This post is an excerpt adapted from Praise & Honor by Timothy J. Shoup
Browse all Music Products
Shop NowOther content in this Stream
Live Out Your Love for Traditional Church Music
How horribly unfair movies are toward Christianity. I am speaking generally, of course. But Hollywood is not a hotbed of orthodox Christian thought and practice. Movies often show the...
Music of the Month: Cross of Jesus: Six Preludes for Lent
Robert J. Powell has composed a well-crafted and accessible organ collection for Lent, Cross of Jesus: Six Preludes for Lent. This book offers settings that are appropriate to the...
God Always Has Room for You
This post is from Praise and Honor: Hymn Inspired Devotions. “Where Shepherds Lately Knelt” is a remarkable gift, but it is easily missed because it is placed a third of the way into...
Teach Children to Play Beautiful Music through Stories
I’m a rule follower. I hate making decisions, and rules tell me exactly what I should do. They are easy to follow because I don’t need to think about anything. If it’s a rule, I follow...
A Celebration of Hymn to Joy
During the Christmas season, many songs resonate with people around the world. One of those immediately recognizable hymns is “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” found in Lutheran Service...
Music of the Month: The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came
“The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came” is a brand-new choral setting composed by the late Philip Gehring (1925–2020). Using the text and tune of Lutheran Service Book 356, this two-part...
Composer of the Month: Johann Crüger
Johann Crüger (1598–1662) was a seventeenth-century German Lutheran composer whose influence dwells richly in Lutheran Church music even today. He studied music across Europe as a...
The Scriptural Depth of the Great “O” Antiphons
The hymnody of Advent is exceedingly rich. Among this richness is the classic “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” As you open your Lutheran Service Book to this hymn (357), you will also find...
Develop a Music-Making Culture at Home
Music-making doesn’t have to be serious. It can also be hilarious. If you teach music in any capacity, think about the times it has most brought a smile to your students’ faces. For...
Composer of the Month: Sandra Eithun
Sandra Eithun has composed dozens of handbell and piano compositions for CPH Music, most recently “Four Communion Hymns for Twelve Bells.” This collection continues a series of handbell...
Four Instrumental Pieces for Thanksgiving Worship
Thanksgiving is approaching, and it’s likely that you or your music director and worship team have started planning for Thanksgiving services. If you’re looking for music to add a...
Music of the Month: Let All Things Now Living
“Let All Things Now Living” gets a lively calypso setting in this arrangement, which expresses the excitement of the text. A more tranquil, hymn-like second stanza leads back to a...
Why Classical Music is a Gift
“Mrs. Greenway,” a first grader asked me yesterday, “do we ever listen to any Early Age composers?” In our school, each music class concludes by listening to a piece of art music...
Standing Firm in Christ
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 Nineties-era country music is a treasure chest of hidden gems....
Composer of the Month: Martin Franzmann
Not unlike many American Lutherans in the upper Midwest, Martin Franzmann (1907–76) was the son of a Lutheran pastor. Born and raised in Minnesota, Franzmann continued his undergraduate...
The Reformation’s First Lutheran Hymns
This excerpt is from “The Reformation and Lutheran Confessionalism to 1620” by Christopher Boyd Brown. Read the entire essay and learn more about the Reformation and its impact on...
Music of the Month: O Rejoice! 25 Hymn Introductions for Organ
Are you in need of some fresh and innovative music for Sunday morning worship? Bring creative variety to your hymn playing with these artistic hymn introductions for organ. Some of...
Handbell Guidelines for Sundays in a Pandemic
If you are a church musician, especially a handbell ringer, the last time you practiced was likely months ago. Or maybe your church is slowly allowing ringers and choirs to play again,...
Holy Spirit, Breathe on Us
Thou camest to our hall of death, O Christ, to breathe our poisoned air, To drink for us the dark despair That strangled our reluctant breath. So writes Martin Franzmann in...
Composer of the Month: Kenneth Kosche
Dr. Kenneth T. Kosche, born in 1947, holds a DMA in choral music and served on the faculty in the music department at Concordia University Wisconsin from 1978 to 2009. In those 31...