On the role of organ music

Iddo van der Giessen

This artistic research project delves into the role of organ music in the Dutch Protestant liturgy. It studies the added value of organ music in church services by looking at one specific manifestation of liturgy in which organ music has a prominent role: organ vespers. An organ vespers is a brief Christian service of prayer with a prominent role for organ music. This research provides historical and practical context to organ vespers by relating it to Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions of Evening Prayer, and to how Dietrich Buxtehude entertained local businessmen in his series of Abendmusiken. It discusses relevant literature and the guidelines of the Dutch Protestant Service Book on prayers and music. Three practices of organ vespers in the Netherlands are compared. Two outcomes are presented. First, this research presents the order of service for four organ vespers in the Goede Herderkerk in Rotterdam. Second, it describes the results of a questionnaire held amongst the visitors of those vespers. In total 82 questionnaires were filled in by those attending at least one of the vespers. Based on the results, this study argues that organ music in a liturgical context has the exquisite quality of engaging and interacting with listeners and participants in the liturgy. Furthermore, it illustrates how the age-old role of organ music in liturgy continues to be of great value in both musical as well as religious context.

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