What do hotels have that our churches do not?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    https://youtu.be/pmnaDMk0CQQ

    This is a high school choir in Minnesota. As having taught secondary (MS/HS) public music for 20 years I have shared experiences like this a few times. I've always wondered though, all things being equal such as acoustical environment of a wonder nave in a church versus a hotel atrium/pool, why do our best kids eschew, for the most part, singing the sacred literature treasures in the church on a Sunday for God in whom many confess as Lord, yet will burst into this sort of flash mob, thrilling, joy-filled activity just for the halibut?
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,815
    ...all things being equal
    I've always thought it would be a good idea to be able to take a quick swim during Messiah intermissions, but have you actually got figured it out, Melo??? A Padang-style halibut would just be extra gravy.

    Btw, from the subject line I was starting to wonder if you ever visited protestant churches where pew Bibles are standard fixtures.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    Bibles?
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood CHGiffen
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Clean bathrooms.
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    Bathrooms would be a start in many places....
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Girls in itsy, bitsy, yellow, polka dotted bikinis?
    Thanked by 1EMH
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Manhattans and gins and tonic.

    Creme brulee.
    Thanked by 1Roborgelmeister
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,934
    Pillow mints.

    Girls in itsy, bitsy, yellow, polka dotted bikinis?


    This is why I joined choir in the first place. Not gonna lie.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    The absence of anything that smacks of religion (separation of Church and State, right?), so they can just focus on the music, and not worry about that God stuff, or who it might offend.

    Oh, and you're probably going to get a larger, more diverse audience in a hotel than in a church, because of the same reason listed above.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Girls in itsy, bitsy, yellow, polka dotted bikinis?



    This is why I joined choir in the first place. Not gonna lie.


    And I married her, too.

    (It was blue, but whatever. She was hot.)
    Thanked by 1Cantus67
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    This is why I joined choir in the first place.

    My seduction from an instrumental undergrad was not so glamorous. As Flip said, the Devil made me do it. Oldest trick in the book, choral teacher is assigned to basic conducting. From day one s/he looks and listens for the instrumental majors who can sight sing easily and accurately with pleasant voices. Then the cajoling. "Oh, I'd put you not just in concert choir, but chamber singers." Hook, line and sinker. Post-grad all choral.
    As far as social benefits, heck, I had both double bass and flute for the performance major. Couldn't lose back in the 70's. And those flute duets......faux Delibes.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Free WiFi and complimentary Continental Breakfast
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,934
    Free WiFi and complimentary Continental Breakfast


    The Episcopal Church I attended during college had a poster in the Fellowship Hall which said, "Free Coffee. Everlasting Life. Yes, membership does have its benefits."
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,396
    A "concierge" instead of "greeters"
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    What do RCC parishes and Motel 6 have in common?

    We'll keep the light on for you.

    image
    candle.png
    94 x 141 - 27K
    Thanked by 4StimsonInRehab CHGiffen kenstb SusanW
  • advocatusadvocatus
    Posts: 85
    They were no doubt inspired by the acoustics of the natatorium.

    (I wouldn't be so sure that Minnesotan high school students who sing Christiansen's "O Day Full of Grace" like that are not also church-goin'.)
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    (I wouldn't be so sure that Minnesotan high school students who sing Christiansen's "O Day Full of Grace" like that are not also church-goin'.)
    Indeed. Stillwater, MN is about 10 miles from me and, like my own community (Hudson, WI) has an excellent high school choral music program. People in this part of the USA love to sing, and most of them are not Catholic (think Lutheran).

    Here's the Hudson High School choirs, with the River City Orchestra (drawn mainly from the SPCO and other area professional ensembles):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRVZciApNrQ

    And here is the non-auditioned River City Chorale (summer 2011), also based in Hudson, comprising roughly 150 singers (I am in the last row, just barely left of center):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQJvXmPihmk

    Would that the area's penchant for choral singing extended to our local Catholic parish church, but it doesn't, at least not yet.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • RomanticStringsRomanticStrings
    Posts: 340
    Yeah, CHGiffen! Having lived in MN (Northfield and Minneapolis), why aren't there more choral Catholics? Well, obviously we know many of those reasons, but its no less frustrating for it!
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    Another argument for singing from memory.
    Thanked by 2melofluent CHGiffen
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I've told this vignette before. Went to Sunday Mass at Our Savior's when Fr. Rutler was pastor/celebrant. Went up to loft, little schola of five and organist. Just sat in, sang the Entrance Hymn (Brompton Oratory Hymnal, iirc.) At the penitential the schola started the Byrd Mass for Four Vcs. I joined in from memory. Afterwards, organist just looked over, gave a nod, and the tenor shared his scores with me for the rest. Oh yeah.
    Thanked by 3StimsonInRehab nun_34 Aristotle Esguerra
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Hotels - churches?

    One really, really cares about quality in everything that they do. They know that if they do not, people will stop coming.

    Thanked by 1Liam
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Liquor
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Acoustics that make people want to sing.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    Parking lots with friendly users.
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,167
    Free breakfast buffet
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Mike Shawaluk
    Posts: 58
     
    Thanked by 1bonniebede
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    The day I hear a polyphonic Vidi Aquam coming from swimming suit clad high schoolers in a full immersion font, I'm either going over to Judaism or to the dervishes in Sufi. ;-)
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    Matthewj, hotels and train station hallways (more specifically, the Métro station Montparnasse in Paris) both have excellent acoustics...
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,116
    Melo

    OK, they can be nude, as in antiquity.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Uh, Liam.....you know you just (re-)activated your file with the NSA, and likely Google too!
    Me? It don't matter a hoot which sort of fatwa's someone's taken out on me.
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 112
    Mini-bars. Room service. Customer service. Concierge service. Entertainment. Food. Beverages. Comfortable seating. Decent lighting. Reasonably designed spaces/structures. People happy to be there for more than an hour at a time.
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