Easter Services

Dr GO

I thought it would be interesting to hear from all performing Easter Services. Would like to hear regarding the venue (Church, Cathedral, Coliseum) and denomination. Lists of songs to be performed would be of help as well.

The reasoning behind this posting is last year I received a call from my Local AFM that a Lutheran Church in the area wanted to hire a trumpeter to play their Easter Service last year. I had to pass a fairly rigorous interview by the church elders (seriously) to get the gig. I had to provide references, and was asked directly, do I know the Lutheran Hymnal? I was honest and said that the services I played in the past were Methodist and Baptist. So I posted on TM for some help from members as to traditional Lutheran Easter Service Hymns, and got an AMAZING response. It really helped my credibility to get the job, and it was a great success! Since last Easter, the same church hired me to play their Christmas Services, and I am again hired to play next week's Easter Service.

While this thread may not be of much help for this year, perhaps our members testing the waters for an Easter performance may want some advice in preparing for next year. Hope this is helpful.

Dr GO

Songs the Pastor has chosen for next Sunday's Easter Service:

Christ the Lord has Risen Today; Alleluia! This is the C score I play from (as I typically prefer transposing) AND Pastor requested I play a Trumpet intro before the organ joins, so I have written in the Trumpet Intro at the bottom of the manuscript... AND that intro IS written for Bb horn. I have also scribbled in trumpet calls to complement the organist in the main manuscript.

Dr GO

Songs the Pastor has chosen for next Sunday's Easter Service:

Jesus Christ Is Risen Today. Again, Pastor requested a Trumpet Intro which is scored at the bottom of the page which IS written for C instruments as is the printed manuscript. Again, as with the first song, I scribbled in trumpet calls to accent the organ lines.

Dr GO

Songs the Pastor has chosen for next Sunday's Easter Service:

Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds. Again, a C instrument manuscript, with trumpet calls written in.

Dr GO

This is the Prelude tune chosen by the Organist.

The Trumpet Shall Sound. Again a C instrument part, with notation as to when the Trumpet is in with the melody, and when the Trumpet comes out to give some melody lines to the Organ. It really adds to the piece as we found in rehearsal to break the song up between Trumpet and Organ Leads.

Dr GO

THEN there was the question as to what to charge. I believe many on this forum may do this for gratis; however, the Union got me this gig and requires a contract and a 10% finder charge. So I looked all over the internet. I found a wide array of charges for Easter Services. The steepest was in NYC; however, I chose a more regional contract that came out of Illinois. I decided to use that fee recommendation, broken down between rehearsal fee, performance fee (fist 3 hours) and travel expenses. Here is the contract to give you an idea as to how this can be put together:

Hope all this is helpful to our readers, as for me, the first time arranging this (Songs and Fees) took a lot of time and research. So for those of our member venturing out for Easter, I am hoping this makes your Hippity a bit easier to Hop... I Hope!

BigDub

@Dr-GO said in Easter Services:

THEN there was the question as to what to charge. I believe many on this forum may do this for gratis; however, the Union got me this gig and requires a contract and a 10% finder charge. So I looked all over the internet. I found a wide array of charges for Easter Services. The steepest was in NYC; however, I chose a more regional contract that came out of Illinois. I decided to use that fee recommendation, broken down between rehearsal fee, performance fee (fist 3 hours) and travel expenses. Here is the contract to give you an idea as to how this can be put together:

Hope all this is helpful to our readers, as for me, the first time arranging this (Songs and Fees) took a lot of time and research. So for those of our member venturing out for Easter, I am hoping this makes your Hippity a bit easier to Hop... I Hope!

For me, or rather us, ( Stone Hill Brass consisting 2 trumpets, two F horns, two Trombones ) we will be playing two Services, 9:30 and 11:10. We will be playing the Hymn, Christ The Lord is Risen Today, with congregation on the second and forth verse. I play an arpeggio kind of part on the C trumpet. Then the two trumpets play the Hallelujah Chorus, and the postlude will be Grand Choeur Dialogue with all of us playing with the organ. We have been working on that a lot. Hope it turns out well. Stone Hill Church of Princeton, non denominational fundamental Christian Church, is where this will take place, and where my wife and I attend every Sunday.

Peter Mac

I will be playing with an ensemble at Uniting Church Bacchus Marsh Vic.

We will have one rehearsal (this coming Tuesday) and will get the book then, So pretty much a sight reading job.
Happy Easter to all.

barliman2001

@Dr-GO Over here in Austria, Easter services tend to be a) Catholic and b) orchestral masses. For this coming Easter Sunday, I'm booked into St. Peter's in Vienna for Schubert Mass No. 3 in Bb, St. Mary Magdalene for Mozart Organ Solo, and for Easter Monday it's Otto Nicolai Mass in D, with Caspar Ett's Haec Dies" thrown in for good measure (which is for trumpet in Ab!!)

Dr GO

@barliman2001 said in Easter Services:

@Dr-GO Over here in Austria, Easter services tend to be a) Catholic and b) orchestral masses.,,,I'm booked into St. Peter's in Vienna

This is so classic, AND so amazing! I wish I could attend. This sounds so inspirational!

In the US we have some non-traditional venues and I experienced a rather interesting "praise" Easter Service where an area church rented out the University of Dayton Arena (where they play the first four NCAA tournament). They filled the arena with over 7,000 people and I was again hired by our AFM to play lead trumpet (there were 3 trumpets) and essentially a "Big Band" section, that was choreographed to a Hard Rock Band, that was choreographed to a very large choral group. The orchestra's book was filled with very contemporary music that sounded like it was written and arranged by Earth, Wind & Fire. It was energetic, highly IT integrated with video's, lights, and yes, mass baptism! This was highly non-traditional, and maximized sensory overload. This was several years ago, and has not been repeated since. There must be a reason for that, and I have my theories.

Newell Post

....if you're thinking non-traditional, my Easter gig is with.... the Unitarian Universalists. Well OK, it's my own church, but with the "UU"s the music can be almost anything. It can be some of those great old traditional church hymns like "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" (see above) but with somewhat more abstract and less literal lyrics. Or it can more modern things.

Today (Palm Sunday) the choir did a great choral arrangement of "I am Willing" by Holly Near. Holly has shown up in person at our place and done it in the past. (But not today.)

What's on tap for Easter Sunday? Not sure. The director hasn't decided yet. (That's kind of UU, also.) Probably just playing along with the pipe organ on some of those big old, grand hymns. But we will see.....

Youtube Video – [00:27..]

trickg

I've been playing at the same church for 4 years - this is my 5th Easter with them. Big domed church in Baltimore off of N. Charles street called St. Philip & James Catholic Church. As for music, I honestly can't tell you what we're doing - I don't have the music yet and I'm not likely to see it before rehearsal tomorrow night, although I can assume that at the least we'll do the Hallelujah Chorus. I'll update this thread once I actually know.

flugelgirl

I’ve played Easter services for lots of different churches over the years on both East and West Coasts, and it really just depends on the specific church what they have wanted in terms of music. Some have been large orchestras, brass quintets/quartets, larger brass ensembles, or solo trumpet and organ. Sometimes they have been thrown-together groups of volunteers with a couple of paid professionals, other times the entire group was made up of pros. Most of the brass quintets and quartets I got to hire and rehearse my own personnel, which was great. I’ve never had a contract for any of them, but never had them try to pay me less, either. Some denominations will try to recruit to their church in hopes they would get next years music for free, but I’ve always had a great comeback for that one! For years I volunteered at an animal shelter, and they desperately needed people on Sunday mornings because everyone else was at church. They can’t say a word when you spend your Sundays volunteering!
This year I’m playing for Lutherans - not sure of the size of the group, but the charts are easy. There will be another trumpet player I don’t know - hopefully he plays well!

BigDub

@flugelgirl said in Easter Services:

I’ve played Easter services for lots of different churches over the years on both East and West Coasts, and it really just depends on the specific church what they have wanted in terms of music. Some have been large orchestras, brass quintets/quartets, larger brass ensembles, or solo trumpet and organ. Sometimes they have been thrown-together groups of volunteers with a couple of paid professionals, other times the entire group was made up of pros. Most of the brass quintets and quartets I got to hire and rehearse my own personnel, which was great. I’ve never had a contract for any of them, but never had them try to pay me less, either. Some denominations will try to recruit to their church in hopes they would get next years music for free, but I’ve always had a great comeback for that one! For years I volunteered at an animal shelter, and they desperately needed people on Sunday mornings because everyone else was at church. They can’t say a word when you spend your Sundays volunteering!
This year I’m playing for Lutherans - not sure of the size of the group, but the charts are easy. There will be another trumpet player I don’t know - hopefully he plays well!

By the way, Flugelgirl, am still waiting to see some of your mother's artwork.....I hope I am remembering correctly....you can message me and I will give you my email...

flugelgirl

@BigDub if you’re on Facebook, search for a page called Connie Rand artist - she’s showcasing a lot of her newer stuff there. The paintings I have were all done when I was in Jr High or younger

BigDub

@flugelgirl said in Easter Services:

@BigDub if you’re on Facebook, search for a page called Connie Rand artist - she’s showcasing a lot of her newer stuff there. The paintings I have were all done when I was in Jr High or younger

I am on Facebook. Thank you for that information!
My art Facebook page is a Wayne R Mathisen

barliman2001

Now, yesterday we had our only rehearsal for Easter Sunday. The conductor, when questioned beforehand, had firmly promised, "it's Schubert Mass #3 in Bb and Mozart Ave Verum (which has no trumpets), and nothing else." Accordingly, went there with just my Ganter Bb rotary and a deep cup mouthpiece, as I was supposed to play 2d chair. So far, so good. End of Schubert rehearsal, conductor hands out additional music with the comment, "you should be able to do this as well quite easily." One look... Handel, Messiah, Hallelujah... original pitch... scream, shout, throw grenades... call in the Cavalry (which refused to climb the 84 step staircase to the organ loft...)... tried to do Handel first trumpet part on Bb rotary with flugel mouthpiece... failed miserably, sounded like a goose with hiccups... got out the Selmer high-G at home... that's better...

flugelgirl

@barliman2001 all the parts sent to me were for Bb, but I took the quad to rehearsal anyway just to be safe. Good thing I did, because picc made the additional music handed out much better and easier for me! I learned my lesson about not taking everything after I got stuck transposing Bb parts on C trumpet. I’m much more proficient playing C parts on Bb!

fels

I was engaged to play a traditional Catholic Mass for Easter 11:00 Service -- Predictable mass parts -- for a prelude -- we are playing a brass quartet arrangement of "Emendemus in melius" by William Byrd (I am trumpet 1) The music director (PhD), after listening to our dress rehearsal, commented " increase the temp and shape the notes". I understand shaping (Chicago Symphony style etc) and I understand Renaissance polyphony -- we need more rehearsals to accomplish the goal -- but will do with the time we have -- namely a warm up.

trickg

So here's my lineup:

Hail Thee, Festival Day - arr Joseph Wilcox Jenkins based on Salve Festa Dies by Ralph Vaughn Williams)
Festival Alleluia - James Chepponis
Christ is Our Cornerstone - Philp W. J. Stopford
Mass For the City (only parts of it) - Richard Proulx
The Earth Is Risen - Gwyneth Walker
Jesus Christ is Risen Today - arr Jeremy J. Bankson
Hallelujah Chorus - Handel

Wow - I'm just now realizing how much music this is. Oh well - I seem to be able to get through it ok.

On a side note, this is for 4-piece brass and tympani with organ (a real, well-maintained pipe organ!) and choir that is mostly made up of students from the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory of Music. I've been paid more to play less, but I always come away from this feeling richer for having been there with these fine people.

I'm playing lead on all of it, so there is that middle section from the Hallelujah Chorus where I'm always wondering if I'm going to make it, but I haven't had an issue with it, so here's hoping that it goes ok on Sunday too.