During a recent Duke Chapel Sunday morning worship service, Chapel organist Chad Fothergill opened the service with a late-seventeenth-century French composition, accompanied the choir in a chant he composed, swapped melodic phrases with a colleague playing a second organ, and then closed the service by playing seven minutes of improvised music. That is a taste of the versatility Fothergill brings to his role, which includes arranging hymns, selecting compositions, accompanying the choir, guiding the congregation through the liturgy, and more. In this episode, Fothergill plays examples of his approach to service music in this discussion of the artistry of a church organist.
