Lessons & Music

The 10:45 service on the First Sunday after Christmas was described as “Lessons & Music,” which has become our usual label for a version of “A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols,” the service made famous by King’s College Cambridge. The King’s College service is always held on Christmas Eve. Because I had listened to the service on the radio and had experienced a version of it at Christ Church, Indiana, that same evening, I was more attentive than usual to details of the service that St. Paul’s does the Sunday after Christmas. That service is largely the responsibility of the music department, and choir members read all but the final lesson, which is read by the rector. (At King’s College, the final lesson is read by the provost, who, as best I can tell, is the analogue of an American college president.)

Doug always distributes the readings to choir members, but it seems that every year there is some confusion about what readers say before and after their passage of scripture. I had been assigned the first reading, so I couldn’t simply rely on doing whatever the previous reader did, so I decided that we couldn’t go wrong by following King’s College. As you can see from the service bulletin (see link above), each passage is described briefly, and the lesson is concluded with “Thanks be to God.”

I prepared a handout with all the lesson descriptions and the instruction about how the readings should be concluded. When I saw the St. Paul’s bulletin, however, I discovered that (1) we were only reading six lessons, and (2) the bulletin included descriptions of the passages. Our descriptions differed from those I had compiled, but they were serviceable, so I told readers to preface their readings with the descriptions from the bulletin. This worked out fine.

I suppose that, in previous years, I concentrated on what the choir had to sing and somehow missed the fact that we read fewer than nine lessons. I was aware of a fundamental problem with the service, however. It is not a communion service, and, if done at a time when people would normally expect communion—on Christmas Eve or on a Sunday morning—this is something of a problem, however beautiful the service is. Some years ago, we just did our version of the King’s College service, and I felt ambivalent because of the lack of communion. Now, apparently, we shorten the special service and tack on communion at the end. In fact, on Sunday, the service ended earlier than usual.

So what have we cut from the English model? St. Paul’s dropped the reading from Isaiah 11 (no rod out of the stem of Jesse), the second lesson from Luke 2 (no shepherds), and the lesson from Matthew 2 (no wise men, either). You can decide for yourself how essential these readings are.

I have always wondered, by the way, why we insist on calling the service “Lessons & Music,” rather than “Lessons & Carols.” Arguably, all the music paired with the lessons are carols. (Well, I suppose the duet from Vivaldi’s “Gloria” is not actually a carol, but that’s only one ringer.)

Anyway, the service largely went smoothly, although I did have a slight problem. I had misplaced the copy of the lesson (Genesis 3:8–15, 17–19) that Doug had given me at our last rehearsal. When I asked Doug on Sunday morning if I could have another copy, he said he didn’t have one and suggested that I could simply read from a Bible. Happily, I had a backup plan. I had taken my tablet to church and was prepared to read the lesson from my copy of the NRSV on the device. This worked well—almost. In walking to the pulpit, I did not keep my tablet upright, and, when I placed it on the lectern, the device had rotated the text from portrait to landscape orientation. (I had not thought to  lock the display.) I read the introduction to my lesson and turned the tablet 90 degrees. Unfortunately, it seemed to take forever to redraw the screen in portrait mode. I’m sure everyone was wondering why I had inserted such a long pause. I hope I made up for any discomfort I caused by reading the passage reasonably well.

You may have noticed that we did not read Genesis: 3:16. This verse was not omitted by King’s College, although I did do a double take when I heard it on the radio. When I saw that it was not part of the first lesson, I knew immediately why. Here it is from the NRSV:

To the woman he said,
   “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
      in pain you shall bring forth children,
   yet your desire shall be for your husband,
      and he shall rule over you.”

The verse is a feminist’s nightmare, but its omission is almost as problematic as its inclusion. Beginning in verse 14, God addresses the serpent after the forbidden fruit is eaten. God addresses the woman in verse 16. God address the man beginning in verse 17. By omitting verse 16, it seems that God is ignoring Eve, who is, after all, an important player in this little drama. God’s ignoring Eve hardly advances the cause of gender equality.

The choir readers were on board with how the lessons were to be read. No one spoke to Lou, however. I assumed I was not going to convince him to do what everyone else was doing unless it suited him. We hoped that he would observe what we did and choose to read the final lesson in like manner. That didn’t happen. He cited the passage and ignored its description. He ended with “The Word of the Lord,” to which the congregation duly responded with “Thanks be to God.” Sigh.

Hymns

Readers from St. Paul’s may have heard or sung some of the hymns I’ve written.  For the benefit of those who like my hymns (or might like them—I hope there are such people), I have listed all my serious hymn compositions on my other blog. You can read the post about my hymns and see the list of them with links to words, music, and annotations here.

Odds and Ends

At the 10:45 service this morning, the choir sang from the balcony. The conventional wisdom is that the choir sounds best when it sings there. I did hear comments from those who sat in the nave that the choir sounded unusually good. Unfortunately, I was also told that, from the transept, the choir could not be heard well. Oh, well.

There are other disadvantages to having the choir sing from the balcony. It is hot and crowded; having to navigate the stairs is difficult for some singers; and communion is cumbersome. The balcony has never been renovated to provide comfortable seating, whether for the choir or for ordinary worshipers. Some day, we should tackle that project.

Lanterns seen from the balcony showing some of the burned-out light bulbs. (Click on
photo for a bigger view.)

Being in the balcony, I got a good look at some of the lanterns above the nave. As I mentioned earlier, quite a few bulbs in the lanterns are burned out and have been so for some time. Although some of the burned-out spotlights in the chancel have been dealt with, no attempt has been made to replace the multitude of dark bulbs in the lanterns. The picture at the right illustrates how one can identify offending bulbs. I did not attempt a complete count today, but I estimate that about a dozen light bulbs need replacing. (Note that the photo is mostly dark to show the shadows of inoperative bulbs cast by working bulbs.)

I took a few moments to read the Vestry minutes from May posted on the bulletin board outside the church office. I found this item in the report of the Junior Warden Eric Linn to be very interesting:

Eric reported that the sign committee met yesterday and reached an agreement about a new design for the electronic sign which will comply with Mt. Lebanon’s zoning laws. The electronic sign will now be housed within the framework of the existing sign and will sit upon the existing base. There was concern expressed about the sign’s visibility because of its location on the lot and the existence of PennDOT’s utility box on the corner of Mayfair and Washington. The sign cannot be relocated without a variance which the Church is highly unlikely to be granted. A suggestion was made to raise the height of the sign to increase visibility. Eric will email the municipality about the possibility of having PennDOT move the utility box.

Generally, I take this to be good news, though having the utility box moved may be expensive. Our custom sign is quite lovely, its only problems being that it’s hard to read, and we don’t update it anyhow. The space available inside the sign for an electronic insert is smaller than we would like, but that may be something we just have to deal with.

There was also this from Eric:

The municipality has requested that the Church move the banner in front of the property away from the intersection of Mayfair and Washington.

This, too, is good news. Our banners are horribly tacky and have been left up much too long. It is to be hoped that special messages will appear on our electronic sign in the not-too-distant future and tacky banners will be a thing of the past. Stay tuned.

Finally, there was this rather bizarre item in the minutes:

Michelle distributed an article about addressing sabotage which sometimes shows up in times of stress, such as when the rector is on sabbatical. The Vestry should be aware of grievances which might arise due to anxiety within the parish and work to resolve them.

I see no evidence that Lou’s absence has caused any particular anxiety within the parish. (The prospect of his return is perhaps more likely to cause anxiety.) In any case, St. Paul’s parishioners tend to be articulate and well-behaved, and I find Michelle’s “warning” patently offensive.

In fact, there seems to be a PR campaign afoot to convince everyone that Lou is indispensable and that Michelle is somehow not up to the job that has fallen to her in his absence. To be sure, she has had her missteps, but St. Paul’s is getting by just fine, thank you very much. As evidence of the offensive, I cite Lou’s insistence that Michelle take time off this summer to avoid burnout, the above warning about sabotage, Lou’s returning early to relieve stress on Michelle, and the constant reminders of what Lou is about and pleas to pray for him.

Praise for the Hymnal

Methodist Jonathan—he doesn’t reveal his last name on his blog—has written a thoughtful essay promoting hymnal use rather than words projected on a screen. Happily, St. Paul’s is not using projection to replace the hymnal—not even at the 8:45 service—but the article does make arguments for using the hymnal you may not have thought of. If you are interested in singing in church, do read “15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals.” Read the comments as well, some of which promote an opposing view.

Pentecost 2014

St. Paul’s celebrated Pentecost today, and Doug offered a musical spectacular, albeit one for which choir members were a bit uncertain about what was supposed to happen until it actually did. Everything seemed to go off well, however.

I complained recently—see “Lights Going Out”—about burned out light bulbs in the church. The situation has become particularly burdensome for choir members seated behind the organ console, and singers were complaining this morning about the difficulty they were having reading their music. (The other side of the chancel, at least for now, is better lit.) I don’t know how dark the church has to get before we realize that light bulbs really have to be replaced.

Perhaps we cannot deal with church lighting until the rector is around to tell us to do so. After all, when I suggested to Michelle that we try not announcing hymn numbers, which is the practice in virtually all the Episcopal churches I have visited over the years, she told me that Lou is her boss, and she cannot alter the way Lou does things. Apparently, Michelle has responsibility but no authority, not really a good training regimen for a young priest. Nevertheless, Michelle made a point last week of using a birthday prayer different from the one Lou always uses. Go figure.

One final item: Having complained a few weeks ago to a Vestry member about the automatic door to the parking lot not working—see “Various Updates”—I had harbored some small hope that the door might be functioning today. Of course, it wasn’t, so I flipped the toggle switch on the door opener and used the hex key hanging next to the door to lock open the door latch. (Both operations are needed if the automatic door is to operate properly.) As I was leaving the building, I noticed that no one tried to use the door opener, probably because they have learned through experience that it never works.

Welcome to the most welcoming congregation in the South Hills for all generations.

Worship Band

Someone posted the graphic below on Facebook. I thought it was very funny. The picture is from the Grumpy Orthodox Cat Facebook page.

Easter

There was a lot to like in the Easter Sunday services at St. Paul’s yesterday. The flowers were lovely. We had enough acolytes that flags could be carried in procession. We sang a collection of great Easter hymns. The handbell choir played better than the ringers had a right to expect. Brass, choir, and organist acquitted themselves well, and the postlude was a tasty Easter treat.

As former Audio-Visual Coördinator, however, I continue to be disappointed by the current indifference of St. Paul’s to lighting. I’ll save for another day my general rant about our failure to use our lighting controls effectively. What I noted yesterday was that at least three light bulbs in lanterns were burned out, and some of these were at the front of the church where the situation was conspicuous. Equally appalling and even more obvious was the outage of three of the six lights on the high altar. (See the photo below. Two lamps are out on the left and one on the right.) There was a time when, before Easter or Christmas, making sure that all lamps in the church were working was an item on the preparations checklist. No more. Am I the only parishioner who cares?

Photo from Doug Starr’s Facebook page

Update, 4/24/2014. I was in the church this evening and discovered that: (1) Only one lamp was out on the high altar. (There are only four lamps, not six.) All lights on the high altar were working tonight. (2) The burned-out lamps in the lanterns that I noticed on Sunday have been replaced. I did notice one other lamp that is out, which I didn’t see on Sunday.

Premiere of “Holy Eucharist”

Worshipers at today’s 10:45 service heard the choir sing my hymn “Holy Eucharist” for the first time. I recorded the performance, and I wrote about it and linked to the audio file on my blog, Lionel Deimel’s Web Log. You can read my post and listen to the hymn here.

New Hymn to Debut February 23

I was delighted to learn at choir rehearsal last night that Doug Starr has programmed my new hymn, “Holy Eucharist.” The choir will sing it as a communion hymn at the 10:45 AM service on February 23. This will be a world premier. I have written several hymn, some of which have been sung at St. Paul’s. “Holy Eucharist,” however, is the first inspired by a specific prayer book text.

Worshipers at St. Paul’s hear new music all the time, mostly by Doug or members of his family. (So far, only Lydia has not contributed music for worship at St. Paul’s.) I am not a professional musician, however, and am grateful for both the inspiration and opportunity for performance in my home parish.

You can get a preview of “Holy Eucharist” by checking out the page about it on my Web site. The page includes links to the sheet music and to a sound file of the tune.

Summer Singers and the Bulletin

The Summer Singers, a group of professional musicians that rehearse at St. Paul’s in the summer, provided an exciting prelude and postlude last Sunday. I heard the group rehearsing “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” just before the choir rehearsed in the church. I was impressed, though I couldn’t hear the group as well as I wanted to from my chair behind the singers. I was hoping to hear them better when they sang during the service.

I checked my bulletin to learn when “Joshua” was going to be sung. I could not find the spot in the service order. As it happens, the postlude was left off the bulletin. (It was later pointed out to me that the information I was seeking was mentioned under “Music Notes,” though it should have been listed after the dismissal as well.) Anyway, the more I stared at the order of service, the more confusing it seemed. As it happens, the problem was that the music for the Memorial Acclamation and The Great Amen were simply in the wrong places.

The errors in the bulletin were surprising, since we used Eucharist Prayer A both this week and last, so the only differences between the two bulletins should have involved music. However the problems crept into the August 11 bulletin, here is the offending text (click for larger image):

I rushed out to the nave after the dismissal, and was in a good position to hear the very exciting rendition of “Joshua.” The Summer Singers are presenting a concert at St. Paul’s at 7 PM next Sunday (August 18). It should be well worth attending.

Why Chant?

Today’s 10:45 service was a musical mixed bag. Among other things, the choir sang Herbert Howells supremely beautiful “O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.” There were other musical highlights as well. Also, there was Michelle Boomgaard’s chanting at the beginning of the Eucharist.

It is thoroughly inadequate to say that Michelle’s nervous chanting was bad. It was, in fact, excruciating. It was not only inadequate, but also distracting. It took one’s attention away from the text of the liturgy and surely caused many to think, “When is this agony going to be over?”

Now, I like Michelle. I like her the more I know her, in fact. Moreover, I understand that she practiced diligently for today’s assignment. She was not, however, ready for prime time. Why was she allowed to chant today? Her performance was particularly distressing in comparison with Lou’s chanting, which, as I recently noted, is quite good. That you don’t chant well doesn’t mean you aren’t a good priest or that you shouldn’t be one in the first place. Why was Michelle allowed to embarrass herself?

Why, in fact, do we chant at all at St. Paul’s? I have heard that chanting was developed because it allowed for greater intelligibility in large spaces without the benefit of sound systems. We chant now out of some sense of tradition, I suspect, but we don’t do it regularly. We don’t chant the whole service. If we are going to chant at all, why do it half way? But we are chanting in Lent. Are we doing so because this is a penitential season? If we were less sinful, could we dispense with Michelle’s chanting? Do any parishioners even like chanting, even if well done? I doubt it.

Good News/Bad News on the First Sunday in Lent

First, the good news. As usual, the 10:45 service began with the Great Litany. (This led me to do some research, which I report on my main blog in the post “Persons of the Trinity.” But I digress.) Lou and Annette Tierney alternated in chanting the part of the celebrant in the long Litany, and they each did a very good job. Lou definitely chants better than most priests I’ve known.

The postlude was performed by Bill Owens on trumpet, Curtis Starr on trombone, Tommy Starr on timpani, and Doug Starr on the organ. It was a quite wonderful arrangement by Doug of Copland’s well-known “Fanfare for the Common Man.” It helped that our organ has some magnificent trumpet stops. What was particularly remarkable was the fact that I did not see one person leave after the dismissal. Everyone stayed to listen to the postlude, and they clapped enthusiastically when it was over.

Bill, Curt, Tommy, Doug, and Bryan Sable played at a Friends of Music concert at 3 o’clock. It was surely an unusual all-instrumental concert. They again performed “Fanfare for the Common Man,” as well as some Copeland songs, less the actual singing. Much of the program was devoted to early music, however. The audience was small, but appreciative.

Now, the bad news. The 10:45 service began with a problem. We had only one acolyte, and we were doing the most complicated procession we ever do. (Informally, the path taken by the choir as we sing the Great Litany is referred to as “the pretzel.”) The procession down the (liturgical) north aisle was led by a crucifer, but Annette, in the south aisle, was on her own. The choir improvised nicely, and I’m sure most worshipers were unaware that anything was amiss. By the time we were a few minutes into the service, another two acolytes had materialized from somewhere. I long for the days when St. Paul’s reliably had seven acolytes at each principal Sunday service. We are enlisting ever younger acolytes, but we cannot seem to get them to show up.

The choir sang two anthems—well, I think, but I may not be objective. One of the anthems, Farrant’s “Call to remembrance,” a favorite of mine, was sung just after we had sung the Angus Dei. At this point, the Chinese fire drill began. We had been told to abandon our sections and take up positions in which choir members singing different parts would be mixed up. We didn’t quite execute this as planned, and I fear the effect was chaotic. Then there was confusion about when we should be taking communion ourselves, and more chaos ensued. Doug began playing the communion hymn before most of us had returned to our places. I hope worshipers were concentrating on their own trip to the communion rail and not watching the choir, whose comings and goings were not a pretty sight.

Finally, there was this afternoon’s concert. The concert itself was fine, actually, but the church was inordinately cold. The church had been comfortable in the morning, though the choir room registered 52°F when I showed up for rehearsal at 9:30. (I had nearly frozen to death in Bible study in the lounge Saturday morning, when that room was also in the 50s.) Anyway, I had meant to put on my sport coat before I left the house, but I only grabbed my parka, which I left in the cloakroom downstairs when I returned to the church for the concert. It was a cold concert indeed, and I was jealous of concertgoers wearing sweaters or coats. On cold days, why can’t we heat the building enough so that it is only mildly chilly?

St. Paul’s Handbells in the News

Today’s Post-Gazette carried a story titled “Hand bell ensembles get ringing endorsement from members.” Although the article is not primarily about St. Paul’s, our handbell choir is mentioned, and Bryan Sable, its conductor, is quoted.

You can read the story by Margaret Smykla here. The picture below, by the way, is from that article. It shows the Bonnie Ross Ringers from Greensburg First United Methodist Church. (The photo is by Bob Garris.)

Christmas Lessons & Music

 SPOILER ALERT: This post is grumpier than usual. Read at your own risk.

Service Format

The 10:45 AM service for the First Sunday after Christmas was billed as “First Sunday after Christmas: Lessons & Music.” In his “Music Notes” in the bulletin, Doug Starr wrote about the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that is celebrated at King’s [“Kings” in Doug’s writeup] College, Cambridge every year in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. I don’t know why we don’t call our service “Lessons & Carols,” but the fact that we don’t is a tip-off that the St. Paul’s version, despite many commonalities, is not quite what is done in England.

On the afternoon of December 16, I actually attended a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Highland Park. Except for the fact that the choir included females, the service was about as close to the King’s College version as one could expect to experience in the U.S. We didn’t pray for the Queen, of course, but the church was lit by candlelight, the first verse of “Once in royal David’s city” was sung a cappella by a boy soprano, and the lessons were read by members of the parish and the community.  (Readers included the rector, the bishop, a Roman Catholic deacon, and a state senator.) The “carols” were mostly arrangements sung by the choir; a few were hymns sung by all. The service was magnificent.

Years ago, St. Paul’s put on a service much like that of St. Andrew’s late in the afternoon. In recent years, however, the service has been translated to Sunday morning. This created a quandary—shouldn’t there be a Eucharist at the principal Sunday service? For a time, we simply ignored the problem and did a lessons and carols service without a Eucharist. Apparently, we’re not doing that any more.

Unfortunately, adding a Eucharist to the lessons and carols format, even without a sermon, necessitates some cuts if one insists on keeping the length of the service below 75 minutes. The nine lessons of the Cambridge service became six today.

Service Details

One might quibble that the choir prepared no music specifically for today’s service—a departure from what was done years ago before the service was moved to Sunday morning—but I don’t think that worshipers were shortchanged. Lovely solos were sung by Sue Vines and Brian Brazon. Sue and Cathie Buschek played a four-hand postlude. Alexandra Thompson played a cello solo and accompanied other pieces, as did Tommy Starr on tympani. Katy Williams filled in for the boy soprano on the processional.

There was some confusion as to who was reading which lesson, which resulted in Chris Thompson’s reading two lessons. As is usually done at St. Paul’s, choir members read most of the lessons. (The rector read the last one.) There always seems to be confusion about how the lessons are to be introduced and concluded. In the King’s College service, lessons are introduced by a brief description and concluded with “thanks be to God.” I may not have been paying close attention, but, if memory serves, some lessons were introduced with a description, and others were introduced with a citation. All were ended with “the word of the Lord,” to which the congregation naturally responded “thanks be to God.” Maybe next year, we’ll get it right.

One of the minor joys of the December 16 service at St. Andrew’s was the continuity of the service. No one was telling the congregation to stand up or sit down or turn to a particular hymn in the hymnal. Everyone simply followed the program like an adult. (Well, it must be admitted that it was so dark in the church that one had to struggle to read the program. St. Andrew’s does not have the ability to dim lights without turning them off as St. Paul’s does.) In any case, Lou apparently fails to appreciate how annoying and insulting his stage directions are. Many parishioners agree with me on this point, though I suspect few share my visceral aversion to the practice. When I hear “we will now stand and sing hymn —,” it is all I can do to avoid running out of the chancel screaming.

Physical Setting

 

From my vantage point in the choir and with my experience as former Audio-Visual Coördinator and member of the Worship Committee, I cannot ignore problems with the physical environment. The good news today is that some of the spotlights that had been burned out for weeks (perhaps months) were working today. Of the five spots that had been non-functional, three were working last Sunday, and four were working today. I was pleased to see that one of the down lights at the crossing was working. I have no idea how the bulb was replaced—it is the most difficult bulb to replace in the entire church—nor why the bulb on the opposite side of the center aisle was not replaced.

A few weeks ago, I told Lou about the lamps that were burned out. The spotlights were at the top of my list, but I also noted that two lamps in lanterns were out, as was one lamp in the north aisle. Those lamps were still out today. Moreover, another lamp in the north aisle was also dark.

The most upsetting glitch in the decoration of the church was the presence of a lighted Advent wreath. We are done with Advent, people; this is Christmastide. We need to put the advent candles away for another year!

Speaking of candles, the pew candles were installed and lit today, as were the candles in the windows. This frankly looked silly, as the electric lighting in the church was as bright as it ever is. Candlelight only works when lighting is dim enough to allow the candles to have a significant effect on ambiance. I wonder if the candles were lit—presumably like the Advent wreath—simply because no one had bothered to put them away. If we were were going to use candles, the electric lighting should have been much dimmer.

There was one other lighting glitch. Neither the light on the pulpit nor the light above the pulpit were turned on. Switching these lamps on is often forgotten, and it was unfortunate that they were off today, as all the lessons were delivered from the pulpit.

I should also mention that, for today’s service, we used the two microphones dedicated to the choir. Given the size of our choir, it isn’t clear that we ever need these microphones, but someone clearly thought it was a good idea to incorporate them into our new sound system. Generally, we haven’t been using the microphones, but we did today for the two anthems sung by the choir, the Victoria Ava Maria and the Sedio arrangement of Coventry Carol. I would be interested in learning if using the microphones enhanced our music. One microphone was pointed toward the men singers. This might have been useful, as I have heard complaints that the men are often difficult to hear, perhaps because many of us are standing behind the organ console. The other microphone was not so much pointed toward the women singers as behind them, so I doubt it proved of much utility.

Final Thoughts

 

I suspect that most worshipers at 10:45 thought the service was lovely. At some level, it was, and it certainly had its high points. For me, it was marred by the presence of the Advent wreath—this was an unforgivable liturgical error—by lighting that failed to create the atmosphere the service deserved, by a lack of attention to certain details, and by incessant and unnecessary directions. I pray St. Paul’s will do a better job next year. I will certainly plan not to miss the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at St. Andrew’s in 2013.

Handbells

Freed from obligations related to Refuge, the task for which he was hired, Bryan Sable took on the task of resurrecting St. Paul’s handbell choir. I have always wanted to try playing handbells, so I volunteered to be part of the new choir. Perilously close to Christmas, we began practicing for a Christmas Eve debut.

Prior to Christmas Eve, St. Paul’s new group of ringers had only two real rehearsals, with a different mix of personnel each time. A third rehearsal was cancelled because most people could not attend. We were slated to have a quick practice before the 7:30 service on Monday, but we spent most of our time setting up and getting organized. Not everyone showed up on time.

If you’ve never played handbells, it may not be apparent how problematic it is not to have the same ringers present each time you play. In essence, each ringer is a piece of an instrument. Remove one ringer and the instrument has to be reconfigured or parts of it simply will not play. I was never quite sure which bells I would be responsible for when we finally played in church.

As the only male in the group other than Bryan, I was assigned to handle the lowest (i.e., biggest) bells. My assumed qualifications for this were strength and the ability to read bass clef. The advantage of the assignment was that I was not constantly ringing, and I didn’t have to master the technique of ringing two bells in one hand.

Our group may not have been sexually diverse, but we were certainly diverse in terms of experience. The choir included the likes of Jan Toth, who always looks cool and competent, as well as others who at least had some handbell experience. My knowledge of handbells, on the other hand, was limited to watching ringers rather uncritically and with a sense of awe.

I quickly realized that the ability to read music is useful, but it is not the most important handbell-playing skill. The critical facilities are mechanical and mental ones: remembering which bells are in which hand, switching bells quickly, ringing bells reliably and consistently. My hardest job was ringing two bells at once and immediately ringing two different bells at once.

At our last full rehearsal, when I tried to ring the D₄ bell, the handle broke off in my hand and the casting (i.e., the bell proper) fell to the table. (Maybe it was the D₃ bell. I’m still learning which bell is which.) This was inauspicious. The handle is a flexible plastic strap, and it snapped off in the two places where it met the bell. Examining the damaged instrument, it seemed that it contained, as they say in the consumer electronics industry, no user-serviceable parts. It was not clear that we would have a usable D₄ bell for Christmas Eve.

Bryan came to the rescue. He consulted the manufacturer, which promised express delivery of a new handle assembly. What neither Bryan nor I realized was that, although there was no way to replace the strap, which was attached with four rivets, the entire handle assembly attaches to the casting with a small bolt. A completely new handle assembly arrived at St. Paul’s on Monday.

There was good news and bad news in having a working D₄ bell. Obviously, having the bell had the potential to improve our performance. The bad news, of course, was that I had one more bell to handle.

For the 7:30 service on Christmas Eve, the handbell tables were set up in the church behind the last pews in the nave. We were to play an arrangement of “Away in a Manger” before the service and “Silent Night,” along with the organ, near the end of the service when the hymn was to be sung by the choir and congregation.

For much of Monday afternoon, I was watching instructional videos on YouTube. (Yes, there are such things.) I did pick up a few useful tips, but the overall effect of my watching these videos was to increase my already high anxiety about the evening’s performance. I suddenly realized just how much I didn’t know about handbell playing!

We had essentially no practice time Monday night. Our performance, though certainly not a disaster, was well short of adequate. In addition to the problems I was already having, mostly related to switching bells quickly, I experienced two other problems I did not fully appreciate. I don’t know if everyone was as affected as I was.

Just before we played “Away in a Manger,” I had the fleeting thought that we should perhaps tell the ushers to keep people away from the ringers as we played. Deciding that I was being obsessive, I failed to act on my concern. Big mistake! As we began playing, worshipers walked behind me in a steady stream. My problem with this was not simple claustrophobia. My problem was that the piece began with tower swings, a movement involving ringing the bell in front of me and swinging it backward as if it were ringing in a bell tower. The fact that I was actually hitting people as they passed behind me did not stop the flow of people. (What were they thinking?) I was very much rattled by this and did not recover easily or quickly.

The second problem was anticipated. “Silent Night” was to be played in relative darkness. I asked Rich Creehan to give us more light than he had originally provided, and he obliged. We never practiced with the organ in dim light, however. The task turned out to be much harder than I expected. It was difficult to get my face close enough to the music so that I could read it and remain far enough from the table that I could actually ring my bells. St. Paul’s has some battery-operated lamps for our music stands, but they seemed not to have fresh batteries, so we did not try to use them. Too bad.

I hope to continue as a bell ringer, but I may need a bit of time to recover my composure after my Christmas Eve experience. Perhaps the bell choir will play at Easter. If so, I will refuse to play at the back of the church before a service.

Promoting the Capital Campaign

When I received my invitation to the Festive Evening tomorrow, I was a bit put off by the information that we would “Celebrate our 175th Anniversary and Kick off our Capital Campaign,” and I quickly checked with people who should know that the anniversary celebration was not simply an excuse to give parishioners the hard sell on the capital campaign. Presumably, I was not the only person who harbored such suspicions, as Lou has emphasized in church that there will be no soliciting at the Festive Evening.

Yesterday, I received my weekly electronic newsletter. I was surprised to see next Saturday’s Mike’s Episcopal Café listed as a “Capital Campaign Fellowship Event.” Mike’s Episcopal Café has, for a number of years, been a fund-raiser for the music program put on by members of the choir. The newsletter made it seem as though the event had been hijacked to benefit the Capital Campaign.

As it happens, the church wanted the choir to cancel the event, presumably because it was seen as competing with the Capital Campaign. A compromise was reached whereby, during the serving of dessert, attendees will be subjected to a 10 to 15 minute pitch for the Capital Campaign and the stewardship campaign. This arrangement seems rather like blackmail, but others will perhaps not find it objectionable. In any case, do note that proceeds from Mike’s Episcopal Café go to the music program, not to the Capital Campaign.

As for the Capital Campaign itself, let me again say that I think that more parishioner involvement is called for. I believe that many specific projects are ill-conceived and that most projects are so vaguely specified that they are impossible to evaluate. I am troubled that so many prominent parishioners have lent their support to such a poorly conceived and poorly marketed enterprise.

Performance Jazz Camp Recital

Doug Starr sent out the following note tonight:

If you’re free, please come to tomorrow night’s Jazz Camp concert in the church at 7:00 pm. A program is attached.

Always fun to watch these young folks play and improvise!

The attachment included the following information:

Second Annual Performance Jazz Camp Recital

Tuesday, August 2nd at 7:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
1066 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon, PA 15228

Lee Robinson, Camp Director, Saxophone

Douglas Starr, Camp Facilitator, Keyboards
Paul Barker, Camp Facilitator, Bass
Andrew Nolish, Camp Student, Keyboards
Dean Roth, Camp Student, Alto Saxophone
Ryan Socrates, Drums

Performance Jazz Camp Description: A new, innovative and fun jazz camp for student jazz groups and individuals. The focus is on the group performance of school age students (4th – 12th grades) who are members of (e.g., duos, trios, quartets) small groups or school ensembles. PJC includes Master Class demonstrations and jazz performance coaching daily. It is a great learning experience for young jazz players.
 

RS&H

How many people at St. Paul’s know that the choir includes a radio personality who is an expert on music of the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s (and, perhaps, even the ’50s)? Long-time parishioner and member of the choir’s bass section Mike Plaskett is co-host of Rhythm Sweet & Hot (RS&H) on WDUQ-FM. He and Dale Abraham play music on the radio “that you won’t hear anywhere else.” It was not immediately clear that RS&H would survive the recent ownership change of 90.5 FM, but the show has been picked up and slotted into the 6–8 PM time period on Saturday nights.

Those of you who have attended Mike’s Episcopal Café over the years, even if you didn’t know about RS&H, have surely suspected that Mike has a special affinity for the popular music of days gone by.

I haven’t written about Mike before, as I didn’t think I could do him or RS&H justice, but I just read an essay about the show on a Post-Gazette blog (“‘WDUQ’s Rhythm, Sweet & Hot’ Lives! An Appreciation” by Rich Kienzle). Read Kienzle’s piece and tune in to 90.5 FM on Saturday night.

Observations on the 10:30 Service, 6/26/2011

Neither Lou nor Kris was in church today, so the 10:30 service was the John and Mabel show. It was good to see John Thomas back in church after his recent operation. Mabel Fanguy gave a nice sermon on not being judgmental, which she based, somewhat surprisingly, on the story of God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

It was a good day for music. Bryan Sable played the prelude on the Clavinova—I was told the piano was out of tune—and played the postlude on the organ. Tenor Rich Williams sang “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” from Handel’s Messiah at communion. The choir’s anthem was Doug Starr’s setting of former rector Bill Pickering’s “St. Paul’s Mission Prayer.” It’s too bad this prayer has fallen into disuse, as it touches all the important bases (I have taken some liberties with punctuation):

Almighty God, who has called us to be one body in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, send your Holy Spirit to encourage us to worship joyfully; teach the mighty acts of God; proclaim the news of Jesus; reach out with love and concern; and give our time, talent, and treasure to build the Kingdom of God; through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We began and ended the service with stirring hymns: Luther’s “A mighty fortress is our God” as the processional and Henry Emerson Fosdick’s “God of grace and God of Glory” as the recessional. (Everyone knows about Martin Luther. Fosdick deserves more fame—see my post of his most famous sermon.) We sang two less familiar though lovely hymns, “Put forth, O God, thy Spirit’s might” (#521 in the hymnal) and “Lord Jesus, think on me” (#641 in the hymnal). The words of the latter are worth reproducing here:

Lord Jesus, think on me,
and purge away my sin;
from harmful passions set me free,
and make me pure within.

Lord Jesus, think on me,
with care and woe oppressed;
let me thy loving servant be,
and taste thy promised rest.

Lord Jesus, think on me,
nor let me go astray;
through darkness and perplexity
point thou the heavenly way.

Lord Jesus, think on me,
that, when the flood is passed,
I may the eternal brightness see,
and share thy joy at last.

I was delighted that we sang the first hymn (“A mighty fortress”) without anyone’s announcing that we were going to sing it. As best as I could tell, everyone stood on cue and sang the hymn without instruction other than what appeared in the bulletin. Likewise, we sang the presentation hymn sans announcement. The congregation is apparently smarter than it’s given credit for.

Pentecost 2011

Today is Pentecost, and many worshipers at the 10:30 service wore red. From the chancel, in fact, one looked out on a sea of red. Appropriately, all the hymns were about the Church and the Holy Spirit:

• “Hail thee, festival day!” (Hymnal 225)
• “Come down, O Love divine” (Hymnal 516, to the lovely tune Down Ampney, by Ralph Vaughn Williams)
• “The Church’s one foundation” (Hymnal 525, though, unfortunately, only the first two verses)
• “O Holy Spirit, by whose breath” (Hymnal 501)
• “Holy Spirit, ever living” (Hymnal 511)

“O Holy Spirit, by whose breath” was sung as a communion hymn. It was new to me, to the choir, and, likely, to the congregation. Unfortunately, we did not sing all of this hymn either. Both the words and music are exquisite. The words are an English paraphrase of Veni Creator Spiritus. The music is from the sixteenth century. Here is the hymn as it appears in our hymnal:


The tune, played using slightly different rhythm, can be played blow.

If you find it difficult to appreciate the poetry from the hymnal page, you can read the words alone here.