"The Ministry of Music at First Unitarian" by Paul Ropp

[Memos from Rev. Barbara Merritt and Rev. Tom Schade]

M I N I S T E R ‘ S   M E M O

“The Ministry of Music at First Unitarian”

Shakespeare famously said: “If music be the food of love, play on: give me
excess of it.” Philosophers have praised music as character building, though
Plato worried about its power to lead us in the wrong direction. Mencius in
ancient China had more confidence: “If the King loves music, it is well with
the land.” Even the dour Frederick Nietzsche once remarked: “Without music
life would be a mistake.”

Most of us at First Unitarian seem to agree on the beauty and importance of
music in our worship. Like Louis Armstrong, we see only two kinds of music,
good and bad, and like Louis, we love the good kind. Defining good music is,
of course, another matter.

This spring, our Music Committee, whose duty it is to oversee the music
program in the church, distributed an opinion survey to the congregation on
several successive Sundays. We received 109 returned surveys, and my main
purpose in this memo is to give you a summary of the results. I am happy to
report that most people who responded had kind words of praise for our music
program at First U. On the first question about the purposes and priorities
of the music program, 92 people ranked music as essential to worship. (So
Unitarians are capable of reaching a strong consensus on some issues!)

The Sanctuary Choir and Congregational Hymn Singing were both deemed
essential by the overwhelming majority of respondents. The number one
purpose of the music program was seen as “Supporting Spiritual Enrichment,”
followed by “Entertainment/Relaxation/Meditation,” and “Creating
Opportunities for All Who Would Like to Make Music.” Most people seem happy
with the types of music we normally feature, and the vast majority of
respondents did not request major changes in our music program.

Not surprisingly for Unitarians, on 109 questionnaires, we received a total
of 110 written comments. These are impossible to summarize briefly, but it
is safe to say that most were favorable. A typical comment: “Three cheers
for Will!” (There is widespread agreement on this!) Many expressed gratitude
for the abundance of talented musicians who make their home at First
Unitarian. Another typical comment that sums up the feelings of many: “I
very much enjoy the many musical offerings at First U. Please continue and
add more—even more variety! Especially from congregation members. .’Music is
the healing force of the universe.’ Albert Ayler”

Several people emphasized the importance of a junior choir, and providing
more musical opportunities for the children and teens of the church. And
several suggested having the choir perform in the front of the sanctuary a
little more frequently. We will seek ways to meet these requests in the
future.

We are a church of music lovers, but like all true lovers, we sometimes
disagree. One respondent pleaded: “More old hymns!” Another: “Vary hymn
choice. Let us learn unfamiliar ones.” Of the types of music we sing:
“Prefer classical, especially Bach.” “I can’t take much more big booming
Bach and Handel.” “Gospel makes me nervous: I’m not a Christian and it
embarrasses me when newcomers encounter gospel here.” “I really like the
Gospel music.” (To all these people, you can pick your favorites to listen
to on our CD website: FirstUMusic.com/CD.)

If you are interested in seeing more details, we have copies of the survey
results, and a compilation of all the comments, available at the Welcome
Table in the Bancroft Room.

Our music program is alive, well, and growing. To help support our efforts,
we would like to create a volunteer list, a Music Guild, made up of people
willing to donate time occasionally to enhance the music program. Examples
might be to help set up and usher for special musical events, to help
publicize special performances, to help with recording sessions, or to help
market our CDs. If you are interested in joining the Music Guild, please
contact Paul Ropp (508-752-8373; propp at clarku.edu
<mailto:propp at clarku.edu> ), or any other member of the Music Committee.

We are truly blessed to have in Will Sherwood a Director of Music with great
talent, dedication, and profound musical intuition. We are blessed as well
with a multitude of talented musicians in our church family. And our
musicians are blessed to have an appreciative audience in our beloved
community of music lovers.


Paul Ropp, Chair


On behalf of the Music Committee: Jane Beckwith, Jerry Bellows, Noel Cary,
Bob Gordon, Gordon Gurney, Paul Kelly, Rosel Patton, Marie Shamgochian, and
Alesia Tringale


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