I am excited to be beginning this new music blog on the St. Peter's website. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, after Peter, our patron, says that Jesus is the Messiah (what is known as the Confession of St. Peter), Jesus replies::

^“18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18–19)

Keys feature prominently in the symbolism for Saint Peter. If you look at the magnificent stone reredos at Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, you'll notice only two metal elements: Peter is holding a pair of keys, and Paul is holding a sword.

Music, at least most of it, anyway, is played or sung in different keys (C Major, A-flat minor, etc.).

And in the case of the organ, it is played on many different keys. At St. Peter's, our Mander organ has 61 notes on each of its three manuals (keyboards). That's 183 keys for our hands. There are an additional 32 pedals, which are really just big keys for our feet. So altogether we're playing on 215 keys. 

So with these things in mind, and at the suggestion of my colleague David Ouzts, who runs his own very fine church music blog, I hereby dub this little corner of the world wide web "Keys to the Kingdom."

At St. Peter's, and to the Episcopal/Anglican tradition generally, music is, if you'll pardon the word, key. Music helps to "give flesh" to words of scripture and other sacred texts. Choirs sing anthems and motets by a wide range of composers. In our tradition, congregational singing is a beloved part of our worship together.

There's so much rich history to how our music and our worship interact together. While I do write a few sentences weekly in the Sunday service bulletins as "Music Notes," I often find that there is far more that could be said about a particular anthem, motet, or a hymn. Furthermore, writing on the web allows me to link to photos, videos, and sound files.

So, however you've found your way to this blog, I hope you enjoy following along as much as the choir and I enjoy making music in this great place.

Please feel free to drop me a line ( ) with your thoughts and reactions at any time. And I'll look forward to seeing you in church.

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There were many good suggestions for what to call a blog about music at St. Peter's, St. Louis, with its Mander organ. Runners-up were: Mander Meanderings, Mandertory Listening,  and Chicken Nuggets.