The Organist's Ministerial
Function
The role of the organist
is double. One role is to accompany the singing of the congregation;
the other role is to play as a soloist.
Accompaniment to the
singing of the Congregation
The organist's function
as accompanist to the singing of the congregation is the prime
importance. A good instrument, under the fingers of a master,
can unify the singing of the community and often save it from
mediocrity. In the majority of case, it is the organ which,
in fact, conducts the singing of the assembly.
Let us point out the
superior technicality required for this function. A good accompanist
knows how to transpose at sight the music for the congregation
and to adapt to all the needs of the moment. Normally, several
years of experience are required to master this art.
It often becomes the
task of the organist to unify songs which, without his or her
help, would not blend musically. For example, if the holy, holy,
the Memorial Acclamation, and the Great Amen are place in the
same keys, or at least in the keys as closely related as possible,
the organist will have rendered a great service to the Eucharist
Prayer; he or she will have given it the chance to be perceived
by the congregation as a unique prayer which extends from the
Preface to the Our Father.
Playing As Soloist
The organist intervenes
as soloist for two purposes: "to encircle" a song
and "to encircle" the celebration.
To Encircle a song
is to announce it with a prelude, to prolong it with a postlude
The incomparable model of the art is Johann Sebastian Bach in
the Orgelbuchlein.
To all my organist
colleagues who proudly serve the Christian community, I would
like to make the following suggestions: all though the liturgical
year, we sing songs which reappear a certain number of times.
Why could not each of us sit down at our desks to compose five
or ten measures of beautiful, musical workmanship which would
form a pretty prelude or postlude? A great opportunity to be
creative and embellish the liturgy is offered to each of us.
Let us keep in our hearts a certain creative joy! This work
will enrich our community infinitely more than that which we
sometimes call or "improvisations" at the organ, and
which sometimes risk being only babbling on the keyboard.
To encircle the celebration,
let us not be sparing of our playing. At the beginning of each
celebration, let us welcome the community as we welcome someone
whom we love. And if the piece that we have prepared last five
or ten minutes, let us start it five or ten minutes before the
entrance of the celebrant. Let us know equally how to prolong
the playing of the organ at the end of the celebration, prolonging
it as if we were accompanying a friend whom we leave reluctantly.
Importance and Dignity
of the Organist
We should be careful
not to overstate the importance of the organ and the organist.
A liturgy can take place perfectly without any organ playing.
This was the case for the first fourteen centuries in the West.
It is still the case in oriental liturgies. But if a community
has a good instrument and a good organist, it must consider
that as a favor from the Lord. In the musical realm, the organ
is one of the most effective instruments for promoting the beauty
of music.
The Instruction on
Sacred Music and the Sacred Liturgy gives organists this magnificent
testimony:
When they are at
their keyboard, during the ceremonies, they must be conscious
of the active part that they play for the glory of God and
the edification of the faithful.
Other Instruments
What we are saying
about the organ deserves to be said of all other instruments.
In principle, a drum is as "pious" as an organ, a
guitar as much as a trumpet. There is no instruments which is
more or less religious that another instrument. The liturgy
does not choose its instruments any more than it chooses its
music or the language for the celebrations; the liturgy receives
them from the people that it calls together. Vatican II remembered
in this respect the prodigious freedom of the Christian:
. . . the Church,
sent to all peoples of every time and place, is not bound
exclusively and indissolubly to any race or nation, nor to
any particular way of life or any customary pattern of living,
ancient or recent.
In rediscovering the
intoxicating flavor of Christian liberty, the instruments also
must rediscover the joy of true service. For a greater freedom
is always a road toward a greater duty: the one of better serving
Christ Jesus by better serving the community.
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