". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Video Round-Up

I have previously posted these on Facebook, but not all of you are my Facebook friends. And some of you truly odd ducks aren't even on Facebook at all. ;-) So here is a smattering of recent video highlights. Clicking on any one of these will take you to my Vimeo page where you can see over 80 more (some more worth your time than others, to be sure).

First, the singing of the Psalm from our New Year's Eve service last night. My husband is the pianist and songleader. I love this responsive type of Psalm singing and we do a lot of it at my church. Sometimes we chant the Psalm to tones from our hymnal; sometimes we do a combination of chant and sung refrain; sometimes we sing something through-composed (such as you see below). I found a comment about this video from a Facebook friend to be very interesting. He said, "I don't think I've ever heard Cantor sing!" I was amazed by that because it seems to me my husband is always singing. But then I realized that as much as I love it when he leads responsive singing from the piano, it is not something he does much. Most of his work in worship is not singing himself but enabling others to sing. Notice that when it is the congregation's turn to sing, he stops (except for the final refrain). That is what cantors (or kantors) do: help the assembly to find their voice and sing the Lord's song. Very different from so much of contemporary worship today, in which songleaders sing AT and FOR people, resulting in the people not singing, but listening.

One note on this video: I was positioned such that the sound quality is not reflective of the actual event. My recording is heavy on the piano, but the mix in the service was much more balanced.


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"All the Ends of the Earth" (Psalm 98) from Cheryl on Vimeo.


The second video is from our Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols. A very special musical moment with some of our most talented musicians. The woman at far left has sung professionally for a number of years. The second female singer has a doctoral degree in voice, teaches at the college level, and sings lyric opera. The third singer, still in high school, is one of her students. And the fourth . . . well, there's that Cantor again, a piano major holding his own very well amidst some truly amazing pipes!

"In Dulci Jubilo" from Cheryl on Vimeo.


Finally, another video from Christmas Eve, this one from our family service. Our children's choir for Christmas Eve was small in number but big in sound. Evan, my youngest, is at the far right end of the front row, often not visible behind his dad. This is a difficult piece for young singers due to the unusual intervals they are required to learn as well as the almost-but-not-quite-the-same repetitions of several musical motifs. I'm playing the piano. It is a beautiful, pianistic accompaniment that is a pleasure to play. My only problem with this piece is that I rarely get through it without crying, which can cause problems when one is trying to read the music on the printed page.

"On Christmas Morn" - David Brunner from Cheryl on Vimeo.


I hope you enjoy the music. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

"truly odd duck" - really? Just a bit insulting and hurtful.

Cheryl said...

Anonymous, I don't know who you are, but I was not trying to insult anyone. It was a joke.

Cheryl said...

That's why the wink was there.

Cheryl said...

For the record, it pains me to think I have pained someone else, and I am very sorry my words did that to you.

Anonymous said...

You winked? Joke or no, I still feel the same about it. Having said that, you should know that I will still read your blog. It is hard to find a good LCMS blog by a woman.

Cheryl said...

Yes, I winked. A text wink looks like this. ;-) You will find such a wink right after the sentence in question. It typically signifies that what was just said is intended ironically or tongue in cheek.

For what it's worth I don't see the phrase "odd duck" as something derogatory. On the contrary, in our house we rather celebrate oddness and actually joke with one another about what an odd little group we are. If you think about it, the most famous "odd duck" in literature turned out to be a beautiful swan who was only misunderstood. Again, no offense was meant, but if someone is intent upon finding offense I suppose he or she will. I'm glad you find something to appreciate in my blog. It is what it is, take it or leave it!

Rebekah said...

Love the baby taking the exhortation to heart in vid 2. Quack! ;)

Leah said...

Quack Quack!! ;-) ;-)
Bless you Cheryl.

Cheryl said...

So is this what you call duck speak?

Quacking right back at you, my fellow oddballs. ;-)