MUSIC

Music is an integral and essential part of worship at St. John's. Our music program is known for its excellent quality and distinctive style, and reflects the very special gifts of our musician, Charles Rus. Charles typically begins and ends our Sunday morning service with organ preludes and postludes, with music ranging from Bach to Philip Glass. He directs our small volunteer choir in a wide range of music, from traditional Anglican and Episcopal hymns to medieval chants and Renaissance motets to American folk music and spirituals, to music he writes himself. On Thursday evenings, we have a Taizé-style service of chant and other musical accompaniment, which Charles leads. St. John’s is also home to a number of concerts throughout the year, some given by outside groups like the San Francisco Early Music Society, others organized by Charles Rus.





Choir
The choir consists of volunteer members, and its main focus is to support congregational singing at the 11 AM liturgy on Sundays. Generally, the choir also prepares an anthem to be sung at the start of communion. The choir meets at 9:15 AM every Sunday morning for coffee and pastries, and rehearsal is from 9:30 AM to 10:40 AM. Throughout the church year, the choir also sings for special events such as the Advent Lessons and Carols as well as Holy Week services. Anyone who loves to sing and can blend with their fellows is welcome to join the choir. For concert schedule, see Events.





Taizé
We hold a Taizé service on the first Thursday evenings of the month at 7 pm. Taizé involves a unique style of worship music that reflects the meditative nature of the religious community in France where it originated. Taizé music emphasizes simple phrases, usually lines from Psalms or other pieces of Scripture, repeated and sometimes also sung in canon. The repetition is intended to aid meditation and prayer. Much of the Taizé community music was conceived and composed by Jacques Berthier. Charles Rus leads St. John's Taizé service as cantor, playing a number of instruments, often with other invited musicians, including his mother, Ruth Rus, joining him. The music is typically a unique blending of Taizé chant and Charles' own compositions and those of other composers he has chosen.





The Instruments
The M. P. Möller/DeCamp Organ 
The large mechanical action organ near the front of the church was originally built by the M. P. Möller Organ Company of Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1902 for a church in Davenport, Iowa. (It is a little-known fact that Moller built more tracker organs than any other 20th-century American organ builder.) In the early 1980s, St. John's purchased the organ, and it was moved to the Rosales shop in Los Angeles, where John DeCamp, a parishioner of St. John's, painstakingly renovated it. Much of the old pipework was used, and much was also added to expand the tonal scope of the organ. Many parishioners of the church helped in this project, which was completed in 1984. Though its most comfortable period is romantic, it is now a very eclectic organ which works well for many styles of organ music, from Buxtehude and Bach to Mendelssohn to Messiaen.


 
Photo: Charles Rus tuning the Möller/DeCamp pedal reeds.

The specification is as follows:

Great
Lieblich Gedackt 16'
Open Diapason 8'
Doppelflute 8'
Octave 4'
Fifteenth 2' and Mixture (double draw)
Trumpet 8'
 
Pedal
Bourdon 16'
Open Bass 8'
Choral Bass 4'
Trombone 16'
Trumpet 8'
Swell
Gedackt 8'
Gemshorn8'
Fugara 4'
Waldflute 4'
Nasard and Tierce (double draw)
Flageolet 2' and Sharp Mixture (double draw)
Oboe 8'
Normal couplers
Tremulant affecting entire organ
Well temperment (including a pure third in C major)





The Gary Blaise Instruments  
St. John's has several organs on generous loan from their creator, Gary Blaise of San Francisco. They are made almost entirely out of wood, including all of the pipes, and are pumped by the player without any electrical assistance. (This came in very handy one Sunday morning when we had a power failure in the neighborhood!) Gary is fond of quoting a riddle that the baroques used to tell regarding trees made into musical instruments: "I was alive in the woods but mute; now that I am dead I sing sweetly."
Above, Gary Blaise on 15th Street, delivering one of his organs to St. John's.

This Blaise organ is one stop, a 4' open flute modelled on a stop in the Compenius organ in Denmark, built in 1604. It has a short octave, meaning it lacks low C#, D#, F# and G#. These notes are not needed for the music of the 16th century, and their absence saves much space and wood. The organ is tuned in meantone, giving it a very pure, sweet sound for music of that period. The sound of this one stop is present enough to accompany some hymns with the congregation!




The larger of the Blaise organs has 4 stops at present, with 3 prepared for stops. It has an 8' Gedackt, 4' Chimney Flute, 2' Principal, and 1 3/5' Tierce.  The stops are divided at middle C so the performer can use a different sound in each hand. It has a gentler voice than the other organ, and is also tuned in meantone. It's action is all exposed, showing how beautifully simple a tracker organ can be. This organ and the smaller one are tuned at A-415.




Above, Charles Rus plays a recently commissioned Blaise organ.





Steinway Piano
St. John's piano is an historic Hamburg Steinway, Model O, built in Germany in 1911. 

Photos: M. Cousins; P. Lane; K. Leibenath; B. Pethoud; M. Cousins; courtesy of C. Rus and G. Blaise; M. Cousins; P. Lane; M. Cousins.