First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls Concerts

Happy Holy Week! Special thanks go to several of our youth who sang for the Palm/Passion Sunday service last week. They were very confident, sang well and enriched our service with hymns and anthems highlighting the "Hosannas". Here they are on the chancel steps, holding crosses they made from palms used earlier. All are welcome to our upcoming Holy Week services: Maundy Thursday at 7 pm with communion, and a quartet from the Chancel Choir. Good Friday service of readings ...and music at Noon. Easter Sunday Festival Service of the Resurrection at 10 am, with special choral and organ music, including the famed "Toccata" from Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony, played by Bryan Kirk on the two pipe organs! If you wish to attend the Easter service, reservations are required, as seating is limited to 125, so please call or email us by 3 pm Friday to reserve a space: [email protected] or 518.793.2521, ext. 217. See more

Happy Birthday, J. S. Bach! March 21 is Bach's birthday (turning 336!), and we are honoring him in our Sunday morning service this weekend by presenting three different styled pieces on three different instruments: Prelude in C Major (from the Well-Tempered Clavier) on the harpsichord, a piano and organ duet version (with John Benware, piano) of the Sicilienne (from the Flute Sonata in E-flat), and a rousing fugue on "Wir Glauben all an Einen Gott, Schöpfer" for organ. All are welcome! Join us in person at 10 am or via livestream on YouTube: https://fpcgf.us3.list-manage.com/track/click

Come experience a special in-depth tour given by Bryan Kirk on Friday, March 26 at 1 pm highlighting the beautiful architecture and the two pipe organs here in our church. Limited to 25 people, sign up if you are interested! For more info, please see the description below.

Livestream Organ Concert! ‘Christmas Carol Pipes Advent to Epiphany’ Sunday, December 20 at 4 pm Bryan Kirk will present a special program featuring music based on familiar carols with works by Bach, Demessieux, Dupré, Gade, Pachelbel, Purvis, improvisation and more! Carols and chorale-based works include: In dulci jubilo, Wachet auf, Vom himmel hoch, What Child is This?, Sussex Carol, We Three Kings, What is This Lovely Fragrance?, Hark! The Herald-Angels Sing, and more!... This program is about an hour and will be available Sunday at 4 pm, or on demand afterward. All the many tonal colors and sonic range of the two organs are included in high quality, and the console is out in full view with multiple camera angles. The program will be broadcast on the church’s YouTube page: FPCGF Church, and a link is listed below as well as a link to a PDF of the concert program. This will be a musical gift to our community, as We need a little Christmas. Donations to the Beeman Music Fund may be made through our website or sent to the church. Our thanks to Judy, Eric and Rosie Lebel for recording, editing and all the hours of production involved! Our Christmas Eve Service will be livestreamed at 5 pm - Join us virtually for our traditional Christmas Eve Service with Lessons and Carols and Candle Crèche. Program link: https://drive.google.com//1qeocxRwBikjGNIH1ZwBDe8oG7/view YouTube concert link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twe4uIJ4DcE

Livestream Organ Concert Announcement! ‘Christmas Carol Pipes Advent to Epiphany’ Sunday, December 20 at 4 pm Bryan Kirk will present a special program featuring music based on familiar carols with works by Bach, Demessieux, Dupré, Gade, Pachelbel, Purvis, improvisation and more! Carols and works include: In dulci jubilo, Wachet auf, Vom himmel hoch, What Child is This, Sussex Carol, We Three Kings, What is This Lovely Fragrance, Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, and more!... A link for a YouTube Premier will be posted next week on our website: www.fpcgf.org and here, and the program will be broadcast on the church’s YouTube page: FPCGF Church. This will be a musical gift to our community, as We need a little Christmas. Donations to the Beeman Music Fund may be made through our website or sent to the church. Christmas Eve Service at 5 pm - Join us virtually for our traditional Christmas Eve Service with Lessons and Carols and Candle Crèche. More information will be posted next week.

"Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is a well-known and loved American hymn from the 1920s, sung in many Protestant denominations, including ours. The orchestral-inspired sounds of the chancel organ in First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York with Bryan Kirk, organist, are explored in this rendition. Listen to various ranks of pipes, including the English Horn, Major Flute, String ensembles, and the warm principal tones of the smooth-singing Diapasons, with some subtle harmonic shifts and a modulation toward the end. For more information on the organ and the church, visit www.fpcgf.org and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube music channel: FPCGF Concerts.

Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy! The majestic sound of the Trinity hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" (tune: Nicaea, by John B. Dykes, 1861) recorded here in First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, NY, with Bryan Kirk, organist. This hymn was requested by a church member to be recorded since we cannot have singing at this time. A few stanzas are played, starting with subdued sounds, leading to the clear principal choruses, then featuring the grand "Full Swell" reed ensembles of the Swell an...d Choir divisions, with Solo Tuba added at the end. Bryan adds his own "special touches" (as would be done in a live service with singing) to his rendition of this great hymn, enriching the harmonic palette with improvised colorful harmonies and a modulation (with a brief fanfare on the Solo Tuba and Bombarde) heralding the last stanza! Put your headphones on or get the big speakers out for this one! The chancel organ of 70 ranks, with a rich and engaging American-Classic/Orchestral sound, was originally built in 1992 and 2004 by Reuter, but revised and rebuilt in 2013 by Foley-Baker. The gallery organ of 60 ranks, with a beautiful Baroque-inspired sound, was built in 1973 by Casavant Frères. Total of 130 ranks and more than 7,000 pipes, all playable from the large, movable chancel drawknob console. For more information: www.fpcgf.org Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos and performances! FPCGF Concerts

This week's music video features one of our favorite area musicians, John Benware, composer and pianist, playing his own piece, "Nuncludium VII in F-sharp Major", composed in 2013. John has written many piano pieces, and this is the seventh in a series of ten works, each in a different style. A Queensbury HS alum and graduate of Fredonia, John studied classical music for many years, learned preludes, fugues, etc., and heard organ postludes here, played as concluding music f...or church services. Praeludium or Prelude (and sometimes Etude) is a term used by classical composers for a piece with a similar idea or theme throughout. John felt his pieces would benefit from an interesting title, and a "play" on words, as it were, as Nunc is Latin for "now", hence the title, Nuncludium, a piece that is new and for now. He says this work is reminiscent of the nocturne (many of which he studied), a style great composers and pianists have utilized for 200 years. We are pleased to share John's fine playing of his own piece, recorded on our beautiful 1964 Steinway 9-foot Concert Grand PIano, given by Polly Hoopes Beeman, for the benefit of our church and community. Numerous students have grown up learning on and playing this piano, and John demonstrates he has greatly benefitted from it. He has experienced this magnificent instrument for 15 years, and continues to enjoy sharing his music with us and the community. Be sure to visit our YouTube Music channel: FPCGF Concerts

This week's music video features a stunning rendition of "The Lost Chord", a famous Victorian-era song composed in 1877 by Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame). Sung in a grand manner by Bob Oreschnick, bass, with orchestral style organ accompaniment played by Bryan Kirk, and recorded in First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, NY. Mr. Oreschnick, also an organist, sang in England for more than 30 years, most notably as soloist with the Huddersfield Choral Soc...iety, and has also sung in many of the great cathedrals (York Minster) and performance halls in the UK. We are privileged to have him in our choir here in Glens Falls, and thank him for sharing his wonderful talents for this recording. The text (from 1858) is by Adelaide Anne Proctor, a favoured poet of Queen Victoria. The music of "The Lost Chord" was one of the first pieces of music ever recorded on an Edison phonograph, in 1888. Be sure to view and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos: FPCGF Concerts