There are music clips at the bottom of the page to give you examples of the hymn playing (and descants) from the days of the former organist Jeremy Bruns. Some of them may take a bit of time to load.  Just be patient.  The Doxology starts twice in the recording; it’s the way I recorded it so I could hear it again.

(July 2023). Well, with few exceptions, the hymn playing these days at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is certainly nothing like it used to be. It’s certainly nothing inspiring these days. That’s for sure. I keep waiting to be inspired by the hymn playing, but nada. The hymn playing these days is nothing like the very inspiring and moving hymn playing of former organist Jeremy Bruns. His hymn playing was very creative, lush, full (organ) and legato as you can hear in my personal audio clips below that I made and saved of his playing at that time. Listen to his fugal introduction improvisation into “All Hail the Power of Jesus’s Name” below. He is so imaginative and creative. You don’t hear that these days at Saint Thomas. These days the hymn playing is pretty much “by the book” and who on Earth finds that interesting or inspirational?

I remember Jeremy Bruns’ s improvisation into the Doxology (the next to the last audio clip at the bottom) one Sunday. It sounded like a symphonic work, an organ symphony with the melody in the pedals and when the congregation began singing it, they roared. And that’s because that’s what inspiring hymn playing can do. When I was Organist-Choirmaster in an Anglo-Catholic parish years ago, members of the congregation would come to me after Mass telling me, “the music was so joyful this morning.” I very much appreciated them giving me feedback and I responded with “Thank you very much. I’m glad it inspired you. That was my intent. Thank you so much.”

But when one plays hymns “by the book” dull and boring with “simple” bland registration — which some might mistake for a Casio keyboard — as is usually the case these days at Saint Thomas, the congregation is not inspired by that and they come in barely singing. Recently, the most audible singing I’ve heard from the congregation was for the (Southern Baptist) hymn, “Just As I Am” (when did Anglicans start singing that?) which is used as the “invitation hymn” in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). And they sing it wrong. They don’t dot the dotted notes; they sing them even. Of course it was played correctly and sung correctly at Saint Thomas. I remember when I played that hymn in a church of the SBC, I played the notes dotted but the congregation sang them evenly because they had learned it wrong.

Of their three organists as of this writing at Saint Thomas, Maks Adach is the organist you’re more likely to hear Bruns’s style organ hymn playing from on occasion. The other two? Not so much. They are more in the “dry as dust” hymn playing category.

My friend has heard the hymn playing these days at Saint Thomas and when hearing these audio clips (below) from the time of Jeremy Bruns, he said:  Oh it’s nothing like that now.  That’s like night and day. In fact, because of the hymn playing these days in the parish, my friend now says, “I can’t stand hymns. They’re the same thing over and over. They’re so boring and monotonous.” He says that from hearing the hymn playing these days at Saint Thomas. As I told him from being an Anglican parish Organist: Well some hymns are boring and monotonous. But they’re written the way they are in order for the masses with no musical training to be able to sing them. “Boring and monotonous” was why I would lose track of what verse the congregation was on and on some occasions I played an extra verse — because where the organ console was I couldn’t really hear the text they were singing — but I made my mistake of playing an extra verse sound like an organ improvisation which the congregation later told me they loved! They didn’t know I played an extra verse and I wasn’t about to tell them. They thought what I did was a creative way of ending the hymn.

With boring hymns, that’s why it’s up to a very talented and skilled organist — like Jeremy Bruns — to spice them up, make them interesting for the congregation, don’t play them “by the book” (excluding the perfunctory last verse where it’s become customary to “spice that up” a bit even if you played all other verses “as dry as dust”) because that style of hymn playing is indeed boring. And when you have such stellar trebles/boys as they have at Saint Thomas from their renowned and residential Saint Thomas Choir School (the only residential Choir School in the US), sing descants whenever possible — or write some of your own — to make the hymn more interesting, grand and glorious. But none of this is happening these days at Saint Thomas from my observations. Descants are rare as are improvisational interludes. One gets the distinct impression that the new Director of Music can’t stand descants, with few rare exceptions. Even the lame organ fanfares after The Gospel reading are pathetic. They have this new grand pipe organ and what are they playing? Quiet (what I call) “doddling” for their improvisation after The Gospel. Anybody could do that! Rather than a grand and glorious High Church improvisation in the style of Herbert Howells, for example. The organ playing these days is very frustrating for me. Sometimes I stop watching their Liturgies altogether because of my frustration with the music and the production crew who is obsessed with windows, the ceiling, statuary, banks of candles, the crevices of the High Altar and flower bouquets when the Choir of Men and Boys are the subject. Of course production never shows any of that when the priests or a reader are speaking. Production erroneously considers the music “background.” [scream; are these production people sure they’re in the right job?!] Watching an Anglican Liturgy should not be a frustrating experience.

A bit about Organist Maks Adach: He held former positions at Saint Paul’s Choir School in Cambridge MA. He’s held three Organ Scholar positions including Liverpool Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral. He was also Director of the Chapel Choir at Saint John’s College, Oxford.

Listening to these clips from the days of Jeremy Bruns, I realise that the hymn playing of today is nothing like it was then, unfortunately. It’s so, well, boring. It’s become so simple and basic. And these days they have this anti-descant guy as Choirmaster, or that’s the way it seems. The boys don’t sing descants for the hymns that I know to have descants. (Gerre Hancock said that a Liturgy is not complete without at least one descant. I take it Jeremy F. disagrees with that).

There will be many people who read this article who will not be able to hear the difference between the hymn playing of today and Jeremy Bruns’s hymn playing because they don’t have a trained ear and have no idea what to listen for. The same goes for those who hear the renowned and superb Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. There are many people who have no trained ear for choral excellence. They can’t hear the difference between the Choir of Men and Boys and some amateurish, unrehearsed choral ensemble. They have no idea what to listen for. To them all Choirs and Choruses sound the same. “They’re just people singing” those with no ear for music and with little or no musical training say. Oh good lord, people! Sigh. This article is intended for people who CAN hear the difference, all two of you. The few people who have a musically/chorally-trained ear. My friend absolutely hears the difference and he’s not even a musician. He can hear the difference from being around me and watching the Liturgies with me and listening to the finest Orchestra Choruses. He trained his choral ear on Robert Shaw’s superb Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus (ASOC) and the finest Choirs of Men and Boys of the Anglican Communion. He can come into a room where I’m playing one of the CD of the ASOC without me telling him who it is, and he says, “That’s Atlanta” even though I play many other Orchestra Choruses that I like, especially from the EU. Now, he can’t stand to listen to anybody but the best. He can’t stand to listen to Choruses not singing with perfect intonation. He can’t stand wobbling and fluttering voices (noticeable vibrato). Neither can I. He also prefers High Church/Anglo-Catholic).

With these personal clips of mine below that I recorded years ago for my own personal and non-commercial use during the days of the late John Scott when he was Organist-Choirmaster, some of the introductions to the hymn repeat because that’s the way I recorded them so I could hear the improvisation again. Also, I started recording a bit before the hymn began, so there’s some silence at the beginning of each, but keep listening the music will begin shortly. The order of them and their description is as follows:

All Hail the Power of Jesus’s Name (the boys sing a descant on the last verse; they wouldn’t likely do that these days with Mr Anti-Descant as their Choirmaster. They sang two hymns recently at Saint Thomas that I know to have descants and the boys sang those descants in the past. This was before the relatively new Choirmaster took over. You might be wondering: Did the boys sing the descants on this occasion when the same hymns were chosen? No, absolutely not. And I knew they wouldn’t. No, it was just yet another boring verse (the last verse). Here is All Hail the Power of Jesus’s Name:

Crown Him With Many Crowns, (improvisation before final verse with descant on last verse):

Praise to the Holiest (Gerontius) with beautiful legato organ playing and the congregational singing is nothing like that these days; so inspiring and with an “Amen” on the end which is also not done these days:

The following is the best Doxology I’ve ever heard. Grand and glorious. Listen for the melody of the Doxology in the pedals. Full organ and lush and legato. Nothing like this these days. This is High Church organ playing at its best. It’s very moving; as an Organist it moves me every time I hear this because I know the amount of artistry and talent involved in this style of organ playing. Clearly the congregation is deeply moved as well by the way they’re singing the Doxology. No “stand and mumble” congregation here as is heard these days:

This following clip is provided to show the comparison between the new organ and the old organ (which all the previous clips were played on, including the Doxology). The piece in this last clip is The Easter Sequence (Plainsong arranged by Andrew Reid, born in 1971) that was performed on the First Sunday of Easter (Easter Day). Except for some of the Organ Voluntary (on occasion) at the end of Mass, the organ never sounds like this. When I heard this piece I said to myself: Oh so that’s what the new organ really sounds like? They seem afraid to play it like this any other time. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before like that. My friend said: “It’s as if they’re trying to “baby it,” baby the organ by not using it to it’s full capacity.” Yeah, well, something is going on. The organ would not be “baby’ed” if Diane “Use the Full Resources of the Organ” Bish were there! This piece (The Easter Sequences) was only performed on the First Sunday of Easter even though it could have been performed on other of the seven Sundays of Easter or on every Sunday of Easter. One wonders why it wasn’t? I don’t know why it wasn’t, unless the Director of Music considered it “too High Church; we like more plain music and for the organ to sound more like a Casio keyboard,” for the other Sundays in Easter. Well, the boys were on Easter break initially and they had fewer Men of the Choir immediately after the First Sunday of Easter so that could have partially been a reason why The Easter Sequence was not performed on one or more of the other six Sundays of Easter. Here it is:

The Gentlemen of the Choir were superb on 17 July 2023, consisting of thirteen chorister, seven on the traditional Epistle side (right side facing the High Altar) and six on the traditional Gospel side (left side facing the High Altar). I’m including one of the pieces they sang. As a former chorister in three Orchestra Choruses (Choral Arts Society of Washington, University of Maryland Chorus and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus) I was interested in who was singing what part. I was pretty sure I knew who the countertenors were, but the frustrating camera work didn’t help matters in trying to figure that out. The production crew easily gets bored with the choristers and start showing banks of candles, statuary, the drab ceiling, the windows and anything except what they should be showing at the time: The Gentlemen of the Choir. Are these camera people sure they’re in the right job?
I think the countertenors are on the front row on each side. And in one place, the countertenors had notes at the top of their register, and one side answered the other which you can listen for. For the Offertory Anthem, they sang Veni, Sancte Spiritus by William Byrd, which you can hear below: