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Views from the Choir Loft

“Are You God?” On the Impact We Have as Church Musicians

Keven Smith · May 4, 2021

NE WEEKDAY EVENING A FEW YEARS AGO, I was directing our parish choir in singing a High Mass. I couldn’t help but notice a little blond boy sitting near the back of the church with his family. He was pretty well-behaved overall—especially for a roughly three-year-old—but he kept turning around and looking up at the choir loft in wonderment. (In my book, that’s no vice.)

After Mass, I unlocked the choir room, and all our singers paraded through to put their music away. A few minutes later, I was alone—or so I thought. I erased our music lineup from the chalkboard. I closed the lid of the piano. I put away a couple of stray folders. I stacked up the propers, ordinaries, and motets and put them in the filing cabinet.

That’s when I noticed him: the little blond boy. He had found his way into the choir room and was standing in the corner, silently staring at me as I scurried about putting everything in order. At last, he spoke:

“Are you God?”

 

An Honest Answer to the Little Boy’s Question

This is more than just a cute story. Ever since that evening, I’ve thought back to that boy and pondered the lesson he unwittingly taught me.

In the eyes of a small child, the people making music up in the loft are larger than life. Part of it is the mere fact that we’re up high, upstairs, where small children generally aren’t allowed to go. Part of it is that we’re mostly adults and teenagers—people who naturally look huge to a child.

But more significantly, we’re involved in something children can’t yet understand through the intellect, and yet it speaks to their souls. It is written on our hearts that there is a God, that He is almighty, that He is everywhere, and that He deserves our worship. Even children sense this. I believe they grasp it better when the Mass is veiled in a dead language—and when it uses types of music they don’t hear in everyday life, accompanied by the King of Instruments.

Most of this also applies to adults, of course. They just don’t express it with the same simplicity. An adult’s intellect is well-formed enough to know that the guy directing the choir is a mortal who has weeds in his front yard and drives an old Honda Fit. An adult may use more sophisticated words when he tries to explain what beautiful liturgy does to his soul, but he’ll still struggle.

Even when he knows he wants to be a part of it, he may feel profoundly unworthy to do so. This is something I’ve been keeping in mind as I’ve handled the recent flurry of new interest in our parish choir. The extended lockdown here in California has caused many people to reboot their lives, trimming the activities that had become mere routines and freeing themselves up for more of the sacred.

And so part of my job is to explain to them that we’re all just ordinary people who work hard to make the Mass more beautiful. It can be challenging to convince people that they belong in the loft, and that it’s OK to be human. But I figure that’s better than having them join us looking for a hobby and then trying to sell them on the sacredness of our pursuit.

Precious Yet Fleeting

After watching me pack up for a few more minutes, the little boy spoke again:

“Are you Mexican?”

Well, I probably do eat enough Mexican food to “convert.” At that age, the moments of insight are precious yet fleeting. But this child had already given me a valuable keepsake. I share it here hoping it will help you keep striving to uplift your fellow parishioners as you glorify God at every liturgy.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: May 4, 2021

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!” A young woman from California wrote: “Thank you for releasing your new Glory To God in honor of Saint Noel Chabanel. I'm enjoying reading through the various parts and listening to your recordings.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony. — One of our volunteer choirs also sang that SANCTUS on 24 September 2023, and you can listen to how that came out.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Baptism” • A Unique Hymn
    Father Christopher Phillips is the founding Pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. One of his hymns is unique and (in my humble opinion) quite beautiful. His hymn is basically a prayer to the Holy Trinity but also speaks of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It would be an ideal Communion hymn on Trinity Sunday or the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. You can hear live recording from last Sunday by clicking here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Indeed, we may not hope for real Latin poetry any more, because Latin is now a dead language to all of us. However well a man may read, write, or even speak Latin now, it is always a foreign language to him, acquired artificially. It is no one’s mother tongue. Does a man ever write real poetry in an acquired language?”

— Rev’d Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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