"Heard for the first time"
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    We are getting ready to celebrate the dedication and blessing of a new organ in the fall.
    Looking at the Rite of Blessing for a new organ, there are responses, psalms intentions, and then this rubric:
    (then the celebrant places incense in the censer and incenses the organ, as the organ is played for the first time)
    Does this really meant that the whole blessing service is done in silence, and the psalm is not sung? "Praise him with the blare of trumpets"
    That would mean that the whole procession at the beginning would be in silence. Seems strange.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    "Organ, or else absolute silence" seems like a fallacy of the excluded middle to me.
    Thanked by 4Adam Wood Gavin CHGiffen Jahaza
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    What does an organ have to do with psalm singing?
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood CHGiffen
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    That is to say, you don't need an organ to do any of the above.... except hear it for the first time.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    What does an organ have to do with psalm singing?

    Answered:
    http://www.md-health.com/Function-Of-Organs-In-Respiratory-System.html
    Thanked by 3MarkThompson Andrew Motyka Gavin
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,190
    In the playing of the organ we feel God's power. When the organ stops we feel God's mercy...
    Thanked by 4Gavin Chris Hebard Mark Husey Kathy
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    What does an organ have to do with psalm singing?


    It keeps my choir from embarrassing both of us. ;-)
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen francis expeditus1
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Adam...what would we do without the in-house smart alek to keep us laughing...
    Thanked by 1francis
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    I would like to compose an organ piece called "primum organum cantat" just for those occasions. It's kind of like a baptism so it should sound like an infant crying when he gets water poured on his head.
    Thanked by 2Chris Allen JulieColl
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    Being a choral conductor first and an organist second (some days more distant than others), I would second question about why an organ needs to be used for chanting the psalms at all?

    If anything, chanting the psalms unaccompanied only heightens the expectation for the organ's playing later in the rite.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    The silence is required - but it is the silence of the organ.

    Singing is, like speaking, permitted. But the organ, which has been put into place, tested, tuned and voiced, becomes a sacred music instrument as it speaks for the first time after being blest.

    I have heard that psalm sung with interjections by the organist instead of it being sung/spoken without the organ playing. Usually ended up being tacky.

    But you all knew that. It only took 9 off-topic responses to finally get the answer to the question that was asked. Is that a new record here? I can say this because I'm more at fault than most!
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    In the playing of the organ we feel God's power. When the organ stops we feel God's mercy...


    image
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    Yes, that might be a record...
    So, according to the rite, is one dedicated to organ at a solemn vespers,
    the bishop, the priests
    Choir etc would all process in silence at the beginning before the invititory? Or could you chant
    A hymn or response?
    This is what I am trying to answer.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    For a bishop I would recommend chanting "Sacerdos et Pontifex" or something similar from the reception of the bishop. For a priest I suppose it would be a beginning in silence. On the other hand there are processionals (in the meaning of a liturgical book) for all days important enough for solemn vespers, so one could begin that way, but I am not sure whether that would be authentic. One should ask the Cathedral of Lyon, as they didn't have an organ until the 19th century.
Add a Comment