Still aiming for 21

My quest to recruit 21 singers for Easter continues!  I really should warn everyone that I am a huge NPR geek, so I know how to lay on the guilt and just keep nagging until people step forward and support the cause.  (Last week was pledge week, so the effect is strong right now.)

We had 14 singers today, and I know a few more are committed to joining us for the holiday.  But we still need a more!  The music is ready to be picked up.  I'm making rehearsal CDs so that you can run through the music on your own first and feel confident at your first rehearsal.  We're rehearsing on Sunday afternoons, so you can just stick around after worship.  We usually have treats at rehearsal, and we always have a good time.  Please consider this opportunity for service and offering of your time to the church.

I hope you'll agree that the choir sounded fantastic singing two different versions of the Kyrie this week - a polyphonic Renaissance setting by William Byrd on Wednesday and a modern, rhythmic arrangement by Klouse on Sunday.  Why don't you join us to Make Joyful Noise for the 5 weeks left between now and Easter?!

21 for Easter

I'm issuing an Easter challenge to the members of Bethany: Let's run out of choir robes for Easter.  That means we need 21 singers to commit to singing on April 24th.  Of course, anyone is welcome to join anytime.  We have so much great music planned throughout Lent, Holy Week, and Easter.  I think that Good Friday in particular will be a service full of beautiful and meaningful music.

But if you can only join us for services on one day all spring, make it Easter!  The music is selected, and the folders are just waiting to be picked up.  Sunday afternoon rehearsals should be convenient, and we have treats most weeks.  Make an offering to the church of your time and your voice.  Let's hit 21 for Easter.

Transfiguration

The Epiphany season ends this week; the Brazilian Carnival begins on Saturday.  We won't have a party quite that crazy this week, but we will celebrate the Transfiguration with a range of festive music.  We open and close on big hymns to match the festival: "Oh, Wondrous Image, Vision Fair" (ELW 316) and "Immortal, Invisible" (ELW 834).  Also, at communion we'll sing "Beautiful Savior" (ELW 838), which is naturally dear to the heart of this St. Olaf alum.  For most of the hymns and the liturgy, we'll have a guest trumpet player adding to the celebration.

In addition, the choir will be singing two pieces.  The anthem is built solely on the text of Mark 9:7, "This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him!"  It is a very modern piece, as different as possible from the Renaissnace music of the last two weeks.  (In rehearsal, I warned the choir to beware musical whiplash as we move from style to style.)  The music has many cluster chords to give it a different sound from anything you're used to hearing us sing.  It also uses long rests to draw the listener's attention to the importance of the word "listen."  The second choir piece will be sung at communion, and it's a melodic tune titled "With This Communion We Thank You."  Even if the first piece stretches your ear too far for comfort, I know the communion piece will be a more pleasing, though still modern, tune.

The bell choir will also be playing this week, offering "Amazing Grace" as the prelude for the late service.  Our dedicated ringers are back already with only one week off.  As always, it's a pleasure to conduct such talented and dedicated volunteers!

More Renaissance music

The choir had so much fun with Schutz last week, that we're continuing this week with more music from the Renaissance era.  We'll sing the anthem "Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God" by le Maistre, which contains a brief prayer for guidance:

Lord Jesus Christ the son of God
Thou mighty king of heaven above
From deep within my heart I pray
Be thou my guide my hope and stay.

The music is not a simple chorale, however, but the vocal lines weave together in a round-like fashion.  The altos begin the piece by spelling out a simple, minor-key melody.  It is quickly passed from section to section, and the text becomes elongated over long melodic runs before coming together in parallel thirds for the important request that forms the heart of the prayer: "be though my guide."  The music elevates the prayer to a beautiful statement of guidance and trust.

To me, the piece calls to mind the Gospel story of the road to Emmaus, in which the resurrected Christ appears to some of the disciples.  In that story, they say to him "Stay with us for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."  The text and the music this week beautifully portray that yearning for guidance and comfort.

Gleek moment of the week

After our discussion about the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, I couldn't let last week's "Glee" episode not get at least a brief mention here.  For those of you who didn't read the earlier post, I basically complained that too many singers today are affecting certain poses and styles as a false signal of emotion.  My particular pet peeve is singers with closed eyes, but in general I worry that singing has moved away from a genuine experience to artificial affects.

In last week's episode of "Glee," several character parodied this same thing when they discussed what it means to be a diva.  Rachel said, "Being a diva is all about emotion.  In fact, you feel so much emotion that it cannot be physically contained.  Sometimes you have to close your eyes and turn your head and push your feelings away -  they're that big!"  (Of course, the diva par excellence demonstrated what that meant, and it looked pretty much like Christina Aguilera singing the National Anthem).  While Mercedes offers this advice: "It's all about sassy fingers"

But sometimes we communicate best when we set aside convention and just act simply as ourselves.  Isn't that at least one reason Susan Boyle became a music celebrity?  Biblically, I liken it to the instruction not to pray too loudly in church, putting on airs to demonstrate holiness.  Just come as yourself, pray and sing sincerely.  There shouldn't be divas in church, just congregations engaged in worship together.  That's why everyone should sing the hymns loud and proud - and all are welcome in choir!

Alleluia (part two)

In addition to some great hymns and organ music this week, we will have musical offerings from both the choir and the bell choir.  The choir will be giving up their usual anthem slot so the bell choir can play "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name."  I've even convinced the somewhat reluctant group to play from the front of the church so you can see them play.

During communion, the chancel choir will sing "Praise God, the Lord, Ye Christians All" by Heinrich Schutz, who was among the most important composers of the 17th century.  His music falls in the gap between Renaissance and Classical, between contrapuntal chant and four-part chorales.  In the piece's opening section, you'll hear the same motifs get passed from section to section in the choir, while the piece closes with the whole choir singing Alleluia.  To modern ears, the Alleluias shift from major to minor, along with a sharp dynamic contrast.  The piece is technically modal, but such details aren't needed to appreciate the unique nature of the music.  Incidentally, the ELW includes one hymn tune by Schutz (ELW 573, "My Soul Now Magnifies the Lord").  It's a great example of how the church has preserved the work of some of history's greatest composers.  Where else could you hear a tune by Schutz this week?

I hope you enjoy the music of the choir and bell choir this week.  Be sure to thank a (volunteer) choir or bell choir member for their dedication, and provide feedback to me on the music anytime!

Of course, you can sing!

It continues to flabbergast me how many people respond to my urgings to sing (whether in the choir, like I'd really prefer, or even just in the congregation during a communion hymn, for instance) with a comment along the lines of "I can't sing" or "My voice is just terrible" or "You wouldn't want to hear me."  It's certainly not a new sentiment, and all church choir directors face it.  Let me try to change your mind (at least a little) with a few arguments:

1. You will never meet a kindergarten-aged child who "can't sing."  They can all write and paint and play kickball like pros too.  It seems that every five-year-old is a Renaissance child with an incredible range of skills.  Where do those skills go?  When do people first learn that they can't do something, especially something so primal and expressive as sing?

2. Some evolutionary biologists claim that singing is closely related to "baby talk."  The pitch of our speaking voice and the melody of lullabies are an important part of the parent-child bond and the development of language in children.  Truly, language is music.  In English, a question will rise in pitch at the end of the sentence.  Singing is thus just an extension of something you do naturally every day.

3. We simply get better at things that we try.  I worked several summers as the music director at a summer stock theatre where some of the actors would come to the first rehearsal and announce they were tone deaf.  Just one week of rehearsals later, they would proudly be singing solo lines in the show's chorus.  (Furthermore, at Bethany, we have such a strong core group of singers that you can rely on them to help lead while you gradually improve and gain confidence.)

All of these arguments were summed up by author Amy Chua (the Yale professor now famous or infamous for her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother).  I heard her give an interview recently in which I was impressed with her charm, wit, and generally easy-going nature - perhaps in contrast to the popular perception of her.  She stressed that while she pushed her daughters to succeed in many areas, it was simply because she knew they could.  She had no time for the argument "I'm no good at math."  Rather than letting them give up, she insisted that with practice and time, her daughters would become good at math.  I'm not going to claim that I back her parenting methods 100%, but that attitude that we can succeed and excel at complicated tasks is an important mind-set.  I hope and pray that it's an attitude that can help jump start the American economy, keep churches and other organizations active and vital, and even motivate a few more people to join the church choir.

So what's your excuse now?

Lutherans are singers.  I know this.  It's encoded in the DNA of our church, and it's one of my favorite things about being an organist in the ELCA.  And yet...every church struggles for choir members and participation throughout its music program.

Like most music directors, I've heard pretty much every excuse and every explanation.  But I just want to let everyone know that we're taking away one of those excuses for the next few weeks.  We're moving choir rehearsals to Sunday afternoons.  So if you're one of the people who has told me that you're busy on Wednesday nights, or you're one of the people who just can't get yourself out of the house on a dark winter evening, now you can just stay after the second service and sing with us for another hour.  You can set aside another hour of peace and calm in your week and enjoy some time making music with friends.

If you can't sing, maybe you'd rather play in the bell choir?  We're rehearsing between the services (9:45 - 10:30).

Easter may be months away, but planning for Holy Week and Easter are currently at the top of my to do list.  I would love nothing more than to have a huge choir for that most important festival of the church year.  We have 21 choir robes to fill.  Think it over.  Make it a New Year's resolution, part of your commitment to the church - and now there's one less excuse to give it a try.

The Grinch and the Shawshank Redemption

Christmas is not always a happy time for those of us who work in the church.  Advent Vespers and Christmas services alone are more work than a typical July for a church musician, and I know that pastors, secretaries, and volunteers in churches everywhere feel that same strain, as do mothers and fathers as they decorate and buy gifts.  The holiday season has perhaps become more famous for its stress than its joy.  Throw in days of shoveling, a chaotic final exam schedule, and travel plans and you have the makings of a very Grinch-like blogger.

Yesterday, I spent hours baking and cleaning and packing and preparing for services, enjoying it and yet moaning about it.  I had become a Grinch, and my Advent was no longer about preparations for Christmas but a yearning for the blissful calm of January.

Then in the evening, we sat down to watch a movie - The Shawshank Redemption.  An odd Christmas choice, perhaps, but my significant other had never seen it, and since he's a big fan of the television series "Prison Break," Netflix thought he would enjoy it.  I hadn't seen it in years.  And when the movie reached the scene where Andy plays the duet from the Marriage of Figaro over the prison public address system, I suddenly remembered what the Christmas season was about.  It did, indeed, redeem the season for me.

Music restored my calm, and helped me rediscover the purpose of the season.  In the movie, Andy says, "You need [music] so you don't forget...that there's something inside that they can't get to, that they can't touch, that's yours...Hope."

It may seem trite, but it took that reminder for me to discover again the beauty of the music and the message of Christmas.  My ears were opened again to the music, so that I can enjoy the choir and bell choir and brass and organ and piano tonight.  I can focus on the beauty and joy, and the redeemer that came to us two millenia ago.

I hope we can communicate that message with you tonight, and I hope you all have a blessed and merry Christmas.

Bethlehem Sunday and John the Baptist

We continue our Advent preparations.  This time of waiting is not the impatient foot tapping of the grocery store line but the pleasant work of preparing our homes for guests, just as we prepare our church and our hearts, minds, and souls for Christmas.  The call to remind us of this preparation comes from John the Baptist.  The hymns this week reinforce the lessons perfectly: On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry; Comfort, Comfort Now My People; and Hark, the Glad Sound.

These are the great hymns of Advent that we sing only once a year and hear only in church.  Shoppers at the mall miss out on such joyous texts as "Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding!...Cast away the works of darkness all you children of the day!"  That hymn's concluding verse reminds us of God's everlasting power, embodied at Christmas: "Honor, glory, might, and blessing to the Father and the Son, with the everlasting Spirit while unending ages run!"  Take note of the prayers during Advent, which reinforce these same themes.  They always include the line "Stir up your power, O Lord."

This second Sunday of Advent has come to be known as Bethlehem Sunday.  To match that theme, the choir will be singing an arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" by Ken Jennings.  The new tune highlights the text as a gentle lullaby.  I hope it conjures the beauty of cold, dark, starry nights.  But the song also reflects the joy of the coming holiday, as each verse reaches a dramatic climax describing God's power, before ending again in the quiet lullaby of expectation and waiting.

Sing in the choir for Christmas!

The choir has a busy season coming up.  We have different pieces to match the theme for each of the three Sundays in Advent.  We have the Vespers service on December 12th, which has a plethora of music - solos, small groups, and choir pieces.  Finally, we have the Christmas Eve service.

All of that music will only sound better if we can add a few new members.  We'd love to have people join us for the next four weeks - all ages and abilities welcome!  It would be a great way to participate in the church and to find time in this busy season to focus on the true meaning of the Christmas season.  Come together with friends and help us Make Joyful Noise in worship.

I would love nothing more than to run out of robes again at Christmas.  However, that is an even bigger challenge now since we've purchased six new robes (thanks to a generous donation from Steve B.).  At the ministry fair in September and in various conversations, people have mentioned to me that Christmas might be a time they would be willing to sing.  I hope you'll follow up those comments with actions.  We rehearse this Wednesday: Bell Choir at 6:45 and Chancel Choir at 7:15.  Hope to see you there!

Mark your calendars now

The Worship and Music Committee has decided to schedule an Advent Vespers service for the evening of December 12th at 7:00 PM.  We're still hard at work hammering out details, but it will be a night of meditation and prayer, candlelight and beautiful music.  It will mark the return of the bell choir and feature not just the Chancel Choir but a number of soloists and small groups.

It will be a worship service, not a concert, but it will be different from Sunday morning worship.  We will be focused on the symbols of darkness and light, waiting and preparing - all themes of Advent.  I'll be writing more about some of the specific music soon, but I hope you mark your calendar and spread the word.  It should be a beautiful service, and it would be fantastic to share it with a full church!

Popes on the pipe organ

A few months ago, The American Organist magazine included some quotes about the pipe organ.  I'll be sharing snippets from those quotes this week.

"Although the proper music of the Church is purely vocal, nevertheless, the accompaniment of an organ is allowed...Since the singing must always have the chief place, the organ and other instruments should merely sustain it and never smother it." ~St. Pius X (1903)

Through its range of pitch, timbre, and sounds, the pipe organ can express a range of moods.  By incorporating well-known hymn tunes, the music can inspire particular words and thoughts for meditation.  But the organ is at its best when joined with a choir and congregation.

Reformation Sunday is approaching, and it is one of my favorite celebratory holidays of the church year.  There will be great hymns and guest brass players and beautiful music.  I want to invite everyone to consider joining the choir for one Sunday only to swell our ranks in singing some of the great hymns of the church.  Give us a try; we sing at both services that day, but you're welcome at either.

I'll be holding a special rehearsal on Sunday, October 17th, after the late service.  We'll spend 20 - 30 minutes introducing the music for Reformation Sunday.  You're also invited to rehearse with us on Wednesday, Oct. 27th at 7:00 pm to help be ready for Reformation.  If you've enjoyed the choir's music this fall, show your support by joining us in this special festival chorus!

I too sing praises with a new song!

We sang one of my favorite hymns today - Earth and All Stars - and the tune has been in my head all day.  The text epitomizes my fall theme, as nature, musical instruments, workers, classrooms, and people all join together in a joyful song of praise of God's "marvelous things."  There's a running joke among the choir that it's a pretty crazy hymn for its mention of boiling test tubes, but the universality of praise from all kinds of quotidian sources is part of what makes the hymn so great to me.

I heard plenty of positive comments about the choir anthem today, and I want to thank the choir again for devoting their considerable talents and time to enhancing our worship.  We've been having a lot of fun with the descants and psalm antiphons every week, and I hope they're adding some sparkle to your Sunday mornings.

I also had a few people ask about the tune of "Blessed Jesus at Thy Word."  They noticed that it seemed just the slightest bit different from what they had grown up with, and they were right!  The Bethany hymnal has the Bach harmonization, which in typical Bach fashion has plenty of added passing tones or what some of us now hear as "extra notes" compared to the LBW version, which often simplified hymns to a quarter note based chorale.  At second service, I played plenty of other versions of the hymn tune - from the simple to the highly ornamented, traditional to dissonant.  I hope the hymn tunes from this Sunday stick with you and brighten your week with hymns of praise.

Blessed Jesus, At Thy Word

This Sunday, you'll get to hear several variations on the hymn "Blessed Jesus, At Thy Word."  This is one of the great early German chorales that was in the LBW but unfortunately omitted from the ELW.  Thankfully, we have the Bethany Hymnal as a supplement!  The original tune was composed by Johann Ahle, a 17th century predecessor to J.S. Bach, who adapted several of Ahle's tunes as chorale preludes.

The meditative prelude will be a modern arrangement by George Thalben-Ball.  The dissonance will create a very different sound and mood, but the melody will still be clear.  By contrast, during communion and the offering (at second service), I will play Bach's highly ornamented arrangement and Flor Peeters classical sounding version, though he lived from 1903 to 1986.  In addition, we'll be singing "Blessed Jesus, At Thy Word" as the hymn of the day.  Hearing the same tune in such a range of settings can help hear the nuances and illuminate the text.  In this case, the text lines up perfectly with that goal (quoting from the LBW version): "Let our thoughts and hearts be stirred...Jesus, send yhour blessed light; Help our hearing, speaking, heeding, That our prayers and songs may please you, As with grateful hearts we praise you.

For the choir anthem, we'll be reaching back to the 16th century for a setting of an adaptation of Psalm 118 by Lodovico Viadana.  The music is rhythmically interesting, opening with a lilting waltz, followed by a joyful march-like section, then a polyphonic fugue where each section of the choir takes its turn in leading the melody, and finally returning to the original waltz.  Listen for the meter changes and how the composer uses them to change the mood.

The text continues our fall theme of Make Joyful Noise:
Hear the sound of joy over all the earth.
God has triumphed.
God is the mighty Lord.
Songs of joy sing to God the Lord.
The foe is conquered; glory be to God.

Old favorites

We'll be singing some old favorite hymns this week, and they all speak directly to our theme (the second word from the new Bethany logo): Engage.  We'll begin with "Rise Up, O Saints of God!" as an inspiring call to action.  Next, the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory" is a prayer for power and inspiration, with every verse including the imploring text "Grant us wisdom, grant us courage."  At communion, we being with "Take My Life," offering our own service and work in ministry.  That leads us to the least known hymn of the week "Let Justice Flow Like Streams."

I know that the Worship and Music Committee didn't plan it this way, but I believe this hymn progression leads perfectly to the most important call for engagement with our world.  Good Christians need to take a stand in all our thoughts, words, and deeds, working for justice and rightenousness, tolerance and peace.  Current events certainly call for all of those traits and goals.

The choir will be continuing our fall theme of Make Joyful Noise with the anthem "Sing to the Lord a Marvelous Song."  The ABA structure intersperses a joyful, rhythmic melody with a beautiful chorale section.  It should inspire us to enjoy our work and engage with the world in love and joy.

Rally Day music

The fall season will be officially underway at Bethany this Sunday.  Rally Day marks the beginning of Sunday School, but so many of our other activities also follow the school calendar: Bethel Bible study, adult forum, our two service schedule, and of course, the choir.  You'll hear the choir singing throughout the service this week, reflecting our philosophy of integrating music throughout the worship service.  For starters, the choir will be singing the meditative predlue.  We're going back to the old Service Book and Hymnal and singing the proper Introit for the day.  Introits are short pieces of music that functioned as a call to worship in the old liturgy.  Some people might remember hearing them, and it should be an interesting change of pace for the meditative prelude.  Second, the choir will be singing a psalm antiphon.  They'll also be singing a descant on the last verse of the final hymn, which should end the service on a high note - literally and figuratively.  Finally, we'll be singing an anthem titled "With Music I Will Praise Thee" by the modern composer Natalie Sleeth.  The text is part of our fall "Make Joyful Noise" theme.  We've been working hard to put together all this music for a great start to the fall season.

We'll also have a pair of guest musicians from Baldwin Wallace college to help us celebrate.  In addition to the hymns and liturgy, our trumpet player will play a March by Bach as the postlude.  The prelude will be a Mozart oboe concerto arranged for alto saxophone.  I think the piece that will be most memorable, though, is a jazz arrangement of "Amazing Grace" that will be played on the saxophone during communion.  So this service represents a wide variety of music from the 18th century to today, from classical to jazz to contemporary with several well-known hymns that I hope everyone will enjoy singing.  I hope you like it all, of course, but can also find something that you'd list among your favorites.

Be sure to stop by the choir's table at the ministry fair between services.  We want everyone to be a part of our music ministry, whether that involves singing, playing in the bell choir, participating through the blog, or providing feedback and support for our work.

Give choir a try tonight at 7:00

I know I've been quite vocal about choir participation this fall (hopefully not quite to the point of obnoxiousness), but church music is a rather obvious passion of mine.  I truly think everyone should participate at some point; at the very least every member should sing the hymns proudly from the pews.  Furthermore, nobody will ever join the choir if they aren't asked, and my goal this fall is to ensure that everyone who attends Bethany regularly gets invited multiple times and in multiple ways.

Joining the choir can be great fellowship and stewardship, joining your musical talents with those of fellow members in praise.  Music has also been shown to provide all kinds of benefits from better health to better brain function from a more positive attitude to lower stress levels.  It's a chance to participate in something creative and artistic, which so many of us do all too rarely in our everyday lives.

Don't be intimidated if you haven't sung in a while.  Don't feel that by coming for a few weeks you're making a lifetime commitment.  Just come sing your best when you're able to join us.  We'll be glad to have you anytime, and I think you'll have fun too!

Fall choir recruitment drive

For those of you who weren't at church this morning, I wanted to share the latest choir news.  We had a fantastic first rehearsal last Wednesday, with a few new faces and more than enough singers to form a strong core group.  I'm greatly looking forward to sharing our music with you on Rally Day next week.

But just because you missed the first rehearsal, doesn't mean that it's too late to join us.  In fact, we will be more than happy to welcome any and all newcomers this week Wednesday at 7:00.  I'm still hoping that we can make Rally Day a Run Out of Robes Sunday.  Give us a try for a few weeks!

Congrats and Thanks!

Last night's concert was a big success for the choir. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say we were pleased to see so many people in attendance, especially on a beautiful holiday weekend, and we appreciate the applause and kind comments.

I also want to add my personal thanks and admiration for the hard work and talent of everyone involved. Last night went so far beyond a typical choir concert by incorporating original musical compositions, poetry, photography, sculpture, and drawing - I suppose even the food represented a creative art form. It was a fantastic finish to the spring season, and the choir will definitely be missed during its summer vacation.