In some wards sacrament meeting is held first and in others it is the last meeting of the 3 hour block. There is always that time when everyone is coming in to be seated, greeting those they haven’t spoken to yet that day, chatting amongst themselves and the accompanist for the meeting, be they organist or pianist should be playing prelude music.
“Quiet prelude and postlude music creates an atmosphere of worship that invites the Spirit into Church meetings. The organist or pianist usually plays hymns or other appropriate music for five to ten minutes before and after a meeting. Playing hymns can help members review gospel teachings in their minds.” (CHI2 14.4.3)
It is a common complaint of an organist or pianist is that the congregation don’t listen to the prelude music, and that many members sit or stand around chatting, apparently oblivious to the music. I am of the opinion that the prelude music is not there to be listened to for itself. It doesn’t matter if the congregation are not aware that a particular hymn or piece of music is being played. Although it is true that “hymns can help members review gospel teachings in their minds”, I think we are missing the primary purpose of prelude music if we believe that to be it’s function.
“Members should be taught to make the time before sacrament meeting a period of prayerful meditation as they prepare spiritually for the sacrament.” (CHI2 18.2.2)
Of course many do not, and that’s up to them. I’m not convinced that some aren’t better served speaking to that person they really need to speak to, before they are able to achieve a more peaceful frame of mind, unhindered by thoughts that they must catch so and so before they leave, for example. We aren’t all the same. I believe prelude music is there to facilitate prayerful meditation and spiritual preparation for those that want it. Background music can help us to filter out the distracting sounds and conversations around us. As someone who sits in quiet contemplation, prelude music works for me. It doesn’t matter that people are still coming into the chapel. It doesn’t matter if the members across the aisle are talking. Quiet prelude music means that I can sit in quiet contemplation unhindered by the preferences of others.
Sometimes I am the person playing the prelude music, and in previous wards I have been the principle accompanist and did so regularly. Perhaps I am unusual in not being concerned to have everyone listening. For those I do know listen I try to play hymns I know they like. I don’t regard prelude music as a performance. And really, I prefer it that way. Having the attention of an audience can result in a serious attack of nerves and exponentially increase the likelihood of mistakes in playing. I’m no soloist.
I have been in wards where musical items are placed as prelude music before the meeting. This isn’t a practice I like, for several reasons. Possibly it stems from having a choir perform musical items before our General Conferences, and often times our Stake Conferences. However, our General and Stake conferences are not sacrament meetings and do not include the sacrament ordinance. There is no requirement for prayerful meditation and spiritual preparation for taking the sacrament in those meetings. In wards where I was required to participate in musical items during the prelude music slot, I did not find the environment conducive to that preparation. On the contrary, there was always the breathless panic of everyone getting assembled, the ensuring that other family members were appropriately seated and my own seat with them reserved, the waiting for the signal to start, to have the meeting begin immediately afterwards. All very pretty for those listening rather than taking part, but at a price for the participants. My personal view is that musical items are best placed within the structure of a sacrament meeting after the ordinance has been completed. I have been annoyed by those who seemed to regard musical items as the only legitimate form of prelude music, and that anything else was simply the accompanist practising hymns.
You might be wondering if time for spiritual preparation isn’t also an issue for an accompanist playing prelude music. I can’t speak for everyone, but I haven’t found it to be the case. Playing hymns of my choice, one following from another, absorbing the words as I play, and not being required to follow a chorister in accompanying a congregational hymn or musical item is for me a calming experience that does in fact lend itself to spiritual preparation.
Every now and then I’ve seen and heard folk get twitchy about people chatting together in the chapel before sacrament meeting begins, complaining about a lack of reverence, and a lack of respect for the chapel itself. Periodically announcements can be made to that effect. I find this hard to sympathise with. It comes across as stuffy, and seems to work against fostering friendships and unity within a ward. It’s all very well saying we should be doing that chatting outside the chapel, but the chapel is where the seats are. And really, those who think our chapels can get noisy before our meetings begin need to try sitting in a packed cathedral before the start of a service. Nobody around you is speaking particularly loudly, but the sound builds and builds nevertheless, for the echoes to die away as the service begins.
- How does your ward prepare for sacrament meeting?
- Do you have regular prelude music?
- Do you appreciate having prelude music or would you prefer silence?
- Have you had musical items as prelude music?
- Do you like or dislike having musical items for prelude music and why?
- How do you feel about chatting in the chapel?
Discuss.
NB. Because we now appear to be required to log in to access some portions of CHI2, I have not provided links for the music: section 14 in the post text.
Wheat & Tares 
Lately I’ve timed my arrival to walk in during announcements, so I’m afraid I don’t know. I don’t find this takes away from my sacrament worship, though.
We have prelude music, and I appreciate it and at the same time take it for granted. Every now and them I make it a point to thank the organist.
I’m OK with chatting in the chapel. I probably wouldn’t be if it was overly loud, but a din of chatter is ok. The chapel was made for man, man was not made for the chapel is kind of my take on it.
LDS_Scoutmaster – you said just what I was going to say.
I was just sitting and listening to the prelude music this last Sunday and noticed lots of chatting, but I had the thought,
“Isn’t this great everyone enjoying each other’s company! Why are some people so worried about the ‘process’ of sacrament and so little about the ‘people’ in the meeting.”
It shouldn’t be the main reason for church, but isn’t that what part of church should be about? “Fellowship with the Saints.” Plus I would rather have a full chapel with lots of chatting than a near empty chapel with the most reverent congregation.
Well, we have prelude music and we also can have a rather loud chapel prior to the meeting start. But, we live in a rather dispersed Ward and not everyone get s to see people all the time. Especially now that the Church has reduced our activities.
so some amount of “neighboring” is expected. When else would we do it?
The Ward gets admonished from time to time, but what are they really going to do. Some people in the Ward actually like each other…. 🙂
“How does you ward prepare for sacrament meeting?”
Most everybody talks. The organist, pretty much, plays the whole time.
“Do you have regular prelude music?”
Hymn book – unless my daughter is visiting and the organist asks her to play. My daughter has a masters’ in organ from the ‘Y’ and she will play appropriate classical music, which, at least in my estimation, is appropriate. Sometimes advanced people want to show off their ability. I would say that is not her intention and I don’t believe it is taken that way by the congregation. I realize personal bias might well destroy everything I just said.
“Do you appreciate having prelude music or would you prefer silence?”
I appreciate the prelude music. It lowers the roar of the crowd. I remember, years ago, the Bishop standing up and asking the congregation to not be so load. (I can’t remember how he said it) Things got quite silent for a couple of seconds while he spoke but before he even got sat down it was already back up to the previous volume. I was appalled. And then at an early morning meeting the next Sunday, when this subject was brought up, it was brought up, by some, that the primary children make noise during sacrament meeting. If there is too much noise during prelude music, the problem is the adult children.
“Have you had musical items as prelude music?”
See question # 2.
“Do you like or dislike having musical items for prelude music and why?”
Well, here we go again. I have three daughters. All of them very musical. One violin, one piano or organ, one cello. They make a beautiful sound when they play together, which is very seldom now that two of them are married and have children and are seldom together and the violinist has developed something which makes it too difficult to play. So, I won’t even suggest that I’m not biased.
“How do you feel about chatting in the chapel?”
Oh, I guess it’s all right unless they don’t shut up when the meeting starts. I mean just because I’m kind of a dud when it comes to sociality doesn’t mean others can’t tend to it much more than I do.
A few years ago we were on vacation in San Diego. Around 1030 am, We decided to just drive around and see if we could find a Mormon church, and we did! We walked in, sat down, and learned it was a Spanish Branch. There were several missionaries and they all introduced themselves, and asked us if we wanted a translator. We don’t speak Spanish, but we declined. The funny thing is that our children were so small, I don’t think they even noticed that the meeting was in Spanish!
I think many of us are used to Mormon Standard Time, where people often show up late. But I didn’t know that Spanish Mormon Time is even later. When the meeting started, the chapel probably had about a dozen people. The meeting started, and I assume the person leading the congregation gave the typical announcements. In English speaking wards, usually people quiet down and listen. But to my surprise, some of the Spanish members came in quite late, stood, hugged, expressed great emotion at seeing friends–all the while a member of the bishopric was speaking. And nobody seemed to pay the bishopric the slightest bit of attention.
By the time Sacrament was being blessed (at least 11:20 am by now), the chapel was probably half full. By the end of the water being served, the chapel was completely full. We left after the Sacrament (since we had no idea what was being said anyway), but I have to say that English speakers are MUCH quieter than Spanish speakers, at least in my small sample size of a Spanish ward in San Diego. It was astonishing to me how loud this ward was, and I live in a ward that has lots of crying babies. (My previous ward had about 40 children in the NURSERY–which was held in 3 separate rooms.) So I’m used to noise, but this Spanish branch was way louder than anything else I’ve ever experienced.
There are few organists in the church that can really bring the Spirit in with their playing. The vast majority stumble about on organ stops that are completely wrong. Best to try and drown them out with enthusiastic chatter. There is already quiet time during the partaking of the Sacrament. I don’t know why our local leadership gets huffy about how much people are happy to see each other at church.
We have organ prelude music, but I find organ music very grating. I’d prefer silence to the organ because then I could listen to really good music on my iPod. (The organ drowns everything out.) But I wouldn’t mind prelude music on the piano, if they played different arrangements than those in the hymn book. That would be something I’d be happy to listen to. Which is the opposite of the OP. But I guess there’s no making everyone happy. 🙂 I’m not very chatty at church myself, but I don’t mind other people chatting as long as it’s not ridiculously loud.
LDS Scoutmaster, A Happy Hubby, Jeff & Nate.
Yes, it’s weird on the one hand to be told to fellowship one another, and then be reprimanded for doing so. I think it’s great to have members to greet eachother, and be happy to talk to eachother.
Nate & MOQT, I’m no organist, so if I’m playing the prelude music it is piano. Straight from the hymnbook though – sorry MOQT. I’ve been told I have a nice touch though!
Rich, thanks for the comment. I wouldn’t have any personal objection to a bona fide organist playing something classical for prelude music, if they’re happy to do that. My ward leaders would get twitchy though – our organist has been instructed to stick to the hymnbook, and at the time was in fact playing one of the hymns – one the stake leader in question didn’t recognise. I think it can get tricky with groups though for prelude, as I described in the OP, fine for a musical item during the meeting.
It can be a fine line between great music played for the glory of God, and the prelude music slot being regarded as a showcase for talent – and I’ve certainly encountered members who absolutely did see it that way – unfortunately. I think it is probably those attitudes that then result in injunctions against performances, which some then seem to interpret as we can’t have the music being too good because that’ll be a performance. Not so. It is all to do with the attitude of the musicians and congregation towards the music. That’s no reason not to use good musicians if they’re able and willing.
Kristine, there are members of our ward who do that too.
MH, different cultures have such different attitudes to time keeping. Japan and Germany are very strict about beginning on time, and time-keeping, in my experience. So the European Sisters broadcast pretty much started on time in Germany, even though that meant some of the GAs and their wives walking in late, and I was amused to see one of the guys on the stand checking his watch during the closing hymn, I assumed to reassure himself they were finishing on time as well.
Japan is even less relaxed than Germany. You can’t be late meeting people.
In Britain, we do like to be on time, but are more relaxed about it than Germany in general. Mormon standard time does creep in with some members, which annoys other members.
I was in a ward once where we simultaneously received counsel to 1) avoid chatter in the chapel 2) refrain from taking noisy children out of the chapel, instead continuing to “include” them in Sunday worship.
It was tough on investigators who are told that Sacrament meeting is a time of deep reflection and worship, who then found our services to seem more like a daycare than a Sabbath meeting.
Current ward hasn’t said much on either, and there are several families (mine included) who find themselves in non-chapel locations during that hour. The priesthood ensures that all rooms are checked for people who might want to take the Sacrament (we have a small building) and the larger rooms have the talks piped in. Seems to be a win all around.
This reminds me of something I heard long ago that they supposedly used to build a large room that had a window into the chapel. They had the sound piped in so that people with noisy little ones could go in there. It was squashed when one of the presidents noticed that there were a lot of teens going in that room just to be able to talk during sacrament meeting. Bummer that we don’t still do that.
#13 I once lived in a town that had a room like that in a movie theater back in the late 50s and the 60s. There was one glass wall, a dozen seats or so seats and a volume control for sound level. It was available for families with small kids and people who were hearing impaired.
It was great.
I went to a Community of Christ chapel in Kirtland last year and they still have one of those rooms #13 mentioned.
The Hyde Park chapel in London had such a room too on the mezzanine level looking in to the chapel. I don’t know if it is still there.
The crying rooms at the back of the chapel were hands down, the best earthly manifestation that God loves the little children and their mother’s last nerves.
When they did away with the crying rooms, I started having doubts on who was leading our church. Obviously, men who have never wrestled with a pew full of antsy children while their spouse conducted Important Meetings. I want church leaders who understand the Gospel includes crying rooms to protect mother’s mental health.
As #2, LDS_Scoutmaster, said,
“…The chapel was made for man, man was not made for the chapel is kind of my take on it.”
I came to understand, more than a few years ago, something that few (especially the “form over function” local leaders) seem to understand…
The primary value and priority of a ward is to be a “community.” By that I mean a body of friends that offer mutual support, service, and opportunities for service. That is the highest and best function of a ward. It should take precedence over most other aspects of the church/our meetings. We should be having more social events, not fewer.
It used to be common, periodically, for some functionary (in one case, long ago, the guy that was the paid building custodian/janitor) to scold the congregation for not being “reverent” in the chapel (when all that was happening was the normal greetings and pre-meeting chats). I know of a bishop in another ward (currently) that shoos people out of the chapel right after sacrament meeting because they shouldn’t be talking in that holy place!
They are caught up in the form and are ignorant of the function, straining at gnats (actually worse, not understanding the value of these acts of friendship) because they see their primary role as getting the rest of us to be righteous.
IMO
@#17 livinginzion
Where the “crying rooms” for crying babies or crying moms? 🙂
Hedgdhog #10:
“…our organist has been instructed to stick to the hymnbook, and at the time was in fact playing one of the hymns – one the stake leader in question didn’t recognise.”
Yeah, it’s kind of tough when local leadership kind of don’t know what they’re talking about. I hope he learned something from that.