AM TOYING with the idea of creating a whole bunch more “simplified” organ accompaniments for the hymns in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal, to help amateur organists. You can see what I’ve created so far by clicking on the “Simplified Hymn Accompaniment” tag. On average, each one is being downloaded about 2,500 times. The last one I uploaded was downloaded more than 1,900 times in a matter of hours. Therefore, musicians out there seem intrigued by such a project. Earlier this morning, I created a “simplified” version of LOBE DEN HERREN, often sung in English with the lyrics “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!”
* PDF Download • ORGAN ACCOMPANIMENT (“Simplified”)
—“Praise To The Lord” a.k.a. Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren.
Inspiration For This Project • I’m a person who can’t stand hearing wrong notes. I also hate it when an organist dramatically slows down the tempo in an effort to play all the correct notes (or add pedal notes). I’d much rather hear a simplified accompaniment at the correct tempo. For the record: I’m having way too much fun creating these!
Melody Provenance • According to Monsignor Franz Stemmer, the famous hymn we know as Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (a.k.a. “Lobe Den Herren”) originally came from the Stralsund Gesangbuch (1665), which you can see if you download the Freiburg Cathedral Hymnal (308 Pages).
More To Come • That rare hymnal is only one example of what we’ve located, obtained, scanned, and uploaded for all to enjoy. Currently, we’ve added about 56,000 pages to the public domain—all of them extremely rare and valuable sacred music. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment; we have no major donors; we run no advertisements; we have no savings. Please alert others to what we’re trying to accomplish. Also, we beg you to consider donating $3.00 per month. Thank you!
A Note On Transcription (1 of 2) • According to Vladimir Horowitz, Ferruccio Busoni (d. 1924) was once introduced as “Mr. Bach Busoni” at a party. That’s because his Bach transcriptions were so famous in those days.1 There’s an art to transcribing, just as there’s an art to making simplified versions. Sometimes people intend to simplify a piece but end up making it harder. That’s because proper voice-leading is idiomatic for the keyboard player.
A Note On Transcription (2 of 2) • Those of us on scholarship at the conservatory were forced to accompany a number of singers and instrumentalists each semester during their juries. If we failed to do so, our scholarship was taken away. I wasn’t very good at it, but acting as accompanist did introduce me to composers I wouldn’t have otherwise experienced, such a Paul Hindemith (d. 1963). The faculty knew we had to serve as accompanists without payment. Some were abusive. I remember Larry Maxey (a clarinet professor) bullying the “free” accompanists in a way that made my blood boil. Indeed, I’ll never forget the time I accompanied the jury for an absolutely terrible singer. [She was a “party girl” who only attended college because her father had been a faculty member—and she dropped out after two semesters.] During her jury, I shortened the ending of the piece. In other words, after the singer had finished singing, the accompanist was supposed to play a brief interlude … but it was a poorly-transcribed orchestral reduction. It just wasn’t idiomatic, and I figured the jury didn’t want to hear me butcher it. So I improvised an ending—to cover up my inadequacy—which caused one judge to go into a rage. Instead of focusing on the singer (which is what he was supposed to be doing during her jury) he started viciously interrogating me: “How dare you change the ending to that piece! I’ve never heard it that way before; did you change the score? Etc.” Looking back, I suppose I could have responded: “I was just being authentic because all the pianists in those days improvised everything.” […which is true; e.g. they never took a “repeat” without adding all kinds of ornamentation and other things.] But I was just a young college kid who knew very little—so I just sat there speechless, with an embarrassed look on my face.
The head of the voice faculty at that time was DR. JOHN STEPHENS, a renowned singer who’d performed in famous halls like the METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE. Dr. Stephens came to my rescue. Glaring at his junior colleague—in his deep basso profondo voice—he said one word: “Enough!”
1 For the record, circa 1950 some pedantic dogmatist came along and decided “real” pianists were no longer allowed to play transcriptions. But all the masters had done so: Hofmann, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Lhevinne, and so forth.
