This article is about the Choirmaster/Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Jeremy used to be Organist/Choirmaster at a parish in the District of Columbia. At this point, I wished he had stayed in the District because I’m not hot on him at Saint Thomas. I’m sorry they hired him. I didn’t feel that way before. I used to like Jeremy when he was Artist in Residence at the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul in the District. He filled in for Cathedral Organist Benjamin Straley when he was on holiday.

As for Jeremy at Saint Thomas, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a church musician who is all about himself, which is how he comes off to me by his frequent programming of his own compositions.

When I was Organist/Choirmaster in Anglican parishes, I composed some Anglican Chants for the psalm settings. I programmed one every now and then. Maybe twice a year. I never programmed anything I composed on a regular basis because to me that comes across as being self-absorbed. If I had taken Jeremy’s approach, I would have programmed one of my Anglican chants every Sunday to see my name on the service leaflet and to get attention for myself. Recently he programmed some of his pieces for the Saint Thomas Choir. Then again on 24 September 2023, he programmed his Missa Brevis as the Ordinary of the Mass. Does the congregation even know who he is? Non-musicians are usually not big on the names of musicians or on music or the details of music (I know from experience with people), so does the congregation make the connection that their Choirmaster wrote these pieces? If so, do they care? If I had to take a guess, I would say no; most couldn’t care less. Just as when they see the name Herbert Howells on the service leaflet. Do they know who he was? Have you seen how few stay these days to hear the Organ Voluntary at the end of the Mass? Contrary to the singing congregation — which sounded almost rehearsed — who used to stay to hear the Organ Voluntary pre-COVID.

Jeremy = Mr Anti-Descant

When you have trebles as stellar as the trebles of the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, why would one not do descants? That makes no sense to me. Many churches don’t hear descants because their soprano section are not skilled to sing them adequately. Here you have Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue with its renowned Choir School, and the guy in charge of the music is prejudiced against descants yet the boys would do a superb job singing them. So it’s quite frustrating to me that descants are mostly out at Saint Thomas. Gerre Hancock — one of the former Organists there — was quoted as saying that a Liturgy is not complete without a least one descant. I take it Jeremy says rubbish to that.

On 24 September 2023, the processional hymn was Lauda Anima (“Praise My Soul, The King of Heaven”). It’s a well-known Anglican hymn. That hymn has a descant for it, but having experienced Mr Anti-Descant/Jeremy, I would have bet money on it that the boys would not sing the descant. And they did not, of course! You might hear one descant per semester these days from the boys. Maybe one. Two, if Jeremy feels generous. My friend asked me: Do you think the Rector knew Jeremy was anti-descant when he hired him? No. A musician is never asked “how do you feel about descants?”

Descants add a lot to a Liturgy. They make a hymn less boring and less monotonous. Jeremy seems to prefer boring and monotonous — based on his dry as dust hymn playing and being anti-descant — as well as promoting himself big-time. His hymn playing is nothing like the legato, full, lush and High Church hymn playing of former Organist Jeremy Bruns. I used to like Filsell, but now I find him frustrating to the point of losing interest in Saint Thomas. And from my experience talking with members of the congregation when I was in a cathedral setting, they loved descants. I’ve been told by members of the resident congregation, “I stop singing to listen to the descant. Too bad they only sing it once.” Yes, that is the Anglican way of doing descants. But at Notre Dame de Paris (French Catholic) before the fire, on hymns with descants, they used the descant on every verse. I liked that. Anglicans should sing the descant at least twice, maybe in the middle of the hymn and then on the last verse.

The Camera Crew. Oh gawd. They’re awful. Sigh. They couldn’t care less about the music. They’re an architecture camera crew. They’re clearly in the wrong job. I can’t stand them. Neither can a friend of mine who also watched the Liturgies, although he’s losing interest as well because of the camera crew.

The camera crew at Saint Thomas continues to be frustrating. Another reason for me to lose interest in Saint Thomas. Their (inept) camera crew seems absolutely utterly bored with fixing the camera on the organist when he’s playing. They jet the camera up to the windows for the umpteenth time or to the back to show a mostly empty Nave. What would the camera crew obsess on if they didn’t have the parish windows to obsess over at every opportunity? We’ve all seen the windows “forever” anyone who watches the Liturgies on a regular basis. Those who are new viewers know they’re in a church — they don’t need to be reminded of that by seeing the architecture and drab ceiling of the building — they will see all the windows umpteen times even if they watch the entire Liturgy just once. But my friend asked: If they didn’t have the windows, what would they show? They would then obsess over every crevice of the High Altar, the dark ceiling, and statuary and the columns. Anything but what they should be focused on which is usually the musicians. The camera crew seem utterly bored with the musicians. I take it that none of the camera crew are or were ever musicians, the way they continue to disrespect the musicians. I know what I would like to tell them! Sigh. They rarely disrespect the priests by zooming up to the windows when a priest is speaking.

The Rachmaninov Third

Also, as part of The Jeremy Filsell Show, he’s programmed himself as pianist to play the Rachmaninov Third with the Modus Operandi Orchestra. Hopefully that will work well for him in a sound sense, but a piano — even a Steinway & Sons Model D (as used in the EU) — doesn’t usually work well in church settings because of the ringy acoustics. And even though Saint Thomas is a parish church, because of its size, aren’t the acoustics more similar to that of a cathedral church? Some people mistake it for a cathedral; the cathedral church is Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. Back in 2011 in New Jersey (I think it was), he played the Rachmaninov Second with an organist — who played the orchestral part — and that didn’t work well at all. One commenter called it “a mess.” The organ overpowered the piano much of the time. Apparently there wasn’t a sound check rehearsal where someone could be out in the Nave and tell the organist where the organ was too loud. Hopefully the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 will work well in Saint Thomas’s acoustics without too much reverberation. It would be much better performed in a Concert Hall or a dry auditorium somewhere. Too bad they couldn’t rent a performance space at The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center or at Carnegie Hall for that performance. The Choir of Men and Boys are performing with a string ensemble from Juilliard during the Concert Series.

I had one of my questions answered by watching Jeremy’s piano and organ recital at Saint Thomas. I have sensed that the current congregation is quite different than the congregation pre-COVID. As if much of the old congregation is gone or they left NYC during COVID. My point was that Jeremy’s piano and organ recital was not well attended unfortunately. This told me that the current congregation — the recital was streamed 6 months ago as of this writing (26 September 2023) — does not support the music or have much or any interest in the music, just like the camera crew. That’s typical of most parishes. Which explains why most people leave during Mass (after receiving Communion) and don’t hear the Organ Voluntary. Looking at the Nave, many/most people leave after Communion. I’ve never seen that before; this is a relatively new situation from my experience. Apparently they think the Liturgy is over after Communion. Quite rude behaviour frankly. The low attendance for Jeremy’s recital was typical for these days I guess one could say although it disgusts me. I had expected to see the Nave full of parishioners. Maybe the 2023-24 Concert Series will be better attended, but I wouldn’t bet on it, except for the required Messiah tradition. Maybe that’s a reason Jeremy programmed the Rachmaninov Third, thinking that might attract more of an audience and of course Jeremy will enjoy playing the concerto with an orchestra. Concerto opportunities don’t grow on trees and don’t happen for most artists these days unless one has an agent or is a big-name artist. And then orchestral management may not want to programme the Rachmaninov Third.

But considering the lack of interest in the music of the parish, my question has been answered: Most of the congregation did not attend Jeremy’s recital — the attendance was like that of Evensong; yes that’s sparse — which also told me that they couldn’t care less about the parish having a renowned Choir of Men and Boys, and probably couldn’t care less about the parish having a Choir. Period. The same for the camera crew; they’re no different. They clearly have no interest in the music of the parish. Aren’t most of the new congregation there for “the spoken word” like Roman Catholics who also don’t care about the music? Much of the new congregation is Low Church from my observations. Genuflect? What’s that? Have you seen them nod — if they bother to do that! — rather than bow to the processional crosses? Nod? When did Anglicans start this nodding nonsense? That’s Low Church. Some are as Low Church as what one sees in the Church of England (they don’t do anything; could easily be mistaken for Southern Baptists). So why are these Low Church plebs in an Anglo-Catholic parish such as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue? Because they all live near-by and that’s the closest church for them to go to? Then there are the tourists one sees who look like they think they’re in a museum with their arms folded and a frown on their face as the procession passes. Why are they there? And am I correct when I say that I get the impression that Jeremy isn’t too hot on incense by the way he looks at or glares at the thurifer?