On the role of organ music

Iddo van der Giessen

This artistic research project delves into the role of organ music in the Dutch Protestant liturgy. It studies the added value of organ music in church services by looking at one specific manifestation of liturgy in which organ music has a prominent role: organ vespers. An organ vespers is a brief Christian service of prayer with a prominent role for organ music. This research provides historical and practical context to organ vespers by relating it to Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions of Evening Prayer, and to how Dietrich Buxtehude entertained local businessmen in his series of Abendmusiken. It discusses relevant literature and the guidelines of the Dutch Protestant Service Book on prayers and music. Three practices of organ vespers in the Netherlands are compared. Two outcomes are presented. First, this research presents the order of service for four organ vespers in the Goede Herderkerk in Rotterdam. Second, it describes the results of a questionnaire held amongst the visitors of those vespers. In total 82 questionnaires were filled in by those attending at least one of the vespers. Based on the results, this study argues that organ music in a liturgical context has the exquisite quality of engaging and interacting with listeners and participants in the liturgy. Furthermore, it illustrates how the age-old role of organ music in liturgy continues to be of great value in both musical as well as religious context.

Discussion and conclusions

This artistic research project presented a study on the role of organ music in the Dutch Protestant liturgy by researching, organizing and evaluating organ vespers. It asked the question how organ music can contribute to Christian Protestant liturgy by organizing and evaluating organ vespers, and hypothesized that music is an important reason for people to attend services. It provided a historic overview of practices related to organ vespers, as the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, Anglican evensong and Buxtehude’s Abendmusiken. Building on these different types of evening prayer and evening concerts with an important role for music, the second chapter discussed the guidelines of the service book of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands on evening prayer and musical vespers in specific, and compared three practices of organ vespers in the Netherlands. On basis of these guidelines and examples, and in consultation with the involved people in the Goede Herderkerk, four organ vespers were designed and organized in Rotterdam-Schiebroek. In each vespers, a different style of music was performed, in order to offer different vespers within the same format.

After all four vespers, the attendants were invited to answer questions on how they experienced the vespers, which resulted in 82 completed questionnaires. The results show that the attendants appreciated the vespers and in specific the large musical component in the vespers. Most people attended the vespers to find a moment of reflection, and in line with this result many respondents answered that they experienced the music as meditative. The results of the different questions demonstrate a general pattern that people felt most engaged with the vespers during the music and would like to have even more music in the vespers. For a small majority, the special attention to music was even a decisive factor to come to the vespers. That clearly confirms the hypothesis, for music is indeed an important or even decisive reason for people to attend the vespers.

This research project had a number of limitations that should be noted. It compared three practices of organ vespers, while an assessment of organ vespers throughout the Netherlands would have provided a more complete overview and a wider context to place the organ vespers in Rotterdam-Schiebroek in. The results of the questionnaire had some general limitations and response bias. The sample size of 82 respondents was as could be expected with 25-35 attendants per vespers, but it is a small sample size to draw conclusions on. The attendants were aware of the research project of the organist and most of them were personally known to the organist, so they might have overrated the role of music. Another limitation is the likelihood of repeated measurements under people who joined more than one vespers. Although this made it possible to compare the appeal of different vespers, it also means that questions on involvement and engagement were probably answered identically several times.

A couple of strong aspects of this research can be mentioned as well. The comparison of orders of service of other practices of organ vespers provided concrete examples, since the guidelines in the service book do not discuss organ vespers in detail. The discussion of the service book and the relevant literature was helpful to design a well-informed format for organ vespers, which could be tested through the vespers. As the results illustrate, the music was each time experienced as appropriate and connecting well to the rest of the vespers. Looking at the different styles of music in the vespers, it can be concluded that the attendants found the vespers with English music most appealing. The reviews of the different kinds of music also provide a starting point for further research, in order to delve much deeper in the appreciation of different kinds of music in a similar context. That might give more profound answers on what music is suitable of evening prayers, but also what elements in the music lead to different responses. The last issue is certainly a critical one in programming and evaluating music.

To conclude, this research demonstrated how liturgy is valuable as an artistic research setting. The interplay with both the audience as well as the other elements in a service like reading of the scriptures, preaching, praying and singing provides a very interactive context. Music is part of a larger whole and anticipates and answers to other elements. That makes it possible and even inviting for the musician to respond to words, spheres and emotions. This experience was also significant for the researcher’s own artistic development. The opportunity to design a well-informed format for an evening service and to subsequently receive evaluations on the vespers and the role of music in specific, gives much insight in what the audience goes through. Besides, this research offered in a very practical sense a vespers format that can be used to continue organizing such evening services, which makes it possible to extend the researcher’s professional practice in the Goede Herderkerk. The next two vespers are already planned. In this liturgical working environment, an inspiring foundation has been made for further performance and research. Liturgy as opportunity to have music interact with words, atmosphere and emotions should be treasured. After all, that might be at the heart of making music.

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Discussion and conclusions