On a recent Sunday I attended Sacrament meeting in a nearby ward. The printed program showed the Sacrament Hymn to be Hymn #142, “I Stand All Amazed.” The problem was that hymn #142 is really “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” When the ward business had ended, the chorister stood up and the organist immediately played an introduction to “I Stand All Amazed.” The chorister looked over at him confused and then quickly found the page for the hymn being played (#193).
The were several problems in this scenario: 1. Neither the chorister nor the organist caught the error in advance, 2. The chorister and the organist showed no signs of communicating with each other, 3. The organist selected the song instead of the chorister, 4. The chorister neglected to tell the congregation what was going on.
This leads to my larger general observation. In Sacrament Meetings, the Chorister never seems to speak to the congregation any more. They stand, wave their arms and then sit down – following the lead of the organist. I believe this is a mistake.
When I was young, Sunday school was in the morning and Sacrament Meeting was in the evening. Sunday School had opening exercises in the chapel before we went to classes. During that time, the Sunday School Chorister had a specific time on the agenda to teach congregational singing. He or she might teach us a new song, or encourage us to sing a familiar song at the proper tempo, or even sometimes briefly talk about the meaning of a song. It was not unusual during this time for the chorister to stop a song mid-verse and exhort us to greater effort.
With changes to our meeting schedule over the years, this opportunity has gone away, but the need to improve our congregational singing has not gone away. Currently, the only singing instruction the Saints receive is in Primary. It is probably not possible, or appropriate, for singing instruction to be done during Sacrament Meeting. But certainly, if a mistake has been made in the printed program, it would be both appropriate and helpful, before the organist begins, for the chorister to briefly mention the confusion and announce which song we will be singing.
At this same meeting, which had gone overtime, the closing song #156, “Sing We Now at Parting,” which has 3 verses, stopped abruptly after verse 2, leaving the congregation confused. Of course there is no reason a congregation must sing every verse, but it would have been better if the chorister had announced, again, before the organist begins, how many verses we would be singing.
Related to the problem of the timid chorister is the problem of the domineering organist. LDS church organists, of course, are generally non-professional and probably started as pianists. An LDS ward often has multiple persons who can play the piano, but only one who can play the organ. All too often, this person is a pianist called out of need who must quickly become self-taught on the organ.
Once one becomes the ward organist, it can become your calling for life. There is rarely a second organist available in the ward to trade weeks, to substitute when needed, or to be called to replace the current organist after a reasonable period of service. This means that the organist could have YEARS of seniority in the job over the chorister. It is easy to see how a long-term organist could unintentionally assume a dominant role over the likely less experienced chorister.
It is traditional in the music world for the conductor to select the music, to communicate with the audience, and to make all decisions regarding tempo, number of verses, and even volume. (The organist in this ward always plays MUCH too loudly). The role of the organist is to “accompany” the congregation, which means to follow the chorister’s lead. In many wards, however, the organist seems to never even look at the chorister, either before or during the song.
The “Ward Music Callings” page on the Church website supports the traditional roles of conductor and accompanist. In fact, the Church does not really have a position called “chorister.” The title is “Ward Music Director.” This title strongly implies a more active role for this person than just waving your arms during congregational singing, and it clearly puts the director (chorister), not the organist, in charge of the music.
Ward Music Directors need to have some serious conversations with their organists about roles and responsibilities. They also need to plan how they will communicate with each other before the meeting and while in front of the congregation.
Ward organists need to look to their directors as conducting them, not just the congregation, during hymns. Except for the prelude and postlude music, the organist should never start playing before receiving a signal from the director. And they should look up from the keyboard reasonably often to check for tempo and other cues from the director during a song.
I encourage Ward Music Directors to take a larger view of their calling. During the congregational singing, you are in charge. Do not be timid. Lead. Speak out when needed. And to you organists (or pianists), remember to be followers. Accompany, do not drive. If your director does not lead out, encourage them to do so. Be a good supporter. Gently teach them their job, if necessary, but do not do their job for them.
13 For all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the church, by the prayer of faith.
Doctrine and Covenants 28:13
You are certainly correct about the “calling for life” scenario, so much so that the organist cannot even go on vacation in some wards. Is there a solution?
When we are without an organist, we have someone play the piano in sacrament. I have not seen it as distracting or a problem. It gives everyone a break and allows them to be sick or go on vacation.
Most of our sacrament meeting music is played on the piano. You don’t have to have an organist every single week. I am primary music leader in my ward and don’t have a huge amount of experience leading music or teaching a choir so I look to our pianist (who also is just an experienced musician overall) to just kind of help me along. I do make nearly all of the decisions regarding music and lesson plans (unless the presidency, bishopric, or stake have something specific they want the kids to sing in a meeting) and the pianist is great at just playing whatever we are singing. A good pianist in primary is truly a blessing.
We (myself and the organist) have been actively trying to communicate more to each other, the bishopric and the congression. I do think it’s funny that even when we tell the congregation that we will be singing all verses of a hymn, they still close their books early and then scramble to find the page again when they we see we are not finished. Oh well, we will keep trying.