Creative Use of the Organ in Worship, The (Vol. 4)

By Hal H. Hopson

I do like this book, and I use it frequently during mass. However, it says it has something like 400 reharmonizations. Actually, maybe a third of them are performance suggestions (like play first line melody alone, second line melody-alto, etc). I don't need a book to tell me...

that. So I thought that was a bit of false advertising, hence docking the stars. The other issue is that the book pays no attention to page turns, so a lot of times the reharmonization or introduction requires a page turn in the middle...not thought through well. I like the Rawsthorne reharmonizations better, but this book provides nice variety and they aren't as easy/simple as the Callahan reharms.

I'd have to say that these harmonizations are GOLDEN! They really blend and explore worship in hymns without going too far to distract the singer from the words and worship. Highly recommended, although, they are tricky sometimes.

This will be a helpful book for those learning to play the organ.