Bet you never had this!

[Psalm Project]

This is one for the annals!
Last week we took delivery of a brand new Phoenix three manual beauty! It was used for the first time at the vigil mass last Saturday.
That's not the story... PM me if you want the glowing reaction...
After I had played a fairly careful selection of pieces after mass a little elderly lady came up to me and caught me by the arm saying - "are you trying to deafen me"... Now, just in case you thinking I was peeling the paint off the wall with volume - I was not. It was very normal.
It was the Purcell Trumpet tune. Swell to mixture with the great trumpet happily collaborating! Nowhere even remotely near ear splitting!

TONIGHT... wait for it... the same lady was going around handing people small yellow 'things'... My curiosity got the better of me... My PP also noticed...
After mass we discovered that she was handing out those neoprene ear defenders!!! God almighty!!!
I think it is a first and maybe should be in the Guinness book of records!
It made for some interesting conversation in the sacristy afterwards... and a few giggles. No, maybe sad is a better word. Or perhaps downright rude!
There are times when I question why I bother and keep doing this work!

[Nick Baty]

Read Euphemia McFarrigle and the Laughing Virgin by Christopher Whyte: Reverend Mother issues all the sisters with earplugs – to prevent pregnancy.

[keitha]

Many years ago I was giving a recital on a large symphonic style organ and I got to Dieu Parmi Nous (my big finale) and out of the corner of my eye saw my dear old mum (who had been given a seat near the organ) take her hearing aid out!

[Peter]

A few years ago, before the vigil Mass, the guitarist and I were running through a new Gloria that we were introducing that evening. The guitarist was playing (an acoustic instrument) and I was singing, in an otherwise empty church apart from two early arrivals for Mass, who were sitting in the body of the church, trying to chat. After a while, one of them came up to me and said, slightly indignantly, "My friend is asking if you really need to use that much amplification? It's impossible to talk out there!" In fact, we weren't using any amplification at all, apart from the natural reverberation of the empty building! Fortunately, when it came to the Mass, the extra bodies in the church absorbed a lot of the sound, and the Gloria in question has since become well established.

A while before that, we had a concert in the same church, at which some people put their hands over their ears while I was singing, whether because of the sheer volume or the quality of the performance I don't know!

[lesley wright]

I wonder if it's a peculiarly Roman thing? I had pretty much the same experience this morning in my parish church: at the end of Mass one of the old dears came up to complain that the organ was 'far too loud today, in fact it hurt my ear drums' (needless to say, there were no more stops out this morning than there normally are, and in fact for much of the Mass there were very few). This afternoon I attended Evensong in the Anglican cathedral where I used to work, as the Assistant Organist is leaving after 25 years: he certainly did pull almost all the stops out (you could have heard the instrument in the streets outside despite the constant traffic that flows past the building) and all he got at the end was a most enthusiastic round of applause.

[pirate]

Some time last year I was in Canterbury Cathedral for a friend's degree assessment (MA, organ studies, I think). Well, it was brilliant, but boy, was it loud! As I sat there, feeling the vibrations through the wood of the choir stalls, I gazed upwards to the pipes in the triforium, then followed the graceful arches ... to the priceless 12th century stained glass! Eek!

Still, none of it fell out. I guess it's used to the sound the organ makes...

[johnquinn39]

I wonder if it's a peculiarly Roman thing? I had pretty much the same experience this morning in my parish church: at the end of Mass one of the old dears came up to complain that the organ was 'far too loud today, in fact it hurt my ear drums' (needless to say, there were no more stops out this morning than there normally are, and in fact for much of the Mass there were very few). This afternoon I attended Evensong in the Anglican cathedral where I used to work, as the Assistant Organist is leaving after 25 years: he certainly did pull almost all the stops out (you could have heard the instrument in the streets outside despite the constant traffic that flows past the building) and all he got at the end was a most enthusiastic round of applause.

In my church, we have 24/7 exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (in the side chapel). When I practice the organ, I generally use an 8 ft stopped flute with the box closed. (To be fair, some adorers like the music and have said so).

I have lost count of the number of times I have been yelled at by certain perpetual adorers for being 'too loud'.

However, these people never complain when the church is being cleaned (vacuum at full blast), or when over-apmlified Gospel singers perform at 'youth masses'.

[Nick Baty]

I've had complains about "that fella with the big trumpet (trombone) playing all them loud notes". I presume she means the trumpet as our trombonist always complains that I write too low for him to get any real volume.

[NorthernTenor]

I wonder if it's a peculiarly Roman thing? I had pretty much the same experience this morning in my parish church: at the end of Mass one of the old dears came up to complain that the organ was 'far too loud today, in fact it hurt my ear drums' (needless to say, there were no more stops out this morning than there normally are, and in fact for much of the Mass there were very few). This afternoon I attended Evensong in the Anglican cathedral where I used to work, as the Assistant Organist is leaving after 25 years: he certainly did pull almost all the stops out (you could have heard the instrument in the streets outside despite the constant traffic that flows past the building) and all he got at the end was a most enthusiastic round of applause.

It may sometimes be a deaf-aid thing - better fitted than usual, or a new one that's either much better, or which doesn't cope well with certain frequencies.

[Hare]

Found this http://www.canticanova.com/articles/misc/art7bl1.htm

Soon after our new digital job was installed last year, I had a direct "too loud" complaint. Stupidly, I adjusted the output volume control before Mass. I totally "lost" the congregation in "Faith of our fathers". I duly reset the volume afterwards and have had neither complaint or problem with keeping them together since! Perhaps I was not so stupid after all!

[Mithras]

In my church, we have 24/7 exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (in the side chapel). When I practice the organ, I generally use an 8 ft stopped flute with the box closed. (To be fair, some adorers like the music and have said so).

Does this mean that the Blessed Sacrament is exposed while Mass is being celebrated? I thought that was not permitted....

M

[Hare]

In my church, we have 24/7 exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (in the side chapel). When I practice the organ, I generally use an 8 ft stopped flute with the box closed. (To be fair, some adorers like the music and have said so).

So how are you supposed to practice registration/balance etc?

[docmattc]

In my church, we have 24/7 exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (in the side chapel).

John's comment took the thread off in a new direction about simultaneous Mass and Exposition. I've split this off into a new thread

[organist]

I say deafen them! What's wrong with a grand sound evoking the glory of God occasionally? And you are quite right about people ignoring vacuum cleaners and even vacuuming while the organist is practising and shouting over the noise of that! Mind you I also love quiet organ music!