Music & Liturgy, volume 33 number 3
Moderators: Dom Perignon, Casimir
Sound Reflections
Well, I read Paul Inwood's article about the use of instruments days before hearing Sunday Worship on Radio 4 this Sunday (28th October)
Listen here
Take the first hymn in this broadcast (around 4 minutes into the clip) - Immortal Invisible - an unglorious mix of all the instruments available with too heavy a beat on every note, and an example of what I imagine PI refers to as a model of how not to do it.
The same day at Mass, we sang Dear Lord and Father of mankind to the accompaniment of a couple of clarinets and a quiet bass guitar. The singing of the congregation won through, and that was all that mattered - so much better than many instruments fighting each other. Didn't even notice if the harmonisation or texture changed, all I noticed was the number of people singing, and they carried on singing in other songs when the accompaniment was on guitar, because guitar was the right instrument for the style of the piece.
So, those are my ramblings, prompted by an article in the latest issue of M&L.
Dot
Listen here
Take the first hymn in this broadcast (around 4 minutes into the clip) - Immortal Invisible - an unglorious mix of all the instruments available with too heavy a beat on every note, and an example of what I imagine PI refers to as a model of how not to do it.
The same day at Mass, we sang Dear Lord and Father of mankind to the accompaniment of a couple of clarinets and a quiet bass guitar. The singing of the congregation won through, and that was all that mattered - so much better than many instruments fighting each other. Didn't even notice if the harmonisation or texture changed, all I noticed was the number of people singing, and they carried on singing in other songs when the accompaniment was on guitar, because guitar was the right instrument for the style of the piece.
So, those are my ramblings, prompted by an article in the latest issue of M&L.
Dot
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docmattc
- Posts: 987
- Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:42 am
- Parish / Diocese: Westminster
- Location: Near Cambridge
Only got round to beginning to read parts of this issue in bed last night.
Val Goldsack's article was a great summary of the reality of the challenges of church music in a parish situation. Persuading congregations (and choirs, and clergy (present company excepted!)) to move on is one of the biggest hurdles we have to face, and much more relevant, I suspect, to many of our situations than academic discussion. She has been lucky in having a series of supportive PPs, and must have the patience of a saint. Had I been told by the choir master that "You have a lovely voice Pet, but the guitar is best kept for the folk club" (I forget the exact wording), said choir master would probably have found himself wearing my guitar!
I also read Aidan Rossiter's summary of the UL conference and am looking forward to finding time to follow up on the translations of the papers which follow. Aidan raises some interesting points, and I hope the editors heed his last couple of sentences.
Val Goldsack's article was a great summary of the reality of the challenges of church music in a parish situation. Persuading congregations (and choirs, and clergy (present company excepted!)) to move on is one of the biggest hurdles we have to face, and much more relevant, I suspect, to many of our situations than academic discussion. She has been lucky in having a series of supportive PPs, and must have the patience of a saint. Had I been told by the choir master that "You have a lovely voice Pet, but the guitar is best kept for the folk club" (I forget the exact wording), said choir master would probably have found himself wearing my guitar!
I also read Aidan Rossiter's summary of the UL conference and am looking forward to finding time to follow up on the translations of the papers which follow. Aidan raises some interesting points, and I hope the editors heed his last couple of sentences.
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docmattc
- Posts: 987
- Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:42 am
- Parish / Diocese: Westminster
- Location: Near Cambridge
I thought that this thread would have been a bit busier that it has been. Anyone actually read M&L?
I had to play "I watch the sunrise" at a funeral this week and it reminded me that it had a write up in M&L. I was a bit surprised to see it there as this is one of those pieces that I think of as "of its time" and never use now. The funeral congregation this week (like Sunday congregations in the 80s) failed miserably to count the long notes and came in all over the place.
I had to play "I watch the sunrise" at a funeral this week and it reminded me that it had a write up in M&L. I was a bit surprised to see it there as this is one of those pieces that I think of as "of its time" and never use now. The funeral congregation this week (like Sunday congregations in the 80s) failed miserably to count the long notes and came in all over the place.
I am so pleased to see Helen Murphy's piece on what I consider one of the best hymns we have, 'O God of earth and altar.' The question of a National Anthem came up again this week. This would be a great one. GKC's forthright words with RVW's use of High Germany is a wonderful combination. I read it as soon as my copy arrived, and just as we had at last started singing it here.
Thanks, Helen.
Paul Inwood makes some excellent points about over instrumentation. Wouldn't it be loverly if all guitarists could be told, as I was not long after I started playing, 'You can PLAY that thing, don't scrub!'
We sang the Russian Kyrie a capella today, and it worked really well, partly because I've had a bit of a push on getting people to turn up to play and sing and we actually had four male voices for the bottom line, and the congregation went for it. We always sing the psalm verses unaccompanied.
Once or twice we have slipped when the music starts for the response, but very rarely.
Val Goldsack traces a journey many of us have taken, thanks Val.
V
Thanks, Helen.
Paul Inwood makes some excellent points about over instrumentation. Wouldn't it be loverly if all guitarists could be told, as I was not long after I started playing, 'You can PLAY that thing, don't scrub!'
We sang the Russian Kyrie a capella today, and it worked really well, partly because I've had a bit of a push on getting people to turn up to play and sing and we actually had four male voices for the bottom line, and the congregation went for it. We always sing the psalm verses unaccompanied.
Once or twice we have slipped when the music starts for the response, but very rarely.
Val Goldsack traces a journey many of us have taken, thanks Val.
V
Music and Liturgy, volume 33 number 3
With reference to the details about instrumentation in Paul Inwood's and Val Goldsack's articles (both worth reading, especially the latter), could I draw attention to the various contributions to the 'Tips for Composing and Arranging' and 'Tips for Organists' threads in the 'Sounds Off' section of this website. I have long felt that the full potential for the use of instruments in church (other than organs) has never been properly exploited; so I am sure that any further suggestions on these threads would be most welcome. The key points for me seem to be as follows, but I am sure people can think of others:
(1) First, following up on Paul's remarks about the need to avoid writing for all the available instruments all of the time (repeated in Val's article), one needs to think about writing specifically for the quality of the instruments (and the calibre of their performers) one has available. In other words, we must get away from the concept of the 'all purpose part' (although I can see, from the point of view of publishers, that this is a useful way for maximising sales).
(2) In turn this means we must get away from the idea that the dots on a printed page cannot be changed. Only when this is done can the full potential of the instruments one has available be freely exploited. Judging by the contents of some old collections I have seen people had few inhibitions of this sort in the early nineteenth century!
(3) We need to break out of existing habits when arranging for organ. Present attitudes often seem to stem from an era when the Pipe Organ was king and no other instruments were used alongside it. This often results in a crude approach to colouration - just stacking up 2", 4" and 8" 'families' of stops (Flutes, Reeds etc), or an unthinking usage of 'pre-packaged' combinations of sounds. In the Catholic church this 'Pipe Organ-Choir' monopoly, with all its attendant limitations, was only officially endorsed in 1903 with Pius X's motu proprio 'Tra Le Sollectudini'. Before that there was a rich tradition of combining instruments with organs, most obviously in Masses by Haydn, Mozart and their nineteenth-century successors. Likewise for earlier periods on the Continent works by Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi reveal a thoroughly experimental approach to instrumentation, including the use of lutes and theorbos. If one was over-simple, one might even regard these instruments as seventeenth-century equivalents to the guitars and bass guitars used by Val. Note, for instance, how Lute tablature and Figured Bass systems are the 'ancient' version of the modern chord symbols and Guitar tabulate. Now at present the situation is very fluid. We have a vast array of different sorts of electronic keyboards, including, of course, digital organs. The latter are not the same as Pipe Organs, although they can be made to sound similar to them. This is because the method of sound production is different and the use of speakers opens up the potential for a more directed balance of sound. In other words the canard that they are 'inferior' to Pipe Organs is unfair. They are different instruments, and as such they have equal potential. Second, if we use instruments alongside them, we need to rethink not just our choice of stops, but they way we use the manuals. For instance we have the option of separating the melody (on a solo instrument) from the accompaniment (given on the organ). This means that 'vamp' style accompaniments on the organ (hitherto despised) are likely to be more commonplace, and the way we treat this therefore becomes a much more important issue. In this context we should note the divide between those keyboards without a sustaining pedal and those with it will in the long run be eliminated. Third, we must think more carefully about how we can amplify instruments so that they can balance more effectively with powerful organs. A repudiation of the contemptuous attitude still adopted by some musicians towards the use of microphones is an essential first step. After all, microphones are used as a matter of course by officiating clergy and readers in most churches. Microphones, when used properly, do not simply produce a distortion of the 'natural' balance and timbre of the sounds fed into them; they open up new musical options, as any Pop musician knows. This especially applies, of course, to electric guitars and bass guitars.
Val's article was very valuable in another sense, namely the fact that it provides a record of developing practice. We should have many more articles of this nature, not simply as a means of 'comparing notes', but also as a matter of record. In particular it really shows how much one person has had to struggle against the almost cripplingly limited musical resources (human, financial, technical) and the problems of developing musical skills prevalent in many parts of the English Catholic church. Her experience also illustrates the constraints imposed by earlier habits of thought and practice, especially those inherent in the 'choir-pipe organ' nexus. When the liturgical musical pundits (in the Vatican and elsewhere) try to foist further (often conservative) changes and directives on local musicians they would do well to bear these points in mind. After all the vast majority of Catholic church musicians are volunteers. Whilst I do certainly not endorse the idea that such musicians should impose their taste on congregations and clergy we should remember that 'Beggars cannot be choosers'!
Thomas Muir
(1) First, following up on Paul's remarks about the need to avoid writing for all the available instruments all of the time (repeated in Val's article), one needs to think about writing specifically for the quality of the instruments (and the calibre of their performers) one has available. In other words, we must get away from the concept of the 'all purpose part' (although I can see, from the point of view of publishers, that this is a useful way for maximising sales).
(2) In turn this means we must get away from the idea that the dots on a printed page cannot be changed. Only when this is done can the full potential of the instruments one has available be freely exploited. Judging by the contents of some old collections I have seen people had few inhibitions of this sort in the early nineteenth century!
(3) We need to break out of existing habits when arranging for organ. Present attitudes often seem to stem from an era when the Pipe Organ was king and no other instruments were used alongside it. This often results in a crude approach to colouration - just stacking up 2", 4" and 8" 'families' of stops (Flutes, Reeds etc), or an unthinking usage of 'pre-packaged' combinations of sounds. In the Catholic church this 'Pipe Organ-Choir' monopoly, with all its attendant limitations, was only officially endorsed in 1903 with Pius X's motu proprio 'Tra Le Sollectudini'. Before that there was a rich tradition of combining instruments with organs, most obviously in Masses by Haydn, Mozart and their nineteenth-century successors. Likewise for earlier periods on the Continent works by Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi reveal a thoroughly experimental approach to instrumentation, including the use of lutes and theorbos. If one was over-simple, one might even regard these instruments as seventeenth-century equivalents to the guitars and bass guitars used by Val. Note, for instance, how Lute tablature and Figured Bass systems are the 'ancient' version of the modern chord symbols and Guitar tabulate. Now at present the situation is very fluid. We have a vast array of different sorts of electronic keyboards, including, of course, digital organs. The latter are not the same as Pipe Organs, although they can be made to sound similar to them. This is because the method of sound production is different and the use of speakers opens up the potential for a more directed balance of sound. In other words the canard that they are 'inferior' to Pipe Organs is unfair. They are different instruments, and as such they have equal potential. Second, if we use instruments alongside them, we need to rethink not just our choice of stops, but they way we use the manuals. For instance we have the option of separating the melody (on a solo instrument) from the accompaniment (given on the organ). This means that 'vamp' style accompaniments on the organ (hitherto despised) are likely to be more commonplace, and the way we treat this therefore becomes a much more important issue. In this context we should note the divide between those keyboards without a sustaining pedal and those with it will in the long run be eliminated. Third, we must think more carefully about how we can amplify instruments so that they can balance more effectively with powerful organs. A repudiation of the contemptuous attitude still adopted by some musicians towards the use of microphones is an essential first step. After all, microphones are used as a matter of course by officiating clergy and readers in most churches. Microphones, when used properly, do not simply produce a distortion of the 'natural' balance and timbre of the sounds fed into them; they open up new musical options, as any Pop musician knows. This especially applies, of course, to electric guitars and bass guitars.
Val's article was very valuable in another sense, namely the fact that it provides a record of developing practice. We should have many more articles of this nature, not simply as a means of 'comparing notes', but also as a matter of record. In particular it really shows how much one person has had to struggle against the almost cripplingly limited musical resources (human, financial, technical) and the problems of developing musical skills prevalent in many parts of the English Catholic church. Her experience also illustrates the constraints imposed by earlier habits of thought and practice, especially those inherent in the 'choir-pipe organ' nexus. When the liturgical musical pundits (in the Vatican and elsewhere) try to foist further (often conservative) changes and directives on local musicians they would do well to bear these points in mind. After all the vast majority of Catholic church musicians are volunteers. Whilst I do certainly not endorse the idea that such musicians should impose their taste on congregations and clergy we should remember that 'Beggars cannot be choosers'!
Thomas Muir
T.E.Muir