Tartan kirking

This afternoon we attended the annual Kirkin' of the Tartan service sponsored by the St. Andrew's Society of Washington, D.C. at the National Cathedral. Our 3:10 bus never bothered to show up, so our 3:25 bus got us to Mount St. Alban's about 3:50. Since this service took the place of Sunday Evensong, I didn't know if it would take place in the Great Quire or if it would be big enough to overflow into the nave, but once we walked into the nave, my questions were answered. It was packed. The main nave seating was full of lads in kilts and obnoxiously bold tartan plaid sportcoats, and their womenfolk, some of whom had tartan skirts and sashes of their own. Even the side aisle seating was filling up, but I didn't want to sit in the aisles, since one can't see either the chancel or the crossing from there due to the enormous pillars. So, we wandered up to the North Transcept, which turned out to be reserved seating for the Society. I "innocently" asked an usher woman if all the seats in this section were reserved, and as she was explaining the section reservation, a male usher came up to us and said to her in a classic Scottish brogue, "Look at his tie, woman! Of course he can sit here!" I quite fortuitously had worn my family tartan tie this afternoon. So, we got prime seats. :-)

You haven't heard a racket until you've heard an entire bagpipe band with drums playing "Over the Sea to Skye" full tilt in a limestone pillared, marble floored, stained glass windowed cathedral. They processed in from the narthex, and stopped at the crossing, where they played for quite some time whilst the Society members, clan representatives, choirs, and clergy all processed.

I found the service music to be interestingly unusual for a Scottish service. Of course, it was, essentially, a Presbyterian rite, but still, I thought there'd be Scottish music. The three hymns were the English Lauda Anima, the Irish Slane, and the Russian Russia. And, every time I hear a hymn sung to Russia, I can't help but remember back to my youth and all those Order of the Arrow conclaves and ceremonies at Boy Scout camp. The usual cathedral choir and organists did not perform this afternoon. The choir was an all-girls' ensemble from West Potomac High, a snooty prep school in Alexandria, Virginia. The choir sang Mendelssohn's "Laudate Pueri Domimum" for a Gradual anthem and for the offertory a Psalm 23 setting by Z. Randall Stroope, a living composer who is neither a Scot nor a Presbyterian. After the sermon and offertory, the pipers returned in procession with the presenters of the tartans to "Highland Cathedral," and they all actually landed in the Great Quire, where the organ joined in, and I can't imagine the deafening noise there must have been in there! After the Necrology, the pipe major played a solo verse of "Flowers of the Forest." The recessional for the pipers and the Society members was "Scotland the Brave," followed by an organ postlude of the Toccata from Symphony No. 5 by the French composer Charles-Marie Widor.

Enthroning

Well, the papal enthronement is over. Turns out I was wrong about the date....it was this morning instead of yesterday. So, I watched it, at least from 4:30 on. It was interesting trying to figure out what the service was supposed to be called. CNN called it the "Inaugural Service" on their picture frame (was it recycled from Bush's two church services last January?), but when they cut away to other national news services, the other countries were using various forms of the words enthronement and coronation. When I looked at the Order of Service I got from Rome, it was written in Italian, and only said, "CELEBRAZIONE EUCARISTICA PER L’INIZIO DEL MINISTERO PETRINO DEL VESCOVO DI ROMA," which means "eucharistic celebration for the beginning/start of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome" ("Petrine Ministry" refers to St. Peter's work as the first pope). The Italian word for "inaugurate" is "inaugurale," while "inizio" comes from the verb "iniziare," which means "to begin." I guess the American networks are just trying to be anti-monarchial and democratic in their terminology, however inaccurate.

Anyway, it was a more interesting service than JP2's funeral.

I think I figured out what's wrong with the Sistine Chapel choir and why I think they have been so unimpressive this month (other than the fact that the men sing flat and the boys don't stay together). One of my Catholic musician friends commented this morning that they are boring and sing everything the same way. Yes, that's true. But, what's behind that is the tradition of Gregorian chant in monastic worship. Remember a few years back when that Spanish monastery did an album called Chant that was on the top of the classical crossover chart for months? Remember how its beauty was in the tranquility of its musical worship? Chant is not supposed to be splendid, broad, emotional, and dynamic music. It is an aid to meditation and religious contemplation. And herein is where the fault lies. The musical directors of the choir have no flair, no style, no sense of selecting music appropriate to either an occasion or a location. Neither JP2's funeral nor this morning's enthronement took place in a monastic setting. Neither did they occur in the Sistine Chapel. They were outdoors in St. Peter's Square. Now, the choir and that awful, rinky-dink, portable, electronic organ they used were on the porch of the chapel, but still, they were outside. The resonance, echo, and reverberation of the chapel in which they are used to singing was not there. That is why they sounded so thin, and maybe even why they had pitch and intonation problems. So, for what they were doing, they were ok. They just shouldn't have been doing it. The problem was one of musical leadership and their boring, inappropriate, musical selections. This is a television age, and major international services need to have more of a sense of grandeur and even "Hollywood" excitement in the "soundtrack."

Now, how am I supposed to help local Catholic parishes have exciting, inspirational, religious music if their ultimate example--the Vatican--is boring, too?

Did anyone notice the organ postlude at the conclusion of the service? It was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, also known as the music from the movies Phantom of the Opera and Rollerball. I thought that very odd. Were they trying to scare us? Did Halloween come early in Rome? Was that a tribute to the Pope's German ancestry? Very odd. Very, very odd, especially when the Pope as cardinal was quoted as having said he preferred Mozart.