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Catholic Organists need short pieces to play during The Mass at the Offertory, Communion and After the Mass. The easy organ pieces in this book for you are taken out of our books in the Catholic Organist's Quarterly Series including pieces of varying levels of difficulty. We know that there is a special need for easy music in easy keys to build confidence in new organists and for organists who are accomplished but pressed for time to practice. It is our pleasure to make these available. Our EASY series now includes: Very Easy Preludes on Hymns for Solo Stops or ChimesEasy Organ Music in Easy Keys for MassA Catholic Book of Hymns Vol. V Simple Organ Edition

Playing daily Masses for centuries, organists in Catholic churches had certain assigned chant melodies to be sung every year. They became so familiar with these melodies, that they would improvise organ pieces featuring the melody in different ways and play these settings for the Mass. Chants were sung unaccompanied most times and the organ played on its own at times. Also, a common practice was playing part of a chant on the organ in place of a verse or verses, in alternation with the choir. These compositions may be used in different ways - as a Prelude to the Mass, as an introduction to the singing of the hymn and, if a hymn is sometimes sung after Mass, as a Postlude to the Mass are the last verse is sung. There are pieces on each of the 295 hymns in A Catholic Book of Hymns, published by Sacred Music Library.

The "touch" of the piano keyboard is missed when moving to play the organ, and this frustrates some pianists who give up too soon.Why? There are other things that make up for this. The organ has many different tone colors, the piano but one.It is rare for organ and chime music to be written without pedals. This can be frustrating as you are dealing with three issues - playing the melody, playing the accompaniment, and playing the pedals.With three things going on at once, it is hard to build up confidence.In this book, calling for left hand and right hand only, you will quickly gain in confidence and begin enjoy choosing and mastering and two contrasting tone colors against each other.Chimes are almost always on the Great - the lower or middle keyboard if there are three. The logic is that the other keyboards are more apt to have stops of sound that will be less powerful and accompany the chimes with a variety of different tone colors.Typically organists play flutes or strings on the Swell, the top keyboard with the left hand and the melody on the Great with the right hand.But there is another stop setting that is useful. Chimes do not ring out very long so you might try when playing adding the Swell to Great coupler so that the melody is heard on the chimes AND the Swell stops you have chosen, filling out the melody.Try other stops as alternates - the Oboe on the Swell and a balanced softer stop on the Great.These pieces are composed to create confidence in playing melodies and to open up the world of different sounds for the pianist to enjoy playing.And, pianists, note that with the expression pedals you can crescendo and decrescendo louder and softer than on a piano!- Noel Jones. AAGO

These hymns have been adapted for playing on the organ. How are they different? When playing hymns on the organ or piano from a hymnal, the sound is less than desirable and not what the composer intended. Words that have multiple syllables must have a note for every syllable. This creates a challenge for those of us that play the organ or piano because sometimes we must play them as written, other times we play them as tied notes, so our playing does not sound "choppy". Organists who have had the rare opportunity to study hymnplaying are taught to do this automatically, on the fly. We have written these hymns out to make them sound better on the keyboard. You are playing the same notes that are being sung, but in a way that balances out the sound coming from our instrument.The background of this hymnal: "Music and silence-how I detest them both!" --Screwtape, under-secretary to the devil, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. LewisIt's easy to see why the enemies of mankind would hate and fear both sacred silence and sacred music. Both bring joy, spur contemplation, and draw the soul nearer to the Lord. Both have been part of our private prayer as well as our communal liturgy for thousands of years.The Psalms--biblical songs of praise, supplication, and wonder--have been sung for three thousand years. Naturally, Jesus, His disciples, and later the early Christian community also sang hymns (from the Greek word meaning "songs of praise"), as The New Testament makes clear.We sing because we love, and sung praise elevates our words, takes them out of the realm of the commonplace, and increases our joy. The holy pleasure of singing to God involves the entire person--spirit, heart, mind, and body--and unites us not only with the Divine but also with one another as a worshiping community. This collection of hymns for the singing Catholic congregation exemplifies the best of the genre. These songs are religiously orthodox, beautiful, sacred, and--for the most part--familiar. But here you will also find worthy hymn tunes and texts that are new to you.And at the conclusion of Mass, a suitable hymn can send the people forth with the praise of Almighty God on their lips.May this book bring joy to all who sing from it! You may want to begin by buying a few books for the organist and cantor or singers for funeral Masses where many of the older. beloved hymns are requested, more for the choir and eventually, the entire congregation. Having this full-harmony hymnal in the hands of the congregation will work to improve the singing of your people. Let the musicians in your congregation sing in their own voice, which has always been the goal of hymn composers! This is a permanent hymnal, totally immune to translation changes to the Mass or the Readings - the next planned for 2025 - as these hymns are the original texts with no modern text updates.