Change And Decay or Change and Development?
When growing up, and attending my church with my mother, those in charge of the service, music, and sidesmen, were the same people. Clergy would move on, but the other key people remained. That was my child’s eye view, necessarily a limited experience in a small, settled northern town.
Today’s churches do not all have a regular organist and choirmaster. Those that do, usually have organised and serious choirs, led by a strong music director, but those without choirs rely on a team of visiting players, whose rota will be managed by the vicar/minister/church administrator. Whilst it serves the moment, the focal point of a choir, giving opportunities for community learning and music making, is missing. Perhaps this isn’t new; I didn’t know about such situations when I was 8!
It is interesting to ponder on the reasons for such situations. The Church is always having to find ways of keeping the pews full. Changes in types of service, of liturgy, style of music are made in an effort to maintain relevance to modern lifestyles. It is meat for some and poison for others. Most situations evolve because people move. When a gap occurs, another person steps up to fill it. When a community doesn’t change, it is regarded as a bit stick in the mud. It risks dying out altogether unless something shifts.
A course I attended decades ago showed that the some people regard church choirs as elitist groups who sing irrelevant music from the past. The real reason for that view was the fact that those people had not passed an audition to join, or had been rejected in some other way, very hurtful in a church community. Church choirs should, by their very nature, be inclusive. Leading worship should be the reason for existence. Acquiring skills should be encouraged and those who need help achieving them can be coached via the RSCM Voice for Life scheme, or any number of organ playing courses dedicated to showing how it should be done. Quality music making should not be confused with musical style. It is perfectly possible to sing a modern worship song beautifully and a Palestrina motet badly.
Being a deputy or visiting organist some of the time, allows me to see how churches use music and cope with children. Sometimes the services are noisy, occasionally uncomfortably so, with children wandering, sometimes running about, babies crying, some wandering off in search of the loo. Most churches manage their infants by having Sunday School and crèche facilities. My chapel is almost unique in that there are very few children, if any at all. Children’s and other social groups removed to St Barnabas Church, our parent church, several decades ago. It means that a service is conducted with a quiet formality and dignity which older people tend to like. It also means that numbers attending are low and some complain about a lack of atmosphere. Apart from compulsory school services, weddings, funerals, baptisms, the only young people are occasional student organists.
The pattern of services in our chapel is changing and Matins, is, for the time being, being reduced to one per month. We are asked to raise attendee numbers somehow. This has produced many thoughtful points of view from congregation, choir and one member of retired clergy who comes to help us out. Feeling was surprisingly strong in favour of keeping the status quo, but some rationalisation will come. Fewer men and women are offering themselves for ordination, so fewer clergy are available to lead worship. Laity can do a certain amount, but it isn’t the same as a good vicar. Not all people are able to commit to regular church choir membership, and not all organists are always willing or able to fulfil commitments each weekend. Some organists want little to do with the church. A professional musician friend who has been doing a very good job in a neighbouring county has recently resigned his post as he didn’t want to be asked to prepare and play happy clappy music. As organists, we rely a great deal on the sensitivity, advertising skills and good taste of our leaders.
Ever since time began and music was valued for its propensity to help communicate aspects of scripture, it has been used in the style that people recognise and understand. From the earliest times, chant, in order to make the words audible in large buildings without amplification, was used. In the West, that became plainsong. Gregorian Chant was developed for monks and nuns singing together daily and is still sung with great effectiveness today, but by fewer people. It goes hand in hand with incense, with ideas and attention drawing upwards, floating sideways, just going where it will. For the laity, popular and folk songs were the basis for Lutheran Chorales, and similar short note for note Calvinist hymn tunes. Victorian hymns, especially Christmas carols, developed from those, whilst also drawing on older traditions. The development of popular light music disseminated by broadcasting helped to lead the way to the contemporary worship songs of Mission Praise. Taizé chant is widespread. Anything to convey the Christian message to those who have not heard it, and to keep those who have heard it coming along most weeks is tried.
There has to be something to make a community worth belonging to. Many churches thrive because of their relationships with schools; those who want to get their children into good schools, requiring the vicar’s signature, will populate choirs and other serving groups. It has been observed that cathedral congregations seem to be growing. There is no doubt that beautiful choral singing in a beautiful building is awesome. Sounds from the organ can also thrill to the core. Smooth sounds produced by a well trained choir are the opposite of solo pop singers and pop bands whose raw, edgier sounds and grungy guitar, bass, synthesiser and drum backing well express extremes of anger, despair, isolation, sorrow, rejection, dejection. Despite some folks having no religious beliefs, there is a feeling that people seek something, and they very often know not what. I wonder if those who come to church out of curiosity, or to attend a function, are puzzled by popular music in an overtly holy setting.
Musical purity seems to suggest holiness and goodness, and some are put off coming to listen to it or participate in it because they just don’t feel good enough to hear it, join in it, or quite simply, just can’t stand it because it seems so alien to them. Many pursue energetic physical activity or extra social pastimes and haven’t time to worship at the end of a hectic week. Because families are now fragmented all round the world, or within shorter distances of a round trip of say 150 miles, visiting may be a priority, and going to church regularly is not. It has simply dropped off the radar.
Football teams used to belong to a Sunday School League, my father was in one. Choir first, then football in the afternoon. At least the football got him to church. A good community pastime has become the multi-billion pound popular industry which has outgrown its roots. For many, churches are museums, must – see places to visit, but many only attend the cathedral service to sit down, and because it doesn’t cost £10 or more to enter. It seems to me that Protestantism has reached the end of its line. Ordinary people have been taught to read, write and think, and because of freedom of speech, they are allowed to turn round and say, sorry, I just don’t buy that. The consequence is that some churches are less full and some feel more like playgrounds. We church organists constantly strive to produce the best quality music we can with the resources we have got, which may not be much, and somehow we have to try and help create an atmosphere of sanctity, where quietness speaks and is not scary.
There is talk of developing hubs of activity, especially in the RCO. Their model, inspired by Leeds Cathedral’s highly successful choral outreach programme is one to consider for our own churches. Its members pay a modest contribution to belong to it. This helps to fuel the sense that the scheme is worth belonging to.
Our organ hubs are our local associations to which we pay for membership, including being kept up to date with what’s going on. We want to encourage people to join us. I have long wondered what we can do to develop our activity from merely being a local travel club, visiting other churches’ organs, to including something more proactive and educational. Our newly refreshed website is part of this.
Education also means enabling those who need help to get started by directing enquirers to the suitable people for help, to giving advice on where organ practice might be possible. Some churches charge quite a lot of money for practice facilities. It may seem draconian, but money needs to be given to contribute towards maintenance, repair, heat, light. Neighbouring associations can open their meetings to members from other groups.
The RCO has taken up the same challenge in a big way. It wants to link up with groups like ours to promote the King of Instruments, but if churches close through lack of support or don’t have the will or means to promote good quality music, there will be nowhere free and public to play the wonderful repertoire which we cherish so much.
Marilyn Harper
