This week, the organ and choral music come from the pens of four established and interesting composers, running through the service in chronological order:

Vincent Lübeck (1654-1740) was one of the excellent and important North German organ composers of the generation before J. S. Bach. From 1702 on, he served an appointment at St. Nicolas Church in Hamburg, famous for having an organ of the master builder Arp Schnitger. Lübeck’s Father and Son, both named Vincent, were both organists…!

Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), a student of Mozart, was variously in and out of favor with the Monarchy [but mostly in…], and once held the cozy, agreeable post of Organist at the King’s Private Chapel in Brighton. His music is unjustly neglected; the straightforward bidding to incline our ears to the word - in the anthem ‘Teach Me, O Lord’ - shows his clean, classical skill.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) requires no introduction, but only a word that he was, in addition to his ‘maven’ status in the orchestral and choral fields was also a renowned organist. His writing for the instrument plays like it, too – perfectly idiomatic and playable.

Owen Goldsmith (b. 1931), Texas native, now lives in rural Calaveras County, CA, writing music through his ‘retirement.’ A graduate, magna cum laude, of San Francisco State University in 1959, Mr. Goldsmith is widely known in California Music Education circles and is known nationally through his more than 100 pieces of music currently in print. In the 1970’s, he wrote profiles of prominent pianists for ‘Keyboard’ magazine.

-Keith Weber