Help Yourself V: "Saved Alone"

Nothing I have done is as celebrated as a little arrangement I created for Melissa Givens and her inaugural recording project, let the rain kiss you. It's the hymn by Horatio G. Spafford, "It is well with my soul," tune Ville du Havre by Philip P. Bliss.

This hymn has endured, and the story behind the text is probably well known by now. Spafford's wife and four daughters were on a trans-Atlantic crossing when their ship collided with another, and the four daughters drowned. Mrs. Spafford's message in her telegram is now echoed in sermons, blogs, Sunday School lessons, and moving stories everywhere: "Saved alone."

This arrangement seeks to illustrate the calm of the ocean and life's troubled waters, while giving soloist and organist more to negotiate than quarter notes. Links are below to four versions for high and low voices with organ or piano accompaniment. Click, print, use, and please enjoy.

It is well (high voice with organ)

It is well (low voice with organ)

It is well (high voice with piano)

It is well (low voice with piano)

“There’s a place for us…”

My childhood church introduced PowerPoint to their services many years ago, after I had left for grad school. I can still hear my mother now, yelling at the minister of music: “I learned to read music singing hymns in church and singing in children’s choirs! How are young people supposed to learn it now? They won’t know anything about music if all we do is show some words on a screen. And our children’s choirs will die. There will be no one coming up the ranks any more. What will we do then?”

She was right, and she wasn't alone. It has been happening for years now. Children's and youth choirs everywhere are wastelands. I have seen them die at the hands of soccer, gymnastics, cheerleading, the PowerPoint screens, the cultish appeal of the youth minister, and a general refusal to reappear on the church grounds on Sunday afternoon/evening. In one church I know of, the youth choir was reduced to ashes in a moment because the youth minister wanted that Sunday time from the youth choir director for other purposes AND got the pastor’s blessing for it.

There's more. In general, you can hear contemporary Christian music at any Chick Fil-A. But has anyone noticed that for months now, Chick Fil-A has been playing the accompaniment tracks with the vocals removed? What’s that about? And has anyone noticed how utterly trite, boring, vapid, and profoundly silent that music is without some words attached? Hour after hour, it’s the same four chords over and over again, the same strumming of guitars, the same beat. Same, same, same, same.

There there’s American Idol. And America’s Got Talent. And halftime shows. And Grammy performances. It’s not encouraging.

But there is always hope. People do grow weary of the same diet week after week. People do seek deeper meaning in their church music. I’m seeing it happen in all churches and across all ages. My church music students are a prime example. Nine years ago, my class of twelve had never heard of a hymnal. Today, a class of eight have all heard of hymnals and actually know some hymns. One student who played in a praise band said that although he gets an emotional and spiritual charge out of playing there, the music itself is repetitive and completely unsatisfying. By the time he graduated, he was mixed up over what he wanted to do. But he learned about all the options while he was here. And that’s the goal – learn and start down a path!

I believe we’ll eventually settle in the knowledge that there is room for all, even if many bands and organists wish each other would just go away. There will always be a need for organists, orchestra directors, and classically trained church musicians. You know, people like me. There will always be a need for musicians who are also ministers, not just ministers who are also amateur musicians. We’re human, you know – we all seek deeper meaning, eventually.

Intimidating!

Recently I posted on Facebook, “I am NOT intimidating.” Then a day or two later, I posted, “Do I have to respond to emails from students addressed to ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’?” At that point one person posted back, “Is there, perchance, a subtle and unnoticed connection between this rhetorical question and the earlier assertion that Thou art not intimidating?”

Busted.

So now I’ll amend my first statement to say, “I may BE intimidating, but I never FEEL intimidating.” Then upon further reflection, one has to determine if the intimidation is coming from the person or from the musician. But then again, I don’t feel intimidating playing either role. So what is it? I do have a rather exacting work ethic in my performing. Is that it? I have exacting procedures I want students to follow in their practicing at first. That? I keep the office clean. That? I don’t live out of my car. That? I dress to impress. That? I remember dates, names, facts, jokes. That?

And I do NOT enjoy being addressed as “Hi” in an email. That much respect I do demand, but it’s related more to good grammar and writing skills than to personal/professional respect. After all, I’ll still respond to the email and not even mention the faux pas of calling me “Hello.”

I remember one choir member saying upon my departure from a certain church that she respected me so very much as a musician. I remember how moved I was to hear that from her, and I appreciated it so much. In a lot of ways, I’m just doing as I was taught. But in others, I suppose there is some innate prowess that can’t be explained. And I certainly don’t want to assume the shucks-folks-I’m-speechless persona nonsense I bewailed in an earlier post.

Well. All this won’t be solved here today. But it has put into motion a closer look at this accusation of “intimidating” I have received over the years. Meanwhile, don’t worry. I’ll never bite your head off, unless your name is <names withheld>.

Help Yourself IV

Here is an arrangement of mine. Click, print, and use freely. And good luck with it! :)

Elijah Overture

How did you get this job?

I have heard some hair-raising playing in my life, the kind of playing that brings an audience to its feet, the kind of playing that inspires me to press on toward excellence. Beautiful phrasing, caring attention to all matters of music and console technique.

Then I get to meet the organist.

Then I wonder if it is the same person who played so well a few minutes ago.

I have been dissed, ignored, glared at, yelled at, and insulted by organists following their recitals. And all I usually say is my name and GoodToSeeYouThankYouForBeingWithUs. If you see something there that punches people’s buttons, please email me privately and tell me what to adjust.

Then there are those organists who play well but don’t pay attention to the rest of the package. They dress sloppily, ramble, throw music around, and end up saying out loud what they already wrote in the program notes. They have a limp handshake and no social graces. And I am not impressed by the "shucks-folks-I'm-just-happy-to-be-here" persona. If you’re going to be famous (or already are), then act the part and be the complete artist in the performance. You can shuck folks later at the reception.

Then there are those who shouldn’t open their mouths at all. I once attended a recital by a fast-rising star. About five minutes before the recital was to have begun, he ambled out, looked up into the ceiling and said, “Well, I seem to have walked out a little early. It looks like the lights haven’t gone down yet. Well, while I’m here, I might as well thank [fumbles in pocket, retrieves piece of paper] the, uh, X Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, as well as, uh, Dr. X here at the University of, uh, X.”

I have seen more than one major artist behave like an ass outside the recital, play like a pig in the recital, and receive unbridled bravos and riotous applause at the end. How does this happen, Dear Reader?

As I said last week, the complete organist needs to be able to do much more than just play well. An organist’s behavior outside the recital is becoming more of a deal breaker than before. There are scores more organists roaming the advertising streets than ever before, and choices are becoming more plentiful. You may no longer have to say, “She plays well, but you have to deal with XYZ if you get her.”

I have lost count of the number of times I have been told by a presenter how much easier I am to work with than Person X was last week. And I know it’s true. There is no excuse for some of the behavior I have seen in this business. Clean it up, folks.

Olympic form?

The more organ recitals I attend, the more sensitive I become to a perceived apathy from performers. Picture, say, any Bach trio Sonata or the Duruflé Toccata. Wild rides. Fingers and feet flying everywhere. And yet an organist finds the time in the heat of battle to hang his/her feet on the bar across the bottom of the bench. Several thoughts fly through my head at that point: 1) Do those feet really have nowhere else to go? Do they not have some notes over which they might hover, instead? 2) Is this organist bored? With a trio Sonata????!! 3) Is this organist prepared? 4) You know, in some cultures, it would be considered rude to show the soles of your feet in public...

Regardless the questions that go through my head or the answers to them, when that happens I have become distracted from the music, and that's not good. No Olympian is allowed to stop and rest during the race. Singers are not allowed to break character during an aria to drink water or rest their backs. Why, then, should it be permissible for an organist to allow hands or feet to "check out" of the proceedings and go to a neutral corner during a very non-neutral musical activity? To this writer, that sends a subtle message of apathy or maybe even "OMG" to the listener.

I am one of the fussiest organists I know. After you have something sounding good, go one more step and make sure it LOOKS good, too. Sit up tall. Sit more or less still. Punch pistons in character. Keep hands out of lap. Keep feet off the bench bar. Don't lunge for notes and pistons and the box -- be there; plan ahead.

Fun activity: compare the most popular performing organists. Which ones physically stay in the game during a piece, and which ones check out here and there? It might be instructive to notice that at the next recital you attend or even play. Constantly assess why the popular organists are so popular.

Overly fussy? Not at today's tuition rates! Offer students the sort of attention to detail they might not get everywhere. A great organist needs to be able to do much more than just play pretty.

Help Yourself III: "These are a few of my favorite hymns..."

I suppose we all have memorized more hymn stanzas than we think. Every now and then, a short phrase will pop into my head, and I'll take a few seconds to place it as a hymn I have known since childhood. The memories are more dear than the hymn, which is probably true for most people, whether they admit it or not. Just look at how often the same hymns and solos appear at wedding after wedding and funeral after funeral.

Texts aside, some melodies are utterly sublime to me. Below are a few PDFs of my favorite tunes reharmonized. I always hesitate to "mess" with some of these tunes, lest I take some of their original perfection away, but mess with them I have. Click, print, and use freely:

DOWN AMPNEY with descant

HENDON with descant

SINE NOMINE descant only

SLANE

And we’re back: random musings

Classes begin in a week. And as usual, I’m in a flurry of thoughts of what to do with the curriculum this time around, how to impart some knowledge I just KNOW will be found useful, how to defend this thing called Art, how to defend a church music curriculum in a state-supported university, and how to fit teaching and recitals and another musical together into one schedule.

As I get older, I marvel (read: despair) that I am now twice the age of a graduating college senior. I marvel (despair) that my classmates now have children in college. I marvel (despair) that I am teaching the offspring of frat brothers I accused of being ill-advised to procreate. :)

Fashion sense continues to go out the window, especially on the performance stage. And I look back and remember my mentors saying that very same thing when I was growing up.

A student once suggested that the payment of tuition buys and guarantees a degree, just like getting it off the shelf. Do I stand agape at that level of ignorance, or do I bother looking for coherent words to set the record straight?

Education at all levels has come under increasing fire. Institutions are charged with teaching material, assessing how well it has been learned, and making adjustments in the plan of attack to improve dispensing the material next time around. And all that has to be shown in numbers rather than in whole being. But learning institutions need to find a way to share the responsibility of teaching. I still see college students who can’t spell and who can’t lay out their thoughts in writing coherently. Writing and critical thinking cannot start in college – those have to start at home, as do paying attention, paying respect, and learning responsibility. And the Real World is quite a teacher, too. But how does an institution make these points without getting sued or shut down? Until they figure that out, I suppose it has to be left to the little guys writing their personal blogs. Meanwhile, merely good students will continue to be labeled “exceptional.”

Perhaps the goal of Assessment is for an institution to make constant improvement. But has that system considered what happens on the day an institution achieves 100% in all areas? The mind boggles at the implosion that would occur in the numbers game. As my 15-year-old nephew puts it, “EVERYONE in the top one percent!”

Help Yourself II

A joyous Christmas to you and yours. Click, print, and use these harmonizations freely, with my compliments:

ANTIOCH with descant

GLORIA with descant

REGENT SQUARE

Slaves to tradition

I enjoyed a perfectly splendid, if severely abridged, performance of Messiah last night. As “Thou shalt break them” was coming to an end, I leaned over to my two companions and said, “I ain’t standing up.” I see just as much point in standing through the entire Messiah as for only one of its movements.

People seem to ‘know’ that you’re ‘supposed’ to stand for the Hallelujah chorus. But how do they know that? And why do they still do it? Have they done their homework to find out the historical precedent for it? And have they done a bit more research to discover that that whole story is probably not authentic? Other Christmas traditions abound: attending Messiah in the first place, year after year. Shopping. Tree. Traveling. Cards. Family fights. Whose house this year? What will the black sheep do THIS year? We’re all slaves to certain Christmas traditions. In recent years, I have relaxed the pressure on myself to get it just right, all the way down to not playing for a church on Christmas Eve but rather starting my own tradition of church hopping in a new city each year. O what fun it is to ride!

And “Happy Holidays,” “Season’s Greetings,” or “Merry Christmas?” What’s it going to be? ‘Holiday’ is a modern adaptation of ‘holy day,’ a perfectly accurate and elegant description of the day at hand. And ‘happy’ occurs in scripture more often than ‘merry.’ Whatever. As for ‘Christmas,’ I suppose people defend it because it includes the word ‘Christ.’ And it’s easy to see the words ‘Christ Mass’ hiding in the contraction. But on the other hand, ‘Mass’ doesn’t appeal to Protestants, and I don’t understand why so many Protestants are so defensive of a liturgy they gave up long ago. Whatever. ‘Season’s Greetings’ might actually cover things the best. There is, after all, a new ‘season’ of winter upon us, and let’s not forget that the pagans (from whom Christians derive most of their celebrations – do your homework!) celebrated the changing of seasons, particularly those two changes centered around the solstices. And our Christmas ‘season’ lasts quite a while, whether you take the liturgical route lasting Dec. 25-Jan. 5 or the commercial route lasting from roughly Labor Day until New Year’s Day. I vote for “Season’s Greetings” for its more accurate description of the season. But who’s counting? I say ‘Merry Christmas’ anyway! Rolls off the tongue just fine.

All kidding aside, I extend my best Season’s Greetings to you for a Merry Christmas, a long Happy Holiday, and a Happy New Year.