Bach, arr. Jolley: Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott. Anna Dodd, Horn. Judy Dodd, Organ. Midway PCA 2012

J.S. Bach, arr. Jolley: Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott. Anna Dodd, Horn. Judy Dodd, Organ. Midway Presbyterian Church, Powder Springs, GA. 2012. Image: The Cathedral of St. Paul, Birmingham, AL. Organ: A.E. Schlueter.

Dear Listener,

In 2016, I was diagnosed with Lupus and told that the disease had affected my lungs to the point that it was no longer healthy for me to continue playing the horn. I grieved for a long time over this loss, as though I had lost a part of myself. A few days after I received that news, I attended an organ recital by my friend Arie Motschman. She opened with the Isaac Watts hymn, “I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath.” I sat in that sanctuary with tears rolling down my face and felt as if those words had pierced my heart with a dagger. I was a horn player without the breath to play the horn. How was I supposed to praise my Maker without breath?

A few weeks later, I made the decision to leave my music career and go to PA school to pursue medicine. Because of this endeavor, combined with the fact that the horn had become physically difficult and painful to play, I found myself playing less and less with each passing year. My mom and I have always wanted to make a recording of our favorite sacred pieces for horn and piano, and we were saddened at the thought that we had missed our chance. However, shortly before beginning PA school in August 2019, I was feeling well, and my lungs and ribs were moving better than they had in a long time, so we eagerly jumped at the chance to make our recording.

This playlist is a collection of pieces that Mom and I have played together as offertories over the years at Midway Presbyterian Church. It is a special project to me not just because I love making music with my mother, but because it is an acknowledgment of the spiritual journey on which God has led me during the last few years. I was devastated when I first thought I had lost my ability to praise God with the gifts He had given me, but in time I came to see that no such loss had taken place. I may not play the horn very much any more, but in leading me to medicine, God has flung wide the door to a new calling, and is showing me how to serve Him in a new capacity, with gifts I didn’t know I had.

This recording was made in gratitude for all that God has given me, and I pray that it is a blessing to you.

Anna Dodd
May 6th, 2020