MP3 Arlan Wareham - Wonderful Peace

A panoply of old favorites: "The Old Rugged Cross", "Stand Up. Stand Up for Jesus.", "Redeemed. How I Love to Proclaim It.", "Holy, Holy, Holy", "Abide with Me", and many more, all in simple yet varied arrangements.

17 MP3 Songs
GOSPEL: Traditional Gospel, CLASSICAL: Traditional



Details:
About the Music

If you love the old hymns and gospel songs, you're going to LOVE this album! Organist Arlan Wareham has taken a broad and diverse selection of old favorites and recorded them here for your enjoyment. The arrangements, which were all made specially for this album, are simple and straight-forward, but never boring. They take full advantage of the many varied stops on the Skinner pipe organ to give each song its appropriate feel. Some, such as "Holy, Holy, Holy" capture the power and grandeur of a worship service. Others, such as "Wonderful Peace" portray a more intimate spirituality. Each song was careful crafted according to its own style and mood.

Arlan has included three additional, bonus tracks: the "Trumpet Voluntary", a short piece by Thomas Sanders Dupuis showing off the brilliant horizontally mounted trumpet stop; "Prelude", a beautiful meditative number by Flemish composer Flor Peeters; and "Toccata", the famous and well-loved final movement of an organ symphony by Charles Marie Widor.

About the Organ

The 3-manual Skinner organ, which has over 3,000 pipes and is used for these recordings, has a rich variety of stops that are ideal for this music. The diapasons and reeds give the grand and majestic sound that we all associate with the pipe organ. The lush strings and quiet flutes provide for more delicate textures. The solo stops bring out melodies both in higher and lower registers.

About the Organist

Arlan started studying piano before he even started school. As he likes to say, he learned to read music before he learned to read! His first piano teacher, Mrs Rittenhouse, instilled in him a great love of music for the rest of his life. His second teacher, Mrs Hempel, was the one who taught him to play gospel songs and hymns in her own special way. Even in grade school, he regularly accompanied group singing.

While in high school, he began to study pipe organ, first with Mr Hicks, and later with Mr Vaughn. This was when he discovered his love for the pipe organ, the King of Instruments. He also taught a number of children piano lessons at that time.

In college, he couldn't decided whether to major in math or in music, so he majored in both. Although he later went to graduate school in math, he spent most of his undergraduate years in the music department. Here, he developed his skills as an organist, and he also studied music theory, form, history, and composition.

Through the years, Arlan has served as organist at numerous churches, some for many years, others only once or twice. While still in college, he was the organist of the First English Lutheran Church in San Bernardino, California. In graduate school, he was organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Springdale, Arkansas. After he returned to California, he was organist and, later, choir director, at the First Congregational Church of Corona, California.

Recently, he moved from California to Galilee, in Israel, the Holy Land, where he now resides in the artistic and ancient city of Tsfat (or Safed, or Zefat, or Tzfat -- there are MANY transliterations of this city's simple Hebrew name!). He loves touring the beautiful countryside nearby, and, in fact, he took the album photo on one of these trips. In the foreground is Lake Hula, an important point on the major bird migration route between Eurasia and Africa. In the background is the snow-clad Mt Hermon, the highest point in Israel.

If you would like to contact Arlan, he would love to hear from you. His e-mail address is:

Arlan.Wareham@gmail.com