Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square is streamed online every Wednesday at 12:00 noon MDT. Piping Up! can be viewed on TheTabernacleChoir.org, the Choir’s YouTube channel, the Choir’s Facebook page, and Broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. When concerts are concluded, they are available for on-demand viewing on the Choir’s website, YouTube and Facebook.

These programs continue the tradition of noon organ recitals at Temple Square—a tradition that has lasted for more than a century. The concerts are produced without an audience and comply with all COVID-19 guidelines. Each concert will feature a different Tabernacle or Temple Square organist and is hosted by Luke Howard.

Repertoire

Organist: Linda Margetts

1. Toccata in E Minor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Pachelbel
2. a. A Highland Ayre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard Purvis
b. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johan Sebastian Bach
3. a. Hymn: Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
b. Prelude on "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .arr. by organist
4. Come, Ye Children of the Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James C. Kasen

Focus Piece

An on-going feature of Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square is a focus piece with additional inspirational background on a specific repertoire selection. Written by host Luke Howard, a professor of music at Brigham Young University, the focus piece connects the music in a unique way to lift and inspire listeners.

“I Know That My Redeemer Lives” (Edwards, arr. Margetts)

“I Know that My Redeemer Lives” is quite an old hymn, first published in 1775. It’s believed to have been written by the English Baptist minister Samuel Medley, who worked mainly in Liverpool but preached regularly in London as well. Medley was not renowned for being blessed with a poetic gift—the poetry is sometimes clunky and obvious—but his hymn texts are sincere and genuine, and that might be the more important feature.

There are poetic devices in this hymn, for sure. The original hymn had nine verses, although today it’s usually sung in a condensed version with three or four verses. Each verse consists of four lines. Of the original 36 lines of text, then, 32 of them begin with the words, “He lives.” This rhetorical device is called an “anaphora”—it serves to emphasize the idea being reiterated. And what statement is there in any Christian hymn more deserving of emphasis than the witness that “He lives”?

Only the opening and the closing couplets break this pattern of anaphora. Together, this pair of couplets form another poetical and rhetorical device, an antimetabole, which is a special kind of chiasmus, an expression in which the elements are presented twice, but in reverse order the second time. The hymn begins, “I know that my Redeemer lives / What comfort this sweet sentence gives!” Then, at the very end of the hymn, “O the sweet joy this sentence gives…” which sets up the last line even without having sung it yet, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Because of the way the hymn started, we know how it’s going to end.

The poetry in this hymn sits overtly on the surface of the text. It’s not subtle, but it serves a powerful purpose. The repetition of the words “He lives” helps them feel familiar, and comfortable, as every believer should be comfortable with that particular tenet of Christian faith.

Usually this hymn is sung to the tune “Duke Street.” But since 1908, Latter-day Saint hymnals have set it to a tune by the Welsh-born musician Lewis D. Edwards. Linda will now play her arrangement of the Edwards setting for “I Know that My Redeemer Lives."