Palm Sunday

Time for an odds and ends post.

Today was Evan's last official day to sing in the children's choir. His voice is changing. He still has soprano notes, although not as high as in the past, but he is developing his lower range and struggling with his mid-range. He will continue attending Schola Cantorum rehearsals through the end of the year, helping out our novice program (welcoming new young singers), but we have told him he doesn't have to sing with the choir any more after today. Seeing as how I don't have anyone waiting in the wings to take his place, it would seem my choir mom days are over (sigh).

Here are a couple of pics, serious and silly, of our group today. We sure do love them.

We were hoping one of the above pictured choristers would agree to sing the solo stanza of "A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth" at the Good Friday service, but there have been no takers. Today when I told Evan that it is looking like his dad or I might have to do it, he was quite alarmed. But it's supposed to be a child's voice! Yes, son, I know. Evan is thinking he might just have to step up to the plate one more time.

In other news, we had some hail the other day.

The storm chasers were around the very next day leaving flyers on doorknobs.

College kids will not be home for Easter. Silly academic calendars. But four weeks from today I will drive to Missouri to pick up Caitlin, and a few days after that we'll all go to Fort Worth to see Trevor receive his Master's degree in music! Speaking of Trevor, he has accepted an invitation to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Iowa. He is receiving a full tuition scholarship plus a teaching and accompanying stipend. We are very, very happy!

This past week I wrote an article on the Benedict Option which got a little traction. Then yesterday I posted something seemingly unrelated on Facebook. And yet as I think more about the previous link, which is about the shortage of organists in the Church, I am starting to connect it to the Benedict Option. The basic idea of the Benedict Option is that many who would claim the name "Christian" are losing touch with what that actually means. In other words, we call ourselves Christian, but we aren't living and worshiping so as to preserve and pass on the faith to future generations. While the Church in other parts of the world is growing, here in America (and other parts of the Western world) it is shrinking. The Benedict Option calls for Christians to see the gravity of this situation and take steps to turn it around. Author Rod Dreher argues that before we can share our Christian faith with others, we need to reclaim it for ourselves.

So how does that connect to an article about the shortage of organists? As I think about my own church body, which is often called the singing church because of the emphasis it puts on music, it seems to me that we are in many quarters losing touch with that part of our identity. After I posted the above article on Facebook there was much discussion about the difficulty of finding musicians, paying for musicians, and supporting congregational song. Many churches are giving up and going to recorded tracks. This is a terrible, terrible development. The more we rely on such measures the more likely it is that there will be even fewer church musicians in the future.

I am starting to think that, while it's great that we send missionaries to foreign lands (and my husband is one who goes), we might need to give some thought to what we can do to shore up our own churches and our own worship. It doesn't appear to me that we are doing what needs to be done to preserve our musical and liturgical heritage. It's not something that is just magically going to survive because we want it to. In the same way we need to be intentional about living out our Christian faith, we need to be intentional about passing on the gift of music and liturgy. There is so much more we could be doing, and it deeply frustrates me how as a church body we give lip service to it but don't really do anything about it.

Enough of that for now. The hour has come. A blessed Holy Week to you and yours.


Palm Sunday Verse/Hymn of the Day from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Sympathy Letters from Kids

I finally got around to going through a bag of sympathy notes that were written to me by students at one of the schools I play piano for. I go to this school, a middle school, about once a week to attend chorus rehearsals and play for performances. I feel bad that it took me so long to get around to reading all the notes. There were over 100 of them.

Here are a few excerpts I wanted to preserve for posterity because I found them funny, touching, or unique or just because they made me smile. Enjoy. The authors are all sixth, seventh, or eighth graders. :-)

"I drew a rainbow because when my aunt passed away my mom said think of rainbows because it shows the bright side and it helps me. So maybe it will help you. My mom also tells me to think about the rainbow because my brother is in the air force and when he leaves it makes me sad."

"I will be praying for you. Thank you for being SO NICE to us even though we are crazy and loud. You are VERY good at the piano. I love you so much!"

"Thank you for being our accompanist, even though we're a band of bumbling baboons 90% of the time."

"Thank you for still coming to play with us tomorrow. I couldn't do it. I'm not that strong. My mom is still alive, but it feels like I don't know her. I haven't seen her in 3 years."

"It stinks to hear about what's happening, but for the short period of time I've known you, I think you can get through it. I know you can because I did. My brother died 1 year, 1 month, 6 days ago. You are much stronger than a 12-year-old so I know you can make it through."

"Hello. I am unsure what losing a parent feels like, but I have witnessed the death of some things. I once had a funeral for a turtle I found on the side of the road, and I remember how sad my family was when my grandfather died, even though I was not. I was five or six and I suppose death didn't really make sense to me. Or rather, I didn't really understand it enough to feel it. I'm fourteen and honestly don't know all that much, but I think that life is an incredible thing. Therefore, even though a life has been lost and I am certain that it hurts, there's still more life to marvel at. I hope that wasn't insensitive; I genuinely was not trying to be."

"I am glad you are the piano player at our school because you make us so much better than we already are."

"I love walking into choir and seeing you in the room."

"Every time I hear you play a smile will not come off my face. I also think you are very beautiful. I LOVE YOUR HAIR."

"To be honest I don't really know what to say. What I do know is that there are some days when all you want to do is be left alone. And then there are other days when all you want is a hug. I don't know what kind of day this is for you, but I just want you to know that I care, and that our entire women's choir cares! And I don't know if you're a religious person or not, but here's a Bible verse that always helps me when I'm going through a rough time: 1 Corinthians 10:13. Just always know that God will forever be by your side."

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Schola Cantorum Rehearsal

And in the "what I did today that mattered way more than Facebook" department, here are a few videos from our Schola Cantorum practice. Probably of interest only to you church music types. The first one is a favorite warm-up of this age group (first-fifth grade). It combines stretching and posture awareness with working on developing a unified head tone. The eager beaver who tends to try too hard by oversinging and jumping in when it's not his turn is, yes, my offspring. The second video shows the Cantor kinesthetically teaching the concept of terraced dynamics. The kids loved it.


Fold in the middle! from Cheryl on Vimeo.


Learning About Dynamics from Cheryl on Vimeo.

It has been too long . . .

. . . since this happened.



"Come, Let Us Sing" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

That is Evan, my youngest, fifth from left. It has been about 17 months since he has sung in his dad's choir. (Our last church, Trinity, didn't have an after school children's choir.) I am thankful he was able to sing in a community children's chorus last year. He had wonderful teaching there, and it shows. I can't believe how much he has grown in maturity and focus!

This was worth driving to Oklahoma for. Unfortunately, I don't think we can drive back in three weeks when the Schola Cantorum sings again. Sigh.

Note: I don't think the applause is typical. I just think people were sincerely appreciative and reacted in kind, rather spontaneously. A parish children's choir is a new thing for Immanuel. :-)

Happy Memorial Day

The Young Naperville Singers were honored to sing for the local Memorial Day celebration. Here is their performance. The young lady who fainted in the first video is fine, by the way.

"An American Anthem" from Cheryl on Vimeo.




"America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)" and "God Bless America" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

"Beneath the African Sky"

This is not one of my videos. I still need to upload the ones from the concert. This was taken by another mom during the final rehearsal. After being made available online it came to the attention of composer Paul Caldwell, who contacted the director of Caitlin's choir and expressed his enthusiastic approval, saying that it brought him to tears. For him to be thus affected is remarkable, since he not only composed the piece but has surely heard and directed it himself hundreds of times.

Some members of this choir will be traveling to Costa Rica next month to participate in a choral festival that the composers of this piece, Caldwell and his friend Sean Ivory, are leading. They have invited the very talented young oboe player in this video to play for the festival. Caitlin will not be attending but she will be there in spirit, thrilled for her friends and fellow singers to have this opportunity. She has been so blessed to sing with this group. She, by the way, can be seen near the back, right between the third and fourth riser rails: cute blonde, short hair, glasses, clearly enjoying this amazing piece of music.

I can't watch or listen to this without crying.

 

A Singing Weekend

Sunday was the culmination of a semester's worth of work with the children's choir organization we are involved in. It is a truly excellent musical enterprise that nevertheless is more concerned with teaching children to sing and to love music than it is with creating a perfect sound (though I must say they achieve the latter frequently enough). Young Naperville Singers currently comprises eight children's choirs; I accompany Evan's beginning level group as well as an intermediate girls' choir, and Caitlin sings with the top group. This made for a busy week of rehearsals and a full day of performances (it is necessary to have three concerts to accommodate all the choirs). Here, for those who are interested, are videos of Evan's choir from Sunday. I am playing piano, although I don't think you can ever see me; Evan is in the third row right, second from the middle.

The theme of the concert was "Under the Same Sky" and included both American and world music. Evan's choir director decided to focus on songs about sleep since we all sleep under the same sky. The first song was sung partly in Finnish and included some props and sound effects intended to evoke the sea.



"Silent Fish (Salaisuuden Kala)" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

The next two songs utilized the same text by Robert Louis Stevenson in two very different musical settings. This gave the children a chance to learn about musical style (modern v. folk) and to consider how the music reflected the text. The first piece was especially fun to play.



"Bed in Summer" - I from Cheryl on Vimeo.

"Bed in Summer" - II from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Our fourth song was a beautiful lullaby in two-part harmony.



"Good Night" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

For our fifth piece the director combined two pieces evocative of Africa, and the children were joined by an older choir for the background harmony.



"Uhura" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

It has been a great year for Evan, and he has matured so much socially and musically. Next year he will be joining the Boys' Choir, and I can't wait. Here is a short video I took of them rehearsing the day before the concerts:




I will try to put up videos of Caitlin's group in a few days.

♫ Notes of Encouragement ♪

Several days ago the Cantor received an appreciation gift from the first graders at our church's day school. It consisted of handwritten notes from the students glued to a large piece of poster board. In the interest of both sharing and preserving for future enjoyment, here is a sampling:

"Your the best. Thank very much!"

"I like it very nice."

"Thanks for the help."

"Good job."

"You are the best."

"Thak you Mr. Magise."

"Tak you for help us doing sing."

"Thack you. :-)"

"I love you."

And my personal favorite:

"Thank you. You are the one how shud get the credit."

Intrepid Lutherans

We are having floods in Chicago. Schools have cancelled classes and activities, cars are falling into sinkholes, rivers are breaching their banks, and sump pumps are working overtime. But did that stop our middle grade choir from keeping their scheduled date to sing at Concordia University-Chicago this morning? No, it did not. These are Southsiders, after all. They are made of tougher stuff. And they have a leader who allows very little to come between him and the liturgy. (Of course, that meant his accompanist had to make the trip, too.)

It goes without saying that the children sang beautifully, receiving many accolades from students and professors alike. The drive to and from CUC was uneventful, if a bit longer than usual. Many thanks to everyone whose support made this day possible!

The Best of Easter Sunday

For those interested who might not see these otherwise.


Our Middle Grade Choir totally rocked this one with text by Gerhardt, music by Magness. Rise and shine!

"Awake" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Worldwide premier of this new organ Prelude by our friend Rev. Jon Vieker:

Prelude on GAUDEAMUS PARITER ("Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain") from Cheryl on Vimeo.

The piano man doing what he does.

"Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

One of our favorite choral works, composed by our friend Kevin Hildebrand. Trinity's choir has not done a great deal of a cappella singing, but you wouldn't know it from this performance. Kudos to them for their hard work and dedication. And yes, they have a pretty good director. :-)

"I Am the Resurrection" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

And finally, some full-out congregational singing with rockin' brass. I was a little too close to the brass section, so the brass-organ balance is not reflected very well in the video.

"Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

I will probably put up a few more--if you are interested, keep checking my Vimeo page. By the way, I attended three services yesterday, so even though I did some videotaping I had plenty of opportunities to just sing. Happy Easter. He is risen!

Magnificat

One of my favorite things my husband has composed. You can't see it, but I was smiling as I played from beginning to end. This is Phillip's new junior high choir, with whom he has only been working a few months. They have come a long way since August!
"Magnificat" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Christmas is coming!

Descant Rehearsal from Cheryl on Vimeo.

The Thrill Is Gone

Or maybe it isn't.

Yesterday was the culmination of 3-1/2 months of preparation as the children's choral organization I work for presented its holiday concerts. The day before yesterday was "dress" rehearsal--the children don't have to wear their performance uniforms but all the groups and musicians come together for a full run-through of each concert (there are three).

At the end of the rehearsal for the big, combined number (where all the choirs sing together), I noticed Evan had stopped singing and had his face in his hands, crying. When he came from the stage his dad and I asked him what was wrong.

"[Pony Tail Girl] doesn't like me anymore!" Remember Pony Tail Girl? Here she is (minus the pony tail) with Evan, waiting for their choir's turn to rehearse (Pony Tail Girl wore her concert uniform to dress rehearsal by mistake). Obviously, this picture was taken before the big breakup.

Yesterday as they waited to perform in the actual show I thought I was going to have to separate them. The loathing was acute and mutual. "I hate you!" "I hate you!" But by the time we left our seats to line up backstage the tide had once again turned: "Mom, [Pony Tail Girl] likes me again!" At last check that assessment was still holding, but they will doubtless be mortal enemies again by the next rehearsal.

How many years until he's married? 

New Church, Same Cantor

On August 19 my husband was installed as Minister of Music and Worship at a new church. We have been welcomed more warmly than we could have ever anticipated and are seeing with greater clarity each week why God has called him to this place at this time in his professional life. Still, it has been hard to say goodbye to our former church home. We were there for almost thirteen years. During that time we made many dear friends and my husband did much to develop a rich, liturgical, singing piety. In the wake of our departure we have had countless people from our former church reach out to say how much they are going to miss having us in their midst. I have been most touched upon hearing from both young people and their parents about how much my husband's teaching has meant to them in the recent and more distant past. Just a few days ago Phillip received a note from one of his singers in last year's junior high choir. The note read simply, "Alleluia! I'm still in choir. For you, Cantor." When you read something like that you grieve anew for those you have had to leave behind.

But then you see something like this. Another group of children in another place who, just like those we left behind, have a song to sing and need someone to help them sing it. The video below was taken during warm-up for church this morning. It is typical of my husband's approach to working with children: demanding, accepting only the best, but always doing so with a sense of joy and fun. (Former choir members, young and old, will recognize Phillip's "Russian piano teacher" persona.) I told Phillip a few weeks ago that I know that he will be a blessing to all the children with whom he is currently working but that I believe that somewhere among them is a child, maybe more than one, who particularly needs a teacher like him right now, and that is in part why the Lord as called him here.

These children are fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. They have been singing for their new choir director for about a month now. Aren't they sounding beautiful?




"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" - J. S. Bach from Cheryl on Vimeo.

But for the Grace

Yesterday Evan and I had our community children's choir rehearsal (he is one of the singers; I am the piano accompanist). I had some concern about how Evan would handle this experience (he himself expressed great trepidation about it), but he is doing great! Go figure--I guess maturity really does increase with years. ;-) It helps that the choir director is a highly experienced elementary music teacher who obviously loves children and who is a pro at planning a rehearsal that is varied and engaging. It also helps that my 8-year-old is an extrovert who craves the emotional energy of interacting with other children, so choir is a huge dose of his recommended weekly allowance of humanity.

A couple of things happened yesterday that reminded me anew of how blessed we are to live the life we are living and to be able to homeschool our children. This was only the second rehearsal of the year. Before it even got started, the choir director and I both noticed that the little boy sitting next to Evan was crying. Big crocodile tears, sniffles, red eyes, the whole bit. My colleague went to the child and talked with him and tried to comfort him. It seemed she made a little progress but a short time later I looked back at the child and he was crying as hard as before. I went over to him and suggested that he take a break, go to the back of the room, sit by the parent attendant for a little while and maybe get a drink of water or go to the bathroom, coming back to rehearsal when he felt better. He looked at me with big, sad eyes and said, "I miss my mom." :-( I told him his mom would be back for him soon. He did take me up on my suggestion and after a little break came back to rehearsal, but the tears continued off and on for the rest of the hour-long practice. I felt so sorry for that little boy who had probably been at school all day long and was already exhausted and wanted nothing more than the comfort of home and family for the rest of the day.

Later, after rehearsal, I chatted outside with the choir director and traffic parent for a few minutes. As I watched Evan run around on the grass with other children waiting for their parents, I joked about how much my isolated, homeschooled child enjoyed this weekly social time. The traffic mom suddenly perked up.

"You homeschool?" Yes, we do. "How long have you done that?" Since my oldest, a college sophomore, was in second grade. "And you did it all along?" Why, yes, we did. The woman's face expressed deep longing. "I wish we could homeschool. We had [her son] in private school for a while but now that we have two more children we can't afford it anymore. I work from home during the day and have another job a few nights a week and I just feel like I don't have enough time with my children, you know?" Yes, I said. I know. Being with our kids is probably the number one reason we homeschool. "I would really love to do it," she said. "I just don't know if I can." I told her she could certainly do as good a job as any school--that schools don't have it figured out any more than we as parents do. And most important, she would be able to spend more time with her children.

About that time some child somewhere needed to be told to not do whatever stupid, life-threatening thing he was doing. Our conversation ended, but I told her to let me know if she had any more questions about homeschooling.

I thank God that as I write this blog post my youngest child is in the same room with me, giggling about the Calvin & Hobbes strip that he read last night. There, but for the grace of God, goes a sad, little boy with tear-stained cheeks, surrounded by strangers, longing for his mommy to put her arms around him. And here by the grace of God sits a mommy who can give those hugs whenever they're needed, and who, truth be told, needs them herself as much as or more than he does. 

Proud But Sad Moment

My daughter sings in a community youth choir. It is a top flight group directed by an internationally acclaimed children's choir conductor. She had her first rehearsal this week and was pleased to see that one of the pieces the choir will be singing is a setting of the Magnificat. When the piece was passed out Caitlin immediately knew from the title what the text would be because she knows what the Magnificat is, having sung it for years in church. As the choir perused the text the director asked if anyone knew who sang the words in the Bible. Caitlin was apparently alone in raising her hand. I'm glad she knew the answer, but so sad hardly anyone else did. This choir is a secular group so obviously I would not expect everyone to know about the Magnificat. But I am surprised that in a 60-voice children's choir there were not a few more. Maybe they did know and were just too shy to raise their hands. Still, I am sad for what has obviously been lost, is continuing to be lost, as our culture becomes less Christian and our churches less liturgical.

Junior High Concert

For my readers who aren't on Facebook and might not otherwise see these, here are a few videos from the concert my husband's junior high choir gave earlier this week. In the first two songs his assistant directed so he could play piano. He plays jazz and I don't, so he was without question the right man to accompany the first piece (he played many more notes than there were in the sheet music!). And in the second piece, he played because we couldn't find our sheet music (all we have is a solo version of the piece--he arranged the vocal parts that you hear sung by the choir). Rather than his writing out a part for me to play, he just played the accompaniment himself (and again, played a much more interesting arrangement than I would have played just by reading the ink). Look, Ma, no score!

I am playing on the third piece, which, by the way, Phillip also arranged in part. If you are familiar with the song you know it starts with the quicker tempo that in this video doesn't come until later. It was my husband's idea to slow down the opening verse and give it to a soloist. I think it provides a new spin to a song that has become so popular that most people attending choir concerts these days have heard it.

Kickball with the Cantor

Last week we had our end-of-year Schola Cantorum (parish children's choir) party. What does a Schola Cantorum do when they aren't singing? They have what has come to be affectionately known as a "frolic day." (The word "frolic" has become a staple of our day school and parish children's choirs' vocabulary, as his singers regularly ask the cantor, "When's the next frolic day?")

We were blessed with beautiful weather for playing outside and we took full advantage of it before going inside for treats. The first kid running into home (the one that had to be reminded to run) towards the end of the video is mine. :-)

Awake!

Some years ago, at our previous parish, a chorister in my husband's children's choir came to him with a dream she had recently had. The young lady's name was Natalie. She described her dream as one in which the choir was singing and Phillip was conducting a piece that ended with multiple parts/layers singing "alleluia" over and over. She said to Phillip, "It was glorious!" and he responded with a smile, "Well, maybe I will just have to write a piece like that for us to sing!" He ended up doing just that, and the piece was premiered that year at Easter.

Over fifteen years later, children are still singing this piece. Here is a video of our fourth and fifth grade choir singing it in church today. The song is called "Awake!" and it is a setting of the Paul Gerhardt hymn "Awake, My Heart, with Gladness." The music is original, composed by my husband, although you may hear some hints of the tune AUF, AUF MEIN HERZ, with which the text is paired in our hymnal, Lutheran Service Book. Isn't it cool that a 20th-century cantor can collaborate with a 17th-century hymn writer to create a new song for God's people to sing today? I hope you enjoy this beautiful expression of the Lord's song by some of the children of our parish.


"Awake!" from Cheryl on Vimeo.

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

My child is the short one in the front row that sometimes to forgets to sing and is seen bobbing his head from side to side at the end of the video. Sigh. We're making progress, but it's slow. :-)

"Praise, Rejoice and Sing" from Cheryl on Vimeo.