Presented by Fayetteville First UMC Chancel Choir
Sunday | April 13
Charles Higgs, organ | Guang Wang, cello | Nicholas Bowden, conductor
Psalm 121 — Diane Bish Song Without Words — Craig Philips
Requiem — Maurice Duruflé
The 2025 Lenten Concert featured the FFUMC Chancel Choir and the wide range of sound offered by our new organ. Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) was a gifted French organist and composer. His Requiem (Latin Mass for the Dead) was commissioned by the Vichy government of France in 1940 and completed in 1946 and is built on plainchant melodies with lush, impressionistic harmonies. You’ll hear Song Without Words by Craig Philips, a contemporary composer and organist in Los Angeles, Dedicated to the memory of his late brother, this piece features solo cello and organ. Diane Bish, still perhaps the most well-known organist in the world through her Joy of Music television series, wrote her setting of Psalm 121 (I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help…) in 1982. Her beautiful lines written for chorus are carried with a rhythmic, virtuoso organ part characteristic of her compositions. You’re invited to begin Holy Week in the beauty of these musical selections.
