“These are written-out improvisations that were a part of the Good Friday noon liturgy at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. It is a service based on stations of the cross from the Anglican tradition, in our case, with a procession to each of nine stations. At each station there is a mini-liturgy which consists of a reading, prayer, interpretive improvisation on the organ, and the singing of a stanza of a hymn. For the improvisation, I weave in images from the reading with the hymn. For example, at the sixth station, the reading includes the phrase “His yoke is easyâ€, and the hymn is “Go to Dark Gethsemane.†The improvisation alternates between the theme from the chorus “His yoke is easy†from Handel’s Messiah and a very dark and thick chordal setting of the hymn. The improvisations are full of imagery which are evocative and emotionally charged.â€-David CherwienThis unified set represents nine Stations of the Cross, but the pieces can also be used individually as preludes, hymn introductions, or worship interludes. A special reproducible liturgy Good Friday: The Way of The Cross by Susan Palo Cherwien is also included
