Michael W. Brooks, 32°, K.C.C.H.
13291 Kenroyal Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63131–1934

Ever since I can remember, I have been surrounded with music. I grew up playing trombone in school every day and at the Salvation Army Band every night. Things haven't changed much. These days I spend a lot of my time arranging to play trombone during the day and playing (usually jazz or pop) as often as I can at night. I personally can't help myself. I love music.

Opening of Brother Mozart's famous Masonic opera, The Magic Flute

Do you remember the old silent movies? You'd watch the exaggerated facial expressions, and you could almost read each actor's lips. Then the titles would come up to give you the actual words. Then it was back to the action, facial expression, title, on and on as the movie built to its climax. Silent movies? Nonsense, there was always sound at the movies, if only from the audience, and then there was musical background. Even before technology added sound to the movies, there was almost always a piano player or organist in the theater to "Affect the passions...wrap us in melancholy and elevate us in joy...melt us in tenderness and excite us to war."

Well, Freemasonry has known this all along. We've been teaching that lesson to Brethren for a long time. Today's movies have wonderful songs and musical scores. Pop musicians are selling CDs by the millions. Radios, TVs, computers, elevators, shopping malls—everywhere, at work and at play, we are surrounded by music. And we love it.

Sovereign Grand Commander C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°, at the recommendation of Ill. Earl K. Dille, 33°, S.G.I.G. in Missouri and Grand Prior of the Supreme Council, established a committee to review and recommend musical selections to the Supreme Council's Ritual and Ceremonial Forms Committee. The idea was to create arrangements and produce recordings of music to complement the newly developed Revised Standard Pike Ritual. Ill. Robert M. "Bob" Lang, 33°, and I were appointed co-chairs of this Music Committee.

Currently, our committee, with the assistance of the Scottish Rite Choir and Scottish Rite Brass from the Valley of St. Louis Scottish Rite, is working on the arrangements and recordings. All the Scottish Rite Valleys will receive copies when the recordings are completed.

The use of this music is left to the complete discretion of the individual Valleys. Directors of work and music directors or organists will have the ability to use whatever music they feel works for them in their Valley. We hope they will consider our offering, but it is not a required part of the Revised Standard Pike Ritual, just an aid to the Valleys.

For those Valleys that do not currently have an organist or choir, we would think that this might help organize and assist in selection, rehearsal, and performance of music at Reunions. Care is being made to select music that is not overly difficult to prepare and perform with a high level of success.

Most of the arrangements are convertible. They may be played by a pianist or organist, or sung by a soloist or choir. They also can be accompanied by a brass quartet or performed separately by a brass quintet, mixed woodwinds, or whatever. You can also combine them to use in other ways. In any case, with a small effort, we can keep great music in our rituals.

The music will be published in CD format. All of the music has been arranged and prepared by score and part using the popular music software program, Finale 2001. We will supply all of the original Finale 2001 files. Coda Music Technologies offers a free reader program called Music Notes (www.codamusic.com) which will allow users to read and to do some limited editing (transposition, etc.) of these files. You can also expand these arrangements, should you want to. All are copyrighted by the Supreme Council, or we have permission from the composers for use by the Scottish Rite. We are also providing .pdf files of each piece of music. These can be read and printed by most PCs using Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ (www.adobe.com), also a free program.

If you have no organist or musical talent to assist in the ritual, we will be supplying CDs for each Degree. The music has been recorded in the order of use in each Degree and of a length we hope should fit most Lodge Rooms or stages.

The music will be in an order and cued to the page and line of the scripts where they should be played. This is also annotated in the staging directions of the printed version of the Revised Standard Pike Ritual.

The best part of this is, it's free. The Supreme Council will be supplying this six-CD set to each Valley at no charge. If additional sets are needed, appropriate distribution arrangements will be made. These developments are the modern form of what Albert Pike started as long ago as 1880. In that year, Grand Commander Pike asked Brother Matthew Cooke, 30°, from London, England, one of the most talented musicologists of the time, to compile music for the ritual of the Rite. Cooke selected music of some of the greatest composers of the time, many of whom were Masons: Mozart, Sibelius, Handel, Beethoven, Meyerbeer, Wesley, etc. He also composed many pieces himself. In all he produced three volumes (359 separate pieces) of music for the ritual. These books were beautifully hand-engraved by Bro. Cooke over several years, and each of his three volumes will be included in the music CD in .pdf format. Thanks to the help of our Supreme Council Librarian, Joan K. Sansbury, we are scanning all three volumes so they will be available to all of us.

Coordinating our efforts with the Ritual Committee, our intentions are to finish the music arrangements and recordings for the Obligatory Degrees by summer 2001. Distribution throughout the Southern Jurisdiction will take place shortly thereafter.

Can we use your help? YES! I am sure there is a vast pool of musical talent throughout the Fraternity. There are still an additional 24 Degrees for which we have not yet prepared materials. If you have written or arranged music for the Scottish Rite or if you know someone who may have composed a selection for our ritual, now is your opportunity to have it published and recorded. Please forward your compositions or arrangements (providing we can acquire copyright permission), together with suggested use (which Degree and placement) to Michael Brooks, c/o Scottish Rite Valley of St. Louis, 3363 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63108–3301, or feel free to call me at my home office, 314–966–4129.

Michael W. Brooks became a Mason in 1984 at Fenton Lodge No. 281, Fenton, Missouri, and he joined the Scottish Rite Valley of St. Louis and Moolah Shrine Temple in 1985. The Director and a founding member of the Scottish Rite Brass of St. Louis (appearing at the Biennial Session in Charleston, S.C.), Bro. Brooks is a professional musician (trombonist) who has toured with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and Sammy Kaye Orchestra. Bro. Mike plays in the St. Louis Sessions Big Band, the Fabulous Motown Review, and is also the leader of his own big band and wedding band, "Route 66."