This Vancouver church will use a bouncy castle to power their organ

From Vancouver-

Science is a wonderful thing, if for no other reason than its many applications to simply explain the complexities of the world around us.

You can take baking soda, mix in some vinegar and the next you know, you’ve got a simulated volcanic eruption in your kitchen.

Take an organ, for example. Or more specifically, its parts. The pipes need air to make sound, but where that air comes from doesn’t particularly matter.

The folks at Holy Trinity Anglican Church will capitalize on that fact Saturday when Michael Park channels his inner Bill Nye.

More here-

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2018/08/24/vancouver-church-bouncy-castle-organ/

Churches struggling to find organists

From Baltimore-

When the longtime organist at St. John's Episcopal Church in Havre de Grace announced her retirement last fall, the leaders of the small 200-year-old congregation faced a bigger challenge than they knew.

Music — particularly the music of the organ — is central to the life of the church. Members say the instrument's rich sounds complement their liturgy, inspire congregational singing and even seem to invite the Holy Spirit into their presence.

But a six-month search has turned up just one potential applicant. Church leaders are trying every new strategy they can think of to get things moving.

"We're praying and trying to stay optimistic, but this we had no idea how challenging this would be," says parishioner Casi Tomarchio, a member of the search committee. "There aren't enough organists out there."
More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-church-organist-shortage-20170407-story.html

Despite popularity of praise bands, some area churches still investing in pipe organs

From Ohio-

If this doesn’t sum up the current state of organ music in church worship services, nothing does: An established church in Anderson Township is having a replacement organ built, in part using pipes donated from an organ that a new congregation in Covington had removed from an old church in order to make room for their band.

For centuries, the majestic sounds of the pipe organ filled Christian church services worldwide. In older, mainline Christian churches, the organ’s still a vital part of the worship service.

But in newer churches, where rock ’n’ roll music is played, the drum kit and guitar have taken its place.

More here-


http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/despite-popularity-of-praise-bands-some-area-churches-still-investing-in-pipe-organs

Lionel Richie Shares Hilarious Tale of Writing 'We Are the World' With Michael Jackson

From the "Who Would Have Guessed Department"-

Richie met his Commodore bandmates while a freshman at Tuskegee Institute and he revealed how their first gig, at a freshman talent show, changed his life. “The most amazing thing happened,” he said. “Girls started screaming [as I performed]. I was going to be an Episcopal priest, but that girl screamed on the front row and I called the bishop and said I didn’t think I was cut out for the cloth.”

By the time he was a senior,  The Commodores were opening for the Jackson 5 and each band member was pulling down at least $200,000 per year. What followed was more than a decade of massive hits, including “Easy,” “Three Times A Lady,” “Brickhouse,” and “Lady (You Bring Me Up).” 

More here-

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/grammys/6874792/kevin-spacey-lionel-richie-musicares-grammy

Who do you want to be?

From The Living Church-

Politicians — at least the ones running for president — love theme campaign songs. I don’t know if it’s because they believe they’re a quick way to get a crowd fired up, or if it makes them feel like superheros or professional wrestlers. Whatever the reason, they like playing them when they come out to speak. Sometimes they get in trouble for using songs without permission, especially if their political views don’t align with those of the artist.

Sometimes, the songs politicians pick may reveal something about their personality or their values. A politician who chose the Avett Brother’s song “Ill with want” as their theme would likely get my vote.

The Avetts are one of my favorite bands, hailing from my home state of North Carolina. The guys from Concord have been getting some attention for the past few years, but for a while they labored on while being outshone in the public eye by some of the bands they’d influenced, like Mumford and Sons. The Avetts were raised in a church going family and occasionally still sing gospel songs with their dad and other family members at their concerts or at festivals like Merlefest.

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2016/01/25/who-do-you-want-to-be/

Technology updates pipe organs, but not without controversy

From Boston-

 Doug Marshall wasn’t thrilled with what he heard.

Seated at a makeshift desk at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, the organ maker ascended the keys of a plastic keyboard he’d propped on a pew to his side. A laptop glowed before him. But the real object of his attention stood by the altar: Opus 10, his newly minted digital organ with four keyboards, a gleaming shell of burnished wood, and the full sonic force, filigree, and thunder of 9,000 pipes — all without a pipe to be found.

Along with his business partner, David Ogletree, Marshall had been at work on the instrument for more than a year, their crew soldering components, wiring circuitry, and fine-tuning software. All told, the organ boasted more than 6 miles of wire, 72 speakers, and 18,000 watts of power. Now, as Marshall sat in St. Matthew’s 19th-century nave, their work was nearing completion: Opus 10 (the 10th instrument they’ve built together) would finally — finally! — receive its voice.

More here-

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/10/03/needhamorgans/bCve3SZd9fa4mBmxaInyJI/story.html

What an Episcopal priest learned from singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

From Salt Lake City-

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Boston when I stepped into the Citi Performing Arts Center to rehearse with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Because I had expressed interest in writing a piece about the famous choir, I was invited to be a “singing guest,” which meant I participated in a two-hour sound check, or a pre-performance rehearsal, to see how a choir sounds in a new space. I was given a reserved seat in the soprano section. Upon arrival, choir members helped me arrange a black folder brimful with sheet music into the correct order.

More here-

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865633892/What-an-Episcopal-priest-learned-from-singing-with-the-Mormon-Tabernacle-Choir.html?pg=all

The Church of U2

From The New Yorker-

A few years ago, I was caught up in a big research project about contemporary hymns (or “hymnody,” as they say in the trade). I listened to hundreds of hymns on Spotify; I interviewed a bunch of hymn experts. What, I asked them, was the most successful contemporary hymn—the modern successor to “Morning Has Broken” or “Amazing Grace”? Some cited recently written traditional church hymns; others mentioned songs by popular Christian musicians. But one scholar pointed in a different direction: “If you’re willing to construe the term ‘hymn’ liberally, then the most heard, most successful hymn of the last few decades could be ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,’ by U2.”

More here-

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/church-u2

Feeding the Five Thousand

From The Living Church-

When I was a very young man I made a conscious decision to be a church musician. I loved playing the organ, singing, and making music any way I could. I liked the men and women around me who were leaders in church music and found real joy in my studies at New York’s Union Theological Seminary in the late 1960s. After nearly 60 years of active service in music ministry I have seen drastic changes in how laity and clergy perceive what I do. I have directed the music in 11 different churches, mostly Episcopal but also Presbyterian and Methodist, with some deputizing in Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches. Whenever I served for more than a year we saw substantial growth in choir membership and more participation in congregational singing.

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/feeding-five-thousand

Trinity Wall Street's Music Director Considers Himself a 'Composer Who Conducts'

From The Wall Street Journal-

If there are two types of classical composers in the world, the artist-colony type and the extroverted sort, then the composer Julian Wachner falls squarely in the second camp.

"I'd never survive as a guy who sits in a log cabin, composing," he said. "I need the energy of people. I need the energy of music-making."

In New York's classical music scene, Mr. Wachner, 44 years old, is best known as a conductor and music director at Trinity Wall Street, the downtown church where he has created an ambitious music program, focusing on early and Baroque music, new commissions and festivals of works by composers like Stravinsky and Britten.

More here-

http://online.wsj.com/articles/trinity-wall-streets-music-director-julian-wachner-considers-himself-a-composer-who-conducts-1407781427

A summer camp for young singers in Newport that some find ‘life-changing

From Rhode Island-

 Some kids live for camp; others live for choir camp.

Not for the sing-alongs and marshmallow roasts, mind you. The Royal School of Church Music’s (RSCM) fifth annual Summer Singing Course — or “camp” as it’s known — is a place for kids and, more recently, adults, who are serious about music.

ake Connelly, a 12-year-old baritone from Worcester, Mass., made his singing debut at age two.

“Funny story,” said Connelly, who wore a striped bow-tie underneath his vestment. “I went to my first church service, and after the choir was done with the first piece I stood up in my pew and sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” all the way through!”

He had to “wait and wait and wait” until he turned seven to join his church’s choir. At age eight, his parents sent him to the RSCM summer singing course in Newport. Even since he went to boarding school in New York City, he has returned here for his fourth summer.

More here-

http://www.providencejournal.com/features/lifestyle/content/20140808-a-summer-camp-for-young-singers-in-newport-that-some-find-life-changing-gallery-and-video.ece

Making a living on the competitive church-music circuit

From Boston-

IF YOU SPEND much time in Boston, you’re spending a decent chunk of your life in the company of people who took a lot of years to be able to do a special something not a lot of other people can do. We see it when David Ortiz hits a grand slam or when an MIT physicist dreams up a theory that just might explain the origin of the universe, and we see it in all sorts of smaller and quieter ways. Into that last category falls a particular kind of musician that’s big in these parts: the church performer.

Boston is a great hotbed of classical music, and it’s all there, ripe for the listening — and often for free — in any one of dozens of area churches. But when you’re sitting in the pews, immersed in whatever you’re immersed in, there can be a tendency to take the musicians around you for granted. You don’t always consider, say, how tough it is to make a living as an artist, especially when your venue tends to let people in for free on Sundays. And you don’t always think about how difficult it is to succeed in a field that requires you to be able to bounce from one singing gig on Newbury Street, hop a Green Line car and bang out another in Newton, before zooming back to Harvard Square for the final performance of the day.

More here-


http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/04/27/making-living-competitive-church-music-circuit/RxJhFHvvRCq8r3maaCJaDM/story.html

Holy hymnal: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to sing all 720 hymns to raise money for trip to England

From Oregon-

This sounds crazy, but church choirs gotta do what they gotta do. On Sunday, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Choir plans to sing every hymn in the book. That's 720 hymns, covering Christmas, Easter, all four seasons, phases of life and odes to saints. The public is invited to come and go, sing along and pledge money during the free event.

The choir, under Michael Kleinschmidt's direction, is raising money for a trip to England in August. It's been invited to be the choir-in-residence at Bristol Cathedral for a week while the Bristol choir is on summer break.

Trinity Choir's 46 members will sing one verse of each hymn, accompanied by Kleinschmidt or his assistant, Christopher Keady. They are collecting pledges, so do the math: A dime per hymn = $72. $1 per hymn = $720. It's one of several fundraising events to raise a total of $35,000, Kleinschmidt says.

"This is a great way for an American church choir to stretch and grow as musicians," he says.

"It's a treasure trove of sung prayers and praises. Like a good book, it reads you more than you read it."

More here-

http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2014/01/trinity_episcopal_cathedral_to.html

The splendour of the English carol

From The Spectator UK-

The most celebrated Christmas carol, ‘Silent Night’, belongs to Austria. Father Joseph Mohr, the priest at Oberndorf, a small village near Salzburg, wrote it in 1818. Set to music by Franz Xaver Gruber, it was sung on Christmas Eve at the church of St Nicholas: Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht. It is the most celebrated carol for it captures the stillness of a winter night, the wonder of Christ’s birth, and the hope of all mankind for peace.

But when it comes to the celebration of that birth nothing surpasses the English tradition. On Christmas Eve millions of people all over the world will tune in not to Oberndorf but to King’s College, Cambridge, where the choristers take us, as they have since 1918, through the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. For many of those watching on television, and listening on the radio, it will be the highlight of the season.

More here-

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/music/9095822/the-highlight-of-christmas-the-festival-of-nine-lessons-and-carols-at-kings-college-cambridge/

Still shining after all these years

From The Church Times-

LOVE it or loathe it, perhaps the best-known modern worship song has reached the landmark age of 25. "Shine, Jesus, shine", which was first released by the songwriter Graham Kendrick (left) in 1988, has crossed continents and denominations, and continues to be among the most played songs in churches today.

Mr Kendrick told the Church Times that he had no idea, when he wrote the song, how popular it would become. "I was constantly writing; so there were a number of songs I was trying, and it was just another one of them." He had written the song into the context of the March For Jesus movement of the late 1980s, he said. "It was kind of a new generation finding its voice, and representing what was happening in the Church," he said.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/6-december/news/uk/still-shining-after-all-these-years

T.J. Thomas to present '10 Hymns You Need to Discover' June 6

From Deleware-

What makes a good hymn? T.J. Thomas, minister of music at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Lewes, will present "Ten Hymns You Need to Discover" at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 6, as part of St. Peter's Summer Spirituality Series. In an interactive workshop with congregational singing and time for questions, Thomas will present a selection of 10 hymns from various faith traditions and offer commentary on the textual and musical attributes of each.

In his role as minister of music, Thomas oversees a growing music ministry including vocal choirs for children and adults, a handbell program for beginning and advanced ringers, regular services of Choral Evensong and sung Compline, a concert series and the annual residency of a prominent Anglican church musician.

During his undergraduate career, Thomas served on the music staff at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., under the direction of his organ teacher and mentor, Canon Mark Laubach. An active member of the Royal School of Church Music in America, Thomas has been on the staff of the King’s College choir training course since 2007. He is also active in the American Guild of Organists, currently serving on the executive committee of the Southern Delaware Chapter, and the Association of Anglican Musicians, for which he helped plan the 2012 national conference in Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas received his bachelor’s degree in music from Marywood University in Scranton, Pa.

More here-

http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/t-j-thomas-to-present-10-hymns-you-need-to-discover-june-6/1007920

Raising hell for Jesus

From Australia- (with video)

Storm the Gates of Hell is the fourth studio album by American Christian heavy metal band Demon Hunter, in which they rage and roar about broken teeth and iron fists, the wrath of God, holy days and hearts soaked in gasoline. The title track calls on the listener to "raise your glass to death" and "stand before your final day, choke on every line you pray". It's stirring stuff for fans from within the church and beyond. The US Navy Seal who claims to have "blasted bin Laden" said recently he was wearing a Demon Hunter patch when he pulled the trigger on the terrorist leader.

Members of the Seattle metal band look like you might expect, with crew cuts, bushy beards and wardrobes in several shades of black. But to promote Storm the Gates of Hell, which was released in 2007, they posed for photographs in white clerical collars. Lead singer Ryan Clark, the actual son of a preacher man, has the word "fear" tattooed on the fingers of his right hand and "hope" on the left. Drummer Tim "Yogi" Watts has a tattoo of the Bible inked into his arm and "calm down" inscribed between his knuckles.

When Watts, 35, is annoyed he uses words like "butt hole" instead of swearing. While speaking to a crowd of young Christian head-bangers at Easterfest, Australia's largest Christian music festival, he recalls the time he saw a girl thrown about the mosh pit with her nose thoroughly smashed but a beatific smile across her bloody face. "I'm in constant communication with the Lord," he says. "I know this is what I was supposed to do." At Easterfest, that means raising hell for Jesus. Also performing over the Easter long weekend in Toowoomba, 1 1/2 hours' drive west of Brisbane, are pop artists, hip-hop homies, boy bands, jazz bands, funk bands, gospel singers, indie acts and instrumentalists. The town and nearby Darling Downs area are big notches in south-east Queens-land's Bible belt, and home to various churches, religious cults and the Cobb & Co Museum.

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/raising-hell-for-jesus-20130520-2jver.html#ixzz2UUZYOtbT

Organists confess to tune-smuggling

From The Church Times-

THE secret, says Jeffrey Makinson, sub-organist of Manchester Cathedral, is to clothe the theme in a different harmony, tempo, or rhythmic metre. Even then, there is a risk that your mischief will make at least a few ears prick up.

Half of churchgoers have heard of an organist slipping unexpected tunes into a service, suggests a new survey from Christian Research, which has been published to coincide with the Christian Resources Exhibition International next week.

From sneaking Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a prayer" into a sung eucharist to playing "Money, money, money" during the collection, instrumentalists appear to be combining the topical with the irreverent. One of the 2250 respondents recalled hearing "Roll out the barrel" during the funeral of an alcoholic.

Organists are not above using their instrument to exact revenge. Stephen Goddard, who carried out the research, told the BBC Sunday programme last week that one organist, when asked to play at a former boyfriend's wedding, segued into "Can't help loving dat man", as the couple processed back down the aisle. At one church in Glasgow, an organist bearing a grudge against the choirmaster opted for "Send in the clowns", as the choir took their places.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/10-may/news/uk/organists-confess-to-tune-smuggling

Dylan Wakes Up Worship

From The Living Church-


Bob Dylan has performed six times in Richmond, Virginia, during his 50-year career. This year, a month before Dylan and his five band members took the stage again at Richmond’s Landmark Theater, the members of St. James’s Church gathered for their first Dylan Mass. Mark and Virginia Whitmire, who oversee the music and choirs at St. James’s, do not pretend that Dylan would have added bluesy riffs on his Hohner mouth harp had he been in town a month earlier. They mention honest doubts about whether Dylan would be pleased at their liturgical use of his songs. But they stress that the Dylan Mass rises from their adult conversion to the Dylan fan base, an eventual discovery of what Mark Whitmire calls Dylan’s “authentic prophetic voice.”

The Dylan service was part of a rotation of contemporary music sung by the parish’s West Gallery Choir, which already has adapted bluegrass and jazz to blend into contemporary settings of the Holy Eucharist.

The Whitmires and the Rev. Carmen Germino, assistant rector, spent hours finding common themes between the readings for March 3 and Dylan’s lyrics. “We started with the lectionary and it was providential that the service was in Lent,” Virgnia said. “It was Burning Bush Sunday.”

More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/dylan-wakes-worship

Trinity Episcopal Church's 'Bach Around the Clock' marathon kicks off on Friday, April 5

From Louisiana-

To name the annual 29-hour marathon staged inside Trinity Episcopal Church “Bach Around the Clock” is not exactly accurate. A nonstop progression of classical, jazz and even rock musicians will render numerous Bach compositions. But you’ll also hear selections from Brahms, Beethoven Chopin – and possibly Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Albinas Prizgintas, Trinity’s music director and organist, performs in between, and with, other acts. He excels at classical and spiritual music, but is also fond of recreating classic rock on the church’s massive pipe organ. The Skynyrd warhorse “Freebird” is a recent favorite.

“We offer a place where everybody becomes universal in the language of music,” says Manon Prizgintas, Albinas’ wife and partner in the production of Bach Around the Clock and the weekly Trinity Artist Series. “We respect jazz and blues and rock as just as praiseworthy as classical. It’s beautiful music, all of it.”

Expect Prizgintas to unfurl “Freebird” at some point during the 16th annual Bach Around the Clock, which gets underway Friday, April 5, 2013 at 7 p.m. and concludes around midnight on the evening of Saturday, April 6.

More here-

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2013/04/trinity_episcopal_churchs_bach.html