Hymn-playing marathon

He felt dizzy at the end and his legs were sore but Aaron Tan, 20, managed to complete a 12-hour hymn-playing marathon.  On Saturday Oct. 7, from 9am until 9pm, the award winning

organist sight read non-stop the first and last verses of 524 hymns at the Church of the Ascension in Don Mills, Ontario.                                    

Holy, Holy!,’ and continued through the hymnal eventually reaching #435.  He also interspersed the program with 88 requests from other hymn books, ending with his own favourite, ‘When in Our Music God is Glorified,’ by Fred Pratt Green (to the tune Engelberg by C.V. Stanford). Tan announced each hymn by number, name, and tune, and in the case of the requests, the person making the request. He occasionally switched to piano.

Tan was inspired by his colleague, Mel Hurst, the president of the Toronto Chapter of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. Hurst had done a hymn marathon for his own church about ten years ago. “I figured it to be a pretty fun idea,” said Tan, who thought it “would get people interested in hymnody once again.” 

The marathon was to commemorate the tercentenary of the birth of prolific hymn writer Charles Wesley (1707-88), whose hymns include ‘Jesu, Lover of my soul’ and ‘Love divine, all loves

excelling.’ 

Throughout the day, more than a hundred people dropped in on Tan’s performance, singing along, often in harmony. Their freewill offerings amounting to $1650 will be contributed to “Music at Ascension,” the church’s year-long season of musical events.

“He has an incredible talent and energy and an amazing work ethic,” said his priest, Murray Henderson.  “He makes tremendous

demands on himself and on others. When we auditioned him two years ago for choir master we wondered if he could handle an adult choir. We had him run a rehearsal and he was pretty rigorous. He’s so dedicated he inspires others.”

Tan prepares CDs for each voice part of all the choral anthems for September to December so tenors, basses, altos and sopranos can each go home and study their section.

Tan has won the Toronto RCCO Young Organists Competition and the Osborne Organ Competition and has given concerts in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. He began piano lessons when he was only five and is now an accomplished violinist as well.

Besides having a passion for music, Tan is completing his final year in engineering science at the University of Toronto.