Revenons à nos moutons! The flock is not forgotten!

On the SINGING THE MASS page of this website you will find AUDIO MP3 files for the CONGREGATIONAL parts of the GLORIA, MEMORIAL ACCLAMATION, SANCTUS and AGNUS DEI of the MacMillan Mass. Forth in Praise has permission to post them on our website but they are for personal rehearsal use only and should not be freely copied or distributed.

Listening to these audio files can be a great help when practising at home. They are ideal for those who don’t read music (and for some who do, as well). There are no words – that was part of the agreement – but when you have the sheet music you can easily work out how the text fits in.

The music in these files is completely synthetic – it’s computer-generated. No organist, competent or otherwise, is involved. It’s mechanical in sound, but will do the job as far as straightforward note-bashing practice is concerned.

There should be a CD of the Mass coming out soon, but the MP3 files will help to fill the gap in the meantime.

Hurrah for modern technology!

I’m back, and find that things are well underway musically in our archdiocese for the big event.

Katherine Cameron, Forth in Praise web-keeper and IT specialist, has been working hard.  Among other things, she has posted some MP3 files of the choral parts of the MacMillan Mass which were made in England and which will be very useful as practice aids.  She’s also organised a major singing practice in St Francis Xavier church in Falkirk on 28 August, to be led by Emma Turnbull, Director of Music in St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh. More details of all this on the Papal Mass page.

My holiday was very good, with several interesting religious experiences.  No, I don’t mean visions or revelations.  Just going to Mass in different places abroad, and finding out how other people deal with the musical side of the liturgy.  But that can wait for another post.

It’s no good. I can’t settle down to writing a proper blog post while packing for a lovely long holiday. So a few disjointed jottings are all I can manage, twitter-like, while sorting out cases.

MacMillan Mass for papal visit: I love it. I don’t think people will find it difficult to sing, so much as different – which is what I like about it.
Vive la différence! (Guess where I’m going on holiday).

There have been some murmurings that the Mass is unsuitable for ‘the pastoral scene’. Not sure what is meant by this.

I’ve also heard that there have been complaints (yes, complaints!) that the MacMillan Mass needs a competent organist!  That doesn’t say much for standards of Catholic organ-playing, does it?

Actually, the organ part doesn’t demand anything out of the ordinary. It’s a very straightforward, two-stave setting with no really difficult bits, except for some stretches too wide for those of us with small hands, but we’re used to that. Plenty of pedal opportunities for those who want them.

But – it’s different. Not at all like our usual hymnal accompaniments, many of which are so dreadful that they require a more than competent organist to make sense of them. The difference is probably what makes people hesitate and think the new Mass is harder to play than it is. It’s also what makes it so interesting and a joy for the organist.
¡Viva la diferencia! (Guess where else I’m going on holiday).

Will be back at the end of June. Any comments on the blog will be relayed to me by my son, who’s house-sitting, bless him.



Au revoir!

¡Hasta la vista!

Do svidaniya! (for Ivan, Boris & co.)

See youse all later!

Bride: I would like to come down the aisle at the end to a hymn rather than just organ music. ‘Bring flowers of the rarest’ is my favourite hymn. Would that be OK?

Me: Of course. Lovely idea. The only thing is that as people follow you out, the singing might fade a bit on verses 2 and 3. But if that happens I’ll just add more stops and play it as a joyful voluntary.

So, what happens on the day?

Priest announces final hymn, ‘Bring flowers’. Couple are still facing the altar. I start.

End of verse 1.  Quick peek. Couple in same position. Hmm.

End of verse 2.  They haven’t moved. They must be planning to do it all on verse 3. Hope there’s enough music.

End of verse 3.  They are still standing there. Heaven help us, what now? I stop.

Priest gives some sort of extra blessing, turns the couple round, nods to me.   I have no music left.

You might not think that ‘Bring flowers of the rarest’ would lend itself particularly well to improvisation. But it does. You can get joyful cascading bell-like sequences and lots of bubbly semiquavers, all bouncing around over a steady 2-in-a-bar 6/8 beat (much better than the hymnals’ usual 3/4). And this was with no notice whatsoever. I have to say I was quite astonished at the improvisation potential of this old-fashioned and frequently maligned melody, and at myself for being able to take advantage of it so quickly. But I didn’t really have much choice, did I?

Every so often I have a look at the statistics showing how many people have accessed this blog, and what they were looking for. Never fear, no-one is identified (more’s the pity – I’d love to know who everyone is), but there is one table showing the search phrases (usually Google) which brought some people here. Two or three surfers have put in the phrase ‘chords for bring flowers of the rarest’ – or it may be the same person three times – but obviously someone is wanting to celebrate the month of Mary in traditional style.

So here they are, the chords for Bring flowers and a bass line as well. This is taken from the Organ Learning Project book of hymns, which I’ll blog about at some later stage.

This year the popular Singing Day will be held in Dalkeith.  Led by Misia Paul, it will include a number of her lovely hymn arrangements.  That in itself should make it interesting for organists with choirs, but additionally the day will take a look at the revised Mass text, which is expected to be introduced into parishes sometime next year.  The Archdiocesan Director of Liturgy, Mgr Michael Regan, will be speaking about the implications for music of these changes.  Organists will of course be in the front line when all this happens, so why not come along?

In my professional capacity I’ve recently had quite a bit of transcribing from Youtube to do (this is in relation to special music requests for funerals in churches where CDs are forbidden – see Uses of Youtube). However, some of these latest demands have been for the ballad-type pop tunes that depend so much on the good looks, powerful voice, unbelievable breath control and amazing passion of the singer. The trouble is that when you take away looks, voice etc. the organist is left with a rather banal and repetitive ditty.

Musically, there’s nothing at all to these songs. The first verse is usually started in a husky whisper. This is the point at which, in concert Youtube videos, the audience might applaud wildly in recognition of what’s coming. Then there’s a build-up. Final notes of phrases are held for longer and longer. The volume increases. The tension increases. Bar-lines become meaningless. Then comes the Key Moment, THE REFRAIN – it’s usually no more than a phrase or two – which is belted out with utmost power and emotion, held on, and on, and on, then allowed to fade, often on a falling ‘ohh, hohh, hohh-oh-oh’, down to verse 2.

Verse 2 and any subsequent verses are never quite the same melodically as verse 1 or one another. Either the singer can’t remember the exact notes, or doesn’t care, or deliberately wants to tweak things with a few extra ohh-hohhs. Towards the end of the song the excitement builds up even more and the singer will go to town on The Refrain, repeating it, decorating it, shouting little extra bits while the accompaniment picks up the melody. The finish is either the loudest bit yet, or returns to an exhausted husky whisper.

What, oh what, can the organist do with this lot? Well, a church two-manuals-and-pedals instrument can’t compete with a singer in looks, but it can match him/her in decibels, and on breath control it wins hands down. If you forget about bar-lines and precision, and just have a semibreve tied to nothing whenever passion takes over, switch manuals dramatically for The Refrain, get the swell/volume pedal or pedals ready, even the dreaded crescendo pedal, then go mad with the diapasons and your intuition, it might just work. In fact, if the congregation takes ages to file out, it’s even possible to get carried away and start extemporising one’s own ohh-hohh-hohhs.

So that’s how I’ve been trying to manage it, and after one of these services, the minister came over looking pleased. ‘It sounded just like a hymn’ he said, which wasn’t quite the compliment I’d been hoping for. Me and the organ, we’re just not cool, was my inner reaction as I thanked him politely.

On second thoughts, though, when one considers some of the more modern hymns … Maybe we weren’t so bad after all.

A recent comment from Paul on the Funeral fees post has decided me to tackle at last the tricky but important subject of organist remuneration.  It will probably take a few posts to cover it all, and any comments turning up along the way would be very welcome.  Particularly interesting would be information about what happens in other countries, especially those where Roman Catholicism is the established religion.  So emails or comments from readers abroad (apart from Ivan, Boris and friends) would be appreciated. See Commenting at the top right of this page for how to make contact.

Some organists playing for Catholic liturgy are paid, of course, in cathedrals, major churches and the occasional smaller parish where the priest believes in paying for a skilled service. Elsewhere, an unpaid parish organist might get a ‘thank-you’ in the form of an honorarium or a box of chocolates at Christmas.  But others get nothing at all, the philosophy being that ‘this is done for the Lord’.

OK, so virtue is supposed to be its own reward, but the real importance of a ‘thank-you’ to an unpaid organist cannot be emphasised enough, as one or two comments on this blog have already signalled. The ‘doing-it-for-the-Lord’ attitude, if it means there need be no token of appreciation on this earth, is rather poor psychology. A small present in cash or kind at Christmas or Easter reaps goodwill a hundred-fold, to everyone’s benefit. If this were generally realised, fewer organists would be lost. You’ll notice that Paul, a youngster playing the organ for his parish for several years, had received absolutely nothing in appreciation, not even an Easter egg.

The next post on this subject will look at just why the organist’s job is so special, and eventually we’ll consider the question of real payment.

The Easter Vigil is a lovely service, with an atmosphere all its own.  For Catholic organists, there’s a feeling of resolution following the inevitable tension, strain and even arguments involved in preparing with choir and cantors for the three separate and contrasting services in Holy Week known as the Triduum.

The Vigil is the final one of the three, and the most complicated.  It’s also the most important feast of the Church’s year, so that churches without a regular organist will move heaven and earth to get someone for that particular Saturday evening.  Hence the email I received yesterday afternoon, as I was getting ready for my own Vigil service, from a C of S lady who had been persuaded to play at a Catholic Vigil that evening.  She had never played at a Catholic service before.  Could I advise her?

Oh my gosh, I thought, this is the most difficult introduction to playing for Catholic liturgy that you can possibly get.  On the other hand, the parish will be enormously grateful to her and will help all they can.  So my main piece of advice was to get a ‘minder’, someone who knew the ropes and could tell the organist when to play.  This she did, and another email today told me that all had gone well.

My own service, our first Vigil with the new parish priest, went well, too, and the glass of wine in the hall afterwards was a real bonus.  Our PP seems to have all the right ideas …

Happy Easter, everyone!

No, this isn’t a search for extra-terrestrial life, but just a pause at the six-month mark to wonder whether anyone actually reads this blog. Anyone, that is, except my husband, my son and a crowd of Russian spammers whose comments in the Cyrillic alphabet are neatly filtered by the website.

If organists, especially the beginners at whom the blog is aimed, are reading with (dare I hope it?) any interest, this isn’t reflected in the number of comments, which is a great pity. I really would like to know if the blog material is helpful or not. Critical comments would be welcome, as would a note of any subject which readers, especially beginner organists, would like discussed.

It could be that organists do read the blog and do want to comment, but are afraid of being identified, especially by their priest or parish, a totally understandable fear! Or they may be apprehensive that their email addresses will be published on the web, also understandable, spammers being what they are. I can assure everyone that addresses will not be published, and if you want priests and parishes kept at bay you can always use a pseudonym. Or you can email me directly at evelyn.stell@forthinpraise.co.uk with any remarks, telling me whether or not you would like them published.

I’ve created a little group of links at the top right of this page, under the heading ‘About’. They include links to the main Scottish organist bodies, and also my own credentials. Very shortly I’ll add to this section a detailed note about the commenting process. Then perhaps a comment or two might come rolling in.

Or not. It could well be, after all, that there is no-one out there.

No-one at all.

Just me, my family, and Ivan, Boris and Piotr.

Alone in the universe.

Never mind, I’ll keep going anyway, because it’s really quite fun.