Cover
story Funk
-- the man behind the music
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff Washington
If the National Association of
Pastoral Musicians had a heraldic shield over the door, the motto underneath
would read: Good musicians make good music, bad musicians make bad
music. Fr. Virgil Funk would have carved it there.
For a quarter century, the Richmond, Va., diocesan priest has had
an enormous impact on Catholic music, yet if all 62 million American Catholics
turned up at Mass one Sunday, sung their hearts out and lifted the roof off the
church, they still wouldnt know who Funk was.
Hes a former social worker, community organizer, inner-city
priest and chanter -- lead singer in his seminary choir for eight years --
totally formed in the Gregorian chant and by Sulpician Fr. Eugene Walshs
commitment to liturgical renewal. Funk founded the National Association of
Pastoral Musicians to renew, and raise the pay and educational levels of
Catholic church musicians, and has seen the post-Vatican Council (1962-65)
liturgical renewal through its next phase.
If Funks name is unknown to Catholics in the pews, its
not to most of the organists, guitar players, cantors, choirmasters and
directors of music ministry around the country who urge Catholics to sing out.
They know what hes given them.
Most musicians are more interested in the repertoire than
they are in their salary, said Funk. I was more interested in their
salary than solving the repertoire question.
Which means that in at least 3,500, and perhaps as many as 5,000
Catholic parishes (from a possible 19,000), a church musician can earn enough
to support his or her family. The mean salary today is $35,000-$45,000 with
highs in the rare few places of $65,000-$85,000 and lows in rural parishes of
$25,000.
In fact, 62 million Catholics arent in church every Sunday.
Worse, a significant proportion of those who are dont and wont sing
(see accompanying story). And if theyre not singing, said Funk, its
because the parishioners havent discovered anything to sing about, and
thats because the musician leading them is inadequate to the task of
facilitating community song.
Musical liturgy is normative, said Funk. When
its effective, music isnt an add-on to liturgy. When its
effective, it is the liturgy. The people know bad music, they know when the
liturgy is crumbling around their eyes and ears. And in order to prevent bad
liturgy from happening, parishes are stretching themselves to find a way to
engage an adequate musician.
The 64-year-old Funk added, Im not a gifted musician.
I am a gifted critic of music. Thats different.
During this years July 2-6 National Association of Pastoral
Musicians meeting here, Funk handed over the presidency and executive
directorship to J. Michael McMahon, director of music and liturgy at St. Mark
Parish in Vienna, Va., and founder of association chapters in the Wilmington,
Del., and Arlington, Va., dioceses.
Back in the 1960s and 70s, Funk, who has a masters in
social work and community organizing, was active in the churchs social
outreach. As pastor of St. Patricks in Richmonds east end, the
predominantly black Church Hill section, he had three communities: rural, urban
and ghetto, and I was responsible for bringing them together. The
music and community development, was a major part of it.
His day job was diocesan director of social ministries, and
hed served, too, as diocesan director of music when, in the mid-70s
he became executive director of the Liturgical Conference in Washington, D.C.
Bob Hovda, Virginia Sloyan and Gabe Huck [important names in the U.S.
liturgical movement] were all employees.
But Funk was eyeing the musicians. He knew in the turmoil of
Second Vatican Council (1962-65) reforms, the organists and the
guitarists didnt get along. Hed been trying to raise the
musicianship levels for both in Richmond, through two separate programs --
my orientation in those days was the use of music within the
liturgy -- when an organist named Constance Beck asked him, Why
dont we have an organization for musicians?
Funk replied, We do, the American Guild of Organists.
She replied it was a good organization but didnt do what we really
need. Funk remembered this at the Liturgical Conference and suggested it
expand into the music area. When that didnt go anywhere, he left and sent
out a random mailing to 3,000 priests.
I wanted a 2 percent return, said Funk, who knows his
sociology, got a 1.87 percent, which was close. He sent out another
300 as a test market, talked to friends, met with five consultation groups. The
majority each time told him not to do it. He did it anyway. He formed the
National Association of Pastoral Musicians in 1976.
His approach was a five-legged stool: that the musician needed
competency in music, in weekly planning, in communications (speaking with the
pastor and the assembly), in seasonal planning, and in spirituality. The
association started with 1,600 members at the end of 1976, and has 9,875 in
2001.
The learning, the professionalization, the mentoring has been a
key in what the association has attempted to achieve. Three years ago it
launched accreditation, the DMM (director of music ministries). Its
in the kernel phase, this is long term, we are doing this for the
grandchildren.
The association has established a set of qualifications that
enables a parish to judge whether the musician merits the salary being offered.
The DMM certification is built around a mentoring concept, the musician
operating in his and her own environment with a mentor observing whats
going on in the practicum environment.
Funk, who celebrates liturgy locally when hes in town, said,
We work with those parishes that are motivated and seeking education. We
do not try to motivate parishes -- we are interested in parishes that are
motivated and uneducated, so to speak, in any of the five areas we talk
about.
Asked what the weakest link is in the liturgy, Funk, who usually
has a humorous refrain running through his sometimes-gruff comments, answered,
Whenever musicians gather they say its the priest, when priests
gather they say its the musicians. The honest truth is the weakest link
is the assembly. The assembly doesnt identify itself as the primary
worshiper. The Catholic congregation does not possess the conviction of its
baptismal call. They dont get it.
Now you can say, continued Funk, that its
the clergy and the musicians problem that theyre not allowing or
forming the assembly in that way, and Ill agree. But the biggest problem
remains, in my opinion, that Catholics are still unconvinced of the
divinization that takes place in baptism.
Worship, he said, is not group dynamic. The act of worship
is more profound than the social phenomenon. Similarly, he says, there is
no perfect liturgy out there to conform to -- God is praised
when the alleluia of someone who knows that they have been transformed is
authentically sung. When the Kyrie eleison for those who are poor is
authentically sung. That we are standing in mercy before God. And Marinatha is
proclaimed that the Kingdom is yet to come. And that happens a hundred thousand
times more often than we know. If it happens to an individual, its
happening for the congregation.
Bags packed, sabbatical planned -- he wont say where
hes going -- Funk is headed out of the metaphoric door. It bears the
heraldic motto hes carved on American Catholic music.
And in thousands of parishes around the country there are pastoral
musicians whod say that for 25 years, Funk struck the right chord.
National Catholic Reporter, August 24,
2001
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