I'll read it in a bit, but I will say that after 5 or 6 years of liturgical music (some more liturgical than others!), I'd like to think I've learned a lot, at least in my current job. Here's the guy's first mistake: "My first order of business is to clean up that which has preceded me." NO! Your first order of business as a new MD is NEVER to "clean up" the parish. It's to provide music for Mass given what you've got. Sometimes that's easier than other places, and if it's a challenge you can't accept then you don't. Second you get established in the community so that you're able to make the changes you need. I remember seeing on NLM a few days ago an article quoting a memo a young priest sent his new congregation about "fixing" the music. It made me laugh and think "what a naive fool! He'll be learning about the priesthood REAL quickly!"

The fact is that you have to prioritize things. My boss, for reasons I can't disclose publicly, has essentially told me "no Latin" from now until my departure from the parish in June. And, knowing why, I think he's 100% right. Another part of this is you have to count your blessings: as tempted as we both are to whine and mope about not being able to do Latin, I pointed out that we have nothing to feel bad about. If we have no Latin, at least we'll still have an excellent cantor program, chanted propers at our early Mass, congregational introits picking up speed, and be using only the best of the western hymn repertoire. And, as my mother's parish continually shows, if your worst problems are liturgical, then you have a GREAT church.

I'm reminded of a whiny blog post a friend made about "why do hot girls marry jerks who beat/cheat instead of me?". Someone suggested that women enter into marriages with jerky/abusive guys in an attempt to "change" them, and surprise! they beat/cheat on their wives. Well, at least in the first few paragraphs I have to say "what did you expect?" to the author. Catholic congregations are particularly and notoriously abusive towards musicians - don't expect not to get a few shiners while you're doing the work of "changing" them.

I'll have more thoughts perhaps later in the morning when I'm done reading this.

I was glad to read the article, and believe he had some very valid points to make. I agree with you, Gavin, that he did seem to take a rather aggressive approach when he began work at a new parish. Most of the parishioners in the pews are probably just unaware that the tripe they've been hearing isn't appropriate and/or that something better is out there. It takes time, patience, charity and a lot of work to change the hearts and minds of a parish. As a paid parish musician, he has a unique opportunity to gradually make those changes, almost without the parishioners noticing, if he is a bit resourceful. If, however, he finds his efforts of even the gradual re-introduction of good stuff thwarted, then he must simply shake the dust off his feet and find another opportunity...

I can't help believing that, in many ways, his 'wandering' can't help but be planting seeds that will bear fruit all along his way. Probably at every parish where he has been the parish Music Director, there are little pockets of people who have been infected with the sacred music 'bug'. I see his travails (and those of other like-minded DoM's ) as a way of working toward the greater good of the Church, even if it is a bit disheartening for the individuals... We have to keep our eyes on the goal!!!

I met the author at last year's Colloquium. Nice guy, and quiet, which seems to clash with the tone of his article. He's in a United Church of Christ "parish" now, though still a practicing Catholic, I believe. I think he felt maybe just a twinge of regret for doing the article, as the power of Google brought it up to prospective employers.

He may be prowling around this forum . . . Michael, want to chime in? Please correct any misinformation I may have perpetuated with this post. : )

And while I'm patting myself on the back, I'll add that I've even changed my approach several times in the past 2 years. Why should we expect congregations to grow if we never do?

I think we can all agree that this young man's rant was written while he was suffering a great deal of deep injury. In reading it, it's clear that he's not in need of repeated scolding, scorn or tart accusations of contributory negligence for his own bad behavior.

Rather he is in need of something the newchurch sacro-pop music crowd, led by the likes of David Haas, like to call "formation." Of course when these folks talk about formation, they're speaking of that "everything's good, I'm OK-You're OK; feel-the-music-in-your-heart" kind of formation. I'm talking about truly valuable, mentored formation from a seasoned veteran of quality music presented in a structured environment; someone who has with great success built a program from the smoking rubble of a truly poor music program. Haas and his ilk love to talk about feelings, but what most people need is practical preparation in how to "play their game," and let's face it. . . it's a game they love to play, and they're quite good at it. They can take perfectly reasonable suggestions or presentations of solid, well-reasoned instruction from the Church and turn it on it's head in such a way that those of us who truly know better are made to sound like "backward-thinking fools; flies in amber; people committed to things that are 'too churchy.'" The scorn, abuse and dismissiveness on the part of clergy, lay staff and parishioners in many churches is a terrific sin, totally lacking in Christian charity.

I'm also willing to bet that he, like so many of us, has faced truly irrational, poorly-educated, socially inept and professionally clumsy priests who haven't a clue how hard we work to make what we do happen, and happen well. In my career, I've only been fired once, by a newly-appointed pastor who'd never been a pastor before. After his first Mass he shouted up to the organ loft that the closing hymn was "too slow." I calmly pointed out that the tempo of the hymn really ought to be dictated by many considerations, and that in my professional judgment (having a M.M. in organ performance in my back pocket) the tempo was fairly average. His next remark? "If we're going to debate music, I'll win." Period, end of discussion. Thank you, Father. The next Saturday, when I arrived at the rectory office to check my mailbox, he asked me if I could meet with him the next day after the last Mass. I asked, calling his bluff, why? "Well, this weekend will be your last with us." I said, very calmly, "No, last Sunday was my last." I explained that I would be expecting full payment for all services played to that point, turned around and walked out. I shouldn't have been surprised, this coming from a priest who had a large Teddy Bear safety-belted into the passenger side of his car. I should also mention that this happened during his second week as pastor. In his first week, he sacked the maintenance staff and the secretary. Brilliant, just brilliant.

We all have stories like this, and I've long-asserted that anyone who thinks that sexual abuse on the part of priests is the only problem the Church faces are whistling past the graveyard. Professional abuse, unethical treatment, failure to comply with basic standards of fair employment, emotional manipulation and yes, even physical threats (a DM friend of mine, a woman, was actually physically threatened by a priest in the sacristy immediately after a Mass) are par for the course.

We as professionals have a lot of work to do. In close, let me share with you a quote from Prof. Marilyn Mason, organ teacher of 60 years at the University of Michigan: "Take the higher moral position. It's often the one that's unoccupied."

*sigh*

Gavin, let me be blunt.

First of all, it's to your credit that you've done well and feel that through the blog you had that you provided some solid advice by example.

Having said that . . .

This young man doesn't mention learning a thing, because I suspect there wasn't anyone around him to teach him. Between NPM, whose philosophy at its core provides no real, tangible, mentoring formation and the AGO which has some really great solutions at the wrong end (i.e., their grievance process, which only helps after things go off the rails), we as a group of professionals in an admittedly quirky field have done ourselves and the young "up and comers" a great dis-service by failing to provide a "journeyman's" experience, like they did in the "craft" guilds of yore, and some fields still do, such as the plumbing and electrical fields. I'm speaking of solid opportunities for someone like this young man to have been paired up with someone like Jeffrey Tucker, on an interim basis (perhaps a two-year period) to see, up-close, "in the trenches", how to avoid the pitfalls, mistakes, troubles and controversies.

A modern example: I don't know if it's still done this way, but for the longest time, in England when a barrister passed the bar exam, before he (or she) could actively practice law on their own, they had to be accepted as a "pupil" with a "pupil-master" assigned to him, in an active chamber of barristers. They would be voted into the chamber, and assigned to this "pupil-master" who would take the young pupil around to court, to the jails, on research, etc. Along the way, the unwritten rules, the skills they can't teach you in law school, would be passed on from pupil-master to pupil.

We don't have this kind of dynamic available (at least not in a practical sense), and I for one would have benefited greatly from it. Granted, the kind of dynamic I'm suggesting would require time, energy, dedication, a desire to pass on the craft, and a commitment on the part of churches to set aside at least a crumb of money to make this worth-while.

In this case I don't think "piling on" is helping to address the issue that this young man is pointing to: our lack of professional foresight to pick up the ball we dropped, lest the advice of the likes of "formation" gurus like David Haas (of Music Ministry Alive! fame) continue to be proprietors of the wisdom that win the day.

Let me throw out one more good analogy that'll apply to anyone. Let's say (this isn't the case at all I assure you!) that I have a time in my life during which I have a total of 12 girlfriends, with each relationship lasting an average of a month. And then, after a messy breakup with the woman of the past week, I tell you, a friend, all about women: women only want tall men with expensive cars, they lie, women are all unfaithful, etc., and of course I say "and they're not worth my time anyway". Given that I have had 12 failed relationships, do you pay ANY attention to my rant? Doesn't that have to kind of make you look down on me a bit and say "Gosh, not only is he bad with women but he hasn't learned a thing about them after 12 of them!" There's something wrong with NOT improving your skills with women a bit after 12 in a row.

I'm not saying anything the guy says is wrong. I just think his writing should be taken with the salt granule of him not learning anything from his positions. God help us ALL to do a little better than that.

Gavin's analogy between jobs and girlfriends only extends so far. Girlfriends don't routinely have their heads replaced, but parishes do. We probably all know music directors who have done very good work and lost their posts after a new pastor arrived.

I suppose the best thing I can do to calibrate my expectations is to replay Professor Mahrt's introductory talk from the '07 colloquium: in it he spoke about the slow spade-work of making the music of the Mass more beautiful over a period of years. Beauty and dignity are essential; everything else, including Latin and traditional ceremonial, will have to follow in due course. It seems so much harder to build than to destroy.

To return to the original thought of this thread for a moment: is it possible that we parishioners who support traditional church music are letting slip opportunities to influence our parishes? If a handful of vociferous complaints can lead to the destruction of a good music program, how much good could we do with some salutary advice for pastors and music directors? Is it possible that we have been too polite and too tolerant of abuses?

"If a handful of vociferous complaints can lead to the destruction of a good music program, how much good could we do with some salutary advice for pastors and music directors?"

I'm not terribly open to "advice" at this point from any non-musicians. BUT thanking those of us trying to do work for what we do goes farther than you can imagine.

Gavin wrote:
"I'm not terribly open to "advice" at this point from any non-musicians. BUT thanking those of us trying to do work for what we do goes farther than you can imagine."

I'm sure you inspire thanks!

Alas, most of the musicians in my suburban church just make me want to encourage them -- to get lessons.