[HANASHIR:1423] Organs and Choirs

[Adrian A. Durlester <durleste...>]

Despite Cantor Contzius' impassioned plea supported by the lovely liner
notes of Dr. Marshall, I remain unconvinced that the organ is an appropriate
instrument for use in Jewish worship. I have yet to see a true organ that
can truly appropriately accompany the folksong style of liturgical music
that is now so popular. And the Germanic classical style, while it may be
quite beautiful musically, has never, and likely will never feel Jewish to
me. My roots are in the shtetl, not the urban wealthy lifestyle of the
German reformers. I adore the music of Lewandowski, Sulzer, etc. as a
musician. But it speaks to me not as a Jew.

I do my absolute best, and perhaps a trained organist (which I am not) might
do better, but it's never quite right, playing the folksy stuff on the organ

I would argue strongly against Dr. Marshall's contention that electronic
keyboards fall far short of the subtleties available on the organ. First of
all, I can get subtleties on a simple acoustic piano far in excess of the
organ already. And the organist has the advantage of mutiple stops and
configurations the pianist does not. Secondly, maybe the synthesizers and
electronic keyboards of a decade ago, even five years ago, might fall short.
Not anymore.

I've witnessed an organ afficiando fooled in a kind of Pepsi/Diet Coke taste
test of an electronic organ vs. a real, first class pipe organ. The
technology is vastly improved. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I'll take my
acoustic piano (or a real organ) over a synthesized one anytime, but for
versatility, the elctronic keyboard cannot be beat. The physical constraints
of organ pipe design (and their electronic imitations) do limit the
instruments capabilities in producing a full range of orchestral sounds.
There's no getting around that. Organ registrations do their best to
imitate, and create their own unique sound combinations, but a top notch
synthesizer can do what no organ (or piano) can in the hands of a master
synthesizer player.

For the record, our volunteer choir (with 4 ringers) here at Micah in
Nashville sat in chairs near the organ, which is to the stage right of the
bimah. They wore white choir robes (I didn't care for that either-again,
very churchy to me. A kittel on the rabbi or cantor I'm used to, but choir
robes?)

We had, effectively, 6 rehearsals in which to assemble the RH/YK service
music. We pulled it off, but I got a few more grey hairs in the process.

We learned a good lesson in congregational minhag. After the first RH
service, the rabbi told me to drop the orchestrated and arranged choral
responsive "Va'anachu" because it threw the congregation off.

Given my druthers, I'd put the choir, dressed just like the rest of the
congregation, smack dab in the middle of the seating, and let them encourage
others to sing along rather than perform. But that's hard with a lot of the
HHD music. Guess my vision of synagogue 2000 is different.

Adrian


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian A. Durlester  -  durleste (at) earthlink(dot)net
http://home.earthlink.net/~durleste/
Student, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
Music Director, Congregation Micah, Nashville, TN
Home phone (615) 646-9788
Nextel cel-phone (615) 207-2661
You can page me from http://www.nextel.com
List-Owner for hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org; Co-Owner for L-Torah (at) 
shamash(dot)org
http://uahc.org/hanashir
Editor, Bim Bam (for Torah Aura Productions)
Evening Program Chair, CAJE 23 - San Antonio TX, Aug 9-13, 1998
http://www.caje.org
Alternate Email: aad (at) iname(dot)com  adriand (at) aol(dot)com