Duties of an Organ Scholar?
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    The parish where I am DM has a very busy music schedule, including daily sung Masses, OF, except for Monday Morning. I direct a choir of children and adults, though the treble line is all girls at the moment -- I'd like to try to get some boys to join, which has two rehearsals a week, one for section leaders, the other for full choir. And so, I've been thinking of adding an organ scholar position to help ease my burden. There are a few colleges and universities with organ programs in my area (UMass, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst), so there are student organists floating around. So my questions are:

    What are the traditional roles of Organ Scholar? Obviously accompanying the choir and helping with rehearsals, but what else?

    What fee would be adequate? I spoke with someone at Colloquium a couple years ago, and they suggested $100 per week (includes full-choir rehearsal and Sunday Mass).

    Are there any stipulations that should be made about dress and lifestyle? (I assume that many applicants won't be Catholic.)

    Audition requirements? Obviously Hymn playing, accompanying, literature -- how much vocal technique should they to know? (I studied voice privately, so I'm not a good metric to judge the average organ student.)

    Much thanks in advance for your help!
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,944
    "Are there any stipulations that should be made about dress and lifestyle?"

    An Organ Scholar has to pretend to be English.
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,184
    With regards to lifestyle, the scholar should conform to the diocesan governance guidelines. Call the chancery for that.

    Are you training them or do you expect them to already be trained? Do you want to teach them accompaniment skills, improvisation skills and do you expect them to sing. These skills in my mind are crucial to the duties and also the reason why I have not been able to hire one. Most organists in my area can barely play a hymn, much less show any skills in the abovementioned areas.
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • stulte
    Posts: 355
    "Are there any stipulations that should be made about dress and lifestyle?"

    An Organ Scholar has to pretend to be English.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldAKIzq7bvs
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,944
    Thus, if you are Canadian, you are permitted hard candy treats.
  • An organ scholar is expected to have the basic skills that constitute what an 'organist' is, bearing in mind that the person is likely to be an organ student who has advanced to some appreciable degree and is on his or her way to becoming fully professional. Being an organ scholar is rather like being in an internship - one is getting to practice what he or she has learnt and is adding to his or her knowledge and experience. He or she should, then, be able to play hymns and other congregational music (ordinaries, etc.) with some grace and confidence, and accompany anthems well. One should assume, also, that he or she would have a basic-but-growing repertory of literature suitable for voluntaries and such. He or she may be given duties such as will help the choirmaster keep choir and musical matters running smoothly, assist with rehearsals, or even conduct the occasional rehearsal, and play for some masses to take the load off the choirmaster.

    Someone above said that 'most organists in my area can hardly play a hymn'. There is an oxymoronic tinge to this statement: a person who can barely play a hymn is not an organist. He or she may be a potential one, but hasn't advanced to the degree which would entitle him or her to be called an 'organist', or be an organ scholar. A number of our churches here in Houston employ organ scholars - they are students from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice Univ. (under Ken Cowan), or Moore's School of Music at the UofH (under Robert Bates).
    An organ scholar is just that - a scholar who is a serious student of the organ, who would be delighted to get to fulfill an internship.

    (As an aside - one should hear some of the organ scholars who are part of English cathedral choir programs. Mere students who could put many 'professionals' to shame. Ditto some of our organ scholars here in Houston.)
    Thanked by 3Salieri Ben CHGiffen
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Yes, but...We are assuming all organists play or will play for churches. Not all do. Some concertize, some teach, some do research.
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Thank you all for your help -- keep it coming.

    I will be meeting with the new Pastor (who is great, by the way!) to discuss this in the coming weeks. And if he OK's it I'll be writing to the Organ Profs at the nearby colleges -- I'll also post the contact info and requirements here if there are any board members or lurkers desperate for a few pfennige.
  • About the salary, Salieri - you mentioned $100 a week. I really don't know what organ scholars are paid in Houston or anywhere else, but it seems to me that this might be something less than what would be appropriate. Of course, it depends on what duties your scholar will be performing, how much you envision integrating him or her into your choir program, how much music for choir and congregation he will need to learn, etc., etc.. An attendant perk for him, though, would be the occasional wedding, funeral, etc., that you wish to pass on to him. (I assume that it is a given in your parish that you are entitled to play for all weddings, funerals, and such.) Too, he or she would be entitled to practice privileges on your organ. In fact, your organ may be an incentive for someone to work for you.
  • Charles is right.
    Many young organists now are not envisioning becoming church musicians, but have their hearts set on concert or professorial careers. Most probably want to serve as sacred musicians, but those who don't are a growing cadre.

    Still, playing hymns, anthems, and service music remains a serious component of the training of organists in the better universities, and, especially, those which are church affiliated.

    Too, repertory is changing. The baroque and pre-baroque, which I love, no longer is the ruling aesthetic, but for a number of years now is making room for the romantic revival. Well, that's alright. The romantic era gave us much good music and much good sacred music for organ as well as for choirs. What isn't good (in fact it's reprehensible) is the rage for arrangements from the orchestral repertory - as if we didn't have more real organ music than we could play from now to doomsday. I attended a recital this very evening at Rice University. Bach's great D-Major Pre & Fug was played with stunning aplomb, technical prowess, as a splendiferously seamless garment; but, it was butchered as far as what was done to it structurally, architecturally, and registrationally. The organist was one of the country's best. Also on the program was Elgar's by-now-de rigeuer 'Nimrod'. The encore was... 'Flight of the Bumblebees'.... I coughed, got up and walked out. I'll go back in the morning for this man's masterclass on improvisation, which ought to be good (I'm crossing my fingers).

    Another recent dedication (played by one of the nation's most lauded organists) at a Lutheran church yielded six out of nine pieces that were Wagner transcriptions - 'Ride of the Valkyries', the march of the Meistersingers of Nuremburg, plus one or two transcribed Liszt piano pieces from L'anees de pelerinage Suisse, and so forth. Our instrument is fast becoming violated, ravished, by highly skilled and trained musical prostitutes who see it only as a concert medium - and, judging from the stuff they play, they don't think too much of their audiences.

    This is sad, truly sad. I never tire of reminding people and mentioning in my recital program notes that the king of instruments is the instrument of the King of kings. Indeed, no other instrument has such an existential relationship with the church and the worship of the Son of God. (And with that the IInd Vatican Council is in obvious agreement!)
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Yes, and no, Jackson. Keep in mind I am someone who loves French Baroque, although German not as much. The Baroque revival was something organists favored, even going off on a tangent with it. I am not so sure the concert going public really caught on to that as much. I have been to many Baroque literature recitals where the only people attending were other organists. I tend to view recitals as more scholarly events and concerts as more for entertainment. If entertainment and promoting the organ as a concert instrument is the purpose, then anything can be played that the public will like.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
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  • I'm very impressed with your music program, Salieri, and hope that you get a very good scholar. He will, it seems, learn much from his employ with you.

    By the way, how does one pronounce Czestochowa correctly, meaning if one had a Polish tongue?
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • $100/week is extremely low for what seems to be at minimum a 10-hour/week position (when you count the time spent playing for liturgies, rehearsals, and a modest amount of practice in a given week). You really ought to pay no less than $10,000/year for that amount of work.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
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  • MarkS
    Posts: 282
    $100/week is extremely low


    The position of organ scholar as I have understood it is a sort of apprenticeship: the opportunity for students to get real-life experience and practical education, with some modest compensation. $100 a week is in line with what organ scholars in this area get; it would be high for choral scholars, who would have somewhat fewer responsibilities.

    If the 'organ scholar' in question is already truly qualified, they could go and apply for positions with professional level compensation (or what passes for it!) Organ 'scholarships' are for those who have not yet reached that level of expertise.
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  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,184
    100 per week is what I am able to pay also. Seems reasonable for the fact that this is a student who is learning to do the work.