W&M Tuesday

This morning in Global Music with Mark Sedio we worked on "Come all you people" (Uyai mose) paired with "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." New for me was taking the African song in 6/8 instead of 4/4. But that made pairing it with Lobe Den Herren in 6/4 AWESOME. What that does is make it possible to set up a drumming accompaniment on the African song, and carry it over to the old German tune. We'll be doing it this way at our services very soon!

Later I listened in on the Bible Study with Paul Huh. He dealt with passages from Romans and ended with a 10 minute cello (and piano) piece.

David Eicher introduced us to hymns incorporating NT water images today. One of the coolest was a text by Leith Fisher, with music by Timothy Redman. It was a very sparse text, almost haiku-like in its imagery and meter. The music was tuneful, with a crush of seconds that leant a modern, soulful sound. It was reminiscent of music from Taize. I found myself wishing that the tune ended on the dominant instead of the tonic though. We also read through a hymn written by Eliabeth Stilborn, "By the well a thirsty woman." We sang it to the author's original choice for tune, Ebenezer, and then to a tune by Diane Wilcox which, according to Eicher, the author never heard before it went to print. It, the second, newer tune, was the preferred choice by our modest crowd. It had a nice contemporary sound without sounding trite. This paired with a powerful text makes for quite hymn.

Morning worship included Orff accompaniment (plus recorder) for BEACH SPRING. The preacher used as her text the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. She had a powerful word of challenge to the youth in attendance, that the woman at the well attends their school, figuratively, and that every student who participates in shunning that ostracized student is wrong. The preacher followed that with a powerful word of grace targeted directly to any youth who sensed that maybe they were the woman at the well at their school, figuratively: that Jesus meets them with life-giving water also. It was an incredibly powerful preaching moment; one could hear one thousand worshipers not breathe nor twitch for those few moments. We sang a very pretty setting of the Lord's Prayer using a Philippine melody. Some of the folk-iness of the melody was subsumed in the rather contemporary-sounding accompaniment, the sort of cross-over I can really appreciate. It was a neat, new setting I'll be trying to incorporate soon.

After lunch we listened to a few more composers of worship music in contemporary jazz idioms, Chuck Mahronic and Joe Utterback specifically. We then took off on a long list of "creative" ways to interpret hymns. I was most satisfied to hear a word of "open invitation" regarding WONDROUS LOVE. The presenter noted that the melody is such that truly any accompaniment can mesh effectively. Recently I did this myself, using open fifths that moved all over the place harmonically. I think I hit at one point a chord that was nothing but a stack of tritones!

Bob Hobby spoke about tempo in the organ/hymns session today. What we alluded to over and again but never said outright was that the tempo of the hymn is always contingent upon context: the place in the liturgy, the mood of the liturgy at that moment, the season of the year etc. A good example proved to be DUKE STREET. In some circumstances this needs to be a very stately tune; at other times it can easily bear proceeding at a quicker pace. The context will determine what's right. And the congregation, when they know and trust their leader-musicians, will follow. That was a nice pastoral word from Hobby; a word we do well to dwell on constantly. We also began to discuss playing the various musical styles for different hymns, something near and dear to my heart. More on that tomorrow.

W&M Monday

This was the first full day of the conference, with all the classes/seminars in place. I sat in on the tail end of Mark Sedio's global music session. They were working on an African song which our choir has sung, Nimemona bwana. He had a helpful word to say about long whole notes that I'll need to remember: they don't matter!

I got waylaid by my buddy Kathy Toole and so was late to choir and just listened. Paul Head seems to be off to a good start.

I sat in David Eicher's hymnal lecture. Today it was a survey of hymns that include Old Testament water images. There are more than one might think, especially newer texts. There was one that used the tune of "The Bells of St. Mary's." The music was so trite, I have a hard time remembering what the text was like!

The worship service included a healing/anointing rite. FotG dramatized the Great Flood story and managed to include chanting "we will rock you." Oh, and the organ blew up during the introduction to the first hymn. That was about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After lunch I sat in on a seminar on "piano in worship." I can't remember when this sort of class has been offered before. Today was a romp through some fundamental repertoire classics to contemporary. There will be more about playing-style as the week moves along.

I have been looking forward to Bob Hobby's class on service-playing at the organ. He didn't disappoint. Today he spoke about using the notion of "pulse" to keep momentum in congregational singing. I think I do that fairly well, but it was nice to be reminded. (The organ was working as least in part for this session; the tech people are supposed to work on it overnight).

At conference

This is the first in a irregularly-paced set of posts from the Worship and Music conference at Montreat, sponsored by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. It began tonight and will run through Friday evening. I'll be attending as much as I can. Eli and Calvin will be participating in the Montreat Clubs program (Eli more than Calvin, lest Calvin miss his visits with Uncle Carl and Faye and Wade this week).

One word: Lutherans.

Several of the leaders at the conference are Lutheran, including one of the preacher/presider people and the organist. Much of the music and liturgy from tonight's opening service was taken from Lutheran resources.

Of course the PC(USA) and the ELCA have an on-going ecumenical relationship. Maybe this was decided to be the year that we manifest that tangibly at this conference. The Lutherans also have the coolest, newest hymnal. Might we be getting a taste of what a new Presbyterian hymnal could look like?

I liked singing "Halle, halle, halleluja" at the gospel reading. I wished we had used other of the verses ("I am the bread of life...") in other parts of the liturgy.

I liked Bobby Hobby's (sorry, I just had to do that, Bob; you started it yourself in Richmond, VA!) hymn introductions and playing. Sadly, no matter how hard one blows, an un-amplified flute is never, ever going to work in Anderson Auditorium. Call me, you can borrow BMPCNC's flute mic.

Singing with 1000 other folks is great. We all need to remember, however, that we can't hold the last note of the phrase its full value and keep things moving along; make them a little shorter so we can keep up the tempo.

I loved hearing three Bible readings plus a psalm. It's the way it ought to be. Of course that can lead to 90-minute services if you're not careful. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's late, so I'm not going to build in a bunch of links tonight. Check back, and I'll try to include them later on.

Scurry, ducks and geese (no chicks)

We went to Lake Tomahawk in town a couple of weeks ago to feed the ducks and geese and swans. The ducklings were very mobile and held their own trying to snatch bread-bits from the boys. Afterward we walked around the lake (about .5 mile). Just how gutsy are the town's geese? Even they will take a piece of bread from one's fingers! Nice Sunday evening for the whole family.

I agree with Keith

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis (R) is quoted speaking quite disparagingly about a summer supplemental meals program, for school children who during the academic year receive free or reduced-price lunches.

"Hunger can be a positive motivator."

While I might say something like that in a pique of anger about my own kids, who are quite well-fed thank you Lord, coming out with something like this in relation to public policy and program is reprehensible. Davis goes on to suggest that these kids should get jobs at McDonalds so they can get free food during their breaks on the job. Her biggest concern seems to be that paying for this summer meal program leads to increased taxes (reportedly the 9.7 million meals served cost about $3.5 million, which seems to me to be a not-too-bad return).

Keith Olbermann tonight called Rep. Davis today's "worst person in the world." I tend to agree.

I think Davis needs to get in front of her remarks and defend them as best she can, and then recuse herself of her public service appointments related to child welfare in the great state of Missouri. An apology of a sort that these same defenseless children can understand and relate to, along the lines of having failed them and their needs miserably would be a good start. Remarks like this in no way signal a commitment to the welfare of that state's children. They further display a warped perception of the realities of hunger in our nation and a baffling inability to construe positive means to alleviate hunger and try to secure better futures for any state's children.

Thanks to ThinkProgress for relating the same story that Olbermann reported on-air tonight.

Back from camp

Eli had a good time at camp, even if they had to leave early because of a flu outbreak. Two kids (from Alabama) were ultimately diagnosed with Novel H1N1. The day our troop returned, we had one "sicky," who was told by his doc it was not the notorious version of the flu, but some other sort of virus. Everyone else was checking in "okay." That is until Sunday. They started dropping like flies with various symptoms. Some had started Tamiflu as a precaution, some had not. I couldn't keep track of the correlation between who was sick/not and who had started the med/not. But it was a little anxiety-provoking. Eli started Tamiflu the day he got home and never exhibited any symptoms. My doc graciously had a scrip available for me over the weekend if I began to show any symptoms (I did not).


We went ahead as planned and visited Mt Mitchell and the new observation platform on Saturday, and the Carter reunion in Mayodan and Hanging Rock SP on Sunday.

Here are some pictures from camp.

Pair of Ducks?

Recently I have been living with the notion of the paradox of our faith, and the paradoxes contained within our faith. Lots of folks want absolute answers, but I think a big part of faith is living with paradox, two seeming opposites that must reside together for the most authentic expression of our faith. Donna Shaper in a helpful post at Theolog, suggests the less antagonistic term "partnership" might be more helpful than either paradox or dichotomy. I think I might agree.

The notion struck me again today as I was reading about church marketing. Our church is in a very propitious moment: I think there are lots of possibilities that will likely begin to evidence themselves when we have new permanent pastoral leadership in place. This article by Brad Abare at Church Marketing Sucks seems to get at the issue. We are a fairly intellectual, liberal congregation, but not all that representative of the wider community in which we reside. We have a decision of sorts to make in the coming months if we are going to grow. And I think a lot of the decision-making will be along these lines and how we deal with the issues that are raised here. I intend to try to get our leadership to read these articles in preparation for studying how we want to understand ourselves as church in the next few years.

Bug-Out

The Scouts came back late last night. There was an outbreak of flu-like symptoms in another troop. It seems to have begun Wednesday night (one of our leaders thought it was food poisoning). The Haywood County Health Department is concerned that it could be the infamous H1N1 virus. Our troop decided not take any further risks; they got home after midnight last night. Eli is still sleeping. He will begin a round of tamiflu today. I have a call in to my doc (I was at camp for 90 minutes yesterday morning) to see what I might have to do. One of our boys was feeling ill last night, but only the one. The troop that seems to be the source had 15 out of 45 boys laid low. I am glad our leaders did not dawdle and brought the boys home right away.

Scout Camp

Eli went to Scout Camp yesterday. The Daniel Boone Council here in southwestern NC runs Camp Daniel Boone, near Canton. All 13 boys in the troop are at camp this week. Dads are sharing the leadership through the week(I'll be heading down TH morning). Eli will be studying First Aid, Crime Prevention, Weather, Canoeing, Space Exploration (building a rocket) and Horseback Riding. It will be a busy week. I'll post some personalized pictures when I have some. Above is the lakefront, and below is a typical campsite.