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Views from the Choir Loft

Archbishop Sheen Played The Organ!

Jeff Ostrowski · November 6, 2017

197 Fulton J Sheen R. LUCAS TAPPAN once asked: “Do you invite young children at church push down a few keys on the organ when you’re finished or do you just close up shop? Do you pull out the trumpet stop and tell him to press down the lowest pedal note and hold it? Do you tell him to try out the swell pedal and watch as the shades open and close?” He was talking about how we can generate interest in organ playing.

I thought of that when I learned 1 (today!) that Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen could play the organ:

At Fritz Kreisler’s suggestion, Sheen had taken organ lessons. His first teacher was famed swing organist Ethel Smith. Fulton acknowledged her prowess on the instrument but said that her instructional ability was weak. He then turned to a young friend, Yolanda Tomaiuoli, who was dating a cousin. She was an accomplished musician who would go on to earn a doctorate in music at Columbia University. Tomaiuoli said later that Fulton “could play some” but that “his musical talents were limited.”

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sheen played an electric Hammond on the main floor of his building for personal enjoyment, occasionally displaying his skill to friends. Indeed, the Cahill family, invited to Sheen’s apartment for dinner, recalls dancing in his front room while the bishop played “April in Paris” on his electric organ.

In one of his talks, Archbishop Sheen made reference to “an organ here in my office”—and now, twenty years later, I understand.

Here are two articles about Sheen and Sacred music you might enjoy:

    * *  Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen On Gregorian Chant

    * *  Archbishop Sheen on Liturgy & Plainchant Choirs

The latter contains several interesting quotes, such as:

After the consecration [Sheen’s installation Mass in Rochester], Sheen told Ferris that he wanted a classical repertoire at the cathedral, including Gregorian chant. “This was unusual,” Ferris said later, “for all sorts of freaky things were being done in churches at this time.”



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Paragraph taken from Thomas C. Reeves, America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen (New York: Encounter Books, 2002). Sources: Yolanda Holliger interview, 19 April 2000; Vincent Cahill interview; Joan Cunningham interview, 2 April 2000.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Had the Church never spoken on this matter, it would still be repugnant to our Catholic people’s sense of what is fit and proper in the holiest of places, that a priest should have to struggle through the prayers of the Holy Mass, because of such tunes as “Alice, where art thou?” the “Vacant Chair,” and others of more vulgar title, which, through the carelessness or bad judgment of organists, sometimes find their way into our choirs.

— Preface to a Roman Catholic Hymnal (1896)

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