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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Wed Aug 1, 2001  9:58 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] A relevant letter to Dear Abby


EarlyMusik@a... wrote:
EarlyMusik@a... wrote:

> The issue here is perception. And it does make you think. It makes you
> think about how sad the perception is of singers, particularly in church
> settings where people believe that you should sing for G*d, and not for pay.
> If that's the case, than church music degrees should be given free of charge.
> After all, training someone to sing for G*d should be a mission as well.
> Right?
>
> Not

Of course Chris is right (and preaching to the choir in this
venue)....but sometimes I wonder....let me explain.

When I was visiting my parents in New England a few weeks
back, I was surfing the cable on one of those quiet evenings
with nothing to do. I came across a local cable access
channel that had a group of college-age singers with lovely
chorus voices performing the most insipid music I'd ever
heard, with a horrible synthetic-sounding orchestra karaoke
accompaniment. I forced myself to keep listening to the end,
out of a masochistic sort of fascination, I guess, to find
out just what it was I was hearing. The text being sung was
sacred, but the words were so banal and cliched that I had a
hard time imagining anyone could sit in a church listening
to them and not end up giggling uncontrollably. So when it
ended, I learned that these were students of a music
ministry course of study in some local institution of higher
learning. I was appalled. They were paying tuition to
learn that music?????

I guess I'm spoiled by the terrific music we sing in my
Episcopal Church job, and being Jewish, I don't get around
to other churches much to hear that other stuff. Now if
someone were to ask me to pay somebody to perform the music
heard on that cable show, I think I'd have to say "No, thank
you, you should pay ME to be subjected to that music."

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...

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