Have you ever wanted to be a lodge Organist?

by Christopher Hodapp

Does your lodge have a pipe organ sitting in the corner or up on the balcony that's collecting dust because no one knows how to play it? We've got six original pipe organs in all of the ceremonial rooms at Indiana Freemasons Hall/Indianapolis Masonic Temple, installed in 1909 when the Temple was originally built. They all work – we have a Brother who visits every couple of years from Florida who loves maintaining and restoring these complex instruments. But in my 25 years of membership, I think I've heard one played a grand total of three times. 

Likewise, in my Mother lodge, Broad Ripple 643, we still had an official organist for the first three months I was a Mason, but he was quite elderly and sadly passed away less than a year after I joined. Our Eastern Star Chapter had an organist, but they left our building in the early 2000s, and so it fell completely silent. 

Well, if you ever had the unfulfilled desire to learn to play the organ in your lodge or church, but didn't know where to start, here's a suggestion. Over on Redditt's Freemasonry board today, Redditer 'Frosty the Sasquatch' from Alberta posted a link to a Youtube video by Jonathan Scott who has created an instructional program called "The Sometimes Organist," designed to encourage anyone with a background in playing the piano, or even a self-taught novice, to get started playing these amazing instruments.

The course teaches you to play 18 simplified arrangements of some of the most common, classic organ pieces used in churches during worship services, weddings, and other occasions:

0:00:00 INTRODUCTION

0:06:00 George Frideric Handel - Thine be the Glory

0:09:34 JS Bach - Adagio BWV 1020

0:15:00 Frederic Chopin - Prelude in E Minor

0:19:32 Antonin Dvorak - Largo Theme (from New World Symphony)

0:25:12 Henry Purcell - Trumpet Tune in D Major

0:28:11 César Franck - Poco Lento

0:31:26 Richard Wagner - Bridal Chorus

0:34:40 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Adagio Theme (Clarinet Concerto)

0:37:08 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Romanza Theme (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)

0:39:47 Antonio Vivaldi - Largo (Winter - The Four Seasons)

0:43:04 George Frideric Handel - Eternal Source of Light Divine

0:49:40 Arcangelo Corelli - Adagio

0:52:19 Frederic Chopin - Prelude in C Minor

0:55:06 Henry Purcell - Trumpet Tune in C Major

0:58:04 Gabriel Fauré - Après un rêve

1:03:09 Antonio Vivaldi/Bach - Larghetto BWV 972

1:06:20 Felix Mendelssohn - Wedding March

1:09:40 George Frideric Handel - March from Scipio

Give the video above a click, or you can see on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP9dEo_d2V4

Russian Brethren and the Electronic Chain of Union

by Christopher Hodapp

Throughout the duration of the COVID-19 Wuhan virus shutdown, Masons all over the world have been doing what they can to continue to strengthen the fraternal bonds through electronic means. Most of these have been informal online gatherings, some have been bare bones business meetings, and there have been lots of educational talks, speeches and presentations. The United Grand Lodge of England continues the global observance of the Nine O'Clock Toast to Absent Brethren (#TimeToToast) each night, and Masons all over the world participate in that tradition, or establish their own to better suit their local time zones. 

But here's one I haven't seen before now.

Not every Masonic lodge in the world closes their meetings by forming a 'Chain of Union' and singing together, but a vast number do. The song we commonly sing is Brother Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne, and we actually pride ourselves in knowing the words instead of mangling it like the average tipsy New Year's Eve reveler. For those who've never seen the practice in a lodge, the brethren stand in a circle (generally around the altar), cross their arms and link hands as a symbol of the unbroken chain that binds us all together into one common band of brothers. And even if you've traveled far from home to a foreign land, the lyrics are still usually sung in Burns' distinctive Scots gaelic 'auld tongue.' 

Even in Russia.

Grand Master Andrey Bogdanov of the Grand Lodge of Russia (Великая Ложа России) posted a video on Facebook this morning of their brethren linking hands electronically and carrying on this fine tradition from their homes. It was accompanied by the following message:

Brethren,
The pandemic may have forced us to close our temples, putting our brotherly ties and everyone else around the world under pressure...
Let us remember that 75 years ago, we’ [were] under pressure, but our courageous people together, defeated Nazis once and for all.
Together, we shall overcome this pandemic, we will conquer our fears...
Let your hand Join our brotherly chain, let your voice join our choir...

If you have a Facebook account, you can watch the video HERE. 

2020 PSO Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, & Civil Society: Washington DC 6/5

UPDATED MARCH 6, 2020
The June 2020 PSO Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society has been postponed as of today out of caution over the coronavirus pandemic. While it's entirely possible any health risks will be over by June, organizers are forced to do this out of uncertainty over the potential scope of the spread of the virus for an event three months away. Please check with the conference website at the link above for information about future plans.

__________________

Original post from 1/21/2020:

The June 2020 PSO Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society will be in Washington, DC at the historic (and recently restored) Quaker Meetinghouse on Florida Avenue NW on Saturday, June 5th.

The Policy Studies Organization is the longstanding brainchild of Brother Paul Rich, and that organization has a very broad range of topics in which it fosters research and discussion. Of greatest interest to Masons, the PSO sponsors an international academic conference about Freemasonry and fraternalism every year, alternating between the U.S. and France. 

The overall theme of this June's conference is 'Fraternal Art and Music,' but papers are not restricted to that topic. 

There is NO registration fee - the conference is free of charge. But be sure to register at the website so they can plan the venue arrangements.

The preliminary speaker's list is up online now, but there's still time to submit a paper for the conference. Here is the link for this year's Washington event: http://www.ipsonet.org/conferences/ritualconference-main/wcf2020program
So far, these are the presenters who have been accepted:

1. The Iconography of Mexican Freemasonry
Guillermo De Los Reyes, University of Houston

2. Saving Masonic Temples: The Crisis in Preservation
Paul Rich, Policy Studies Organization

3. The Role of Arts in French Freemasonry
Pierre Mollier, Grand Orient de France

4. Symbols, Images, Objects--Case Studies at the Intersection of Freemasonry and the Visual Arts: Book Presentation, Freemasonry and the Visual Arts from the Eighteenth Century Forward: Historical and Global Perspectives followed by a Round Table Discussion
Reva Wolf, State University of New York at New Paltz; and David Bjelajac, George Washington University

5. Fraternalism and the Fair: The History the National Masonic Fair and ExpositionsChris Ruli, Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, Free And Accepted Masons

6. Dance, Dance, Revolution: George Washington's Masonic Cave
Jason Williams

7. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine March: A Presentation on Masonic Music
Mark Dreisonstok, the Scottish Rite Journal

8. Publishing Fraternalism Roundtable
Brent Morris, Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction; and Steve McCall, Macoy Publishing

9. Two Nineteenth Century Australian Masonic WaltzesDavid Slater

10. Le Comte Alexandre Francois de Grasse
Joe Wages

This is the American alternative gathering to the next PSO conference in Paris which will be in 2021, in case you're filling in your calendar, planning a Europe trip, telling the wife you're just popping out to the wine shop and will be back in three or four days, or working on a paper of your own. Videos of past conferences are on linked sites. See http://www.ipsonet.org/conferences/ritualconference-main

And if you're looking to fill in your research library, past proceedings can be had in both print and Kindle. The journal of Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society is offered free online HERE, and back issues are also available. It is usually published twice a year, and a printed version and Kindle are also available through Amazon of from the Westphalia Press site. The papers generally come from the PSO's conferences in the U.S. or France, and there's usually a wide variety of topics you've likely never encountered before. They are well worth exploring.

(Photo by Jennifer Morris)

Samuel Lawson's 'Songs From the Lodge'

Music was an intrinsic part of Masonic lodge meetings at least since the transformation to speculative Masonry in the 1600s. Anderson's Constitutions in 1723 includes a number of songs that were commonly sung during those lodge gatherings at the formation of the premiere grand lodge in London - and undoubtedly from before that. 

Over the next centuries, music in lodge waxed and waned depending upon the traditions of a particular lodge or the talents of its members. By the turn of the 19th into the 20th century, pipe organs were commonplace in well to do lodges, and Shrines and Templar Commanderies tried to outdo each other with their own special theme music and marches composed by their own Masonic musicians. By the 1950s, the electric Wurlitzer console organ was becoming a regular sight in countless lodges, which frequently had their own harp-shaped collar jewel specifically for the lodge musician. 

Sadly today, most of those mighty Wurlitzers sit broken or dust covered in an unused corner of lodge rooms, or consigned to the basement by Masons too sheepish to simply have them hauled away, but too talentless or unmotivated to take up the instrument themselves and lead their brethren in song once again.

My friend and Lodge Vitruvian Brother Samuel Lawson is an extraordinarily talented musician. He is a music teacher, classical guitarist, singer, and serves as director of the Chorus of the Indianapolis Valley of the Scottish Rite. Through the intersection of his interests in music, Freemasonry and all things Scottish, he continues to make an ongoing study of Masonic music and its forms and influences in the fraternity. Some of you may have seen some of his Masonic presentations around Indiana and the midwest, while others have heard him play at various non-Masonic venues, fairs, and festivals as a solo, or with his wife Rebekah and Celtic Rain.

Samuel recently recorded an entire album of Masonic-related music called Songs From The Lodge, available on the Reverbnation.com website HERE. (You can listen to each song, save songs or the whole album in an online library, or pay to download them into iTunes if you sign up on the site). 

Some of the songs may be familiar to Masons, depending on your lodge or location in the world — The Entered Apprentice Song, the Master's Song, Pleyel's Hymn. Others are less famous, but nevertheless authentically Masonic.

If you're looking for appropriate music to accompany your lodge meetings or festive boards, give it a listen. Even if it's only a recording, let Brother Samuel lead your brethren in song again, as the founders of our fraternity intended.

Masonic Music of the 18th Century

My culture for the evening. I just downloaded from iTunes Musiques rituelles maconniques du 18ème siècle ('Masonic ritual music from the 18th century'), conducted by Roger Cotte.

It includes:

• Le Déluge - Rituel maconnique funèbre by François Giroust
• Mozart's Masonic compositions
• Marche Maconnique and Opferjed by Ludwig van Beetheoven
• Maureelied (En l'honneur du roi Fredéric-Guillaume III du Prusse) by Freidrich-Heinrich Himmel
• Marche maconnique funèbre by Henri-Joseph-Taskin

"The boys at the lodge won't understand..."

 

'I Think I'm Dancing With A Man' by Rodney Carrington

  H/T to Jason from Florida