jcr

Job Security
I really have no opinion regarding the case at issue here, but it does seem that in the many years since I was a student and had discussions with professors and other professionals in music in general there has been a radical deterioration in the ar…

Comment by jcr October 24 permalink
Choir/Cantor Question
Sorry for the wrong credit! I stand by the point, though!

Comment by jcr October 4 permalink
Choir/Cantor Question
This whole issue is a terrible hornet's nest of trouble for a Music Director. There is no doubt that "ringers" enhance the quality of what one can do with a choir and particularly what one can do in a given period of time. However, …

Comment by jcr October 3 permalink
Books on Changing Voices
I don't know if it's still available, but Don Collins "Teaching Choral Music" I quite good and has a good deal of information about ways of dealing with changing voices. Prentice Hall was the publisher 1993

Comment by jcr September 2 permalink
Question: What is "true" Gregorian chant? Solesmes vs. Roman
I'm an "old guy" who began my post secondary education in 1960. As a fellow raised in a protestant home, the chant discussions did not reach me until, you guessed it, Music History. At that time many were arguing about whether we sh…

Comment by jcr September 2 permalink
Standard Pronunciation Guide when singing in English
In general, I would say that depending on where you are, English pronunciation for singing should sound, as much as possible, like spoken English. There are regional dialects to consider and there are the peculiarities of the native language of the…

Comment by jcr August 4 permalink
Seeking Wisdom: Navigating Parish and School Politics as a Dual Music Director and Teacher
We (my wife and I) have run into unnecessary tensions between the church musician(s) and the school music teachers in a couple of situations. In one of them some of the problem may have stemmed from a shameful muddle of chaos and confusion among th…

Comment by jcr July 28 permalink
Full time vs. Part time
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 employme…

Comment by jcr November 2024 permalink
“Please help me understand” by Aurelio Porfiri
I have served as a paid singer in a couple of places and have served as a DM in a dozen more. I have never been a DM where the church could or would hire professional singers. I have had some pretty well trained and experienced singers among my vo…

Comment by jcr November 2024 permalink
Full time vs. Part time
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 h…

Comment by jcr November 2024 permalink
Church music and stress
The answer to all of the angst and resulting stress is found in a couple of things made clear to me through the observations of some acquaintances of mine a number of years ago. One was from the owner of several music stores. He had hired a man wh…

Comment by jcr October 2024 permalink
Full time vs. Part time
Excellence requires preparation. The greatest obstacle to excellence in choral work in the church is the difficulty of having every singer prepared. There are other problems, to be sure, but getting folks to value the preparation sufficiently woul…

Comment by jcr September 2024 permalink
Full time vs. Part time
We (my wife and I) have found that volunteering may only serve to give credence to the corollary to Murphy's Law that states that "no good deed will go unpunished". I know that this is not universally true, but it seems to be in som…

Comment by jcr August 2024 permalink
501c3 Status for a Parish Choir?
I would agree that in the event that the excellence of the music program in the nearby churches were of the caliber they ought to be, then the issue I raised would be much less of a problem, possibly no problem at all. As I said above, I make no po…

Comment by jcr August 2024 permalink
501c3 Status for a Parish Choir?
I would like to raise an issue regarding the phenomenon of churches that regularly mount such performances. As much as I support the use of these works as concert fare, it interests me that the conductors of the forces involved are often priests w…

Comment by jcr August 2024 permalink
Full time vs. Part time
The entire matter of compensation has seemed to be based on some idea about what it costs to live at whatever moment the job is described. I won't relate right now our (my wife and I) experiences offering our services as a team more than to sa…

Comment by jcr August 2024 permalink
Have you ever had a volunteer cantor who probably needs to quit?
By all means contact the McClosky Institute. David Blair McClosky was the founder of the voice therapy clinic at Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary and a singer and voice teacher of some reputation. It was my good fortune to study with him for quite a wh…

Comment by jcr March 2024 permalink
I Hate Latin discussion
The deep seated objection is really not rational as has been ably pointed out by several above. It is an emotional thing. The same thing is true of the Gospel itself. Even though there re rational arguments, few are converted by them. A change o…

Comment by jcr January 2024 permalink
I Hate Latin discussion
Certainly not all good music is suitable for Mass. That was not anything like what I was driving at. However, the tradition is to bring the spotless lamb as our offering and I think that should be instructive to us. Unfortunately, the church does…

Comment by jcr January 2024 permalink
I Hate Latin discussion
Discussions about what music we should play and sing at worship tend very strongly toward an argument about "what I like vs. what you like" and are doomed to a very desolate brand of fruitlessness. There is good, well conceived music and …

Comment by jcr January 2024 permalink
Gregorian chant originates from ancient Jewish psalmody?
Yes, he language was an important element. Just look over the difficulties when we take a piece of music and translate the text and the rhythm of the original no longer works, or we run out of music and there are words left over or vice versa. The…

Comment by jcr December 2023 permalink
Gregorian chant originates from ancient Jewish psalmody?
It is likely that Hebrew chant, if it was carried over to the Greek and Roman culture where the apostles took the faith, was modified by singers whose musical formulae were not quite the same as that of the Hebrews. Who knows what shifts of modalit…

Comment by jcr December 2023 permalink
Need to commiserate
My overlong post above was primarily to point out that the withering away of discipline in the choir loft has been a problem for some time and will very likely continue to worsen. The only answer is to be able to develop a culture of discipline in y…

Comment by jcr December 2023 permalink
Need to commiserate
Unfortunately, the situation in the "music department" at the church is more pathetic than what I had feared was coming. I had my first paid church position in 1962. This was a Protestant church and the choir was a paid mixed quartet tha…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
HR Question
I think that you are correct re the church's policies regarding "at will" status for employees. One pastor with whom we had a short term association dismissed at least two of the several musicians that followed my wife and I at his p…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
HR Question
I had a question that might have involved a dispute over what they call "wrongful dismissal". I consulted a lawyer about the situation received some good advice. (This was in Michigan) He told me that in Michigan (and quite a few other…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
Stay or switch parishes
I was once hired by a protestant church where there was a plot among a few in the choir and the organist the "get rid" of me as quickly as possible. I didn't know any of these people, but it seems that they didn't like their pas…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
Being realistic
I should add to my comments above that I have, on a couple of occasions, left positions for what seemed to be the same kind of situation. There may a kind of cyclic thing that happens regarding the ages of singers and their stage of life that works…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
Being realistic
It is a possibility that one can tap out the potential, or at least the will to reach the potential of a choir situation. I have seen, in a good number of years of working with volunteer choirs, that there is a point at which the early enthusiasm o…

Comment by jcr November 2023 permalink
Offered an organist position, but..
I am reminded of a fellow I met quite a long time ago. His wife (an organist) and he (choral conductor) were interviewing for a position. The committee and the pastor liked them and offered a salary well below their stated salary needs and said to …

Comment by jcr October 2023 permalink

Welcome to the MusicaSacra Forum!

To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.

About

Username: jcr
Joined: May 2018
Visits: 732
Last Active: October 27
Roles: Member
Posts: 148
Thanked: 309