Five Organ Preludes (Hartzell)

Description

Five Organ Preludes

Settings by Lawrence Hartzell

All Glory Be to God on High

Holy Trinity, Thanks and Praise to Thee

Jesus, Source of My Salvation

Meditation on “Innsbruck”

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

Lawrence W. Hartzell (1942-2008), born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College and the University of Kansas, where he combined work in music theory, composition, and musicology. Dr. Hartzell taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire from 1968 to 1973, and at Baldwin-Wallace from 1973 to 2006. He was recognized for his scholarly research and excellence in teaching, and also chaired Baldwin-Wallace’s music theory department.

An expert on Ohio Moravian music, his book, Ohio Moravian Music, was published by Moravian Music Foundation Press in 1998. In addition to his scholarship and teaching, he was an active both a choral director and organist, holding the rank of Colleague of the American Guild of Organists.

Three of the five chorales on which these preludes are based are among those used in the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) to announce the death of a member of the congregation. Beginning in the eighteenth century, members of the church were organized into “choirs,” the term having nothing to do with singing but rather with one’s general age, sex, and marital status. At the death of a member, the brass choir would announce their passing by playing three chorales, the first and third being the tune most recognized as O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, and the middle being the tune particularly associated with the “choir” of the departed brother or sister. Members of the congregation knew words associated with these tunes, by memory, and thus the playing of the tune called the words to mind, strengthening the faith, love, and hope of the members.