It's a little frightening that more have not posted from the priest's point of view...think back to the last complaint (or the most memorable one from the past)...

One of my predecessors would hold a chord, then turn the organ off. The sound was hideous as the wind died away.

That is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard.

That is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard.

This was the gentleman who talked the parish into buying Glory & Praise, which we dumped shortly after our recently retired pastor arrived in 1998. it was bizarre and I have never heard anyone else do it.

Guilmant (I attended the Guilmant Organ School in NYC) is usually pretty churchy, but this one borders on frivolity!

Good example!

2) organ is too dissonant, too esoteric. In fairness to organists this can simply mean that the priest doesn't listen to music written in the last 80 or so years, and doesn't think the people do, either.

At a previous parish I was practicing an Alain piece with the intention of making it the prelude at an upcoming Mass, and a priest who was in residence at that parish came rushing up to me and said excitedly, "You aren't playing that at Mass, are you?!" I stammered, "Uh...um, no....just practicing for fun" or something like that.

Another time I was practicing Reger, and the associate who passing by through the church stopped and said something like, "That piece is awesome! Is that for a concert? I mean, it's obviously not for Mass, but it's really cool."

most of the organists in my area that I know are little old ladies with buns.

Fortunate, else they'd have to play standing up.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

BruceL: when did the Guilmant school close?

Opened 1899.
Closed 1974.
https://list.uiowa.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A3=ind0304D&L=PIPORG-L&E=7bit&P=206751&B=--&T=text/plain; charset=US-ASCII&header=1

My organ teacher was a little old lady with hair in a bun. She was the most brilliant musician I ever met. She was so talented as an organist that she frightened me. That says a lot, since I was never lacking in self confidence. Sometimes those old ladies can surprise you. ; )

Breaking the spine of yet another hymnal, instead of looking for one of the dozens already damaged.

Breaking the spine of yet another hymnal, instead of looking for one of the dozens already damaged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43_FwYorPSc

It isn't the organist that drives me crazy sometimes as much as the cantor in the neighbouring parish I also sing at. The poor woman doesn't seem to realise she's supposed to be both leading the singing AND following the pitches being played on the organ, and just ends up singing to her own melody and tempo altogether.

I didn't know she travelled. I thought she was only at my parish.

The person that wrote that Gregorian Chant has Pride of Place should have also written out in full that the Responsorial Psalm and Gospel Alleluia are to be sung only when qualified singers are able to be present, otherwise the psalm should be spoken and the Gospel Alleluia Verse should not be sung.

As long as the choir is suppressed or underdeveloped or music is deemed necessary at every mass,

It's a hideous situation, and the Liturgy deserves better.

You either move very fast or you are at the lone church in the United States that has members of the congregation that actually stay a couple minutes after Mass.

This is hyperbole...

Every church I've ever worked at, if I've been the one to lock up on occasion, I've always had to wait 10-15 minutes after the postlude, clean up, etc.. for people to finally clear out.

in fact, by the time flick the stops off (a few seconds), flip the power switch, turn off the organ lamp, the balcony light, and replace all music in its appropriate spot, most people have already vamoosed.

I was referring to the time between multiple masses. I don't turn anything off, just hit the general cancel piston and leave the loft - after a short postlude, of course. I learned long ago that playing long pieces meant I would be playing to an empty building. After the last mass of the day, I shut everything down in the loft and lock up, as well. It takes longer to get away at that time.

I don't think we are unique, but people have a tendency to gather in clumps near the stairs to the loft. When I want to get through them, they move back and let me through. Anyone trying to go the other way and up the loft stairs runs into a wall of people who don't move for them.

Speaking as a cantor myself, I can honestly there's a quick solution to that problem- have the choir facing sideways across the church, and fairly out of the way, positioned so that the cantor's podium is in an acoustically good position, but still unobtrusive. Granted, I'm kind of in a special situation, since I'm in a parish where cantor=only one singing, because no one else wants to.

It's getting a little sad, to be honest. We can't seem to even get any more than a handful for the Christmas and Easter choirs, even though we try to recruit to the point of desperation. Any Feast Day or ordinary Sunday? Just the organist and I 7:00 and the organist and the other cantor at 11:00, with me sometimes filling in for the other guy.

O good heavens! If I held auditions I would have to throw out half the people I currently have.

Yes, begin with the children! I was recruited into the parish choir as a young eleven-year old treble. Now look at me; eight years later, the choir has almost gone, and the youngest and oldest members are pretty much the only ones left.
....I hope that's not some kind of cause and effect...

I think I may have just been a really weird kid, then. Other teens were collecting comic books- I was collecting and reading old missals, various Books of Common Prayer, the volumes of Tracts for the Times, The Parson's Handbook, Fortescue's Ceremonies, Ritual Notes, 50 Gothic Altars, Directorium Anglicanum, St. Dunstan's Psalter and the Anglican Chant Psalter, the Graduale Romanum, The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, Byzantine Daily Prayer, the Jordanville Prayerbook, and the Palmer/Burgess Gradual. Not to mention compiling and printing the entire format of all seven Horologion services off on Anastasis.org, with full rubrics, as well as the English-Latin version of the Breviary off of Divinum Officium, and the BCP Matins, Litany and Evensong texts from Eskimo.com

...I really should have known I was fated to be a Liturgy nerd. :p

Exactly.

Actually, to my mind, the primary purpose of an audition in an all-volunteer parish choir is careful discernment of where to situate the volunteer. Especially given that most women are mezzos and most men are baritones, so being forced into SATB means one should understand the more felicitous (or at least less dangerous) direction for distortion...yeah, I'm looking at all you keyboardists who tend to assign baritones to tenor without sufficient thought....

Not always. I distinctly remember my high school choir teacher shunting me off to the bass section of the choir after hearing only a few bars, when I can barely comfortably get down to a low A to save my life. That was the most painful rendition of the national anthem I have ever been part of performing, physically and in sound quality. Finally, he shunted me to the alto section next time. Much better! I'm one of those weird people with the range of an average baritone, but the lighter tone quality of a tenor, and it gets annoying sometimes.

Speaking of the national anthem...