W&M Friday

Today Mark Sedio did an anthem reading session. Most of the music was "global" in nature, with a heavy dose of his own stuff. (I realized I need to get on the mailing list for Concordia Publishing to get information about their new releases).

Paul Huh talked about baptism in his session today and didn't flinch as the conversation circled about to re-baptism and re-affirmation of baptismal vows.

David Eicher talked about the Presbyterian hymnal project, now officially called the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS, pronounced "peacocks"). He shared in written form the committee's statement on theological framework and foundation. It's a very nice statement that reveals that the guiding framework for the new congregational song resources will be the construct "history of salvation." It will be interesting to see how that is fleshed out in hymns and liturgy in the new resources.

Eli at Science Olympiad

Eli scored a place at the regional Science Olympiad summer camp last week. There were 60 middle-schoolers from our area at Asheville High School. The kids were able to choose 3 from an array of 15 science projects to work in depth on during the week, after exploring each on the first day. Eli chose "mystery architecture," a session on catapults and other launching devices and "scrambler car" (they build a car with a set-able braking system). We were very pleased because Eli actually had a good time. We were not sure he would like the need for focus and concentration involved, but the projects seemed to capture his imagination and he had a very good week. The camp ended with a contest on Saturday with everyone using formulas and skills they had worked on during the week to complete a specific task. Eli and his partner Mica took second in the catapult (long-distance) challenge.

The camp is sponsored by NC State and the NC Science and Math Center. It was free, to boot. We learned about it from a robo-call from the County school system. The school doesn't have a team during the academic year, but Eli might have something to say about that after his positive experience last week. The whole family shared lunch with Eli on Saturday before the awards ceremony. The pictures are just from Saturday.

W&M Wednesday

Work responsibilities curtailed my participation today somewhat, but here's a brief run-down.

Mark Sedio worked some more on Latin rhythms in the Global Music seminar. Seeing a clearly delineated description of various rhythms was very helpful. I was struck by how much work the new Lutheran hymnal resources have contributed to Hispanic music for worship.

This afternoon I attended the Caring for Creation seminar, which was trying to make connection between our conference theme, "Come to the Waters," and ecological concerns and a renewed interest in the stewardship of creation. This session was pretty exclusively devoted to ecological facts, with some theology added in. I've heard from sources that other sessions have been a bit more balanced. It was an interesting 50 minutes.

Bob Hobby spoke about hymn introductions and registration this afternoon. Lots of stuff I already know and practice, but it was gratifying to hear someone else discuss the theory and the practical applications.

I hope to attend the hymn festival service tonight, but we'll have to see how things are on the home front.

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.