Ups and downs
Oct. 9th, 2002 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreThree months ago at music staff meeting I volunteered to do two things beyond my usual job description: a children’s sermon, and a hymn sing for All Saints’ Day. The pastors seemed enthusiastic about both ideas, and the choir directors asked me to direct the choir as part of the hymn sing. Neither pastor ever followed up on the children’s sermon, and the sermon series it was to connect with has ended. Today in staff the senior pastor scratched the hymn sing. Grrrr!
But I’m still directing the choir on the Sunday when we recognize All Saints’ Day (we’re Methodists, no special weekday service). I chose a piece that I knew would make the choir wrinkle their noses-- it’s minor key, with a difficult text. Before we sang a note, I asked people if they noticed anything interesting on the bottom of the page, and the librarian, bless her heart, gasped “Dietrich Bonhoeffer!” with real interest in her voice. I then asked when it was written, and several people responded with “1944.” Okay, where? “Germany?” “More specifically?” The librarian, again, hesitantly: “Prison?”
She was right... Bonhoeffer wrote the text “By Gracious Powers” on New Years’ Eve of 1944, in prison, four months before his execution. After a brief discussion of Bonhoeffer’s life, we finally sightread the piece, and at the end several people exclaimed that it was “lovely” and “powerful.” It really felt good to help folk appreciate a piece of music that way.
On a lighter note, one of the other directors, explaining how she wanted the words enunciated, instructed us to “lean on our S’s.” Probably no one would have caught it if I hadn’t giggled......
But I’m still directing the choir on the Sunday when we recognize All Saints’ Day (we’re Methodists, no special weekday service). I chose a piece that I knew would make the choir wrinkle their noses-- it’s minor key, with a difficult text. Before we sang a note, I asked people if they noticed anything interesting on the bottom of the page, and the librarian, bless her heart, gasped “Dietrich Bonhoeffer!” with real interest in her voice. I then asked when it was written, and several people responded with “1944.” Okay, where? “Germany?” “More specifically?” The librarian, again, hesitantly: “Prison?”
She was right... Bonhoeffer wrote the text “By Gracious Powers” on New Years’ Eve of 1944, in prison, four months before his execution. After a brief discussion of Bonhoeffer’s life, we finally sightread the piece, and at the end several people exclaimed that it was “lovely” and “powerful.” It really felt good to help folk appreciate a piece of music that way.
On a lighter note, one of the other directors, explaining how she wanted the words enunciated, instructed us to “lean on our S’s.” Probably no one would have caught it if I hadn’t giggled......
