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.
I've met some like that too. In any case, I have no ill will toward any, and am particularly grateful that they bring glory to God in their own way. In fact, were it not for our noses being constantly rubbed in the details of their lifestyle, it's reasonable to believe in live and let live.
Just change the music to hip hop.
The organ isn’t a 21st century instrument. The guitar is the defining instrument, has been since the late 1950s—one can even see this in rock-and-roll, which is where the switch from piano (Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino) to guitar (Buddy Holly, Church Berry, Elvis) takes place. Moreover, synthesized music is so close to “natural” that the untrained ear can’t tell the difference, and so the organ has become as anachronistic as a Victrola.
I’d like to keep writing, but I have to get dressed and get to church to set up for my organ playing this morning. And to be fair, in all my decades of church music, I have known a few straight men organists, lots of straight old lady organists, and lots of homosexuals—I lost my first church job as choir director when the church was interviewing an organist (the church’s setup precluded the organist directing the music), and I told the pastor privately that it was evident the man was a homosexual, and the rest of the music committee, who also could tell, didn’t care, because he was talented. They didn’t hire the man, but then they fired me, and then they fired the pastor.
Posting, because this thread demands it.
Garden of Eden, by I. Ron Butterfly.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSCUhqsy4Nk
None of the 4 I’ve known was or is.
While I tend to agree with this, I have yet to find a Hammond B3 patch for a Roland, or Kersweil that is even close. There is nothing like a leslie on a b3.
I have not been in a church that uses an organ in years. I am the bass player on our worship team and occasionally we play a "bluesy" tune that a b3 would be nice, but other then that the organ would never get played. Don't get we wrong I love a good organ player youtube has some great videos of really good organist, but the appeal to the younger crowd just isn't there most of the time.
To me it is the engineering behind the instrument itself that I like.
“The one thing I learned is that every Church organist is a homosexual. Every single one. “
I was just thinking they might be. My cousin in Kentucky has his doctorate in music and plays church organs...and is a homosexual.
At one time it was that way.
"Playing with someone else's organ" is pretty much self-explanatory.
It hurts me to read that, though it’s as I have long expected. I’ve got a talented cousin with a degree in organ. He’s in his sixties and has lived far away from the rest of the family since the mid-70’s. He doesn’t give off a gay vibe, but he’s never married and never shown discernible interest in either girls or guys. From my vantage point he seems to have a monkish existence. He has become quite wealthy as an organist and his music projects keep him busy. His best friends are all women, but I think they are just close friends.
Dear Dinwiddle,
re: “ And the elevation of the the guitar to the instrument supreme has not helped.’
Call that one commercialization. It is more economical to find the particular type of Guitar strings desired when compared to a pipe organ technician or technical crew.
Having had an Ovation 6- and 12-stringer, getting ‘picky’ over which manufacturer and style of strings, sans pickups, was costly enough.
(When I had to put the head of the guitar to my skull to hear how I tuned the strings, it was time to say bye bye to the Ovations.)
I dated a master organist. No, they are not all gay.
I know one who is happily and traditionally married.
I know two that isn’t a homosexual, as well.
My son is getting his Master's in pipe organ at one of the top schools in the country.
He is a Christian conservative who voted for Trump - and is definitely not a sodomite.
There are a lot of sodomites out there though.
If you want mastery in a specialized skill, you cannot expect to harvest existing talent indefinitely. You have to train people for it.
The American Guild of Organists, in New York, has some 25,000 members, but few of them are active organists.
So what is needed is a new college for organists, subdivided into four parts: the organ as instruments (different kinds), maintaining and tuning of organs, organ performance, and historical clerical organ music.
The college should offer at least four “degrees”, the simplest of which is electronic organ and sectarian organ music and hymn and religious service performance.
Next would be organ and choir. A more traditional pipe organ layout with *manuals* (keyboards), pedals and stops.
Third would be the creation, maintenance and tuning degree.
And Fourth would be massive pipe organ and all that entails.
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.