Also consider this. A lot of Catholic churches are not designed for music and choirs, and many don’t have good sound systems, so a lot of amps and wires and other equipment has to be stuck out in the middle of the church. There’s just no place to put stuff and musicians. That could be why it looks awkward and heavy to you. Kind of like putting the EZ Boy recliner in the kitchen because there’s no room for it in the living room.
I hope that new Catholic churches are being built with modern music in mind (choirs, keyboards and other electronic instruments, sound amplication, etc.) . I know that many of you cringe at the idea of “modern music” in the Church, but I think it’s here to stay. in a hundred years, it won’t be “modern” anymore.
Hi Cat - I understand where you are coming from, especially in regards to bad knees. I know a lot of choir members at our parish who has bad knees, so they accomodate them by allowing them to sit on chairs in the choir loft. It does take quite a while to get up and down the stairs, but they are willing and wanting to do it for their love of the church and of the incredible sacred music they are humbled to sing.
The thing I’d like to focus on is the above comment, though. I don’t know how old the Catholic churches in your area are, but almost all Catholic churches (as well as Protestant ones) were built with acoustics and the musicians in mind prior to the wide use of amplification. It was because they had to make sure the speaking voice as well as the singing voice could be heard. Sound carries much easier in lofts whether to the side or in the back. Choirs never needed amplification. In many of the parishes I’ve worked in, the acoustics are so good, you can hear a person speaking low from the back of the church or all the way in the front, so you can imagine how important it was not to have too much chatter. There was one church where the acoustics were so “live” that any kind of noise literally made the place sound like chaos. You really had to be careful about talking there. You didn’t even need a microphone in the loft for the pieces of music which sat lower in the voice.
It is in the newer churches where acoustics are not taken into account. Whether or not that’s a bad thing is up to the individual person. I personally think it’s not a good thing. It fosters this idea that instruments and the singing voice need to be amplified, when they can sound absolutely inspiring and beautiful without amplification. So then, with choirs, no matter how many special microphones they set up in front of the choir, you’ll always hear the voices that are standing directly underneath those mics. It sounds ridiculous. I’d rather hear the natural voice. In some ways, these churches seem to be built with the idea that the more modern instruments will be already amplified, so they will make the room as dead as possible so as not to create too much “sound” with any natural acoustics. They no longer take into account the needs of a choir or un-amplified instruments, almost as if it is purposely done to drive out natural-voiced choirs and other instruments. (I’m sure it is not the case, but it does seem that way sometimes.) I also just think that architects today really don’t place as much importance on acoustics and when they do, it’s sometimes a failure. But that’s for another thread.
And to tie this into the subject of the thread, I’ve found that these places which have amplification for the choirs, the mics will sometimes sometimes pick up people whispering to each other or making other kinds of noises with their bodies and chairs. These are things you wouldn’t hear otherwise.
