Third Baptist

I spent the afternoon working at Third Baptist Church with a group of students from the SLU John Cook School of Business.

Third Baptist is blessed with an incredible facility. Our building is significant, but seems almost small relative to Third's. Third Baptist works hard to invite and welcome the community into their space. (They have a tutoring program two days each week - staffed by volunteers from the Service Leadership program at SLU. They plan to expand to four days each week next year.) One of the projects in the works is a large music program for children - with free piano lessons! The facility is filled with pianos - just waiting for little fingers!

Such music programs are especially important for the church. The number of degree-pursuing organ majors is in decline. During the 1985-86 academic year, 728 students were enrolled as organ majors. By 1999-2000, the figure had fallen to 527. The American Guild of Organists (AGO) has a number of programs designed to stimulate interest in the organ and careers in sacred music. Churches can play a vital role in supporting the long-term supply of church musicians. Sacred music programs and strong support for present day musicians are particularly important. Without support today, we are likely to see fewer and fewer young people pursue careers as church musicians.

Here is the AGO's Official Position Statement on the Shortage of Organists in America.

As we worked throughout the afternoon at Third Baptist, I could hear the sounds of the organ. It is too quiet at Second these days. Once a 30 hour per week musician is again on staff, it will be wonderful to hear our Schantz being played and practiced upon throughout the week.

Notes for Sunday, April 1

Sunday is Palm-Passion Sunday.

SCRIPTURE: The Gospel Reading: Luke 19:28-40.

SERMON: Competing Parades.

ANTHEMS:

Kyrie, K. Sato
Ride On! Ride On!, G. George

Sato’s Kyrie is the first movement of his Missa pro Pace (Mass for Peace). The work is lush and warm, and offers a texture rich with suspensions and resolutions. Although all of the parts divide, the voicing of the piece somehow creates the perception that a single instrument is speaking. Perhaps this is what we must do in the name of peace – speak as one, with all of our separate and distinct voices.

Sato says, “I think for me music is hope or beauty, beauty is another word for music for me.” This view is certainly reflected in his Kyrie.

I discovered the original tune for Ride On! Ride On! In a 1924 edition of the Musical Times. The verse was written by Henry Hart Milman, and the tune composed by John Bernard Sale. The original tune is a simple and pleasing one (though it did take me a bit to figure this out, as I did not initially notice that the score was printed upside down in the Times). We will sing the hymn to the more common and regal tune The King’s Majesty.

HYMNS:

#88, All Glory, Laud, and Honor
Who Would Ever Have Believed It

OTHER ITEMS:

Prelude: Hosanna! T. Dubois
Offertory: Duo Pastorale, A. Guilmant

In the February edition of Seconds, Mary Gene wrote of Palm/Passion Sunday: “This Sunday will begin with loud ‘Hosannas’...” Indeed it will, with the prelude by Dubois!

With the exception of a few works (The Seven Last Words of Christ and his Toccata in G), Dubois’ many organ compositions are heard far less often than those of his contemporaries, Franck and Saint-Saens. I have several of his pieces in my small collection of music, and I rather enjoy them. I’m not certain why his work is not more popular.

A number of Dubois’ scores (including Hosanna!) have been published in Braille, and can be found in the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Music Section collection. (Yes, it is indeed a wonder what one can learn with Google.) I was not aware that the Braille system was used to notate music for reading by the visually impaired. There is a very interesting Wikipedia piece on the Braille music system.

Until Sunday, Bonnie

Wages in St. Louis and at 2PC

In 2005, blue-collar workers in St. Louis earned, on average, $20.60 per hour.

In 2005, white-collar workers in St. Louis earned, on average, $22.70 per hour.

In 2005, custodians in St. Louis earned, on average, $10.00 per hour.

$25,000 - $30,000 per year, for 30 hours of work each week implies a wage of $16.03 - $19.23 per hour. (That assumes 52 weeks of work per year. I.e., vacation is assumed to be paid.)

The March 2007 Analysis of Revenues and Expenses at 2PC indicates an annual budget for the church Secretary of $35,360. If this position is full-time (I'm not sure if it is), and one assumes 40 hours of work per week, the implied hourly wage is $17.00. In St. Louis, in June 2005, Secretaries were paid on average $15.67.

The 2PC annual budget for the church Accountant is $17,000. If this position is half-time (I'm not sure if it is), and one assumes 20 hours of work per week, the implied hourly wage is $16.35. In St. Louis, in Jun 2005, Bookkeepers, accounting and auditing clerks earned $14.66.

(I do not (yet?) know what average benefits look like for blue-collar and white-collar workers in St. Louis. For the US, in March 1999, blue-collar workers received an average of $5.58 per hour in benefits - about 31% of their compensation. White-collar and service workers were paid about 26% of their compensation in the form of benefits. (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - employment cost trends data.) The average wages per hour in the US are lower for both blue-collar and white-collar workers than in St. Louis.)

According to the March 2006 National Compensation Survey, 77% of White-collar and 77% of blue-collar workers in private industry had access to medical care benefits.
If St. Louis is representative, these figures suggest that the St. Louis wage figures above provide a reasonable point of comparison to the wages offered at 2PC.

Are These Tunes Familiar?

We will sing the following tunes (with the congregation) on Good Friday. Mary Gene would like to know if any are unfamiliar:

"What Wondrous Love"
"Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love"
"My Jesus I Love Thee"
"Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley"
"Beneath The Cross of Jesus"
"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"
"Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?"

If any of these tunes are unfamiliar, please let me know (and we will practice them), and I will pass the information on to Mary Gene.

Lent at 2PC!

Thanks to Gayla for this link to a great Post-Dispatch piece - featuring Carolyn and Don Beimdiek and Mary Gene!

Notes for Sunday, March 25

Sunday is the fifth Sunday in Lent.

We welcome Rick Nutt, who will join us in worship and offer thoughts from the pulpit.

SCRIPTURE: The Gospel Reading: John 12:1-8.

SERMON: An Extravagant Devotion.

ANTHEMS: James Harr will sing "Song of Penitence," L. Beethoven, as the Call to Confession. The women of the choir will sing Charles Collins' "Tuuti, Tuuti, Tummaistani," fittingly and subtly placed by Mary Gene to follow the Sacred Space for Children.

The women will sing in Finnish. Charles writes, "The text means something like this: 'Hush, hush my little dark one, lying in the hush of darkness by the dark one who gently rocks you in your dark cradle.' The entire poem makes it clear that this lullaby is being sung by a peasant mother to her dead child, wishing it safe passage to the afterlife. In centuries past when infant mortality rates were globally very high, this would not have been an uncommon situation."

Charles' composition captures this image beautifully, in a quietly stunning setting. Listen to the bass line in the piano accompaniment - the rocking of the cradle that holds the mother's dead child. Listen to the dissonance between the treble line in the piano and the opening vocal lines - the pain of a mother who quietly suffers a loss that is oh so familiar to her, and yet still devastating. Listen further into the piece as the dissonance between piano and voices disappears - the mother's acceptance, in the knowledge that her child is safe and not alone. And be grateful - grateful that the death of our children is rare; more grateful still that those who die too soon are resurrected through Jesus Christ.

I found a complete translation of the poem that inspired Charles' work in the library. It reads:

Rock, rock my dark one
In a dark cradle -
A dark one rocking
In a dark cabin!
Rock the child to Tuonela
The child to the planks' embrace
Under turf to sleep
Underground to lie
For Death's children to sing to
For the grave's maidens to keep!
For Death's cradle is better
And the grave's cot is fairer
Cleverer Death's dames, better
The grave's daughter-in-law, large
The cabin in Tuonela
And the grave has wide abodes.

HYMNS:
#516, Lord, We Have Come at Your Own Invitation
#520, Here, O Lord, We See You Face to Face

OTHER ITEMS:
Prelude: Partita on Picardy, A. Zabel.
Offertory: Communion Prelude on Picardy, G. Martin

Picardy is a French carol melody - the tune to "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" - perhaps from the 17th century, though it is traceable only to the 19th. The hymn is based on the Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn, from one of the earliest extant liturgies of the Christian Church - the 4th century Liturgy of St. James. It is an advent hymn - check the words in a hymnal and you will see why. The hymn also uses the word "Alleluia." Arguably, this selection is poorly placed in the Lenten season. However, it is not uncommon for the hymn to be used during Lent. I discovered several references to its use on Good Friday in the Greek Orthodox Church. Moreover, the tune has a somber and dignified feel that is appropriate for the current season. The opening words of the hymn also tie into the mortality so vividly on display in Charles' anthem. And it is a season when we seek to turn our focus away from "earthly minded" things. (I will not play the last movement of the Zabel Partita - a toccata. But it reminds me that when sung/played at a fast tempo, this tune displays an uncomfortable fierceness. Let our mortal flesh keep silence indeed; with fear and trembling stand!)

Until Sunday, Bonnie

On Wages, Value, and Right Relationship

When asked to set a wage, one must first select a philosophy/perspective to provide a basis for the choice. The philosophy/perspective should define what it means for a wage to be appropriate.

My own definition of an appropriate wage is guided by economic theory and by scripture. Economic theory and scripture provide a very strong and clear view of an appropriate level of wages. (Note that the level of wages implied by economic theory and scripture may be quite different from the level of wages implied by theories of "just wages." In particular, the level of wages implied by economic theory and scripture is likely to be lower than that implied by theories of "just"
wages.)

Economic theory implies that if markets are competitive, workers and firms have equal bargaining power, and workers will be paid a wage equal to the value of their contribution. (More precisely, the wage will equal the marginal product of labor - the partial derivative of the production function with respect to the labor input.) If markets are not competitive, firms have power that workers do not. And firms may use this power to pay a wage below the value of the contribution made by the worker. Economists refer to such wages as "exploitative," since they are observed when bargaining power is unequal, and the party with more power "exploits" their position at the expense of the other party.

It is at this point that scripture guides us. We are called as Christians to be in right relationship with others. When I ask my students what a "right" relationship is, they typically reply with what I call the "50-50" response. I.e., a right relationship is one in which no party has greater power than the other (or in which no party exploits greater power that they may have). Scripture appears to provide a similar response. It is my understanding that the word "exploit" is found only in a few instances in the Bible - at least in the King James version. However, the Bible frequently warns us against "oppression" of others. (Interestingly, these warnings appear primarily in the Old Testament, with far fewer references in the New Testament as best I can tell.) For example, Leviticus 25:14, Hosea 12:7, Micah 2:2, suggest to me that we should not "oppress" another in trade or any other interpersonal dealings. I translate this language to mean that we should not exploit our market power over others, whether the stakes in play are by our own judgment trivial or significant.

Economic theory, combined with guidance from scripture, thus suggests to me that we as a Christian church are required to pay wages equal to the value of the contribution made by the workers we hire. If the market for church musicians in churches similar to 2PC is competitive, then we need not think very much about the appropriate level of wages. The market will tell us what level is appropriate. However, if the market for church musicians in churches similar to 2PC is NOT competitive, then the market should not inform our choice of wage, as the market wage is likely to be exploitative. Instead, we must decide what the value of the contribution of the musician is to our worship and church. And we must pay a wage equal to that estimated value. And we must NOT ask for a contribution in quality or quantity that lies above that estimated value.

It is my current view that the market for our Pastoral Musician is not competitive. (Perhaps someone can convince me otherwise - I have a couple of queries out to people who may be able to do that.) I would thus ask each of you, how important is music in your worship life and in the life of 2PC? And what value do you place upon the contribution to music at 2PC made by a "Pastoral Musician." Put differently, what quality and quantity of contribution would you like to experience, and how much are you willing to pay for it? $5 per week? $10 per week? $20 per week? That may sound like an odd question. But it is precisely the question we must ask, according to the above argumentation. The wage offered by the Search Committee implies an average valuation of $4.37 - $5.24 per week, per attendee (based on average attendance of 110 persons each week, as recorded in documents made available to Session by our Clerk, Don Beimdiek).

Is $5 per person per week your estimated value of the contribution of a Pastoral Musician to worship and music ministry at 2PC? If so, is the quantity and quality of work that would be provided by a candidate with a Master's degree in music (the preferred (though not required) candidate according to our ad) equal to $5 per person per week. If your answer to these question is "yes," then the wage offered is appropriate, as informed by economic theory and scripture. If your answer to either of these questions is "no," then the wage offered is either too low, or we have asked for too much.

Notes for Sunday, March 18

I'm just home from a lovely service at St. Elizabeth of Hungary. James (with voice) and I (with armonica) were there to contribute on behalf of 2PC.

The ecumenical service was a blend of the traditional Stations of the Cross devotional with Taize prayer. The object of the Stations is to help the faithful make a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer to the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death.

Taize, France is a place to which visitors of all ages and backgrounds come to participate in "a pilgrimage of trust on earth."


Sunday is the Fourth Sunday in Lent.

SCRIPTURE:

The Second Reading: Luke 15:11-32

SERMON: Returning Home

ANTHEM: Lenten Song, M. Hayes.

David Brinker will join us on flute. It has been my pleasure to make music with David for many years now. I know you will enjoy his playing. (Just don't forget to sing.) Some of you may recognize David from Taize at the College Church, or from other music events around town.

As the words of Hayes' song remind us, let us not forget that Jesus Christ died in our place. To atone for our sins, not His.
He made intercession, not on His behalf, but on ours. He spoke on our behalf, with His blood. With His blood he purchased our grace. Let us not forget.

HYMNS:

#272, God of the Sparrow
Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling
Response: Lead me, guide me
Response: Let us be bread

Please take a look at the hymns and reponses prior to warm-up.
If there are things you would like to rehearse, please let me know.

Mary Gene has provided copies of the music for Softly and Tenderly, in case anyone is unfamiliar with the tune. As I told Mary Gene, Elvis sang it (not to mention Johnny Cash, Brenda Lee, and Tennessee Ernie Ford (as Mary Gene informed me)).
How could anyone not know it?

OTHER ITEMS:

Prelude: Idyll, R. Cundick
Offertory: Ach Herr, mich armen Suender, J Kuhnau

Robert Cundick served as the Tabernacle organist for many years. He introduced four-handed organ accompaniment (I'd like to try that on the Schantz someday)! He was also instrumental in getting women called as Temple Sqaure organists.


I'm delighted to report that the ad for a "Pastoral Musician"
has been posted (I discovered it on my daily check this morning).

Please pass it on to anyone you think might be interested:

http://www.agohq.org/profession/indexjobs.html

I am grateful for the work the Search Committee has done to date, and will continue to do. However, I must note that I am disappointed with the salary offered in the ad. I have expressed this disappointment to Marion Stevens, the Search Committee Chair.

The position is listed as 30-40 hours per week. The salary range is $25,000 - $30,000. Assuming 30 hours of work per week, these figures imply an hourly wage of roughly $16.00 - $19.00.

In my view, this salary is not appropriate, nor is it commensurate with the position described in the ad.

This salary range is close to the one recommended by the AGO for candidates with an Associates Degree. Our ad indicates Masters level training is preferred, and that a Baccalaureate degree or equivalent is expected.

The UPPER bound of our offered salary does not meet the LOWER bound of the salary range suggested by the AGO for those with a Baccalaurate degree, even with an adjustment for cost of living in St. Louis relative to the national average.
The salary ranges suggested by the Presbyterian Musicians Association are similar to those suggested by the AGO.

It is my sincere hope that the Search Commitee will reconsider the offered salary range.

Until Sunday, Bonnie

Notes for Sunday, March 11

Sunday is the Third Sunday in Lent.

SCRIPTURE:

The First Reading: Psalm 63:1-8
The Second Reading: Luke 13:1-9

BELL CHOIR ANTHEM:

"A Ringer's Prayer," J. Hunnicutt.

ANTHEM:

"And No Bird Sang," D. Wagner.

Have you ever been in the forest (or elsewhere for that matter) when the birds fell silent? The absence of the bird song and chatter is discomforting. One feels very alone. Strangely so.

As we have been singing these past weeks, Jesus walked the lonesome valley by himself. Alone. No birds sang to keep him company. We must on occasion bear a similar loneliness, and do the same.

HYMNS:

#261, God of Compassion, In Mercy Befriend Us
#422, God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending
Response: Lead me, guide me.
Response: Let us be bread.

OTHER ITEMS:

Prelude: Novelettes I and III, F. Poulenc
Offertory: O Haupt voll Blutt und Wunden, M. Reger

Poulenc composed the three Novelettes in 1927, 1928, and 1959 (yes, that's '59). Poulenc did not adopt the virtuoso keyboard style of Debussy or Ravel. His compositions are classical in their simplicity. The theme of the third Novelette is from the ballet El Amor Brujo, by Manuel de Falla.

Until Sunday, Bonnie

Notes for Sunday, March 4

Sunday is the Second Sunday in Lent.

We will be joined in worship by Prebytery Executive Paul Reiter

SCRIPTURE:

The First Reading: Psalm 27
The Second Reading: Luke 13:31-35

ANTHEM:

"If Ye Love Me," T. Tallis. The anthem falls inbetween the scripture readings.

If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, And He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.

Ev'n the Spirit of truth, that He may abide with you forever.

The piece is described as a Communion Antiphon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, with text from John 14:15-17. Our selection of it thus comes a bit early in the calendar.
But it will work well for Lent.

Tallis was a church musician during the 16th century in England. He is considered among the best of the early composers of English church music. The 16th century was a tumultuous one with respect to religion - Henry VIII broke with Roman Catholicism, with Edward VI came a reformed Anglican liturgy, then the Roman rite was restored with Mary, then Elizabeth abolished the Roman liturgy and established the Book of Common Prayer. Through it all, Tallis remained a respected composer. His epitaph reads, "As he did live, so also did he die, In mild and quiet Sort (O! happy Man)."

(Tallis was presumably not only happy, but also clever. With William Byrd, he held a monopoly on printing music.)

HYMNS:

#289, O God of Every Nation

Response: Lead me, guide me.
#581, Sanctus - communion response
(The same as last week.)

OTHER ITEMS:

Prelude: Iste Confessor and Gloria Tibi Trinitas, T. Tallis
Offertory: Toccata in E Minor, J. Pachelbel

I gather that few of Tallis' keyboard compositions remain. Some speculate that he gave away his music before he died. (Though Mrs. Tallis apparently mentioned a "barred chest with twoe locks" in her will, where Thomas may have stored his work.)

The offertory is often played with full organ. I like it played quietly, on a simple 4 foot flute.

Until Sunday, Bonnie