Online Resources for the Church Organist

Benjamin Kolodziej
Crown Center Sheraton Hotel - CHOUTEAU

This practical lecture has two parts. The first is an exploration of the Petrucci Music Library imslp.org relative to the church organist. People are becoming more familiar with that site, a repository of easily-printable, copyright-free music, but are often overwhelmed by the wealth of material which increases daily. In the hopes of guiding them through this daunting task, the first part of the lecture suggests about twenty organ collections with chant- or chorale-based literature that can be of immediate help to the organist struggling to find preludes, offertories and postludes. Most of these collections are historical (Karg-Elert, Reger, Lutkin, Yon, etc.), the copyright having expired, but contemporary composers who use IMSLP as a platform to distribute their music are also critically explored. The music explored is generally of the easier variety, accessible to most church organists with limited practice. The lecture endeavors to use these particular suggestions to equip the participant to delve further into IMSLP on their own, giving them useful search terms and composers which might have been unknown to them before. The second part of the lecture explores non-IMSLP online resources, including downloadable, free descants, instrumental arrangements suitable for church use, choral and handbell stanzas, etc. The handout is in the form of an annotated bibliography with all the relevant search terms, URLs, composers, and composition titles.

Wednesday, July 4
10:30 – 11:15am