Issue 14 - The Augsburg Organ Library

You'll all be happy to know that Bonnie Corron will be at the St. John's organ bench this weekend. Thanks to Bonnie for giving us an opportunity to hear her again! Since Bonnie will be preparing something great for this week's prelude and postlude, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you an exciting aspect of my work at St. John's.

Part of my compensation as organist is a music allowance. I've never before had the luxury of a music allowance (except from my parents when I was young!) --- so this is a great gift, especially since scores are so very expensive.

So, how to spend it? Buying just one Bach score (of the highly esteemed Barenreiter edition) can cost upwards of $50. It's such a dilemma, trying to get good value and also good music. As it happens, I'm already close to owning all 9 volumes of the Bach, but it didn't seem like that would be the best way to use the churches money anyhow. (I mean, I'd love to play Bach every Sunday, but maybe not everyone wants to hear Bach every Sunday!)

Earlier this spring, I came across "The Augsburg Organ Library". Published by our ELCA publishing house Augsburg Fortress, "The Augsburg Organ Library" is a collection of 9 volumes of organ music containing mostly hymn-based repertoire. Each volume is dedicated to different seasons/occasions of the church year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Summer, Baptism & Communion, Autumn and November).

Once I started researching the composers and music contained in the volumes, I knew that this would be a great resource of music for our St. John's organ. I went wild and bought 4 volumes! I just counted eight pieces that I've already played from the "Augsburg Organ Library" as preludes & postludes. The variety of composers include Vaughan-Williams, Rutter, Manz, Mark Sedio (who's hosting a Hymn Festival at St. John's next spring!), and many more. What a treasure that Augsburg Fortress would put together such an outstanding collection for us organists!

So, thank you to the members of St. John's. What a treat to have a music allowance to buy great music for our worship services! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(Image: Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1891.)