Monday mornings I listen to a podcast entitled, Sunday on Monday. It's a great resource put out by LDS Living (an arm of Deseret Books). This podcast hosts a small discussion group on the Come Follow Me Curriculum put out by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Last year the podcast covered the Book of Mormon. This year the podcast is discussing the Doctrine and Covenants. LDS Living produces some of my favorite podcasts. The Sunday on Monday podcast has not only helped me in my personal study of the scriptures, it has also helped me to become a better teacher by asking better questions.
One of the questions in the podcast this week was, "have you ever been given a calling that you thought, or even said out loud, 'You want me to do what? Come again?'"
The discussion group participants shared their experiences and then the host shared hers. Her current calling is the one that is causing her to question. She is called to be the ward organist. But she isn't an organist, she is a pianist.
One of the discussion group participants asked, "I want to know how the organ even got messed up in the whole thing. Like, why do we still have an organ? Anyone?"
If you hang on 'til the end of the post, I will link to some resources for pianist who've been recruited to play the organ. If you are one of these, let me tell you as a reformed pianist myself, the calling to be ward organist is the best. It is one of the few callings where if you apply yourself and attempt to magnify your calling, the Lord will bless you with a talent and an increased capacity to learn.
Physical Reasoning
Instruments are about space. Their sound is designed to fill their designated space. Chapels are large. If the overflow is open, they are even larger. Without a mic, the mellow sound waves reverberating off a piano soundboard won't fill this space. A piano is barely vibrant enough to support a ward choir, let alone a 300 to 400 person congregation. The congregation needs the support of an organ. The organ is there to lift and inspire the congregation.
Interesting side note, in Bach's day, the organist played a hymn prelude (in a beautiful arrangement) to give the congregations its pitch and then the congregation sang the hymn a capella. A capella in musical terms is understood as "singing without musical accompaniment." It comes from the Italian meaning, "in the chapel style." Some Christian religions continue to frown on the use of any musical instruments in worship as the only God given instrument is the voice.
Others see the organ as a wind instrument that can come closer to imitating the human voice than any other instrument. The use of the organ in church services began to creep in around 900 AD, by the 1500s, around the time of Martin Luther and Bach, organs were becoming an integral part of Cathedrals and church services
Spiritual Reasoning
Several years ago, the ward organ I play broke. It took several weeks to get it repaired. In the mean time, I played the piano. It was a fun a stress free time. Plus I had plenty of old piano prelude that the congregation had never heard me play. When the organ was finally fixed, a councilor in the bishopric expressed his disappointment that I had moved back to the organ. I told him, "the piano is nice, but the organ puts the 'fear of God' into you." I tend to answer in as few words as possible when I'm playing. I'd like to explain this idea better than this.
Consider Jacob in the Book of Mormon in Jacob 7:5 when Sherem tries to shake Jacob's faith, "And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken." That is the boldness of the organ.
When Alma the younger speaks about his father and the people who were baptized in the Waters of Mormon and who had suffered captivity for 25 years at the hands of their enemies, he describes them saying, "And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved." (Alma 5:9) This is the boldness of the organ
The piano, while beautiful in tone, can allow players to "fudge and slur," as Elizabeth Bennet puts it in the 1995 A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. The organ is not so forgiving. Mistakes are loud and out there for everyone to hear.
Mental Reasoning
There are going to be mistakes. This isn't just about the organ. This is a life lesson. What do we do when we make mistakes. 1. Repent 2. Forgive Ourselves 3. Try Again 4. Strive to avoid those mistakes in the future.
In life, mistakes, forgiveness, and striving can be a somewhat lengthy and stretched-out process. On the organ this is a fast cycling process and it is great practice for the demoralizing failures that happen away from the organ bench.
Social Reasoning
Serving others creates bonds of love. Before playing the organ, I had no idea it was possible to love a congregation. One day during an organ lesson, my organ teacher asked me how many minutes of sight reading I had completed during the week. I asked her if playing the organ for sacrament meeting counted? We laughed and laughed. And then she said to me, "This week as I played, I thought, 'my congregation deserves better'." I couldn't get her thought out of my head because I knew my congregation deserved better as well. Since that time I have reserved time to practice the hymns prior to Sunday and to put thought and preparation into what prelude I play.
I know what my Bishop's favorite songs are and on his weeks to conduct, I can sneak one or two in. When the young women I taught started to leave for missions, I snuck their favorite hymns into the prelude. I didn't ask them. I had worked with them. I knew what they liked. The ward chorister chooses hymns around the stake theme of the month. I support her choices with prelude.
I've heard that some temples use recorded music for prelude rather than live organists for various reasons. I know that some wards are using Tabernacle Choir recordings for Sacrament Meeting where singing has been discouraged due to the current pandemic. I know some wards have player organs where the "organist" simply selects the hymn from the console screen and presses play. Will the ward organist continue to be a thing in the future? I hope so.
I like to quote John Milton's Sonnett 19, "When I Consider How My Light is Spent" whenever I think about service. “God doth not need either man’s work or his own gifts; who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best." God does not need our gifts our our talents. We need God. We need the opportunity to serve and to try hard things.
Playing the organ is a hard thing. But when the organ inspires a congregation to sing redeeming love, when the organ helps the congregation to hear and internalize the words of the sacrament hymn, when the organ instills reverence before the meeting begins, it can be a tool for the organist to bear testimony that they will not be shaken.
Resources for New Organists
BYU has a free 12 lesson course for new organists. Google it or link here.
Tips for new organists on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Link here
Simplified Hymnal at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Link here
Manuals (keyboard) only hymnal at ChurchofJesusChrist.org Link here
Prelude for the Bass Coupler Organists at JackmanMusic.com. Link here
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