July 21, 2021 | #115 Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square
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. Jerusalem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .C. Hubert H. Parry
2. a. An Wasserflüssen Babylon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Johann Sebastian Bach
b. Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Sebastian Bach
c. Largo, from Symphony no. 9 ("From the New World")† . . . . . . . . . . . Antonín Dvořák
3. a. Hymn: Come, Come, Ye Saints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .arr. by organist
b. An Old Melody: Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .arr. by organist
4. Battle Cry of Freedom ("Rally 'Round the Flag")† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard Elliott
† 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.
“Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee” (Rousseau, arr. Elliott)
Samuel Francis Smith was a Baptist minister and hymnwriter probably best known for writing the words to the American patriotic song “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” Smith wrote hymn texts for all aspects of evangelical life—baptism, ordination, funerals, worship. His hymn “Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee” was one of dozens he penned expressly for missionary farewells. Smith was still a student, in his twenties, when that hymn was published in 1832. He wrote it before he was ordained to the ministry, before he started editing the Baptist Missionary Magazine, and long before his global missionary travels. But, though yet inexperienced, Smith knew something of the emotions of leaving home to preach the Christian gospel in another land.
There are six verses in “Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee.” The first three ask repeatedly the question, “Can I say farewell” to a home I love, people, friends, the peace, and the rich treasures of worship that are familiar to me? And then comes the shift in focus. In the last half of the hymn, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Though I love my homeland, yes, I will gladly leave and live somewhere else, if my calling is to preach of Jesus. The fifth verse reads:
In the deserts let me labor,
On the mountains let me tell
How He died—the blessed Saviour—
To redeem a world from hell!
Let me hasten, Let me hasten,
Far in heathen lands to dwell.1
Many have felt that calling, to sacrifice the comforts and familiarities of our regular lives for a higher, holy purpose, even though that path might be discomforting and unfamiliar. To leave home in God’s service is, metaphorically and literally, a leap of faith.
Smith’s words have been paired with many hymn tunes over the years. One tune frequently associated with this text is “GREENVILLE,” originally composed as an aria from the opera Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. You might recognize this tune as “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” or “Lord Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing.” But today, in an arrangement by Richard Elliott, it’s “Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee.”