Raspberry Pi is this church’s new organist | Hacker News Reader

Raspberry Pi is this church’s new organist

raspberrypi.com

It is not uncommon for churches to have rubrics which prohibit the use of recorded music in liturgies. It can be debated whether a MIDI system is "recorded music", especially if there's someone there to select a file and press "start", but these churches tend to prefer live music produced by humans, for many reasons.

For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which I'm almost sure this is, the congregation sings along to most, if not all of the organ music. I've been the organist for many congregations and I think this is awesome. I'd love to record myself playing something, or put together a MIDI instead of having to stumble through some of my lesser-known hymns

Yes, the label on the RasPi says "Matthews First Ward", a distinctively LDS moniker for a faith community.

I enjoyed the demo and I appreciate how the hymn is played: with a few bars of intro first, before the singing proper would begin. This is a very helpful aid to congregational singing, to cue everyone in on the key, tempo, and melody being used. Traditionally, it has not been uncommon for congregations to sing in four-part harmony, perhaps aided by hymnals with real music notation, or sometimes, people know how to improvise a harmony in their own range.

I'm sure it's getting more and more difficult to find people who can (and are willing to) play an organ well enough to play new-to-them hymns weekly in front of a congregation and not sound like someone's child's recital.

When many small and/or rural congregations are struggling financially just to keep their lights on while also paying for a pastor's salary and upkeep on their parsonage, the decision to allow a RPi MIDI system for a few hundred dollars one-time cost vs a few grand annually for an organist becomes an easier decision.

It is becoming more and more difficult to find a trained organist, especially one who will work as a volunteer.

But for churches who prohibit recorded music, their recourse is to mothball the organ, and have somebody pull out an acoustic guitar, and there you go.

Anyone have a MIDI file for Iron Butterfly?

Surely you mean the hymn "In the Garden of Eden" by I. Ron Butterfly?[0]

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDC1w1ydLI

That sounds like rock and/or roll.

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