Church celebrates organist’s 46 years of service with commissioned work
WINNIPEG, MB—A local organist's 46 years of service to his church are being celebrated next month with the premiere of a musical piece commissioned in his honour.
Don Menzies, who was appointed organist of Westminster United Church in October 1966, will perform "Suite in D major Op. 62 for Organ" on Sunday, November 4 on the church's newly-refurbished, 100-year-old Casavant organ.
The work was commissioned in October 2011 when the church presented Menzies with a certificate recognizing his 45 years of service.
"It's very exciting," the 72-year-old says. "Now having the commissioned work, I'm busy learning it, and another exciting moment is going to be actually performing it."
Rachel Laurin, an organist and composer from Quebec, wrote the piece using the hymn "For the music of creation" as a launching point. The church asked Laurin to write a nine-minute-long piece, but the score she gave them includes 14 minutes of music.
That's because Laurin added three different variations of one particular section: One version can be played with notes produced by the organist's hands and feet, another version can be played with just the hands, and a third version can be played with just the feet.
Laurin wrote the hands-only section as a humourous nod to the time in 1992 when Menzies broke his leg during Advent season—arguably the organist's busiest time of year with all the Christmas concerts and services that were scheduled to happen.
In case Menzies breaks his leg again between now and November 4, he will still be able to play the commissioned work, thanks to the extra music Laurin added in the score.
"That's sort of an interesting part of this piece," Menzies says with a smile.
Menzies was 26 years old and had been playing the organ for more than 10 years when he got the job at Westminster. He said he was drawn to the instrument because of all the different sounds it can make. That same fascination still makes playing the organ a joy today.
"The organ we have here has about 60 stops, so we're talking about 60 different colours [of sound]," Menzies says. "Trumpets, flutes, clarinets, oboes, trombones—it's neat being able to put all those [sounds] together."
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