I played for a short funeral today by which I mean the service lasted some 20 minutes. There were two hymns and all the readings and the homily were given by the vicar: none of the family spoke.
There has been a 'rush' on funerals recently as the vicar told me. I have another next week at a very small church. The service is to be streamed into the village hall as the church will be packed.
People do use/attend the church when they need it.
With the death of morning prayer (at least in my area) one no longer hears the "Te Deum" sung to music. These days one can get a 'fix' by visiting YouTube where one will find some excellent performances (and other which are less so).
I suppose, as I do not live very near a cathedral, I am not likely to get a chance to hear this sung live. I tried to look at the Peterborough Cathedral music lists but I cannot find them. Neither can I find Coventry cathedral music lists.
Choirs are odd. They consist of people with all their quirks, aspirations and levels of ability. Some members will bring a wealth of knowledge and vocal value to the group; some will think they do.
Often there will be one or more strong voices in a choir who will give a lead. This can compromise balance and, if they are away (or if they get a coughing fit or stop singing in the middle of a piece for some other reason) it is really obvious. There was lad who sang loudly when I was a chorister and he was given the nickname 'Boomer'.
These days it is hard to find enough people to cover all the parts (SATB) in parish church choirs and there can be a deficiency in one or more parts. I no longer run a choir. It can be hard work.
This is the keyboard of the organ I played yesterday for a funeral. It struck me, during one of the spoken parts of the service, that the keys are not all the same width. Look at the G and D for example, which seem to be the widest. The C is very narrow. The thing is, I think, that the centres of the keys are equidistant and the C does have large gaps by the sides.
Curious though.
I played for a funeral yesterday at a lovely church which only had a small organ on a balcony. There were 5 stops (but 6 knobs, as one stop has Bass and Treble which is very common because the bass is shared). The organ did not produce a great deal of volume but I was very happy with my playing: rhythm and purpose in playing can lead a congregation better than volume. I played for a good 15 minutes before the service: the congregation had started to arrive 30 minutes early but I let them chatter for a while.
Sad to say the hymn singing was poor, at least up in the balcony where the overflow congregation was seated. 'Crimond' was not too bad but the dreaded 'All things Bright and Beautiful' was dire as was the requested 'The Old Rugges Cross'.
The service was taken well and without awkward pauses. I have another one to play for at the same church next week.
It seems to be church appeal time. Two have come my way recently.
The Richard III window project at Barnard Castle.
The 600 appeal at Higham Ferrers, Northants. The link will take you to a page with an audio explanation from Richard Oberman who sang in the choir when I was organist: he is quite a character. One of their (Biblical) ideas is to issue £10 to people and encourage them to return it on Advent Sunday together with extra money they raise from fundraising with an activity they are good at - knitting, baking cup cakes or wood-turning.
The readings last Sunday were about Peter - Saint Peter, the rock upon which the church was supposed to be built.
When I was in the 6th form at school I decided to take RE 'A' level (Divinity as it was known at my school) which caused all sorts of problems. (The lad who took it with me become a priest in the Greek Orthodox church!)
Our set books included Romans - St Paul's letter to the Romans which was, let's say, far from inspiring and, sadly, very far from inspiringly taught.
The reasons people are shying away from religion is two-fold.
