Behind the Music Stand

My Dancing Day             This month at Walla Walla First Presbyterian church the Chancel Choir is using a traditional English Carol as our call to worship.   If you were in church on the 9 th or heard us over the radio, you might have thought it did not sound very “Christmasy.”   In part, that is because we only sang the first verse and chorus.   The entire song is as follows: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day; I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play, To call my true love to my dance; Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love, This have I done for my true love. Then was I born of a virgin pure, Of her I took fleshly substance Thus was I knit to man's nature To call my true love to my dance. Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love, This have I done for my true love. In a manger laid, and wrapped I ...

Happy Thanksgiving to all!   Today, try a different tactic I heard:   Instead of counting your blessings, *subtract* them!   One by one, imagine your life without each and every blessing you have, great and small.   When you woke up today, was there a roof over your head?   Imagine if there wasn't!   Did you drive a car home from work last night?   No matter how "Sub Standard" the car, imagine not having one at all!   Do you have family and/or friends whom you love--who love you back?   What if you were alone in this world?   The little things and the big things--take them out of your life one by one!   Do you have clothes to wear?   Forget how in fashion they are or aren't--just imagine your life without any!   Millions of people in the world live that way!   Did you wake up AT ALL today?   Never mind your back hurt or that chronic illness from which you suffer.   You. Woke. Up.   That means you have a...

            I’m not sure what this has to do with music, but it has been bouncing around in my head for a while—years actually.   I am sure it is not a new concept, but here is my take on it.             Too many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, see Christianity as a list of “Don’ts.”   I’m sure at one point in time someone even made som comment to me like, “You can’t do this, and you can’t do that…”   Sound familiar? Growing up in the Church of the Nazarene back in the day when movies and dancing were strongly frowned upon, I often felt a great vacuum between activities “We don’t do” and options given to me that we can do!   (There were many contributing factors as to why I felt that way, but I will save them for another forum.) Meanwhile, I would like to offer this challenge to you:   What do Christians do?   Try focusing ...

I’ve heard the question before, and since I chose a French carol to sing on Christmas Eve, I thought it was a good opportunity to put the answer out there in greater detail and for the world to see!  There are several things I take into consideration when picking out music for church.   In (relatively) random order: 1)          PRAYER. I cannot emphasize this enough. My mother, who was a church organist for about 40 years, told me a story about another organist she knew. This other lady (NOT Mom!) would watch a certain variety television show every Saturday night, on which the last song played was always a religious song. That was the song she would choose for her offertory the next day! This comes from the same school of thought that says, "Let's see what God's will for us is in this situation. Quick--Open a bible randomly, close your eyes, and point to a verse!" While I don't debate God's ability to use this methodology, I wou...

Google says “A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit… A breaking-news outlet… Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world… “In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis… Then [readers] comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.” My report cards in elementary school frequently sported comments like, "Eric is quite a talker," or even, "Eric has difficulty paying attention and waiting for his turn to talk!” So, “To Blog or Not to Blog?” Easy question! Give me a forum, I’ll fill it—Give me a soap box, I’ll stand on it—and heaven help you if you give me a microphone! Meanwhile, from time to time, I humor myself by supposing that parishioners might wonder what I was thinking when I picked out a particular song to include in a service, so I thought I’d take advantage of the Blog format to give you a peek inside my thought process…. and any other music and art-related flotsam that might slosh out of the bilge water of...