The hardest part of writing is getting your so-called final product past the inner, inspector-bully. Writing is bliss. My fingers tap away at the keyboard in a perfect heavenly accord, that is, until the proofreading begins. The inner inspector-general won’t let anything through. He won’t let anything past the gates of his own hell, unless […]

Today’s communion anthem is by American composer, Ned Rorem. Rorem is a professed atheist, but has written a good deal of sacred music. This work sounds simple, benign, and straightforward. But Rorem gives us a run for our money, musically and spiritually. The harmony is dissonant, and the notes slither around unconventionally. These non-traditional musical […]

Remember those horseshoe-shaped magnets? When you run the magnet over the sand, it would pick up iron filings. It was dripping with “abundance.” I could shape a non-magnetic metal, like nickel into a horseshoe, and paint it to look like a magnet, but no filings would stick. To this knock-off magnet, the world appears “lacking.” […]

I love our communion anthem today. The words teach us what love is, insomuch as words can. Edith Williams, the author of the poem, was a former missionary who earned the Croix de Guerre and the rare Czarist Cross of St. George for her nursing services in France and Russia in the First World War. […]

As I prepare to retire from church music, I’ve decided to make Music Notes a bit broader for the next few weeks. Rather than writing about specific pieces, I thought I’d reflect on what I’ve learned. Writing about music has been a challenge. Writing about music is no substitute for the real McCoy. Imagine someone […]

The offertory anthem, commissioned in 1912, is a compilation of scriptural passages in Daily Light on the Daily Path, a series of booklets containing Bible readings which Ireland used to observe on a regular basis. It gained rapid popularity with the outbreak of war in 1914. It resonated as the casualties from the front mounted. […]

Choirs are notorious surprise spoilers. They know little about the mischievousness of “holding back,” the joy of subtlety, and the subversive nature of delivery. Spoiler alert! Choirs have a hard time. It’s because your average chorister is fearful. Call it stage fright, but that’s OK. Style is hard to teach. The message is rarely suggestive. […]

I lived on the icy surface of Pluto, where worry haloed my head like the rings of Saturn. I had that brooding thump, like the red spot on Jupiter, an ulcer of fear, separation, and worry. I was as lost and remote as Uranus until I journeyed home, to the center. The solar plexus is […]

Today’s offertory might be considered obscure because it’s by Eccard Johannes, a composer unfamiliar to your typical musician. He wrote a significant amount of music and studied with a well-known composer, Orlando Lassus, but nobody’s ever heard of him. He may be a one hit wonder, and you’re hearing his legacy. This piece comes from […]

When I was department chair at UTampa, I had to be clever. Chairs are the “complaints department” in higher ed. I had to show people that they manufactured their own conundrums. They often requested that I move heaven and earth to fix their so-called problems. Heaven and earth will move, but not until you realize […]