Survey on Church Music in Austria: Evaluating Opportunities and Needs

Some of the questions are: How many people and choirs – full-time, part-time or honorary – are there in the area and beyond in the individual dioceses in the field of church music? In what form are they used for the liturgy? Where have good experiences been made, but where is there also a need for support or change?

The organizers pointed out that not least the past few years of the coronavirus pandemic had changed a lot in the area of ​​church choirs. Training has also changed significantly over the decades. In addition, there is the changed pastoral situation: Depending on the diocese, there are now many new pastoral structures – parish associations and pastoral care rooms, parishes and personal parishes.

Make diversity visible

All of this has a “great influence on the opportunities and needs of church musicians,” according to the Church Music Commission’s website. The objective stated was, on the one hand, to raise awareness of the great richness and diversity of Austrian church music and to make it visible.

At the same time, the aim is to be able to plan the offers for training and further education as well as to support church music needs in different regions in a more targeted manner. The Viennese pastoral theologian Prof. Johann Pock, who is entrusted with the scientific evaluation of the anonymously collected data, hopes – as he said – that the parishes will actively participate.

“Central part of pastoral care and liturgy”

With a medieval organ inscription, the church music commission underscores the importance of church music for the Christian faith: “Music is the prelude to eternal life.” According to the announcement of the survey, church music has “long been a central part of pastoral care and liturgy in our parishes”.