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. Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones^†. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David Schack
2. a. Fugue in G Major ("Gigue")^†. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Sebastian Bach
    b. Communion, from Triptyque^†. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Louis Vierne
    c. Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard L. Elliott
3. a. Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
    b. All Through the Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
4. Variations on "Veni creator". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Maurice Duruflé

^† 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.

“Choral varié sur le thème du ‘Veni Creator,’” Op. 4 (Duruflé)

Both the words and the melody of the ancient Christian hymn “Veni, creator Spiritus” are at least a thousand years old. The Latin words are believed to have been written by the Archbishop of Mainz in the 9th century, and have since been paraphrased and translated into many languages. The melody is one of the most familiar of Gregorian chants, developed during the 9th and 10th centuries.

This is a joyful, optimistic hymn, inviting the Holy Spirit to guide our minds, teach us, give us strength, joy, and comfort, protect us, and bring us back into unity with the Father and Son. It continues to be sung by faith communities across the Christian world, and at significant events including the consecration of bishops, the ordination of priests, dedication of churches, the coronations of English monarchs, and so on. In fact, this hymn is appropriate for any time in which the need for a divine, inspiring influence is openly acknowledged. And wouldn’t that be all the time, for every one of us?

Followers of Christ are instructed to “quench not the Spirit.”¹ And “Veni, creator Spiritus” is a hymn that for centuries has helped the faithful remember and strive to meet this aim. Not surprising, then, that so many composers have wanted to include its words and music in their own compositions. From Titelouze, Bach, Berlioz, and Mahler to Penderecki and Stockhausen, musicians have repeatedly, over hundreds of years, drawn on the strength of this hymn’s powerful message and striking melody.

In 1930, Maurice Duruflé completed his three-part “Prélude, Adagio, et Choral varié sur le thème du ‘Veni, creator,’” and it won first prize in a competition organized by Les Amis d’Orgue, a Parisian guild of organists. This prize announced Duruflé’s emergence as a composer of consequence, whose work was and would continue to be grounded firmly in his faith and his reverence for plainchant. Richard Elliott closes today’s program now with the magnificent chorale variations on the theme “Veni, creator” by Maurice Duruflé.

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:19.