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: Richard Elliott

1. Now Thank We All Our God^† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Sebastian Bach
2. a. "Giocoso," from O Jerusalem^† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Gawthrop
b. Fountain Reverie^† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Percy Fletcher
3. a. Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
b. The Ash Grove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
4. Finale, from Symphony no. 6^†. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Vierne

^† LISTENER REQUESTED SELECTION Go to the Piping Up! web page to make your request!

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.

“Giocoso,” from O Jerusalem (Gawthrop)

The Old Testament book of Isaiah presents an intricate network of prophecies and historical references that tell of the significance of the city of Jerusalem for God’s people—not just the actual city (though that’s critical, certainly), but the idea of Jerusalem and Zion as a center place, a refuge from the world, which in the Book of Isaiah is often symbolized by Babylon.

Many of Isaiah’s writings have multiple applications. A single verse might refer to the Babylonian captivity, the coming of Christ several centuries later, or the establishment of a New Jerusalem in the Messianic era. The Book of Isaiah is a rich, heavily symbolic record, full of vivid imagery and interpretive potential.

The American composer and organist Daniel Gawthrop wrote his Organ Symphony No. 1 in four movements, each based on a passage from the Book of Isaiah that speaks of Jerusalem. The four-movement format of a classical symphony, with its inherent contrasts, was the perfect vehicle for Gawthrop to present four very different portraits of Jerusalem, and he titled the entire work “O Jerusalem.”

The third movement, a scherzo, is based on Isaiah 61, verse 10, “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God.” This is part of a longer passage from Isaiah that celebrates the re-establishment of Jerusalem as a place of peace and prosperity. Ashes give way to beauty, grief is replaced with rejoicing, broken hearts are bound up. It is a renewal and a rebuilding after a long period of bleak desolation.¹ Isaiah’s words couldn’t be more pertinent than they are today.

We’ll hear now the cheerful, even puckish “Giocoso” third movement from Daniel Gawthrop’s “O Jerusalem” from 2005. 

1. See Isaiah 61: 1-4.