About the Organ Preludes & Postludes at St. John | San Juan

by Nickolas Carlson, Director Music Ministry

When Good Shepherd worships at St. John | San Juan Episcopal Church during the 5-Sunday Lenten Pilgrimage “Sanctuary Swap” on March 9 through April 6, the pieces I will be playing for preludes and postludes will be largely pieces of organ performance literature rather than pieces based on the tunes we are singing in hymns that day. Part of the reason for this is that the organ that St. John | San Juan has in their sanctuary is a much larger, more eclectic instrument. Our organ at Good Shepherd was designed to be a copy of an instrument from the 16th or 17th centuries. This means that it is not designed to play music written more recently. I often do play music written more recently, but music written before 1750 really shines on our instrument. Therefore, to show off the range of possibilities on the larger, more eclectic organ at St. John | San Juan, I will be playing some extended preludes and postludes from later time periods that their organ is more capable of handling. I hope you will enjoy some of these extended pieces during our time of swapping worship spaces. The preludes will begin at 9:56 am before the start of the worship service.

Special Organ Prelude for Sunday, March 30

O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde Groß, J.S. Bach: This is one of Bach’s most celebrated chorale preludes. It is an ornamented chorale, meaning the melody is presented in an ornamented fashion (with trills, added notes, etc.) It is a highly elaborate, very chromatic piece, and an introspective, emotional centerpiece of his Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book). He utilized this same tune as the basis for the conclusion of Part I of his massive St. Matthew Passion.