Regarding the Boston Globe's article "Save the church (kill the organs): what do YOU think?
A colleague sent me a very interesting article from the Boston Globe entitled "Save the church (kill the organs). Before I share my own opinion, I'm very interested to hear what YOU have to say on the topic. Your voice matters. Would you mind reading this very brief article and weighing in? I'd like to hear from you. Thanks you!
If you want to read other opinions, Pray Tell blog at http://www.praytellblog.com/ posted comments on several blogs regarding this article.
Denise Morency Gannon
On October 25, Jennifer Graham wrote an article for the Boston Globe entitled Save the church! (kill the organs) http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/10/24/revitalize-catholic-church-let-kill-all-organs/9FpzZPSQzhfd4uUeCJNDbK/story.html?s_campaign=8315
Soon thereafter, a pastoral musician emailed me the link to the article, saying. Quite upset about the article, Dan Davey advocated for the importance of the organ with worship because of “its relation to the overtone series and its ability to support and encourage congregation participation.”
Dan also wondered “if others feel this way as well,” and shared his dismay that you can no longer major in organ performance in Massachusetts. “What a shame!” Dan said.
I told Dan that I would read the article, which I did that same day. Rather than post a blog on my website(s), I sent out a social media message and asked people to read Graham’s article and weigh in. The opinions offer a generous survey that may offer Graham perspective from other viewpoints. I post the opinions that I received here on Aggiornamento http://roncallicenter.org/blog/.
Thanks Dan, for asking, "I wonder what others think?" That question always has value. We can discover what others think when they respond to the question. Thanks to everyone who replied through email and through social media.
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“De gustibus. (In matters of taste, there can be no disputes.) Substitute "organs" with "bad music." Then try defining "bad music" with any referent to worship. It's an ancient argument with no resolution. I don't know the author, but I suspect that the whole thing is hyperbolic and satiric, sort of "A Modest Proposal for Catholic Church Music." If it isn't, it should have been.” Rory Cooney
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“I thought two things: 1) newspapers seem to think - or maybe they actually have data to prove - that controversy will keep readership; 2) this is a symptom of the larger cultural phenomenon of fewer and fewer people being "churched" and the diversifying of musical experience among those who are still churched.
To be honest, as I was looking at Hallowe'en costumes and there was minor key Baroque organ music playing, I had the same "organ=scary" experience. It actually strengthened my resolve to NOT play the Bach D minor this weekend, but something bright, major keyed, jubilant, and joyful!” Alan Hommerding
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“This is what I posted on PrayTell
“ANY instrument in the wrong hands is a mess. I am a guitarist and have worked with an organist/pianist for years! We simply adjust our instruments to the piece we are playing. Kingsfold, for example, comes out delightfully Celtic with a light organ touch and strong finger picking. O’Connor’s Lift up Your Hearts has a heavier rhythmic guitar and pedal bass from the organ. I even use my guitar (12 string) as a sort of harp when accompanying chant! It is not the instrument that is the problem, it is the ability and vision of the player/planner to make all genres of music a part of liturgical prayer.” Linda Dell'Uomo Reid
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“Denise, I think the problems of the church are deeper than whether or not an organ is played or will be played at masses. The liturgical minister should use their discretion and music knowledge to decide on what instrument(s) is best suited for what song, and sometimes an organ is not suited for a particular song. I find, however, the organ to be a beautiful instrument when used properly - and the same goes for other instrument and song pairings. I do think the church needs a revival in its music ministry and needs to spend more time thinking about how music enhances liturgy. For a person to drift away from the church because of an organ seems like a childish and foolish thing to me. I wish it was that small issue that made me drift away. I think the problem of people leaving the church is due to its stance on homosexuality and gay marriage, it's stance on women and a woman having control if her body, it's stance on condoms when it comes to preventing AIDS and other diseases, just to name a few. Those are legitimate reasons to drift away, not an organ.” Mark Sabina
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“Oddly, the writer overlooks the work of Archbishop Spooner Oldham ("When A Man Loves A Woman"), Archbishop Al Kooper ("Like A Rolling Stone") , Archbishop Ray Manzarek ("Light My Fire"), the late Archbishop Billy Preston ("Let It Be") and oh, only about 59 zillion OTHER "alternative" church organ grinders. True, none of those songs were recorded during a liturgy, but according to the late Archbishop Janis of Joplin, those four tunes and (organ) tone-fests are as "religious" as any religion can ever hope to get. ;-)” John Rood
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“I'd go to church to hear any one of those.” Ron Gamache
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“I could not disagree more - a really nice organ, well played is one of the best instruments available. If only the troubles surrounding the church could be so easily resolved.” Michael Sites
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“Amen.” (In response to Michael Sites) Lucia M. Costa
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“Wasn’t that the most ridiculous thing you ever read? I wrote about it on my blog.” Margaret Felice
http://felicemifa.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/four-alternatives-to-killing-your-pipe-organ/
Four alternatives to killing your pipe organ
Posted on October 25, 2012
This morning in the Boston Globe was an opinion piece that got my blood boiling before I had even left the house. Jennifer Graham writes To revitalize the Church, let’s kill all the organs! While I appreciate her observation that the liturgical life of parishes is crucial to the revitalization of the Catholic Church, our points of agreement pretty much end there.
I encourage you to read the whole piece before reading on, but I’ll try to summarize: the organ is “scary”, no one has it on their iPod, she doesn’t like the music at her parish, and that’s why people don’t go to Mass.
“I cringe at the Responsorial Psalm, ancient and lovely words bleated in call-and-repeat fashion with all the auditory appeal of an electronic can opener in full swing.” I cringed myself at the thought of the cantor at her parish reading that. But I’ve been to parishes where the music disappointed me, too, so I’m not going to dismiss her criticism out of hand. Instead, I’ll offer my tips: Four things to do other than killing the organ
1. Encourage music education
I know lots of people who play the organ stunningly. They also play guitars, piano, they sing, whatever the situation calls for. Someone taught them along the way, and at least for those of my generation, some part of that education took place in schools, either public or private.
That’s also where people learn to listen. Even as a music major in college, it took me a long time to learn to listen to and appreciate music. By learning to listen well, we also learn about observation, description, and attention to detail. This is enriching in its own right.
2. Prioritize and support music in the parishes
Bach was, among other things, a genius. But perhaps equally important, he was a paid, full time church musician. Do you think he could have composed some of the most iconic music in history if he had been working four jobs to make ends meet? Knowing him, perhaps. But you get my point.
There is this myth out there that we music ministers should just donate our time because don’t we love Jesus and Church? But at the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and those of us who have invested in our education and training have trouble working at places that won’t invest in us.
Not every parish can fund a full-time music ministry program, but there are lots of ways to show that you have invested in the program. I have seen programs where the pastor criticizes everyone. I have seen programs run by tyrants. I have seen programs who play politics more than they play music. There’s lots of ways to do it wrong, but also lots of ways to do it right. Respect your musicians.
And if you’re sitting in the pews, that means sing with them. I guarantee the cantor the author of this op-ed derided for her Psalm stylings had her hand up hoping the assembly would sing along with her. If you don’t like it, drown it out.
3. Give people more
The author is right on the money that people want more. But she seems to think that it’s because of Bose speakers and YouTube. In a world of slick packaging and empty clarity, I think it is folly to think that they want more surface appeal. People want more. But they want more substance, not more style. Which leads me to my last point…
4. Let music come to life
“In an age in which we can experience the front row of a stirring live symphony while in the back seat of a 20-year-old pick-up, our tolerance for the banal, predictably, is waning.”
Does anyone who has been to symphony think that the experience can be recreated anywhere? To hear real sound coming from real instruments and real people, while surrounded by other real people, is an experience that cannot be duplicated.
I wrote this years ago about a trip to Symphony Hall to hear the Neruda Songs:
We are bodies, living in a world we can touch, feel, see, smell, hear. The sonic experience of orchestral forces in a live setting is incomparable, a fact of which I am reminded on every trip to the symphony. The magic of skill and intention forming sound waves that surround us is a perfect example of the blessings of our physical world. Add to that the power of a perfectly calibrated human voice – an example of every part of the human body working together perfectly, art truly incarnate – and you have a recipe for transformation…
A rich human voice, an orchestra, an emotive musical setting of sensual poetry created the perfect storm, tearing me away from the elite intellectualism honed over many years in the ivory tower. My brain was ripped out and I was only body, heart and blood and guts and skin.
This doesn’t happen every time you hear live music. But it can’t happen when you don’t. Live music can produce hits and misses, moments of catastrophe and moments of grace. But when it’s done right we come alive, together, surrounded by other people, truly in a moment that will never exist again.
So let’s not blame the organ, and let’s not burn it either. Let’s encourage real, gritty, honest music, and let ourselves be set aflame.
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“This is an issue I have struggled with through most of my ministry, some 37 years’ worth. I have often had conversations with other Catholics regarding music in the church. I come from a school that says all music has its place and time. To people who harass me because I play a mixture of music, (my music selections can be traditional thru contemporary, on guitar, organ, or keyboard), I will ask, "So you want only the traditional?" To their affirmative answer I remind them that Gregorian chant is the foundation of music in the church, their premise says that we should return to chant. I go on to remind them that church music moved from chant into people like Hayden working for the church with multiple choirs and instrumentalists playing from lofts. I wonder if the chanters thought that the new "long hair" music was appropriate. The organ is the result of the church moving into out-lying areas; it was a way to produce a similar effect at minimal cost.
I played in a contemporary group (keyboard, guitar, bass, percussion...) and we were applauded at the end of each, well attended, mass. That church had a 15 person children's choir, 20 person adult choir and multiple cantors.
I moved to become the director of music ministries at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. I have attempted to grow my adult choir (it now stands at eight, median age 70), start a children's choir (all the way up to 4 children), start a contemporary group (no takers), and begin a cantor program (again, no takers) and with little success. I affectionately refer to the church as St Theresa of Apathy; the same 12-15 people do all the work. What the author of the article fails to realize is that the church is made up of many people and we are all asked to do our part. If people refuse to lend a hand, sit in the pew week after week (maybe), and write articles about how the rest of us should be working to suit their tastes...maybe it is time they stop sitting on their hands and help the rest of us preach the good news. The author might then be able to pick a mass that is more in line with their musical tastes. Just my two cents.” George Creighton
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“WELL......everyone is entitled to their opinion but I totally disagree with her. Come to St. John's and listen to the choir proclaim the psalm.....I may be prejudiced but to my ears and heart it is a thing of beauty! I am not saying that there isn't room for other instruments because we all know there is but in a church the size of St. John's I feel the organ best assists the congregation and supports them as they sing. Perhaps the organist she listened to was not skilled? “Sheryl Walsh
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“Though both my father and grandfather were organists, I have never been a huge fan of the organ. It certainly has its place in the church but I don't feel any strong attachment to it.” Michelle Rioux
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On the one hand, Jennifer Graham has a point. On the other hand, she misses the point completely. It is true, as Ms. Graham points out, that contemporary music and our entertainment culture are not propelled by the sounds of the organ. It is equally true, though she does not make note of this fact, that where the Catholic community is growing numerically [in Africa and Asia], the pipe organ and its derivative first cousin, the digital electronic organ, is not indigenous, i.e., is not a part of their cultures.
A principle of the Second Vatican Council that this and the previous pontificate of Pope John Paul II have hidden in the basement of the Vatican library is the liturgical renewal principle of cultural adaptation. The vernacularization of the Liturgy was the Catholic Churches greatest single embrace of the dignity and worth of human culture since the flowering of the great cultural adaptations of the eucharistic celebration in Syriac, Aramaic, Coptic, Greek and Latin in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian Era. This is the point that Ms. Graham overlooks. Music reflects a local churches history and culture.
Where I believe the organ should be killed (or, at least, not installed) is not in the churches of Europe and North America, but in local churches where it has no cultural value or purpose. The imposition and sacralization of Euro-centric devotional thought and practice on local churches like Uganda, Korea or Samoa is what needs to be euthanized. It is culturally and historically appropriate that German, French and Italian Catholics (and their descendants in North America) use the organ as an instrument of worhsip and praise. It is a complete disregard of the use of the principle of cultural adaption to insist that the organ be used to accompany the singing and dancing in the African churches of west Africa. In these churches, the drum is the appropriate cultural instrument for worship not the organ.
The viability of the organ in the worship life of Catholic Churches in North America is relatively stable. Our bishops, collectively, have moved moved to the right of center. While the more liturgically open ones might let a group of middle school Confirmandi do a liturgical rap song on the gifts of the Holy Spirit as an expression of their youth culture, you can bet that the organ will be used to play Come Holy Ghost at some time during that liturgical celebration.
It's not that organs should be killed Jennifer, it's that the principle of cultural adaptation should be resurrected.” Bob Rousseau
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“I totally disagree with this article. I love playing the organ at church and I believe it enhances the hymns.” Denise Weaver
Reader Comments (4)
As an active Pastoral Musician AND organist I maintain that the organ is the best way to lead large groups of people gathered for the celebration of the Mass. However, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this observation, I have witnessed lifeless, mechanical organ playing....in other words simply playing the notes on the page. Organists must play with passion and intent. Only then can we hope to move others to prayer.
I agree with Bob's response, but would add that Jennifer's article lacked both substance (how many churches did she visit? How many people did she interview?) and basic research (nowhere in her article is there mention of the declaration made by the Sacrosanctum Concilium that the organ has been accorded "pride of place" in Catholic services.) Should we as music ministers strive to make musical Liturgy alive and vibrant? Absolutely. Do we have to throw out the organ to do so? Absolutely not!
The article makes over-generalizations about the opinions of Catholics leaving the church - what research did Jennifer cite to suggest that Catholics are fleeing from church because of the organ? Suggesting removal of the organ in favor of more folk Masses is nothing more than another attempt to secularize the Church. And I'm not sure what folk Masses she's attended, but her assertion that all folk Masses contain music that is "earnest and soulful and completely right for the 1960s" is utter baloney!
Instead of writing this piece of nonsense, Jennifer should have taken her comments to her local Pastor or the organist themselves. Perhaps it is time Jennifer went to a new parish, and maybe brushed up on some journalism basics. This is nothing but a poorly-written slap at the Catholic church and organists everywhere.
John Brennan
Hello Denise and all.
The tone of this article is clearly negative, and with regard to 'saving' the Church, seems to imply that the Catholic Church is purely a temporal institution, and could become extinct, much like the Roman Empire. Last I checked, that hasn’t happened, despite persecutions all throughout Her earthly history. The journalist also clearly equates organ music with being 'halloweenish', using the reference of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Interesting the timing of when the article appeared). And then, using the word "kill" as the action against the organ clearly indicates an underlying hostility.
The following sentence that she mentioned is quite telling: "I know that eternity, yes, the sense that something unpleasant is never, ever going to end." This is her response to the words of Charles-Marie Widor in the same article, where he says, “To play the organ properly, one must have a vision of eternity." Mr. Widor has the sense of Heaven and the glory of God when playing, but this journalist indicates only one possibility emanating with the sounds of the organ, that of eternal damnation.
Another note of interest: Look at the picture of the organ pipes. The upper lip, mouth and lower lip seem to be presented here as ghoulish mouths, with jagged teeth, fangs, and some displaying a 'sad' emotion. If you type "Organ Pipes" into a Yahoo search box and select the Image Results, NONE of THOSE pipes look anything like this picture.
As a young boy of 5 years old, well prior to my conversion to Roman Catholicism, I would actually sit at the organ bench at the Congregational Church in Mattapoisett next to the organist, during Sunday service. I loved hearing the sounds of the organ, the celestes, the mixtures, reeds, and felt lifted up by the glorious sounds being created, and knew the reason for this: The worship of God. It was these times of my childhood which ultimately led to the taking of organ lessons at 10, and my first Church organist position at St. Anthony's Church in Mattapoisett, at age 12. And now, 35 years later, I'm still a Church organist. I can testify that, especially when I am playing the Mass parts (particularly the Gloria and the Sanctus), my mind is automatically drawn to the worship of God and the glory of the Godhead in the beauty and majesty of the organ sound, combined with the words we are praising God with. This seems to be the case for many of the faithful in the pews--at least that's what I've been told.
If the journalist would like to hear organ music that is definitely not "trying to scare someone", I would recommend to her and to everyone on this blog to listen to Richard J. Clarke's arrangement, "Mass of the Angels" on YouTube. I cannot stop listening to it, it is so beautiful (especially the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei). And oh by the way, it's on organ.
To conclude my analysis of this article: It is clearly a one-sided personal opinion. She has a right to her opinion. We move on.
Thanks for reading.
Stephen N. Tinkham
Organist/Piano Accompanist
Sacred Heart Church, Middleboro, MA
It seems to me that the problem lies not so much with the organ as with the organists whose talents would be better used in a venue like the old Lincoln Park roller shating rink. There really needs to be some education around what is an appropriate style of playing church music.