Sunday, August 26, 2018

Lee at the organ--Hymns for Sunday





Or any day.  I don't stand on ceremony.

The organ pictured above is the one I used to record these.  No, wait--that was a typo.  I meant, the organ above is not the one I used to record these.  Sorry.  Slip of the fingers.  I actually used my Casio WK-3800 synthesizer, which, despite the name (Casio), sounds very good.  I added some MAGIX effects--namely, Reverb/Echo and Acoustics simulator--destructive.  I had never noticed "destructive" before, so I looked it up, figuring it was an audio term.  (It sounds weird enough to be one.)  I was right.  Wikipedia says,

Destructive editing modifies the data of the original audio file, as opposed to just editing its playback parameters.  Destructive editors are also known as "sample editors".

Now we know.  Wiki says that, once applied, destructive editing usually can't be changed, but with my MAGIX software, all I have to do is hit "undo."  So there, Wikipedia.

These are in response to popular demand.  No, wait--that was a typo.  I meant to say, these are not in response to popular demand.  Not a single request.  Go figure.

Anyway, these are all me playing, with occasional sound-on-sound (to combine two patches), and with most of my false starts edited out.  My favorites are the Samuel Wesley (that guy was talented!) and the gorgeous I Will Not Forget Thee by Charles H. Gabriel.  Gabriel had just become famous with the still-popular Send the Light.


  To the hymns: Lee at the organ

O Holy City, Seen of John (Steggall, 1890)
O Thou Who Comest from Above (Samuel Wesley, 1872)
I Walk with the King (B.D. Ackley, 1915_
O for a Closer Walk with Thee (Dykes, 1875)
Jesu!  Our Eternal King (Freylinghausen, 1704)
I Will Not Forget Thee (Charles H. Gabriel, 1890)
Who Will Gather? (Charles H. Gabriel, c. 1891)
O Happy Home, Where Thou Art Loved (Barnby, 1883)
We Utter Our Cry (1765, harm. Sydney H. Nicholson, 1916)
Spirit of God, Descend (Barnby, 1872)
O Spirit of the Living God (Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906)

Lee


4 comments:

Ernie said...

You still playing live on Sundays anywhere, or only at home?

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Live and in person. (That phrase is pretty redundant, isn't it?)

I'm volunteering at a small country church. I quit my seven-year job at the bigger and nearer church. I hated leaving, but I felt I had to do so on principle. I still love the congregation.

Jim said...

"Live and in person. (That phrase is pretty redundant, isn't it?)"

Not entirely. You could be 'live via long-distance telephone hookup with our studios in beautiful downtown Burbank.'

OR - as in the case of "psychic musician" Rosemary Brown, you could be channeling the spirit of some obscure 19th Century organist, who would then be 'dead and in person.'

I've always thought I would be more impressed with the Psychic Friends Network if they promised to connect me with an "authentic DEAD psychic."

But I digress; I came here to thank you for reviving and preserving these all-but-forgotten old hymns. Not my cup of sassafras tea, but I can appreciate the sincerity and devotion of the times and of the performance.

Please continue the good works.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Of course, zombies are dead and in person, too. (Cha-dunk! Crash!)

Good point about the authentic dead psychic. Is that thing still around? Oh, God, it is--on line, of course. And my memory is correct--Dionne Warwick disgraced herself by hosting that thing. Was she that broke?

And, of course, the PFN would be dead if not for cyberspace. There's some kind of irony there, if you dig it out, maybe.

Thanks for the nice words!