MUSIC ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON
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My career, such as it has been, has been
aided and abetted by some good musicians. If you know anything about the
retail religion business, music is pretty important. In my case it is especially
important due to my general lack of musical skill. I like it, but can't do
it.
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I was thinking of this while mesmerized
during a recent Sunday afternoon concert of Fauré’s Requiem. To have
such a concert on a Sunday afternoon is an act of faith. It's not prime time
for staying awake. And who needs a Requiem? But a great orchestra and choir
pulled it off. My long-time colleague and friend, Paul Pritchard, had a major
and difficult solo in the Offertoire portion. How he pulled it off, in Latin,
no less, and with a French accent to boot, I can’t imagine. The choirmaster
was quite pleased. Of course, I've heard Paul sing all sorts of things over
36 years. After all, he was the first person we hired when I moved to Corvallis
in 1970, and he has remained the musician through all the 28 plus years of
Moment Ministries.
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I thought of the choirmaster I inherited
when we first moved to California. Ken Salter came with the very fine Tudor
gothic sanctuary and a very fine pipe organ. His choir was enhanced by four
paid soloists, which was the norm for high class church choirs I guess. He
was an exceptional musician and director. I always felt like I was breaking
into a holy moment whenever I stepped into the pulpit following one of his
anthems. It was Ken who first led us into experimenting with non-traditional
music which grew out of his Master's project at USC. He learned guitar to
help it go. Although classical music was his personal style, he saw how
the folk style drew people who weren't especially musically sophisticated.
We created a separate service using that music. Ken and his wife, Marilyn,
were personal friends during those years and have remained so ever since.
I remembered that the only other time I heard Fauré’s Requiem was
when Ken directed it in our church in California.
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Even my very first church was aided by
music. The first organist we had couldn't even read music. But she was a
good musician in other respects. Her inability to provide key notes for the
bass and tenor sections greatly disturbed those singers. But she was great
in keeping the tune line going with a decisive beat. The congregation loved
to sing as she played that old electric organ. I believe that spirited singing
helped move that church from nearly closing into a new building with double
services. I was sorry when she moved, and even more sorry when she died
in a tragic accident. She was succeeded by a well-trained organist who also
had a close feeling for the spirit of a song and could help the congregation
to sing. In later years, when being gay was a thing to make an issue about,
I heard that he had left that church. If I had been there it would have
been over my dead body.
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Some clergy are good musicians in their
own right. I envied them. On the other hand, I had my hands full doing too
many things already. I hope that I encouraged my musical colleagues and gave
them space to do what they could do far better than anything I could imagine.
My sense is that if I were doing a church career again I would make music
an even bigger part of my agenda. While Lutherans and Episcopalians and some
others seem to get by with what seems to me to be quite dreadful hymn singing,
think what they might do with some help from my friends Paul and Ken. Of course,
Ken once worked for the Lutheran's. I’ll have to ask whether I am misjudging.
After all, it was Martin Luther who established Protestant hymnology based
on bar room tunes.
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I'm swimming over my head right
now. What I really wanted to do was credit my musical associates for a whole
lot of the good things that happened to me in my clergying career.
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I was chatting with some of the singers
after the Requiem. One was originally ordained in the Christian Church, as
I was…and as Paul was. The other soloist was once a choir director in a Christian
Church. None of them knew this about the others. I asked one of them about
the words and the theology and the biblical interpretation of the texts in
these songs. He said, “I don't pay any attention to the theology. I don't
believe any of it. It's the music and the spirit that makes me sing.”
Interesting, I thought, that spirit in music rises above the words. I always
liked it best if the two connected, but in case of doubt I put my faith in
spirit.
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Anyway, that's
the report from a Sunday afternoon concert in winter. Sing on!
─ Art Morgan, March 2006
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