O Lord, how shall I meet Thee (No. 1, Seven Preludes on Advent Hymns)

Camil van Hulse (1897-1988) was born in Belgium was trained at the Conservatory of Antwerp.

Because of ill health, he moved to the warm, dry climate of Arizona, and had a significant influence on the musical life of the city.

He was founder and director of the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra, and Organist and Director of Music at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul.

He wrote a sizeable amount of music in many forms, some of which is quite significant, though rarely heard.

In 1952, van Hulse wrote the "Seven Preludes on Advent Hymns, Op. 80", which were published by Concordia.

These seven pieces are each conceived in a different "style", meaning "Prelude", "Intermezzo", "Offertory", etc. I received these pieces some time ago from Jonathan Orwig (giwro), so, these are all dedicated to him! :-)

The first, "Prelude - O Lord, how shall I meet Thee" is dedicated to Richard Purivs, the then organist of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

It is indeed very "preludial" in style, in a fairly "strict" compositional idiom.

The most "awkward" thing about the whole set of pieces is the hymn-tunes that the composer chose to set. Some while, well-known, are not usually associated with the text. Others are on tunes that I have never heard before. This somewhat limits their "usefulness."

I hope you will pardon my uploading the seven pieces separately, but they really are not intended as a suite.

The texts of the hymn will be given in the first comment.