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: Joseph Peeples

1. Fantaisie in E-flat Major. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Camille Saint-Saëns
2. a. Allegro, from Trio Sonata no. 5 in C Major. . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Sebastian Bach
    b. Méditation, from Trois Improvisations^† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Vierne
3. a. Come, Come, Ye Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
    b. Deep River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . arr. by organist
4. Allegro maestoso e vivace, from Sonata no. 4 in B-flat Major. . .Felix Mendelssohn

^† 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.

“Allegro” (3^rd mvmt.) from Sonata No. 5, BWV 529 (J. S. Bach)

The “perpetuum mobile” is its own genre of musical composition. It surges forward, frantically, without even stopping for breath. Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee” is a well-known example, or Schubert’s Impromptu No. 2.  These works tend to be virtuosic, and they also tend to be short. You can’t keep up that pace for a long period of time. That’s why running a mile takes longer than running four quarter-miles. In a longer race, you need to know when to push forward and when to hold back.

There are numerous accounts in the bible of good people who tried to do too much too quickly. Moses, for example, was warned by his father-in-law, Jethro, that he was taking on too much responsibility, and it would wear him out.¹ Elijah suffered from this same kind of burnout, too, and was so demoralized he asked God to take his life.²

While we’re cautioned against laziness, of course, one of the most frequently repeated commandments in the Old Testament is to honor the Sabbath, to rest from our regular work. And then get back to it when the rest is over. In the New Testament, Paul taught us to run the face so that we might win the prize.³ And as every runner knows, that doesn’t mean going as fast as you can all the time.

This principle of managed work and rest is illustrated in the last movement of J. S. Bach’s Organ Sonata No. 5 in C major, BWV 529. The texture in this work is like a trio sonata, or a three-part invention. There are three voices, each one absolutely equal in importance. And if you just listen to the surface of it, there’s always 16^th notes, or semiquavers, being played rather quickly. It seems like a perpetuum mobile. But in almost every measure of the score, while one part is playing 16^th notes, another part is playing quavers or 8^th notes as an accompaniment, and the third part is either resting or holding onto sustained notes. And then they switch around, and switch again, and so on. Each of the three parts has opportunities to run fast, to stay back a little bit, and to rest. With this kind of managed cooperation and pacing, neither of the parts tire too soon, and they all happily cross the finish line together.

1. Exodus 18:17-18.
2. 1 Kings 19:5-9
3. 1 Corinthians 9:24.