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: Brian Mathias

1. Recessional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .William Mathias
2. a. Prelude and Fugue in C Major . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Johann Sebastian Bach
b. Récit de Chromhorne en Taille . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .François Couperin
3. a. Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
    b. An Old Melody: Wayfaring Stranger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
4. Fugue on the Name of ALAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maurice Duruflé

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.

“Fugue on the Name ALAIN” (Duruflé)

As a young 10-year-old boy, Maurice Duruflé traveled with his father to visit Rouen Cathedral, the magnificent gothic church that functioned as the spiritual and musical center of Upper Normandy in France, where Duruflé was born in 1902. He thought this was merely a sightseeing daytrip—his father hadn’t told him yet that he would be staying at Rouen as a choirboy and musical assistant in the cathedral. At the end of the day, Duruflé’s father simply left the young boy in the charge of the cathedral’s musical director, Jules Haelling, who had been an organ student of Alexandre Guilmant.

Duruflé understandably felt confused, abandoned, and lonely. His spirits brightened somewhat, though, when he learned that he would spend the next several years immersed in the centuries-old sacred music traditions of the church, especially Gregorian chant. He later recalled that at that moment a great page opened in front of him, and Duruflé saw clearly his future as a church musician.

Unexpected hardships don’t always produce such dramatic, life-changing epiphanies. Sometimes they just feel hard, and we do often struggle to find the silver lining around those dark clouds. Yes, it took Maurice Duruflé a little while to see a side-benefit to that difficult moment. Eventually, though, he recognized that not only was there a silver lining, the clouds themselves were silver, all the way through. The momentary confusion of a ten-year-old boy gave way to a lifetime of fulfilling service to the church and to music, and our world is richer for it.

We might not have the same kind of experience that Duruflé had, but it can still be encouraging to know that he did. His story was a real-life example of St. Paul’s reminder that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”¹

1. Romans 8:28 (KJV)