Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square | October 4, 2023 (Andrew Unsworth)

“Tuba Magna” – John Madden (b. 1956)

“Prelude in the Form of a Chaconne,” Op. 88, no. 2 – Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

“Alle Menschen müssen sterben,” BWV 643 – J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

“Prelude on MARGARET” – Alexander Schreiner (1901-1987), arr. Unsworth

“Allegro,” from Symphony No. 6 – Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)


English composer John Madden published his “Tuba Magna” for solo organ in 1997. It’s part of a long tradition of “trumpet tunes” composed for organ and intended to showcase a pipe organ’s most powerful trumpet stops.

Irish-born Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was one of the most influential conductors, music teachers, and administrators in turn-of-the-century England, a career that often left him little time for composing. His Six Preludes for organ, Op. 88, come from the middle of his career. In this set, each prelude is focused on a particular historical genre or hymn tune. The “Prelude in the Form of a Chaconne” is a continuous set of variations on a bass-line pattern that Stanford subsequently moves through other registers, as well.

J. S. Bach wrote his organ prelude on the Lutheran chorale “Alle Menschen müssen sterben,” BWV 643, more as a celebration of reunion with God than a dirge about death. It’s included among the miscellaneous liturgical chorale preludes at the end of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein.

Renowned Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner named his 1948 hymn tune MARGARET after his wife, Margaret Lyman Schreiner. This tune is most commonly known as “God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son,” a hymn with words written in 1927 by Schreiner’s former colleague, Tabernacle Organist Edward P. Kimball.

Charles-Marie Widor composed his Organ Symphony No. 6 to inaugurate the newly installed Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris in 1878. Its opening “Allegro” movement shows evidence of Widor’s commitment to Germanic styles and practices in his music, not least in its clear adherence to sonata-allegro form.

Piping Up is a weekly broadcast series, sponsored and presented by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, featuring organ masterworks of the past and present performed by renowned Tabernacle and Temple Square organists. These programs continue the longstanding tradition of noon organ recitals on Temple Square—a tradition that has lasted for more than a century—by making performances of great organ music, played on iconic and historic pipe organs, available to a global audience.

New episodes are posted every Wednesday, and previous episodes are also available for on-demand viewing.

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