Catholics behaving badly
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Organist at Catholic church, on hearing a recording of today's Mass.


    NB: I was minorly shocked when I listened to this recording. On the fourth verse "sorrowing, sighing" I accompany on the Swell, thus dropping the organ volume down considerably. You can clearly hear people chattering away during the singing. After 20 years as a church musician, I suppose I shouldn't be shocked to find out people are chattering while they should be singing, but I was, lol. anyway, this is maybe my Most Favorite Hymn to Accompany on the Organ. And I have a lot of fun with it.
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • PhatFlute
    Posts: 219
    This is very sad for me to hear and dissappointing !!
    Ph
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Well, four verses is- for better or worse- a lot to ask out of people who know that mass is finished. On the one hand, yeah it's rude and an indication of declining social skills. OTOH, people know that the main event is over. So maybe we should at least be glad they know there is a main event.

    And for some folks it's not the most musically edifying hymn of all time. Our organist cringes to play it, as I do to sing it. We use it about every other year. This year we sang The first Nowell instead, with a lovely descant. It's still the Epiphany without We three kings.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,220
    In full, it's five verses. We sang it too, but at the entrance.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Who doesn't love "We Three Kings"?
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Me.
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood MatthewRoth
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    Me Three...
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,986
    We did "Kings" for entrance and sang three verses of it. "Nowell or Noel" depending on however it is spelled, was the recessional - again three verses. The pastor usually stays for all verses on the recessional but was ill with the raging respiratory bug, so it was forgivable to leave early. "Noel" has 6 verses anyway - a bit much. As a teenager, I used to sing "Leon" as the dyslexic version of "Noel" btw. You were expecting respect from teenagers? LOL. "Kings" is a one time a year hymn, but everyone seems to remember it. I did play a fantasy on the French carol, "March of the Three Kings" which all seemed to like. It is also a once-a-year thing.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    In are there are several well-known private schools ($$$$$), such as Deerfield Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, etc. One of these schools ($$$$$) has a "Christmas Vespers" service every year on one of the last Sundays of Advent, which is also recorded and offered for sale. Two or three years ago I was absolutely shocked and horrified that almost EVERYONE talked during the prelude, Corelli's "Christmas" concerto (one of my favourites). The orchestra tuned, people kept talking. They started the first movement, and they kept talking. In fact, the talking got louder; I (5 feet away from the director) couldn't hear the orchestra over the talking during the slow movements.

    These were people with lotsa $$$$$, in suits and ties, pearls, etc. and they don't (A) know how to behave at an orchestra concert and (B) don't know how to behave in a church? It was an absolute disgrace, and an embarrassment for the school. It definitely shewed forth the lack of social skills among even the 'hoity-toity" of the world.

    (Thankfully this year everyone actually shut up for the prelude - Vivaldi "Winter" concerto.)
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Me Three...

    I hear the genesis of a new Trinitarian hymn, ja?
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Me Three Wings...

    Add the next word and pass it along...
  • FidemInFidebusFidemInFidebus
    Posts: 611
    @Salieri: it seems to be epidemic. I think I may have been the last generation to be taught proper manners in church, musical performances, anywhere really. (Just turned 30 last Sunday). I have a serious problem at my work church with unruly children who routinely run around and make noise during the service, and when I discussed the problem I was given a sob story about their family life and absent mother, basically told to give the kids a pass.
    When I was a teenager and a member of the local youth orchestra, I could attend all symphony concerts for free as long as I ordered my ticket on time. In those days, people going to the symphony wore furs and three piece suits, and no one made any noise. I joined the symphony when I was 20, and things had already started to slide. During the middle movement of Symphonie Fantastique the sound of rap music on headphones could be heard, and I glared out into the hall trying to find the offender. Today anything goes it seems, people show up barely dressed and don't seem to know how to silence their phones or their mouths.
    Getting back to the issue of dress, we sat in a pew behind a mother and her teenaged daughter on Christmas Day, and the daughter was wearing an open back purple velvet dress, short, with black fishnet stockings. Sadly I've seen so much like this I wasn't surprised, although it was definitely one of the worst things I've seen so far. My parents wouldn't let me out the door wearing something like that, but then again they weren't afraid to discipline and teach right from wrong. Maybe that's the problem, we are too afraid of "offending" or hurting someone's "feelings", or worse yet we think that by enforcing any standards of decency that we are being "elitist" or something....I could go on and on. :-/
    Thanked by 1Elizabeth_Schmitz
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    It's sad, but doesn't surprise me at all. I always play the full hymn at the end of Mass (usually 4 verses) and I think it makes some people in the congregation irritated, because our other accompanists just play two verses and hightail it out of there as quickly as possible. I have realized that I have to play a really upbeat hymn with full registration, because if I play something quiet or slow, people will just walk out or start talking.

    the daughter was wearing an open back purple velvet dress, short, with black fishnet stockings


    This makes me laugh, because I actually wore a purple dress with black fishnet stockings to Christmas morning Mass. But my dress did come down to my mid-calf, so....
  • FidemInFidebusFidemInFidebus
    Posts: 611
    To clarify: the dress was of the 80s crushed velvet consistency, came above the knee, and the stockings were the "ripped" punk-style fishnet straight off the rack at Hot
    Topic (I should know, I was the goth kid in high school). She gets points for trying, at least it wasn't the usual Ugg boots and yoga pants ensemble...
  • musiclover88
    Posts: 156
    Haha, yikes. I thought the ripped fishnet thing was like, so five years ago...
    Thanked by 1FidemInFidebus
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