Praise the Lord with the sound of... marimba?
  • soarmarcsoarmarc
    Posts: 42
    After attending Mass this past Sunday, I found myself contemplating an important question...

    Does "Gather Us In" become any more or less bearable when accompanied by marimba?

    Listen for yourself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2-LsfreQ0t9aENUZUctbEtnZzA/view?usp=sharing

    Thoughts?
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    ...when accompanied....

    Only if you are Indonesian or Balinese.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Did you hear it with such an accompaniment, and are you therefore trying to decide if it was trite or "more bearable".... or did you hear such a wretched rendition that something so ....far off the beaten path is what you think might make it better?

    Years ago.... I played the piece and tried to make it sound like a dance at the court of Henry VIII, or a knock-off of Bring the torch, Jeanette, Isabella. The effect wasn't hideous, but I shudder to think why I tried to do that, instead of migrating to the venerable form of the Mass..... oh, wait,.... the venerable form wasn't available in the diocese at the time.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    A big issue that appears when talking with other musicians, not just Catholic ones, is the lust after novelty. I know we get bored and want to do things more exciting and new. Human nature, I guess, or maybe musician nature. But we can't be, as was said of the English, chasing everything that is novel and holding fast to nothing.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen noel jones, aago
  • MaestroMark32MaestroMark32
    Posts: 66
    What a disservice to the wonderful instrument of the Marimba.
    Thanked by 2Caleferink CharlesW
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 392
    It seems to be played very badly on this recording. If I'd been at the Mass I'd have found it distracting and irritating.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    There are some who think that the marimba is a beautiful instrument. There are also those of us who know the guitar, or the piano, to be beautiful instruments. Their beauty, though, real or imagined, says nothing about their being appropriate at mass. Whether they are played well or badly is beside the point. As Charles notes, there are those, whether they be priests, musicians, or people in the pews, who will be pleased and delighted with novelty, its inappropriateness at mass notwithstanding - anything to add interest to their otherwise boredom with the mass itself and what is appropriate to the mass. All of which is evidence of a preference for entertainment over worship and spiritual awareness - or, even, mistaking a pleasurable and entertaining experience for worship. This matter is, in fact, at the heart of the entire post-conciliar liturgical debacle.
    Thanked by 5CHGiffen Scott_W a_f_hawkins noel jones, aago CharlesW
  • JesJes
    Posts: 574
    I wish I had video proof but my mother actually had us kids (she was the primary school music teacher) play gather us in on marimbas in a fleet as part of a pageant held in the church to honour St Patrick. I can safely say we played the marimbas which we made ourselves better than in that recording but it did not go well with the organ and I’m very glad we did not do it during a mass, in the church was intense enough.

    I personally believe that marimbas are not a worship instrument for during the mass but can be used in other evangelical settings and when they are used they should not directly mimick the vocal line with a vocalist singing but provide a counter melody or chordal accompaniment which definitely sounds better,
    Thanked by 2Viola StimsonInRehab
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    God created the marimba for the bar and the concert hall. I like the marimba as i do the piano. I like hearing them in a bar while having a scotch. I don't bring my scotch to church. (although it is a temptation this day and age)... so, leave your lounge instruments in their proper sanctuary, thank you.
    Thanked by 1Scott_W
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    ...for the bar...

    This is sacrilege.
    Pianos in bars playing 'bar music' is the desecration and absolute trashing of a sublime instrument whose place is in recital halls and homes - but not churches.

  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    i play jazz. it works well in a lounge... on a nice piano.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    There are pianos, and then there are pianos. Some are and, unless perhaps they are of the baby variety, they are quite ill-suited for bars and nightclub. Others are not grand at all and, while well-suited for nightclubs, they are bar-ly, if at all, suited for any sort of recitals.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    opera house... bar... all the same to me. secular entertainment.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Hey now. At least in a bar the Florence Foster Jenkinses of this world are celebrated. It's called "karaoke night".
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
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