Monday, February 23, 2009

Tintinnabulation

Isn't that a glorious word for the sound of bells? The poetry of the English language occasionally provides just the perfect word to describe something, and tintinnabulation perfectly conjures up the music of bells for me.

For Transfiguration Sunday, the short prelude was played by the Bethany Bell Choir, whom you can see pictured here. When they play, it gives me a rare opportunity to clear my mind before the service begins. It reminded me how wonderful it can be simply to stop creating and working and striving, so that we can listen and hear God's word.

I hope you enjoyed their playing as much as I did, and even more I hope that you tell them about it! Also, I know they'd be glad to have people joining them in making their beautiful music.

4 comments:

  1. i also really enjoyed the bells this past weekend. Did Cassie and David do the arrangement?

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  2. Yes, this Sunday's piece was arranged by David and Cassie. We're so fortunate to have a depth and wealth of musical talent at Bethany!

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  3. Just a minor point of clarification. Actually it was written by David, and arranged by Cassie.

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  4. Just a point of further clarification, it was written by David, edited by Cassie. It was David's decision to put both names in the header. There is a great difference between arranging and editing. When you arrange a piece of music, you take a pre-existing piece of music, add material, flesh it out, reorchestrate it for different instruments, etc. When you edit a piece, just as one would edit a newspaper article, you change and tweek things to the aid of the composer BEFORE it becomes the finished work. The composer can accept whatever edititing he or she would like.

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