Dale's Divertissements

Good Chrisian Friends Rejoice also known as In Dulci Jubilo (In sweet joy) gets 2 different treatments. The first is a happy dance and the other is a classic organ meditation. In this crazy time let’s focus on the things that bring us JOY!

Today we have a guest organist – a laptop computer playing a pipe organ. Ok I programmed the computer. This video (from 2014) shows off the new pipe organ at Paulin Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Grant to us, Peace is my first attempt at arranging music for handbells. This piece is designed as a duet with 5 handbells and 5 handchimes which can be rehearsed separately without sharing instruments. We pray “Grant to us, Peace”.

The moment I heard this song I bought copies for my bell choir. Alas due to the pandemic it wasn’t going to happen. SO I decided to adapt it into a bell solo. Thank you to Jason W. Krug for your encouragement in this project.

Here I am playing the traditional Christmas song – In the bleak mid-winter. Instead of the little drummer boy – Am I the older Bell man?

Today’s video was yesterday’s prelude at Epworth. It is a handbell/organ duet featuring one of my high school students in his handbell solo debut. Enjoy.

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent and our attention is turned to PEACE. Into a world filled with so much strife and unrest our Saviour comes as the Source of Peace. Be ready today to be a peacemaker.

With lots of fanfare to get your attention – today we look East to see the Lord of hope, peace, joy and love – arriving. Time to get ready….

Today we have the “overworked” hymn tune “Hyfydol” using the words “Come, thou long expected Jesus. Gordon Young meanders around hinting at the tune as a way of teasing us – but then isn’t Advent like that? But when he gives us the tune – it is in all its full glory.

This little known Advent song is one of the best songs about HOPE I know. It is quiet and gentle just like that first Christmas so long ago. But yet it encompasses the most powerful message of the season. HOPE is born AGAIN, by Jim Brickman.