Something on the organ before mass?

[Chorister]

[edited]

I’m looking for something to play softly on the organ before mass in the way of old chant style songs or old Catholic hymns. I was just looking at Creator of the Stars of Night and thought I might do that, for example.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bpbasilphx]

It would be better to save Creator of the Stars of Night for Advent, as it’s one of that season’s Divine Office hymns.

You could look at the series called THE PARISH ORGANIST. It’s mostly Lutheran chorale preludes, but they are simple and tasteful and appropriate.

There’s also a collection edited by Herman Keller of 17-18th century chorale preludes of varying difficulty. Some are for manuals only.

And there are some easy, pretty ones by Helmut Walcha.

Both of these are published by Peters.

The classic Lutheran chorales, btw, are mostly derived from plainsong hymns.

 

[kujayhawk]

If you are looking for old Catholic hymns, try to locate a copy of the St. Gregory Hymnal. It has some beautiful selections.

Also, there is a series called the Liturgical Organist which has music not based on hymns (with some exceptions) but certainly appropriate for Catholics. This series is still available.

 

[bpbasilphx]

And there are also the elevations by Dom Paul Benoit–many are very easy.

 

[NPC]

There are so many options for preludes based on hymn tunes - Bach is an obvious choice, though many are more suited to a postlude than a prelude. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford wrote about four sets of six preludes which are mostly short and many are quite meditative. Some of them are based on hymn-tunes. You could also try some of the music of Nicolas de Grigny (“Livre d’Orgue”) - he has settings with versets on 5 Gregorian hymns such as Veni Creator and Ave Maris Stella… Flor Peeters also wrote many preludes on hymn tunes - I think you can buy them in about 4 volumes which are divided between the different Church seasons.

For music not based on chorales, I find simple music such as pieces from Couperin’s Masses for Organ suitable - though most pieces will only really work if you have an organ with a wide range of colours because the beauty Classical French music relies as much on colour as it does on the notes themselves.

You could also try improvisation on the entrance hymn, or compose some simple themes for yourself. The advantage of improvisation is that you can play right up to the beginning of the Mass - you can end the music whenever you like as you will not be bound by time constraints as you are with sheet music.