Love that cartoon and remember first seeing it years ago. It is still true.

I always thought Jesus was a one-man band.

Francis, et al. -

I nurture a guarded certitude that there will be music in heaven. However, by way of qualifying, I rather doubt that it or any other phenomenological aspects of paradise will bear any similarity to the best of what we have created here. Recall that St Thomas Aquinas had an insight and offered the stunned realisation that all he had written was as straw. So, indeed, do I think it must be likewise with Bach, Tallis and Victoria, and on and on. Everything about Heaven will be glorified beyond our imagining, as will we ourselves. We will still, though, be in the created and glorified order, in a created and glorified world surrounded by created and glorified things that we need. We will be, in short, redeemed and incorruptible humanity in a redeemed and incorruptible human world. Everything about it will be beyond our imagining and remain hidden until we 'see him as he is'. The Beatific Vision will be the light which lays open all truth and goodness. So! I'm certain that if Jesus and Mary had heard Palestrina and Tallis they would have to have liked them by virtue of their particular unerring spiritual discernment. But, in heaven, any, any, of our finest, most glorious, most virtuous creations in music, literature and art will be 'as straw'. Even better things, better by far, will be there. What will have been here will become as straw and pass away.

(Um, I do, though, think that maybe there will be Anglican cathedral choirs of men and boys in heaven. I believe that these are one of the proofs of the existence of God that Thomas Aquinas forgot to mention in his Summa Theologiae.... tongue only very slightly in cheek... just a tiny bit!.)

MJO et al: (it's fun to dream)

Perhaps when Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us and that in his mansion there are many rooms, he realized that he had to go (split immediately) and prepare a hymnal in every language and in every genre of music and outfit each and every room with them all so that when we show up, we each get to pick a room in which to dwell.

Of course the youth gathering will be very loud with the rock guitars and all manner of tacky polyester vestments, fake candles and flowers, so they will have a separate wing that will be sound proof (and perhaps heavily padded - for acoustical reasons, of course).

The chant buffs will have the likes of a domed Basilica, the best incense, fantastic stained glass and sacred art and sculpture. It will best serve their acoustics as will the polyphonic choir and the organists.

Of course, there will also be a separate room for each and every type of tracker, electro-pneumatic, (and some practice rooms with a piano and of curse, my Hammond for small intimate jazz assemblies and the Andre Crouch enthusiasts.)

For the sake of those who will not dwell in the rooms of the TRUE "big three", (GC, polyphony and organ), each room will also be outfitted with an iPod hooked into a sound system for the sake of antiquity and historical reference. Although the inhabitants will think they are listening to historic recordings of days gone by, they will actually be hearing a live feed connected to the rooms where GC, polyphony and organ music are being performed. This way the other rooms will always be able to reminisce about what authentic sacred music used to sound like prior to V-II and be happy and self comforted that they have moved beyond the limited genres of narrow-minded antiquitors.

Jesus and Mary will wander from room to room to receive due praise (latria and hyperdulia). I hope and pray that each and every one of us do not find ouselves wailing and gnashing our teeth when we open up our eternal hymnal of choice and begin to offer the praise that is due.

http://www.youtu.be/HxdO3ltRFGw

http://www.youtu.be/5BAc_4WXQm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND-52UWSfLU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFNNPZsO7-Q

I'd take a piano over a harmonium.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfarvry35g8

Since we are batting alternatives to organs around, there is always the ondes Martenot! It has the distinction, and virtue, of being a legitimate electronic instrument in its own right... it doesn't pretend to be something it isn't... and no one calls it something that it isn't. (None of this means that I care much for it. In fact, I find it rather amusing.)

Theramin.

Theremin? Sorry, no liturgical dance, please.