three offerings this season on Sunday! Please consider joining us for rehearsal at 8:45am in the chancel. We’ll have a quick warmup and get right into it. The music will be fun, very accessible, and just an opportunity to be together in song with minimal commitment and no pressure (on the latter — spoiler alert — there never is!). Come share in the joy of music-making and experience what it is like to be on the other side of the chancel. Additional Sunday opportunities will be on July 26 and August 23. Hope to see you soon!
And from the organ this Sunday, two aptly stated offerings from the 20th century humbly serving their respective moments in worship.
To begin, “A Stately Prelude (Passacaglia)” by David Lacey welcomes you into the sanctuary. The work is indeed a stately British-inspired piece which slowly builds in intensity over a repeating bass ostinato which the passacaglia subtitle is in reference to. Originally a 17th Spanish dance, the passacaglia and its characteristic ground bass technique was soon adapted into compositions by Baroque composers such as J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel.
Lastly, the service concludes with a “Postlude in D” by British-Canadian composer Healey Willan. A regal work as well, the key of D major has been unofficially over the centuries been referred to as the “Key of God” for its bright timbre and compability with period instruments. Nevertheless, a joyful ending to worship on a joyful day.