Posted on 04/09/2017 4:10:22 AM PDT by NYer
From The Baltimore Sun:
When the longtime organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Havre de Grace announced her retirement last fall, the leaders of the small 200-year-old congregation faced a bigger challenge than they knew.
Music — particularly the music of the organ — is central to the life of the church. Members say the instrument’s rich sounds complement their liturgy, inspire congregational singing and even seem to invite the Holy Spirit into their presence.
But a six-month search has turned up just one potential applicant. Church leaders are trying every new strategy they can think of to get things moving.
Related: Organ envy — in praise of pipe organs in church
“We’re praying and trying to stay optimistic, but this we had no idea how challenging this would be,” says parishioner Casi Tomarchio, a member of the search committee. “There aren’t enough organists out there.”
At a time when fewer Americans describe themselves as affiliated with any religious denomination, the ranks of those who play the instrument long considered a mainstay of Christian worship — the organ, and most specifically, the pipe organ — are thinning.
The shortage has hit less hard in major metropolitan areas, where historic cathedrals and churches with bigger budgets can invest the funds it takes to buy and maintain a serviceable organ and offer a musician full-time work.
But smaller congregations — including those in rural and suburban America — are feeling the pinch.
Catholic ping!
The one thing I learned is that every Church organist is a homosexual. Every single one.
If you need a church organist, just advertise in the homosexual publications. They will come-a-knockin faster than you can say "gerbil".
I know one who isn’t.
“A full keyboard organ”, with all the ‘stops’, requires an organized mind, a penchant for loving hard work (playing a footpedal gigue isn’t easy), and no headphone jack.
Look at today’s under 40 folks, wunderkinde not included, and see if they fit this pigeonhole.
I know one who isn’t either.
Back in the early 1950’s, Leon Russell started playing piano and organ by the age of 6, at his local Presbyterian Church. By the time he was 10, he left to play at the Pentecostal Church, because their music was more lively and fun. He said in an interview once, that the Presbyterian Church, found another 6 year old to take his place.
Excellent point. Pipe organs are amazing engineering works. In Bach's day, they were the "Space Shuttle" of that era. The pinnacle of high tech.
Playing one well takes a whole lot of talent, and coordination. Your feet have to work in synch with your hands.
Young people can't even put a spare tire on their car, let alone change the oil. Many can't walk down the street without staring at an iPhone, oblivious to their surroundings!
And back in the day it wasn't uncommon at all for mom and dad, or grandpa and grandma to have a Hammond or Thomas in their living room. And the elevation of the the guitar to the instrument supreme has not helped.
At our old church (small) the organist was VERY talented and would do improvisions on the pieces. One time I asked him about it, and he said how he worked for days, hours and hours on it, rewriting the entire piece.
A few years later after a very impressive adaptation I asked how long he had spent on re-writing it. He explained how he had gone someplace to learn “jazz” and improv music. Now all he did was he just had a few ideas in his head that he practiced the main ideas the night before, and then just “did it”. He laughed to think about how he used to do them!
My mother was a church organist for our (then) small town church in Mason, Ohio...for 45+ years. When I was a little girl,
I used to sit next to her on the organ bench while she was playing. My Mom passed away 2 years ago. I still, get a tear in my eye when I hear the first strike of a chord on the organ at church every Sunday.
Ours sure was. Yeesh.
You’re absolutely right! I was going to write that myself and expected to be pilloried for it, lol. It’s a gay trade, for some reason.
You’ve nailed almost all the reasons. I would add a few:
1) Most “organ” churches have become liberal, and the churches that are conservative in doctrine have become modernist in worship. Organists like Bach, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, and Widor were deeply Christian, and their organ playing and composing were an expression of their loving relationship with Christ. Today, someone who loves Christ that deeply is almost certainly going to go to a church whose doctrine reflects the Bible, and you won’t find that in an Episcopalian, ELCA, PCUSA, UMC, UCC, or half the Catholic congregations, which is where most of the pipe organs are found.
2) Until the early 20th century, the organ was the next best thing to an orchestra, because the only way one could hear music was to play it oneself or hire someone else to play it. Most people today have too much music in their lives, and don’t need a church to supply it for them, which causes #3...
3) In my Music Appreciation course, one of my assignments is for students to go without music for 24 hours. Most of them can’t, and many experience physical withdrawal symptoms. Music is no longer a door to the soul; instead, it is a collection of audio drugs affecting the brain the same way weed or crack or meth or blocks does. And I suspect this is as much true of the praise-and-worship music of many evangelistic churches.
What has changed now? Are incumbents staying on longer than they used to, thus depriving newcomers of opportunities? Has music school enrollment declined precipitously? The general inflation in college tuition costs is turning colleges more and more into vocational education. Music could be among the traditional disciplines affected.
The organist at my church sets off my Gaydar, but he has a wife and 3 daughters. I got to know him, so I pretty certain he isn’t a closeted one.
"Granted, it’s a field in which it takes little to be iconoclastic. Even with all the gay organists out there — some anecdotally guess church players are 70 percent gay in the U.S. — it’s a highly staid playing field. Churches that think musically outside the box are chucking the organ altogether in many cases, not thinking of ways to bring it into the 21st century." — The Blade
The guy on the right is more what you'll typically find behind the console!
My own church is starting, slowwwwly, to throw off the mantle of hippie Vatican II guitars and incorporate better music.
Nothing beats 4 part harmony though.
The Catholic Churches in my area have completely stopped using the organ for Mass. It is all piano all of the time. Also 100% Marty Haugen / David Haas show tunes. I call them Disney Masses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.