Special music or offertory music

[q1sic]

Hi all!  I'm going into my junior year in high school and am new to pianostreet.  I would like to find classical pieces appropriate for church services that are neither too virtuous nor boring.  Right now, I have a book of church pieces for advanced piano, but I feel like my good choices are running out.  Tell me what you guys think.

[quantum]

Hi and welcome to Pianostreet!

With well chosen music, you have a large variety of pieces to select.  Don't shy away from virtuosic music just because it is church.  The trick is to select the right music for the occasion. 

If you are just starting out in church music it may be beneficial to first build up a diverse repertoire of easy music you can pull together in short notice.  Don't worry about being too repetitive at first, just focus on well played and appropriately selected music.  You can work on repertoire breadth and depth as you go along. 

When trying to adapt classical music for church, it may help you to set out some categories for selection.  Try to work on mood, liturgical season, and liturgical theme.  Put together a few service programs for generally recurring themes.  This will help you organize your repertoire research, as you will have a purpose in mind when looking through music. 

In general Bach is usually welcome by most people, clergy, and fellow musicians.  Anything from the Inventions, Sinfonias, dance suites, and WTC should be fine. 

Have a look at books of organ music for manuals only.  It may give you some more ideas of sources and composers that are geared towards church services. 

[visitor]

have a look at books arranged by Marilynn Ham, ie
stuff like this , she merges them w/ std classics

see also
https://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Hymns-Ageless-Classics-Arrangements/dp/0739029193/186-9713523-5986029?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

stuff like this is cool you get bits of standard pieces and the hymns as wel

[quantum]

This one is pretty.

[Bob]

Hinson editor.  Alfred publisher.  There's a series of three books book, music for church, I like.  It's got the philosophy of picking the music in it too.  Generally... It's good enough for what I've done.

[q1sic]

Thank you, everyone!  Now I have a reference point

[timothy42b]

I see a considerable difference in the approach to a traditional liturgical service versus a more contemporary evangelical one. 

At your age you may not have had much exposure to different styles yet. 

The Bach/organ stuff so beloved in my church would be very inappropriate in the Protestant service I did praise & worship music for, and vice versa.

Can you tell us more about what you're trying to do? 

[q1sic]

I'm going from church to church this summer to broaden my audience and experience.  For now, I'm trying to find virtuous pieces to play (making an impression).  So far, I've played Chopin Prelude Op. 9 No. 2 for the offertory, and E minor Valse for the special music.  My repertoire is currently limited to Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin, so, yes, I have not much exposure to sacred music.  The only fear I have is coming across a church where playing a virtuous, "out of the liturgical-box," will be frowned upon.

I see a considerable difference in the approach to a traditional liturgical service versus a more contemporary evangelical one. 

At your age you may not have had much exposure to different styles yet. 

The Bach/organ stuff so beloved in my church would be very inappropriate in the Protestant service I did praise & worship music for, and vice versa.

Can you tell us more about what you're trying to do? 

[quantum]

From my experiences, congregations don't always respond to virtuosic or musically complex pieces the way that fellow musicians do.  Sometimes it is the simple things that are the most communicative and meaningful.  You could play the Hammerklavier and people will say, that's nice.  You could play the Raindrop Prelude and people may be elated at your virtuosity and think you are some famous concert pianist. 

[dogperson]

I would agree that churches do not always respond well to what they consider to be virtuosic music.  Find out a little about the type of service:  if a contemporary service, you need to look for more contemporary Christian music to play.  For a standard service, look at the hymn arrangements of Cindy Berry, Marilyn Ham, James Koertz and Carol Tournquist...   James Koertz has a nice website where you can download arrangements: some free, some paid.  

If it is contemporary service, I can't offer much advice, because that is not my focus but you might want to do a search for 'contemporary Christian music'.  I know that Mark Hayes and Carol Tournquist  write some arrangements.  'You Lift Me Up', and 'On Eagles Wings' are two that are familiar to me and I like... but the genre is broad, and I don't have experience with most of it.

Your focus should not be on virtuosic classical:  I have played simple Bach (Prelude in C, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and some simple Field nocturnes), but have never considered playing a Chopin Nocturne.  Maybe this is just me, but I never thought it would be well received by the congregation.

You might want to look at 'The Lord's Prayer' arranged for piano solo... this would be acceptable in just about every service, regardless of the denomination or the type.

I agree to look at the liturgical season for the denomination for the playing... the internet is a great resource for that.

You don't want to be remembered as 'that weird piano guy that played inappropriate music'. .. they will not know or remember how well you played something if they consider the music inappropriate for their particular type of service. 

Edited to add: As a point of reference, the protestant church of my childhood would have been appalled at classical repertoire for the offertory, but the one where I attend now would have no problem with it.  When you make the arrangement to play, I would ask 'how is classical repertoire perceived at this church'?  You will get an answer that will help guide you.

A lot to think about.

[briansaddleback]

Hey it is dogperson!!

[pianoplunker]

Hi all!  I'm going into my junior year in high school and am new to pianostreet.  I would like to find classical pieces appropriate for church services that are neither too virtuous nor boring.  Right now, I have a book of church pieces for advanced piano, but I feel like my good choices are running out.  Tell me what you guys think.

I have used a book called "Church Service Selections for Organ or Piano" edited by C. Kohlmann. It has some classical composers but it is all edited to be arranged as piano or organ.  Alot of songs in Eb but they are instrumental and most appropriate for offertory in my opinion. Remember, virtuoso is not always appreciated and can be boring as well as distracting. If you have to choose between boring and virtuoso, pick boring.  It can have the opposite feeling when boring becomes beautiful

[timothy42b]

I made a bad mistake in a generic Protestant (military) service once.

I played trad hymns on the organ, no problem.  The pastor was new to me and I did not understand how fundagelical he was.

There was nothing planned for the offertory.  So I decided to sing that beautiful Arise, Shine scripture from Isaiah.  Unfortunately I chose a psalm tone as accompaniment. 

Do you know psalm tones?  very common in liturgical services, they are a simple chord progression where you change chords on the last accented syllable of each line.  I probably did S425 out of the Episcopal Hymnal. 

But completely unknown in a contemporary service.  The pastor was stunned into temporary catatonia, then he reacted with rage.  "That's enough of that!  Play Doxology!  NOWWW!!!" 

The ushers were only a few pews down at that point, but I dutifully played Doxology while everyone wondered WTH?

You'd probably get a similar reaction with a loud amplified bass and a trap set in a liturgical service, but nobody would be dumb enough to do it.