Greg Meier, Fr. Frank Knusel team up on German tunes at last year's Oktoberfest.
Greg Meier photo
SANDY — Greg Meier of Sandy plays accordion in his German polka quartet and Father Frank Knusel of Scappoose leads St. Irene Byzantine Catholic Church and plays clarinet and saxophone in Meier’s group. Although Meier, who is not Catholic, and Father Knusel wouldn’t typically see each other in church on Sundays, the duo will make music together during Mass this Sunday at St. Michael the Archangel here when the parish holds its annual Oktoberfest.
The Greg Meier Bavarian Quartet for the last several years has led music at the 9:30 a.m. Oktoberfest Mass dressed in lederhosen and armed with a faster tempo than normal for that service. Although it’s been nicknamed the “polka Mass,” the group actually plays traditional Music Issue pieces and “Edelweiss” with a louder, untraditional ensemble of instruments: Accordion, bass, clarinet and saxophone.
“I love it,” said Viviane Couch, St. Michael’s regular vocalist. “It’s great, spirited energy.”
St. Michael’s Oktoberfest, Sept. 5-7, starts a run of eight performances this year for Meier’s band through the end of October at top Oktoberfest destinations in the region: Portland, Mount Angel, Wolf Creek and Leavenworth, Wash. Father Knusel joins them on clarinet and saxophone, as long as he finds another priest to replace him for Sunday Mass at St. Irene’s in North Portland.
The two met almost a decade ago when they were asked to perform at a celebration for the closure of the Edelweiss restaurant in Hazel Dell, Wash.
“I heard him play and I thought, ‘this guy is good,’” Meier said.
They became fast friends that evening and discovered not only a common Swiss heritage, but members of their families had known each other for several decades. As children, Meier’s grandfather rode the school bus with Father Knusel’s mother, Florence.
Meier took Father Knusel’s telephone number and decided he would to call him, should he need an extra musician in his band.
Within a year, Father Knusel had replaced a trombone player in Meier’s quartet who had left. It was a perfect fit. Father Knusel knows the band’s repertoire of German folk songs because he had played in his parent’s polka band as a young man. “He’s such an accomplished musician, he knows all the songs,” Meier said. “He can go anywhere and play with anyone, he’s that good.”
St. Michael’s Oktoberfest started in 1997 as a parish fundraiser. About five years later, a Catholic Hood River polka band hired to play that year offered to also play at Sunday morning Mass. They didn’t return the next year, and organizers asked Meier, already scheduled to play at the festival, to also play at Mass. They put “Edelweiss” to spiritual words as a recessional piece. Now it’s played during Eucharist. Lectors wear lederhosen along with some of the congregation helping at the festival afterward.
“People accepted it as part of the Oktoberfest weekend,” said Bud Abraham, the festival’s chief organizer.
