Recently, I have been thinking about following. In fact, the train of thought all started when I played the "organ" in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. (I say "organ," because I go to church in the Institute building and our "organ" is actually a digital piano. And may I say . . . I don't like it. But then again, I don't know how to play an actual, honest-to-goodness organ)
It's not the first time I've played it, but it's the first time a goodly number of people commented on my tendency to play quickly. (Okay, okay . . . that's a euphemism. I believe at least two people actually called me a speed demon. And doesn't it seem odd that I got called a demon based on the way I did something in church? But that is neither here nor there.)
As I evaluated my reasons for playing as quickly as I do, I came up with two. Reason the First: I am an impatient person. Reason the Second (and the one that got me thinking): Sound travels slower than light. And nobody in any LDS congregation I've ever been in--including myself--actually looks at the chorister in order to be led by the chorister. Most people glance up periodically, as if to reassure themselves that the chorister is still standing there and waving his arm about. And since most people follow the sound, the congregation ends up singing almost a full beat behind the organ. (Or, in my case, "organ")
This fact leads me as organist to believe I'm playing entirely too slow. So I pick up the pace. And then I practically exhaust the congregation as they try to keep up with my rendition of "Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning." True story.
It struck me how important to following it is to actually look. If we lose the focus point, we fall behind. And unintentionally, we end up spiritually and emotionally out of breath. Thankfully, the Eternal Organist knows our weaknesses well enough to help us compensate . . .but since He's also paradoxically the Eternal Chorister--we have to look first.
I think there's a reason eyes crop up in the scriptures more than ears. What do you think?
4 comments:
I LOVE this blog! It's just how I feel! I find it hilarious that they called you a speed demon. I'm the organist for my ward (my mom is the chorister) and we always take the songs faster (That way we can finish the songs at the right tempo.). It makes me happy that you do it too. We did all 4 verses of the Spirit of God in under 4 minutes one sunday...a little too fast. Everyone was breathless after. So funny! And I love the analogy. It's wonderful and so true. :D
DO eyes come up more often than ears? I've never really thought about it before....
As for faster hymns, I think congregations often have the tendency to sing hymns at a degradingly slow pace. It always frustrates me when we sing hymns with obviously up-beat words at funeral dirge speed. In my home ward, my mom was chorister for years and years and was always trying to speed things up, but our organist would disregard her and slow things down. It's nice to know that the opposite is sometimes true.
Yes, eyes DO come up more often than ears. And though it was originally a purely empirical observation, a quick search on lds.org verified my conclusion.
And think about it: there are obviously reasons the scriptures talking about having an eye single to the glory of God.
When your eyes are seriously focused on anything, your whole body points in that direction.
The digital pianos are ghastly. They combine the worst features of piano and organ. (I don't have anything profound to say on the rest of the topic because I've got to go to bed now, but I had to get that in.)
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