Our prelude this Sunday is the world premiere of “Chorale Prelude on 3K HYMNTUNE.” That sounds pretentious, but it only means that this piece has not yet been performed in public. And the reason for that is it is brand-new.

As I planned for Pentecost Sunday, I couldn’t get a certain hymn out of my head. That hymn is the one I wrote in 2000 for the Third Millennium Hymn Search by the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. The Hymn Society wanted a new hymn to usher in the new millennium. Out of the many, many entries submitted, the Society selected Mary Louise Bringle’s text “It Started with an Idle Tale.”

The second part of this hymn search was for a brand-new tune to sing with the new text. Again, many, many entries were submitted, including my own “3K HYMNTUNE.” My entry was not selected, but we sang this hymn with relish at my former church.

Although not intended as a Pentecost hymn, “It Started with an Idle Tale” mentions the events of Pentecost and much other church history. Bringle uses this history as context for her commentary on the condition of the Christian church today.

Dr. Mary Louise Bringle, who is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Humanities Division at Brevard College in Brevard, North Carolina, came to Bristol in the fall of 2019 to lead a workshop on her hymns. We sang this setting of “It Started with an Idle Tale” at the workshop with Dr. Bringle’s enthusiastic approval. As the tune is unfamiliar, I have composed this “Chorale Prelude” based on the tune so that you, the person in the pew, may hear it played beforehand (the tune can be heard three times). Please listen carefully and follow the music in your bulletin. Surely, by the time we finish singing all five stanzas, we will all know this hymn! Also note that the organ plays a little fanfare before each stanza.

The illustration on the front of Sunday's bulletin is a reproduction of a painting by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali (1904–1989). “Apparuerunt illis dispertitae linguae” (“There appeared to them parted tongues”) was created by Dali in 1967 in Abstract Expressionist style. It depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles as recorded in Acts 2:3: “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.” I used this illustration on the cover of my self-published book, Danza del Espiritu Santo and Other Collected Pieces for Organ, whose “title track” we will hear for our postlude. Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory).

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