Yesterday was my grandmother's funeral and I was asked to play organ (or weighted-key digital piano, same thing?). The music & liturgy aspect reminded me of all of you, and reaffirmed everything that we already know is going on.

Before I continue, I don't mean to defame anyone. If anything, there are just misguided opinions. Everyone I met at the church was of the most genuinely warm southern hospitality you can imagine.

There is a musician of the strum & hum genre who plays every Sunday and who was there for the funeral as well. She had picked out the music (Here I am Lord, How Great Thou Art ... funeral favorites). As we were rehearsing beforehand, I asked if she wanted me to play along with the mass parts as well. She scoffed and said, "No, we chant those. Ugh. Father is bringing us back to pre-Vatican." I wanted to say "Or bringing us TO the council's vision." But God held my tongue.

Oh, and the people did sing it. Yes they did. It was slow and robotic, but they sang chant. Shocking.

This new pastor (a young priest, surprise) has done other things worthy of scorn from the 70's crowd. He did away with female altar servers (the horror!). He uses incense (the stench!). He brought in permanent hymnals (the savings!). The hymnals were also complained about by their regular musician ... not because of the content. It's a GIA hymnal. The problem is that the page numbers no longer line up with the OCP accompaniments she uses (the confusion!). There's a perfectly good two-volume set of accompaniment books (with chord symbols), but they have "too many pages" (she said as she set down the preferred 4-inch binder, bursting at the seams and weighing in as heavy as an overweight cat). "Too much flipping around between songs." (the labor!)

So whatever. That part was silly, I just smiled, nodded, let her rant, played the music.

What was shocking was everyone's reaction to my use of the organ on all but one song (Hail Mary, Gentle Woman - strumming guitar ... piano seemed more appropriate). They don't hear it much at their church, and when they do, its a teenager who prefers the full organ to the chapel sound. He was also singing for the funeral, and told me before mass "I like organ 2 better." I said "Yeah its cool, but this building's too small for it." Anyway, everything but the one piano song and the recessional (Let There Be Peace On Earth - full organ) was on the chapel organ sound. The comments from regular parishioners there were unending during the luncheon afterward, with their secretary begging me to move to town and play for them more often. The effect that reverent organ playing, even with sacropop music, along with reverent liturgy, can have on people's experience is undeniable.


What was reaffirmed this weekend:
-Young priests are cool
-Boys are different than girls
-Congregational chant is possible
-Tasteful organ makes anything better in church
-Incense doesn't kill anybody
-70's musicians hate this
-Congregations want more of this