This Sunday’s organ selections are chosen in observance of Martin Luther King Day, and each one is based on an African-American spiritual. The Music for Meditation is a beautiful, serene setting of “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” – said to be Dr. King’s favorite hymn – by the twentieth-century American composer Wilbur Held. “Ain’t-a That Good News,” which is well-known through William Dawson’s classic choral arrangement, is given a lively, vivacious setting by the American composer Marianne Kim (b. 1972), one which uses distinctly jazz-influenced harmonies. For the postlude, we will hear the exciting “Finale” from the American composer Florence Price’s Sonata No. 1 for Organ. Florence Price – composer, pianist, organist, and teacher – was the first Black woman to have her music featured by a major orchestra, when her Symphony No. 1 (the first of four) was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. She also wrote numerous works for the organ; the final movement of her Organ Sonata No. 1 is a rousing toccata, set in the key of D minor. The final pages of the movement switch to the parallel key of D major, providing a sonorous and thrilling conclusion.
– Charles