Final notes for the pipe organ

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 06:36:05 GMT

Last weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying Julia Wade singing a Peter Link composition based on the 193rd Psalm. What a song, and what a voice! Too bad I was on pipe organ. I list the reasons I feel pipe organ has a (well deserved) diminishing place in our churches. I played pipe organ for years, so I'm well qualified to throw a few darts!

The majority of the organ repertoire is either ancient (Bach or Telemann for instance), rather intellectual (Messiaen, Langlais), or just plain corny (the vast majority of 20th century church music). None of it packs a significant emotional punch for contemporary audiences (unless that audience has be subject to decades of Pavlovian associations). There is lots of contemporary keyboard music (ECM, Narada, Windham Hill labels) that is emotionally accessible to a broad age range.
Rhythm is an important component of contemporary music, and the organ is simply not a percussion instrument like piano. For instance, any attempts at syncopation on a pipe organ just sound like mistakes.
It's hard to beat a full-throated pipe organ accompanying a hymn sung by a hundred or two, but how many churches have that size congregation any more? Piano or keyboard is simply more intimate, an important quality in this age of individualism in the search for spirituality.
I really feel this instrument is an anachronism. It was originally developed to replace an orchestra (the original synthesizer) and technology has moved on significantly since then, especially with digital sampling technology. We can now get a greater diversity of sound from a keyboard.
If that all isn't compelling enough, the purchase and maintenance costs of a pipe organ compared with a piano or keyboard are simply incomparable. Surely those funds could be spent more directly fulfilling a church's mission.

The problem with many of the pipe organs in churches I have played is that they are simply too entrenched - they represent a significant investment and as high quality instruments generate a certain amount of pride. That makes them hard to replace, even when there are alternatives that better serve the goals of the church.

Design by Committee: Hobbies

Final notes for the pipe organ