Everything Else
An Organist Should Know
The authoritative guide to employment law,
running a choir, working with clergy, child protection, health
and safety, copyright, fees, tax, licensing and much else.
by Robert Leach and Barry Williams
ISBN
no 0-9550749-0-8 240 pp.
Paperback £17.00 from the publisher's
website www.organistpublications.co.uk
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What do you get
when you cross a chartered accountant organist-choirmaster with
a lawyer organist-master? A jolly good book, that's what. It's
actually better than that; it is an essential book. “Everything
Else An Organist Should Know” should be mandatory reading for organists
and clergy.
Focused on the concerns of church musicians in the United Kingdom,
this guide has nine chapters which provide what the Bishop of
London in his preface is pleased to call the “scaffolding for
professional conduct and creative relationships in our church”.
Couched in the most readable and accessible way, the book leads
from a Christian perspective, backed by a solid foundation of
law, and experience. The authors know what they are talking about
from many different angles, and the text is tempered with gentle
humour and many examples of practice. The summaries and the resources,
both online and from other media, are useful additions. Updates
of all of the chapters can be downloaded for free from the publisher's
website at www.organistpublications.co.uk
Relationships – and especially
those between clergy and organists - are hot topics. Williams
and Leach have devoted a sizable section to methods of dealing
with the most common problems using a blend of received wisdom,
common sense and experience. It's solid, sensible, soothing guidance
- nothing too technical but it may just help pull someone back
from doing something they might regret later. Non-church musician
readers will also find much that is helpful in the general field
of relationships, no matter what their job or the country they
work in. Naturally most of the official legal stuff is as it
applies in the United Kingdom, but pointers for finding out more
in other cultures have been included. The copyright section might
have you gulping at the minefield that is this often blatantly
ignored subject. Older members of the musical fraternity may
also welcome catching up with new developments in laws regarding
working with children in particular. Things have changed since
a cuff round the head with a heavy hymnbook was
the preferred mode of discipline. The section of working with
choirs shows signs of the authors bursting to discuss in greater
detail the specifics of choir training, beyond the scope of the
book. But the good news is that a similar volume about being
a choirmaster is in the oven as I write. . .
How I got through my 40 years as a church musician without this
handy reference is a minor mystery. Perhaps I might still be pounding
the ecclesiastical pedals if “Everything Else An Organist Should
Know” had been written earlier. My loss.
So if you are a church musician buy this book; if you are a minister,
buy it for your organist but read it first. If you are neither,
buy it anyway and give it to an organist you know and love.
Jenny Setchell,
2008
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