Full time vs. Part time
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 38
    On further thought, I think my experience underscores that only a director with a relatively light schedule could get away with 8-12 hours!
  • TimTheEnchanterTimTheEnchanter
    Posts: 206
    A parish not far from me just nuked its full-time music director position (filled by dude with doctorate) on diocesan bean-counter orders. The diocese then helpfully notified them that it might take a while for them to find a suitable part-time replacement, because it's hard to find good musicians these days.

    You don't say!
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  • jcr
    Posts: 141
    It is always a source of mystery to me that so many of the people who are in a position to hire musicians, especially for church work, have no idea what the work requires in the areas of skill and time for preparation. The organist/music director has an extremely difficult row to hoe. Musicians are required to provide leadership for people wo need to be convinced that what they do is significant and appreciated and who need to be convinced that they can actually perform the music required and do it well. All the prep is not just in practice and planning!
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  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    no idea what the work requires in the areas of skill and time for preparation


    in my humble opinion,,, not only skill and time for preparation (which is already beyond the "part time" idea IMO),

    but moreover, a great sensitivity to what is happening "downstairs" and very short-term notice for additional musical requirements (i.e., when the scheduled proper of the Mass or motet runs short of the Communion time, or a Te Deum accompaniment after Mass, or an interlude between Alleluia and Gospel for an unannounced solemn high Mass....etc)

    I may get my organist a Martyr's crown for Christmas. She has earned it :-)
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  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,085
    Example of an utterly unrealistic job description I came across today:

    https://www.catholicjobs.com/job/6923167158

    15-18 hours weekly to do all that. Get real!
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,329
    Really, 10-13 and more like 8-10 since so much time would be devoted to Mass and immediate preparation.
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 38
    With that posting, if the employee is directing music at 5 weekend masses, how many different choirs is he organizing and rehearsing with? To me if there are multiple choirs to direct it sends it from merely abusive to utterly insane.

    To say nothing of the skillset being demanded. I have trouble imagining the level of personal passion that would vindicate acquiring real competence in singing, piano, organ, choir direction, sacred music (repertoire and selection), etc., just to be vastly overworked on a part-time salary. Kudos to those people, I suppose.

    Does anyone more up on these things than me care to take a guess at the compensation?
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,832
    Well, since I only work 18 hours a week, that would be $89 per hour. (Its about the same as a piano tuner...) however, since I tune my own pianos, it would then be $90. If I had to work over 18 hours for any reason, then there would have to be time and a half.
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    in addition to the points above, i was amazed to read this
    The Part-time Music Minister [,,,] will develop and sustain [etc] and in so doing, help to increase regular attendance


    seriously?!
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  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    On the one hand, this is of course impossible and unreasonable.

    On the other hand, it looks like the parish is running a very lean staffing model in general.

    Hopefully there can be some dialogue during the hiring process that leads to a reasonable full-time appointment.
  • PaxMelodious
    Posts: 444
    The issue with that description is that it refers to "assigned Masses" - and lists all the possible times.

    The key question is, "how many Masses will be assigned"?

    Depending on the answer, the job could be either utterly impossible - or a nice part-time role that adds certainly to one part of a musician's income. Not everyone aspired for a full time position.
  • jcr
    Posts: 141
    I agree that the preparation effort ant the practice time are not always the main issue. If a pastor wants the musician to be available for funerals, weddings, holy day masses, etc. it would seem to me that that rules out any other regular employment apart from some private teaching and catch-as-catch-can free lancing. I've had this discussion with a pastor whose suggestion that the musician ought to find a day job since the salary at the church was not covering living costs. I suggested that the first time the musician was not available for a funeral on a week day he might not feel the same about it. He understood my point. However, he didn't raise the musician's salary, either.
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  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 38
    As an unpaid volunteer cantor (and at a different parish than my current) I was asked more than once to take time off work to sing at a funeral. Having to explain why I would not be doing this unless there was a respectable stipend (and the pointed silence that received) was what you might call a radicalizing experience. Even now as a pt director and with a separate funeral stipend I cant really take unplanned half days off my real job in exchange for much less money. Weddings on the other hand, being planned far in advance, have never posed the same difficulties.
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