by Quillsky 31 Replies latest jw friends
I recall being young and having a lovely solo pianist accompanying the singing in our Hall.
In around the late 70's the obligatory (canned, sad) recorded music replaced live musicians.
Anyone have any more detailed memories of live music and the subsequent changeover?
that change was prob a good thang!!!.......we had a god awful piano player.....but i did play trumpet and french horn in the assembly band....and i must say there were a lot of party rebels in it!....we always had a blast at rehearsals!!!......................ahhhhhh..............oompa
In the early 1990's in Germany we had a small group of 3 or 4 players for the music,
it was quite pleasant, probably they have joined the canned music brigade now.
PS It was Krefeld/Uerdingen, Linn congregation!
(Jehovas Zeugen, Krefeld-Uerdingen , Kohlplatzweg 61,
47809 Krefeld, Deutschland)
I can still see the piano on the stage, black and shiny, rich red velvet carpet underneath, hear the slight creaking of the red deeply cushioned bench.......I can see the Sister playing trying to keep a stiff postur but when one brother played......he was as if Van Cliburn!
I was visiting the Onion Creek congregation in South Austin a few years ago and they still had and used an upright piano......
While the congo is too conservative for my taste (I liked the now moved south austin congo better) singing to the live accompaniment just made me feel deeply satisfied.
Live music stirs the soul!
I didn't experience canned music until 1981......
Damn it we have become as if ticky-tacky houses on the hilltop!!!
oh Oompa I had almost forgotten about the assemblies..............
why, why, why,why !!!! The Org took all the 'experience' out of things and replaced it with monotony........cold, sterile monotony.
(Bethel lackey lurker...... The end isn't nigh.....tell the given ones to suggest bringing back some LIFE to the Org....or we will continue to shrivel up and die in boredom.........bored people don't donate, they are just there for appearances!)
I saw Slipknot live at Manchester Assembly hall once!!!!
My Mother played the piano at the Kingdom Hall we attended. When I was assigned, at 19, to be school overseer in a small congregation in the inner city we had one person who could play the piano, he was self taught and could only play ragtime, that made ths songs fun
I was one of several piano players at the KH and at the assemblies (a rare honor I'm told). There were orchestras at the conventions which were eliminated about the same time the records came out. There was even a small orchestra at the dedication of an assembly hall were Knorr gave the talk, he loved it. Pianos/organs were still used in 1984.
The reasons given for ending live music included:
1) It was harder for congregations to find qualified piano players.
2) It was necessary to be "unified."
3) Too much time was spent rehearsing for the conventions that could be spent preaching.
I just think they wanted to make money selling the albums/cassettes (pre-1990).
Many congregations sold their pianos and others tucked them away in the corner and let them go out of tune.
I know a jw who attended a circuit assembly out by Wallkill in the mid 80's where a Bethelite played the piano and butchered the songs....no unity there.
Jws wanting to marry in the KH found it hard to time the walk down the aisle to recorded music and brought in electronic pianos and rounded up piano players that still remained (of course with the elders "permission." It was easy to get that when it was an elder's daughter or son getting married.)
I know an active jw that told me the new songs were horrible and indicated that the musical ability of those at Bethel had hit a new low.
2) It was necessary to be "unified."
Ah ....the old excuse for uniformity over individuality.
The oldies that I know will always look nostalgically back to the days of a real piano in the Hall. It is true that Sister Pianist may not have played so well as the Bro. on the record, but that is not the point. It was real, it was live, it gave each congo a unique sound and it bonded the congo with the music.
Bah ! they don't know what they are missing.
I played the piano at our hall up till 1990 and quit of my own volition. I was upset about with the elders about reading my son's name from the platform that he was being "publicly reproved." They brothers told me many times that they liked my playing better than the recordings, and I know I could have continued for a long time if I'd chosen to.
I also played for assemblies, alternating with another piano player...and yes, one of the reasons they quit was because it took "too much time" rehearsing. We were all accomplished musicians and we only got together to rehearse once prior to the assembly - on a Sunday evening - and that's all the time we needed. We also really enjoyed the commeraderie. So what would we do with our Sunday night now? TV, Movie, Bowling?
