William Bolcom - Gospel Preludes Book 3

William Bryant,  DMA recital at the University of Washington. 
June 1st, 2015 at University Presbyterian Church - Seattle.

This dissertation by the organist, William Bryant, The Influence of American Organ Building and American Hymnody on William Bolcom’s Gospel Preludes For Organ contains a lot of fascinating information.  The section that covers Book 3 starts on page 71. 

Book 3 of the Gospel Preludes begins with a notation by Bolcom that these three pieces,“Jesus Calls Us; O’er the Tumult,” “Blessed Assurance,” and “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” may be performed separately or as a continuous set. This performance note is absent from the other books of preludes. Book 3 is the only book that gives specific registration suggestions and were done by Marilyn Keiser. While these registrations serve has guidelines for the pieces, I think registrations that follow the gospel tradition are still needed to best perform these pieces.

It's kind of too bad that the great Free Fantasia that is the last piece in the last book kind of overshadows the rest of the preludes which are pretty great too.  This Protestant hymnody isn't something I knew from first hand growing up, though from what I understand the use of Protestant hymns in Catholic masses is increasing.