Liturgical Ukulele?

[docmattc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2009/takepart/ukulele/?ensemble

[Nick Baty]

There appears to be something of a renaissance in the ukulele world.
Quite a number of our students – not just music students – are carrying them around and I've noticed them for sale, in every colour of the rainbow, in several local music shops.
The ukulele-playing octogenarian dad of one my colleagues is much in demand in local bars.
Might we see the return of Tessie O'Shea?

[NorthernTenor]

I can report that SSoSG's second cousin twice removed, Spode Music Week, has experienced a similar enthusiam, to the point where it has arranged Uke worshops, and its younger members have spontaneously formed Uke ensembles. No liturgical use, however, as that would fall foul of canon law forbidding strumming in church .

[VML]

Sing praise with the sound of trumpet,
Sing praise with the lute and harp.
Sing praise with timbrel and dance,
Sing praise with strings and pipes.
Sing praise with resounding cymbals,
Sing praise with the clashing of cymbals.
Let everything that lives and breathes
Give praise to the Lord. Alleluia! (Psalm 150:3-6)

[Nick Baty]

So does the ukulele belong to the lute family?

[VML]

Definitely more a lute than a cymbal..

[NorthernTenor]

Sing praise with the sound of trumpet,
Sing praise with the lute and harp.
Sing praise with timbrel and dance,
Sing praise with strings and pipes.
Sing praise with resounding cymbals,
Sing praise with the clashing of cymbals.
Let everything that lives and breathes
Give praise to the Lord. Alleluia! (Psalm 150:3-6)

Just so long as it doesn't strum ...

[Southern Comfort]

Just so long as it doesn't strum ...

Probably true of ukuleles, but the "feathery" single strums of a top guitarist such as William Ackerman are just what's needed for some liturgical accompaniments....

[festivaltrumpet]

No liturgical use, however, as that would fall foul of canon law forbidding strumming in church

I have searched the 1983 Code of Canon Law for several keywords relating to musical instruments. Unfortunately this search failed to find any reference whatsoever. I would be grateful if you could supply a reference to the appropriate Canon?

[VML]

And while we are looking at the suitability or otherwise of less usual instruments for liturgical use, what about the free reeds? The harmonium has been used in churches and chapels, including the convent chapel of my own school. Yet would we admit accordions, melodeons or concertinas now?
I know someone, a superb sensitive guitarist/ accompanist who does use an English concertina in his Methodist church when no other melody instrument is available. The most recent previous owner of my Wheatstone English concertina played in the Salvation Army, and that image is one that receives a certain amount of riducule now. Yet it is a beautiful chromatic instrument.
Probaly more suitable than the ukelele.

[NorthernTenor]

No liturgical use, however, as that would fall foul of canon law forbidding strumming in church

I have searched the 1983 Code of Canon Law for several keywords relating to musical instruments. Unfortunately this search failed to find any reference whatsoever. I would be grateful if you could supply a reference to the appropriate Canon?

Please forgive me for the effort I inadvertantly put you to, FT, and note the emoticon in my original post.

[Nick Baty]

I have searched the 1983 Code of Canon Law for several keywords relating to musical instruments. Unfortunately this search failed to find any reference whatsoever.

It wasn't in Canon Law but in Pius X's 1903 Motu Proprio, Tra le sollecitudini where he banned the piano and “all noisy or irreverent instruments such as drums, kettledrums, cymbals, triangles and so on".

Although "only for some special reason, after the consent of the bishop has been obtained, may a certain number of specially-chosen wind instruments be allowed, which must be carefully selected and suitable to their object."

I seem to remember that, at some stage, trombones had been banned because, in the theatre, they were used to represent the underworld. Not sure if this earlier, but Pius X certainly objected to anything “reminiscent of theatrical pieces."

Pius’s call for music to be the servant of the liturgy rather than its master was largely ignored at the time and has only been taken on board in relatively recent times and then in so few establishments.

[dmu3tem]

Personally I think that the actual type of instrument one uses in a church service is neutral. What matters is the way it is used and the connotations that arise from that. Basically then, I am in favour of using any instrument that is available. Not to do so results in a failure to make full use of the (God given) talent that is around. Indeed, only a moment's thought reveals how limiting the consequences of accumulated church traditions can be on the effective use, not only of instruments one does not usually associate with church - such as the ukelele, but on those we do have. For example, how often when a piano is used is the full range of techniques we know it is capable of in all sorts of musical genres (Classical, Jazz, Popular etc) not employed? Partly, this is because hymn book publishers often want to have 'all purpose' parts that can be played on an organ, or a piano or some other keyboard.

This means that an essential skill for any church music director is the ability to arrange music so that appropriate and fully effective use can be made of the instruments (and voices) available. This is the art of instrumentation.

[lesley wright]

I'm sure Thomas is absolutely right. The problem with the Ukulele is that it suffers even more than the Guitar from the problems we experienced about 30+ years ago - you can get by with three or four chords and virtually no skill. The resultant sound always seemed to me so bad that we'd have been better off singing a capella. It seems to me guitarists have improved immeasurably since those days; perhaps the ukulele players may improve as well.
The Sage Gateshead has about eighty ukulele players all aged over fifty (the oldest are well into their 80s) who've been learning, some of them, for over a year now. They still don't seem to know sufficient chords to enable them to accompany anything other than the most trite of songs, but they get a huge amount of satisfaction from it. Some of them from time to time ask if I wouldn't like to join them - I mutter something but think it inappropriate to say that I played the Uke at the age of 12 and don't fancy regressing into my second childhood just yet.
Timps, on the other hand, despite what any Pope may have said in the past, add a huge amount to a big festive liturgy.
L