Your Final Voluntary

[bombarde32]

Moving on from the topic "When is it time to move on" I thought that it might be fun for you to tell us what your final voluntaries were when you had enough or were sacked, or just couldn't stand the clergy/choir/organ/congregation, or life any more.

 

I left a large parish church, after 15 yearws in post having had enough of an itinerant Irish priest, over many years. I just couldn't resist a cobbled-up version of "Paddy McGinty's Goat" arranged, 'Riverdance' style, as my departure. Got a thundering good round of applause too!

 

........Go on - you know you want to..........!

[handsoff]

At the end of my final assembly as school organist after falling out with the impossibly pompous headmaster over his dislike of final verse reharmonisations, I played the "Wedding March" as he and the almost equally pompous deputy paraded side by side down the aisle. The chapel virtually erupted as they left the building...

[Paul Morley]

One of the schools at which I worked had a somewhat 'difficult' headteacher. On the day that I left, my last official duty was to conduct the choir and band at the end of term assembly. On the morning of said event, I received a memo from 'er indoors' (as the lady in question was generally referred to by staff and pupils alike) informing me that she wished to walk out of the hall to silence - this despite (or quite possibly because of) my having already told her that the band had been working very hard on some suitable exit music (I can, almost 20 years on, no longer remember what).

 

Five minute before the assembly started, I gathered the band members together to inform them that 'by special request', we would be playing a different exit piece from the one which we had been rehearsing.

 

At the end of the assembly, I waited until the platform party were on the steps, and therefore committed to proceeding, then brought the musicians in with the theme from 'The Muppet Show'.

 

I understand that for some years afterwards, staff at this establishment would grade minor victories won against senior management on the 'Morley's last assembly scale'.

[Paul Walton]

Kevin Bowyer, on his last Sunday at St. Mary's Warwick, as the priest was ascending the steps of the pulpit for the sermon, played the theme to Mastermind!

[msw]

When I left Bath Abbey, I did my usual pair of Sunday Parish Services: 9.15 Eucharist, for which I ended with Kodaly's "Ite Missa est" (endeavouring to use every pipe of the mighty Klais for one last time) and 6.30 Evening Service (simplified Compline) for which I chose Bach's "Mit Fried und Freud" using only one stop, the Great 16' Double Open Diapason played up an octave with Pedal coupled 'loco.' It seemed apt...

[Fiffaro]

I always thought that a reference to Godspell's "Turn back o man, forswear thy foolish ways" might be the way to go, particularly if the termination of employment was not mutually agreed.

[Guest Roffensis]

I always thought that a reference to Godspell's "Turn back o man, forswear thy foolish ways" might be the way to go, particularly if the termination of employment was not mutually agreed.

 

 

At one church it was the can-can, which suited the old Willis well. Glad to get out!!

[handsoff]

I always thought that a reference to Godspell's "Turn back o man, forswear thy foolish ways" might be the way to go, particularly if the termination of employment was not mutually agreed.

 

Off topic, but the groom at a wedding for which I once played just loved the Holst version and, with the Bride's agreement, had it sung on the day.

 

"Now, even now........"

[ajsphead]

2 movements from Christopher Steel's Suite 'Changing Moods'. It seemed apt for that particular clergyperson.

Tournemire's Improvisation on the Te Deum. This was particularly sweet as the churchwarden had asked me to record it as part of the audio track for a promotional video for the town, and my credit will be there for evermore.

 

AJS