I found this blog today:
http://thechorister.blogspot.com/
She is a chorister in New Zealand. In her most recent post she takes on a piece by Herbert Howells with which I am not familiar, but about which she quickly has developed strong opinions.
She's serious, humorous, a little irreverent, smart and knowledgeable about choral music and the singing art, and timely. I think you will find interesting reading here.
Everything seems to be on the up-and-up, so I feel fairly confident in recommending that you take a look a this blog.
Enjoy!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Musical Soiree Photos
Here are some photos from the Soiree. Everyone did a really nice job. Thanks to all the performers who juggled schedules to be present. And thanks to everyone who attended! And special thanks to K. Haak for taking these photos. They also are scrolling in right right column.
Choir Music Weekend
There will be a choir music event at Lake Junaluska October 23-25. I am intending that most of our Chancel Choir singers will participate, and that this will serve as our fall retreat. We'll be working on a wide range of music. The setting and fellowship time with other church musicians promises to be a highlight of the weekend.
You can read about the event here. From here you can click through and see the event leadership (Ginger Wyrick is one) and see the schedule for the event.
Please download a registration form here. Fill it out and return it to me.
Spouses are welcome; add their name to your registration. There is no cost to them (aside from housing/meals).
Registration for the event is $40 which covers costs of the program. Housing and meals are additional. The two primary locations are Terrace and Lambuth, these are most like a motel/hotel setting and have dining rooms within the facility. Of the two, I suspect that Terrace will be the preference because I suspect it will be closest to reeharsal spaces. I havea wee bit of money available for those who could use a hand with expenses. I can cover registration fees for 3-4 individuals. Please ask me about that.
I am waiting on details about where on the grounds rehearsals will be held. Once I have that information I will be able to make a strong reccommendation regarding where we should book our rooms.
I think most of us will stay one night only, and not participate in any of the Sunday activities. that means for us the weekend event will end with a rehearsal on Saturday night at 8PM.
Rooms most convenient to the rehearsal space will go fast (persons who have attended before will have a head start on us). So please complete your registration and get it to me, so I can move quickly on making revervations.
Please contact me with any questions.
You can read about the event here. From here you can click through and see the event leadership (Ginger Wyrick is one) and see the schedule for the event.
Please download a registration form here. Fill it out and return it to me.
Spouses are welcome; add their name to your registration. There is no cost to them (aside from housing/meals).
Registration for the event is $40 which covers costs of the program. Housing and meals are additional. The two primary locations are Terrace and Lambuth, these are most like a motel/hotel setting and have dining rooms within the facility. Of the two, I suspect that Terrace will be the preference because I suspect it will be closest to reeharsal spaces. I havea wee bit of money available for those who could use a hand with expenses. I can cover registration fees for 3-4 individuals. Please ask me about that.
I am waiting on details about where on the grounds rehearsals will be held. Once I have that information I will be able to make a strong reccommendation regarding where we should book our rooms.
I think most of us will stay one night only, and not participate in any of the Sunday activities. that means for us the weekend event will end with a rehearsal on Saturday night at 8PM.
Rooms most convenient to the rehearsal space will go fast (persons who have attended before will have a head start on us). So please complete your registration and get it to me, so I can move quickly on making revervations.
Please contact me with any questions.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A proper bit of congregational singing
It's a staged congregation, and "made for television," but the singing is quite good as is the accompaniment (organ plus brass and timpani). It's all helped by a nicely reverberant hall too. Enjoy!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Music planning
Adam Copeland over at A Wee Blether has a perceptive post on hymn selection during his seminary days. Adam gives cogent positive and negative factors that could possibly account for the seeming popularity of the hymn Guide my feet in chapel services at Columbia Seminary. It's a fine spiritual, but yeah, I could get real tired of real quick. So I don't think that the song's inherent positive attributes that can really account for its (over-)use at the chapel. Adam wonders if maybe the worship planners are not at their strongest when it comes to selecting music for worship. Finally he wonders if maybe the simplicity of the song makes it a popular choice.
I think Adam closest to the truth with a remark related to the second of his three possible reasons. Picking worship music is a daunting task. And when one has to select liturgical elements and music, it's easy to resort to a known quantity, like a well-worn hymn to conclude the worship.
Myself, it very often takes a long time to connect the worship dots. The right liturgical element may not spring to mind on first reading the appointed scripture for worship. The connection may come two or three weeks after first reading through the lections. My brain needs time to percolate with the readings and the wealth of material available for possible inclusion in worship. A word or phrase in a Bible reading or in one liturgical element may make me think of a similar or related word in another resource, but that doesn't happen right away. Just as a preacher really wants to live with a text for a while before actually preaching on it, so to with the musician at worship. I for one need some time with the scripture and a homiletic direction before I can connect music to it.
This past week was a good example. Trinity Sunday. Choosing Holy, holy, holy (NICEA) was an easy call. The spoken opening sentences were full of "creation" imagery, so God of the sparrow seemed a good call for the close of worship. (You know how each stanza ends with a single word, "awe," "praise," "woe;" those all reminded me of feelings Isaiah might have had that day in temple in the year that King Uzziah died.) The Old Testament reading from Isaiah brought to mind pretty quickly Dan Schutte's Here I Am, Lord. But we've used that song quite a bit of late. It took some time, and a little digging, but I ultimately suggested Together We Serve by Dan Damon. The text meshed well with the sentiments the preacher conveyed in conversation. And it made explicit mention of Jesus and the Spirit, which pinged off the day (Trinity Sunday) well. It was a new text for us, with a sturdy tune. It probably won't make anyone's top twenty-five, but it served us well in that service. Much better than the gut-reaction hymn I might have opted for.
So Adam, the frequency with which Guide my feet is used at Columbia has do probably with a mish-mash of reasons including musical awareness, sing-ability, and the pace with which worship probably has to get planned in the seminary setting. I mean no disrespect to the folks who plan worship at the school; I don't know a single one of them. But having been to seminary, I know what the pace is like, and for that matter what life is like in the parish setting. I hope here simply to suggest more of the dynamics at play that cause a certain song to crop up more than one might expect.
Worship planning and music planning are daunting tasks indeed. The more distance I can put between planning and execution, the better off this worship planner is. It allows more time for the Spirit to work her magic and help me make connections that I miss when I am rushing about.
I think Adam closest to the truth with a remark related to the second of his three possible reasons. Picking worship music is a daunting task. And when one has to select liturgical elements and music, it's easy to resort to a known quantity, like a well-worn hymn to conclude the worship.
Myself, it very often takes a long time to connect the worship dots. The right liturgical element may not spring to mind on first reading the appointed scripture for worship. The connection may come two or three weeks after first reading through the lections. My brain needs time to percolate with the readings and the wealth of material available for possible inclusion in worship. A word or phrase in a Bible reading or in one liturgical element may make me think of a similar or related word in another resource, but that doesn't happen right away. Just as a preacher really wants to live with a text for a while before actually preaching on it, so to with the musician at worship. I for one need some time with the scripture and a homiletic direction before I can connect music to it.
This past week was a good example. Trinity Sunday. Choosing Holy, holy, holy (NICEA) was an easy call. The spoken opening sentences were full of "creation" imagery, so God of the sparrow seemed a good call for the close of worship. (You know how each stanza ends with a single word, "awe," "praise," "woe;" those all reminded me of feelings Isaiah might have had that day in temple in the year that King Uzziah died.) The Old Testament reading from Isaiah brought to mind pretty quickly Dan Schutte's Here I Am, Lord. But we've used that song quite a bit of late. It took some time, and a little digging, but I ultimately suggested Together We Serve by Dan Damon. The text meshed well with the sentiments the preacher conveyed in conversation. And it made explicit mention of Jesus and the Spirit, which pinged off the day (Trinity Sunday) well. It was a new text for us, with a sturdy tune. It probably won't make anyone's top twenty-five, but it served us well in that service. Much better than the gut-reaction hymn I might have opted for.
So Adam, the frequency with which Guide my feet is used at Columbia has do probably with a mish-mash of reasons including musical awareness, sing-ability, and the pace with which worship probably has to get planned in the seminary setting. I mean no disrespect to the folks who plan worship at the school; I don't know a single one of them. But having been to seminary, I know what the pace is like, and for that matter what life is like in the parish setting. I hope here simply to suggest more of the dynamics at play that cause a certain song to crop up more than one might expect.
Worship planning and music planning are daunting tasks indeed. The more distance I can put between planning and execution, the better off this worship planner is. It allows more time for the Spirit to work her magic and help me make connections that I miss when I am rushing about.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Music for 060709
FirstLight
Gathering Song(s)
Father I adore you
Opening Song
We fall down
Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
Confession
Shalom Chaverim
Offertory
Take my life
Doxology
Give thanks
Closing Song
You are holy (Prince of Peace)
11 AM
Hymns
138, Holy, holy, holy (NICEA)
2175, Together we serve (SAN ANSELMO)
272, God of the Sparrow (ROEDER)
Introit
Ralph Vaughan Williams, I bind unto myself today
Confession
O’ Carroll, Celtic Alleluia
Anthem
Schubert, Holy, holy, holy Lord
Doxology
592 Lasst uns erfreuen
Benediction
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Christ before me
Instrumental/Organ Music
Prelude: Pasquet, Variations on a Breton Tune
Offertory: Saint-Saëns, Poco Adagio, from Symphony #3 in C Minor
Postlude: Stanford, Sonata in C Minor, Celtica, Allegro Maestoso
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
My class at MCC
I had a nice afternoon with 13 folks at Montreat yesterday. We talked about innovative worship. I talked a little to begin and by the time I was finished, most everyone was primed to jump in and engage in some fairly energetic conversation. I used our FirstLight service as a sort of case study in designing a new worship service. (I gave them a two-page synopsis of the whole 6-year development process that led to what is now FirstLight!) I also provided the group with a list of sites that I use in worship and music design and planning, including this blog. So, they may stop by to see what happens here on occasion.
For those in the class, I forgot to issue a forthright, overt invitation, so here it is: if you are in town over the weekend, you are cordially invited to attend FirstLight, or our 11AM service, this week. As luck would have it, all of our musicians are scheduled to be present, so we should have a nice sound. I've got a pretty good music list put together (check back here at the end of the week to see that).
We hope you, and any other readers, can join us! And thanks for a nice afternoon talking about worship and church.
For those in the class, I forgot to issue a forthright, overt invitation, so here it is: if you are in town over the weekend, you are cordially invited to attend FirstLight, or our 11AM service, this week. As luck would have it, all of our musicians are scheduled to be present, so we should have a nice sound. I've got a pretty good music list put together (check back here at the end of the week to see that).
We hope you, and any other readers, can join us! And thanks for a nice afternoon talking about worship and church.
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