Special Events & News
Browse this area of our site to learn about what's happening in Music & Fine Arts.
Instrumental in God's Praise: Music by Dale Elmshaueser
St. Martin's musical groups are involved in an exciting project recording church music composed by Dale Elmshaeuser, St. Martin's Director of Instrumental Music. Look for two CD recordings when the project is completed: one with music for the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons and another with music from the rest of the church year. Recording sessions started in January, 2008 and finish by May, 2008.
Original Oil Painting: "Easter at St. Martin's"
Own a new piece of art by Bunny Oliver, and at the same time support the CD project featuring music written or arranged by Dale Elmshaeuser! A companion to Bunny's now famous painting "Christmas at St. Martin's" is her new painting of our Easter altar with lilies. Tickets for a chance to win the framed Easter original will be sold beginning early April. At that time you can also order a limited edition print of the painting, or purchase note cards with the painting reproduced on the front. All proceeds will support the "Instrumental in God's Praise" project.
To learn more about supporting this project: through funding or by singing or playing an instrument, contact Dale Elmshaeuser. Contributions can be made to St. Martin's Lutheran Church, earmarked for Elmshaeuser Music Recordings.
Original Oil Painting: "Easter at St. Martin's"
Own a new piece of art by Bunny Oliver, and at the same time support the CD project featuring music written or arranged by Dale Elmshaeuser! A companion to Bunny's now famous painting "Christmas at St. Martin's" is her new painting of our Easter altar with lilies. Tickets for a chance to win the framed Easter original will be sold beginning early April. At that time you can also order a limited edition print of the painting, or purchase note cards with the painting reproduced on the front. All proceeds will support the "Instrumental in God's Praise" project.
To learn more about supporting this project: through funding or by singing or playing an instrument, contact Dale Elmshaeuser. Contributions can be made to St. Martin's Lutheran Church, earmarked for Elmshaeuser Music Recordings.
Is This Thing On?! A Variety Show
At right, Tomasko Pavaloochkee at the keyboard.
For our Sr High Dinner Theater & Silent Auction this year, we commissioned a composer whose family with an unpronounceable name hails from Ukraine and Slovakia to compose a song for us to sing. The words are below. They are very serious and are to be sung with a straight face.
For our Sr High Dinner Theater & Silent Auction this year, we commissioned a composer whose family with an unpronounceable name hails from Ukraine and Slovakia to compose a song for us to sing. The words are below. They are very serious and are to be sung with a straight face.
After singing it with a straight face, some very talented members of St. Martin's staff are shown here in their role as the pious song leaders.
A Few of Our Favorite Things
by Tomasko Pavaloochkee
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Altar Guild, Flower Guild, ushers and greeters,
Acolytes, lectors and short-winded preachers,
Sung Psalms and scriptures, processions and hymns,
Pray'rs, intercessions, confessions and sins.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Handel and Bach sung by beautiful singers,
Carillons rung by those talented ringers,
Organs, pi-a-nos and harpsichords too,
Flutes, trumpets, tubas, what more can we do?
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
We have some geetars, acoustic and 'lectric,
We rock and roll, but don't call us eccentric!
Tam-bour-ines, congas and bongos galore,
We'll entertain you, it's never a bore!
When it's Christmas, Lent or Easter,
And we're worn and sore,
We simply remember what Jesus commands,
And then we can go... some more!
What would we do without our Mop and Hammer?
Fixing the toilets, so where is the glamour?
Seniors, so saintly, and WELCA so fine,
Tons of committees, they're simply divine.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Warm freeze night shelters and Habitat housing,
Mobile Loaves, Fishes, Honduras and scouting,
Take-home communion and visits from friends,
We're in the business to soothe and to mend.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Sunday School, Bible School, JAM and our Youth groups,
Confirmands, camp, and the gym where we shoot hoops,
Talent Shows, fundraisers, outreach, good works,
These are the leaders of our future church.
When we meet here in God's temple,
Where we pray and sing,
We simply remember how we're truly blest,
It is such a won-...drous thing!
A Few of Our Favorite Things
by Tomasko Pavaloochkee
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Altar Guild, Flower Guild, ushers and greeters,
Acolytes, lectors and short-winded preachers,
Sung Psalms and scriptures, processions and hymns,
Pray'rs, intercessions, confessions and sins.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Handel and Bach sung by beautiful singers,
Carillons rung by those talented ringers,
Organs, pi-a-nos and harpsichords too,
Flutes, trumpets, tubas, what more can we do?
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
We have some geetars, acoustic and 'lectric,
We rock and roll, but don't call us eccentric!
Tam-bour-ines, congas and bongos galore,
We'll entertain you, it's never a bore!
When it's Christmas, Lent or Easter,
And we're worn and sore,
We simply remember what Jesus commands,
And then we can go... some more!
What would we do without our Mop and Hammer?
Fixing the toilets, so where is the glamour?
Seniors, so saintly, and WELCA so fine,
Tons of committees, they're simply divine.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Warm freeze night shelters and Habitat housing,
Mobile Loaves, Fishes, Honduras and scouting,
Take-home communion and visits from friends,
We're in the business to soothe and to mend.
(oom pah pah, oom pah pah)
Sunday School, Bible School, JAM and our Youth groups,
Confirmands, camp, and the gym where we shoot hoops,
Talent Shows, fundraisers, outreach, good works,
These are the leaders of our future church.
When we meet here in God's temple,
Where we pray and sing,
We simply remember how we're truly blest,
It is such a won-...drous thing!
Susie Cobb performing at the Variety Show on February 10. Steve Wager is at the piano.
St. Martin's Choir on the Web
Last spring, Mark Schweizer of St. James Music Press commissioned St. Martin's Choir to record a selection of anthems for their 2007 collection. They can be heard on the St. James website at sjmp.com. From the toolbar, click Catalog and select The Sewanee Composers Project, Vol. 14. Scroll down the page to see the anthem titles; to listen, click a title.
Here are the titles with performances by St. Martin's musicians:
Here are the titles with performances by St. Martin's musicians:
- A Welcome Song, Thomas Pavlechko (composed for the baptism of Abigail Louise Sommer)
- According to Thy Gracious Word, W A Mozart
- Six Short Table (Communion) Anthems, Richard Shepherd: Lord For These; O Thou, Before the World Began; Lord, May We Bless Thee; Father of Mercies; Bless to God, Forever Blest; Forth in thy Name
- Another one of Thom's anthems in the list, Since by Man Came Death, was recorded by the Calvary Episcopal Church Choir, Memphis, in 2005 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
St. James is the original publisher of St. Martin's Psalter, so you may see a familiar altar as you browse this site.
St. Martin's Musicians in New Guitar Edition
Barry Dobbs, Steve Wager and Thomas Pavlechko collaborated on 25 arrangements of hymns for guitar and easy keyboard accompaniment for a collection now in print with Augsburg Fortress Publishers as a supplement to the new ELW Hymnal.
