Just typed that as Scared Music, often the case for various reasons, a Freudian Slap, no less.
Anyway, someone has lent me some back issues and I thought I'd better get reading so I went for the Autumn 2007 one as it's the one after July 2007 and we all know what happened then.
Lots of interesting nuggets
On Cantors not using microphones - it's grating having one voice dominating. Also, totally unnatural. You are standing facing one way and your voice is coming out of speakers all round the place. How weird. Another strain on the poor congregation. Electronically amplified sound - yuck. I say leave people alone and let's have a bit of quiet. Everywhere else is so noisy. (Maybe the hearing aid system could pick up the sound, broadcast it to hearing aids and not send it through speakers round the Church. )
Very interesting article on 'The freedom to love our heritage' by Jeffrey Tucker, rather than going on about the bad old days and being smug about how clever we all are now. Basically, the Motu Proprio saying the 'olen days' was good and they are not to be blanked out as, 'back then.' A friend of mine once took issue with a speaker at a school INSET course, when he started along the lines of how simpleton people were in the past. My friend pointed out that he was talking about his parents, who were married for over 40 years and sacrificed much so that their local Church and Catholic School was built. Muppets clearly.
Interesting stuff on the Ward Method. Sounds great, when do I get to teach it? Never seen her compared to Orff and Kodaly. She's right up there. Kodaly is groovy, if you are into Hungarian Folk Songs, but in a Catholic set up plainsong would be the ideal.
Meantime, I notice on Fr Z's blog that someone else has ishoos with the tritone at the start of 'On Eagles Wings.' We must form a club.
3 comments:
ALL microphones should be banned from churches. Period!
I noticed the other week that the organist for the mass after ours, the Polish Mass, has his own portable microphone that he sets up on the organ. If I had the stamina to stay and listen I would. I'm intrigued to know what he sings. Singing organists are a rare breed.
Groovy. I often sing the beginning of verse 1, just in case no-one in the Congregation remembers to start singing. Just to save that quaver worth of, 'Is there a serious acoustical delay here, are they going to sing late or just not sing at all?'
Once at a school Mass in the local Parish I did a solo for the whole hymn mind you because the person putting the hymn numbers up got the wrong number out. The numbers were the other side of a pillar so I couldn't see them.....All part of the rich musical tapestry of Music Teaching.
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