Often such compliments are not what you'd expect. There's a Donat Müller O salutaris that we do, which is kind of marginal in terms of musical value; it entered our repertoire because it was extremely easy and we were just starting, and because it has a certain brutalist elegance. Well, we've gotten compliments on it being"deeply spiritual".

I put together the music for a family funeral. All funerals (all Masses, of course!) ought to follow the church’s paradigm, but since it was my grandmother’s, it was one we absolutely had to get right, both because of the formative nature of the liturgy and from the perspective of “if it is bad, we will be furious for a long time.” The ordo, with a few errors, is here. The Prayers of the Faithful, which I wrote and sang are posted here.

For the curious: I sang recto tono, then cadenced with the formula for “digneris” in the Litany of the Saints, and the response was sung using formula for “Libera nos Domine,” but the correct formula for “Te rogamus audi nos” works, and I would have used it had I remembered...and count the prayer and Scriptural references. I have at least one in each. (I’m rather proud of this...)

Organizing it was a hot mess, but my friend, who is a vocalist and an FUS alum from the sacred music program, sang the music. Everyone loved it, and it means a lot when family members say something if you are uncertain about their reactions. I mean, I am confident true Gregorian chant was never sung in the parish, given its very Irish and very Low Mass history. And they live in very average parishes. Father even said at the end, without any prompting, that it was beautiful and that it was good that we sang the texts he and my grandmother knew as a child and well into their thirties, actually. And doing the words of rememberence before the sprinkling and the Introit really let the Introit shine and we didn't have any disaster from which to recover.

This also involved overcoming the wall to wall carpet and the organist being in the loft whereas my friend was at the front on the Epistle side...

Hmm...never mind.

Picked a lovely slow movement from a Scarlatti sonata shortly after I was hired, got lots of compliments on it...now I get compliments and "requests" for big flashy hymn arrangements, spent $60 on a huge book full of them...Oh sorry I guess I'm starting to whine again.

The best compliment I get is keeping the choir on track and playing the hymns at a "normal" tempo that makes it easy for the congregation to follow, apparently that was an issue before I came along. :)

The most common compliment I got at my last job was, "The choir sounded so BIG and LOUD!"

No one ever said directly, "I appreciate your nuanced approach to contemporary liturgical programing in the light of tradition and the present needs of this particular worshipping community," but whenever they complimented the volume, I knew that's what they really meant.

The most common compliment I get is that I play everything at a more upbeat tempo than other accompanists, so it's much easier for the congregation to sing.

People tend to compliment my hymn choices quite a bit, too. It's always nice to hear when people appreciate your efforts.

It was my lot some years ago to play a simulacrum. A number of people afterwards said, 'you made that thing sound like a real organ'
>
Another time I could not escape doing a certain happy-clappy sort of song with a choir. So, I straightened out the time and the rhythm and counted it as if it were Howells, shaded and phrased it as one would a normal choral work, accompanied it as if it were an English anthem, and tried to make a normal piece of music out of it. Afterwards, there were a number of comments to the effect that it was really nice the way I did that piece - 'you took the "country" out of it', they said. So, I felt as though I had had the last laugh!
>
In my years of service at an historic Houston Lutheran church we would often have visiting professors from one of their many Concordia colleges or from Europe. It was not unusual to have one come up to the gallery after the service with high praise for the music - but the sweetest compliment of all was 'you're obviously Anglican, aren't you'. I get similar comments from time to time from Catholic priests and even a bishop or two.

I was told one Sunday that the Schola "sounded so voluminous! I felt like we had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir here!" lol

I've received compliments especially when playing one of the Brahms Chorale Preludes. I have yet to receive a compliment from playing Langlais... some day! ... some... day...

For playing Langlais, are the kudos for the chutzpah it takes to play the piece, the chutzpah it takes to think one worthy of playing such a piece, or the skill with which one played it?

Just started as a DM at the local parish with the "traditional" choir. By traditional, meaning four loosely traditional hymns (at least not upbeat/syncopated hymns) + English choral "anthem" after communion. Since starting, I have been chanting the Propers (int & off - SEP, Latin communio) and am working with the choir on Jesu, Rex Admirabilis, Conditor Alme Siderum, and Alma Redemptoris Mater chants ("more Latin?!?" - choir member).

We sang "O Lord I am not Worthy" as the communion hymn (after the chant). An elderly woman came up and said "When is the last time I have sung O Lord I am not Worthy!! Brought me back to my first communion! I almost cried!"

Many people have complimented the Communion chant as well.

Keep on swimming...swimming...swimming...

We have a small schola singing at one of the masses at our church. It is a new initiative. The same thing happened to us with regard to the hymn "O Lord I am not Worthy." People looked back at us and we received numerous compliments. I have to pull out more of these. I hope they will be available in our next hymnal. BTW, thanks Noel for putting it in the CCA.

1) From the pastor, "They're very good, aren't they?" about my new 6-voice volunteer polyphonic ensemble.

2) From a parishioner, about a year after I arrived, "The reverence is back... Never leave."

3) From a new Bass, "I really enjoyed singing your Mass setting [I wrote it] downstairs, and when I saw your ad in the bulletin, I thought I'd join the choir."

4) "Nice things were said about you at the Parish Council meeting last night."

and, my new favorite,

5) Our deacon received this only last week, about our choral Stations of the Cross & Benediction in Lent, "I really like them purple things you put on the wall, and the music was awesome."

Which it truly was... we open with an Adoramus Te or Bruckner's Vexilla Regis, sing vs. 2 of the Rheinberger Stabat Mater or his two-voice Ave Maria at the 4th Station, O Sacred Head at the 12th, Do Not Lament Me, O Mother, at the 14th, a contemporary choral setting of the Tantum Ergo & an Ave Verum Corpus, followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a sung setting of the Divine Praises in chant. Then we conclude with Lift High the Cross (until Passion Week, then "All Glory, Laud, and Honor").

That and the two conservatory-trained string players, recently wed (what a fun wedding to sing, my only instruction from them being, "As much Latin as possible"!), who told me that the music was a major draw for them, and they missed it a great deal when travel took them to other parishes.

The most unique compliment I have heard: "Like Mozart on opium...but in a good way".

Today, one of the deacons thanked me for the music and told me it sounded heavenly. I have really low self-confidence when it comes to being a musician, so usually I don't believe people when they compliment me. But it is definitely nice to hear encouraging comments!

Over the years I have had several people tell me that the music at Mass was the reason they entered or came back to the church.

I have no idea how many have left the building swearing never to come back.

I think I may also take as a compliment the fact that, after performing Leslie Bassett's Collect for the first Call to Action convocation, nobody suggested a bit of Rosemary Woods.

The best compliment I've ever received was after a Pentecost Vigil (I lobbied for the extended vigil with Vespers and all the readings but was ignored). Most of the members of my schola travel extensively for work, so we usually only get to sing the Mass on feast days. This particular time we sang for a CRHP retreat at a parish about half an hour from ours. Being pressed for rehearsal time, we opted to sing the Gregorian inter-lection chants and the Simple Choral Gradual processional chants. We also sang two short motets from the Secunda Anthologia Vocalis. After Mass a member of the parish came up to me and said he experienced the most spiritually fortifying Mass of his life.

When your pastor asks for a list of all the music you play so he can ask the other longstanding choir directors at your parish to do the same.

When your pastor asks for a list of all the music you play so he can ask the other longstanding choir directors at your parish to do the same.

Were that all parish ensembles were created equal. Seldom the case.