Facebook: “I think of his influence as a form of epidemic: A great choirmaster infects everybody near him with an evangelical love for the music, the tradition, and the rigor required to get it done correctly but in the (liturgical) background. (It is) music for use, but music for the only use worth using.”

Then again, this note from the father of a chorister captured Scott’s Sundayto Sunday life: “Nearly one dozen church services every week, appearances around town, and performing ‘Messiah’ on a scant two weeks of practice are subordinate to the depth of the man, and his impact upon our sons, upon our faith and upon our church,” wrote Jon Paris, online.

“Our family cries at the loss, and then smiles from our soul at the image of John reflected in our son.”

— Terry Mattingly is the editor of GetReligion.org and Senior Fellow for Media and Religion at The King’s College in New York City. He lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.