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 hymn playing. 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 [Publisher description]

From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

The authors' new approach to learning two playing techniques offers a systematic method for mastering the modern, legato technique needed for organ music composed after 1750, as well as an articulated technique for earlier works. The authors also present useful information on accompanying anthems and solos and on adapting piano and orchestral accompaniments to the organ.