Hymn Playing: A Modern Colloquium

By Stuart Forster

Playing hymns on the organ is a centuries-old tradition that has been passed down largely through osmosis and guesswork. To address a growing need for more explicit instruction, Forster surveys available resources about hymn playing, and then launches a discussion expounding twenty vital aspects encompassing the art of accompanying hymns. To equip the organist with a palette of tools for every occasion, he has amassed the expertise of eleven leaders in the world of hymn playing. The panel considers everything from learning and teaching hymns through the instruments and people involved in growing a community of engaged singers within a congregation. The character and artistry of the participants is revealed through frank anecdotes from their collective 300+ years of experience. Here, we learn from David Cherwien, Mark Dwyer, David Erwin, John Ferguson, Peter Jewkes, Stephen Loher, Walden Moore, Bruce Neswick, John Scott, Jeffrey Smith, and Tom Whittemore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9780944529843

Book preview

Introduction

The goal of this book is to devise a teaching aid for those wishing to learn or to improve the way they play hymns on the organ. To achieve this, I will document techniques used by effective church musicians as they lead congregational song, primarily in the form of hymnody, from the organ. The starting point will be to examine materials that are currently in publication in the English-speaking world. These publications take many forms, and their inclusion is based on recommendations from leading teachers, libraries, and retailers about what is available and presently being used. Perhaps more importantly, leading church musicians have been interviewed about their techniques so that the most up-to-date data could be documented. After all, congregations evolve constantly, as do their repertories, theologies, and experiences. Therefore, hymn-playing evolves constantly as a living, breathing art in order to speak to those congregations in relevant, contemporary ways, even when the musical and textual sources may be timeless inspirations from the past.

There are many musical and non-musical factors at work in the way a well-trained musician will lead a congregation. This volume will address these factors in a sequential format, examining each category through the minds, eyes, ears, fingers, and feet of the chosen musicians. Each musician will bring their own background, their own instruments, and their own philosophy and theology into the discussion. They may not always agree, which makes the resulting document more valuable since no two situations are alike at any given time; nor is one place or person the same at two different points in time. Most of the time, they do agree, thereby offering reinforcement of essential principles. This agreement naturally leads to duplication of material between different responses. The decision, after lengthy debate, was to retain this duplication in order that the reader may choose to read the responses of any one expert at a time, throughout the book, and study their personal style; or, if reading a chapter in its entirety, the reader is easily able to evaluate variations on similar techniques and reasons, for and against, the techniques that are in agreement or contradiction.

By the end of the book, the student and experienced organist alike will have explored a microcosm of an energized church music world, having visited numerous denominations led by musicians with enduring track records of invigorating congregational song. From here, may we be inspired to lead our own congregations with technique, communication, imagination, and the confidence to build on all that their collective experience has brought to each moment.

I would not care to be sure, but my guess is that the real growing point of modern church music is congregational music…. Who will meet the congregation where it is and lead it, at its own pace, a step or two forward on its own road? That’s the really grass-root question. My guess at its answer is that it will be somebody who knows as much about people as about music and a great deal about both.¹

Yea, we know that thou rejoicest

O’er each work of thine;

Thou didst ears and hands and voices

For thy praise design;

Craftsman’s art and music’s measure

For thy pleasure

All combine.

In thy house, great God, we offer

Of thine own to thee;

And for thine acceptance proffer

All unworthily

Hearts and hands and minds and voices

In our choicest

Psalmody.²

1. Marilyn Keiser, quoting Erik Routley (1968) in University of Alabama Keynote (2006).

2. Francis Pott, 1832–1909, Angel Voices Ever Singing.

CHAPTER 1

Existing Information

Most organists have, at some stage of their study, employed the use of a printed source to aid in instruction. For methodology of hymn playing, there are three primary written sources of instruction: organ primers, manuals devoted to hymn accompaniment, and notes provided in hymnals. This chapter is devoted to taking a detailed look at current, published sources for organists.

Books on piano accompaniment, such as The Unashamed Accompanist,¹ are enlightening for some general principles, but will not help with the technicalities related to playing the organ or accompanying a body of untrained singers.

A secondary source for instruction may be found in the form of recordings of hymns, which can be useful for gaining ideas. They are usually staged performances, however, and don’t teach well because they are rehearsed specifically for the purpose of recording, and the singers consist of a trained choir with a conductor. This is clearly a contrast to leading an unrehearsed congregation. Therefore, for the purpose of learning how to work with live situations, recordings are less useful.

One of the most important sources of instruction on hymn playing is conversations with people who currently engage in hymn leadership, and it is this subject that will be documented in this book from chapter two onwards.

There are numerous organ primers in the English-speaking world that are currently available and utilized so widely that their contents deserve examination. In addition, there are several well-promoted volumes that are currently in publication, and whose sole purpose is to address service playing and hymn accompaniment.

Leading Organ Primers

Existing primers focus on basic organ-playing technique, which is, of course, the starting place for learning to play hymns on the organ. After a large portion of the book has dealt with technique and solo repertoire, primers will typically include a short section or appendix related to service playing, part of which is devoted to hymn playing. Since the primer is the first instruction most students encounter when learning to play hymns, this is an excellent place to begin discussion of hymn playing and its instruction.

Method of Organ Playing² became the teaching tool of choice in the United States soon after it was published in 1949. Now in its eighth edition (1996), Harold Gleason’s primer is still regarded as a standard in many schools. At 369 pages, this volume covers registration, manual and pedal technique, learning technique, performance practice, and pronunciation of names, all in great detail. Service playing is addressed on pages 281–289, and fewer than three pages are devoted to hymn playing. There are referrals to three small publications for those students who wish to pursue further detail. One of these focuses on improvisation,³ while the other two books discuss basic hymn playing and service playing.⁴ All three books are readily available online for little cost. In addition to some general principles of hymn playing, topics addressed by Gleason include introduction, phrasing, tempo, repeated notes, Amens, registration, free accompaniments, descants, interludes, and two written-out examples that show articulation and rests.

The Organ⁵ was ubiquitous throughout the English-speaking world for almost a century⁶ as the book used by teachers. John Stainer wrote this book two years after William Thomas Best had written The Art of Organ Playing,⁷ which was considered too advanced for many beginners. Stainer’s 131-page book covers organ history, organ construction, organ stops and their management, and a large practical section on playing technique. The author addresses service playing on pages 79–87, with most of these pages focused on hymn-playing. Stainer discusses registration, introductions, adding and embellishing parts, repetition of notes, tempo maintenance, variations to contrast verses, the choir, and articulation (touch). Seven examples are given to show fingering and finger substitution, registration, and options for distribution of parts between hands and feet.

A newer primer that has re-thought organ pedagogy is Organ Technique: Modern and Early.⁸ In this 382-page volume, George Ritchie and George Stauffer treat the diverse styles of nineteenth- and twentieth-century organ composition separately from the articulate style of the eighteenth century and earlier. These two eras each receive a part of the book, with Part 3 reserved for service playing. This third part receives twenty-one pages of text and examples, including nearly six pages of text about hymn playing. The hymn-specific topics covered by Ritchie and Stauffer are the combinations of manuals and pedals, the articulate performance practice of early hymns,⁹ introductions, Amens, registration, modulation, breaks between stanzas, tempo, phrasing, transposition, plainsong hymns, and contemporary hymns. Three examples are given—complete with fingering—for each of the manual-pedal combinations in Romantic style; two examples of an early hymn are presented, with articulation notated; and finally, there is a written-out interlude with modulation and examples of phrasing.

The Organists’ Manual¹⁰ is a 206-page primer currently used by some American teachers. The appendix on hymn playing begins: Proficiency in hymn playing is probably the most important requirement of the church organist.¹¹ Almost two pages of text and four pages of hymns complete the instruction offered on this topic. The text covers articulation, phrasing, introductions, time between stanzas, Amens, tempo, tactus, rhythm, and registration. There is one example to demonstrate fingering and articulation.

Perhaps the newest primer available is The Church Organist: A New Method.¹² Its three volumes deal with the technique of organ playing, repertoire, and improvisation respectively. Volume One is aimed at pianists whose skill level is at Grade Four or Five. Hymn playing is discussed before repertoire, and the book returns to this topic twice, as technique is developed, to include a sum of fourteen pages on hymn playing within its 154-page total. Approximately five pages of text accompany examples, some of which are marked for breathing, moving notes between hands, soloing out the melody, and pedaling. The text is restricted to developing the technique of playing manuals only, adding pedals, and soloing out the melody.

Richard Enright’s 88-page Fundamentals of Organ Playing¹³ discusses the instrument, manual and pedal techniques, articulation, phrasing, accent, use of the expression pedal, earlier playing techniques, and ornamentation. The final chapter, devoted to hymn playing, offers almost one page of text to explain some options for playing hymns on the organ. Two pages of written-out examples demonstrate how to interpret the hymn, as written in a hymnal, into the techniques discussed.

Organ Technique¹⁴ begins with a thirty-three page essay on organ technique as it has developed throughout the centuries in various countries. This information is reinforced by thirty-eight pages of technical exercises for practicing all of the techniques described. The volume was written by Jacques van Oortmerssen, Professor of Organ at the Conser-vatorium van Amsterdam, and explores an array of details such as contact with the key, controlling the wind supply, historic fingering, actions, key shapes, posture, and the harmonium. There is, however, no direct reference to hymn playing; but the book is mentioned here to acknowledge the contribution it makes to diverse practices of playing over the periods that hymn composition has evolved.

Joyce Jones’ King of Instruments¹⁵ stands out among organ tutors for its emphasis on hymnody. The first twenty-two pages explain basic concepts of organ playing and design, and there are plenty of practical examples included. Two dense pages of explanatory notes then describe various methods of playing hymns, repeated notes, time between stanzas, tempo, registration, and introductions. Numerous examples then follow, showing contrasting treatments of hymns, sometimes using the same tune helpfully to demonstrate alternate techniques. These techniques include transposition, trios, fanfares, and postludes.

Clarence Dickinson’s Technique and Art of Organ Playing¹⁶ was a popular choice in the United States for many decades. The first part of the book contains forty-nine pages of text, describing the instrument, manual and pedal techniques, thumbing, adapting piano accompaniment, swell pedals, accents, rhythm, ornaments, and registration. Early in this section are three pages on hymn playing, wherein the author describes and writes out principles of articulation. There is discussion of introducing a hymn, registration, dynamics, maintaining the tempo, elasticity to accommodate the congregation’s breathing, and Amens. In discussing the time between verses, techniques of reduced dynamics and echoes are explained, with written-out examples, as a means of avoiding silence. The second part of this book provides 202 pages of annotated musical examples, including nearly five pages of hymns in common configurations.

Manuals on Hymn Playing

There are several manuals on hymn playing that are currently being promoted widely. These provide excellent foundation work from which to build, and the best-known of these will be reviewed here as an aid to selecting a volume with which a student might begin.

Skills for Church Musicians¹⁷ is a tutorial series developed by the Royal School of Church Music in association with Bangor University. At seventy-seven pages, this is arguably the most comprehensive material discussed here as it meets students at various levels of ability while preparing them for an array of situations. There are nineteen pages assigned to direct instruction on hymn playing, with the remaining pages devoted to topics that are related and necessary for students to learn as part of the church musician’s formation process.

This series begins by asking the student to take stock.¹⁸ There are questions about instruments to be used, repertory, and the student’s ability with the printed score. This last topic includes transposition, use of pedals, articulation, tempo, dynamics, conducting, playing, singing, and listening. The second section asks questions about the pastoral issues surrounding the church musician’s role, including time for conversation with the congregation, working with stress, preparation, and setting goals. The third and fourth sections use recordings and reports to determine the starting place of the student and to set a goal for the end of the course. The fifth section describes the common keyboard instruments encountered by church musicians (piano, organ, harmonium, and synthesizer), briefly describes the construction of the organ, and then compares the styles of articulation between instruments, with special emphasis on clarity of tune. The sixth unit discusses concepts for converting notation written on the page to what may be played with the hands and feet, and includes a discussion of range and pitch (transposition). Unit Seven discusses differences between leading and accompanying hymns, introductions, what to do between verses, tempo, registration, responding to the text, color and texture, and the last verse. The remaining units discuss music other than hymns and an evaluation of the student’s work.

The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) has begun to supplement this course with a series called The Complete Church Organist.¹⁹ Volume One was released prior to the publication of this book. Its 107 pages cover fingering and pedaling, practice, basic organ technique, and sections to cover hymns, worship songs, anthems and settings, and solo repertoire. The twenty-three pages of the hymn section include a one-page overview and eleven hymns in two- or three-part arrangements for manuals only. Each hymn includes a page of notes on suggested tempo, playover, space between verses, and registration for each verse. Fingering is marked throughout, and some phrasing is also noted.

Let the People Sing!²⁰ is a 174-page instruction manual on hymn playing and improvisation. The first one hundred pages are devoted to ideas and methods of playing hymns with organ, piano, choir, and congregation. Throughout the remainder of the book, author David Cherwien offers ideas for improvising on hymn-tunes with the goal of inspiring hymn singing further. Basing most of his principles on avoiding the DFA syndrome,²¹ Cherwien is adamant that foremost are techniques for keeping the congregation knowledgeable about what is expected of them, along with the need to avoid boredom. He discusses hymn introductions, registrations, variety of singers, new tunes, different kinds of instruments, complaints, working with the piano, stylistic differences, and the selection process. Written-out examples are provided for each technique that is discussed, most of which come from books of hymn-based music composed by Cherwien, and most are based on chorales from the Lutheran tradition. In his conclusion, he reminds the reader that the most important principles are clarity, preparation, thoughtfulness, and meaning.²²

Manual on Hymn-Playing²³ is a 151-page book dedicated to teaching the beginning organist how to play hymns. There are thirty-four pages of text, all of which are used for discussing organ technique related to hymnody; the remainder of the book consists of unmarked hymn-tunes for practice, some of which are graded by level of difficulty, and all of which are referenced in the text (sometimes by groups). David Heller discusses part-playing, phrasing, timing between stanzas, tempo, registration, introductions, touch, and Amens. The final four pages of text provide an overview of various styles of hymnody throughout history.

The American Guild of Organists has published two booklet-plus-recording sets to help organists learn to play hymns. Both sets include many annotated examples for study in the booklet and for listening in recorded demonstrations. The first book, entitled Mini-Course on Hymn Playing,²⁴ offers thirty pages of text designed for pianists with little or no knowledge of playing the organ. Its main emphasis is on simplifying hymn playing to make it more immediately accessible, yet reliable. It deals with techniques for omitting notes, tying repeated notes, and a starting registration. It stops short of playing the notes written on the page. The second booklet, Mini-Course on Creative Hymn-Playing,²⁵ develops techniques for those acquainted with organ-playing. Its twenty-three pages explore various techniques for providing variety, including alternatim options, registration, and improvised introductions and accompaniments.

A small book recommended for inclusion in this discussion is Liturgical Organ Playing.²⁶ Gerhard Krapf offers a clear opinion, which he defends as a Lutheran liturgical point of view, showing a preference for the ideas common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as seen through the lens of the neo-classical era. While dismissive of Romantic repertory and critical of contemporary practice in hymn playing, Krapf also states that hymns do not represent the main task of the organ within the service,²⁷ revealing his partiality toward organ voluntaries before, during, and after a service. His requirement of the best available means,²⁸ however, aligns some of his values with those of this book. Krapf discusses in the eighteen pages his thoughts on organ design, desirable qualities in a liturgical organist, alternatim practice, registration, tempo, and choral accompaniment.

Instruction in Hymnals

The earliest hymnals often included instruction on the singing of hymns, sometimes based on vocal technique and methods of reading notation. Early American hymnals often discussed various techniques for congregations without use of an organ. These included lining out, whereby a cantor would sing a line of a hymn slowly, and the congregation would repeat it. This technique was particularly helpful in places where hymnals were not available, where resources were scant, and where literacy was lacking. Some American singing schools developed shape notes to reduce the stigma of learning musical notation, resulting in new musical styles that evolved from its limitations. Theologians and clergy across many denominations often wrote about the necessity and methodology of singing hymns. Among the writers may be counted the most influential Reformers in each period: Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Keble, and Erik Routley.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, in his Musical Editor’s Preface to The English Hymnal,²⁹ offered instruction to the leaders of music in worship, and he supplemented this with tempo markings for each tune. Subsequent hymnals have continued this trend, soon adding hymnal companions, which were separate volumes containing information about authors, composers, editing techniques, and context. Some go so far as to suggest registrations and articulation for some tunes.³⁰ Although The New English Hymnal³¹ abandoned the tempo markings, many major hymnals, or their companions, since The English Hymnal, have included them. It is fascinating to examine the evolution of tempi between denominations and decades.

1. Gerald Moore, The Unashamed Accompanist (New York: MacMillan, 1945).

2. Harold Gleason, Method of Organ Playing (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1949).

3. Michele Johns, Hymn Improvisation (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1987).

4. Austin Lovelace, The Organist and Hymn Playing (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962) and Samuel Walter, Basic Principles of Service Playing (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1963).

5. John Stainer, The Organ (London: Novello, 1877).

6. Rollin Smith, Introduction to the Dover Edition in Flaxington Harker (ed.) Complete Organ Method: A Classic Text on Organ Technique — John Stainer, [Mineola, NY: Dover, 2003], v.

7. William Thomas Best, The Art of Organ Playing. Practically illustrated from the first rudiments to the highest difficulties of the instrument both in its use as an accompaniment to the different styles of church music, as well as in the various purposes of the employment of the organ as a solo instrument (London: Novello, 1875).

8. George Ritchie and George Stauffer, Organ Technique: Modern and Early (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992).

9. Defined here as hymns written in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, ibid., 356.

10. Roger E. Davis, The Organists’ Manual: Technical Studies and Selected Compositions for the Organ (New York: Norton, 1985).

11. Ibid., 178.

12. Christopher Tambling, The Church Organist: a New Method (Buxhall, UK: Mayhew, 2009).

13. Richard Enright, Fundamentals of Organ Playing: Two Practices (St. Louis: Concordia, 1988).

14. Jacques van Oortmerssen, Organ Technique (Göteborg, Sweden: Göteborg Organ Art Center, 2002).

15. Joyce Jones, King of Instruments: Organ Teaching Method (St. Louis: MorningStar, 2000).

16. Clarence Dickinson, The Technique and Art of Organ Playing (New York: Gray, 1922).

17. Robert Fielding and John Harper, Skills for Church Musicians (Croydon, UK: The Royal School of Church Music, 2009).

18. Ibid., 10.

19. Daniel Moult (ed.), The Complete Church Organist (Salisbury, UK: The Royal School of Church Music, 2010).

20. David Cherwien Let the People Sing!: A Keyboardist’s Creative and Practical Guide to Engaging God’s People in Meaningful Song (St. Louis: Concordia, 1997).

21. An acronym to remind hymn players that, in the congregation, Doubt leads to Fear, which leads to Abstinence. Ibid., 12.

22. Ibid., 106.

23. David Heller Manual on Hymn Playing: A Handbook for Organists (Chicago: G.I.A. Publications, 1992).

24. Margot Woolard, Mini-Course on Hymn-Playing (New York: American Guild of Organists, 1984).

25. John Ferguson, Mini-Course on Creative Hymn-Playing (New York: American Guild of Organists, 1986).

26. Gerhard Krapf, Liturgical Organ Playing (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1964).

27. Ibid., 20.

28. Ibid., 6.

29. Percy Dearmer (ed.) The English Hymnal (Oxford University Press, 1906).

30. For example, John L. Hooker (ed.) Wonder, Love, and Praise: A Supplement to the Hymnal 1982 (New York: Church Publishing, 1997).

31. George Timms et al (ed.) The New English Hymnal (Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1986).

CHAPTER 2

Obtaining New Information

The goal of this book is to expand the documented information in chapter one to include the practical techniques related to hymn leadership and accompaniment as described by advanced, experienced players. Organ primers have two limitations regarding hymn-playing instruction: the brevity of the hymn-related section will necessarily allow room for only one point of view, and the writing style of a primer needs to be technical and concise. Both of these issues will be addressed.

Hymn playing is an art form. It requires a palette of hundreds of techniques, to which the organist will have constant subconscious access. Hymn playing, when executed well, is a personal response to other art forms—poetry and music—as well as the spontaneous singing of a body of largely untrained participants. A mere handful of technical basics cannot suffice.

This book documents the responses of leading, experienced organists; many techniques are recorded for posterity, for study by organists at all levels. Moreover, the experts who have been interviewed have been encouraged to speak anecdotally, using pet names and personal experience as they describe their techniques, in the hope that the reader will ingest these techniques at a more personal level, thus enabling practitioners to adopt these techniques as their own. The inclusion of multiple viewpoints offers an artist the opportunity to judge which techniques are the most applicable to any situation at hand.

The author of this book has been playing hymns for more than twenty-five years. It is a passion. It is also a source of anxiety upon hearing congregations who are prevented from approaching their potential as a singing community when hindered by an organist’s lack of skill or imagination. To maximize the learning potential of the writer and the reader, each expert interviewed for this book has more experience than the writer. Representing denominations well-known for congregational singing, these experts come from a variety of backgrounds so that many conditions of buildings, instruments, liturgies, and congregations may be included. Each expert has a history of leading congregations who sing together musically, intelligently, emotionally, spiritually, and with zeal to sing more.

One criterion for the final list of interviewees was that each expert had to contribute a unique perspective to the contents of the book. The first few selected were simply to represent successful musical leadership in a variety of sizes of church in a multitude of denominations. For example, many of the interviewees worked in small parishes at some point in their vocation, some have worked in cathedrals and collegiate settings, and all have been successful in multiple environments, sometimes in more than one country. Their collective careers cover most regions of the United States, as well as parts of England, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland. Additionally, several generations from a similar background have been included. For example, one expert was at one time assistant organist to someone else who was interviewed, who was, in turn, assistant to another interviewee. Some interviewees share a common parish in their past. Here, the reader may observe similarities as well as techniques that have been developed, or that have been dismissed, between generations. Following this same notion of techniques developing over time, some of the experts have written or contributed to major sources cited in this book. In these instances, this book captures their responses years or decades after their previous publication. The final list, then, does not represent an even distribution of musicians from around the country, and it is certainly not intended to be a who’s who list of the most famous organists around. Rather, it is a carefully devised set of studies with many fascinating implications.

After discussions with numerous respected advisors and a need to balance various criteria, the writer reduced the initial long list of potential interviewees to ten practicing church musicians in the United States. This list includes a mentor from Australia who was instrumental in nurturing the author’s passion for hymnody and the development of this entire project. Each interviewee responded enthusiastically to the request for information. Listed in alphabetical order, they are:

1. David Cherwien, Director of the National Lutheran Choir and Cantor at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

2. Mark Dwyer, Organist and Choirmaster, Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts

3. David Erwin, Director of Music Ministry, Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Missouri

4. John Ferguson, Professor of Organ and Church Music, Minister of Music to the Student Congregation, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, now retired

5. Peter Jewkes, Organist, Christ Church St. Laurence, Sydney, Australia

6. Stephen Loher, occasional organist, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts (The Mother Church)

7. Walden Moore, Director of Music, Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, Connecticut

8. Bruce Neswick, Director of Cathedral Music and Organist, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, New York

9. John Scott, Organist and Director of Music, Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York

10. Jeffrey Smith, Visiting Associate Professor of Church Music and Organ, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Indiana

11. Tom Whittemore, Music Director, Trinity Church, Princeton, New Jersey

Each expert was invited to introduce himself in the form of an informal biography, encompassing educational and career milestones to date. These biographies conclude this chapter so that the reader may appreciate the breadth of education, training, experience, creativity, and dedication represented in the responses found in the following chapters. Using the experts’ own words, here and in the interviews, invites the reader to begin to understand the character of each expert, encouraging a richer awareness of the personality and artistry described in the interviews that follow. This book is not intended to be an instructional volume, but instead is a series of conversations designed to open the mind of the reader to many scenarios, some of which should be directly relevant to most organists. Others may inspire the imagination to new techniques and creativity.

In order to create a record that thoroughly documents issues related to hymn-playing technique, the author devised and refined a questionnaire to cover a progression of topics in detail, yet with enough focus to keep the information relevant and engaging. The questions covered technical, musical, logistical, communal, and political aspects of hymn accompaniment; all elements essential for a successful result. Questions were also designed to stimulate the interviewees to consider a broad-ranging cross-section of opinions. There is some overlap between answers to different questions since good hymn accompaniment requires seamless integration of all these aspects.

Those interviewed were encouraged to be opinionated, since those chosen have learned and experienced such abundance in hymn accompaniment as to warrant documentation of their thoughts on the topic. They were also invited to depict key figures and anecdotes in their experience so that others may benefit from their frank discussion of each topic. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Information was organized and edited for flow and focus in each question within the context of the larger manuscript. Many hymns cited in the interviews are from the standard repertoire and are found in most major hymnals. Less familiar tunes, however, have been notated along with other excerpts essential to clarify a point. To be sure the examples are clear, an appendix lists all references to hymn texts and tunes along with details of authors, composers, and usage in the context of the person identifying the example. Footnotes in the edited transcripts identify books, places, people, and other sources.

Conversations and interviews were expected to take tangents as each musician talked about their own techniques. In order to maximize the accumulation of information that is most important to these experts, the tangents were accommodated, and then the questions resumed with the agreement that any information obtained could be redirected to the most appropriate question. This method resulted in the recording of philosophical gems that will be instructive to anyone interested in hymns. The dominant goal was to record the most comprehensive range of viewpoints possible while collecting anecdotal evidence of techniques that are successful along with techniques that are unsuccessful. Lengthier topics were divided into smaller elements, with each element forming a chapter of the book.

The author acknowledges the subjective quality of the responses. The expert nature of the sources of the responses is the guarantee of their value. Also important to note is the subjective nature of the interviewing technique and the choice of interviewees. The author’s own preferences are implicitly riddled throughout the process. A distinct effort was made not to interact in the interviews in a way that would bias the interviewees’ response any more than required to clarify points being addressed. The design process included input from copious sources, the most influential of which are included in the Acknowledgments and Bibliography; but the text of this entire document is undeniably flavored with the author’s predilections due to the length and depth of the development process.

Biographical Information of Interviewees

David Cherwien

I grew up here in the Minneapolis area and went to Augsburg College, which is one of the many local Lutheran colleges in this area. I had started playing the organ before college, but never really in church. I just sort of liked the organ. During the first two years of college, I was also in a rock band. Halfway through college, things kind of took a sharp turn. I auditioned for the Augsburg College Choir and got in, kind of by accident. In addition, I attended a hymn festival with Paul Manz playing the organ. This was the first time I heard him doing that, and I heard my two worlds coming together: the rock band and its improvisatory nature and playing the organ. They came together with a pretty deep purpose, and that kind of changed everything. At the same time, I was discovering what choirs can do. I was going to be a high school teacher, but became a church musician instead. From college, I went to Berlin, Germany, to study improvisation for two years. Previously, my fingers just sort of landed on the keyboard; if I was lucky, it sounded good, though I had no idea what it was. Going to Berlin helped me to connect the brain to the process of improvising. It was all kind of eighteenth-century Baroque-style improvisation. I learned strictly four parts, and various forms. Since then, I’ve been working full time in churches and publishing organ music and choir music. Most of it is what you need for liturgy. It’s not performance stuff. My improvisation is not a French-style performance improvisation where someone gives me a theme and I improvise a whole symphony in a recital. It’s what we need for the liturgy. I’ve served churches in Seattle, Chicago, and now here in Minneapolis.¹ This is the parish that really, really feels like home. I’m very happy to be here. In addition to the parish work, in 2002 I was appointed Artistic Director of the National Lutheran Choir, a performance choir in the area. This, too, has been a great gift, and the choir and I have grown tremendously together as I learned the art of further refinement at the professional choir level—a great mid-life boost!

Mark Dwyer

I have a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in organ performance from New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, and I was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music from Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin. I have been playing in church since I was eleven years old and had my first job with a paycheck attached, where I had to show up every Sunday or be fired, starting when I was sixteen. So I have been doing it for thirty-two years, mostly without a break. There were a number of small positions and, since 1989, I have been in fairly large places playing larger organs. I was the Associate Organist at the Church of the Advent in Boston; Music Director at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York; Organist and Choirmaster at St. Paul’s, K Street, in Washington, DC; and I am presently the Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of the Advent in Boston.

David Erwin

My undergraduate studies were at Westminster Choir College [Princeton, New Jersey], where I was a church music major, organ principal. After undergraduate school, I had a year’s internship at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the San Francisco area, which was a good experience for learning how to play hymns. Tom Hazelton was the organist, and I was his assistant in that large, 3000-member church. That was valuable experience. I went back to Westminster for a master’s degree, again in church music, with organ as a concentration. Principal church positions I have held since then include Westminster Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia; First Presbyterian Church in Greenwich, Connecticut; and now Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri.

John Ferguson

I have a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance from Oberlin [College and Conservatory, Oberlin, Ohio]. I have a Master of Arts degree in Organ Performance from Kent State University, Ohio, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Literature Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. One common thread weaves itself throughout those three education experiences: no one raised any issues at all about church music, leading congregational song from the organ. That just wasn’t an issue because the issue was learning all the tunes. So I am a self-taught church musician. I was really blessed, especially at the Eastman scene, with Russell Saunders as a teacher,