Organless

As previously reported, the organ at St. Stephen Martyr is broken and no longer playable. That is unfortunate, but it shouldn't be that much of a problem for the music program there, since they have a grand piano in the nave. I don't know if they are being passive-aggressive or just trying to blackmail wealthy parishioners into ponying up for the new $1 million pipe organ or what, but this morning's Mass was done with no piano or instrumental accompaniment whatsoever. It was awful. I know the piano isn't broken too, because the organist played a little improv as filler during communion.

Now, throughout history, the Church has been able to hold beautiful religious services without instrumental accompaniment with just choirs and congregations singing. The difference, though, between those services and the music this morning at St. Stephen's is that the old unaccompanied masses used music—Gregorian chant, typically—which was designed for such purposes. Further, the choirs and congregations knew the music well, so it could be sung simply and automatically. St. Stephen's attempted to use the same mass settings, hymns, and other musical items which they always use when the organ is up and running, and that music was all designed to be performed with instrumental accompaniment.

Certainly I'm very sympathetic to the unappreciated hard work of church choristers, but the choir at St. Stephen's is just too small (three women and two men, plus the organist and the cantoress as available) and insufficiently professional to be able to pull off this kind of service without accompaniment. What's worse, they often tried to sing four-part harmony that was seldom in tune and several times the sopranos attempted some extremely painful descants. The organist joined in with the cantoress a few times to help sing some of the service music and antiphons, but I wish he'd learn not to use vibrato when chanting plainsong (this is a regular issue, though, not one limited to today).

The other nightmare was attempting to gain congregational music participation. The entrance hymn (We three Kings) seemed to catch the congregation off guard, and there was some weak attempt to join in on the refrain. The parts of the service which are normally chanted a capella (Confiteor, Kyrie, Alleluia, prayers of the faithful, Our Father, Agnus Dei) came off okay (though the tag at the end of the Our Father was a bit of a train wreck). The congregation lacked confidence, though, for the usually-accompanied Gloria and Psalm, as well as for the communion procession antiphon (they never sing that, anyway). They do the consecration portions of the Proulx A Community Mass here, but congregations are just not wont to sing out for the high notes without some accompaniment support; this mass setting was written to be sung with accompaniment! Consequently, the Sanctus/Benedictus was awful and no one (including the choir!) had a clue as to the starting pitches for the memorial acclamation and great Amen.

Starting pitches also reared their ugly head with congregational hymns. They did "The First Nowell" for an offertory hymn, and the cantoress started on such a high pitch that I had to sing two octaves lower! Much of the congregation which was actually attempting to sing found it too high, too, only they opted to go with the old technique of when the music gets too high, just screech out the highest monotone noise one can make. It was funny because the next thing she led was the Sanctus, and she started that one too low. For the recessional hymn (Salzburg: Songs of thankfulness and praise), the organist with pursed lips banged out a starting pitch before she starting singing that one. Didn't really matter—the congregation didn't sing that hymn either.

On the good side, the choir sang an unaccompanied "Brightest and best of the stars of the morning" from Southern Harmony for a communion motet which was pleasant. I really wish this parish would use their choir to sing an offertory anthem instead of doing offertory hymns which most of the congregation doesn't sing, and then do the communion motet during communion with that silly communion procession antiphon hymn (which the congregation also doesn't sing) being merely a time filler after the motet. This parish is sorely in need of a liturgist.

The church was still decorated for Christmas and was very pretty. They had two big evergreen wreaths on the east wall flanking the tabernacle and four enormous, fat fir trees in the sanctuary, all of which were covered with white miniature lights. They had displays of red and salmon poinsettias in front of the altar, in front of the ambo, and other places in the sanctuary to add splashes of color.

The pastor showed up after Mass to help greet people as they left the church. I started to tell him my opinion of the music situation, then I thought better of it (at least in that venue) and just told him he looked cute in his red sash (he's a newly created monsignor). I don't know whether I'll chat with him about it or not.

I may go to St. Paul's tonight for my music fix. They are doing a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols for Epiphanytide with their men and boys choir. I hope it's good. The choir may be burned out, though, after all the extra music they have to do for Advent and Christmas (they did both Advent and Christmas lessons and carols in addition to all the regular holiday and Sunday services). We shall see.

If anybody wants to go tonight (it's at six), let me know—I could do with some company.