WHAT IF WE TRIED TO STOP BEING GOD - WOULD WE BE MORE INSPIRED?

Recently at Mass we sang, “Be Not Afraid.”  In these posts readers have picked up on a disdain for songs in which a congregation is asked to take on the role of God speaking to His people, which is something that this song does as exemplified in the first line, “You shall cross the barren desert but you shall not die of thirst” or as in the first line of the refrain, “Be not afraid, I go before you always.”  

So, as I am singing along it occurs to me to change the words.  What if the song were more about my trust in God than playing God speaking to someone else?  The song then goes like this:

I might cross a barren dessert,

but I will not die of thirst.

I will wander far in safety

though I do not know the way.

I shall speak His words in foreign lands

and all will understand.

I shall see the face of God and live.

Be not afraid,

He goes before me always

I’ll follow Him

and He will give me rest.  (Rough attempt)

Instantly it song switches from being advice such as Mom might have given you:

“As Mom said, ‘Strive to do your best and you will go far,’”

to a song about doing my best:

“I will strive to do my best and go far just as Mom said.”

Or better, it is like changing the words to 1 Corinthians from “Love is patient, love is kind.  Love is . . . “ to “I am patient, I am kind . . .” in a homily.  It makes love less about being some mysterious thing “out there” that we hope to catch like a cold and more like something we are to become.

The song becomes so much more empowering strangely enough.  One might think it would be more empowering if one were in the person of God announcing that you are going to give the protection, but stating that you believe that you have God’s protection to march forward makes it immediate - like professing the faith, “I believe in one God, the Father the Almighty!”

If I could (and it were legal), I would change the words to this song in our books.  I would also suggest to hymn writers (I know, you don’t want my advice) to consider this when choosing texts for future ecclesiastical music.  Place people in awe of a great God rather than in His person and inspire us to deeper faith.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL

Nothing is worse than a meeting when nobody is really in charge.  The proceedings go off topic, conversations last too long, people lose interest, bullies arise who try to save the day, and little beautiful happens.

It is the same with music.  Aug!  Have you ever gone to a Mass where there is no organist or leader and someone starts a song - maybe it is even introduced by the priest, and it gets slower and slower, maybe changes key, someone in the back starts trying to rally the troops, some roll their eyes and wag their heads and close hymnals . . . why even bother trying?

I find it painful.

Paragraph 104 calls for a choir director for the Mass.  If there is no choir director, then the cantor needs to be able to lead the singing.  This person is chairman of the (musical) board.  Like a good  leader of a meeting, they make sure we are on the agenda (so to speak), are proceeding in a way that keeps interest and encourages participation when called for, and does so with craft and decorum.  

It’s not just about singing.  It is about making something beautiful.  Beauty inspires, lifts, directs.  Music for the sake of having music can be torture.  If you are going to do it, do it as well as the community can muster.  Those present deserve beauty whether it is because they are listening or they are asked to participate in which case they are part of creating that which is beautiful when giving glory to God.

WHEN DOES SOMETHING CHANGE FROM JUST BEING OLD TO BEING TRADITIONAL?

When somebody says to me that they would like traditional Catholic music at Mass, my first thoughts go to Palistrina, Gregorian Chant, or tunes such as Panis Angelicus, or at least, “Jesus My Lord, My God, My All.”  

Nay nay.

The vast majority of the time they means songs like “On Eagles Wings,” and “Be Not Afraid.”  Songs by and large from the folk era of the 1970s.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  But it reminds me of the late 1970s in this way:  It was then that it seemed people were holding tenaciously on to music from the 1940s and 50s as traditional Catholic music while folk was trying to muscle in and get rid of that tired stuff.

A lot of the music from the 40s and 50s was a bit saccharine.  The 70s stuff was often theological soft.  

Is it just me or do we not seem to have a real movement of liturgical music at the moment save for praise music like that which come out of Steubenville?

Oh, the poor music director - weighing the balance between that which are truly musical treasures from our history, what is an oldy but a goody, what is facing the sunset of use, what is currently on the seen, and the new and innovative that excites some and disgusts others.  God bless you musicians!  Know of my prayers today!

THE LIPS, THE TEETH, THE TIP OF THE TONGUE. ENUNCIATE, PRONOUNCIATE

What if you couldn’t understand the Reader at Mass?  What if today’s readings sounded a bit like this:

“Beloveh,

Realize tha you wah ransah frugh yo fuelile conuc, hannen on by yo ancess(gravely sound.)”

Someone is sitting at the back of the church, the room is echoey, and bodies with clothes on them are eating up the sound.  Already too softly pronounced consonants are now being put on the missing letters list on the back of milk cartons.  I would fully expect that the Reader be counseled to start enunciating and pronunciation more articulately even if it feels and sounds odd to him, because the important thing is that the words are both heard and understood or else stop reading or having Scripture at Mass.  Ministries are not charitable activities we give to people to be nice.  You must have the ability to do them and do them well for the benefit of the people in attendance because if it doesn’t matter, why do it in the first place?  The stakes are just too profound.

So why do we allow it with music?  Music is Scripture, Scripturally based, and deals with important matters of faith.  It is vital that its message is clear and understood (even if it is in Latin!) or why do it?  Then it just becomes very beautiful (hopefully) background noise.  And sometimes beautiful background noise is called for.  But unless you intend that, why not make sure every work you sing is enunciated with distinction?  It may be that a particular phrase moves a heart and soul toward the Lord in a way that the homily didn’t or can’t.  

DAZZLE ME

I pray for wonder.

God is so awesome.  But we are so accustomed to HIs awesomeness.  And just as it is a terrible thing to grow accustomed to evil, it is even more egregious to allow the glorious to grow common.

So pray and fight against it.

One way to do this is through beauty.  Beauty grabs your mind and heart in a vice grip and says, “Wait a minute!  Consider me!”  And instead of fighting against it like we might a dissertation or street preacher, we are utterly helpless, at least for a moment, before true beauty.

The other day I was sitting in the a side chair of our sanctuary praying my Liturgy of the Hours and reviewing my homily before Mass when a server came out to put something on the credence table.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw him look, do a double take, and then just stand and stare at a painting we put in our sanctuary for lent.  

As you saw yesterday, St. Sebastian is in another periodical because of the art generated at the parish.  Nobody asked for a printout of my last homily (which was brilliant and erudite by the way), but they did an article on a painting and because of it I was able to also talk about some truths of the faith.

I think about the time we were on tour with the choir and they began to warm up in the parking lot of a church in which they were about to perform.  People paused in their touring about and stopped and listened.  Had I been simply extolling the virtues of beauty my bet is I would catch fewer people and held on to them for a shorter period.

As Fr. Benedict Groeschel would say, “It is ultimately beauty that will save us.”  You cannot win anyone over if you do not first have their attention.  You won’t get anybody’s attention if you don’t have something beautiful.  Beauty does not come out of a catalogue of mass produced articles.  People are looking for a unique, beautiful voice.  How are you going to give it to them?

I pray for wonder.

TRIVIAL TRIVIA

Trivia Day!

 

Here are two bits of interesting trivia for a rainy Wednesday.  Did you know that the Church developed a means whereby music could be remembered and shared? 

 

Think on this:  A button box accordion is not a chromatic instrument.  Not only are the buttons next to each other in harmony, the change keys when you are pumping in and out.  Writing music for such an instrument is extremely difficult although my uncle did develop a method.  But by and large, you learn how to play this instrument and various tunes by sitting down with another player and copying what he was doing.

 

Now consider music before musical notation.  How does one pass on music or be assured that one’s music will be remembered after one goes on to playing harps in heaven?  There are no recording devices and it would only take one period of people moving on to other more contemporary things to cause them to forget an old song.  “How did that go again?  No, that’s not quite right.”

 

Along comes Guido of Arezzo, a Benedictine monk (leave it to the Benedictines) who gave us the famous do re mi . . .” of Sound of Music fame.  He took the pitches from a hymn to John the Baptists (whose birthday we celebrated yesterday.)

 

Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

Interesting bit of trivia #2:  Did you know that there are words to the Westminster Chimes, the song played on four bells at the top of the hour by your chiming clock – such as in the St. Sebastian bell tower?  According to my sources, “The music was inspired by a phrase from Handel’s symphony, “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth” and the words and music were arranged by William Crotch in 1793.”

 

Lord, though this hour,

Be Though our guide,

So, by Thy power,

No foot shall slide.

 

Westminster is also played unwittingly by “secular” universities, governmental institutions, and the like.  Please don’t tell them this.  Law suits will ensue.  And they can’t, for similar reasons, change to the St. Michael Chimes.  Perhaps they can go with the Whittington Chimes since their legend is more governmental.  Though they originated in a church tower, a young boy, who was running away from horrid conditions heard these bells and thought they told him Turn again, Whittington, Lord Mayor of Londontown.  Later he found his fortune and indeed became the Lord Mayor.  But to ring this tune, you would need twice as many bells and that gets expensive, something most of these non-religious institutions can ill afford.  So let’s keep this story between us.

Interested in change ringing?  Here is an interesting site.
 

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

I count myself extremely fortunate that I grew up in house with live music; piano playing, button box, singing.  There were a couple of bands in the family.  There was always singing.  At the end of the night down at Slovene Center a group of people hanging in the bar would sing in four part harmony.  We kids were in the school band.  We sang in the church choir and every Sunday we heard live music performed by members of the community – the organ, the choir – sometimes cheesy music, sometimes classical, sometimes tied to our ethnic background, but LIVE and performed by ourselves or people we know.

 

If it were not for your local parish, how often would you hear live music performed?  It doesn’t necessarily have to be great music and often isn’t (although that certainly helps.)  Most of the time we hear music recorded at some date and played at a million venues numerous times a day.  How blessed we are to hear real music every Sunday! 

 

There is a fear that “local music” is disappearing.  Everything is recorded, sent, and played ad nauseam.  Weakening is regional food, local dialects, and quirky regional flavors that make being in a certain town different and interesting.  (Less and less are the words “devil strip” used in Akron.)  Too soon it will be Miley Cyrus, McDonalds, Gap, and “tree lawn” from coast to shining coast.

 

In this snowstorm of blandness there are little fires of hope.  I will grant you that often they are not great fires, barely able to offer warmth and to the extent that we can, we should fan these flames into something great.  But still, they are there.  Perhaps one of the only places where people in such numbers gather on a weekly basis (save for school if your levy passes) to both hear truly live music and are encouraged to participate in it.

NO ONE PERSON CAN SOLVE THIS PROBLEM - BUT EVERYONE CAN

Michelin makes tires.  They have made tires for a very long time.  It is difficult for us to think of a time when they needed to come up with an idea to get people to drive more in order that their tires might be used more thereby requiring people to buy more of them.  (Not a problem today.)  One of the brilliant things that they did (and still do today) is to start rating restaurants.  This was not just a nice service that a benevolent company performed for travelers who want to find a good meal wherever they happen to be, it was an attempt to get people to drive to the next town, province, state, country, or what have you in order to make their way to a destination restaurant.  How did they get there?  On Michelin tires.  Today we think nothing of driving to the next town in order to get a good meal.  They may not have been solely responsible for this change in our cultural driving habits, but they did help.  They did something.

 

That is the idea behind the Academy of Culture and Arts at St. Sebastian.  Far too many of our churches order their “art” out of catalogues.  Few are truly trained in writing or performing music for the liturgy.  Trained organists are disappearing from the musical scene.  And the only people really paying for “art,” and thereby providing the only meat on which our artists can chew (both figuratively and literally) is the secular world.  There is becoming a dearth of Christian and in particular Catholic artists.

 

The problem is almost too vast to imagine.  Nobody can solve it.  But all of us can do something to make it better, to start forming a culture, to start planting seeds in order that some day things will be different.  We can’t just be happy to point out the problem.  We must do something.

 

The Academy is one of these efforts.  We are going to provide people of all ages in our community the opportunity to learn and be exposed to the arts.  We hope (eventually) to be offering a wide range on instruments, others arts, and languages, to provide a quality concert series to inspire, bring in speakers, and create opportunities to present the arts not only so that decently trained artists might be formed, but even for those who will find themselves not quite as talented as they might hope, will be able to appreciate good art and in appreciating it will, when they are adults, hopefully not settle for ordering their art out of catalogues and will want to train their children in the arts.

 

Several arts organization are coming together in order to make this project work and it will be a slow process of growing and trying.  Eventually it is hoped that a blue print for such an academy, which is a bit more than a school enrichment program, might be offered to other schools that are interested in starting such an endeavor.  As public funds start to dry up for such important ventures in our public schools, we need to ramp up.  Art is far too important to let fester.

 

Starting such a program takes a lot of resources.  If  you (or anyone you can think of) can be of assistance, please let me know!  There is a fund raiser coming up this weekend ($15!) if you are interested.  See more information here.

IS IT A LITTLE WARM AND FUZZY IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME?

It’s Lent!  And time to start breaking the bindings of our seasonal missalettes to the song section immediately following Christmas.  Always an interesting time of year.  (I am about to rant a little.  If you are not in the mood, stop reading.)

 

Keeping strictly with the Vatican II documents which states that the words to the music that we sing should be in harmony with the faith of the Church, sometimes I scratch my head and wonder, “what the get out is this song saying?”  Yet we blithely carry on singing anything put in front of us like a pig that will eat any slop chucked down in front of him.

 

For example, the song, “Hosea.”  What exactly does this line mean?  “The wilderness will lead you to your heart where I will speak.”  When I spend enough time teasing out a possible interpretation (Jesus went to pray in the wilderness - The wilderness of our Lenten practices – will my bean burrito will lead me to Jesus?) then I suppose it can mean something.  But – really?  Is the best we can do?

 

Then there’s the song, “Ashes,” a perennial favorite.  There seems to be a lot of Pelagianism here, but perhaps I am being too sensitive.  It just sounds a little bit too much like I’m going to do this on my own, that I don’t really need God, He is just a crutch.  In the meantime God, here are some ashes that I offer you (as opposed to bread and wine.)  I know, I know, it is really saying we are offering ourselves (apparently the worst part of ourselves) until we have something better – but once again, really?  This is the shining example of what we as human beings can muster?

 

Then there are all the “I, me, me, I, I, I, me, me, myself, a little bit of us, but mostly ME,” songs.  Then again the whole book is chuck full of these.  For example, “Jerusalem, My Destiny.”  “I have fixed my eyes on your hills . . . MY destiny . . . I cannot turn away . . . this is OUR journey . . . I have found . . . I find a glimpse . . . I leave the past . . . I have met . . . I have found . . . I awoke.  I, I, me, I-monster”  I’m sure Jesus had SOMETHING to do here.

 

Then there is, “Lord, Who Threw Out These Forty Days?”  Well, of course nobody has.  They are still here.

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: HE WHO SINGS WELL

The detail that went into the documents is astounding.  A slow as the Church is to act at times it is amazing how much they were actually able to accomplish.  It is said that a giraffe is a horse put together by committee.  It is a credit to the Holy Spirit that such large and numerous committees were able to pull off Vatican II.

 

The next chapter of Sacrosanctum Concilium concerns the liturgical year.  After reaffirming Sunday as the Lord’s Day and lauding the holy seasons, mysteries of Christ, and feast days of saints, it makes recommendations to revise the Church calendar, “to suit the conditions of modern times.”  (107)

 

Far more interesting is the section on Sacred Music.  The same provisions for language is given that were previously given for the Mass.  That is, there is place for the vernacular but there should be some talent to sing in Latin by the congregation, particularly the Mass parts.  Sacred Music is to be preserved and “Choirs must be assiduously developed, especially in cathedral churches.”

 

“The Church recognizes Gregorian Chant as being specially suited to the Roman liturgy.  Therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.” (116)  “Bishops and other pastors of souls must take great care to ensure that whenever the sacred action is to be accompanied by chant, the whole body of the faithful may be able to contribute that active participation which is rightly theirs . . .” (114)  This is something we try to do at least in small measure during Lent at St. Sebastian.  All that being said, it does allow and even encourage other suitable, sacred music, especially polyphony, into the Church “so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action as laid down in Article 30.”  (116)

 

“The pipe organ is to be held in high esteem in the Latin Church, for it is the traditional musical instrument, the sound of which can add a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up men’s mind to God and higher things.”  (120)  Other instruments are allowed to be used if they are approved by the bishops and, “only under the condition that the instruments are suitable, or can be made suitable for sacred use; that they accord with the dignity of the temple and that they truly contribute to the edification of the faithful.”  (120)

 

Composers are then encouraged to keep composing for both large and small choirs and that the words of the music must always be kept in strict line with Catholic doctrine.  It is on this last point, particularly with Eucharistic hymns, that I would like to rip out much of what passes as Catholic Sacred Music in contemporary “Catholic” hymnals.  (Personal note.)

I, ME, WE, US, OURS, MINE, - AND OH YEAH, HIS.

Can you stand one more observation about Catholic music?

The other day I was up in the choir loft playing music on our organ that I learned as kid. Here are the words to one song:

‘Neath olive trees,

‘neath olive trees.

Dost know the heart that here is weeping,

Dost though the blood-stained tears recall?

For thee each burning tear He offers,

For thee the sacred rubies fall.

To cleanse thy soul,

To cleanse thy soul.

Behold the man!

With scourge the heartless rabble beats Him!

In streams His blood most precious flows,

But not a word is heard from Jesus,

In silence to His death He goes.

To cleanse thy soul,

To cleanse thy soul.

I was quite taken with these words and brought deeply into contemplation. (And I realize that is me. It won’t be the same for everyone.) And then later I had the opportunity to sing at Mass quite a few of the more “modern” hymns. Here is a sample of one of them:

In these days of Lenten Journey

WE have seen and WE have heard

The call to sow justice in the loves of those WE serve.

WE reach out to those who are homeless,

To those who live without warmth. In coolness of evening WE’ll shelter their dreams;

WE will clothe them in mercy and peace.

Now, there is nothing really wrong with this song though God is quite left out of the picture. As much as the first song is focused on God and what He does, the second is hyper focused on us and what WE do. Here is another from my childhood:

Jesus asks for loving mercy,

Mercy for His enemies,

From the heavy Cross He carried,

Prompting us to bend our knees.

“Please forgive them loving Father,

All who’ve made my sorrow greater.

Men offending You know not what they do.

Here is another more recent one:

WE rise again from ashes,

From the good WE’ve failed to do.

WE rise again from ashes,

To create OURSELVES anew.

If all OUR world is ashes,

Then must OUR lives be true,

An offering of ashes,

And offering to you.

I will give the benefit of the doubt that the final “you” is God. Now, grant you, you can cherry-pick the best and the worst from the old and the new and come with a number of complaints and virtues of the music of the times. There was some pretty bad stuff written in our past and some pretty good stuff in more recent times. It may also be the case that we ignored ourselves a bit much in the past and it is good to put ourselves on the spot and say, “Hey! Get to work! God will do this but He wants you to work on it too!”

That being said, walking down the aisle preparing to celebrate the source and summit of our faith, embarking on an intimate contact with our God with His Word and His Body and Blood and all we can sing about is ourselves quite misses setting us up for what we are about to do. “Lift up your eyes from whence cometh your help!” not “We are called to be spiffy.”

This was on my mind today as we sang for Mass and I just kept thinking, “Gads, another song about us.” So perhaps I am being a tad strong, but I don’t believe entirely incorrect. We are coming to the Supper of the Lamb, it’s His party, and our music should more fully reflect this.

It is not a matter of old verses new. Really good versus semi-good. The advantage of the old is that we have left behind much of what was poor and kept the better half so the pickings are perhaps better. The new has a fuller mix of the good and the bad. Pastors and music ministers need to be on their toes about the music that they pick. Just because it is in an “approved book” and everybody likes it and all the local parishes are singing it does make it a good song for Mass. “If your best priest friend sang that song while jumping off a bridge does that mean you have to do it too?”

That sounded funnier to me when I thought of it than it does typed out.

PIPE DREAMS

Achk! Christmas Eve is tomorrow!

And in a completely irresponsible way I blew off part of Tuesday on a fun errand. The reason for the trip will be explained in the New Years Eve bulletin for the parish. (You can go here to read bulletins, read about the parish, hear our homilies, etc. . .)

I was window shopping the way someone who doesn’t really need a car goes and looks at cars. I was invited by the Schantz organ company to come look at their facility. As I left St. Sebastian I said, “Shucks, I forgot my camera,” and the first thing they said when we got there was, “Take as many pictures as you like.” I wanted to share the trip with you pictorially but . . .

According to the documents of Vatican II, Musicam Sacram, para 62, “The pipe organ (my note: notice, not the electric organ that sounds like a pipe organ) is to be held in high esteem in the Latin Church, since it is the traditional instrument, the sound of which can add a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lift up men’s minds to God and higher things.

“The use of other instruments may also be admitted . . .” Clearly the pipe organ (after the human voice) is the first among equals. And wonderfully so. One person like a spider at the center of a giant web can, by using every available limb, mimic the sound of an entire orchestra. And unlike its electric counterpart, worthy as it may be and helpful when the means to obtain a pipe organ are not available, it is more earthy, more organic. It just doesn’t SOUND like what it is supposed to be, it IS what it is supposed to be. Air is pumped into a giant pressurized lung, and when the organist pulls out a certain stop (or channel) for the air and then presses a key, the air rushes through tubes until it reaches a pipe of metal or wood, blows across an opening or vibrates a reed which starts the pipe resonating sending a sound out into the nave of the church.

The technology for making organs, like making stained glass windows, has not changed much over the centuries. The organ company makes their own metal by combining lead and tin in different proportions depending on the sound they desire and pours them out in sheets. Someone then cuts out the parts of a pipe (there are more than you might think) so that they are laid out in flat pieces much like they might look if you cut them out of construction paper before assembling them.

They are then rolled and soldered, their constituate parts added, then they are brought to the sounding room where they are set up on a work organ so that they may be tuned with all of their brothers and sisters. They are then cleaned and stored.

While this is going on, the carpentry shop is making the wooden pipes as well as the console and the other wooden components. The whole thing is then assembled in the assembly room before it is taken apart again to be ready for shipping. We saw part of one being constructed. It would contain about one quarter of the pipes of a gigantic organ that the company was working on for a Jesuit parish somewhere on the east coast. This piece was three stories high and big enough for a small family to live in.

During all this time another department is making the blowers that supply the wind to the instrument. This is of course a major step forward from the days when some altar boys would have to spend the Mass pumping giant bellows to make the instrument sound. Then there is the pipe – like steam pipes in your house for heat, that take the pressured air to the instrument from a separate room (it would be too loud to have in the Church) to the organ and all of the separate notes in as complicated on a very large scale as a computer chip board is on a tiny one.

Finally the whole thing is shipped out to its home where it is installed and every pipe and note must be tested again for tuning and proper air pressure to make sure it blends will not only within its rank, but the overall organ as well as the space in which it will live.

Quite an undertaking! Quite an instrument! Quite a lot of talent and old word craftsmanship!

THE PINOCCHIO SYNDROME

I’m probably more of a purest than is healthy for me. If I am going to eat something sweet I want sugar and not some chemical that tricks my taste buds into thinking that I am eating sugar. But I make concession out of necessity. When a new bell system was needed at my first assignment the highest quality fake bell system we could find was purchased. It consisted of a control panel, a lot of wires, and four speakers on the roof. There was no clacker hitting mettle anywhere. In fact, since it was solid state, the only striking that took place was the pastor hitting the roof when I gave him the bill.

But even fakery should some pride in its appearance. For the bells to make sense they had to appear as though they were coming from a place that could conceivable have bells. The expanse of the building let you believe (if you tried hard enough) that they could exists somewhere. Yet, the same bell system could be easily installed in a storefront church with the speakers on a flag pole on the front walk. But that would spoil the illusion like finding out the Wizard of Oz was just a befuddled old man hiding behind smoke and amplifiers. “Pay no attention that man behind the curtain. I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.” All of a sudden it’s, “So what.”

So last week our music director invited me to a church that is installing a new organ. We know that our beloved organ is heading toward tough times soon and so we thought just to keep an eye out for what other parishes are doing. Here we came to one of the most spectacular organs I have come across in a long time. It was still being installed and tuned but the man working on it was able to put it through its paces a bit for us. The pipe sound was phenomenal. You could hear the wind passing through the pipes. The beauty of a true pipe organ is the quality of the sound – the beginning and end of notes have certain characteristics due to the nature of air passing through the pipes. Electric reproductions often have harsh beginnings and ends of notes. When the chimes were played you could actually hear the mechanics of the bells being struck. But the amazing part of it is that it was a completely electronic organ. No matter how impressive, I have never been awed by “fake” organs but this instrument was a true beauty.

The problem for me was that the speakers for this instrument were in such as space as to leave no impression that there was a large instrument anywhere. The congregation sat almost directly in front of the speakers. It would almost be like having this instrument in your living room. There is no doubt as to the authenticity (or lack thereof) of the instrument.

Now, there are those who could care less about this I know. There are others who would argue that if we can contain the sound of a true pipe organ in a much smaller instrument, then it returns to being authentic. I may have bias because of my upbringing (neither good nor bad - just the way it was) and what I have been exposed to growing up. I came from Luddite family that did not (and in many ways still does not) appreciate the electronic over the mechanical.

That being said, we have as Church at least the goal of authenticity. That is why our documents proclaim the pipe organ as the first instrument of the Church and asks us not to use artificial flowers as far as possible no matter how real they may appear to be. So when there are discussions connected to our art and environment (including architecture) these questions must at least be raised and taken as seriously as possible.