The only instrument required for Mass is the human voice. By the words of the holy consecration, all music fades away and only the melody of the angels remains. Gregorian chant hardly needs an organ to lead it…
FWIW, my fave organ to play is the Hammond C3 with a full Leslie cabinet, but I’ll guaran-dang-tee you that you won’t see one of those used at Mass :bigyikes:
During the 1950s and 60s the sale of Hammond organs to Catholic Churches surged. They were relatively cheap and very low maintenance. They didn’t require tuning either. I started out playing the C-3 at the local Catholic church. I could never get a satisfactory pipe organ sound out if. Everything sounded “flutey” to me. My organ teacher had an RT-3–the big monster with a full AGO pedal board and the fake 32’ solo division. For me to this day, a Hammond organ sounds like a Hammond organ–not like anything else. You can spot them a mile away. I think they are definitely better suited to the ball park, roller rink and jazz band.
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