Music Unitarian Society of Hartford

Music, Music, Music (April 02)

Music Sunday is April 28! This is always a very special event at the Meeting House, because our talented music professionals can plan pieces of greater length and complexity, with more soloists and instruments. This year's theme is “Euro–Choir” (see the service listing on the front page).

We have had some amazing musical events at our Meeting House, but, due to time, budget, and equipment constraints, only occasionally is the depth of our talent revealed. Several years ago, on one of Jon Luopa's Sundays off, the scheduled guest minister failed to appear. Our organist, Tom Schmutzler played the Prelude, and as the congregation waited for something to happen, the first hymn. Some announcements, some stirring in the seats, another hymn, and then he stepped out of his little “pit” and offered the congregation a choice. Either we could sing a bunch of hymns, go home, or have an organ concert. We chose the latter, and were treated to a wonderful “service–long” piece too long to perform on a normal Sunday, and went home as deeply satisfied with our worship experience as we would have been with any prayer or sermon.

On a normal Sunday, we see our Choir Director, Mattie Banzhaf's back, the 25 member choir's faces (including paid Section Leaders) and we don't see the Organist, Tom Schmutzler at all. As Reverend Cooley said in her recent sermon entitled “Music more than Sound”, music is meant to speak for itself, not to be seen or described in words. Our Sacred Music is clearly another form of worship, which can link together the other parts of the service, or, as described above, stand entirely on its own.

Sacred Music comprises a very tiny amount of the music performed today. It can be defined as traditional music composed for worship, some like to say by “dead European white guys”, but the difference between “sacred” music and pop, folk, or what is called “contemporary Christian” is more a matter of educated taste than mere tradition. While the music selected by our organist and choir director comes from a variety of traditions, both old and new, that element of “taste” is of great importance, since our music is such a significant part of our worship experience. There are excellent contemporary composers of sacred music who aren't white, male, or dead ... such as Adolphus Hailstork, who is black, and Elizabeth Alexander who is American, Unitarian, and female.

At the core of most church music is the pipe organ. This interesting instrument goes back at least 2,000 years, associated with Roman gladiator circuses as the only instrument with large enough sound to fill a huge coliseum. Though one of the oldest instruments, it was also the first to be powered by electricity (replacing bellows). It has inspired many great composers, and many musical forms, such as the fugue, the toccata, and the chorale-prelude.

There are many parts to the organ. No two pipe organs are exactly alike, since they must be custom-designed for the space where they will be used. Our Sanctuary and Chancel have been designed around our organ ... console, wiring, leathers, wind chest, and both wooden (hidden behind the “altar”) and lead pipes (the ones you see), and, in the basement area beneath the chancel, an electric pump which fills the wind chest when the organ is turned on. At present our organist plays a “two-manual” (keyboard) console, though about five years ago we purchased a “three-manual” console, which has yet to be installed. It will require some redesigning of the chancel, as it is a few inches deeper than our present one.

Because of the complexity of the organ and the “tight” design of our chancel space around it, neither of which has changed since our Meeting House was built in 1964, installing a new console which requires as little as six more inches of depth will require rethinking the way we use that space. A 2002 Chancel Committee has formed to study this problem, taking into account several other long-standing needs: handicap access (a person in a wheelchair can't sing in the choir or speak from the pulpit), installation of adequate lighting, an organ upgrade, a sound system upgrade, more space for the choir, etc. while at the same time preserving the architectural integrity of our sanctuary space.

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (revised 2/21/05)