My organ prof used to tell me that if you pull on the chamade during communion, they will notice.

His point was to watch carefully when you pull a stop to be sure it is what you wanted. I suppose that would be good advice for registrations, too. He was correct. Accidentally pull the chamade during communion and people will notice.

Before our console was rebuilt, I was never sure exactly what I would get. Some buttons no longer worked, others would stick, and one in particular would cause the wire insulation to smoke.

That's the great thing about church music. If it messes up you can redeem yourself the following week.

He also said for postludes hit the sfz and put both elbows on the great manual. He said the congregation was rushing toward the door so fast they would never know the difference.

>> I wonder what harpists tell their students!

well, here's what mine told me :-) that [on a folk harp], it's not possible to play a sour note.
That is, on this instrument one presets the sharps or flats; therefore, whatever is played will not be discordant, and people will just think that you're being creative.
I must say, it was very encouraging to a beginner.

Samuel Johnson:
"Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable."

Gleaned from a book
which I was perusing whilst having a coffee at Barnes and Noble's this evening -

Emile Zola -
There are two men inside the artist: the poet and the craftsman.
One is born a poet.
One becomes a craftsman.

Henri Matisse -
Creativity takes courage

da Vinci -
It is a poor teacher whose students do not surpass their master.

And an observation of my own -
There are two kinds of teachers:
One, those who make all their students clones of themselves.
Two, those who teach each of their students to perfect his own native genius.
(Don't be number one!)

A chorus director to Sopranos: "When you get to the high notes, don't shriek. You're singing, not getting stabbed in the shower."

don't shriek

This is wise, because it conveys what technical precept? Maybe the sopranos are now imagining getting at the would-be Toscanini in the shower, in which case the remark was truly unwise. Much more so if they're in fact uppercase Sopranos.

I usually say to my voice student: don't climb to the high pitches; fly there (as in, soar on the wings of an eagle).

"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not nearly enough for music." - Sergei Rachmaninoff

“The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better

able to praise Him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the

Church’s greatest ornament.” – Igor Stravinsky

Eugene Ormandy:
"Start at B. Yes. No. Yes. No."

In our choir you would have to say, "The ladies and the sopranos" because we have what I call a "man-prano."

My Father, may he rest in peace, directed our Schola for many years. From him: "Remember, we're wearing ballet slippers with our voices when singing chant...not combat boots."

Why should the devil have all the good tunes.
- M. Luther

(In response to those elements who wanted to ban all music from Christian worship.)

I don't know about the light side, but here's a motto for any of us: Bruno Walter on leaving Munich (temporarily avoiding Nazis by moving to Berlin in 1923!)

...it signified the abandonment of a task to which my nature seemed to have predestined me: to be the guardian and keeper of a cultural institute and to make its blood circulate by the force of my heart.

Theme and Variations, 1946

Or Haydn...in my imagination:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKvg2238SQw

since we're on the light side - this is a pre Reagan story

An ancient Jewish father was sitting in Red Square reading in the sun. One of the red guards walked up and squinted at the book. ""I can't make anything out, father," he said, "what are you reading?"
"I'm reading the Scriptures," the old man nodded without looking up.
"But I can't read it."
"That's because it's in Hebrew," the old man said. "You know, in Israel they speak Hebrew."
The guard scoffed. "What are you, 85 years old? You're never going to Israel, old man. You're going to die right here."
The old man smiled. "In Paradise, the angels speak Hebrew also."
"Oh yeah?" sneered the guard. "Well what if you don't get to Paradise either? What if you go to hell?"
The old fellow shrugged. "Well, in that case," he said mildly, "I already speak Russian."

Gleaned from W.L. Sumners' still-authoritative tome, The Organ -

St Jerome, advising a lady on how to rear her daughter, saith -
Let her be deaf to the sound of the organ, and not know even the uses of the pipe, the lyre, and the cithara.

Thus spake Aelred of Rievaulx, who knew about friendship, but not so much about the organ -
Let me speake now of those who, under the show of religion, doe obpalliate the business of pleasure.. whence hath the Church so many organs... To what purpose...is that terrible noise of blowing of Belloes, expressing rather the crakes of Thunder, than the sweetnesse of a voyce... What with the... noise of the cymbals (mixtures? blockwerk?) the common folk stand with wondering faces, trembling and amazed.

And, thus saith Erasmus of Rotterdam -
Money must be raised to buy organs and train boys to squeal.

>> In our choir you would have to say, "The ladies and the sopranos" because we have what I call a "man-prano."

A sirprano?

Yes, but you are in the same octave, not the octave below! I like "sir-prano." I have heard a contratenor and was astounded by the sound.

Actually, I think he was billed as a countertenor. I recall PDQ Bach had a "bargain counter tenor" listed in one of his compositions.