Meditation, Op. 29, No. 4

Everett Ellsworth Truette (1861-1933) was born in Rockland, Maryland, and began studying music after a temporary eye condition halted his training as a civil engineer. He received degrees in music from the New England Conservatory and Boston University. He served for seven years as editor for The Etude and for two years at The Organ, gave hundreds of organ concerts, wrote a book, Organ Registration, and was a founder of the American Guild of Organists.

He was a student of Guilmant and W. T. Best, was one of the leading concert organists of the day, being acclaimed as a "musician and a virtuoso."

Before I say anything about this piece, I should say that I enjoyed uploading it very much as part of All-American July 4th! I should also say that it is not the "kind" of music that I would be willing to "seriously" perform. In saying that, I'm not attacking anyone's musical taste or likes!

Once before, years ago, I had the "opportunity" to perform this piece in an "all American" concert. Nobody was willing to do it, so, I said that I would. Being overly confident in my sight reading ability, I did not practice the piece, because, it looks SO easy! The night before the concert, I realized it wasn't, but during the night, fate stepped in, and the church burned to the ground, and there was no concert...

You can find this in "American Organ Music" (a glance at the past 100 years), Volume 1. This was published by The Sacred Music Press in 1975, and compiled by Joanne S. Hart.

The main feature of the piece is the chimes. As Truette rights: "If no chimes are available the few notes intended for the chimes should be omitted as no other stop will answer as a substitute." Ain't it the truth?!? :-)

The technically difficulty found here is maintaining the endless legato chords while you "thumb down" the chime part. It's not easy if it's something new to you, but it's fun to try, and I've included the score below, as well as a photo of Truette.

HAPPY JULY 4th to ALL!