What do people like to hear from the organ before Evensong?

[Martin Cooke]

I know, I know... it's called progress! BUT... is LOUD organ music what we want to hear before Evensong as the choir processes in? Perhaps is comes over in a particular way on livestreams, but I do find loud, grinding, attention-grabbing improvisation getting more and more on my nerves, and yet this seems to have become the norm in several places that (very generously) livestream their often stunningly beautiful services. Has anyone else noticed? I'd be thinking Great 1 + Swell to Oboe as a max, myself. (I know, you'll all think I'm just an elderly expeller of flatulence). 

[Andrew Butler]

Depends on the occasion - Easter Day and a Thursday evening in November are totally different.....

[Colin Pykett]

1 hour ago, Martin Cooke said:

(I know, you'll all think I'm just an elderly expeller of flatulence). 

Come now, it's the organ that's often elderly and expels wind, not the organIST.

That apart, I must admit that my inclinations are similar.  IMHO, Evensong is generally a quieter and reflective time heralding the beginning of a new working week for many, tending to attract the more devotional congregants rather than the more in-your-face morning services where the organ is but one among several sources of loud noises (and nothing wrong with that of course).  But one of the advantages of much organ music is that the same piece can be played faster, slower, loud or soft to suit the occasion.  Examples include many of Bach's preludes and/or fugues, or some of the chorale preludes.  This can then be followed up with a couple of minutes of Rambling Around in G (or whatever), played in a not too dissimilar style, to cover the action as everyone processes in.  But readers know all this ...

Perhaps organists can get over-excited when they know they're going to appear on youtube? (Though with youtube's increasingly aggressive advertising policy we are now seeing which totally ruins so many videos nowadays with tasteless pre-, mid- and post-roll ads inserted at random, I'm beginning to wonder why they bother any more).

1 hour ago, Andrew Butler said:

Depends on the occasion - Easter Day and a Thursday evening in November are totally different.....

But this is also true, of course.

[S_L]

4 hours ago, Andrew Butler said:

Depends on the occasion - Easter Day and a Thursday evening in November are totally different.....

I wonder when you last played for Evensong!! Or do you sing Vespers in your neck of the woods? We have Vespers every Sunday evening - it begins with silence!

I also wonder how many on here actually get to play for Evensong on a regular basis. Cathedrals and the Greater Churches still follow the tradition although I know of one Cathedral that sings 'Shortened' Evensong (not sure what that is!). Is Evensong still prevalent in Parish churches? Or is it just a distant, longed for, memory to most players? 

[Rowland Wateridge]

2 hours ago, S_L said:

I also wonder how many on here actually get to play for Evensong on a regular basis.

Sadly no longer, due to a combination of health issues and old age.  But, together with Matins, this was my most rewarding playing experience for three-plus decades in small country churches.  Of course Andrew Butler hits the nail on the head.  My experience was inevitably different from the Cathedral not many miles away.  

In answer to Martin’s original question, always something quiet and reflective before the service and appropriate to the season.  I was lucky in having congregations who were respectfully silent before the service (is this so unusual?); people who possibly only met at church in far-flung rural communities understandably greeted and chatted after the service!  My last church had an ancient and venerable reed organ, full compass of course, with inevitable limitations but, manuals-only arrangements of e.g., one of the JSB attributed Shorter Preludes, works by Brahms, Karg-Elert and others provided something the right length, and occasionally someone would come and thank the organist! 

[innate]

I like to hear the organist improvising skilfully and very gradually getting louder so that the Dean’s wife (or husband) has to speak louder and louder to her friend and then the organ stops without warning so the entire congregation hear “with a red wine ragôut …”.

But a Howells Psalm Prelude is generally excellent pre-Evensong fare; especially the one dedicated to Dykes-Bower.

[Martin Cooke]

3 hours ago, innate said:

especially the one dedicated to Dykes-Bower.

Set 2, No 1 - De profundis - a wonderful piece. You've made me question my own prejudices now because I do go for 'very loud' during the climax of this piece, but at least it dies away to almost nothing. I think I can cope with the loud if it's part of a piece, or if it's part of the specific pre-Evensong recital, but it's the rowdy improvisations that I'm struggling with. And, yes, I certainly agree with Andrew Butler. 

[Martin Cooke]

I do just want to add that I think the livestreams are one of the best things to emerge (a) from lockdown and (b) from the world of church music in recent times. My all time favourites are York and Truro, followed by Christ Church, Oxford, Merton College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge, though I struggle, if I am scrupulously honest, to appreciate the organ at Trinity in its accompanimental role. 

[David.Dewar]

For a 'normal' CE I would play (as all ready mentioned) something along the lines of Howells Psalm Preludes. Then improvise for a few minutes (having made time for it) to finish with a unison when whoever is precenting to be ready for the note for the responses - i.e. to coincide at the appropriate moment - not early and not late.

[Andrew Butler]

On 16/10/2023 at 12:57, S_L said:

I wonder when you last played for Evensong!! Or do you sing Vespers in your neck of the woods? We have Vespers every Sunday evening - it begins with silence!

I also wonder how many on here actually get to play for Evensong on a regular basis. Cathedrals and the Greater Churches still follow the tradition although I know of one Cathedral that sings 'Shortened' Evensong (not sure what that is!). Is Evensong still prevalent in Parish churches? Or is it just a distant, longed for, memory to most players? 

No sung Vespers in this part of the Charente!

I used to play Evensong at least twice a month in the UK pre-COVID plus cathedral visits (mainly Canterbury)

[timothyguntrip]

This is Evensong of some form every week at my church here in East Sussex - Sung and Full Choral alternate fortnightly with Said with Hymns on Sundays in between. The attendance varies greatly from week to week, from sixty for Choral Evensong on Easter Sunday to about three for the Sung Evensong with Anthem on Harvest Sunday!