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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000006.txt from 2007/09

From: Lee Lowry <leel@-----.net>
Subj: [DR-L] Church music and lighting reeds
Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:27:01 -0400

Around here, the choice of church music pretty much depends on whether
the church still has a full-time organist/choir director. If a
professional organist is employed the music is typically traditional and
about what you would expect. Such churches also tend to have at least
paid section leaders in their choirs and around here tend to be
traditional mainline protestant churches, such as Methodist, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, or UCC. There may be others, but I know best only where I
have played.

I played in several churches here through the 80s and 90s and the
conservatory-trained organists were wonderful to work with and their
music polished and lovely. As an example, 10 yrs ago this week I played
an arrangement of the Ravel "Pavane" with the organist at one church in
memory of Princess Diana.

One organist I worked with was from Curtis and another had degrees from
Oberlin and Eastman. Their choirs were variable depending on how many
they could get to show up regularly, especially males.

People who appreciate traditional church music tend to find out where
such music is offered and attend services there regularly, just as those
who prefer contemporary music attend the charismatic churches. When I
started playing in church regularly back in the early 80s most of the
ministers were supportive of traditional music programs even if they
themselves were not musically inclined.

But all that has changed over the last 10 -15 years. At least 3 of the
church musicians I played for were essentially forced from their jobs
and had to leave the community in search of churches that still wanted
traditional music. In most cases it began as boredom or distaste among
part of the congregation with traditional music and the complaints would
be lodged against the musicians. But in at least two cases, I know the
pastoral staff was opposed to the type of music being played in the
church, one frankly calling the chancel choir "elitist."

Another musician I played for told me that these are tough times for
classically trained church musicians as most of the congregations range
from indifferent to outright hostile toward their music and that few
modern ministers have any more background in church music than the
public at large.

Some of the people I worked with left the world of church music
altogether; others just left the community, in some cases reluctantly,
to try to find churches that still prefer their kind of music. But none
of the people I worked with from 1982 - 2003 are any longer in town and
I no longer play for any of those churches except a monthly Taizé
service at one. The occasional services I attend seem to still have at
least the typical hymns we sang when I was a kid in the 50s, but the
other music may be much different.

As for lighting a reed, I am into lights of many kinds, and decided to
try lighting a reed the only way I could, from the inside anyway, by
using the brightest white LED I had in my parts supply and putting it
inside the staple of the oboe or English horn reed.

The results were actually quite impressive and as Harry pointed out, you
can indeed see detail and variation on BOTH sides of your scrape in a
way you really can't with a lamp shining through the entire reed.

For even the slightly technically inclined, it is easy to hook up a 3mm
(T1) white LED, if you can get a really bright one, either to a 9 volt
battery through a 220 ohm resistor, or as I did power it from a 3.3 volt
regulator.

Don't connect the LED directly to any power source of more than 3.3
volts DC or you will cook it. I think an even brighter 5mm (T1-3/4)
white LED would fit up inside of a bassoon reed. You will see it nicely
lit and showing the thicker and thinner parts of the scrape. It was
better than I expected, though the glow of the reed lit in such a way is
more effective in a darker room than in one well-lit. The cane passes
light all right, but it's hardly efficient.

The best part, however, was the LED only cost about 25¢ and I already
had the regulator and power supply as I have played with LEDs for years.
So you can see for yourself before you plunk down $89.

The important thing is to find as bright an LED as you can--unlike light
bulbs, the same size LED will be made in many different levels of
brightness, depending on the brightness of the chip inside and the
quality of the phosphor used. The physical size of the LED will be the
same. I got the ones I tried from eBay.

You can also use a small LED on a wire to look inside of bocals. I have
done this in years past. The LEDs make very little heat so you won't
burn anything up.

Be careful not to look directly at the LEDs themselves. The brightest
ones available today can cause eye damage if viewed directly, and while
I'm not sure if it's permanent, you will sure see spots for quite awhile.
Lee

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