The Organist is Dead

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 7/31/14 | Richard Ingrams

[knittnmom]

Ping for later.

[.45 Long Colt]

I love organs both at church and at St. Louis Cardinal baseball games.

Here’s the great Cardinal organist, Mr. Ernie Hays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aygALzju9yw

[miele man]

for later read

[CrazyIvan]

I am seriously jealous. My choir director turned pages for Biggs when he was 12 and still considers it one of the high points of his life.

[Fast Moving Angel]

Contemporary “song” just turns me off.

I'm with you. Despite the "joyful noise" admonition, I don't think there's anything more out of place in a service than electric guitars and a full drum set.

[slowhandluke]

I don’t mind organ music, and can enjoy it if the organist is young enough. I’m of the belief that as older organists lose hearing in the higher ranges, they just pull out the stops a bit further to compensate. And when played like that, it sounds like someone is torturing cats. They don’t seem to hear the screams, but it can drive me from the church.

[IronJack]

It was the dedication concert for the pipe organ at Eppley Auditorium on the campus of Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. I was just a kid taking piano lessons and my mom thought it might inspire me to learn to play the organ as well.

It inspired me all right, but I never learned to play the organ like THAT. I’d give anything to be left alone in that auditorium for an hour after someone “mistakenly” left the engine running on that beast ...