Pentecost/Confirmation organ music?
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Looking for new suggestions for Pentecost organ music (prelude/postlude) that could also be used for Confirmations in the future. Preferably of medium difficulty (or err on the easier side - like the Guilmant).

    For this year's Confirmations:
    -Prelude: simply the Veni Creator Spiritus chant followed by Guilmant's 2 short pieces on the same hymn.
    -Postlude: I was thinking maybe Now Thank We All Our God by Karg-Elert, but am open to other suggestions.

    Here is the context: I "get" to play the organ preludes and postlude for Confirmation this weekend at one of our cluster parishes...and the rest of the Mass is going to be mostly electric guitar and drums.

    Help?
  • MairiMairi
    Posts: 19
    Are you looking for something to contrast the 'modernity'? Although it is not chant/hymn-based, I would suggest the Fanfare (Jaques Lemmens) as a postlude- it looks difficult, but is fairly easy once you get the pattern in your fingers. You could also look for an alternate harmonization of Come, Holy Ghost, and spruce it up a little. Moving backward, Rheinberger's Trio in G Minor is lovely- I used it as a prelude to my Easter masses.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    I just did the Karg-Elert as the postlude at our Confirmations last weekend. I think it's splendid and many kids think it's "cool."
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    How about Buxtehude "Nun bitten wir den Heilgen Geist?" (Now Pray We the Holy Ghost.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23zhy5xdvUw
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    It's cheesy, but I like the John Rutter "Toccata in Seven" for Pentecost, plus the kids will really love it.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    If your organ makes a correct registration possible, what about Nicolas de Grignys setting of Veni creator spiritus? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd-cjL-ovmo&feature=related
  • Ally
    Posts: 227
    Thanks everyone!T hese are great suggestions!
    Yes, Mairi, I definitely want to contrast the ahem "modernity". Why can't the kids think this is cool, right? For next year, I will work up a couple of these. Too bad it is not at my parish...better organ! I'd have to play around with theirs, so we'll see about unique registrations.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 537
    Duruflé choral varie sur veni creator each year for Pentecost. It's really a lot easier than most of the rest of his organ works.

    I used the charpentier Te Deum with trumpet for confirmation this year.
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    This suggestion might be useful: Stanford's Andante con moto in E Flat Major, Opus 101 No. 6 (from his earliest set of Preludes and Postludes), is based very obviously on the old Irish tune which Catholics usually sing to the words "O Breathe On Me, O Breath Of God". Taking up only two pages, the work is agreeably concise; and while the counterpoint is quite subtly devised, the tune is made very obvious in the treble so that the congregation can enjoy it.

    No great technical difficulties are involved, though the pedal part goes above middle C. Don't do what I once inadvertently did, and play the piece on a pedal-board that stopped at B below middle C, which limitation I perceived only by accident in mid-performance, when my right foot came crashing down onto ... a slab of wood.
    Thanked by 3Gavin Ally Mairi
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I too play the piece R J Stove mentions above. You can find a copy of the collection it's from here: http://imslp.org/wiki/6_Short_Preludes_and_Postludes_-_Set_1,_Op.101_(Stanford,_Charles_Villiers)
    Thanked by 1R J Stove
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    For preludes, I like the Veni Creator and Veni Sancte from Gerald Near's chantworks (also filled with many other delightful chant-based pieces!)
    http://www.ohscatalog.org/gernearchano2.html
    Thanked by 1rich_enough
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    Oh, and I forgot to mention-
    Bach's "Komm, Gott Schoepfter, Heiliger Geist" from the Orgelbuechlein makes a nice, short postlude.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I use the prelude and fugue in A minor by Johann Kasper Ferdinand Fischer from Aridane Musica. It's only short, but I feel that the music symbolises the descent of the holy spirit. The long pedal note is the great wind, and the fast arpeggiated passage represents the descent of the spirit. The Fugue is like the apostles speaking in tongues.
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 127
    Ricercar pro Festis Pentacostalibus super Initium Cantilenae by Fischer is nice. I'll play it as a recessional this year.
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    The alignment of dots in the Kom heiliger Geist Ricercar (p. 50 in the 1715 print) reveal a lost art (?) of engraving! An adorable detail, if it's really intentional, is the little dotted line at the tenor entrance.
    Thanked by 2Lars ServiamScores
  • dhalkjdhalkj
    Posts: 61
    So I was moved to actually click on the link and lookm at this piece to see that the title is pro Festis Pascalibus (Easter, not Pentecost) and the "cantilena" is Christ ist erstanden.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    That's the fiftieth page of the pdf, page numbered 48, the reference was to two pages later, bearing the number 50. There are 5 ricercars covering, it says, the "whole year", Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost.
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • dhalkjdhalkj
    Posts: 61
    OK Thanks. Got it.
  • redsox1
    Posts: 217
    Third Kyrie from Clav III of Bach.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Versets on Veni Creator by Titelouze and de Grigny and similar others
    Bach's very chanllenging organ chorale, Komm, Heiliger Geist, also his less challenging one in the Orgelbuchlein.
    Ditto Bach's cousin, J G Walther
    Thanked by 1MarkS
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    MJO

    Yes, I have played those. Great Stuff. (have not played the bach... is top notch as i am reviewing now)
  • Nathan_the_Organist
    Posts: 440
    Today I'm playing the final Chorale Variation from Durufle's Veni Creator as a postlude. I'm doing Mendelssohn's 5th Organ Sonata as a prelude. I know it doesn't have a Pentecost connection, but I haven't learned anything else that does. I thought it would be a majestic enough work to play for Pentecost, though. BWV 651 is on my list to learn; the only problem is that list grows faster than I can learn music.
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    https://www.amazon.com/LOrganiste-Liturgique-Book-Organ-Guilmant/dp/B01CH1TRAI

    (out of print?)
    This volume contains an Offertoire using fragments of four Pentecost proper chants
    (including the sequence)


    Tombelle
    https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/comment/193273#Comment_193273
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