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!

Commemoration of George Herbert

Have you ever read the fine print on the back page of your bulletin insert?  I don't think many people notice the suggested readings and commemorations listed each week under the title "Preparing for Next Week."  If you had read this week's list, you'd have noticed that today is the commemoration of George Herbert (1593 - 1633), listed in the bulletin this week with the title of "hymnwriter."

I think that he might be better described as a poet, however.  The only hymn with his text to appear in the ELW is "Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life" - hardly a well-known hymn to us and set to a tune by Ralph Vaughan Williams hundreds of years after Herbert's death.  But the choir also sang another of his famous texts "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" recently.  It fits so beautifully with my ongoing encouragement to Make Joyful Noise that I wanted to share the full text today:

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly,
The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The church with psalms must shout, no door can keep them out;
But, above all, the heart must bear the longest part.

It's great that the church officially recognizes the great artists, poets, and musicians who have helped shape our faith and worship.  Read the fine print from time to time, and you might find new sources of inspiration to guide your own prayers.

Mystery man and the Gospel according to Scarlett O'Hara

I thought the new liturgy went pretty well this morning.  It's always a bumpy road at first, but I know it'll be only a few weeks before we're all confidently singing the new tunes.

Speaking of singing, I want to compliment the (as yet) anonymous male singer at first service, who sounded great belting out "How Great Thou Art."  I made a few inquiries after the service - partly in selfish hopes of recruiting a new choir member, but also just to say thanks for singing with such gusto.  As I predicted, that hymn was a popular choice; we all love to sing an old favorite now and then.  It's one of the things that makes church music so great.  At any rate, if you can identify the mystery man, email me or let me know at church next week!

Also, in honor of tonight's Oscar ceremony, I wanted to point out that one of Scarlett O'Hara's famous philosophical proclamations might be drawn from Matthew 6:34.  "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own."  (These are the things that you start to notice and think about when you're reading or hearing the same Gospel lesson for the third or fourth time in the same week!)  It's a particularly beautiful passage, though, and it has inspired so many artists and musicians that reading it is like a conversation with an old friend.

And a couple of random musical thoughts for the night, if you'll indulge me for a moment: Alan Menken was robbed by Randy Newman tonight; the songs as a whole were uninspiring, but Zarchary Levi and Anne Hathaway both surprised me with strong vocals; and hearing Lena Horne sing a few measures of "Stormy Weather" was a perfect tribute to a trailblazer and great talent.

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!

A new liturgy this Sunday: Don't worry, be happy

This week we will switch to ELW setting 1 of the liturgy.  Whenever we make such a switch, we get compliments and complaints.  (What I love, though, is that we get comments at all!)  One of the purposes of singing the liturgical texts to different tunes is to help keep them fresh and draw our attention once again so that we don't fall into mindless repetition of the texts.  I know the music might not be as familiar this week, and it might take a few weeks to feel confident with the new tunes.  But I know that soon we'll all be singing the new music as confidently and comfortably as the "old" liturgy.

The church has its own unique pace of change.  One week can bring an entirely new sound to the service, yet the texts are ancient.  There are still plenty of liturgi-geeks in the world calling this Sunday "sexagesima," even though the term hasn't been officially in a Lutheran hymnal for years and was set aside by the Second Vatican Council.  When even the Catholic church stops using a Latin word, you have to wonder if there's still any point in it!  Incidentally, I've heard it said that the only reason for the pre-Lenten Sundays to have special names was so that people could start their Lenten fasting early enough to be allowed to skip the fast on both Thursdays and Sundays during Lent.  Certainly that practice seems to be both antiquated and poorly founded on Biblical principles.

So we set aside some old practices and sing new music.  Perhaps as consolation, we'll be singing very familiar hymns, including "Children of the Heavenly Father" and "How Great Thou Art."  Even if the Gloria provides a challenge, I hope there will be plenty of singing on those well-known hymns.

But as Sunday approaches and I continue to work on the plans for Transfiguration, Lent, and Easter, I'm comforted by this week's Gospel: "And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?"  There's no sense spending my time fretting about potential problems; just keep working on the next task.  In other words, this week's Gospel to me simply says: don't worry, be happy.

Concordia Choir

If you missed the St. Olaf Choir when they passed through Cleveland, you have a chance at a decent consolation prize when the Concorida Choir comes to Akron in a week.  (Just kidding about the "consolation prize," but there's nothing wrong with a little inter-school rivalry, right?)

The concert will be at St. Bernard-St. Mary in Akron on Friday, Feb. 25th.  Tickets are $15 - 20.  The program ranges from Bach and Mozart to spirituals to contemporary compositions.  It promises to be a night of beautiful music.  For basically the cost of a movie, you could instead enjoy an evening of inspiring melodies.