* Live in Vienna! (7) * Autopilot ;-) GL 478 “Ein Haus voll Glorie“

D: Video: 25. Juli 2023, Kapuzinerkirche - Teil des kurzen Einzugs und der 1. Strophe
E: Melody and original text with 7 verses: Joseph Mohr (1792-1848)
Mohr also wrote the (German) text for "Silent Night"
New (German) verses 2-5 by Hans W. Marx, 1972/1975
D: Siehe weiter unten für Liedtext usw :-)
E: I thought about this for nearly a year, because of a slip-up or two ... ;-) Also, a smartphone recording really can’t pick up the lovely deep pedal notes very well.
But it’s such a nice organ, and I enjoyed playing it. The Capuchin Church is in the city centre and is run by the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. It’s famous for containing the Imperial Crypt, the final resting place for members of the House of Habsburg. The official name is the Church of Saint Mary of the Angels. The consecration is celebrated on July 25th, so this was actually an important occasion.
Unknown to me, a friend was in the Mass and made a little recording of part of the first hymn with its introduction. Thank you, Herfried!
But it’s another autopilot effort - not because of being half-asleep this time (see “Wir sagen Euch an” on my Christmas Carol playlist), but because “things (don't) happen” when you’re a deputy organist! They are often the result of receiving a slip of paper with seemingly random numbers on it two minutes before the Mass begins. It’s rather like a lottery ticket ... there are several hundred hymns in the RC hymnbook, and only a few full-time professional colleagues will know them all. One gets a key, races up to the gallery, switches on the motor, lights etc, enters the number on the display (older churchgoers need time to find the hymn in their books), pulls out a few basic stops, works out which of the four massive and hefty organ books the first number is in, puts the book on the music desk and opens it up. It’s often the case that only then does one realise what one has to play! Fortunately I have sometimes played this hymn, and fortunately it was in G major. However, due to the speed at which one has to operate in order to get everything set up seconds before the Mass bell rings, plus the adrenalin burst required to plunge straight into a (possibly unknown) hymn with zero preparation, and simply “play the notes on the page”, the first hymn may indeed contain a wrong note ... sorry about that! PS: The congregation may not have noticed. Many will indeed notice nothing, unless the organ suddenly stops playing mid-verse or something like that!
Note on the intrada extract: I anticipated a fairly "normal" procession from the sacristy to the altar. However, I needed to keep an eye on the monitor (camera focussed on the altar) in order to watch progress. If they reach the altar quicker than expected, I need to wind up and introduce the hymn, otherwise they will stare up at me impatiently. However, a last-minute deputy is sometimes not informed about extra things that might happen at festive Masses. Longer processions, incensing the altar etc. In that case you have to play longer, so that you don't start the hymn before the priest is ready to sing. I have "walking music" in various keys at hand in my music bag, so I chose something which I could either break off easily or extend - or improvise around in some way - if necessary. But due to swivelling my eyes back and forth from the music to the monitor and then to the stops, working out how loudly to play the hymn depending on the number of people in the church, I slipped on a key.. Again, as long as you keep on "walking", hardly anyone would notice this in a live performance. It just annoys me if I have to listen to it on a vid afterwards! ;-)
Info Organ / Orgel: Koenig, 2017:
austria-forum....)
As a deputy, I occasionally played the rickety old Rieger (Jägerndorf) organ; and immediately preceding the new organ I also played the little temporary box organ (Truhenorgel) situated near the altar.
D: GL alt: 639 / GL neu: 478
Wie so oft, gibt es verschiedene Textversionen. Bei diesem Lied aber gibt es wohl nur die ursprüngliche Version mit 7 Strophen sowie die "neue" mit 5, die jedoch die erste Strophe im Original beibehält. Ich trage weiter unten die erste Strophe ein - das singt die Gemeinde in diesem Ausschnitt. Unter diesem Link kann man den Originaltext sowie die ersten 3 Strophen des aktuellen Textes finden:
www.volksliede...
1.
Ein Haus voll Glorie schauet
weit über alle Land’,
aus ew’gem Stein erbauet
von Gottes Meisterhand.
Gott! wir loben dich;
Gott! wir preisen dich;
o lass im Hause dein
uns all geborgen sein!
Recorded in Vienna, 25th July 2023 - Live take
Kapuzinerkirche / Capuchin Church
Mit Dank an Herfried, dem Mesner von St. Leopold :-)