Payment?

[contrabordun]

I'm doing a lot of deputising around the Brum area at present (RC & CofE), and the rates on offer are usually about £30 for Mass / Eucharist / Mattins / Evensong and £40-£50 for wedding/funeral (with 50-100% if videoed...not so common at funerals). For a choir singing a choir only item I'd say £5-£10 per head - I think it's quite common that the adults' share of this this goes into a pot for music/parties/outings - but any singing group is going to improve the atmosphere when it turns out that none of the guests know the tune to Sing Hosanna / Jerusalem.

I've known several places pay more for funerals than for weddings, which I think is odd, because funerals are usually shorter and with simpler music.

It also depends on the area. I wouldn't ask £50 in Bartley Green and I wouldn't take £25 in Edgbaston.

Don't undersell yourself: There's a difference between "can't afford the music" and "can't afford the music AND xyz, so if we get the music for free we'll be able to have both"

One Anglican PP of my acquaintance used to say that if the couple were planning to arrive under their own steam, hold the reception in the parish hall and have their mates take the photos, then he would waive the church fee and require the choir and organist to do the same (quite a forceful character). On the other hand, couples budgeting £10k for the reception who complained about £200-£300 for the church and music got fairly short shrift.

[gwyn]

There's a saying: "Make guilt work in your favour".

Regarding weddings, I'm inclined to suggest to the couple and their families that they offer whatever they think is appropriate - the result has only fallen below fifty quid once in the past ten years.

Funerals are £50 (£60 if I have to endure the Old Rugged Cross or the like).

The money goes towards the purchase of music, paper, etc..

[Merseysider]

...several places pay more for funerals than for weddings, which I think is odd, because funerals are usually shorter and with simpler music.

No, this seems quite correct. Most weddings are short and dreadfully boring. Some funerals are shows of love and affection and the music is more complicated and invariably more beautiful.

When requested, I look after funeral music for members of the congregation – those choir members who are available all turn out and we include as many brass, strings and woodwind as we can find.

What irks me is all those other funerals – I'm not objecting to the many corpses who turn up at church for the first time since baptism but to the fact that these are deemed the sphere of a local professional organist who charges £45.

All this brings me back to my great beef, the huge bee in my bonnet: funerals which involve rehearsals with singers and with instrumentalists (often two separate occasions) and which involve me spending hours writing bands parts are free. But if you want and "organist" (oh, the magic word) to play a couple of hymns he's played a million times before, then it's going to cost you a few quid.

If I was an organist I could earn quite good money around here: regular Sunday spot and as many funerals as you can shake a stick at.

Having said that, if someone asked me to play for a wedding, my fee would be extortionate. I can't think of a more tedious way to spend an afternoon. I played for hundreds in my teens and if see one more bride's mother's hat I'll scream.

[contrabordun]

I've done loads of weddings recently but not many funerals. Are people moving to Merseyside specifically to die, or is it something in the air?

[Merseysider]

We have between two and five funerals a week – every week! Not sure about the wedding figures but I reckon there can't be more than 12 a year.

[sidvicius]

http://www.ism.org/info/02_9.html