Ministries of Music
18/05/14 05:18
I’ve been looking forward to today for quite a few weeks. Today is the day of our annual Sunday School recognition. I remember being a child. Sunday School Picnic Day was a big deal. We would have the picnic in a local park and there would be lots of food and games and it marked the end of the school year and the coming of summer. The transition probably always was different in different places, and time has changed the way we celebrate as well. In our church, we will have a potluck lunch. There will be some small appreciation gifts for teachers and an opportunity to celebrate the year of learning for the children.
I don’t know if children feel the rush of freedom with the coming of summer that we experienced. They go from their school routine to a different routine that is heavily scheduled. Many of the children in our community these days have rigorous summer schedules with daily commitments. We went from school with its set schedule into three months of very little schedule. Of course there was a week of Vacation Bible School and perhaps a week of summer camp, but the bulk of the summer was filled with days with no schedule. I used to start my summer vacation by going to the library and checking out the maximum number of books allowed by our somewhat stern, half-glasses-wearing librarian. We’d spend our summers building tree houses and exploring the river’s edge. We’d fish and tube in the river and lay in the grass and read books. It was wonderful!
The world is more complex these days. Dual career families, larger cities, different kinds of danger for children and a thousand other factors mean that parents feel the need to fill up their children’s time with scheduled and structured activities. There is simply less free and unstructured time in the world of today’s children.
The end of the school year potluck, however, is only part of the day’s excitement for me. Mostly I am excited about the beginning of our summer music schedule. Our congregation is blessed with a terrific music program and good music attracts good musicians. Our choir loft is filled with dedicated singers and we have had a string of outstanding musicians at the keyboard of our pipe organ. We also have beautiful pianos in our sanctuary and this who can play them well. We do, however, tend towards classical music. That isn’t a problem, really. I love classical music. And classical music tends to appeal to the widest age range of all genres of music, a feature that fits the profile of our congregation that seeks to be a place for people of all ages. Once in a while I will get the comment that our music is “old fashioned,” but it doesn’t come from those who have attended the high school honors orchestra when our sanctuary is filled with 350-year-old music played by 15 to 18 year-olds. Still, I love lots of different kinds of music and that is true of the majority of our congregation.
This summer, we have a wonderful schedule of musicians from our church offering solo, small group and special music for our worship. We kick off today with a trio of piano, guitar and percussion. The music is a combination of folk and gospel with a delicious beat and rhythm. Like other music in our congregation, it is of high quality and well rehearsed. I’ve had the opportunity to hear all of the music in rehearsal. It will be a treat for all of us. We’ll still have some of our traditional music with the organ, including a brilliant 15-year-old at the console for the postlude. Our choir will be singing responses and I guarantee our congregation will be moved by the benediction response, which is a tribute to our choir director who died mid-week, after a brief and awful illness.
Then, after the potluck, the music scene in our church will change again for an afternoon benefit concert. Two youth of our congregation a 15-year-old and his 11-year-old sister, read the information about the Congo initiative in our church bulletin when we were preparing for our One Great Hour of Sharing offering this year. They were moved to do something to raise more money for the project. They have prepared an outstanding concert for this afternoon. The music features everything from Bach to Michael Jackson with several stops in-between. They play digital keyboard, classical piano, organ, harps (yes, two harps played together!), flute and violin during the concert. Their talent is breathtaking!
Yesterday’s rehearsal brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. The Clementi Sonatina op. 36, no. 1 might just be a another piano piece to some, though I think most would count it as a challenge for an 11-year-old. But it was a piece that my mother loved and whenever I hear it I can picture her at the piano in our living room. What a personal treat!
The afternoon concert will conclude with the playing of the United States National Anthem followed by choices of national anthems from the audience. The conclusion will be the anthem of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yesterday at the rehearsal, we were calling our random anthems for the 15-year-old to play. He didn’t miss a beat. He has memorized 244 national anthems!
Oh, and he also is completing his freshman year at an engineering college at age 15. And he speaks a half dozen languages fluently. He is beyond brilliant.
More amazing than the incredible talent we will witness today is the motivation and generosity that inspired the youth to prepare and present the concert for the benefit of people living half a world away whom they have never met face-to-face. One of the most important dimensions of the Congo initiative is deepening relationships between people. It is evident that this is occurring as we watch.
It will be a day filled with music and a delightful upbeat day in a season that has seen more than its share of sorrow and sadness.
Resurrection is real. Easter is dawning.
I don’t know if children feel the rush of freedom with the coming of summer that we experienced. They go from their school routine to a different routine that is heavily scheduled. Many of the children in our community these days have rigorous summer schedules with daily commitments. We went from school with its set schedule into three months of very little schedule. Of course there was a week of Vacation Bible School and perhaps a week of summer camp, but the bulk of the summer was filled with days with no schedule. I used to start my summer vacation by going to the library and checking out the maximum number of books allowed by our somewhat stern, half-glasses-wearing librarian. We’d spend our summers building tree houses and exploring the river’s edge. We’d fish and tube in the river and lay in the grass and read books. It was wonderful!
The world is more complex these days. Dual career families, larger cities, different kinds of danger for children and a thousand other factors mean that parents feel the need to fill up their children’s time with scheduled and structured activities. There is simply less free and unstructured time in the world of today’s children.
The end of the school year potluck, however, is only part of the day’s excitement for me. Mostly I am excited about the beginning of our summer music schedule. Our congregation is blessed with a terrific music program and good music attracts good musicians. Our choir loft is filled with dedicated singers and we have had a string of outstanding musicians at the keyboard of our pipe organ. We also have beautiful pianos in our sanctuary and this who can play them well. We do, however, tend towards classical music. That isn’t a problem, really. I love classical music. And classical music tends to appeal to the widest age range of all genres of music, a feature that fits the profile of our congregation that seeks to be a place for people of all ages. Once in a while I will get the comment that our music is “old fashioned,” but it doesn’t come from those who have attended the high school honors orchestra when our sanctuary is filled with 350-year-old music played by 15 to 18 year-olds. Still, I love lots of different kinds of music and that is true of the majority of our congregation.
This summer, we have a wonderful schedule of musicians from our church offering solo, small group and special music for our worship. We kick off today with a trio of piano, guitar and percussion. The music is a combination of folk and gospel with a delicious beat and rhythm. Like other music in our congregation, it is of high quality and well rehearsed. I’ve had the opportunity to hear all of the music in rehearsal. It will be a treat for all of us. We’ll still have some of our traditional music with the organ, including a brilliant 15-year-old at the console for the postlude. Our choir will be singing responses and I guarantee our congregation will be moved by the benediction response, which is a tribute to our choir director who died mid-week, after a brief and awful illness.
Then, after the potluck, the music scene in our church will change again for an afternoon benefit concert. Two youth of our congregation a 15-year-old and his 11-year-old sister, read the information about the Congo initiative in our church bulletin when we were preparing for our One Great Hour of Sharing offering this year. They were moved to do something to raise more money for the project. They have prepared an outstanding concert for this afternoon. The music features everything from Bach to Michael Jackson with several stops in-between. They play digital keyboard, classical piano, organ, harps (yes, two harps played together!), flute and violin during the concert. Their talent is breathtaking!
Yesterday’s rehearsal brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. The Clementi Sonatina op. 36, no. 1 might just be a another piano piece to some, though I think most would count it as a challenge for an 11-year-old. But it was a piece that my mother loved and whenever I hear it I can picture her at the piano in our living room. What a personal treat!
The afternoon concert will conclude with the playing of the United States National Anthem followed by choices of national anthems from the audience. The conclusion will be the anthem of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Yesterday at the rehearsal, we were calling our random anthems for the 15-year-old to play. He didn’t miss a beat. He has memorized 244 national anthems!
Oh, and he also is completing his freshman year at an engineering college at age 15. And he speaks a half dozen languages fluently. He is beyond brilliant.
More amazing than the incredible talent we will witness today is the motivation and generosity that inspired the youth to prepare and present the concert for the benefit of people living half a world away whom they have never met face-to-face. One of the most important dimensions of the Congo initiative is deepening relationships between people. It is evident that this is occurring as we watch.
It will be a day filled with music and a delightful upbeat day in a season that has seen more than its share of sorrow and sadness.
Resurrection is real. Easter is dawning.