Era of Perpetual Bachelordom, Day 369- Proof of Concept

So, over the past several months I've been working (with very little fanfare) on the 2nd Mendelssohn piano concerto as noted in the goals for the year back in January. It's come along fairly quickly recently to the point that the first two movements are at least presentable, if not quite performance-ready just yet. So, in keeping with the Crazy Scheme of the Year, I ran what I've got so far by the orchestra director a week or so ago, and he considers a solo sometime in the March-September 2010 time frame a possibility. Of course, I have to learn the 3rd movement first, and he wants to hear that in January. So, that will have to proceed as quickly as possible. Efforts so far have been lacking. But at least it's a real project now.

Meanwhile, the concerto drew off quite a bit of effort from the services last Sunday. There were quite a few more mistakes than usual, but no one seems to have noticed. That's somewhat worrying, particularly in light of another development of the past few weeks: the impending sale of the local classical music station by the LCMS. Ideally, this would not be a problem- the church has no particular business owning a radio station that doesn't have exclusively religious content. However, during the process, it appears that the level of emphasis placed on preserving the current format was not sufficient, and as a result, we'll have yet another Christian rock station (Evangelical Free Church late service, anyone?), and no classical station. Which I would consider a clear and present threat to my well-being. Particularly disturbing are reports (reporting has been somewhat limited) that suggest that the Synod was focused mainly on making as much money from the sale as possible, while potentially blocking competing offers that would have preserved the format. Bad move, LCMS.

Which puts me in a somewhat awkward spot. To this point, church and music have gotten along perfectly well, but what I play in the service is almost exclusively classical, and it seems like Synod priority is drifting away from that. I should also note that my practice effort generally far exceeds that of the other organists even though I get paid the same (for me it comes to about $1.50 an hour when practice time is included, less when one considers composing and arranging effort), partially because I'm still new at it and it takes a while to learn hymns, but mainly due to the fact that I play harder music as a result of my own musical curiosity and to the glory of God, or something like that. At any rate, the whole more-for-the-same-pay principle that I've embraced without much thought now also seems to run contrary to Synod priority. So I have a number of options that range from continuing as I always have as the arts world crumbles around me (as goes the radio station, so goes the Symphony, and so on) to either striking or resigning in protest, which would mainly punish the congregation (who are awesome) rather than the Synod as a whole. I should note at this point that the deal doesn't go final until March and any number of things could happen between now and then. At that point, I'll have to "re-evaluate my approach to service music in light of changing Synod priorities as exhibited through the KFUO deal, and adjust my playing as necessary." Which is to say, I'll play Chopsticks week in and week out until they make me stop. The annoying two-finger version that 5-year-olds play, that is.