Difference between revisions of "Sermon for September 29th, 2024"
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There is back and forth between the melodies as the dialogue intensifies and other voices join in: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” And just like the conversation between God, Job and his friends in the Book of Job, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor never quite answers the question in the way we might want. There are moments of upbeat joy and quiet beauty woven into the conversation, but still the sorrow and angst remain constant as well. The piece ends with a giant, foreboding minor chord—not this time the wailing cry of the Psalmist, but rather the awesome, magnificent power of God, the creator of the universe. | There is back and forth between the melodies as the dialogue intensifies and other voices join in: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” And just like the conversation between God, Job and his friends in the Book of Job, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor never quite answers the question in the way we might want. There are moments of upbeat joy and quiet beauty woven into the conversation, but still the sorrow and angst remain constant as well. The piece ends with a giant, foreboding minor chord—not this time the wailing cry of the Psalmist, but rather the awesome, magnificent power of God, the creator of the universe. | ||
| − | *English Suite Prelude in a minor | + | *[https://youtu.be/bwPekl2xMMk English Suite Prelude in A Minor] |
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| + | English Suite Prelude in a minor – Bach wrote six English Suites and also French Suites. Each English suite has seven movements or dances. Usually they begin with the prelude that is showier and meant to entice the listener. It’s not to be danced to. The middle ones (Allemande, Courante, Bourees, Gigue) are dances, and the Sarabande is a beautiful slow movement that has suggested ornamentation for the repeat. There are no repeats in the prelude, it’s more a sonata/fugal format. I have played all seven movements of this particular suite my whole life, probably learned around age 9. My mother really likes music in minor keys, and so the ones I tended to gravitate towards were this suite, as well as the third (in g minor). I don’t remember really performing this suite in its entirety but I must have performed movements during a recital or competition at some point. I was studying it under Dr. Neil Stannard, who was a piano professor at UTEP. He always encouraged me to play Bach. It wasn’t until recently that he told me (from California) that my hands were too small to play the larger more difficult romantic pieces (I still have small hands for a pianist and cannot reach a 10th, despite being tall.) | ||
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| + | After graduating college at age 22, I was in Asia and became ill with (undiagnosed) hydro-encephalitis. It took me weeks to get home to El Paso, after heading to ER’s in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson, while driving my car home with all my belongings. I was finally treated at Sierra Medical Center just down the hill, and had emergency brain surgery on July 3, 2001 to remove a pea-sized cyst, a congenital defect I was unaware of and that almost killed me. I spent a week at the hospital in a large room looking out at the flagpole on Scenic Drive, which is the same view (but different angle) that I have from my church office now. During the craniotomy, my corpus callosum, which connects the two halves of the brain, was severed, and I had to relearn how to do some basic tasks such as walking (surprisingly, one of the harder things the brain does). | ||
| + | |||
| + | During my time in the ICU, I was in a lot of pain and I was concerned I might have forgotten things (I didn’t yet know the physical limitations of walking). I took a pillow and played through all seven movements of this particular English Suite, hearing it in my mind and realizing my fingers could still make those movements, and that I remembered the notes, and it was of immense comfort. I would do the same thing in my mind during the five years of MRIs that I would undergo, when you were confined in a closed machine and had to remain perfectly still over 45 minutes (twice, with and without resolution). Yet following my brain surgery, I didn’t play the piano or engage much with music for nearly another nine years, as I didn’t have my own piano, I lived in different cities and worked in other fields. When I moved in with my future husband, his brother brought their mother’s piano into our house so that I could begin to play again. Today I (like Andras Schiff did) begin all my piano practices with Bach, a half hour or an hour if it’s a longer practice. It is by far the most soothing music to me. When I had my second son, I decided to name him Sebastian after J.S. Bach. (These notes are not meant to be read, but happy to expand or have you elaborate, I’m just giving you the basics of what I’m comfortable sharing). | ||
*The WTK Fugue in B-Flat Major | *The WTK Fugue in B-Flat Major | ||
Revision as of 18:34, 28 September 2024
Psalm 150:1-6
1Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. 5 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
Soli Deo Gloria: The Music & Message of Johann Sebastian Bach - Part II
What you just heard is far and away the most famous and recognizable organ piece in the world, played on El Paso’s largest pipe organ. I doubt there’s a single person in this room who hasn’t heard that piece before, in a movie, in a concert, or maybe even in a haunted house around Halloween time! There’s something in this piece that instantly stirs up strong emotions—whether it’s fear, sorrow, awe, or reverence. It’s famous because it connects with us on a deep level, and so I want to take a few moments to consider why that may be.
The piece is called Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The letter D refers to the key it’s written in, and “minor” refers to its mode—minor keys often sound sinister or sad, although if you listen to the entire piece it certainly transcends those stereotypes. Toccata is a type of musical composition—the name comes from an Italian word similar to the Spanish word “tocare” or in English “to touch.” A toccata usually includes fast, melodic runs on the keyboard. The opening notes in this piece are the toccata.
Fugue comes from a Greek and Latin word that means to flee or to be chased. A fugue begins with a melody that is then followed (or chased) by another melody, sometimes similar and sometimes contrasting. But I like to think of a fugue as a conversation—a musical question that is answered by other voices, then asked in a different way, and answered with other variations until all of the questions and answers swell into one giant, complex, melodious conversation.
I think that Toccata and Fugue in D Minor represents a conversation between God and humanity. It begins with a fall. This is the toccata at the beginning: A couple of notes wavering…. [trill] then falling [first run]. This pattern is repeated three times, each time in a lower octave [second run]. This is a reminder that sometimes when we encounter God, when God “touches” us, it can be painful, catastrophic, even [third run]. At the very bottom of this pit—almost the lowest note on the organ, a cry of despair and anguish swells up powerfully: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” But at the end of that painful wail, the discordant notes finally resolve into a comforting major chord: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” [chord build and resolve]
After this, the running toccata notes reverse direction—moving up the scale, like piercing, demanding and questioning prayers ascending to heaven. They fall again, unanswered, and the discordant wail rises again. But after this, comes the fugue, the conversation. Where the toccata was free form, and full of raw emotion, the fugue is punctuated with pulsing rhythm, like time itself: “I wait for the Lord; my soul waits, and in his word I hope.”
There is back and forth between the melodies as the dialogue intensifies and other voices join in: “O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” And just like the conversation between God, Job and his friends in the Book of Job, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor never quite answers the question in the way we might want. There are moments of upbeat joy and quiet beauty woven into the conversation, but still the sorrow and angst remain constant as well. The piece ends with a giant, foreboding minor chord—not this time the wailing cry of the Psalmist, but rather the awesome, magnificent power of God, the creator of the universe.
English Suite Prelude in a minor – Bach wrote six English Suites and also French Suites. Each English suite has seven movements or dances. Usually they begin with the prelude that is showier and meant to entice the listener. It’s not to be danced to. The middle ones (Allemande, Courante, Bourees, Gigue) are dances, and the Sarabande is a beautiful slow movement that has suggested ornamentation for the repeat. There are no repeats in the prelude, it’s more a sonata/fugal format. I have played all seven movements of this particular suite my whole life, probably learned around age 9. My mother really likes music in minor keys, and so the ones I tended to gravitate towards were this suite, as well as the third (in g minor). I don’t remember really performing this suite in its entirety but I must have performed movements during a recital or competition at some point. I was studying it under Dr. Neil Stannard, who was a piano professor at UTEP. He always encouraged me to play Bach. It wasn’t until recently that he told me (from California) that my hands were too small to play the larger more difficult romantic pieces (I still have small hands for a pianist and cannot reach a 10th, despite being tall.)
After graduating college at age 22, I was in Asia and became ill with (undiagnosed) hydro-encephalitis. It took me weeks to get home to El Paso, after heading to ER’s in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson, while driving my car home with all my belongings. I was finally treated at Sierra Medical Center just down the hill, and had emergency brain surgery on July 3, 2001 to remove a pea-sized cyst, a congenital defect I was unaware of and that almost killed me. I spent a week at the hospital in a large room looking out at the flagpole on Scenic Drive, which is the same view (but different angle) that I have from my church office now. During the craniotomy, my corpus callosum, which connects the two halves of the brain, was severed, and I had to relearn how to do some basic tasks such as walking (surprisingly, one of the harder things the brain does).
During my time in the ICU, I was in a lot of pain and I was concerned I might have forgotten things (I didn’t yet know the physical limitations of walking). I took a pillow and played through all seven movements of this particular English Suite, hearing it in my mind and realizing my fingers could still make those movements, and that I remembered the notes, and it was of immense comfort. I would do the same thing in my mind during the five years of MRIs that I would undergo, when you were confined in a closed machine and had to remain perfectly still over 45 minutes (twice, with and without resolution). Yet following my brain surgery, I didn’t play the piano or engage much with music for nearly another nine years, as I didn’t have my own piano, I lived in different cities and worked in other fields. When I moved in with my future husband, his brother brought their mother’s piano into our house so that I could begin to play again. Today I (like Andras Schiff did) begin all my piano practices with Bach, a half hour or an hour if it’s a longer practice. It is by far the most soothing music to me. When I had my second son, I decided to name him Sebastian after J.S. Bach. (These notes are not meant to be read, but happy to expand or have you elaborate, I’m just giving you the basics of what I’m comfortable sharing).
- The WTK Fugue in B-Flat Major
